Audiobooks by Bret Witter

Like a lot of people, Chris Wilson didn't have an easy start in life. But, unlike many, he has managed to overcome severe setbacks to achieve a life defined by material success and personal meaning. How did he do it? When he committed a fatal crime at the age of 17 and received a devastating prison sentence, incarceration became the unexpected trigger that set Wilson off on a journey of self-improvement ? reading, working out, learning languages, and starting a business. Creating a Master Plan for the life he wanted, he worked though it step-by-step to transform his reality. In this gripping memoir, he tells his story and explains the thought processes and techniques he used to go from being in prison with no hope of parole to being a free man, a successful social entrepreneur, and a respected mentor.

Bret Witter, Chris Wilson (Author), Bret Witter, Chris Wilson, Wes Moore (Narrator)

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Deep Black: A Tom Locke Novel

Tom Locke must track a missing Saudi prince deep inside ISIS territory in this second military action thriller from the authors of Shadow War. Disillusioned after a mission in Ukraine goes tragically wrong, military contractor Tom Locke is on the run from Apollo Outcomes, a private military corporation run by the treacherous Brad Winters. While working undercover with his surviving team members on the frontlines of ISIS-infected Iraq, they are approached by a Saudi middleman who offers good money to find the missing son of a high-ranking government official. What Locke doesn't know is that the missing young Prince may have been carrying the result of a secret agreement made with the Pakistanis in the 1960s, and that his father may or may not be trying to topple the Saudi government. As he pushes deeper into ISIS territory, Locke must figure out both the on-the-ground battle lines and the larger Deep State war he has stumbled into yet again. Who is the mysterious Saudi who hired Locke's team? Is the prince's disappearance personal or political? And how many sides are being played against each other in a Middle East torn apart by overlapping and contradictory alliances? To complete the mission and keep his men safe, the battle-hardened Locke must use every skill he has to defeat a fanatical enemy on the ground-while a duplicitous adversary much closer to home waits for his chance to strike. . . .

Bret Witter, Sean McFate (Author), Jeffrey Kafer, Peter Berkrot, Peter; Kafer Berkrot (Narrator)

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Pure Heart: A Spirited Tale of Grace, Grit, and Whiskey

Troylyn Bell and her husband, Charlie, an engineer and real estate investor, had spent their entire lives in Texas. But after a near fatal trip to the emergency room with their mute, wheelchair-bound son Marshall, they admitted the dust and the heat were too dangerous. To save their boys, the Balls cashed out, sold their beloved farm, and moved to Asheville, North Carolina. Nearing fifty, Troy thought her chance at adventure had passed. But in this booming little Appalachian Mountain city of hippies, farmers, artisans, and retirees, she unexpectedly discovered a support network and something she’d never had in twenty-five years of providing round-the-clock care for her special needs boys: the freedom to pursue her own dreams. She struck up a friendship with a legendary eighty-year-old raconteur from the mountains, met his friends, and soon found herself in a rickety country shack with an ingeniously inventive retired farmer trying to create the best recipe ever for traditional mountain moonshine. But when the real estate bubble burst and the collapse of her husband Charlie’s new venture in Asheville left them deeply in debt, Troy realized her ten-year business plan for Troy & Sons Platinum Whiskey wasn’t enough. If she was going to save her family—and she was definitely going to save her family—she needed to become the most successful woman in the legal whiskey business. And she needed to do it fast, before the bank took her house, her business, and everything she’d worked so hard to achieve. Full of eccentric characters and charming locations—from a "haunted" cabin in the mountains to the last farm in the world to grow heritage Crooked Creek corn—Pure Heart is a charming story of a woman who set out to find a purpose in the most unexpected of places, and ended up finding happiness, contentment, and a community of love and respect.

Bret Witter, Troylyn Ball (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Shadow War: A Tom Locke Novel

An army veteran with deep expertise in military and international affairs makes his fiction debut with this electrifying international thriller-the first volume in a blistering hot series in the tradition of Brad Thor, Tom Clancy, and Daniel Silva. In Shadow War, an elite American mercenary on a secret mission to save a businessman's family in Eastern Europe must navigate perilous setbacks and deadly enemies that threaten to tip the balance of power between Russia and the United States. Tom Locke is an elite warrior working for Apollo Outcomes, one of the world's most successful private contracting firms. Pulled out of a mission in Libya, he is tapped for an unusual and risky assignment: a top secret black op in Ukraine. He is given one week to rescue an oligarch's family and pull off a spectacular assault that could have long-lasting repercussions for this imperiled Eastern European nation and the world. What Locke doesn't know is that the operation comes with a dangerous complication: Brad Winters. Locke's ambitious and enigmatic boss is engaged in a secretive, high-stakes geopolitical chess game with several influential powerbrokers in capitals around the world. One misstep could cost him-and Locke-everything. While Locke has methodically planned the mission and hand-picked a team of trusted operatives to pull it off-and save his ass if things go south-he doesn't count on running into a former love, war correspondent Alie MacFarlane, who impulsively makes a move that risks both their lives. Locke is an intelligent, iconoclastic soldier who specializes in pulling off the impossible. But all his brilliant preparation can't prevent the kind of backstabbing and deception that could lead to catastrophe . . . and tip the balance of power toward Putin's Russia.

Bret Witter, Sean McFate (Author), Jeffrey Kafer, Peter Berkrot (Narrator)

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Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy

In June 2011, Susan Spencer-Wendel learned she had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-Lou Gehrig's disease-an irreversible condition that systematically destroys the nerves that power the muscles. She was forty-four years old, with a devoted husband and three young children, and she had only one year of health remaining. Susan decided to live that year with joy. She quit her job as a journalist and spent time with her family. She built an outdoor meeting space for friends in her backyard. And she took seven trips with the seven most important people in her life. As her health declined, Susan journeyed to the Yukon, Hungary, the Bahamas, and Cyprus. She took her sons to swim with dolphins, and her teenage daughter, Marina, to Kleinfeld's bridal shop in New York City to see her for the first and last time in a wedding dress. She also wrote this book. No longer able to walk or even to lift her arms, she tapped it out letter by letter on her iPhone using only her right thumb, the last finger still working. However, Until I Say Good-Bye is not angry or bitter. It is sad in parts-how could it not be?-but it is filled with Susan's optimism, joie de vivre, and sense of humor. It is a book about life, not death. One that, like Susan, will make everyone smile. From the Burger King parking lot where she cried after her diagnosis to a snowy hot spring near the Arctic Circle, from a hilarious family Christmas disaster to the decrepit monastery in eastern Cyprus where she rediscovered her heritage, Until I Say Good-Bye is not only Susan Spencer-Wendel's unforgettable gift to her loved ones-a heartfelt record of their final experiences together-but an offering to all of us: a reminder that "every day is better when it is lived with joy."

Bret Witter, Susan Spencer-Wendel (Author), Karen White (Narrator)

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Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility, (for a cat) and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.

Bret Witter, Vicki Myron (Author), Susan McInerny (Narrator)

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The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History

Now a major motion film! At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.

Bret Witter, Robert Edsel (Author), Jeremy Davidson (Narrator)

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Dewey

DEWEY is the heartwarming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa, as told by his owner and companion of nineteen years, Vicki Myron, the librarian who found him on a frigid January morning when he was abandoned as a kitten in the book drop slot. It is also the story of a remarkable small town, which burned down at the beginning of the Depression, only to rebuild itself, and which was almost shuttered during the farm crisis of the 1980s, before regrouping and rededicating itself to small town American values. Dewey's local charm and worldwide fame became a symbol of hope for this recovering town. Through Dewey's antics, we come to know and love many of the colorful and inspiring people of Spencer. But perhaps the most inspiring person in Spencer is Vicki Myron herself, a single mother who survived the bankruptcy of her family farm and working in a box factory to put two of her brothers through college to become one of the leaders of the Iowa library system. Dewey is one lovable, roguish cat who managed to transform an entire town and inspire people across the globe.

Bret Witter, Vicki Myron (Author), Suzanne Toren (Narrator)

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