Showing results by narrator "Graham Halstead" in All Categories

Dave, an investment counselor with PTSD, survives a blowout that kills his fiancee, Allison. A year later, Dave has found unexpected happiness with Cathy. At Dave's very-small-high-school reunion, Dave is stunned that he doesn't recognize anyone there. Cathy, who was previously victimized by a con man, breaks it off. Late that night, Dave gets a text: "How does it feel to be so quickly forgotten?" Apparently, someone close to Allison is angry that he has moved on so "soon." Dave's PTSD symptoms make him avoid conflict at almost any cost, so he hopes this will pass. It doesn't.

Surviving Lord Darius' attack has put Elorion's level over the top. He must soon leave the Mistress' Labyrinth for the unknown dangers of the Underworld. There are three paths that stand before him. Should he absorb all the Blue Magic he can find, power level his fellow captives, or take on the bone palace alone?

"All good heroes are insane." Was that really a joke? Jonathon Hunter hasn't the time to ponder the labels people try to put on him. The war shifts from defensive to offensive. The stakes get higher, as the means to fight the aggressors finally become available. But has he risen too high? Or are the consequences of his own actions interfering with his judgement? As fast as you move, the past is faster and always catches up with you when you least expect it. This is not a game, and being a hero has its own price tag. 

In this book in praise of wait times, award-winning author Jason Farman passionately argues that the delay between call and answer has always been an important part of the message. Traveling backward from our current era of Twitter and texts, Farman describes how societies have worked to eliminate waiting in communication and how they have interpreted those times' meanings. And in a rebuttal to the demand for instant communication, Farman makes a powerful case for why good things can come to those who wait.

Jonathon Hunter is a long way from home and intent on getting back to track down his unknown adversary. But local problems intrude - an annoyance becomes a real threat. Trading one war for another wasn't in his game plan, but you do what has to be done to keep others alive. Jonathon isn't playing one of his computer games any more, and the save button only works by putting your life on the line. When the odds are stacked against you, there is only one thing left to do. Send in the Hero.

A novelette about a nihilistic young man from New York City, Going Down South depicts an isolated and apathetic way of navigating life and romance in a way that will resonate with most Millennials. When Jared Steinfarb decides that his life in Brooklyn has grown too dissolute, he moves in with an old friend from college who is studying to be a minister in Nashville, Tennessee. There, he meets Sylvia, an earnest Christian girl from the Midwest — she becomes an opportunity for his depravity to reach new depths, as Jared finds that his lecherous nature has followed him down south.

In 1998, at the very moment that a publisher had approached Bruce Davidson about a book of his 1959 Brooklyn Gang photographs, former gang leader Bobby Powers unexpectedly telephoned the Davidsons. Over the next decade, Emily Davidson maintained an ongoing conversation with Powers in order to bring to light his struggle to overcome his drug-ridden and violent past and to inspire others with his example.

The Wolf Pack has finally made progress in their trek north as they reunite with the rest of their group at the Canadian border. The small town of Coutts is fortified by the US Military with a seemingly impenetrable fence surrounding it. It's truly secure, and they can have some semblance of a life again. Things change when they realize there's a secret buried in Coutts, something they may not be prepared to face. Not only do things begin to destabilize within, but the Reclaimers return, bringing with them a vengeance and a plan to bring the group to its knees.

Jonathon Hunter's world grows darker each day. Assassins, pirates, bounty hunters, mercenaries, and retros, all want a piece of him. Each trap leads to yet another trap. When the unthinkable happens, the prey becomes the predator. The hunted goes hunting. But how does a young spiritual warrior cope as the kills mount? 

A monstrous apparatus has been found on the surface of the moon. It devours and destroys in ways so incomprehensible to humans that a new language must be invented to describe it and a new kind of thinking to understand it. So far, the human guinea pigs sent there in hopes of unraveling the murderous maze have all died terrible deaths - except the last, now on suicide watch. The ideal candidate won't go insane, even as he feels the end approaching. And now they think they've found their man. Al Barker has already stared into the face of death - he can handle it again.

That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound is the definitive treatment of Bob Dylan's magnum opus, Blonde on Blonde, not only providing the most extensive account of the sessions that produced the trailblazing album but also setting the record straight on much of the misinformation that has surrounded the story of how the masterpiece came to be made. Including many new details and eyewitness accounts, as well as keen insight into the Nashville cats who helped Dylan reach rare artistic heights, it explores the lasting impact of rock's first double album.

Raja has been raised in captivity. Not behind the bars of a zoo, but within the confines of an American home. He was stolen when he was young to be someone's pet. Now he's grown up and is about to be sent away again, to a place from which there will be no return. John grew up with Raja. The orangutan was his friend, his brother, never his pet. But when John's parents split up and moved him across the country, he left Raja behind. Now Raja is suffering.

Jonathon Hunter has evoked the wrath of 27th-century pirates. With his sexy twin bodyguards, Jonathon seeks to come to grips with station life in a suddenly hostile universe. Celebrity, gratitude, sudden attacks, and a mysterious prophecy are more than most 18-year-olds can handle. A reluctant hero, Jonathon is on a journey, seemingly out of his time, but always in time. Meet Jon Hunter as he starts a two-year journey to prophecy, with his AI sidekick and mostly female mercenary team.  

David Weir explores the conflicting attitudes towards modernity present in decadent culture by examining the difference between aesthetic decadence - the excess of artifice - and social decadence, which involves excess in a variety of forms, whether perversely pleasurable or gratuitously cruel. Such contrariness between aesthetic and social decadence led some of its practitioners to substitute art for life and to stress the importance of taste over morality, a maneuver with far-reaching consequences. 

Sydney Skate considers himself shockproof. For as long as he can remember, he's known that his fashionable Manhattan mother is secretly a lesbian, although he's never let on that he knows. He spends his summer days caring for snakes at the local pet shop before leaving for college at Cornell, shrugging off his father's demands that he skip college and join the exciting world of swimming pool sales for suburbanites.

American public opinion tends to be sticky. Although the news cycle might temporarily affect the public's mood on contentious issues like abortion, the death penalty, or gun control, public opinion toward these issues has remained remarkably constant over decades. There are notable exceptions, however, particularly with regard to divisive issues that highlight identity politics. Why have people's minds changed so dramatically on this issue, and why so quickly? Listen, We Need to Talk tests a new theory about how to change people's attitudes on controversial topics.

Zach Gunderson and his family have made a home at Mount Weather. Everything seems to be working, and the president's dream of reestablishing the US is progressing, but then, disaster strikes. After being vaccinated, two survivor groups in Ohio become infected, unleashing an apparent new strain of the zombie virus. Through Zach's investigation, he finds a traitor in their midst who is trying to sabotage the rebirth of America by any means necessary.  

Danny Jabo returns to sea, this time as second-in-command of a Trident submarine, the USS Maine. An international arms treaty makes the crew prepare for a once unthinkable level of cooperation with the Soviets, but the Maine's real enemy is an adversary no one saw coming.

When Jessica, a young air force drone pilot in Nevada, is tasked with launching a missile against a suspected terrorist halfway across the world, she realizes that though women and children are in the crosshairs of her screen, she has no choice but to follow orders. Ethan, a young Wall Street quant, is involved in a more bloodless connection to war when he develops an algorithm that enables his company's clients to profit by exploiting the international instability caused by exactly this kind of antiterrorist strike.

In France, the simple act of eating bread is an exercise in creative problem solving, and attempting to spell requires a degree of masochism. But that's just how the French like it - and in WTF?!, Olivier Magny reveals the France only the French know. From the latest trends in baby names to the religiously observed division of church and state, prepare yourself for an insider's look at French culture that is surprising, insightful, and chock full of bons mots.