Audiobooks narrated by Joel Richards

The first in a trilogy about the last emperor of southern Mozambique by one of Africa's most important writers. Southern Mozambique, 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolani to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the last of the leaders of the state of Gaza, the second-largest empire led by an African. Ngungunyane has raised an army to resist colonial rule and with his warriors is slowly approaching the border village. Desperate for help, Germano enlists Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, to act as his interpreter. She belongs to the VaChopi tribe, one of the few who dared side with the Portuguese. But while one of her brothers fights for the Crown of Portugal, the other has chosen the African emperor. Standing astride two kingdoms, Imani is drawn to Germano, just as he is drawn to her. But she knows that in a country haunted by violence, the only way out for a woman is to go unnoticed, as if made of shadows or ashes. Alternating between the voices of Imani and Germano, Mia Couto's Woman of the Ashes combines vivid folkloric prose with extensive historical research to give a spellbinding and unsettling account of war-torn Mozambique at the end of the nineteenth century.

Mia Couto (Author), Bahni Turpin, Joel Richards (Narrator)

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What Happened That Night: A Novel

She doesn't remember that night. But she will never be the same. One moment, Dahlia is a successful Harvard student; the next, she wakes up from a party, the victim of a brutal assault. Her life veers into a tailspin, and what's worse-her memory of the attack has been ripped away, leaving a cold rage in its wake. Now, years later, Dahlia is a tattooed paralegal suffering from PTSD and still haunted by that night. Until one day, a video surfaces online, and Dahlia sees her attack for the first time. Now she knows what happened to her. And she knows who is to blame. Her rage is no longer cold, but burning, red hot. And she is about to make everyone pay.

Sandra Block (Author), Joel Richards, Karissa Vacker (Narrator)

Audiobook

Waterfront Manhattan: From Henry Hudson to the High Line

For hundreds of years, the shorefront of Manhattan Island served as the country's center of trade, shipping, and commerce. With its maritime links across the oceans, along the Atlantic coast, and inland to the Midwest and New England, Manhattan became a global city and home to the world's busiest port. It was a world of docks, ships, tugboats, and ferries, filled with cargo and freight, a place where millions of immigrants entered the Promised Land. In Waterfront Manhattan, Kurt C. Schlichting tells the story of the Manhattan waterfront as a struggle between public and private control of New York's priceless asset. Nature provided New York with a sheltered harbor but presented the city with a challenge: to find the necessary capital to build and expand the maritime infrastructure. From colonial times until after the Civil War, the city ceded control of the waterfront to private interests, excluding the public entirely and sparking a battle between shipping companies, the railroads, and ferries for access to the waterfront. Waterfront Manhattan is a wide-ranging history that will dazzle anyone who is fascinated by New York.

Kurt C. Schlichting (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

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Wanderer's Escape: Wanderer's Odyssey - Book One

An ancient starship with a mind just woke up. A young slave on his way to death just became its captain... Jess has been a prisoner his entire life. He's watched his fellow slaves visit boobytrapped ships for weeks. None of them ever came back alive. When Jess gets orders to clear the ship next, he knows he's about to die a prisoner... After the mothballed ship comes alive at his touch, Jess discovers the Wanderer has its own consciousness and that he's the one in control. As he and the ship hightail it out of the imperial stronghold, freedom comes at a cost. Now he's the most wanted fugitive in the galaxy, and ruthless pirates, desperate miners, and a complicated beauty might not think twice before turning him in... One wrong move could put Jess and the Wanderer back in shackles, but if they can survive their freedom, they may just have the power to liberate the galaxy... Wanderer's Escape is the first installment in a series of rollicking space opera novels. If you like epic space battles, sentient spacecraft, and heartfelt tales of a boy and his ship, then you'll love Simon Goodson's coming-of-age tale. Buy Wanderer's Escape to blast off into an action-packed adventure today!

Simon Goodson (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

Audiobook

Wanderer's Escape

An ancient starship with a mind just woke up. A young slave on his way to death just became its captain...Jess has been a prisoner his entire life. He's watched his fellow slaves visit boobytrapped ships for weeks. None of them ever came back alive. When Jess gets orders to clear the ship next, he knows he's about to die a prisoner...After the mothballed ship comes alive at his touch, Jess discovers the Wanderer has its own consciousness and that he's the one in control. As he and the ship hightail it out of the imperial stronghold, freedom comes at a cost. Now he's the most wanted fugitive in the galaxy, and ruthless pirates, desperate miners, and a complicated beauty might not think twice before turning him in...One wrong move could put Jess and the Wanderer back in shackles, but if they can survive their freedom, they may just have the power to liberate the galaxy...Wanderer's Escape is the first installment in a series of rollicking space opera novels. If you like epic space battles, sentient spacecraft, and heartfelt tales of a boy and his ship, then you'll love Simon Goodson's coming-of-age tale.Buy Wanderer's Escape to blast off into an action-packed adventure today!

Simon Goodson (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

Audiobook

Vanishing Girls

Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before, before Dara kissed Parker, before Nick lost him as her best friend, before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred. Now the two sisters, who used to be so close, aren't speaking. In an instant, Nick lost everything and is determined to use the summer to get it all back. But Dara has other plans. When she vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl has vanished, too, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, and as Nick pursues her sister, she becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances may be linked. In this edgy and compelling novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.

Lauren Oliver (Author), Dan Bittner, Elizabeth Evans, Joel Richards, Justis Bolding, Saskia Maarleveld, Saskia Marleveld, Tavia Gilbert (Narrator)

Audiobook

Uneasy Relations

Buried ceremoniously, high in a cave on the Rock of Gibraltar, lies the skeleton of a human woman, clutching the skeleton of a part-human, part-Neanderthal child. Fascinated, Professor Oliver jumps at the chance to visit the site. But two deaths, possibly murders, have rocked Gibraltar. As Oliver tries to piece things together, he's about to fall for some deadly tricks. After all, unlike the Gibraltar Boy, he's only human.

Aaron Elkins (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

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Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know

Ukraine's sudden prominence in American politics has compounded an already-widespread misunderstanding of what is actually happening in the nation. In the American media, Ukraine has come to signify an inherently corrupt place, rather than a real country struggling in the face of great challenges. Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know addresses Ukraine's relations with the West, particularly the United States, from the perspective of Ukrainians. The book explains how independent Ukraine fell victim to crony capitalism, how its people rebelled twice in the last two decades in the name of democracy and against corruption, and why Russia reacted so aggressively to the strivings of Ukrainians. Additionally, it looks at what we know about alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, the factors behind the stunning electoral victory of the political novice Volodymyr Zelensky, and the ways in which the events leading to the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump have changed the Russia-Ukraine-US relationship. This volume is essential listening for anyone who wants to understand the forces that have shaped contemporary politics in this increasingly important part of Europe, as well as the international background of the impeachment proceedings in the US.

Serhy Yekelchyk (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

Audiobook

Twenty Blue Devils

The dead man is the manager of Tahiti's Paradise Coffee Plantation, producer of the most expensive coffee bean in the world, the winey, luscious Blue Devil. Nothing tangible points to foul play behind his fall from a cliff, but FBI agent John Lau, a relative of the coffee growing family, has his suspicions. What he needs is evidence, and who better to provide it than his friend, anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detective? Gideon is willing to help, but surprisingly-and suspiciously-both the police and the other family members refuse to okay an exhumation order. As a result, Gideon, to his surprise and against his better judgment, finds himself sneaking into a graveyard under cover of night with John, a flashlight, and a shovel. Gideon prefers his bones ancient, dry, and dusty, but the body he must examine had lain in the tropical sun for a week before it was found and then buried native style-shallow, with no casket-so it is not exactly his . . . well, cup of tea. But it is not the state of the remains that bothers him the most, it is the deeper human ugliness that his examination uncovers: subtle clues that do indeed point to foul play, to mistaken identity, and to a murderous conspiracy that may have percolated through the family for decades-and brewed a taste for murder.

Aaron Elkins (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

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Turning Points: The Role of the State Department in Vietnam (1945–75)

Details how the US State Department attempted, and failed, to save South Vietnam from North Vietnamese aggression and the powerful domestic political influences that ultimately led to America's defeat. Ten years after the end of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, a career Foreign Service officer, Thomas J. Corcoran, set down in writing his thoughts on the history of US State Department policy during America's involvement with South Vietnam. Like many Americans of his generation, he was perplexed by the failure of America to achieve its goals in South Vietnam. As an ambassador and with over thirty years of diplomatic experience-beginning in 1948 when he was assigned to Hanoi and involving other postings in Southeast Asia-he brought to his analysis a long and rich personal experience with events in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The result is a thoughtful, objective, and well-researched study that chronicles the key policy decisions made by the US State Department throughout the entire period from 1945 to 1975; decisions that ultimately led to the first war lost by the United States. In his extensive study, Corcoran does an excellent job of exposing many of the myths and falsehoods found in orthodox histories of US involvement in Vietnam.

Ambassador Thomas J. Corcoran (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

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Tracer

Two weeks ago, Lukas Webb was an Army sniper on the front lines in Afghanistan. Upon finding out his father has just days to live, he is granted a compassionate discharge and returns home to Hamilton, Montana to say goodbye and take over the family business. Just days into his tenure at the helm of the WB Ranch, he appears at the front door of an Agriculture Commission meeting carrying a rifle and fires two perfect shots before being taking three rounds himself. While Lukas sits in Hamilton Memorial Hospital in a medical-induced coma, a frenzy wages on outside. Local law enforcement and prosecutors parade in front of the cameras, blaming the actions on a maladjusted serviceman, using the incident to bolster their own standing. Veterans in the area bristle at the treatment, threatening to lash back at any time. Townspeople claim they no longer feel safe on the streets of Hamilton. With just days remaining before Lukas wakes and is hauled off to prison for the rest of his life, a call is made to budding attorney Drake Bell for assistance. Employing the help of his friends the Zoo Crew, he begins a maddening search for the real reason behind the shooting, something he suspects resonates much closer to home . . .

Dustin Stevens (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

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To the Vanishing Point

It was just a boring drive through the Nevada desert...until the Sonderberg family picked up a beautiful young hitchhiker named Mouse and found themselves on a wild, careening ride down the exit ramp to Hell. It seems the entire universe is doomed unless Mouse, a transdimensional alien, can find and heal the dying cosmic Spinner who controls the very fabric of reality. Suddenly attacked by a demonic gas station attendant, axe-wielding rats and fire-breathing cops, the Sondberg family must become warriors in a now-mystical motor home and battle pangalactic diners, weird worlds, impossible voids, and brain-bending realms of madness. They're driving into a fantastic nightmare to save all creation at the Vanishing Point on the Cosmic Road...which happens to be U.S. Interstate 40!

Joel Richards (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Joel Richards