Showing results by narrator "Michael Butler Murray" in All Categories

Written by former Tax Foundation CEO Scott Hodge, Taxocracy: What You Don't Know About Taxes and How They Rule Your Daily Life uses amusing lessons from past tax policies gone wrong to explore how the US tax code caused serious consequences, affecting how we get our health insurance, the price of a college education, what car we buy, where we bank, and, in some cases, even when we die. Taxocracy outlines economic principles for designing a tax code that doesn't rule our daily lives—a tax code that promotes economic growth, free-enterprise, and takes the politics out of tax policy.

The mystery has fascinated the music industry since 1977—the year when some tapes went missing from the Stone Blossoms' final recording session for one of the most anticipated rock albums of all time. The band's charismatic leader committed suicide on the same day. Retired cop Mike Travis learns about the puzzling history in the worst way possible. After sailing from Catalina to his family's old beach house in Kona, Hawaii, he discovers there's been a bloodbath.

After twenty years at the LAPD Homicide Bureau, Mike Travis is finally retiring and starting over on Santa Catalina Island. In the small town of Avalon, he lives and works on his yacht, sailing and chartering scuba diving trips. There, among tourists and quirky locals, he tries to banish the residual darkness from his mind. It's not that easy, especially when the one case he never solved comes back to haunt him . . .

Clive Mortlake, the property owner and a man of keen intellect, seeks Maggie's legal expertise in return for her stay. He presents her with a case that's as personal as it is perplexing: the inexplicable disappearance of his son, Art. A senior at Duke University, Art's sudden vanishing act after an evening at a local bar left no clues, no communications, and a cold trail. The official investigation has dwindled, and a haunting suspicion of murder looms over the unanswered questions.

Join Joel Spring for one brief season in the life of an avid outdoorsman. Stories of dogs and deer, friendship and adventure, heartache and triumph are set against a backdrop of the vivid colors of autumn. From the first few wisps of cool north wind in September, through the frigid mountain cold of a late December morning, the author treats you like a welcomed friend.

Ten-year-old Angus is unique. He quotes Shakespeare and wants to stage a Werewolf Hamlet play for his fifth grade legacy project. Angus's seventeen-year-old brother, Liam, is like a werewolf now—Angus never knows if he'll be nice or mean or when he'll sneak out to get drunk or worse. Meanwhile, tension continues to build for Liam's family in Los Angeles. Mom and Dad are going to default on the mortgage. Older sister Hannah is fed up and ready to move herself to Maine, and little sister Sidney doesn't really get what's happening. Then Liam goes missing, and Angus decides he has to find him.

Realistic and simple enough to implement in your home, The Best Moms Don't Do it All provides a roadmap for you to take your life back and proves that the happiest families share the work and the fun equally.

Enter the realm of the carnie king, Patty Conklin, the flamboyant founder of what would become the world's largest carnival company. Patty started on the mean streets of New York selling peanuts before becoming a a small-time operator. Winning the midway contract for the Canadian National Exhibition in 1937, he made it his personal world's fair. It became the foundation for his son and grandson to expand Conklin Shows until they were playing the biggest fairs and exhibitions throughout North America.

The year is 1931. A boy boards a train to visit his friend in New York. A woman in a jumpsuit boards a train to meet her employer in New York. And the conductor? He boards because it's his job. If it had been any other day, they all would have gotten where they were going just fine. But it's...

We are surrounded by emoji. They appear in politics, movies, drug deals, our sex lives, and more. But emoji's impact has never been explored in full. In this rollicking tech and pop culture history, Keith Houston follows emoji from its birth in 1990s Japan, traces its Western explosion in the 2000s, and considers emoji's ever-expanding lexicon. Named for the world's most popular pictogram, Face with Tears of Joy tells the whole story of emoji for the first time.

Max Donovan, a man who uses his knowledge of far-flung corners of the earth and a fair bit of muscle to "fix things," is relaxing by the sea in Senegal. But his much-needed holiday after a botched operation in Malaysia, where he broke more than he fixed, is abruptly interrupted when a man is knifed on the beach.

Since a bomb blew him through a hotel window in Colombo, international fixer Max Donovan's life has become more complicated. He's in possession of a manuscript which is proof of a revolutionary insurgency encircling Sri Lanka. He is not, however, in possession of its author, Osbert—just his beguiling niece, who wants Donovan's help.

In The Good Sport, Kevin White takes an unflinching look at the current state of intercollegiate sports, including the tumultuous changes brought on by the Supreme Court's landmark decision on name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. Drawing on his decades of leadership, White examines the chaos, challenges, and opportunities of this new era—and why he believes the future of college sports hangs in the balance.

The Year 1933. A storm is brewing in New York City as tensions rise among the families. When Jacuzzi Splot and his gang are spotted operating on the Gandor Family's turf, Luck Gandor employs a young woman named Maria to protect their family's "negotiator," Tick Jefferson. Maria with her katana...