Showing results by narrator "James Anderson Foster" in All Categories

The Mystic Heart chronicled Brother Wayne Teasdale's journey into a multifaceted spirituality blending his traditional Catholic training and the Eastern way of sannyasa (Indian monkhood). A Monk in the World tells what the journey has meant for him - living as a monk outside the monastery, integrating teachings from the world's religions with his own Catholic training, combining his vigorous spiritual practice with the necessities of making a living, and pursuing a course of social justice in a major American city.

Delaying treatment for my bum knee until the off season isn’t the smartest move, but hey, I’m a big dumb jock. And pro hockey players play, come hell or broken bones. That stupid knee sends me sprawling in front of the prettiest lady in Central Park. She’s also smart, and kind, and she bonds with my young daughter Quinn over strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Can’t hurt to ask her out for coffee, right?

A towering figure in the pantheon of twentieth-century literature, Thomas Mann has often been perceived as a dry and forbidding writer—"the starched collar," as Bertolt Brecht once called him. But in fact, his fiction is lively, humane, sometimes hilarious. In these fresh renderings of his best short work, award-winning translator Damion Searls casts new light on this underappreciated aspect of Mann's genius.

In Killing a Messiah, New Testament scholar Adam Winn weaves together stories of historical and fictional characters in a fresh reimagining of the events leading up to Jesus's execution. Based on what we know of the first-century context, Winn's narrative offers compelling explanations for gaps in the Gospel accounts. The social, political, and religious realities of Jesus's world come to life and shed new light on our reading of the biblical texts. In a city full of political entanglements, espionage, and competing interests, the blame for the crucifixion is complex.

During the Cold War, stories of espionage became popular on both sides of the Iron Curtain, capturing the imagination of readers and filmgoers alike as secret police quietly engaged in surveillance under the shroud of impenetrable secrecy. And curiously, in the post-Cold War period there are no signs of this enthusiasm diminishing.

Covering the origins, history, and modern challenges of the church, Mormonism: What Everyone Needs to Know offers listeners a brief, authoritative guide to one of the fastest growing faith groups of the 21st century.

What really happened to the girl who walked into the woods and vanished forever? It’s a never-forgotten mystery that clings like a shadow in a short story about dark memories and inescapable fears.

Six short stories set in the worlds of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter, Bubba the Monster Hunter, and The Dead Old Ladies Detective Agency from award-winning author John G. Hartness!

Living in a squalid room in St. Petersburg, the indigent but proud Rodion Raskolnikov believes he is above society. Obsessed with the idea of breaking the law, Raskolnikov resolves to kill an old pawnbroker for her cash. Although the murder and robbery are bungled, Raskolnikov manages to escape without being seen. And with nothing to prove his guilt and a mendacious confessor in police custody, Raskolnikov seems to have committed the perfect crime. But in Dostoyevsky’s world of moral transgressions, with its reason and its consequences, Raskolnikov’s plan has a devastating hitch.

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.

In Flight of the Wild Gander, renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell - in his first collection of essays, written between 1944 and 1968 - explores the individual and geographical origins of myth, outlining the full range of mythology from Grimm's fairy tales to American Indian legends. Originally published in 1969, this collection describes the symbolic content of stories: how they are linked to human experience and how they - along with our experiences - have changed over time.

Hades owns a diamond mine, but he wants something money can’t buy—Persephone. The innocent young woman challenges his claim on her. He’ll stop at nothing to have her. The contract is binding. Persephone wants freedom more than anything. Instead, she falls into the hands of a ruthless businessman. He demands complete possession of her. Body. Mind. Soul. He wants her submission. She demands his secrets. Their sensual battle may break them both.

As the grand expansion begins, habitable planets need to be found. Captain Gabriel "Ruck" Rucker, after his service in the Defense Forces, finds himself searching the rim of known space for worlds that can be used by mankind. Whether by mega corporations for resources or extremist groups looking for a utopian new start, the contracts all pay. With their one-of-a-kind ship, the crew pushes out past the rim worlds looking for a huge payday. What they find could irreparably alter the course of human development.

Following their successful mission on Parmick, young Peacemakers Jyrall and Larth remain teamed up with the newly formed Blue Ridge Kin and its unique cast of characters. As the events of the Guild Wars spiral out of control, the Peacemakers prepare for a mission they believe will provide early intelligence to Guild Master Rsach, only to be called off their mission and sent on one with a much high priority.

Magical Los Angeles is a ticking time bomb. The normally cooperative crime families are at each other’s throats, an unseen force manipulating them from behind the scenes like a sinister chess master. Nick Morgan and Bron Broome are the only ones who know what’s going on, and they've got a tough job: convince the crime lords a demon’s playing them like chumps before the whole town goes up like a powder keg.

Former vice cop Mackenzie Baudin is at the top of criminal organization Coercion Ten's hit list. If they get hold of her, she'll be leveraged against her uncle, director of OPAQUE's special ops force. She's now saddled with Josh Slater. No one else knows better than OPAQUE agent Josh Slater how to thwart Coercion Ten. After all these years, he's closing in on the crime boss who bought his father for a bank account, but that entails returning to his hometown to protect his boss's niece. The only woman he's loved. Macki, who he was forced to leave behind. And he can never tell her why.

It's the start of summer vacation, and poor Tony has just lost his grandfather. His father is deployed overseas, and his mother is raising him and his little brother all alone. But that's not what's bothering Tony. It's that his nana will be all alone in her small, rural home during the heat of summer, doing the yard work, the laundry, and all the things around the house, while mourning her husband. That won't sit for Tony. With his mother's permission he moves in with Nana for the summer.

Out of my mountain, out of my reach. I’ll do anything to get her back, even break a truce that’s kept my kingdom safe. I can only breathe again when she’s back in my arms. When I can make her pay for every second I spent in fear. I want more than her body. I want her heart. And I will punish her until it’s mine.

Bearing Earth's hopes for deliverance from the alien threat, Jack Kildare and his fellow astronauts successfully complete the long journey to Jupiter. But someone on board is trying to sabotage the mission. As they approach the mysterious alien spaceship orbiting Europa, the crew fractures into rival factions. Without warning, a long-range attack cripples the human ship. Now the broken crew is the least of Jack's worries. The alien spaceship isn't a wreck, after all. And whoever is on board wants the humans dead.

Despite the best efforts of a number of historians, many aspects of the ferocious struggle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War remain obscure or shrouded in myth. One of the most persistent of these is the notion - largely created by many former members of its own officer corps in the immediate postwar period - that the German Army was a paragon of military professionalism and operational proficiency whose defeat on the Eastern Front was solely attributable to the amateurish meddling of a crazed former Corporal.