Showing results by narrator "John Lee" in All Categories

This is a touching and tender talk that will change forever the way you think about love, sending it, receiving it with those you love whether family, friends, lovers and even colleagues. It will remind you to throw away "The Golden Rule" when it comes time to loving people and adopt "The Platinum Rule", which says send the people you love the kind of love they long for and tell your loved ones the way you wish to be loved. 

The title poem, a series of sonnet-sized Zoom meetings - a classroom, a memorial service, an encounter with a new baby in the family - finds humor and pathos in our age of social distancing and technology-induced proximity. Salter shows too how imagination collapses time and space: In “Island Diaries”, the pragmatist Robinson Crusoe meets on the beach a shipwrecked dreamer from an earlier century, Shakespeare’s Prospero.

Under the auspices of the League for Political Discussion, in a meeting held at the Manhattan Opera House, Rev. John Haynes Holmes of the Community Church, taking the positive, and Clarence Darrow, taking the negative, debated the following proposition: "A Resolution that the United States should continue the policy of prohibition as defined in the 18th Amendment." The meeting was chaired by Senator Royal S. Copeland and introduced by Benjamin Javits.

A very insightful look at each of the 12 steps by a very spiritual guy with long term sobriety in early AA. John shares his own experience taking the 12 Steps and insights learned while taking hundreds of other alcoholics through them. This is a very good AA talk, an enjoyable presentation of 12-step wisdom with some humorous parts.

Ten years after a tragic incident on the lake, an AA meeting in a small, religious town in the deep south of the USA descends into bitterness and chaos when a flood hits. Trapped within the local church, tempers escalate and well-buried secrets begin to emerge. Personalities clash, reputations are dissected and questioned, and everybody's demons are laid bare.

Revenge is grief upended, only with penance served can atonement begin. From the tranquil moors of southern England; to the Caribbean's steamy shores; to the sweeping African plain, the moral compass is set to spin off its axis. For Thomas Edward Muir, evil is not illusory, it is the debasement of young lives; it is the slaying of the innocent; it is the eradication of family. "Surrender..," he is told, "...is the way of the world."   

Thomas Edward Muir is no drifter. He flies cargo in the islands; he rides motorcycles in the desert. Muir sails and he dives and... Yeah, he's that guy. But life is about to kick him in the teeth. He's gonna meet a monster. Pure evil. He's gonna witness the darkest side of human suffering. And it's gonna rock his world. And he's gonna struggle with that...'cause he's that guy. From the balmy, indigo waters of the Caribbean Sea to the searing heat of the Sahara desert, the face of modern slavery is revealed in all of its repulsive glory.

Dark Place to Hide: Booktrack Edition is enhanced with a musical soundtrack from Booktrack for an immersive listening experience! About to break the news to his wife, Diane, that he’s infertile, criminology expert Harper Penn gets a call to say she’s been rushed to hospital with a miscarriage. Five days later, when Diane fails to return from the village shop, police think she must have taken off with a secret lover, but Harper is convinced the online messages are not from her.  

What begins as a quiet day of fishing, with 16-year-old Sven Klakk enviously watching the men using fleygs (fowling nets) to catch birds on the cliffs high above him, ends in a tumult of suspense and terror. A force 10 gale; a damaged ship in danger of smashing up on the rocks of the island most of the crew call home; a handful of women, old men, and one 16-year-old boy, to rescue the desperately helpless men....

Despite its patina of humor, the work is a merciless exposé of the commercial middle class dishonesty, and the convenient immorality hiding behind social conventions, which are characteristic of a developing urban society. The most noble character, Serafima, is a compelling mixture of naïveté, whimsicality, sentimentality, and obstinate practicality - one of the finest character portraits in Russian drama.

This tale takes place in Iscium, an isolated Roman village in Britain. Most of the town senators and officials are primarily concerned with keeping a low profile with the neighboring barbarians - with the exception of the crotchety old bishop. But when young Falx decides to run away to Rome and instead finds a lost barbarian girl, things begin to happen. The children are found by a merchant who returns them to Iscium. This is a zany mix of history, humor, and the miraculous - in the tradition of Don Camillo.

The Spaghetti is a floating palace of elegance and entertainment. There's only one problem: Miss LaPasta doesn't want Barnabas Brambles to come aboard, because she's heard he's the meanest man alive. Lucky for Barnabas Brambles, his boss is Sir Sidney, the nicest man alive.

A sniper assassination in the center of Glasgow, a ritualistic killing in the city's subway system, and ancient Persian symbols stitched beneath the skin of the victims trigger a complex police investigation headed by Detective Inspector Tom Kendrick. Meanwhile, Gulf War veteran Edward Franklin is handling courier and punisher chores for corrupt businessman Oscar Cranston. Franklin, a long-term sufferer of posttraumatic stress disorder, isn't just in it for the money.

Dunlough: a rambling, idyllic estate in the Irish countryside, one that has cast a potent spell on its inhabitants for generations. But with the cost of upkeep mounting and money running thin, family patriarch John Campbell makes a bold decision: to avoid selling, he will open Dunlough's doors to tourists, and move his wife, and their son and daughter, to a dank, small cottage behind the main house. The upheaval strains the already tenuous threads that bind the insular family. Then a tragic accident befalls them, and long-simmering resentments and unanswered yearnings come dangerously to the surface.

"Eveline" is a short story from James Joyce's classic Dubliners. Nineteen-year-old Eveline has decided to leave home, but her future journey may not be all that she hopes. Like other stories in Dubliners,"Eveline" offers a penetrating analysis of Dublin society, especially its stagnation and paralysis. Each story incorporates epiphanies, by which Joyce meant to convey a sudden consciousness of the "soul" of a thing. Proceeds from sale of this title go to Reach Out and Read, an innovative literacy advocacy organization.

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson has long been interested in the relationships between humans and animals, and he’s always been aware that there was something very special in our bond with dogs. No other animals love us in quite the same way as dogs love us. And it is mutual. Is it possible that we developed our capacity for love, sympathy, empathy, and compassion because of our long association with dogs?

The Phantom of the Earth: Publisher's Pack contains books 1 and 2 of the series. The Song of the Jubilee, book 1: The world on the surface has crumbled. Deep below what were once the places known as Canada, the US, and Mexico, a new Great Commonwealth has emerged where expansion gave way to peace and prosperity. The Gambit with Perfection, book 2: Cornelius Selendia continues his journey to Blackeye Cavern, Supreme Scientist Damosel Rhea makes progress on Project Silkscape.

Conor and his sword companions must leave the safety of the faéry kingdom for the barbarian Scálda threaten to overrun Eirlandia. As he fights for his people’s survival, Conor discovers that several of the clan leaders have betrayed their nation by aiding the Scálda. The corruption is such that Conor and his men choose to become outcasts, clan-less and open to attack by friend and foe alike. They form their own warband...and the beginning of a legend as Conor unites the common people of Eirlandia to drive the poison from their land.

Lee St. John is a she-devil with a halo, a Southern Belle who doesn't play by the rules, and a prankster setting her next trap. But like a train wreck, we can't help but peek at her shenanigans. She is just plain naughty but with a heart. The mementos found in her closet, attic, basement, and even her school classroom unleash her secrets about mothers, husbands, former boyfriends, children, friends, jobs, families, students, and more.

Fifteen-year-old Leo is an orphan being raised in an abbey in the days of King Richard the Lionhearted. He knows nothing of his parentage and has little hope for a future outside the familiar but sometimes restrictive monastery walls. Under the firm and loving hand of Abbot Michael, Leo has been well trained in piety, obedience, and courtesy, and has begun to master a strong will and quick anger. Nevertheless, he is restless, longing to go out into the world for a time before renouncing it forever.