Showing results by narrator "Patrick Lawlor" in All Categories

I’ve got plenty of reasons to hate Sebastian Monroe, the sexy lead singer of Heat Lightning: 1.) He doesn’t remember our soul-scorching kiss 10 years ago. 2.) He very rudely refused to play at my hometown’s 300th-anniversary celebration. And 3.) He’s a hotel trashing, arrogant, hot mess. Really hot. Sooo hot....

The story of fatherlessness is being written into the heart of this generation. It can be heard in our songs, seen in our movies, read in our blogs. It is a story of grief, pain, and loss. A story of shame, loneliness, and rejection. A story of missed potential and wasted opportunity. A story that desperately needs to be heard. But fatherlessness is more than a personal tragedy. It is a growing epidemic affecting more than the single life of an individual. Fatherless youth are the driving force behind our society’s biggest problems such as: gangs, drug abuse, and suicide.

Navy SEAL Dan Gillman's wife, Jenn, goes into early labor while stranded in the California desert, as he and most of Team 16 are mission-ready overseas. Meanwhile, left behind with a recent knee injury and faced with impending surgery and rehab, Chief Jay Lopez decides that the timing might be exactly right for a romantic interlude with a pretty fifth grade teacher. Hijinks definitely ensue.

America's problem with race has deep roots, with the country's foundation tied to the near extermination of one race of people and the enslavement of another. Racism is truly our nation's original sin. "It's time we right this unacceptable wrong", says best-selling author and leading Christian activist Jim Wallis. Fifty years ago, Wallis was driven away from his faith by a white church that considered dealing with racism to be taboo.

Marriage equality has surged across the country. Closet doors have burst open in business, entertainment, and even major-league sports. But as longtime advocate Michelangelo Signorile argues in his most provocative book yet, the excitement of such breathless change makes this moment more dangerous than ever.

In this original short story, Brockmann returns with some of her most beloved characters from the Troubleshooters world: Izzy Zanella and his friends in US Navy SEAL Team Sixteen. What should be an easy training jump for SEAL Team Sixteen goes horribly wrong, forcing Izzy Zanella to do what he does best: improvise - at 30,000 feet.

When his brother, Barse, pulled one of the biggest hold-ups Texas had ever seen, Bruce Lockheart took the blame for it, leaving Barse clear to marry the beautiful Trinity Spencer. Bruce takes to the fugitive trail for a crime he didn't commit and is hotly pursued by a relentless ranger and the woman who loves him, fighting to clear his name. If she failed, he would have to hide for the rest of his life - or die!

Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every 200 young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of government and law enforcement have made much difference. But when David Kennedy, a self-taught and then-unknown criminologist, engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the mid-1990s, he pointed the way toward what few had imagined: a solution.

Eclipsing the traditional sports memoir, House of Nails, by former world champion, multimillionaire entrepreneur, and imprisoned felon Lenny Dykstra, spins a tragicomic tale of Shakespearean proportions - a relentlessly entertaining American epic that careens between the heights and the abyss. Nicknamed "Nails" for his hustle and grit, Lenny approached the game of baseball - and life - with mythic intensity.

Mistakes so big they seem like fodder for The Onion—but they really happened! From memorable disasters such as New Coke, the XFL, and Tiger Woods’ marriage to less-remembered failures such as Yugo, Cop Rock, and Microsoft’s BOB, Worst Ideas Ever revisits history’s biggest blunders. Whether it’s a pop culture failure the likes of Dennis Miller’s disastrous run on Monday Night Football, a political one such as John Edwards’ odd decision to run for president while cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, or a technological misstep such as Apple’s Newton OS, Worst Ideas Ever uncovers the ridiculous stories behind mistakes so huge, you’ll have to constantly remind yourself that they actually happened. Moving from Mariah Carey’s “performance” in Glitter to the Minnesota Vikings decision to trade away their future for an aging Herschel Walker, Worst Ideas Ever offers the real stories behind some of the dumbest things ever done. Whether it was ego (Michael Jordan leaving basketball for baseball), greed (nobody questioning their impossibly high returns when investing with Bernie Madoff) or simple stupidity (Jay Leno moving to 10 p.m.), Worst Ideas Ever brings it all back in hilarious detail.

"Masque of the Red Death", a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, has a masquerade ball within seven rooms of his abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure enters and makes his way through each of the rooms.

The life of John Hancock, contemporary of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, and first to sign the Declaration of Independence, is featured in this volume of the Young Patriots series. Detailing Hancock's early years, this work focuses on his relationship with boyhood friend John Adams and his academic struggles with what he would later become most famous for: his writings.

Beamer: California transplant to a weird Midwestern town. Feels like he’s living on another planet. Scilla: the gangly tomboy next door. Ghoulie: the class nerd. Add one spaceship-shaped tree house capable of taking them most anywhere in the universe. Hop in and blast off for fantastic outer space adventures in Star-Fighters of Murphy Street—the quirky, funny, fast-paced new trilogy by Robert West.

Before he grew up and became one of Washington's most respected reporters and editors, Andrew Ferguson was, of all things, a Lincoln buff, with the photos hung on his bedroom wall to prove it. Decades later, Ferguson's latent buffdom is reignited. In Land of Lincoln, he embarks on a curiosity-fueled coast-to-coast journey through contemporary Lincoln Nation, encountering everything from hatred to adoration to opportunism and all manner of reaction in between.

In 2013 Michael J. Yochim was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). While fighting the disease, he wrote Requiem for America's Best Idea. The book establishes a unique parallel between Yochim's personal struggle with a terminal illness and the impact climate change is having on the national parks—the treasured wilderness that he loved and to which he dedicated his life. A poignant and thought-provoking work, Requiem for America's Best Idea investigates the interactions between people and nature and the world that can inspire and destroy them.

Lawyer David Hamill is ready to start over. Fresh off of a divorce, he plans to recharge in Lake Tahoe on his way to his new job at a prestigious law firm in San Francisco. When David’s new sports car—an indulgence he barely could afford but couldn’t resist—runs dangerously low on gas on his late-night road trip, the sign for the truck route offers hope for a place to fill up. Then his car loses speed and power on the winding isolated highway, leaving David stranded with few options in high desert country.

Here is the continuing adventure of one of fiction�s most dramatic heroes, Tarzan the ape-man. In this new episode, Tarzan has given up his jungle ways and is living contentedly on a farm with his beloved wife, Jane, as a wealthy member of British nobility. But when he returns one day from a trip to Nairobi, he finds his farm has been laid to waste by German troops, with no one left alive.

This classic book brings out the true spirit of the Gold Rush days at the turn of the last century. It portrays the brutality, kindness, love, and folly that Jack London experienced first-hand during his time in the far north. It was his first successful book, and catapulted him to literary fame.

Christopher Phillips is a man on a mission: to revive the love of questions that Socrates inspired long ago in ancient Athens. He also recalls what led him to start his itinerant program and re-creates some of the most invigorating sessions, which come to reveal sometimes surprising, often profound reflections on the meaning of love, friendship, work, growing old, and others among Life’s Big Questions.

After years of playing the tormented actor Joe Laughlin on the hit television show Shadowland, Hollywood star Robin Chadwick Cassidy is ready for a change. Joe's character embodies the real demons of Robin's past - his struggle with his sexuality, his battle with alcoholism - and portraying the part has taken a heavy toll on his personal life. Robin's husband, FBI agent Jules Cassidy, has noticed the strain and will do whatever he can to make Robin happy.