Showing results by narrator "Mark Ashby" in All Categories

Though we're known as a nation of English speakers, the linguistic map of the United States is hardly monochromatic. While much ado has been made about the role that Spanish may play in our national future, it would be a gross misrepresentation to label America a bilingual country. On the contrary, our languages are as varied as our origins. There is Basque in Nevada, Arabic in Detroit, Gullah in South Carolina. We speak European, Asian, and American Indian languages; we speak creoles, jargons, and pidgins.

Downton Abbey has brought out the Anglophile in American fans of the hit TV series. But Anglophilia has a long history in America. Why are some native-born residents of our Shining City Upon a Hill, where All Men Are Created Equal, seduced by the fluting tones of manor-born privilege? At last, Anglophilia explained - in American, thank you.

A hypochondriac doctor cares for his son. McSweeney's is a literary journal based in San Francisco.

The recent economic crisis was a dramatic reminder that capitalism can both produce and destroy. It's a system that by its very nature encourages predators and creators, locusts and bees. But, as Geoff Mulgan argues in this compelling, imaginative, and important book, the economic crisis also presents a historic opportunity to choose a radically different future for capitalism, one that maximizes its creative power and minimizes its destructive force.

How do you argue with perfection? The voters in the coaches and media polls can deliberate who's No. 1, the computers can spit out endless data to add to the arguments and everyone involved can ponder the merits of a playoff system, but some things aren't up for debate, especially the final perfection of Auburn's 2004 season. With a 13-0 record, an SEC championship and a Sugar Bowl victory, the Tigers know, "We're national champions in our hearts, even if no one else thinks so," Jason Campbell said.

When two cons doing several respective back-to-back life sentences for murder make a daring - if not Hollywood-style - escape from the Dannemora Maximum Security Prison in upstate New York, PI Jack Marconi receives a personal invitation from the governor of New York State to track the murderers down and deliver them personally to the front door of the governor's mansion.

How one nearly forgotten 1920s publisher’s “little blue books” created an inexpensive mail-order information superhighway that paved the way for the sexual revolution, influenced the feminist and civil rights movements, and foreshadowed the age of information.

Two patients attempt to escape from the eponymous psychiatric institution. McSweeney's is a literary journal based in San Francisco.

The rich legacy of putting others in their cultural place.

How did the minimally trained, isolated Srinivasa Ramanujan, with little more than an out-of-date elementary textbook, anticipate some of the deepest theoretical problems of mathematics—including concepts discovered only after his death?

The space program has finally lost its novelty, and a jaded public hardly notices another moon launch. Skilful PR men preserve the illusion that the missions have become routine. But astronaut Richard Martin can tell a different story. Of panic in deep space, of crewmen pushed beyond breaking point, of official indifference towards his own shattered life. Martin is effectively put under wraps - until the pilot of a moon capsule, loaded with nuclear weaponry goes berserk and a nightmare develops, threatening to engulf the world - a nightmare that only Martin could end.

Jerry "Digger" Doherty is an ex-con and proprietor of a workingman's Boston bar, who supplements his income with the occasional "odd job", like stealing live checks or picking up hot goods. His brother's a priest, his wife's a nag, and he has a deadly appetite for martinis and gambling. On a trip to Vegas, the Digger finds himself in the sights of a loan shark known as “The Greek”. Luckily the Digger has been let in on a little job that can turn his gambling debt into a profit, if only he can pull it off without getting himself killed.

Written through the eyes of retail and technology executives, Branded! explores retailers who are successfully implementing social media and mobility strategies. Market-leading retailers are engaging technology-savvy customers though social media and mobility. Branded! reveals how these digital communication channels are an extension of a retailer's culture and strategy resulting in building brand equity.

Every state police officer in Boston knows that Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistaro are the most prolific and ruthless practitioners of extortion, fraud, theft, bribery, assault, and murder in the area. What none of them know is how to stop these Michelangelos of crime, who for 30 years have eluded jail-and even arrest. Their secret is at the heart of George Higgins's most searing and shocking dissection of the criminal life yet. At End of Day reveals the corruption at the heart of American law enforcement.