"A whirlwind true story of making it to the top in sports and Hollywood—just to see it all come crashing down!
For much of his adult life, Bruce McNall has been a player. He started in the ancient coin business and then branched out into horse racing, movies (The Fabulous Baker Boys), and major league sports as owner of the L.A. Kings hockey team. McNall became the toast of Los Angeles, attending glamorous parties and living the life of a celebrity. Eventually, however, Bruce had to borrow huge amounts of money, and ultimately his empire collapsed amid charges of fraud and deception. For admittedly bilking banks out of more than $200 million, McNall spent more than four years in prison.
Fun While It Lasted is the tale of how McNall convinced Wayne Gretzky to play for his Kings; how he helped Merrill Lynch start a coin fund that eventually lost millions of dollars; and how he played fast and loose in Hollywood. This memoir is a compelling look at life at the top, and how hard and fast one can fall."
"Braces hurt. Braces are embarrassing. Braces are inconvenient. Many get fitted with them at the very time of their life when their self-confidence is lowest and their self-consciousness is highest. This coming-of-age story, created and performed by Donald Davis, employs the author's trademark characterizations and humor to explore the state of uncertainty that getting braces throws one into. Also includes another Davis favorite, Everybody Goes to the Beach, which recalls the time he talked his mother into letting him go to Myrtle Beach with his friends under the supposedly watchful eye of one friend's grandmother, who, Davis recalls, 'was a better enabler than governor'.
For Adults and Young Adults.
An August House audio production."
"Until I began to build and launch rockets, I didn't know my hometown was at war with itself over its children, and that my parents were locked in a kind of bloodless combat over how my brother and I would live our lives....And I didn't know that the enthalpy decrease in a converging passage could be transformed into jet kinetic energy if a divergent passage was added. The other boys discovered their own truths when we built our rockets, but those were mine.
So begins Homer 'Sonny' Hickam, Jr.'s extraordinary memoir of life in Coalwood, West Virginia -- a hardscrabble little company town where the only things that mattered were coal mining and high-school football. The son of the mine's superintendent and a mother determined to push her son to a better life, Sonny fell in with a group of misfits for whom the future looked uncertain. But in 1957, after watching the Soviet Satellite Sputnik streak across the sky, Sonny and his teenage friends took their future into their own hands, changing their lives and their town forever.
Looking back after a distinguished NASA career that fulfilled his boyhood ambition, Hickam shares the story of his youth, taking listeners into the life of the little mining town and the boys who came to embody both its tensions and its dreams. With the help -- and sometimes hindrance -- of the people of Coalwood, the Rocket Boys learn not only how to turn mine scraps into rockets that soar miles into the heavens, but how to find hope in a town that progress is passing by.
In this uniquely American memoir, Homer Hickam beautifully captures a moment when a dying town, a divided family, and a band of teenage dreamers dared to set their sights on the stars -- and saw a future that the nation was just beginning to imagine."
"Ilene Beckermen tells her funny, yet heartbreaking story that everyone who's ever searched for love will recognize. Through it all, she believes there is someone out there who's just right for her. A moving, humorous reminder that when it comes to love almost anything is possible."
"As one of the biggest stars in the world, Jackie Chan has wowed audiences with death-defying stunts for decades. But who really is this boyishly handsome, lightning-fast Charlie Chaplin of martial arts moviemaking? Jackie Chan has never told his own story in his own words. In I Am Jackie Chan, he tells the fascinating, harrowing, ultimately triumphant story of his life: How the son of refugees in 1950s Hong Kong became the disciplined disciple of a Chinese Opera Master. How, after years of plunging off skyscrapers and living to tell the tale, a once scared seven-year-old boy broke into the Hollywood big time by breaking almost every bone in his body."
"This is actor Walter Koenig's story— from growing up as the neurotic child of Russian immigrants in 1940s Manhattan through his rise to fame on Star Trek as Pavel Chekov, Russian navigator of the U.S.S. Enterprise. With wry wit, striking candor, and a true gift for storytelling, Koenig takes us on a sometimes bumpy but often hilarious trip through his galaxy. Blind faith and a healthy sense of irony sustain him as he relates a steady stream of anecdotes. This amusing memoir also takes us behind the scenes of Star Trek, with fresh perspectives on the cast members and the development and evolution of the sci-fi legend."
"A fascinating, true-life memoir of an undercover agent in the wild, wild west of the late 1800s!After years of cowboying, Charles A. Siringo settled down in Caldwell, Kansas to run a store— until an acquaintance told him that he was 'cut out' for detective work. Thereupon, Siringo joined the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, where he worked for more than twenty years.
A Cowboy Detective chronicles Siringo' s adventures as an undercover operative in the wilder parts of the West, where he rode with the lawless and escaped violent death more than a few times. Using more guises than Sherlock Holmes, he survived labor riots in Idaho, hounded moonshiners in the Appalachians, and infiltrated Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch as an outlaw on the run for murder!"
"All but My Life tells the haunting story of Gerda Weissman Klein's experience under the Nazi regime. Taken from her home in Bielitz, Poland, and sent to German labor camps, Gerda survived and was liberated by American troops. In her memoir, Klein takes audiences on an alarming journey from the comforts of life in Poland to the horrifying concentration camps, reminding readers of the horrific destruction and prejudice during the twentieth century, while also providing a sense of hope for future generations."
"It is the beginning of the Gulf War. While Iraq is being bombed, deep in the heart of Minnesota the Kling family saga unfolds. Award-winning playwright and author Kevin Kling builds a carefully constructed universe out of materials both familiar and astonishing. Well-known for his gift of taking the weird and mundane experiences of life and weaving a captivating tale for the benefit of the rest of us, his stories from a Minnesota childhood are simultaneously overflowing with sidesplitting humor and emotionally moving."
"From Reader's Digest magazine's popular series, 'The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met' comes a collection of stories about people who made a big impact on the lives of these contributors. Each individual shares something in common: They struck home in the memory of the storyteller. These figures enriched lives through humor, wisdom, adventure, and affection, possessing a unique regard for humanity, each a gem reflecting its own light. The compilation includes:
'A Life to Tell' by Lowell Thomas
'The Brain & I' by Jackie Robinson
'Lady Chimney Sweep' by Rumer Godden
'Rare Benchley' by Marc Connelly
'To the Gates of Troy' by Andromache Schliemann Melas
'Cole Porter' by George Eells
'Old-Timer' by Alex Haley"
"Point Last Seen is the story of one woman's harrowing journey to safety for herself and her children. For seven years, Hannah Nyala and her two children were physically and psychologically abused by Hannah's husband. Although they escaped, he soon found the trio and abducted the children. Seeking solace in the desert wilderness to make sense of her loss, Hannah joined a search-and-rescue team. In doing so, she developed skills as a tracker and dedicated herself to saving the lives of lost children. Becoming attuned to nature's messages she can read the history of a footprint and the clues in stones and desert sand. But one day, she made a chilling discovery—someone was tracking her. Compelling and frightening, but ultimately redemptive, this memoir is about Hannah's quest to secure emotional and physical well-being for herself and her children."
"Submitted by readers of Catholic Digest, here are dozens of original accounts of true incidents that illustrate the compassion and kindness of which we all are capable. These real-life stories demonstrate the instinctive goodness of people and provide inspirational signposts of the humanity we all share. Listeners to this treasury will find these stories heartwarming, faith-affirming, and spiritually nourishing."
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