Showing results by narrator "Michael Kramer" in All Categories

Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, offers a challenge to his Church. Can he bring about significant change? Should he? Garry Wills argues that changes have been the evidence of life in the Catholic Church. It has often changed, sometimes with bad consequences, more often with good - good enough to make it perdure. In this brilliant and incisive study, he gives seven examples of deep and serious changes that have taken place within the last century.

America's most proficient covert operations team, hand-picked for its intelligence, analysis, and crisis-management skills, has had many a tough situation thrown at it. Years ago, before North Korea made its belligerent intentions known to the world, Op-Center's first mission was to thwart a crisis on the Korean peninsula. Since then, it has dealt with the machinations of Russian hard-liners, prevented the resurgence of age-old hatred in Germany, gone underground to prevent Kurdish terrorists from destabilizing the Middle East, subjugated the tensions of rebellious Basques....

ISIS - the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - has taken on the mantle of being the single most dangerous terrorist threat to global security since al-Qaeda. In Defeating ISIS, internationally renowned intelligence veteran, author, and counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance gives an insider's view to explain the origins of this occult group, its violent propaganda, and how it spreads its ideology throughout the Middle East and to disaffected youth deep in the heart of the Western world.

They might be doomed, damned, and buggered for all eternity, but that didn't mean they couldn't sparkle like a diamond in the sun and grin like a skull in the moonlight on their way to oblivion. Musket and cannon, bow and arrow, and magic and diplomacy vie for supremacy once again in this second epic fantasy adventure from acclaimed author Chris Evans.

In the latest riveting adventure in the bestselling Op-Center series, this crack team of operatives uses their defense, intelligence, and crisis management technology to bring down the opposition. When a job is too dirty or too dangerous, Op-Center is the only place the government can turn. Follow the circuitous path as the agents negotiate the most devious threats to the peace and prosperity of America - including those within. As with all Clancy's work, this series reminds us that true heroes are hard to come by, that even the best of us have compromising motives....

Tor’s rebellion against the Mindolarn Empire has delivered a crippling blow - the death of Emperor Mentas. Seeking aid from their allies, the Mindolarn Empire turns to the Principality of Soroth and its society of mages, the Sorothian Magical Order. In an effort to aid the empire, the Order’s council mounts an expedition to travel to the nethermost reaches of the world, the Abodine Wasteland. There they must venture to a reliquary hidden deep within crystal ruins left over from a fabled war now almost forgotten.

Dewey “Mac” McKenzie is wanted for a killing he didn’t commit. He saved his hide once by signing on as a cattle drive chuckwagon cook and bolting the territories. Turned out Mac was as good at fixing vittles as he was at dodging bullets. But Mac’s enemies are hungry for more — and they’ve hired a gang of ruthless killers to turn up the heat....

Legends uncovers the origin of the Ronin and the final breaking. Kail, leader of the Ronin and threader of wind, along with his eight elemental brothers and sisters have been betrayed. On the cusp of defeat, they go to the Hall of Winds, to the council chamber to discover who in their inner circle is the cursed traitor...Only to discover the darkness is much closer than they ever imagined.

Includes books one and two in the Sleeping Gods series: Endeavor and Erebus.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, but it takes Josh Redmont a while to figure that out. The first check arrived when Josh was 27, $1,000, issued by "United States Agent" through an unnamed bank with an indeterminate address in Washington, D.C. The checks continued to arrive once a month, even when Josh changed addresses, with nary an explanation or a peep from the IRS.

Our Divided Political Heart will be the must-listen book of the 2012 election campaign. Offering an incisive analysis of how hyper-individualism is poisoning the nation's political atmosphere, E. J. Dionne Jr., argues that Americans can't agree on who we are because we can't agree on who we've been, or what it is, philosophically and spiritually, that makes us Americans.

Set against the epic backdrop of a world at war with myths and legends brought to life, Mythborn 2 continues the sweeping saga of Arek Winterthorn, wayward apprentice of the eldritch Way as he struggles to survive in the demon realm of Arcadia. Accompanied by Prince Niall Galadine, he searches for his father, unaware he is the prize in a war between Highlord Valarius Galadine’s warforged elves and Lady Lilyth’s demonic Furies. One seeks to possess him, the other to use him as a weapon as something dark and sinister within him grows, something called - blackfire.

In Russia, the military is anxious to assert its military strength and regain its role as a superpower. The Russian president refuses to greenlight a bold plan to disable American strategic nuclear capability and retake Ukraine and the Baltic States, fearing the potential consequences of involving nuclear weapons. But the generals won't have it and at the first opportunity, they overthrow the president in a military coup. Then they use a narrow window to initiate their bold plan - the Zolotov option - which will render all of America's B2 bombers and ballistic missiles useless.

Politics in America are polarized and trivialized, perhaps as never before. In Congress, the media, and academic debate, opponents from right and left, the Red and the Blue, struggle against one another as if politics were contact sports played to the shouts of cheerleaders. The result, Ronald Dworkin writes, is a deeply depressing political culture, as ill equipped for the perennial challenge of achieving social justice as for the emerging threats of terrorism. Can the hope for change be realized?

Dark tides flow as Arek and his party try desperately to flee Arcadia before the realm collapses, swallowed whole by the life-stealing touch of the nephilim. Their only escape is the Gate of the East Winds, ruled by the Celestial Zafir. Once brothers-in-arms with both Arek and Duncan's aeris forms, now Zafir rules his kingdom with an iron fist. Arcadia dies beneath them, a place even the mighty Celestial seeks to escape, but what price must Arek pay for passage? Always hunting them is Alion Deft, Queensmark of Lilyth and magehunter turned demon.

In this full and frank memoir - a personal story of duty, family, justice, politics and resilience - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reflects on his rise, fall, and rise in politics, and recounts his defining personal and political moments and tough but necessary lessons he has learned along the way.

In Doomed to Succeed, Ross takes us through every administration from Truman to Obama, throwing into dramatic relief each president's attitudes toward Israel and the region, the often tumultuous debates between key advisers, and the events that drove the policies and at times led to a shift in approach.

Owyn and Zara, having saved the rangers and the Conclave from certain destruction, return to the capital city by royal summons. The king has a plan to unite his fractured kingdom... and the young heroes of Forest Hill are going to help him. However, when Owyn's master, Elias, returns in a most unexpected way, he brings a troubling message - a secret that's been held for more than 20 years.

The demons have been defeated in the Emberwood, and Owyn and Zara must travel to the capital city of Tarsys to bring word to the Conclave. However, not everything is as it seems in the city of mages. Assassins lurk in the shadows and whispers of demon plots follow a mysterious - and deadly - cult. The Arc of Radiance is failing, and if the heroes of Forest Hill aren't careful, they may help hasten its demise.

Continuing the award-winning epic of a world where faith and dreams become reality, Mythborn Three follows Masters Silbane and Kisan, the young blade-master Ash, and Princess Yetteje as they journey into the ethereal realm Arcadia, home to the Celestial Lilyth and her Aeris demons. They search for Silbane's apprentice, Arek, and the lost prince of Bara'cor, Niall, as the two explore Arcadia for clues to the mystery of Arek's origin. Is he the son of the demon queen Lilyth, as she claims?