Showing results by narrator "Mark Deakins" in All Categories

The Unwanted is the intimate account of a small village on the edge of the Black Forest whose Jewish families desperately pursued American visas to flee the Nazis. Battling formidable bureaucratic obstacles, some make it to the United States while others are unable to obtain the necessary documents. Some are murdered in Auschwitz, their applications for American visas still "pending." Drawing on previously unpublished letters, diaries, interviews, and visa records, Michael Dobbs provides an illuminating account of America's response to the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s.

American Desperado is possibly the most jaw-dropping, event-filled, adrenaline-soaked criminal autobiography ever written. Like a real-life Scarface Jon was born into the upper levels of the Gambino crime family and witnessed his first murder at age seven. He became a one-man juvenile crime wave before joining an assassination squad in Vietnam.

As Sherlock Holmes once conceded to Dr. Watson, 'If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the planning, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chain of events, working through generations and leading to the most outréresults, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.'

Kyra is an architect involved in a project to design a new city. Andreas, a theater director, is staging an innovative production of the opera Tosca. Both have come through political upheaval and personal loss. Neither wants to fall in love. Yet when she asks him, what the opposite of losing is, and he says, "finding", it galvanizes a powerful attraction, and they risk opening themselves to love once again. But a shocking betrayal awaits.

When both his parents are brutally murdered and his siblings scattered, vengeance sets into Mark’s bones. Duty-bound to reclaim his family honor, he becomes an assassin, intent on killing his enemies. But the assassin who trained him becomes his worst enemy. With one loyal brother beside him, and a mysterious brother fated to cross his path, he navigates through continuous obstacles.

Hig, bereaved and traumatised after global disaster, has three things to live for—his dog Jasper, his aggressive but helpful neighbour and his Cessna aeroplane. He's just about surviving, so long as he only takes his beloved plane for short journeys, and saves his remaining fuel. But, just once, he picks up a message from another pilot, and eventually the temptation to find out who else is still alive becomes irresistible. So he takes his plane over the horizon, knowing that he won't have enough fuel to get back.

Robert Stone (1937-2015), probably the only postwar American writer to draw favorable comparisons to Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, and Joseph Conrad, lived a life rich in adventure, achievement, and inner turmoil. An acclaimed novelist himself, Madison Smartt Bell was a close friend and longtime admirer of Robert Stone. His authorized and deeply researched biography is both intimate and objective, a rich and unsparing portrait of a complicated, charismatic, and haunted man and a sympathetic reading of his work that will secure Stone's place in the pantheon of American writers.

Uh-oh! A deadly disease is spreading through Small Pond! People are dropping like flies! And yikes - it looks like Squish is patient number one. Will this epic epidemic be the end of everyone’s favorite amoeba? (And if it is, who will he leave his comic collection to?) Find out the answers in the seventh hilarious Squish adapted-for-audio novel: Deadly Disease of Doom!  

Three days after giving birth to her child, Gemma must return to Hell and be transformed into a Witch, erasing her past and surrendering herself to evil. This is the price she’s agreed to pay in exchange for bringing Evan back to life and ensuring the safety of their child. Evan, however, refuses to accept her agreement. He’s convinced that together, they can overcome this new challenge. His deepest fear is different: He knows the Angels of Death will do everything they can to kill Gemma before she becomes a Witch.

In an era when Christmas is often portrayed as little more than a celebration of consumerism, many Christians are searching for a way to offer a deeper appreciation of the holiday to their children and family. New York Times Best Selling Author W. Cleon Skousen's The Real Story of Christmas reconnects the reader with what Christmas is supposed to be about: peace, goodwill, and the story of Jesus Christ. Skousen breathes new life into the Nativity story, with ample political and historical context.

In the dark of night, a covert group of bandits enters the village of Rekeem and kidnaps Rasha, daughter of the great Abdali-ud-din leader, Zafir. They seek a hefty ransom, and know Zafir will sacrifice everything to win back the safety of his beloved daughter. But it's not just Zafir who wants to find her. Bassam, Zafir's young protégé in the caravans, is deeply in love with Rasha. And he will let nothing stop him from finding her - even a perilous journey - even death.

An engaging old-fashioned adventure story, Zafir and the Seventh Scroll will take you to lands far away in time and place, as Bassam is called on to grow from a boy into a young man. The story continues as Bassam rejoins his caravan, only to find his mentor, Zafir, gravely injured and facing death. Will Bassam be able to get him the help he needs - and will he ever learn what is in the seventh secret scroll, to complete his education and become the upstanding young leader Zafir sees in him?

We all face the same problem: we’re constantly busy, but we never seem to get anything done. We know we should focus on the task in hand, but it feels impossible with so many distractions and demands on our time. We all need The Pomodoro Technique. This deceptively simple tool, now being used by more than two million people around the world, helps us regain control and achieve our goals. It transforms both work and home life by splitting days into 25-minute ‘pomodoros’ which focus our minds and make us far more productive.

The incomparable Jonathan Lethem returns with nine brilliant stories that prove he is a master of the short form as well as the novel.Jonathan Lethem stretches new literary muscles in this scintillating new collection of stories. Some of these tales - such as "Pending Vegan", which wonderfully captures a parental ache and anguish during a family visit to an aquatic theme park - are, in Lethem's words, "obedient (at least outwardly) to realism."

A wife struggles to make sense of her husband’s sudden disappearance. A mother mourns her teenage son through the music collection he left behind. A woman shepherds her estranged parents through her brother’s wedding and reflects on the year her family collapsed. A young man comes to grips with the joy—and vulnerability—of fatherhood. And, in the masterly opening novella, two teenagers from very different families forge a sustaining friendship, only to discover the disruptive and unsettling power of sex.

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting 14 Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking. Until now.

Margaret Atwood puts the human heart to the ultimate test in an utterly brilliant new novel that is as visionary as The Handmaid's Tale and as richly imagined as The Blind Assassin. Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around - and fast.

Once a privileged and loving couple, the Armsteads have now reached a breaking point. Ben, a partner in a prestigious law firm, has become unpredictable at work and withdrawn at home—a change that weighs heavily on his wife, Helen, and their preteen daughter, Sara. Then, in one afternoon, Ben’s recklessness takes an alarming turn, and everything the Armsteads have built together unravels, swiftly and spectacularly.

An anthology celebrating the witches and sorcerers of epic fantasy - featuring stories by George R. R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Megan Lindholm and many more! Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois' (Rogues, Old Venus) acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. How could it be otherwise? For every Frodo, there is a Gandalf...and a Saruman. For every Dorothy, a Glinda...and a Wicked Witch of the West. What would Harry Potter be without Albus Dumbledore...and Severus Snape?

The Buddha's teaching on the five hindrances to awakening in the ancient scripture Samyutta Nikaya, where he contrasts them to the seven factors of enlightenment. They are a feature of what's taught in all the Buddhist traditions. Mitch Abblett gives the teaching a unique modern and secular interpretation, combining traditional wisdom with contemporary psychology - with examples from the lives of the real people he has worked with on the hindrances in his psychotherapy practice.