Showing results by narrator "Derek Perkins" in All Categories

Since John Lennon composed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in early 1967, fans and music critics alike have argued over the meaning of the song. Is it about drugs? Is it just a lyrical response to a drawing given Lennon by his 4-year-old son Julian? Is there some deeper meaning? Professor Tim Kasser goes beyond speculative explanations by applying innovative psychological methods to the song's lyrics and music. He deeply analyzes the song's linguistic structure, its basic theme, and the way its words and music had been used by Lennon in earlier songs.

When the British army is sent into Spain to help expel Napoleon's invaders, nothing goes as expected. Not for London newsman Sam Kerr, hunting a story that will win him the editor's chair, who instead nets one that could wreck his career.

The world died during the Fall. Abandoned by the mighty Avatars and their Virtues, the people who remained were left defenseless in an untamed land. That was until the Obsidians came. Through dark sorcery and overwhelming force, the Obsidian Empire brought order to chaos, no matter the cost. Aren Bendis is a Captain in the Obsidian Army who has seen enough of what a world without Virtue looks like and is willing to do whatever it takes to establish a lasting peace.

Lord Rivers Fitzroy is as charming and sought-after as his rakish elder brothers, though he immerses himself more in dusty books and scholarly pursuits than in bawdy houses. Yet, hell-bent on making the most of his remaining bachelorhood now that his father insists he marry, Rivers becomes the favorite of a troupe of Italian dancers. One night, after a performance, the handsome lord is challenged with a most provocative wager.

Paul's letter to the Romans has for 2,000 years been a touchstone for all who want to understand the power of the Gospel and the righteousness of God revealed from heaven. The truth in Romans transforms our thinking and convicts our hearts as we discover the power of the Gospel for every area of our lives and our world.

Her last memory is of her violent death, and now she's screaming for vengeance. He's a Laird with enough sins to stain his soul, but he's cursed for the crimes of another. With a clan divided, an impending marriage, and whispers of dark magic threatening the Highlands, a tempting Banshee is the last thing he needs in his chambers.

Forced to ally, the world has gathered against the endless night. Numbering over a million souls, they are the survivors of nations. They have armed themselves with weapons and magic, and defend the strongest fortress every built. Led by a supreme strategic mind, the races have organized into battalions, designed unique tactics, and fortified their position beyond any conceivable need. But now their foe is at their gates, and to a man they cling to the same hope, to survive until Elseerian can defeat the source. The best they can last is Seven Days....

This newly launched report argues that development policies based on new insights into how people actually think and make decisions will help governments and civil society more readily tackle such challenges as increasing productivity, breaking the cycle of poverty from one generation to the next, and acting on climate change.

Edward Pellew, captain of the legendary Indefatigable, was quite simply the greatest British frigate captain in the age of sail. Left fatherless at age eight, with a penniless mother and five siblings, Pellew fought his way from the very bottom of the navy to fleet command. Victories and eye-catching feats won him a public following. Yet he had a gift for antagonizing his better-born peers, and he made powerful enemies. Redemption came with his last command, when he set off to do battle with the Barbary States and free thousands of European slaves.

Alice in Wonderland and Jabberwocky come alive in a fresh new and highly accessible way in this in this brilliant recording by acclaimed comedienne Alison Larkin and Audie-award-winning narrator Derek Perkins. The recordings are followed by a short excerpt from The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, by Carroll's nephew, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood.

Although she spent her life withdrawn from the people of Amherst, Massachusetts, every man, woman, and English professor in this small university town claims ownership of poet Emily Dickinson. They give tours in her house, lay flowers on her grave, and now, as the hundredth anniversary of her death approaches, they organize festivals in her name. Dickinson scholar Owen Kraznik has just been railroaded into organizing the event when Amherst starts to burn.

Weather and Warfare dramatically retraces the meteorological forces during battlefield engagements that doomed or saved civilizations. In 1588 more than half of the Spanish Armada, on its way around northern Britain, was destroyed by storms in retreat back to Spain. Napoleon's attack on Russia was stopped cold by winter weather, as was Hitler's siege of Leningrad. In WWI, it was all-quiet on the western front during mud season.

Our culture ignores it. Many within the church seem to be almost embarrassed by it. Many others understand that the cross of Christ is at the very heart of Christian faith and life. This short, listenable book explains clearly and simply what the Bible and Jesus himself say about the cross and how Christians should understand it today.

Juanita di Perli was a young woman when she decided to live the rest of her life on a table-top. She called it God's will, but for the order of nuns that sprang up around her, Juanita's devotion was a curse. For decades they did the bidding of the holy grouch, and the entire island of San Juan el Pirata sighed with relief when she died. Twenty years later, the islanders fight for Juanita's canonization - not because they liked her, but because a local saint would be a tourist boon. The only thing keeping the island poor is the Archduke, who refuses to ask Rome to consider Juanita for sainthood.

Will is football mad, but he's the shortest boy in the year, and one of the slowest. He knows his skills at passing and ball control could make up for his lack of size and strength, but the team coach is only interested in speed and strength. Will Will ever get a chance to show what he can do?

This one-of-a-kind treasury brings together the talents of nearly two dozen best-selling middle-grade authors - including Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Ally Condie, and Jennifer A. Nielsen - who have created original short stories and modern-day fairy tales based on the lives and dreams of children they have met who all have two things in common: They have very big hopes and dreams, and they are all cancer patients.

While trying to free a lawyer friend convicted of a crime he didn't commit, New Orleans private investigator Luke Jacobs is drawn into an international web of real estate fraud, pharmaceutical corporation misdealing and murder. Mardi Gras may have to be put on hold.

Through a deft compilation of primary sources—letters, memoirs, and personal accounts from composers, librettists, and performers—Michael Rose re-creates for his readers the circumstances that gave rise to fifteen operatic milestones. From Monteverdi and Mozart to Puccini and Berg, each chapter focuses on a well-known opera and tells the story that lies behind its creation.

In the wake of the Battle of Waterloo, Paris is a house divided. The triumphant Bourbons flaunt their victory with lavish parties, while Bonapartists seek revenge only to be captured and executed. Amid the turmoil, British attach and Intelligence Agent Malcolm Rannoch and his wife, Suzanne, discover that his murdered half-sister, Princess Tatiana Kirsanova, may have borne a child - a secret she took to the grave. And Malcolm suspects there was more than mere impropriety behind her silence…

In the Scottish Highlands, legend is as powerful as the sword - and nowhere is that more true than in the remote village of Loch Aranoch. Its mysterious ruler, Judith MacAlasdair, is fiercely protective of her land - and her secrets. If anyone were to find out what she really was, she and her entire clan would be hunted down as monsters.