Showing results by narrator "Charles Constant" in All Categories

After the Flames is about one of the world's most famous burn victims: his incredible survival, his nightmarish path to recovery that helped revolutionize medical treatment for burn victims worldwide, the fame thrust upon him after he was declared a hero from the media, and the tumultuous years that followed, most of which were spent under the microscope of an unforgiving public eye.

Disequilibria: Meditations on Missingness is a hybrid memoir that recounts the 1982 disappearance of the author's stepfather, James Edward Lewis, a pilot and Vietnam veteran. Recounting his family's experiences in searching for answers, Lunday interrogates the broader cultural and conceptual responses to the phenomenon of missingness by connecting his stepfather's case to other true-life disappearances as well as those portrayed in fiction, poetry, and film.

In this authorized sequel to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic science fiction novel Beyond the Farthest Star, American OSS officer Thomas Randolph is mysteriously teleported to the distant planet of Poloda, which lies far beyond the globular cluster NGC 7006—450,000 light years away from Earth. Landing in the midst of a hundred-year war that mirrors the Allied Powers’ struggle against Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich, Randolph—now Tomas Ran—finds himself behind enemy lines.

 With a reputation as the hot-air balloon capital of the world and the home of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta®, the southwestern desert city of Albuquerque frequently showcases the magic and adventure of ballooning. This legacy links back to the 1880s and a man by the name of Park Van Tassel.

The film Casablanca opens with the words, "With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas." Leslie Epstein's Hill of Beans is the story of how one nation, one industry, and in particular one man responded to that desperate hope.

In this timely new book, Manhattan Institute legal scholar Copland discusses how unelected actors have assumed control of the American republic - and where we need to go to chart a corrective course.

For more than 70 years, Gifford's Ice Cream and Candy Company was associated with nothing but pleasure for native Washingtonians and visitors to the nation's capital. But behind the iconic business's happy facade lay elaborate schemes, a crushing bankruptcy, two million dollars of missing cash, and a tragic suicide. As the last Gifford heir unfolds his story with remarkable immediacy and candor, he reveals the byzantine betrayals and intrigue rooted in the company from its modest beginnings - dark influences that would ultimately destroy the legendary Gifford business.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crash, Daniel W. Drezner, like so many others, looked at the smoking ruins of the global economy and wondered why global economic governance structure had failed so spectacularly, and what could be done to reform them in the future. But then a funny thing happened. As he surveyed their actions in the wake of the crash, he realized that the evidence pointed to the exact opposite conclusion: global economic governance had succeeded.

How to Love the Universe is a new kind of science writing by an author truly enamored of the world around him. In 10 short chapters of lyrical prose - each one an ode to a breathtaking realm of discovery - Stefan Klein uses everyday objects and events as a springboard to meditate on the beauty of the underlying science.

The sailing vessel Albatross went down in a white squall in 1961. The young man at the helm that fateful day, now in his 70s, meets Breeze in Pelican Bay. Together they set out to revisit the scene and allow for a final reckoning. Modern-day pirates interrupt their quest. They will be made to pay. Meanwhile, a pesky private detective resurfaces, threatening to reveal dark secrets. Breeze devises a plan to take care of the pirates and his nemesis at the same time. He is forced to race against time as a statewide Coronavirus lockdown looms.

A mysterious detective puts Breeze in a tight spot. Blackmail is the deal of the day, but Breeze isn't buying. Instead, he accepts a mission to rebuild a marina in Marsh Harbor. He assumes the relocation will keep him out of trouble. His assumption is wrong. He becomes a part of the lives of survivors there, as they work together to reclaim a piece of paradise.

Florida's government is building a bridge to North Captiva Island, which will ultimately result in a second bridge to Cayo Costa. Breeze takes action as only he can. He finds himself in an unlikely alliance with the governor as a result. He's given another assignment that appears to be out of his league. Can he pull it off, or will it be his downfall?

Breeze did not want to get involved. He had problems of his own, but when he saw the man on the sailboat punch his partner, he was forced to act. He didn't need a woman around while he plotted his revenge against the man responsible for Brody's death. He was on a mission, and this stranger could only slow him down. This thriller culminates on a remote Florida island, where only one warrior will survive - he who can harness the savage within.

Driven by eyewitness accounts and combining urban history with a life-and-death drama and a technological detective story, Floodpath grippingly reanimates the reality behind LA noir fictions like the classic film Chinatown. In an era of climate change, increasing demand on water resources, and a neglected American infrastructure, the tragedy of the St. Francis Dam has never been more relevant.

Writer/director Robert Orlando, locked down during the Covid-19 pandemic, learned Citizen Kane was Trump's favorite film, and the parallels were astonishing. Both Kane and Trump are swaggering masters of media, and both claim to stand for the working man. Truth be told, Kane was crushed by scandal; Trump was not. He triumphed above front-page divorces, bankruptcies, unprecedented media attacks, and political chaos. Did his failed attempt at reelection end his star power? Citizen Trump gives us our looking glass.

When Nick Flynn was 7 years old, his mother set fire to their house. The event loomed large in his imagination for years, but it's only after having a child of his own that he understands why. He returns with his young daughter to the landscape of his youth, reflecting on how his feral childhood has him still in its reins, and forms his memories into lyrical bedtime stories populated by the both sinister and wounded Mister Mann.

In The Long Fix, physician and health-care CEO Vivian S. Lee, MD, cuts to the heart of the health-care crisis. The problem with the way medicine is practiced, she explains, is not so much who's paying, it's what we are paying for. Insurers, employers, the government, and individuals pay for every procedure, prescription, and lab test, whether or not it makes us better - and that is both backward and dangerous.   

This indelible quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance applies especially well to California, where legend has so thoroughly become fact that it is visible in everyday landscapes. Our foremost historian of the West, Richard White, never content to "print the legend," collaborates here with his son, a talented photographer, in excavating the layers of legend built into California's landscapes. Together they expose the bedrock of the past, and the history they uncover is astonishing.

Packed with fun facts and presidential trivia, The President Is Dead! tells you everything you could possibly want to know about how our presidents, from George Washington to George H. W. Bush (who was the most recent president to die), met their ends, the circumstances of their deaths, the pomp of their funerals, and their public afterlives, including stories of attempted grave robbings, reinterments, vandalism, conspiracy theories surrounding their deaths, and much more.

In 2005, Ted W. Baxter was at the top of his game. He was a successful, globe-trotting businessman with a resume that would impress the best of the best. In peak physical condition, Ted worked out nearly every day of the week. And then, on April 21, 2005, all that came to an end. He had a massive ischemic stroke. Doctors feared he wouldn’t make it, or if he did make it, he would be in a vegetative state in a hospital bed for the rest of his life. But miraculously, that’s not what happened....