Showing results by narrator "Roger Wayne" in All Categories

Martin Torgoff details the rise of early drug culture in America by weaving together the disparate elements that formed this new segment of the American fabric. Channeling his decades of writing experience, Torgoff connects the birth of jazz in New Orleans, the first drug laws, Louis Armstrong, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, swing, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, the Savoy Ballroom, Charlie Parker, the birth of bebop, the rise of the Beat Generation, and the launch of heroin in Harlem.

Chris Bell's world was shattered when the woman he loved suddenly left him. Now, a serious injury is cutting his military career short and sending him home to Trinity Falls years before he expected. Determined to build a life for himself and his service dog in the small town where he grew up, the last person Chris expects to see is Grace Cassidy.

In 1935, nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser, heir to one of the wealthiest families in America, is snatched off the streets two blocks from his home. The boy is kept manacled in a pit, chained to a tree, and locked in a closet. The perps - a career bank robber, a petty thief, and his 19-year-old never-been-in-trouble Mormon wife - quickly become the targets of the biggest manhunt in Northwest history. The caper plays out like a Hollywood thriller with countless twists and improbable developments. Perhaps the most astonishing thing of all, though, is how it all ends.

From two-time National Book Award finalist Deborah Wiles comes a masterpiece exploration of one of the darkest moments in our history, when American troops killed four American students protesting the Vietnam War.

"No more dramatic courtroom scene has ever been enacted," reported the Syracuse Herald on May 22, 1915, as it covered "the greatest libel suit in history", a battle fought between former President Theodore Roosevelt and the leader of the Republican party. Roosevelt, the boisterous and mostly beloved legendary American hero, had accused his former friend and ally, now turned rival, William Barnes of political corruption. The furious Barnes responded by suing Roosevelt for an enormous sum that could have financially devastated him.

In his recovery from drugs and alcohol, Chris Grosso has stumbled, staggered, and started all over again. In an effort to understand why he relapses, and why many of us return to the myriad of other self-defeating behaviors despite our better judgment, he went to best-selling authors, spiritual teachers, psychologists, doctors, and more, and asked them why we tend to repeat mistakes in our lives, even when we know these actions will harm us and the ones we love. In Dead Set on Living, Chris shares these intimate conversations and the practices that have taught him.

Criminal investigator Xander Stone doesn't have to question you - he can hear your thoughts. Scarred by lightning, burdened with a power that gives him no peace, Xander struggles to maintain his sanity against the voice that haunts him day and night - the voice of a woman begging him to save her.

Justin Wren knows what it's like to feel like the world is against you. Like many kids, Justin was bullied as a child. Fueled by the anger he felt toward his tormenters, Justin trained hard and propelled his dream of becoming a UFC fighter into reality. But the pain from his childhood didn't dissipate, and Justin fell into a spiral of depression and addiction, leading him on a path toward destruction.

Smithsonian archaeologist Rabbit Ward travels through time on sponsored expeditions to the past to secure precious artifacts moments before they are lost to history. Although exceptional at his job, Rabbit is not without faults. In a spectacular failure twenty years ago, he lost both the menorah of the second temple and his hot-headed mentee, Aaron. So, when new evidence reveals the menorah’s reappearance in 6th century Constantinople, Rabbit seizes the chance for redemption. But from the moment he arrives in the past, things start to go wrong.

Ander Rade is a super-soldier, a genetically engineered living weapon, and has been dutifully following orders since he gave himself to Scythe Industries’ Gene-Mod Program several years ago. But when a mission goes sideways, he’s captured, imprisoned, and forced into brutally violent fighting pits for the better part of the next decade…until agents from the Genetic Compliance Department of the United American Provinces appear in the visitors room.

Shane Collins and Lucas Maddox are the last two US Marshals after a global cataclysm that destroyed most of modern civilization. They're still on the job, fighting the good fight, although they're no longer fully human and maybe not entirely sane. Witches and werewolves were not covered in their training as US Marshals. Then again, neither was the Apocalypse.

They’ve manipulated the truth, buried every fact under layers of lies. You might survive if you follow two rules: Never trust what you see. Never believe what you hear. Caught in a web of deceit, a fugitive billionaire and a former spy must find the truth before it finds them. Facing their greatest challenge, they struggle to navigate a reality where everything is suddenly false. With no one left to trust and nowhere to go, Chase and Wen are forced to rely on their enemies to save them.

When Israel “DT” Del Toro, Jr.'s Humvee rolled over a roadside IED in Afghanistan, he had one thought as he lost consciousness: I have to keep the promise I made to my dad. DT was orphaned at the age of fourteen, and on the night before his father died, he repeated the promise his dad required: “Take care of your brothers and sisters.” Throughout his childhood and into adulthood, DT indeed looked after his younger brother and sisters, even to his own detriment and sacrifice.

Twenty-four hours ago, Chase and Wen, a fugitive billionaire and a former spy, thought they still had time. They believed that millions wouldn’t die; they hoped a war wouldn’t come. Now, they are desperately searching for an obscure element, and just trying to stay alive. Time can be a real killer.

Locked away in refrigerated vaults, sanitized by gas chambers, and secured within bombproof caverns deep under mountains are America's most prized materials: the ever-expanding collection of records that now accompany each of us from birth to death. This data complex backs up and protects our most vital information against decay and destruction, and yet it binds us to corporate and government institutions whose power is also preserved in its bunkers, infrastructures, and sterilized spaces.

In a story that will blow your mind, a fugitive billionaire and a former spy must stop an insidious plot to control the population through high-tech mind reading. Chase and Wen are trapped in a maze of illusion, reality, and secrets, as they struggle to overcome an enemy so powerful, their very own thoughts are used against them.

It's 2037, and the United States government is on the brink of collapse amid rebel uprisings and aggressive political maneuvering turning the country into an active war zone. In a nation where opportunity is sequestered behind doors open only to the privileged, joining the Army seemed like James Trent’s best option. He just never thought he’d actually see combat. Now Trent finds himself on the front lines of a second American Civil War, fighting for a cause he’s not sure he even believes in.

Ollie was gravely underchallenged and also struggling with identity and how to live totally as themselves. Ollie begged to switch to a new school with "kids like me," and so they made the change. Raising Ollie is dad Tom Rademacher's story of parenting Ollie and relearning every day what it means to be a father and teacher. As Ollie—who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns—flourishes in their new school, Rademacher is making an eye-opening adjustment to a new school of his own, one that's whiter and more suburban than anywhere he has previously taught.

A fugitive billionaire and a former spy stumble onto an ominous program where everything about our modern lives is dissected, processed, and packaged. It's not to sell us things, but to sell us ideas; to control us, to make sure we don’t shatter the illusion.

Five stunningly large forests remain on Earth. These megaforests are vital to preserving global biodiversity, thousands of cultures, and a stable climate, as John W. Reid and Thomas E. Lovejoy argue in Ever Green. Megaforests serve an essential role in decarbonizing the atmosphere, and saving them is the most immediate and affordable large-scale solution to our planet's most formidable ongoing crisis. Reid and Lovejoy offer practical solutions to address the biggest challenges these forests face, from vastly expanding protected areas to supporting Indigenous forest stewards.