Showing results by narrator "Ted Brooks" in All Categories

Most California histories begin with the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the late 18th century and conveniently skip to the Gold Rush of 1849. Noticeably absent from these stories are the perspectives and experiences of the people who lived on the land long before European settlers arrived. Historian William Bauer seeks to correct that oversight through an innovative approach that tells California history strictly through Native perspectives.

In the hills of Tennessee, Shane Carson, a gifted, nationally-recognized horseman, is living the good life. When a mysterious mustang shows up on his farm, Shane doesn't know how - or why - the horse appeared, but the horse's distinctive brand identifies her. She is one of the Spirit Horses, a rare, wild herd that runs free on the Shoshone reservation in Wyoming. Watched over for centuries in the tribe's ancestral valleys, these exquisite horses, according to belief, provide a link to the afterlife. When tragedy strikes in his life, Shane nearly loses his will to live - but for one promise he made to his young son: to return the mustang....

"If I'm ever late for work, call the police!" That's what Albuquerque, New Mexico, bank teller Girly Chew, 36, told her boss. The Malaysian-born beauty lived in mortal fear of her pathologically deranged husband and had taken out a restraining order against him. She was late for work for the first - and last - time on September 10, 1999. Her bloodstained clothes were found near a lonely stretch of desert highway. Chew's estranged spouse was an unrepentant scam artist with a terrifying violent streak.

G. Scott Graham first started practicing vipassana meditation in 1996. In addition to his daily practice, Scott joined 10-day courses twice each year, whenever possible, alternating between sitting and serving. Scott joined a course on December 11, 2019. In the early hours of Sunday, December 22, 2019, the day Scott's course ended, his husband of 31 years, Brian Stephens, burned to death in a horrific automobile accident. Two months later, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world essentially shut down.

"I simply needed to know I was wanted," Kenny Loggins once said. This comes from a man who knew how much people loved him and adored his songs, from a man who has been probably more productive in his life than 99 percent of the population, from a man who lived his life discovering His Way, His Tao, and never stopped. There's a lesson to be learned here.

Inspired by August Derleth’s seminal book The Wisconsin, Richard D. Cornell traveled the Chippewa River from its two sources south of Ashland to where it joins the Mississippi. Over several decades he returned time and again in his red canoe to immerse himself in the stories of the Chippewa River and document its valley, from the Ojibwe and early fur traders and lumbermen to the varied and hopeful communities of today.

Urgent message from Central Intelligence to local Cyber agent: "You will proceed to the planet Zakym with the utmost dispatch. Dumarest is not to be killed or his intelligence placed in danger. This is of utmost priority. Once found he is to be removed from the planet immediately. Zakym is approaching a critical state as regards the stability of its present culture. Find Dumarest and move him before he becomes embroiled in a war!"

On a cold winter morning, Jeff Power was lighting a fire in his remote Arizona cabin when he heard a noise, grabbed his rifle, and walked out the front door. Someone in the dark shouted, “Throw up your hands!” Shots rang out from inside and outside the cabin, and when it was all over, Jeff’s sons, Tom and John, emerged to find the sheriff and his two deputies dead and their father mortally wounded. Arizona’s Deadliest Gunfight describes an impoverished family that wanted nothing to do with modern civilization. 

Bucky Veil was a professional baseballer who played the game in the early years of the 20th century, a time when baseball was beginning to evolve into America's national pastime. As a 22-year-old rookie with the 1903 Pittsburg Pirates, he pitched in the first world series of modern major league baseball, thus witnessing firsthand an important milestone in the history of the sport.

Just as the first wave of flying saucer sightings ended in the summer of 1947, the military began a project to investigate those reports. For 22 years, the Air Force attempted to learn what it could about the phenomena they called UFOs. During those years, they investigated more than 12,000 sightings including landings, occupant reports, photographs, radar cases, and intercepts by military jet fighters. In many instances plausible explanations were advanced, but nearly 1,000 sightings were marked as unidentified.

Once, when young Nasruddin was acting up in class by distracting his classmates with endless antics, jests, and stories, his irate teacher uttered a curse: ''Whatever you do or say, wherever you go or stay, whether it's night or day - people will only laugh at you.'' Now, eight centuries later, people everywhere are still laughing at the immortal Mullah Nasruddin, one of the world's most beloved folk characters.

Sandman built his dubious reputation by turning the dreams and nightmares of others into harsh reality. Now he's pursuing his own twisted dream; the beautiful Maria Milan. But she doesn't want to become a player in Sandman's sordid fantasy. Michael Sykora is a hit man who kills for justice. Sean Riley is a hit man born to kill. Together, they're out to take down Sandman and his organization. Whether mercy is given depends on who catches him first.

In The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory, James N. Leiker and Ramon Powers explore how the event has been remembered, told, and retold. They examine the recollections of Indians and settlers and their descendants, and they consider local history, mass-media treatments, and literature to draw thought-provoking conclusions about how this story has changed over time.

Legends that endured for centuries, endure for a reason. In the wilderness of Southeastern Alaska, the Kushtaka is one such legend. Known as the Land-Otter Man among the Tlingit Indians, the Kushtaka are shape-shifting, time bending, mythical creatures capable of taking your deepest fears and turning them into a nightmarish reality.

Sam Jackson had over a thousand acres of tobacco that brought in so much money it made him the richest farmer in a town called Painville. Sam never had to worry about money for many years, but Sam's money making machine was about to run dry. Sam's ego and money got the best of him one day. Sam was drinking with some of the local farmer's down at the local tavern. Sam pulled out his wallet and started counting thousand dollar bills on the table in front of them.

Someone's after Freddy Tango. After another wild night at his bar, Freddy's Lounge, he arrives home to find his front door riddled with bullet holes and his windows shattered. His live-in grandfather, Cecil Tango, drunk and angry, a pistol within reach, raves about being attacked by a long-dead outlaw named Percy Yates. Freddy discounts Cecil's accusations as alcohol-induced delusions. Following that fateful night, Freddy decides to seek justice with the assistance of a couple of friends.

Kushtaka or Kooshdakhaa is a Tlingit word meaning “land otter man.” The Kushtaka is on one hand the nemeses of the Tlingit people, yet necessary to their Shamans who play a critical role in the survival of the Tlingits. The Tlingit people are as mysterious in their beliefs as the Kushtaka, making for strange bedfellows.

Dr. Phillips was an archaeologist that had a hunger for finding the big one, meaning a dig that would put him in history books. But Dr. Phillips wasn't a very patient man and if anyone got in his way of finding something worth celebrating, they were a dead man.

One night, while Dr. Phillips was reading his newspaper and smoking his pipe, he came across an interesting article that said there was a dig deep in the jungles of Africa, but no one has been able to recover the artifacts--only to die trying.

This meticulously researched book tells the story of Midwestern agriculture during a period of epochal change in farm technology, farm management, and farm life. The hard work, tight communities, and values that had characterized the family farm were replaced by large corporate enterprises with massive acreages, high-tech methods, and global outlooks. While many decry this change as loss, Nordin and Scott find a net gain. This is their richly detailed account of one of the great transformations in American life. 

"I still remember the day as though it just happened today," said Bill Withers. "I was traveling down Old Hatchet Trail road after midnight when this beautiful woman with golden long blonde hair was standing all alone on the side of the road. It was starting to rain and I just couldn't leave her there in the black of night. I just couldn't, so I stopped my car beside her and rolled down the front passenger window and said 'Please get in out of the rain and I'll take you home.'"