Showing results by narrator "Brian Nishii" in All Categories

As a boy, Kenichi “Zeni” Zenimura dreams of playing professional baseball, but everyone tells him he is too small. Yet he grows up to be a successful player, playing with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig! When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1941, Zeni and his family are sent to one of ten internment camps where more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry are imprisoned without trials. Zeni brings the game of baseball to the camp, along with a sense of hope. This true story, set in a Japanese internment camp, introduces children to a little-discussed part of American history.

Ryo is the golden boy, the playboy prince, until his uncle betrays him and everything falls apart. Minor nobles Dagney and Grigfen are suddenly forced to fight for their lives after their father is branded a traitor. McKenna, queen of the enemy realm, has been given a mission of conquest, though she isn’t sure she’s fit for the task. But things are not always what they seem...all of these teens are actually players in the newest, most immersive virtual reality game, competing against each other for a highly coveted internship.

Racism. Immigration. Gun violence. Sexuality. Health care. The number of ethical issues that demand a response from Christians today is almost dizzying. How can Christians navigate such matters? What are faithful responses to these questions? Edited by two theologians with pastoral experience, this volume invites engagement with these issues and more by drawing on real-life experiences and offering a range of responses to some of the most challenging moral questions confronting the church today.

In Beverly Hills, murder has suddenly gone out of style. For five weeks, the head of the city's tiny homicide squad, Zen detective Masao Masuto, has worked only robbery investigations. But after more than a month without a corpse, this dry spell is about to end. The dead woman is Ana Fortez, a Chicana whose death was originally classified as terminal food poisoning brought on by a feast of botulism-infested clairs. But because botulism can only grow in an airtight space, the medical examiner warns Masuto that the fatal bacteria must have been purposefully injected into the pastry.

Returning from a funeral, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Briggs find their Beverly Hills mansion ransacked. As they wait for the police, they discover something unusual: Despite the chaos, nothing appears to be missing - a fact that greatly interests Beverly Hills police detective Masao Masuto. But the Zen detective only has a few minutes to ponder the strange break-in before a murder intervenes. The victim is Ivan Gaycheck, a stamp dealer whom Masuto remembers for his stout frame and unplaceable accent.

How does witnessing a crime change a person? This powerful collection of stories by a star-studded roster of contributors examines this very question.

A collection of 15 beloved Chinese myths, legends, and folktales that are rich in tradition and culture. Each story transports the listener back to ancient times and is filled with excitement, adventure, magic, and laughter.

In the Empire, cultivation is restricted. Weapons are forbidden. Tyranny reigns. When disaster strikes for Oren and his family, there is only one choice: flee the local magistrate and his arrogant son who wants to destroy their family. But to leave the empire means heading to the north: a land of barbaric tribes and monsters. Oren and his family embark on a long and hard, danger-filled journey to escape the Empire, but politics are at play, and the shadow of the empire is cruel, cold, and long.

Three Wishes in Bardo draws an intimate picture of twentieth-century Hong Kong while telling the story of a typical Hong Kong bright boy and his devoted mother. It is also a story of scientific labor and discovery, where single-mindedness, integrity, talent, and skill rise from the mire of academic sharp-practice and envy. Different strands of the plot weave together to form a climactic ending where all characters’ lives resolve into fulfillment with a touch of humor and true catharsis created from genuine surprise.

Detective Masuto reopens an investigation into a murderous film star - with deadly consequences… On the day that Eve Mackenzie murders her husband, Masao Masuto is on a plane to Japan. For years he and his wife, both American-born Japanese, have dreamed of visiting their homeland, and though the trip is a delight, the Zen Buddhist detective cannot help but check the international papers for news of murder on his home turf of Beverly Hills. Part of him regrets missing the sensational Mackenzie killing.

They call the pool at the Beverly Glen Hotel "the naked hooker." To the frustration of the Beverly Hills police department, the women there are so high class that it's impossible to distinguish guests and girlfriends from professionals. Women flock to the lavish hotel because it teems with film stars, businessmen - and America's richest criminals. Tonight, to detective Masao Masuto's chagrin, there is the body of a naked man in the pool.

Deep in the Kunlun Hills lives a deer whose fur has nine colors. One day she hears a cry for help and discovers a man drowning. Then, leaping from wave to wave, she saves him. When the man asks how he could ever repay this kindness, the Nine Color Deer simply requests that the man never reveal her whereabouts. Will he be able to keep his promise when the King and Queen offer a reward to anyone who can locate the Nine Color Deer? Inspired by a 1,500-year-old mural in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, Kailin Duan brings listeners a beautiful story about the power of kindness.

Adults wage war, while children are unwitting victims, pulled into a maelstrom of fear and hate without any choice. This is a story about two groups of teenagers on opposite sides of the world, forever connected by an act of war. It is a story about the adults some of those teens became, forever connected by acts of forgiveness, understanding, and peace. And it is a story about one remarkable man, whose heart belonged to both America and Japan, who put that peace and understanding in motion.

Oren, his family, and his friends have escaped the empire and its cruel Iron Law and arrogant rulers. Their enemies are not far behind. They must continue to grow stronger and embrace their powers if they are going to survive this dangerous new land and its strange customs and wild beasts.

Mr Katō—a curmudgeon and recent retiree—finds his only solace during his daily walks, where he wonders how his life went wrong and daydreams about getting a dog (which his wife won’t allow). During one of these walks, he is approached by a young woman. She calls herself Mie, and invites him to join her business Happy Family, where employees act as part-time relatives or acquaintances for clients in need, for whatever reason, if only for a day.

When the empire finally gets a foothold in the North, it intends to destroy all the clans and take their valuable resources for itself. Yet all is not lost. The clans of the North are spread apart and don't work well together. But under a common threat, they will find a way to fight back against the invasion. The question is, can Owen grow strong while keeping his deadly secret from being revealed?

Wang Xiaobo's Pleasure of Thinking is an essay collection as riotous as it is contemplative. Between rollicking anecdotes about living between the East and West and serious musings on the intellectual situations at home and abroad, Xiaobo examines modern life with the levity missing from so much of today's politico-cultural discourse.

To marry into the most powerful family in Varin is to step into a trap. Della has spent thirteen years under the scrutiny of Pelismara's political elites, supporting Tagaret in a dangerous pretense as his brother Nekantor's closest ally. In secret, however, they've planned to escape, and to break down the restrictions of Varin's caste society. When Nekantor offers to send them to Selimna, the city where their caste experiments can be carried out, how can they not accept the opportunity?

Detective Masuto investigates a Hollywood kidnapping that leads to a shocking conspiracy. Angel is Hollywood royalty. Her husband, Mike Barton, is one of the silver screen’s most bankable stars, and their marriage has all the hallmarks of a Beverly Hills fairy tale. But everything about Angel’s past is kept secret, including her real name. When reporters ask why Mike dubbed her Angel, she says that she must have fallen from heaven. No one knows where Angel Barton is from, and now no one knows where she has gone.

Rain has spoiled Masao Masuto's vacation. For six days the storm has trapped the Zen Buddhist detective and his family inside their Los Angeles cottage. By the morning of his vacation's final day, he is so stir crazy that the call to come to work is a relief. Detective Masuto knows no better cure for boredom than a puzzling murder.