Showing results by narrator "Jeff Woodman" in All Categories

One of only three Sam Spade short stories, this one involves a blackmailing poet, a seductive chanteuse, her rough-hewn stage-door-johnny, and, of course, murder. Recorded before a live audience in New York.

Series editor Andrew Leckey and guest editor Marshall Loeb have scoured the print media, consulted with the editors of major business and general interest publications, and surveyed journalism school deans in order to find the thirty best business stories from the past 12 months. Among those selected: Ken Auletta on Herb Allen's CEO retreat, from The New Yorker; Diane Brady on Martha Stewart, from Business Week; Steve Silberman on creating a borderless global cyber-marketplace, from Wired; and many others.

When Jonathan's firm sends him to Rome to discredit the testimony of a prominent U.N. antiquities official, a chance reunion leads to a hunt for the legendary Tabernacle Menorah: solid gold, eight feet high, stolen 2,000 years ago and never recovered. As Jonathan and his friend scour Rome's ancient sites for hints to its whereabouts, they quickly realize they are not alone and the precious menorah is a key to controlling history itself.

Billboard magazine had this to say about The World's Shortest Stories Vol. 1, "What is most impressive in this collection of great stories is the sheer variety. Let's hope a second volume of these tiny gems will not be long in coming!"

Here are four unforgettable stories by Yann Martel, the New York Times best-selling author of Life of Pi. In the exquisite title novella, a very young man dying of AIDS joins his friend in fashioning a story of the Roccamatio family of Helsinki, set against the yearly march of the 20th century.

One evening in Washington, DC, several high-ranking members of government disappear in a mass kidnapping. Among the kidnapped is Nick Rendel, a computer software coding expert in charge of drone programming and strategy. He is the victim with the most dangerous knowledge, including confidential passwords and codes that are used to program the drones. If these are revealed, his kidnappers could reprogram the drones to strike targets within the United States.

People say New York City is a jungle. Still, P.C. Hawke is a little surprised when his best friend, Mackenzie, invites him to tag along with her police coroner mother to examine a scientist who has been mauled by jaguars at the Bronx Wildlife Conservation Park. But when the two teenage sleuths learn that the scientist actually died because he was given a lethal dose of gorilla blood after the attack, they quickly realize that the most vicious predator imaginable is loose in the park - a human killer!

Arianne Cohen spent four years collecting 1,500 Sex Diaries and in this book she takes us on a tantalizing tour of American bedrooms through the all-new, provocative, often moving, sometimes shocking, always entertaining real diaries of 40 Sex Diarists. From the Madly-in-Love 17-Year-Old Who Might be Pregnant to the Cheating Father of Three and the Grandma Who Is Perfectly Happy Alone, these tales of love, lust, longing and leaving will shock, titillate, and educate.

Like most little boys his age, Banjo is hungry! He can't wait to gobble up his delicious dinner. But as he sits at the table ready to dig in, something very wild and wacky happens. Melvin the sausage suddenly leaps from Banjo's plate and leads Peter, Percival, Paul, Caroline, Clara, and the other peas and carrots on a daring escape. As the silverware, table, and chairs also flee the kitchen, Banjo begins a hilarious race to catch up with his very, very fast food.

In the fall of 2005, after surviving the first year and a half of the end of the world, there is very little left for the remaining people of apocalyptic Canada. Salvage teams gather what supplies remain, survivors are brought in more and more rarely, and a cure is rumoured for the undead plague that has ravaged the world.

Bill Buford spends a wild night in the park; Jonathan Safran Foer envisions it as a tiny, transplanted piece of a mythical Sixth Borough; and Marie Winn answers definitively Holden Caulfield's question of where the ducks go when the park's ponds freeze over. There are bird sightings and fish sightings; Jackie Kennedy and James Brown sightings; and pieces by Colson Whitehead, Paul Auster, and Francine Prose. This vibrant collection presents Central Park in all its many-faceted glory, a 51-block swath of special magic.

Novelist, essayist, memoirist, playwright, screenwriter, actor, sexual liberationist, traitor to his class, balloon-popper of the pious and pretentious, the country's last true man of letters (they should now retire the title), Gore Vidal belonged to the Greatest Generation of American authors, and was the last great one to go. (He died on July 31st, 2012 at the age of 86.) The triumphant arc of Vidal's literary career wasn't solely a mastery of language, though that never hurts.

Folsom, New Mexico, is young Jim Stanton’s new home. His father has been given a wonderful job at Folsom National Laboratories. The company has provided the Stantons with everything they need, including a fabulous house and even a brand-new car. The only trouble is that it all seems a little too perfect. Curious, Jim goes hiking in the nearby mountains, where he meets a strange girl and her father. Their warning about what the Stantons will have to sacrifice for their new, comfortable life sends Jim racing back to his family - and a perilous search through the lab.

Rupert P. Brown’s biggest worry about sixth grade is it might be, well, a little bit dull. After all, how can a fellow be expected to top a fifth grade year in which his best friend was kidnapped, and he found out his best teacher ever was a real, honest-to-goodness witch? But when Rupert types the word "computowitch" in an e-mail message, his screen goes all green, and then his parakeet starts giving him math lessons. He knows it can only mean one thing: Miss Switch is back!

Nancy Bell’s best-selling Biggie series combines Texas small-town humor with tantalizing mysteries. As J.R., Biggie Weatherford’s 12-year-old grandson, recounts Biggie’s uncanny ability to solve the peskiest cases, his observations are spiced with his wry adolescent view of grownups. A trip to a nearby town introduces J.R. to a ghost and presents Biggie with a perplexing local murder.

Sex. Money. International terrorism. And, of course, the ultimate question- Can a compact backswing save the world? A clubhouseful of acclaimed authors pass the baton (or at least the six-iron) to creat an ensemble tour de force of suspense, romance, and hilarity on the links. Golf is not a team sport. But who says fiction can't be? Get ready....

Caribbean-born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel, Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering readers a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining. Tides from the New Worlds contains 19 stories that range from multicultural science fiction to magical realism, some in print for the first time.

But when he encounters a monster straight out of stories one night, Baltasar faces trouble even he can't talk his way out of. Captured by the Malleus Maleficarum, a mysterious witch-hunting arm of the Spanish Inquisition, Baltasar is put to the question. The Inquisitor demands he reveal the whereabouts of Amir al-Katib, a legendary Moorish sorcerer who can bring myths and the creatures within them to life.

The 19th addition of this annual anthology exhibits a collection of short fiction from award-winning Southern authors and rising stars including Edward P. Jones and Silas House. Each story’s derivation is explained in an illuminating note from the author following the rich and entertaining tales.

Learn the 25 keys to doing business on an international scale, from foreign exchange risks to import/export duties with this program from The New York Times Pocket MBA Series.