Showing results by narrator "Jonathan Todd Ross" in All Categories

When 17-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he' s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he' s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still - that he' s been asleep for 14,000 years. Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here cold sleeps can last decades and waking moments mere weeks.

When Daniel Blackland was six, he ingested his first bone fragment, a bit of kraken spine plucked out of the sand during a visit with his demanding, brilliant, and powerful magician father, Sebastian. When Daniel was 12, he watched Sebastian die at the hands of the Hierarch of Southern California, devoured for the heightened magic layered deep within his bones. Now, years later, Daniel is a petty thief hiding amid the crowds in Los Angeles - the capital of the Kingdom of Southern California.

John Callahan is a man who has spent his life following his calling as a high school football coach just like his legendary father. But his dream life is suddenly being crushed. Just days before the state championship game, John receives news that his beloved school is declaring bankruptcy and will be shutting down at the end of the year. Everything John has worked his whole life for is being taken away from him. John is now questioning all his past decisions and he's angry at himself for not taking more "practical" opportunities when they came along.

New York City, 1968: The customers at Café Marie don’t come just for the excellent coffee and pastries. They come for the sophisticated ambiance, and the illusion of being somewhere other than a bustling, exhausting city. Headwaiter Charles Ward helps create that illusion through impeccable service—unobtrusive, nearly invisible, yet always watchful.

The ruling family of the Soleri Empire has been in power longer than even the calendars that stretch back 2,826 years. Those records tell a history of conquest and domination by a people descended from gods, older than anything in the known world. No living person has seen them for centuries, yet their grip on their four subjugate kingdoms remains tighter than ever. On the day of the annual eclipse, the Harkan king, Arko-Hark Wadi, sets off on a hunt and shirks his duty rather than bow to the emperor.

Joey Kopecky and his friends, Shazad and Leanora, have the weight of the world on their shoulders. As the new Order of the Majestic, it is their responsibility to keep magic alive and free for all and to fight the influence of the Invisible Hand, a sinister group of magicians intent on rounding up the world’s remaining magical items and keeping everything to themselves. It’s a vital mission and a sacred duty, but the Invisible Hand has been playing this game - and playing it well - for centuries.

In John Williams: A Composer's Life, the first biography of the composer, author Tim Greiving offers an engaging account of a man whose body of work is well-known but whose personal life has consistently remained very private.

Desperate to simply survive, Birdie Clarkson was driven to a life in a house of ill repute. Now she longs only for escape. So when Reverend Isaiah Overly and his son, Ephraim, appear and offer a better life, she jumps at the chance. Ignoring the furious raging of the madam, Birdie climbs into the back of the preacher’s wagon. The men take her to Hope Hill, the haven the reverend and his wife, Ophelia, founded so women like Birdie can be taught skills to help them rise above their pasts.

On an autumn morning in 1849, Henry David Thoreau stepped out his front door to walk the beaches of Cape Cod. Over a century and a half later, Ben Shattuck does the same. With little more than a loaf of bread, brick of cheese, and a notebook, Shattuck sets out to retrace Thoreau’s path through the Cape’s outer beaches, from the elbow to Provincetown’s fingertip.

Dr Dave has led the sort of life that most people only dream of. He has set records for spacewalking. He has lived undersea for weeks at a time. He has saved lives as an emergency doctor, launched into the stratosphere twice and performed surgery in zero gravity. But if you ask him how he became so accomplished, he’ll say, 'I’m just a curious kid from Saskatchewan.' Curious indeed.

One of Rome's most powerful women, Clodia has been maligned over two thousand years as a promiscuous, husband-murdering harlot, thanks to her starring role in one of Cicero's most famous speeches in the Forum. But Cicero was lying, in defense of his own interests. Like so many women libeled or erased from history, Clodia had a life that was much more interesting, complex, and nuanced than the corrupted version passed down through generations.

In July 2002, the Eastlake police discovered a decomposed body in a modest studio apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. It appeared to be a suicide by firearm. The man was Joseph Newton Chandler III, a retiree whom neighbors and former colleagues described as quiet, secretive, and strange. But as the investigation progressed, less and less about Joseph's life and identity made sense. In 2018, thanks to scientific advances in DNA, the man's true identity was finally discovered: Robert Ivan Nichols.

Leena Edenfrell never dreamed of igniting a war, and her pair bond, Noc Feyreigner, never wanted to set foot on a battlefield again. But when their enemies combine forces, they have no choice but to fight. While Noc makes moves to reclaim his throne, Leena acts as the new Crown of the Charmer’s Council, searching for a way to stop the enemy from raising an ancient dragon destined to burn their world to ash.

Gettysburg explains the battle's place in the Civil War, why two vast armies clashed there, and how, in the century and a half since, it has been re-imagined, re-created, and re-enacted. It is the story of a battle which no one planned but which became the bloodiest encounter of the war, and one with dramatically high stakes. The postwar romanticization of Gettysburg as the place of "might-have-beens" is based on a kernel of reality.

Seth is a junior copywriter whose latest tagline just went viral. He’s the agency’s hottest new star, or at least he wants his coworker crush to think so. But while he’s busy drooling over his future corner office, the walls crumble around him. When his job lets him go, he can’t let go of his job. Thankfully, one former colleague can’t let him go either: Robert “Moon” McCloone, a skeezy on-the-rise exec better suited to a frat house than a boardroom. Seth tries to forget Moon and rediscover his spiritual self. But with each misstep, Seth strays further from salvation.

When Willard M. Kiplinger launched the groundbreaking Kiplinger Washington Letter in 1923, he left the sidelines of traditional journalism to strike out on his own. With a specialized knowledge of finance and close connections to top Washington officials, Kiplinger was uniquely positioned to tell deeper truths about the intersections between government and business. With careful reporting and insider access, he delivered perceptive analysis and forecasts of business, economic, and political news to busy business executives.

Few leads. No witnesses. Detective Logan Ryder is running out of time to stop a serial killer from claiming a fourth woman on Hawaii’s Big Island. Grief counselor Elena Kekona puts her life on the line to help when she discovers she resembles the victims. But Logan’s reserve—and Elena’s secrets—could turn their instant attraction into a devastating endgame that both might not survive …

When a new case carries echoes of his sister’s cold case murder, Detective Sergeant Lance Warner is visited by another ghost from the past. Caroline Yashima isn’t only the CJD specialist assigned to work alongside him, she’s also the ex he regrets walking away from. He’s not sure if he can expect a second chance—or just a chance for closure. But when Caroline becomes a target, he knows that he doesn’t want to live without her.

The United States, through its local, state, and national contests, holds more elections, more often, than any democracy in the world. But in recent years, there have been troubling signs that our system of campaigns and elections has become much more fragile and vulnerable. This new edition of Campaigns, Elections, and the Threat to Democracy: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers the most up-to-date examination of campaigns, elections, and future threats to voting and democracy.

Humanity's only colony in the distant Archimedes system is in turmoil... Contact with Earth has been lost for generations and mysterious waves of disappearing colonists have been shaking the five moons for decades. When suddenly a wormhole appears in the middle of the system, the Union Navy faces an ancient danger from the darkness of deep space. A merciless war erupts, and Jeremy Brandt, Captain of the UNS Concordia, is sent through the wormhole to confront the mysterious enemy.