Showing results by narrator "Mel Foster" in All Categories

By the acclaimed author of the classic Patriots and Union 1812, this major work of narrative history portrays four of the most turbulent decades in the growth of the American nation. After the War of 1812, Presidents Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren, and Polk led the country to its Manifest Destiny across the continent, but the forces and hostility unleashed by that expansion led inexorably to Civil War.

Former reporter Scott Fleetwood and his family are still recovering after tangling with a notorious kidnapper, the Piper, when another kidnapper grips the city. The Shepherd has snatched a young girl from a vacationing family. Other than money, he has one demand: he'll talk only to Scott.

Nearly everyone thinks their own family is “nutty" or at least has one or two nuts. With stories of wacky yet lovable relatives, funny foibles, and holiday meltdowns, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Family Matters is often hilarious and occasionally poignant.

This audiobook gives fathers the pat on the back they deserve. Children of all ages share their heartfelt words of thanks and loving memories in this collection of 101 new stories. Personal accounts of learning from Dad’s example and lasting lessons, special moments and memorable outings, encouragement and expectations will bring any father joy, inspiration, and laughs. Whether the listener is a new dad, a father to one or more, a father of teens, a father of grown children, or a grandfather, these heartwarming and humorous stories will resonate with him.

In a quiet seaside town near Genoa, experts gather for a linguistics conference. One speaker, Philipp Perlmann, is recently widowed and, struggling to contend with his grief, is unable to write his keynote address. As the hour approaches, an increasingly desperate Perlmann decides to plagiarize the work of Leskov, a Russian colleague who cannot attend, and pass it off as his own.

In a matter of days, Peter McDowell loses everything he has worked so hard for - his wealth, his property, his livelihood as a star investment banker. And then it gets worse. The stock market crash not only plunges Peter into joblessness, it causes a rift in his marriage that he cannot repair. Stripped of everything, he has only one place to retreat: a lakeside cottage he inherited from his parents, who left most of their modest estate to Peter's twin. With no other choice, the prodigal son goes home.

William Peter Blatty, the best-selling author and Oscar Award-winning screenwriter of The Exorcist, lived a charmed life among the elite stars of Hollywood. His son, Peter, born over a decade after The Exorcist, grew from an apple-cheeked boy into an "imposing young man with a quick, warm smile". But when Peter died very suddenly from a rare disorder, Blatty's world turned upside down.

Listen to Bruce’s story about his own Jenner/Kardashian family, and then join him in listening about everyone else’s family! You’ll recognize your own relatives in these outrageous true stories about wacky but lovable in-laws, siblings, husbands and wives, children, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and families in general. You’ll laugh and marvel at stories of funerals, weddings, holidays, and all those other times when “everyone gets together.”

Houston homicide detective Roland March was once one of the best. Now he's disillusioned, cynical, and on his way out. His superiors farm him out on a variety of punishment details until an unexpected break gives March one last chance to save his career. And his humanity. All he has to do? Find the missing teenage daughter of a Houston evangelist that every cop in town is already looking for. But March has an inside track: a multiple murder nobody else thinks is connected. Battling a new partner, an old nemesis, and the demons of his past, getting to the truth could cost March everything.

Of the world's 200 largest economies, more than half are corporations. They have more influence on our lives than any other institution, but while boards of directors are supposed to police CEOs and provide independent leadership, they have become enabling lapdogs rather than trustworthy watchdogs.

The greatest threat to an organization's success is not always the competition. Often, it is what a company does to itself. Because of fear, companies become plagued with barriers and bureaucracy that limit success, crush employees, and infuse frustration and a sense of futility across the enterprise. It starts with a narrowing of focus, which leads to the first level of bureaucracy: parochialism.

That's the question Elliott Goodman hears in the OR as he's about to have emergency surgery following a heart attack. But it isn't Elliott's surgeon who's asking. It's God. As in the Almighty. And God has a wager for Elliott. He challenges him to an eighteen-hole golf match. If Elliott wins, he is saved; if he loses...So begins this witty, insightful, and very funny novel about golf and life and the lessons learned from both.

A companion to the acclaimed film Bully, this audiobook brings the story of the documentary beyond the closing credits, continuing the national conversation inspired by the film. Personal anecdotes from prominent antibullying activists and celebrities alongside essays from renowned experts, authors, government officials, and educators offer powerful insights, resources, and concrete steps to combat the bullying epidemic. An essential part of any campaign to decrease bullying and increase empathy, the audiobook also follows the stories of the families featured in the film beyond the big screen.

Thirty-Three Stories of Family Fun, Relatively Strange Moments, and Happily Ever Laughter.

This is the real story of the Beatles' harrowing rise to fame, focusing on that seven-year stretch from the time the boys met as teenagers in the 1950s to early 1964, when the Fab Four prepared to invade America. From the boys' humble beginnings in Liverpool, to the cellars of Hamburg, When They Were Boys includes stories never before told, including heartbreaks, lucky breaks, and dramatic twists of timing, fate, loyalty, and betrayal.

Connecting our speed-obsession with today's global capitalism, Taylor composes a grand narrative showing how commitments to economic growth and extreme competition, combined with accelerating technological innovation, have brought us close to disaster. Psychologically, environmentally, economically, and culturally, speed is taking a profound toll on our lives.

Hired to uncover the past of Jodi Taylor, an actress in a hit TV show, Elvis leaves his native Los Angeles to head for Louisiana in search of Jodi's biological parents. But before he can tackle the mystery of Jodi's background, he is up against a whole host of eccentrics, including a crazed Raid-spraying housewife, a Cajun thug who looks like he's been made out of spare parts and a menacing hundred-year-old river turtle named Luther.

In an extension of his New York Times best-selling book Blindsided, author Richard M. Cohen depicts one year in the lives of five individuals who are living with serious chronic illness and their families. These "citizens of sickness", as Cohen calls them, were selected for the diversity of their ages, races, socioeconomic positions, illness types, stages of wellness, and gender.

Clark's Harbor was the perfect coastal haven, jealously guarded against outsiders. But now strangers have come to settle there. And a small boy is suddenly free of a frenzy that had gripped him since birth. But his sister is haunted by fearful visions. And one by one, in violent, mysterious ways, the strangers are dying. Never the townspeople, only the strangers. Has a dark bargain been struck between the people of Clark's Harbor and some supernatural force?

Thanks Dad gives fathers the pat on the back they deserve. Children of all ages share their heartfelt words of thanks and loving memories in these stories. Thanks Dad will bring any father joy, inspiration, and humor - and maybe even the realization that his kids did pay attention after all.