Showing results by narrator "Paul Heitsch" in All Categories

Jacob Elliot doesn’t want a temporary job in the mailroom at Delphi Enterprises, but after two post-college years of unpaid internships and living in his parents’ basement, he needs the work. Then, on his first day, the unthinkable happens: toxic gas descends on a meeting in Delphi’s outdoor amphitheater, killing all the regular employees and leaving Jacob stranded inside the vast office complex. Wandering through Delphi headquarters, Jacob finds other survivors: Lauren, a disillusioned classics major; Swati, a fitness instructor; and Dominic, a business-school student.

Brian Stoppard is blessed with prodigious natural talents. Howard Cohen, less so. Starting in middle school in New York, Howard watches Brian effortlessly win at everything he tries: He’s a natural chess champion, a perfect athlete, a brilliant student. As the two move through life as friends and competitors, Brian’s easy success is a constant source of envy, awe, and inspiration for the ambitious but less-gifted Howard.

A close look at the contest of 1880 reveals that Garfield's victory could have been the start of a period of greater civil rights legislation, a continuation of Lincoln's vision. This was the choice made by the American people - and, as The Last Lincoln Republican makes poignantly clear, the great opportunity forever lost when Garfield was assassinated just a few months into his term. 

For centuries, skeptical foreigners - and even millions of Americans - have believed there was no such thing as American cuisine. In recent decades, hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza have been thought to define the nation's palate. Not so, says food historian Paul Freedman, who demonstrates that there is an exuberant and diverse, if not always coherent, American cuisine that reflects the history of the nation itself.  

Kim Kristensen has been in some of the most demanding situations a leader can experience. As an officer he led soldiers into battle many times, where making decisions was literally a matter of life and death. Later he applied his experiences of leadership to the worlds of business, local government, and diplomacy as well as at the Danish royal house, where he currently serves as master of ceremonies.

Miami Jones—Palm Beach's favorite PI—enjoys a quiet beer with friends as much as the next guy. He just never really saw the point of doing it while floating around with 2,000 strangers. But when he is hired on a most delicate case, Miami finds himself navigating not only the turquoise waters of the Bahamas, but also a mystery man who may or may not exist, a crazed Cleveland Browns fan harboring a grudge, and a gaggle of Palm Beach's finest—and most infamous—residents.

For over a century, cinephiles and film scholars have had to grapple with an ugly artifact that sits at the beginnings of film history. D. W. Griffith's profoundly racist epic, The Birth of a Nation, inspired controversy and protest at its 1915 release and was defended as both a true history of Reconstruction (although it was based on fiction) and a new achievement in cinematic art. Paul McEwan examines the long and shifting history of its reception, revealing how the film became not just a cinematic landmark but also an influential force in American aesthetics and intellectual life.

Ex-private eye Tony Casella lives in the Catskills, a lonely old tough guy whose body can no longer do what it once did. His wife and son are dead; his daughter barely talks to him; his bank is in the process of foreclosing on his home. But a chance encounter with a rich young woman on a train changes everything. He is hired to take care of her superrich, sexual predator husband. That job leads to others and he joins a small start-up whose mission is to save women from abusive marriages—provided their spouses are in the top 0.01%. It's a luxury service destined to make great profits.

It is November 12, 1941, and the world is at war. In Shanghai, just weeks before Pearl Harbor, thousands celebrate the birthday of China's founding father, Sun Yat-sen, in a new city center built to challenge European imperialism. Across town, crowds of Shanghai residents from all walks of life attend the funeral of China's wealthiest woman, the Chinese-French widow of a Baghdadi Jewish businessman whose death was symbolic of the passing of a generation that had seen Shanghai's rise to global prominence. But it is the racetrack that attracts the largest crowd of all. 

Sasha Naradnyo had come a long way from the slums of Crack City on the planet Peezgtaan - from Human gangster to head of security for Tweezaa e-Traak, the Varoki heiress to the largest fortune in the history of the Stellar Commonwealth. Then the largest nation on the Varoki home world collapsed into riots and civil war, a murderously anti-human Varoki fanatic made his bid for power, and the head of the Secret Police decided to take a personal interest in Sasha.

The Newbery-winning classic novel about a young New Yorker who figures out the world on his own terms with the help of one prickly tomcat, for readers who enjoy such books as Al Capone Does My Shirts and Hoot. Dave Mitchell and his father disagree on almost everything—and every time their...

A washed–up rockstar gets his old band back together for one final gig . . . and one daring robbery! A brilliantly funny, twisty heist caper from Pushcart Prize–winning author Michael Kardos. Mo Melnick used to be a drummer in the rock band Sunshine Apocalypse. He used to be someone. These...

Much of the history of United States defense over the course of 250 years has been a story of success. Insulated by two oceans and mostly friendly neighbors, but constantly ambitious abroad, America has dared mighty things and often achieved them, argues defense analyst Michael O'Hanlon. After growing into a continental power, largely through force of arms, during the first half of its history, it then led the way to coalition victories in two world wars, pursued peace in the Cold War, and has contributed to the most democratic period in human history.

Full of Miami’s trademark insights into life, and the humor and heart Stewart is famous for, Making the Drop delivers the most personal case Miami Jones has ever taken on.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Cynthia Tucker and award-winning author Frye Gaillard reflect on the role of the South in America's long descent into Trumpism. In 1974, Southern author John Egerton published his seminal work, The Americanization of Dixie, reflecting on the double-edged reality of the...

Mick's oldest friend is in trouble. A seemingly successful boxing career has left him broke, battered, and about to lose his family. The sharks are circling for whatever scraps are left from the glory days, and now in his darkest hour, the people who said they would be there have turned their backs. He wants to fight for his family, but the years have taken their toll, and all his family sees is an angry old man with a failing memory.

The Nations of NATO explores national policies within the Atlantic Alliance. It examines the foreign policies of sixteen allies, focusing on issues such as their strategic cultures, relationship with the US, contributions to NATO operations, levels of defense spending, domestic challenges, and decision-making processes. The recent crisis in Ukraine has without doubt reinvigorated NATO as a military alliance, but over the last decade it has also been affected by a number of challenges, both endogenous and exogenous.

Ahead, not too many years from now, everyone has been linked to a network of government-mandated brain implants. The Interface has become a way of life, connecting all people to limitless information, nonstop personal messaging, and instantaneous news flashes. Gone are the days of cell phones and laptops—even loneliness itself is obsolete.

In the forty-four months between December 1941 and August 1945, the Pacific Theater absorbed the attention of the American nation and military longer than any other. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. especially was committed to confronting Tokyo as a matter of urgent priority. But from Oahu to Tokyo was a long, sanguinary slog, averaging an advance of just three miles per day.

In the aftermath of a hurricane, Miami Jones wants nothing more than to clean up his house and his favorite bar. He doesn't want a new case. He doesn't need a new case. But when the daughter of a NASCAR legend comes calling, Miami must buckle up for the ride of his life.