Showing results by narrator "Peter Berkrot" in All Categories

No Encore! is an unflinchingly honest account of the shows that tested the dedication to a dream - from Alice Cooper's python having a violent, gastric malfunction on stage to Lou Barlow's disastrous attempt to sober up at Glastonbury, from Shirley Manson's desperate search for a bathroom to the extraordinary effort made to awaken Al Jourgenson as Ministry was taking the stage. As Hunter S. Thompson famously wrote, "Buy the ticket, take the ride."

Paralyzed by writer's block, Scott Atwood (the award-winning, psychological thriller author) realizes his career is over. He decides to end his life in a way that will thrill fans with his typical mind-blowing finale. But just as Scott resolves to jump in front of a train, he comes up with a plot for his next bestseller—a thriller-suspense writer who wreaks havoc in other people's lives to help create new ideas.

Universities play an indispensable role within modern democracies. But this role is often overlooked or too narrowly conceived, even by universities themselves. In What Universities Owe Democracy, Ronald J. Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University, argues that—at a moment when liberal democracy is endangered and more countries are heading toward autocracy than at any time in generations—it is critical for today's colleges and universities to reestablish their place in democracy. For those committed to democracy's future prospects, this book is a vital resource.

Junior Bender, Los Angeles burglar and off-the-books detective to the felonious, is reminded that rock and roll will never die (no matter how fervently he wishes some of it would) when Hollywood’s most dangerous geriatric mobster, Irwin Dressler, retains Junior’s investigative services to solve a rather unharmonious problem. Junior has one weekend to figure out who’s to blame—a weekend that begins with his tires being slashed, threatening notes left on his car, and a theatrical backdrop falling on a drummer during the truly terrible first set of the first concert.

Though only eight years old, little Horton "Horty" Bluett has known a lifetime of sadness. Tormented and abused by his adoptive family, he's had enough - and with a beloved broken toy he calls "Junky" as his sole companion, the desperate little boy runs away to join a carnival. There, among the fortune tellers, fire-eaters, sideshow freaks, and assorted "strange people", Horty hopes to find acceptance and, at long last, a real home. But disgraced Doctor Pierre "Maneater" Monetre's traveling show is no ordinary entertainment, and its performers are not what they appear to be.

The Fall of Wisconsin is a deeply reported, searing account of how the state’s progressive tradition was undone and turned into a model for national conservatives bent on remaking the country. Dan Kaufman, a Wisconsin native who has been covering the story for several years, traces the history of progressivism that made Wisconsin so widely admired. Kaufman reveals how the “divide-and-conquer” strategy of Governor Scott Walker and his allies pitted Wisconsin’s citizens against one another, so powerful corporations and donors could effectively take control of state government.

From Ian Rankin to Joe Lansdale, Seanan McGuire to David Morrell, each author reveals the dark truths and buried secrets that make institutions of higher learning such a hotbed of controversy. You'll encounter plagiarism, sexual misconduct, and brutal competition - not to mention secret societies, cover-ups of murder, and one near-future course of study that makes The Handmaid's Tale look like Mother Goose. So: collect your supplies, plan your schedule, and prepare to pull an all-nighter, because The Darkling Halls of Ivy is required listening.

After his mother, a theologian and best-selling author, dies in a fiery explosion,49-year-old Calvin Bledsoe's heretofore uninspired life is upended. A stranger shows up at the funeral, claiming to be Calvin's aunt Beatrice, and insists that Calvin accompany her on a trip to Europe, immediately. As he and Beatrice traverse the continent, it quickly becomes apparent that his aunt's clandestine behavior is leading him into danger.

Phantoms is a fierce saga of American culpability. A Vietnam vet still reeling from war, John Frazier finds himself an unwitting witness to a confrontation, decades in the making, between two steely matriarchs: his aunt, Evelyn Wilson, and her former neighbor, Kimiko Takahashi. John comes to learn that in the onslaught of World War II, the Takahashis had been displaced as once-beloved tenants of the Wilson orchard and sent to an internment camp. What happened to the Takahashi son, Ray, when he returned from service and found that that nowhere was home for a Japanese American?

General George S. Patton was America's antihero of the Second World War. Driven by an innate sense of duty, both to his family’s great military tradition and to his country, he was fixated on the notion of reaching the status of a military legend and driven by outdated notions of honor. Simultaneously brilliant and deeply flawed, he could be daring and noble and then petulant and cruel, lacking in the diplomatic grace and tact that defined many of his contemporaries.

Shortly after McClure leaves a late night meeting with Dennis Paull, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Paull is found - shot dead. The President is furious but equally frightened of a scandal, since Jack McClure is one of their own - an operative and Paull's friend. Who will protect the country if even McClure cannot be trusted? With top officials in the CIA and FBI after him, McClure, still devastated over his friend’s death, goes on the run.

Five valuable lessons you can learn by listening to Bust: When you hire someone to kill your wife, don't hire a psychopath. Don't use Drano to get rid of a dead body. Those locks on hotel room doors? They're not very secure. A curly blond wig isn't much of a disguise. Secrets can kill.

When an unidentified corpse washes ashore at Slapton Sandson England's southern coast, US army captain Billy Boyle and his partner, Lieutenant Piotr "Kaz" Kazimierz, are assigned to investigate. The Devonshirebeach is the home to Operation Tiger, the top-secret rehearsal for theapproaching D-day invasion of Normandy, and the area is restricted; no one seems to know where the corpse could have come from.

Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag is thrilled after a meeting with his editor, Norma, where she predicts his new book is sure to establish him as the next great American author. But his happiness is short-lived when at his next meeting with Norma, she asks for his help in discovering who is behind a series of increasingly threatening letters sent to her attention.

When Kenny is chosen for InterRealm, a real-life wargame where defenders are portaled in from their homeworld, he is forced to survive in a violent fantasy landscape. Build a powerful presence in InterRealm and his homeworld will likely remain safe. Fail, and the invaders will break through.

Vincent Paterson began his professional dancing career late in life. It would take an exceptional turn when he became one of the lead dancers in Michael Jackson's Beat It music video. Through hard work, he rises to the rank of choreographer and director for the world's greatest singers, but also for cinema and musical comedy. He tells with humility the fascinating universe of film sets, the rehearsal sessions where he had to orchestrate and synchronize dozens of dancers, and life backstage, where it is sometimes necessary to manage a few whims of the stars.

After the suspicious deaths of a seventy-something woman and a student recluse, Detective Hiroshi tracks down a gang of scammers who target retirees, robbing them of their pensions, life savings, and even the deeds to their homes. Hiroshi teams up with Detective Ishii, who’s been running a women’s crime task force. Together, they find out who has been ripping off the pensions, life savings, and deeds to homes in shitamachi, the older, eastern side of the city.

By July 1, 1942, the United States has been fighting in the Pacific for nearly seven months. The Japanese advance halted west of Australia at the island of Timor, and from Timor the Japanese stage bombing raids on Darwin. In the north, the Japanese hold the former Australian possessions of New Ireland and New Britain, including the town of Rabaul in the north of New Britain. Holding Rabaul gives the Japanese possession of Simpson Harbor, a deep-water port that the Japanese turn into a formidable forward base, swarming with Zeros and antiaircraft weapons.

Jack and Charlie Davis, along with a new companion, Jimmy Ardana, are part of the Allied effort to stop the Japanese at Port Moresby in May 1942. But the Allies have received little in the way of reinforcements, and the only fighter available to face the Japanese Zero is the difficult to handle Bell P-39. Charlie flies dangerous reconnaissance missions to determine the location of the Japanese Navy. Jack, supposedly on his way home to the States, is diverted to be a flight commander in the 8th Fighter Group at Port Moresby.

Covert ops group Vector is sent to Southeast Asia to see if there is more to this disease than meets the eye. When operatives Alex Wolfe and Skylar Cruz visit the hospital where the corpse was taken, their investigation is cut short by a devastating terrorist attack. Wolfe is forced to enlist the help of Tracy Nguyen, woman from his past life with the CIA. Nguyen specializes in counterterrorism operations in Southeast Asia. Together, they must track down the extremist group at the center of this evolving conspiracy.