Showing results by narrator "Patrick Lawlor" in All Categories

Actor and award-winning travel writer Andrew McCarthy's featured story recounts his quest to uncover his family's Irish history while 25 other prominent writers tell their own heartfelt stories of connection. Spanning the globe, these stories offer personal takes on journeying home, whether the authors are actively seeking long-lost relatives, meeting up with seldom-seen family members, or perhaps just visiting the old country to get a feel for their roots.

On a sweltering September night, Long Beach Homicide Detective Danny Beckett is called to a grisly crime scene at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. A defenseless homeless man has been burned to death by three teenagers with gang ties. The suspects are already in custody, and the evidence is overwhelming - but when one suspect’s brother is targeted for murder, Danny starts to think there may be more to this seemingly clear-cut case.

Many people suffer from Nice Guy Syndrome - they're held back from higher levels of success by being too selfless at work. It's a tricky problem, because if you start to think that being nice is bad, it's easy to overcompensate with selfishness, intimidation, and intense aggression. The founders of Nice Guy Strategies teach that nice is not about being weak or soft - that you can hang on to your morals, compassion, and sincerity and still get ahead.

My Tank Is Fight! contains a humorous and exciting examination of 20 real inventions from World War II that never saw the light of day. Each entry includes full technical details, a complete development history, in-depth analysis, and a riveting fictionalized account of the invention's success or failure on the battlefield.

Eddie Rickenbacker was a World War I Flying Ace, a Medal of Honor winner, and even a racecar driver. But did you know that his first attempt at flying was to ride his bicycle off the roof of his house while holding an umbrella?

You're driving on a deserted road when your car dies. Your cell phone isn't getting service. All you have on hand are a gum wrapper and a wire hanger. Or maybe you're living in a building without central air conditioning in July. You can't afford an AC; all you have access to are a fan and a bucket of water. In such times of desperation, many have called upon the symbol of all that is inventive, the hero who awed thousands with his cool, quick wit: "What would MacGyver do?" they ask.

By beginning a conversation that encourages self-examination and compassion, Combined Destinies invites listeners to look at how white Americans have been hurt by the very ideology that their ancestors created. Editors Ann Todd Jealous and Caroline T. Haskell, both experienced psychotherapists skilled at facilitating dialogue about racial issues, are cognizant of the challenges that even the thought of such conversations often presents. Their book is based on the premise that for positive and lasting change to occur, hearts as well as minds must be opened.

This remarkable work paints a comprehensive and colorful picture of the world that Jesus knew. From detailed, convincing portraits of John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Jesus himself, and other key figures, to the Jewish and Hellenistic leaders often ignored in scripture, Who's Who in the Age of Jesus is a critical, in-depth look at one of the most tumultuous eras in human history.

In May 1962, Naval Chief Petty Officer Bryant Arbuckle flew to Saigon to establish a new armed forces radio station. Next to follow were his wife and three boys, Leslie among them. Saigon Kids is the candid, recondite slice of 14-year-old military brat Les Arbuckle's experience at the American Community School during the critical months of the Vietnam War when events would, quite literally, ignite in downtown Saigon.

In 1967, a retired army major and self-made millionaire named Paddy Roy Bates cemented his family’s place in history when he inaugurated himself ruler of the Principality of Sealand, a tiny dominion of the high seas. And so began the peculiar story of the world’s most stubborn micronation on a World War II anti-aircraft-gun platform off the British coast. Incorporating original interviews with surviving Sealand royals, Dylan Taylor-Lehman recounts the battles and schemes as Roy and his crew engaged with diplomats and even thwarted an attempted coup.

John and Abigail Adams and their descendants have profoundly influenced life in the United States for more than two centuries. From the great political and philosophical contributions of Founding Father and President John Adams, the roster of Adams luminaries is unprecedented: diplomat and sixth president, John Quincy Adams; pre-Civil War "Voice of Honor", Charles Francis Adams; and authors Henry and Brook Adams. The story of the Adams dynasty is as impressive and compelling as its legacy.

When Professor William Standish receives the rare honor of an Esswood Fellowship, and the chance to study Isobel’s private manuscripts at close hand, he is thrilled beyond his wildest ambitions. But upon arriving, something seems slightly strange at Esswood House. He hears faint laughter in the halls, the pitter-pattering of small feet in the night; strange faces appear in the windows of the library, and of course, there are those giant dollhouses in the basement....

How will we live well in a super-networked, information-soaked, yet predictably irrational world? The only way to know is to understand how the way we think is changing. As economist Tyler Cowen boldly shows in Create Your Own Economy, the way we think now is changing more rapidly than it has in a very long time. Not since the Industrial Revolution has a man-made creation - in this case, the World Wide Web - so greatly influenced the way our minds work and our human potential.

After moving to a new house, the lives of Charlie, Kate, and Neil get turned upside down when they learn the house might be haunted. Horrific dreams filled with paranormal specters that bleed into the real world and a wicked cult operating out of the school become everyday occurrences for this family. Can these teens put a stop to the great evil they've stumbled upon?

In 1977, Ickey Jerusalem, San Francisco’s golden-boy poet laureate (based on Blake), is found dead in a locked, first-class toilet on an arriving red-eye flight. Ded Smith, a desperately unhappy, intelligent philistine with a highly developed philosophy to match, is called in to investigate the poet’s death. Thus begins a series of hilarious encounters with the members of Jerusalem’s coterie (updated amalgams of characters from Blake’s work).

The sixth installment of "The Darwin Awards" features all-new stories of the human race's lowest rung on the evolutionary ladder, and is the latest addition to this successful brand. Aside from the bestselling book and audiobook collection that has sold over 1.5 million copies, The Darwin Awards brand includes a website that gets over one million hits per month and a movie starring Winona Ryder and Joseph Fiennes, T-shirts, greeting cards and much more.

Mark Gillen has the storybook life other men dream of, complete with a beautiful wife and an adoring five-year-old daughter. Then his wife announces she's leaving him. And taking their daughter with her. The other man is a famous film director with unlimited funds and the keys to stardom and wealth for Paula. How can Mark begin to compete? But the most bitter blow comes when he is kept from seeing his daughter because of false charges....

The human race's most popular humor series returns with a new collection of macabre mishaps and misadventures. Honoring those who improve our gene pool by inadvertently removing themselves from it, The Darwin Awards 5: Next Evolution shows how uncommon common sense still is.

What does a man drugged and slashed to death by an unknown assailant have to do with a woman felled by a fatal heart attack after learning her bank account had been plundered? The cases seem as different as their scenarios - late night in a tavern parking lot and early the next morning inside a bank. But a troubling theory soon unites them: Was the first crime's murder victim the second crime's mastermind?

Meet our ninth U.S. President before his famous victory over the Native American chief Tecumseh in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Young readers will thrill to hear young Billy Harrison's dramatic rescue of his sister Sally as she struggles to stay afloat after falling into a river, and admire his courage when he captures a British soldier at the age of eight. Find out more about these and the rest of Billy's boyhood adventures in William Henry Harrison: Young Tippecanoe.