Showing results by narrator "David Stifel" in All Categories

Our government organizations face political fallout, media scrutiny, reduced funding, and the many challenges involved in motivating large, multi-layered and highly regulated organizations. It's no surprise that many government organizations report that their employees are less engaged than ever and that leaders feel helpless to change the situation. In many cases, employees and government leaders are caught in a vicious cycle. Performance declines, scrutiny increases, and employee paralysis ensues. How do you break this cycle and begin building successful government?

What if instead of dying in battle, Richard III awakens in the 21st century? This Time examines the medieval monarch as he adapts to modern technology, medicine, and American culture while investigating his past and what Shakespeare had wrought on his character.

Laurence's quiet life in Seattle is shaken and stirred when 70-year-old Eva sweeps him off his 76-year-old feet. He's a retired Boeing engineer who likes to read and cook. She's a powerhouse CEO who suggests shocking ideas about sex, love, and marriage. Romance is exciting at every age, but can this unlikely couple create a future together? Drew's gallery is struggling through the Great Recession. He risks his finances and reputation to try to save it with a unique Basque art exhibit.

In his more than 30 years as an NCIS special agent and counterintelligence officer, Mark Fallon has investigated some of the most significant terrorist operations in US history, including the first bombing of the World Trade Center and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. He knew well how to bring criminals to justice, all the while upholding the Constitution. But in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, it was clear that America was dealing with a new kind of enemy.

When teacher turned deckhand Steve Ondelle is framed for the killing of a San Francisco supervisor, he tumbles into a world of billion-dollar deals and bizarre sexual adventures, a world where hard evidence depicts him as a misfit who turns to murder. To expose these freshly-minted lies, Steve must first make peace with a lifetime of painful truths. He travels from the piers of Sausalito to the penthouses of San Francisco, with unlikely allies like Leonard the Human Statue, Eli of the Coral Reef, The Prophet of Market Street. And Liam the Fog Seller.

This book was an instant best-seller and became (and remains to this day) an international sensation, much like Harry Potter today. The story of the infant son of an English Lord and Lady marooned on the coast of Africa made its author famous and wealthy. Adopted by the she-ape, Kala, Tarzan becomes a "mighty hunter, mighty fighter" - the first superhero in American literature.

Three days before his high school graduation, Jacob Milroy learns that the military draft has been reinstated. With a war raging on the other side of the world, he realizes that he might soon be thrust into battle. But then a groundbreaking contest within the immersive virtual reality game, Solaria Online, is announced by its visionary creator, a man who has grand plans for the human race. The prize for four lucky winners: recruitment into the Mars Colonization Initiative (and exemption from the draft).

Bolstered with archival and original data, including the first complete count of American business corporations before the Civil War, Corporation Nation makes a compelling argument for improved internal governance and more effective external government regulation.

Zombies were bad enough, but now we're being invaded from all sides. Up to our necks in blood, body parts, and unanswerable questions….As soon as the realization hit me, I lost my cool. I curled into the fetal position in a pile of blood, offal, and body parts, and froze there. What in the Hell was I becoming that killing was entertaining and satisfying? I don't know how long I was on my side in the remains of my opponents, but the mess was coagulating and getting cold…to say nothing of the smell of sliced-open bowels.

For 10 years Bill Stokes was a roving reporter and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal. He has written reams of material about his vivid impressions of people, animals, events, personal activities, and "things in general". Bill Stokes obviously enjoys his role as Wisconsin's favorite journalist. In this delightful book he shares that fun with all.

This sobering pamphlet was written in 1788 by an ex-slave ship captain turned clergyman. Famous for writing the hymn "Amazing Grace", John Newton wrote passionately about his memories of the slave trade. His pamphlet helped sway the English Parliament to outlaw this hideous trade. This is a crucial piece of primary historical evidence about the history of a vile blot on Europe's and America's history.

Pierce goes in search of a friend's killer.

A dentist from New Jersey, marooned at midnight in the Florida swamps, makes the mistake of falling into the clutches of a hilariously depraved family of amateur surgeons devoted to a 17th-century libertine whose discovery of an elixir has kept his evil presence alive for the past three-hundred years.

Written in 1915, Beyond Thirty is a fascinating tale of the future after World War I as seen from 1915 - as the carnage and slaughter on the fields of France stunned the world, and men of good will all wondered where civilization was headed. For Edgar Rice Burroughs, "The Great War" results in a two century division between the eastern and western hemispheres. Inhabitants of Pan-America are forbidden to cross the 30th parallel. Europe and the Old World are forever cut off from America.

The severed hand, whether real or a ghostly thing, always tries to avenge the one who created it or find its way back to the rest of the corpse. Narrated by David Stifel.

In these stories, popular Chicago Tribune outdoor columnist Bill Stokes gives himself over to his true passion, trout fishing. It is an activity, possibly a madness, that moves him, time and again, to stand knee-deep in cold and murky waters, offer himself up to clouds of hungry mosquitoes, and attempt to keep from snagging his line in overhanging limbs while trying to outwit a wily rainbow or brook trout. And then remembering where the car is parked.

At the age of 14, Randall Miller is surprised to learn that he has the talent - for magic! Tricked into apprenticeship by a powerful Mage, Randall is forced to leave everything he knows behind. When his mentor is killed by Aiden, head of the secret police, he flees for his life, stumbling from one misadventure into another. Teaming up with a trio of greedy traders and a capricious imp along the way, Randall must learn to master his budding power, or die at the hands of the Rooks!

An average American middle class community is faced with a sudden and complete breakdown of the US economy, government, and society after a massive, nation-wide Islamic terrorist attack. Like the vast majority of Americans, none of the residents of Sea Breezes have a convenient bunker in the woods or a compound of survivalist friends to escape to. They have to find some way to organize themselves in order to survive with what they have on hand and what they can obtain by using their own wits and determination.

Bryan Murphy is chasing a rapist down the sidewalk when he feels the pain in his chest. Before he knows it, he's in the hospital and his days in the NYPD are finished. Quitting the force isn't enough; he needs to get out of the city. He needs to move to Los Angeles. It doesn't take long for Murphy to tire of clean living and California sunshine. He's on the beach one afternoon when he sees a fellow lost soul - a recently released inmate with nothing to do but stare into the ocean and pray for his luck to turn around.

Will the unlikely romance between the rough and tumble stoker, Mat Burke, and Anna Christopherson, the world-weary daughter of the captain of a coal barge, survive? Set in 1910, the timeless question of, "How does love make us grow?" is pondered. This American classic, Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill, is a play in four acts and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922.