Showing results by narrator "George Guidall" in All Categories

Clay Garrity is 11 years old, and he has never felt so alone in life. Weeks before, his father lost his job and left Clay and his mother, who was pregnant, to fend for themselves. Soon after, they moved into a welfare hotel. They didn’t have much, but they did have each other. Now his mother is gone too. And all Clay has to live on is the $28.75 she left under a box of doughnuts.

This collection of 24 essays is a perfect introduction to the world of Lewis Thomas. Topics ranging from the riddle of smelling to nuclear proliferation carry the gentle, unassuming persuasiveness that characterizes the author’s work. Here we are also introduced to the concerns that have distinguished Thomas’ literary career: the natural altruism of organisms; the inter-relatedness of all creatures; the fragility of the human species; the uneasiness of life on a threatened planet.

In 1937, a slender young woman arrived in a small Maine town. Dora March was lovely, quiet, and mysterious. Soon the tragedies began: a house fire, a murder, a suicide. Within a year, Dora vanished, leaving behind dark, unanswered questions. But before she disappeared, the town's newspaperman was stabbed to death. Now Cal, the slain man's brother, must tear off the emotional veil clouding his judgement and find Dora March.

Wagon Master Clayton Scofield has led countless families across the dusty, wide open territories of the West, helping the brave, sometimes reckless, pioneers settle into new lives brimming with the promise of good fortune. Accompanied on his latest trail by his nephew Clint Buchanan, riding as scout, and cook Spud Williams, Scofield finds himself guiding a train of thirty wagons from Independence, Missouri, to the distant dream of Oregon.

In Trouble Creek, hard-hearted Texas Ranger Sam Burrack returns to extinguish a brushfire of outlaw villainy. Dick Lowry and his gang are robbing banks and stages like it's a God-given right, and that chaps Sam something fierce.

Janeway has agreed to help Laura Marshall, a friend of his bookstore partner, who's accused of murdering her husband. While Janeway tries to gather the facts, he pulls long shifts standing watch over the Marshall home, filled with books signed by their celebrity authors. When a shifty pair of alleged book dealers turns up, and Janeway begins to suspect that Laura's son is hiding critical information, the case becomes a maze of clues and increasing danger.

Some time ago, Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack caught a bullet in the back. After a winter spent healing, he's now traveling to meet Memphis Beck, leader of the notorious Hole-in-the-Wall gang and the man who saved his life. But another player explodes on the scene - an assassin known as the Dutchman. And as these three men's destinies intertwine, it becomes clear at least one of them will not survive the encounter.

In this acclaimed collection of short stories, Pulitzer Prizewinning author Stephen Millhauser shares the dark suspense and humor that have gained him a cult following. Millhauser’s imagination and creativity are on full display with stories featuring artists gone mad, egomaniacal architects, and a historical society that’s given up its chronicling of history. Characterized by “phenomenal clarity and rapacious movement” each story “focuses on the misery wrought by misdirected human desire and ambition.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Like father, like son. Arizona Territory Ranger Sam Burrack rides the border badlands to Iron Point hoping to capture Ozzie Cord, a mercenary who killed a sheriff back in Mesa Grande. Cord escaped jail once but won't get away this time.... But as Sam nears his prey, the trail of scalped bodies makes it clear that someone else has a vendetta.

Under Western Eyes, Conrad's novel of political treachery and oppression, begins with a bomb that kills a hated Russian minister of police along with innocent bystanders. A young student named Razumov hides the perpetrator, then betrays him and becomes a spy among his exiled comrades. He faces a moral dilemma from which there is no escape. This masterwork, published six years before the Russian Revolution, is a chillingly accurate prophecy of what was to come.

When wanted men don't want to be found, they hole up in Agua FrIa, Mexico. Nestled in the twisted hills of the Blood Mountain Range just across the border from Arizona, the town is divided by two ruthless gangs of thieves and killers. On one side stands Texas Red Madson, and on the other is Raymond Segert. Between them stands Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack. He rides into Agua FrIa in the guise of a vicious gunslinger with a plan to ingratiate himself with both gangs - and stir up the bad blood between them into a war that will leave Burrack the last man standing .

We all know what is wrong with today’s schools - or do we? Tracy Kidder spent a year in a fifth grade class in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The teacher is excellent, but something else is very wrong. Kidder skillfully presents the problems and leaves the listener to ponder the solutions.

USA Today best-selling author Ralph Cotton’s name is permanently branded atop any list of the best writers in the Western genre. Lawman from Nogales features one of Cotton’s most iconic characters, legendary Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack. Heedless of danger, Burrack shrugs off fears of ambush as he hunts down Luis and Teto Torres, leaders of the despicable Gun Killers Gang. Encountering the gorgeous -- and mercurial -- Erin Donovan, Burrack soon discovers peril can be found in far stranger places than at the end of a gun barrel.

A writer accepts a job as a manager of a low-rent hotel in Hawaii. He acts as a witness to the hotel's cast of characters, chronicling their stories and ultimately regaining his will to write.

"I don't want you to rehabilitate me," Philip Roth said to his only authorized biographer, Blake Bailey. "Just make me interesting." Granted complete independence and access, Bailey spent almost 10 years poring over Roth's personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and listening to Roth's own breathtakingly candid confessions. Tracing Roth's path from realism to farce to metafiction to the tragic masterpieces of the American Trilogy, Bailey explores Roth's engagement with nearly every aspect of postwar American culture.

Something evil has taken over. Lewis Barnavelt and his uncle are in England, visiting a cousin at Barnavelt Manor. Lewis quickly becomes friends with the housekeeper's son, and as the two boys explore a garden maze, Lewis accidentally unleashes demonic forces that summon the ghost of an evil wizard bent on destroying his entire family. Can Lewis fight the maniacal wizard, or will all the Barnavelts perish?

In 1861, men are enlisting in the Texas Mounted Rifles to keep the land free from Indian raids. There are larger conflicts, however. Texas has seceeded from the union while war brews between the North and the South. Sam Houston Cloud has just joined the Texas Rifles. But he is deeply disturbed by the suffering he sees on all sides: White and Indian, Texan and immigrant. Elmer Kelton has an amazing talent for sweeping away stereotypes and filling his novels with unique, unforgettable men and women who know the ways of the frontier. Audie Award-winning narrator George Guidall's performance is superb.

By 1873, the great buffalo herds have been all but wiped out, and the hide hunters are looking for other work. So when Gage Jameson hears of one remaining herd, he sees a final opportunity to make a huge profit. But to find the buffalo, he will have to take his line of wagons deep into Comanche territory, where death lurks behind every rock.

International best-selling author Andrew M. Greeley is hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a fascinating novelist" with a rare, possibly unmatched point of view. In this baffling mystery, the unpopular and incompetent Bishop Gus Quill is assigned to the Archdiocese of Chicago despite loud protests. When he disappears while riding the L Train, it falls to Bishop Blackie Ryan to find him.

In West Texas Kill, the harsh lands between the Pecos River and the Rio Grande are ruled by renegade Texas Ranger Captain Hector Savage. Into this realm rides Ranger Dave Chance with a prisoner - a big-talking murderer - shackled to his side. An honest ranger, Sergeant Chance determines to deliver the locals from Savage’s bloody reign. But to succeed against such long odds, Chance must do the unthinkable - unshackle and arm his prisoner.