Showing results by narrator "John Lee" in All Categories

In a public debate held at the Manhattan Opera House, Clarence Darrow argued that not one of the 19 men under sentence of death at Sing Sing Prison would have been convicted if they could have afforded good attorneys. He was opposed by Judge Alfred J. Talley of General Sessions, who argued for the retention of the death penalty for murder. The debate commenced with an address by Lewis Lawes, who was the warden at Sing Sing.

The title poem, a series of sonnet-sized Zoom meetings - a classroom, a memorial service, an encounter with a new baby in the family - finds humor and pathos in our age of social distancing and technology-induced proximity. Salter shows too how imagination collapses time and space: In “Island Diaries”, the pragmatist Robinson Crusoe meets on the beach a shipwrecked dreamer from an earlier century, Shakespeare’s Prospero.

A very insightful look at each of the 12 steps by a very spiritual guy with long term sobriety in early AA. John shares his own experience taking the 12 Steps and insights learned while taking hundreds of other alcoholics through them. This is a very good AA talk, an enjoyable presentation of 12-step wisdom with some humorous parts.

The year 2020 has been the year of the virus, and it will not be a mere footnote in history. This book reflects on the unprecedented changes to our lives and the impact on our behavior as we lived through social isolation during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Packed with guidance and coping strategies for lockdown, this book, authored by top psychologist David Cohen, explores the impact of this widespread quarantine on our relationships, our children, our mental health, and our daily lives.

Picking up exactly where Playing Gods 1: Isolation left off, Playing Gods 2: Adaptation brings the zehuderan warriors Xriah and Vylis to the world of Gravios. A far cry from the last plane where the two battled, Gravios is an ocean world of cybernetically augmented humans and post-apocalyptic sea vessels. All land on Gravios has been completely submerged into the depths, the sea level elevated by the planet-swallowing marine creature known as the Grava.

Ten years after a tragic incident on the lake, an AA meeting in a small, religious town in the deep south of the USA descends into bitterness and chaos when a flood hits. Trapped within the local church, tempers escalate and well-buried secrets begin to emerge. Personalities clash, reputations are dissected and questioned, and everybody's demons are laid bare.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies with Sidney Noir. This collection comprises of all new stories set in Sidney, Australia, by 14 authors of crime fiction....

Revenge is grief upended, only with penance served can atonement begin. From the tranquil moors of southern England; to the Caribbean's steamy shores; to the sweeping African plain, the moral compass is set to spin off its axis. For Thomas Edward Muir, evil is not illusory, it is the debasement of young lives; it is the slaying of the innocent; it is the eradication of family. "Surrender..," he is told, "...is the way of the world."

Thomas Edward Muir is no drifter. He flies cargo in the islands; he rides motorcycles in the desert. Muir sails and he dives and... Yeah, he's that guy. But life is about to kick him in the teeth. He's gonna meet a monster. Pure evil. He's gonna witness the darkest side of human suffering. And it's gonna rock his world. And he's gonna struggle with that...'cause he's that guy. From the balmy, indigo waters of the Caribbean Sea to the searing heat of the Sahara desert, the face of modern slavery is revealed in all of its repulsive glory.

Dark Place to Hide: Booktrack Edition is enhanced with a musical soundtrack from Booktrack for an immersive listening experience! About to break the news to his wife, Diane, that he’s infertile, criminology expert Harper Penn gets a call to say she’s been rushed to hospital with a miscarriage. Five days later, when Diane fails to return from the village shop, police think she must have taken off with a secret lover, but Harper is convinced the online messages are not from her.

Lee St. John is a she-devil with a halo, a Southern Belle who doesn't play by the rules, and a prankster setting her next trap. But like a train wreck, we can't help but peek at her shenanigans. She is just plain naughty but with a heart. The mementos found in her closet, attic, basement, and even her school classroom unleash her secrets about mothers, husbands, former boyfriends, children, friends, jobs, families, students, and more.

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) may be considered the Canadian counterpart to Mark Twain. For many years he was professor of economics at Magill University and published a number of well-regarded texts on economics and political science. However, he is best known today for his many volumes of humorous fiction. During the 1920s he was one of the most widely read authors in the English-speaking world and was considered by Jack Benny and Groucho Marx to be one of the greatest comic writers of all time.

Despite its patina of humor, the work is a merciless exposé of the commercial middle class dishonesty, and the convenient immorality hiding behind social conventions, which are characteristic of a developing urban society. The most noble character, Serafima, is a compelling mixture of naïveté, whimsicality, sentimentality, and obstinate practicality - one of the finest character portraits in Russian drama.

Fifteen-year-old Leo is an orphan being raised in an abbey in the days of King Richard the Lionhearted. He knows nothing of his parentage and has little hope for a future outside the familiar but sometimes restrictive monastery walls. Under the firm and loving hand of Abbot Michael, Leo has been well trained in piety, obedience, and courtesy, and has begun to master a strong will and quick anger. Nevertheless, he is restless, longing to go out into the world for a time before renouncing it forever.

The Spaghetti is a floating palace of elegance and entertainment. There's only one problem: Miss LaPasta doesn't want Barnabas Brambles to come aboard, because she's heard he's the meanest man alive. Lucky for Barnabas Brambles, his boss is Sir Sidney, the nicest man alive.

A sniper assassination in the center of Glasgow, a ritualistic killing in the city's subway system, and ancient Persian symbols stitched beneath the skin of the victims trigger a complex police investigation headed by Detective Inspector Tom Kendrick. Meanwhile, Gulf War veteran Edward Franklin is handling courier and punisher chores for corrupt businessman Oscar Cranston. Franklin, a long-term sufferer of posttraumatic stress disorder, isn't just in it for the money.

When Pope Alexander Borgia dispatches Damiata, a beautiful courtesan, to the remote fortress city of Imola in Northern Italy to learn the truth behind the murder of his beloved son, she knows she cannot fail, for the Pope holds her own son hostage. Once there, Damiata falls under the spell of the charismatic Duke Valentino Borgia, whose own life is threatened by the condottieri, a powerful cabal of mercenary warlords. As the murders multiply, Damiata's search for the killer grows more urgent.

"Eveline" is a short story from James Joyce's classic Dubliners. Nineteen-year-old Eveline has decided to leave home, but her future journey may not be all that she hopes. Like other stories in Dubliners,"Eveline" offers a penetrating analysis of Dublin society, especially its stagnation and paralysis. Each story incorporates epiphanies, by which Joyce meant to convey a sudden consciousness of the "soul" of a thing. Proceeds from sale of this title go to Reach Out and Read, an innovative literacy advocacy organization.

This astonishing novel begins in 1907, when Josef Siedler, a science-fiction devotee, ventures deep into a series of caves in search of an entrance to the underworld. Disappointed in his quest, he nonetheless returns with a peculiar souvenir: a small rock sample that emits a strange humming sound. Upon Siedler’s death, the rock is bequeathed to his nephew, a significant step in what will become an extraordinary journey through the arc of history. For as the stone passes through the hands of a series of owners, we are told their stories....

Of One Blood is a poignant and disturbing play about the infamous murder of three civil rights workers - James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner - in Mississippi in 1964. The broadcast includes an interview with Rita Bender, Michael Schwerner's wife in 1964.