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Audiobooks Narrated by Paul Michael Garcia
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A young woman is found strangled, dressed in Victorian finery as if for high tea, in Mingo House, a morbid brownstone and museum, a nineteenth-century time capsule in Boston's Back Bay. Dubbed the "Victorian Girl" by the media everywhere, she becomes the eye of a hurricane of publicity and speculation and of a darkness reaching back to the Mingo family's roots in England and to the builders of the mansion, a Civil War arms dealer and his séance-holding wife.
Boston comic Mark Winslow and the other trustees of Mingo House are divided as to whether the place is sustainable as a museum. Trustee chairman Rudy Schmitz, the brash entrepreneur, seems convinced that the porous roof and escalating rain damage will doom the place. Nadia Gulbenkian, the last of the old-guard trustees, is accusing Rudy of engineering the museum's demise. Software executive Jon Kim and a dubious collector of saints' bones and art are pursuing their own clandestine agendas. Mingo House itself seems cursed for its origins in bullets and cannonballs and for the family's reputed connection to the execution of King Charles I. A number of people believe its walls conceal treasure, a stolen royal monstrance, and are willing to do anything to retrieve it.
In this sequel to The Fisher Boy, pierced college students clash with flawed Brahmin blue bloods and the Gothic with the high tech. As the deaths and threats multiply, one question resounds: will anyone or anything survive this summer of rain, of deluge—Mingo House or its terrified staff?A Poisoned Pen Press Mystery
Kim Stanley Robinson, award-winning author of the bestselling trilogy Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, was called "a literary landscape artist, creating breathtaking vistas" by the Detroit Metro News. Now he confirms his reputation for brilliance and for the unexpected in this luminous short work.
A man tumbles through wild surf, half drowned, to collapse on a moonlit beach. When he regains consciousness, he has no memory of who he is or where he came from. He knows only that the woman who washed ashore with him has disappeared sometime in the night and that he has awakened in a surreal landscape of savage beauty-a mysterious watery world encircled by a thin spine of land. Aided by strange tribesmen, he journeys to the cove of the spine kings, a brutal race that has enslaved the woman and several of the tribesmen. That is only the beginning of his quest, as he struggles to find her identity in this wondrous and cruel land-and seeks out the woman whose hold on his imagination is both unfathomable and unshakable.
Haunting and lyrical, filled with uncommon beauty and terrible peril, A Short, Sharp Shock is an ambitious and enthralling story by one of science fiction's most respected talents.
"The novels and short stories of Kim Stanley Robinson constitute one of the most impressive bodies of work in modern science fiction."-New York Times
Detroit mortgage broker Mark Unger adored his wife Florence and their two young sons. But after a decade of marriage and increasing financial trouble, Mark's life began to slowly unravel. He became addicted to pain killers and gambling, and ended up spending five months in rehab.Forced to go back to work, Flo became bitter and resentful of Mark and began to have an affair with one of his friends. When Mark returned home and his disability checks weren't enough to make ends meet, Flo filed for divorce.Panicked by the thought losing her, Mark did everything he could to win Flo back. Even though she resisted his efforts, Flo did agree to a weekend getaway at the family's favorite lakeside resort.
But after their first night there, Flo went missing ... and the next day her corpse was found floating in the water. Mark claimed that her death was an accident-one that must have happened while he was up at the cottage putting the kids to sleep. But soon a jury would be convinced of what Flo's friends and family believed to be true: that Flo would never have been alone on the boat dock that night because she was deathly afraid of the dark.
Every so often a book comes along that makes us cry and makes us strong, that makes us want to hug our children and call our old friends. This is one of those rare books.
On January 19, 2000, a fire raged through Seton Hall University's freshman dormitory, killing three students and injuring 58 others. Among the victims were Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos, roommates from poor neighborhoods who made their families proud by getting into college. They managed to escape the fire, but both were burned terribly. After the Fire is the story of these young men and their fight to recover from the worst damage the Saint Barnabas Hospital burn unit had ever seen. It is the story of extraordinary doctors and nurses who work with the burned. It is the story of the mothers and fathers, of faith and family, and of the invisible ties that bind us to one another. And it is the story of the women who came to love these men, who knew that real beauty is a thing not seen in mirrors.
"Fisher conveys a deep respect and compassion for all involved....She succeeds in making what might have been yesterday's news into today's inspiration."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Alexander the Great is considered one of the most successful commanders of all time and was known to be undefeated in battle. He is mentioned in the Bible as well as the Qur'an, and is on the shortest of short lists whenever the world's best military leaders are catalogued. When asked to name other great military leaders, Caesar reportedly said Alexander was the only great one.
Born in 356 b.c., the son of Philip II of Macedonia, Alexander the Great was educated by Aristotle, became a consummate horseman, and commanded a wing of his father's army in the victory over the Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea-all when he was still a teenager. By the time of his death at age 32, he had united Greece and had amassed an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River and included all of Persia and most of Egypt. He ruled as both the shah of Persia and as a pharaoh of Egypt by right of conquest, and he was also crowned king of Asia. The scope of his military prowess remains awe-inspiring to this day. Yenne's masterful biography shows Alexander's influence on the course of cultural and political history and discusses his leadership, strategy, and legacy.
"Hugely experienced military historian Bill Yenne has added yet another glittering feather to his cap with this impeccably source-based account of the military Midas of the ancient world. One can only agree with General Wesley K. Clark that Alexander's legacy is enduringly informative."-Paul Cartledge, A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University and author of Alexander the Great
Here is a gripping, behind-the-scenes look inside the classic suspense shocker Psycho-and the creative genius who revolutionized filmmaking.
First released in June 1960, Psycho altered the landscape of horror films forever. But just as compelling as the movie itself is the story behind it.
Stephen Rebello brings to life the creation of one of Hollywood's most iconic films, from the story of Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein, the real-life inspiration for the character of Norman Bates, to Hitchcock's groundbreaking achievements in cinematography, sound, editing, and promotion. Packed with captivating insights from the film's stars, writers, and crew members, Hitchcock is a riveting and definitive history of a signature Hitchcock cinematic masterpiece.
"Meticulous history...helps the reader comprehend the original shock of the film."-New York Times Book Review
The remarkable response of the Amish Community to the horrific shooting of ten schoolgirls at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, in October 2006 stunned the larger world. Amish Grace tells the incredible story of this community's reaction to this senseless shooting and explores its profoundly countercultural practice of forgiveness.
Outsiders often hold a stereotypical view of the Amish as a stubbornly backwards people-a view rooted In the picturesque images of buggies, beards, and bonnets. But there is a much more to know about the Amish as a people, as we discovered after the Nickel Mines incident. The community's collective and radical act of forgiveness-the loving and compassionate response to the shooter and his family-gives us insights into who the Amish are and how they live their faith.
Amish Grace explores the many questions the story raises about the religious beliefs that led the Amish to forgive so quickly. In a world where religion spawns so much violence and vengeance, the surprising act of Amish forgiveness begs for deeper consideration.
"a story our polarized country needs to hear: It is still grace that saves."-Bill Moyers
The Berserkers, intelligent, space-faring killing machines whose sole purpose is to destroy all life, have developed a new trick: Berserker units that can pass for human-created androids. They're gambling on the advantage this gives them and massing for an all-out attack on human-held space.
Long, long ago, two alien races fought a war of extinction. All that is left of either of them are the berserkers: vast, thinking, spacefaring, killer machines whose sole purpose is to destroy all living things. For the first time in all of their history, they have met a life form that has a chance of stopping them.
In the cold reaches of space, the berserkers seize a floating laboratory full of human germ-plasm being stored for retrieval and growth in a future colonization project. The ship contains millions of human lives-but why are they not destroying them? Will the human pursuers manage to find the missing lab, defeat the berserkers, and save the nascent lives?
This is a major Berserker novel-one of Saberhagen's finest-with one hell of a surprise up its sleeve.
Our wars were behind us. Mankind was moving out from the planet of its birth. New worlds were settled, and with the wealth of the galaxy at hand, poverty was eliminated. Then, out of a clear summer sky, came the first berserker attack.
The great battles began between life and non-life, between free-thinking humankind and the preprogrammed killing machines we came to call berserkers. And some of those battles would be waged with lies.
This collection of short stories continues the ongoing saga of the berserker wars with 'The Machinery of Lies', 'Masque of the Red Shift', 'In the Temple of Mars', 'Brother Berserker', and 'Smasher.'
'[The berserkers] attain a kind of perverse stature that makes them worthy stand-ins for the dark side of human nature.''New York Times
Master storyteller Fred Saberhagen continues his bestselling Berserker series, detailing humanity's war with the dreaded juggernaut-like machines programmed to destroy all life in the galaxy.
On the Twin World planets, Plenipotentiary Gregor is determined to serve his government'even if it means executing innocent Huvean hostages, invaders from another planet'and even though Gregor's own granddaughter, Luon, is in love with a Huvean. But now the Berserkers are threatening the Twin Worlds, capturing the planets' president and reprogramming his brain to suit their violent agenda. And only the Huveans, in a desperate reprieve, can save the Twin Worlds' populace from annihilation.
'The action and suspense remain abundant as ever.''Booklist
Champions of synthetic biology believe that turning genetic code into Lego-like blocks to build never-before-seen organisms could solve the thorniest challenges in medicine, energy, and environmental protection. But as the hackers who cracked open the potential of the personal computer and the Internet proved, the most revolutionary discoveries often emerge from out-of-the-way places, forged by brilliant outsiders with few resources besides boundless energy and great ideas.
In Biopunk, Marcus Wohlsen chronicles a growing community of DIY scientists working outside the walls of corporations and universities who are committed to democratizing DNA the way the Internet did information. The "biohacking" movement, now in its early, heady days, aims to unleash an outbreak of genetically modified innovation by making the tools and techniques of biotechnology accessible to everyone. Borrowing their idealism from the worlds of open-source software, artisinal food, Internet startups, and the Peace Corps, biopunks are devoted advocates for open-sourcing the basic code of life. They believe in the power of individuals with access to DNA to solve the world's biggest problems.
You'll meet a new breed of hackers who aren't afraid to get their hands wet, from entrepreneurs who aim to bring DNA-based medical tools to the poorest of the poor to a curious tinkerer who believes a tub of yogurt and a jellyfish gene could protect the world's food supply. These biohackers include:
A duo who started a cancer drug company in their kitchen
A team who built an open-source DNA copy machine
A woman who developed a genetic test in her apartment for a deadly disease that had stricken her family
Along with the potential of citizen science to bring about disruptive change, Wohlsen explores the risks of DIY bioterrorism, the possibility of genetic engineering experiments gone awry, and whether the ability to design life from scratch on a laptop might come sooner than we think.
