Showing results by narrator "Michael Butler Murray" in All Categories

In Mantle: The Best There Ever Was, Mickey Mantle biographer Tony Castro brings to life the man who is arguably not only the greatest ballplayer of his time but also the greatest ballplayer of all time. Castro offers illuminating new insight into Mantle's extraordinary career, including the head-turning conclusion based on the evolution of analytics that the beloved Yankee switch-hitting slugger may ultimately win acclaim as having fulfilled the weighty expectations once placed on him: of being greater than even Babe Ruth.

Few songs have captured the contradictions and ambiguities of the 1960s as memorably as "California Dreamin'," the iconic folk music single that catapulted the Mamas & the Papas into rock and roll history. In All the Leaves Are Brown, author Scott Shea details how John Phillips, Denny Doherty, Michelle Phillips, and "Mama Cass" Elliot became standard-bearers for California counterculture, following their transformation from folk music wannabes to rock sensations and chronicling the tumultuous events that followed their unexpected success.

There has never been a show business book quite like The Show Won't Go On, the first comprehensive study of a bizarre phenomenon: performers who died onstage. From the comedy magician who dropped dead on live television to the amateur thespian who expired during a play called The Art of Murder, the book is a celebration of lives both famous and obscure, as well as a dramatic and accurate recounting of events leading to the moments they died "doing what they loved."

The eminent economic historian Harold James presents a new perspective on financial crises, dividing them into "good" crises, which ultimately expand markets and globalization, and "bad" crises, which result in a smaller, less prosperous world. Examining seven turning points in financial history—from the depression of the 1840s through the Great Depression of the 1930s to the COVID-19 crisis—James shows how crashes prompted by a lack of supply, like the oil shortages of the 1970s, lead to greater globalization as markets expand and producers innovate to increase supply.

Laursen's book relates the event-filled life of a brilliant and complex figure, including his victory over a possibly career-ending disability, his tumultuous second marriage, his struggles with the scientific establishment, and the fascinating story of the making of The Joy of Sex.

Getting an MBA takes time and money, making it inaccessible to many people who want to take charge in the business world. Now The 12-Week MBA offers an alternative way to learn business essentials, focusing on the skills and knowledge required to succeed as a manager and business leader. The 12-Week MBA’s unique premise is that there is a core set of business skills that entrepreneurs and future leaders of organizations can learn and will need regardless of their industry, function, or level.

We are living through a Long Emergency: a near-continuous train of pandemics, heatwaves, droughts, resource wars, and other climate-driven disasters. In Lifehouse, Adam Greenfield asks what might happen if the tactics and networks of care that spring up in response to these times might be brought together in a single, coherent way of life?

Navigating Life with Epilepsy provides accessible, comprehensive, and up-to-date information about epilepsy shared from the two decades of experience of epileptologist David Spencer, MD, FAAN. This book guides the listener through the initial diagnosis, offers explanations on current approaches to diagnostic testing, medications, treatment options, and life management for the patient, their family, and their caregiver.

Captured in the last year of the Civil War, Lucas Cain becomes a POW in the infamous Andersonville prison. There he learns how to survive the cruelty of the Confederate guards, and the perfidy of a few who are prisoners themselves. When the war ends, Lucas and almost 1,500 others crowd aboard the riverboat Sultana, which has a capacity of just under 400 passengers. After an unforeseen event occurs, Lucas finds himself further adrift.

One summer day, a countercultural drifter known only as the Sunlight Man appears in Batavia, New York. Jailed for painting the word "LOVE" across two lanes of traffic, the Sunlight Man encounters Fred Clumly, a 64-year-old town sheriff. Throughout the course of this impressive narrative, the dialogue between these two men becomes a microcosm of the social unrest that epitomized America during this significant historical period - and culminates in an unforgettable ending.

The year is 1931. A boy boards a train to visit his friend in New York. A woman in a jumpsuit boards a train to meet her employer in New York. And the conductor? He boards because it's his job. If it had been any other day, they all would have gotten where they were going just fine. But it's not any other day. The Rail Tracer is on the hunt. The gonzo tale of gangsters, immortals, and outrageous luck (both bad and good) speeds into its third volume!

Oleg Konovalov - an acclaimed global thought leader - draws together in one volume in-depth interviews with 19 extraordinary global visionaries that represent a variety of industries and organizations. These leaders explain why a vision is needed, how to implement it, how to communicate a vision effectively, and how to live by it with integrity.

Far from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States and al-Qaeda are fighting a clandestine war of drones and suicide bombers in an unforgiving corner of Arabia. The Last Refuge charts the rise, fall, and resurrection of al-Qaeda in Yemen over the last 30 years, detailing how a group that the United States once defeated has now become one of the world’s most dangerous threats. An expert on Yemen who has spent years on the ground there, Gregory D. Johnsen uses al-Qaeda’s Arabic battle notes to reconstruct their world as they take aim at the United States and its allies.

With an in-depth perspective, Connery, Sean Connery defines and distinguishes the iconic star's life and career before, during, and after his most famous role.

With its signature "DARE to keep kids off drugs" slogan and iconic t-shirts, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) was the most popular drug education program of the 1980s and 1990s. But behind the cultural phenomenon is the story of how DARE and other antidrug education programs brought the War on Drugs into schools and ensured that the velvet glove of antidrug education would be backed by the iron fist of rigorous policing and harsh sentencing.

This book seeks to provide a guided examination of what unites and divides the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic communities. With over 25 years of experience teaching in the subject area, Dr. Fritz Wenisch begins to unravel this complex and often contentious topic by first discussing the legal injunctions applying to religious studies courses at secular U.S. universities. He investigates the type of monotheism each religion shares before providing an in-depth overview of each religion, one by one.

As the first anthology to assess the nature of fan response and the band's enduring appeal, Fandom and The Beatles: The Act You've Known for All These Years defines and explores the key ways in which this particular pop fusion has inspired such loyalty and multigenerational popularity.

The final novel by John Gardner, Mickelsson's Ghosts, originally published in 1982 just months before his untimely death in a motorcycle accident, is a tour de force. The protagonist Peter Mickelsson, a former star philosophy professor at Brown, relocates to Binghamton University. On the verge of bankruptcy, separated from his wife, in questionable mental health, and drinking heavily, Mickelsson decides to buy a country house in northeastern Pennsylvania.

In The Science of Dream Teams, Mike Zani details a data-driven approach to talent optimization that makes hiring, motivating, and managing people more efficient and effective than ever. It employs sophisticated assessments, tools, and software that enable leaders to: measure the traits and characteristics that predict success in a role or fit on a team; build finely tuned project teams and well-balanced leadership teams; and more.

In Teach for Climate Justice, accomplished educator and social and emotional learning expert Tom Roderick proposes a visionary interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to PreK-12 climate education. He argues that meaningful instruction on this urgent issue of our time must focus on climate justice—the convergence of climate change and social justice—in a way that is emotionally safe, developmentally appropriate, and ultimately empowering.