Showing results by publisher "Beacon Audiobooks" in Biographies & Memoirs

The 15th century Romanian Prince Vlad III Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler, is one of the most fascinating personalities of medieval history. Already during his own lifetime, his true story became obscured by a veil of myths. As a result, he has been portrayed both as a bloody tyrant - who degenerated down throughout the centuries into the fictional vampire of the same name created by Bram Stoker at the end of the 19th century - and as a national and Christian hero who bravely fought to defend his native land and all of Europe against the invading Turkish infidels.

Nearly everything the American public has seen, read, and heard in the media for nearly 80 years about the so-called Amelia Earhart mystery is intentionally false or inadvertently misleading. The widely accepted myth that the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan during their ill-fated world-flight attempt in July 1937 is among the greatest aviation mysteries of the 20th century is an abject lie, the result of decades of government propaganda that continues unabated to this day.

Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost details Molina’s personal trials and triumphs and reveals for the first time the true story of Molina’s last months and works, including an unpublished album unknown to many of his fans. Offering unfettered access to the mind and artistry of Molina through exclusive interviews with family, friends, and collaborators, the audiobook also explores the Midwest music underground and the development of Indiana-based label Secretly Canadian.

My RAD Career is a roller coaster ride through Hollywood in the 1980s as seen through the eyes of one of the cult figures of the era, Bill Allen (star of the movie RAD). Starting as a teen actor on his first ill-fated film alongside a young George Clooney, Bill shares his personal and professional relationships through film and television roles with some of the greatest actors and directors of a generation. Told like you're sitting with him over drinks at a bar, Bill takes you inside the show biz bubble to reveal his most jaw-dropping experiences spanning three decades.

Despite his Marxist views, young Lee Harvey Oswald associated with fascists and shared their right-wing ideology. There is physical evidence that Marine Oswald’s defection to the Soviet Union in 1959 was a CIA operation to make it seem he died in Russia. A Soviet “sleeper agent” returned to the US, who could blame for any crime.

Criminal defense lawyer Lisa Peebles was taken aback by a secretly recorded phone call and police interrogation video that surfaced in a 20-year-old kidnapping case. They held the stench of a cover-up. She recruited an investigative reporter to help unearth the truth and exonerate Gary Thibodeau, the man convicted in the 1994 kidnapping and murder of 18-year-old Heidi Allen.

In 1985, Stanley Kubrick encouraged Matthew Modine to keep a journal and take photographs while playing the lead role of Pvt. Joker - a combat correspondent - on the set of his Vietnam War film, Full Metal Jacket. In 2005, Modine published a limited edition book of his diary and photos which later became an interactive experience for the iPad. Now, with the Full Metal Jacket Diary audiobook, fans can listen to Modine as he performs his diary with sound effects and original music.

Audrey Edmunds was a happily married young mother of two with a baby on the way; the neighborhood soccer mom in a small Wisconsin town providing casual childcare when the unthinkable happened. An infant died in her care at the same time the unknown science of Shaken Baby Syndrome hit the media. Swept up in a media frenzy, Edmunds was accused of killing the child through SBS. She was stripped from her children and husband and sent to prison where she would fight for freedom 13 years before she was finally exonerated.

After mentally struggling with some of the 9-1-1 calls he had taken and buried, Ricardo found it therapeutic to write about them. He shared his stories via the “Behind the Mic – Stories from the trenches” podcast. With the addition #IAM911 movement, he asked others to share their stories anonymously. The stories were gut-wrenching, with some occasional happy moments.

With Chris at his side, Joe takes us from his beloved son’s gravesite where a trusted friend might sometimes leave an empty Landshark bottle to his bedroom (now Joe’s office) in Winnetka, Illinois which still smells of sage and teen sweat, to the Florida Gulf beaches at night where Joe has found hope and affirmation of his son’s everlasting love through shared dialogues, to In Balance Ranch Academy in Arizona, where Chris was a shining star and a leader for troubled youth, and where he also found healing and the love of an American paint horse.

On an ordinary January afternoon, a disturbing revelation about his wife hurls one man into a maelstrom of public humiliation and heartbreak, and eventually on a spree of run-ins with lawyers, judges, therapists, and law enforcement. Land of July tells the true story of a teacher/student sex scandal that not only shocked an entire school and small suburban community, but made national news. It’s a story filled with countless anecdotes about marriage, trust, infidelity, grief, and the desperate search for hope and family in the face of ruin.

Last Ride of the Iron Horse tells the tale of Lou Gehrig's final year in the Yankee lineup, as he dealt with early effects of the deadly disease ALS. For much of the 1938 season, Gehrig - dubbed the Iron Horse for his strength and reliability - struggled with slumps and a mystifying loss of power. Fans booed, and sportswriters called for him to be benched.

Jim Bruton knows life. His past is marked by relentless curiosity and remarkable achievement. He was an African wilderness guide, Emmy Award-winning wildlife film director, aviator, adventurer, inventor of the satellite videophone, NBC News Middle East war correspondent, a husband, and a father. His passion - building and flying WWI-era aircraft - led him where he never imagined he’d go: a horrific crash that left him for dead.

Always at his mother's side, Frank Shankwitz spent much of his childhood on the move, frequently hungry and forever homeless. They moved around the country, sleeping in the family car as they ventured from one city to another in search of gainful employment. Frank remembers vividly those who went out of their way to show kindness and compassion. In every way, these acts of kindness fueled Frank's journey. Journey with Frank as he shares the story of his legacy; a life rooted in kindness, near-misses, and close calls. A life centered around the magic of making wishes come true.

This is the story of how Olivia turned the physical challenges and emotional hardships she had faced since she was a little girl into an engaged life of advocacy for others. So many young people are faced with life-changing hardships—from illness and disease to loss and calamity. What Olivia Goodreau discovers through her journey with chronic Lyme, and what she has been sharing with the world, is that inside of every predicament is also a possibility.

In 2005, after working for 10 years in a comfortable but mundane corporate job in San Antonio, Texas, Vincent Sellers successfully managed to leave behind a dreary cubicle landscape and begin the exciting challenges of a crime-fighting FBI agent. His journey is chronicled in Eyes Pried Open: Rookie FBI Agent. Listeners will experience both the highs and the lows of an FBI agent working bank robbery, kidnapping, murder-for-hire cases, and border-related crimes in San Diego, California.

Think a Renaissance Man is a thing of the past? Think again. Better yet, listen to the day-to-day adventures of John LaCasse, whose 25-year career as a Seattle yacht broker brought him into deals with business magnates, political figures, actors, royalty, even an organized crime boss—names the listener will recognize. Real-life happenings that turned this mountain boy from Montana into a wizard of wealth, penthouse living, Sports Car-driving, Harley-trekking, drinking and smoking to excess. Then one day wondering, what for? Why am I living this life of fast and furious?

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors’ American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

While connecting me up to various machines and monitors and placing nitroglycerine tablets under my tongue, the doctor looked at me early on and said: "You waited too long to get here, sir." I was petrified. There was no immediate response on my part, only a deep sense of fear entombed by a completely paralyzed inner spirit. Much to my surprise, he spoke again: "Sir, you've waited too long to get here. You're not going to make it."

"Fifty Years in a Foxhole" is an episodic account of the author's seven months in combat in Vietnam. He and his platoon were in several major engagements including the Battle of the Hills and Operation Utah. The main focus of these operations are the lives of the marines and attrition through action and "friendly fire" as they endure these pointless dangers.