Showing results by narrator "Christopher Kipiniak" in All Categories

Who would fall for an assassin...except another assassin? After a security breach is written in the sky - literally - the Bod Squad jumps back into action. An important member of the team has been assassinated by the mob, and the squad's public enemy number one, Baba Samka, is getting too close. Could his deadly work be an inside job? Only trained assassins Tyka and Mahmoud have the very particular set of skills the Bod Squad needs to solve this case.

It's a beautiful day in Greenwich Village, and for once Bedford Green is selling paintings. Business is booming, and this gossip columnist turned art dealer owes it all to his invaluable assistant, Sloane - who goes and spoils the fun by announcing that she's leaving on safari. Sloane is a Midwestern girl and has never laid eyes on any animal more exotic than a house cat, but she can't resist her uncle Dixon's invitation to visit Kenya to hobnob with everyone from the department-store king of Chicago to the prince of Wales.

The Naked God is Howard Fast's public repudiation of the Communist Party, of which he was a devoted member for thirteen years until reading about the full scope of atrocities committed by the Soviet Union under Stalin. The best-selling author of Spartacus and Citizen Tom Paine, Howard Fast lent his writing talents and celebrity to the communist cause as a steadfast advocate and public figure. However, he felt increasingly ill at ease with the superior manner Party leaders took with rank-and-file members and with rumors of Soviet anti-Semitism.

Set in both the fractured world of Jewish Harlem and the bohemian maelstrom of the Village, Mercy of a Rude Stream echoes Nabokov in its portrayal of sexual deviance, and offers a harrowing and relentless family drama amid a grand panorama of New York City in the 1910s and Roaring 20s.

Joseph has succeeded in rescuing his sister, Chelo, from a pitched battle on the colony planet Fremont. Now he and Chelo and the love of his life, Alicia, and all of their extended family, are finally returning home. Halfway there, a probe intercepts them, sending them new coordinates and a message from Joseph’s enigmatic supporter and teacher, Marcus. War is brewing. And Joseph is wanted for escaping to save Chelo.

Anna can tell Quinn anything, except the big secret she's been hiding for years - that she's fallen in love with him. Now Anna is determined to make a life for herself that doesn't include hopeless pining. But just as she's ready to move on, Quinn seems determined not to let go - and the way he's looking at her might be enough to finally change them from best friends to best everything.

Howard Fast's firsthand account of the infamous 1949 Peekskill riots, including historical documents, photos, and newspaper reports. In 1949, author Howard Fast found himself in the middle of a violent and terrifying anticommunist riot in Peekskill, New York. Fast was the master of ceremonies at a civil rights benefit concert featuring Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and others. But local newspapers stoked anticommunist anger, and the event was besieged by a mob armed with rocks, clubs, fence posts, and knives.

In Writers in America, the scriptwriter and novelist, Budd Schulberg, shares memories and insights from his relationships with authors such as Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Nathaneal West, and Sinclair Lewis, as well as brilliant writers who never attained the success and recognition they deserved, such as Thomas Heggen. Here are stories of twentieth-century American literary giants, by a man who was their friend, peer, and confidant.

In Horny: Stories Selected & New, Greg Boyd reinvents fictions and fables we think we know and takes them in unexpected directions. From the "Minor Russian Classic" in highly-condensed form to the updated re-telling of the Lone Ranger tale in "Tonto," to the tabloid satire of "I Married Elvis," the stories in this collection celebrate the unexpected - often unraveling the threads of contemporary American myth and culture in the process.

Riley Shaughnessy knew that to stand out in his large family, he'd have to go big. Making a name for himself as a musician wasn't easy, but he followed his dreams to rock-star success. But the relentless expectations of fans is not helping the slump he's in now. So of course the person who attracts him is the woman who is not impressed by fame. Which gives Riley Shaughnessy a lot to prove.

Orphan, exile, priest, Josan has been posted to a lighthouse on the farthest edge of the kingdom. When Lady Ysobel Flordelis is shipwrecked on Josan's island, this sets in motion an explosive destiny. Neither Ysobel nor Josan can foresee the significance of their brief meeting. But as Ysobel navigates the elaborate court intrigues in Ikaria, Josan will be forced to leave his island exile and embark on a treacherous journey to unlock the secrets that bind his past - an act that could lead him to glory... or doom.

Promised Land is part of my James Dean sequence of stories, which includes the recently published novel The Rebel: An Imagined Life of James Dean. My intent was to explore the great icons of the 50’s and 60’s. Major iconic characters in the novel (besides James Dean) and short stories include Robert F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Jack Kerouac, Marilyn Monroe and, in this story, President Lyndon Johnson.

After years of exile, shattered dreams, and confusion, Josan has finally discovered he is not the simple monk he appeared to be. Nor is he the victim of a mysterious fever, as he was led to believe. Instead his soul had been magically shifted into the body of the condemned Prince Lucius, leader of a failed rebellion against the rightful monarchs of the kingdom of Ikaria. And though Josan is the dominant personality in that body, the remnants of Lucius’s mind grow stronger each day.

Keller's been in exile, living a quiet life in the desert, since his disappearance after the cataclysmic events of 2008's award-winning Safe and Sound. Now his old friend and former employer, Angela, has tracked him down and needs his help. Oscar Sanchez, Angela's husband and Keller's best friend, has disappeared while investigating what happened to the sons he was trying to bring to America.

It was a fate Josan once considered preferable to death. Cast by dark sorcery into the body of Emperor Lucius of Ikaria, the scholar-monk struggled to make peace with a mind that regarded him as a hostile intruder. But now, as simmering rivalries threaten to plunge the kingdom into a bloody civil war, Josan is faced with the most difficult choice of all. For the uneasy truce between him and Lucius is unraveling in a form of madness that is destroying the body they share. There’s only one hope for a cure.

From the critically acclaimed author of The Memory Cathedral comes perhaps the most powerful, haunting, and unforgettable novel of the Civil War - or any war - ever written. Provocative, poetic, and disturbing, it introduces us to a young narrator, Mundy McDowell, whose voice rivals any in literature, bringing poignantly to life the surreal horrors of battle and its spiritual cost to human survival.I was scarce twelve the day the damn Yankees invaded the valley. I seen a lot that day I ain't never gonna forget.

Brian Donovan returns with a hilarious glimpse into yet another struggle faced by many: losing weight. Chunk follows him along his crazy, overweight journey from the chubby 10-year-old who stole brownies and tricked his parents into thinking he'd lost weight to the teenage boy who made regular after-school plans to eat entire pies to the adult man who still hates working out and still loves Cinnabons.

Pittsburgh has recently (and more than once) been called the most livable city in America; yet the old image of smoky skies and steel mills spewing forth grit has never quite disappeared. Its history as a dirty industrial center is a part of its residents, a part of their toughness. The people of the steel city fight.

A team of burglars plans to rob a secluded country house in Waterbury, Connecticut while the famous owner is away visiting relatives for the holidays. But volatile relationships within this family lead to a last minute change in plans, and three generations convene in Waterbury instead. When the burglars arrive to find the house occupied instead of empty, a simple crime quickly becomes complicated in this gripping psychological thriller.

Poor Stanley Hastings. After getting hired by a hit man and nearly getting shot, the put-upon PI needed some fun, so when a gorgeous damsel in distress walked through his office door she seemed just what the doctor ordered. Wrong again. The fair maiden turned out to be a married mom who wanted Stanley to find out why her teenage daughter was skipping school. Playing truant officer wasn't exactly Stanley's idea of fun, but at least it should be easy. Fat chance.