Showing results by narrator "Alex Knox" in All Categories

Minutes before Brian Walsh, then just a teenager, heard his beeper go off, calling him to help put out another fire, he was on top of the world. An hour later, after a freak flashover and confusion that sent the junior firefighter into the inferno against regulations, Brian had suffered such profound burns to his face that he was unidentifiable to his fellow firefighters. Nearly everyone expected him to die that night. He did not. In this stirring autobiography, he tells his incredible story, sharing the lessons that only tragedy could teach.

Ruby Taylor gave up pageant life the day she turned 18 and figured she'd never look back. But when an old friend begs her to show her beloved golden retriever at the upcoming West Coast Canine Classic, Ruby reluctantly straps on her heels and gets to work. If only she knew exactly what the adorably lazy lump of a dog was getting her into.

Demographic changes promise to reshape the market for higher education in the next 15 years. Colleges are already grappling with the consequences of declining family size due to low birth rates brought on by the Great Recession, as well as the continuing shift toward minority student populations. Each institution faces a distinct market context with unique organizational strengths; no one-size-fits-all answer could suffice. Nathan D. Grawe explores how proactive institutions are preparing for the challenges that lie ahead.

General Mikeal leads an exploratory mission and finds one of Earth's colony ships lost for more than 500 years on the other side of an unknown galaxy. Staff Sergeant Felina Vasquez and her fire team volunteers to accompany on the scouting mission. She can run across the universe, but she can't run away from her mind. Personal demons haunt her. The general and his scouts battle ferocious animals and hostile vegetation as they unwrap a horrific beginning to a new civilization.

In General Mikeal's 300 years of existence, he's bound to have made a few enemies. That, and the fact he's built from the most precious ore in the galaxy, puts a giant target on his back. An overwhelming opponent finds the general and sets an ambush, demolishing the small contingent of ships under his control. Fleeing to a desert planet, the general searches for lost crew and the only ship to survive the attack, a war galley. As word gets out, bounty hunters pour on-planet hoping to claim the grand prize: the general's head on a platter. But darker plans are at work.

At a time of bitter national polarization, there is a critical need for leaders who can help us better communicate with one another. In A Search for Common Ground, Rick Hess and Pedro Noguera, who have often fallen on opposing sides of the ideological aisle over the past couple of decades, candidly talk through their differences on some of the toughest issues in K-12 education today - from school choice to testing to diversity to privatization.

It is 2185 CE. Humans now live throughout the Solar System, but their most ambitious adventure is about to begin. The starship Victoria will carry over 10,000 colonists to a new world outside the Solar System. The larger-than-life exploits of those colonists will become legendary. The colonists will build a new civilization, and the actions of a few individuals will become famous - and infamous - forever marking their new colony with the Founder Effect.

In The Creator Mindset, Bashan shows you how to use creativity as a decision-making tool and do so every bit as confidently as you use spreadsheets and data analysis.

He’s no angel, but he’s got everything she needs. He was minding his own business on Earth when a beautiful sorceress summoned him to defend a backwater village from demonic raiders. He’s lost his gun, his family, and even his name, but it’s not the first fight he’s been in, and it won’t be the last. The sorceress isn’t happy - she expected an ancient goddess of war. Instead, she got some random guy who’s halfway decent with a sword. If he can harness this new world’s magic, the town of Foulwater might just be glad he stuck around.

How far would you go to keep a deathbed promise? Surrounded by the bodies of slain monarchs, a dying prince extracts a promise from his friend, Horatio: “Tell my story”. Rival kings of warring nations strive to lay claim to the throne, now vacant, but what will happen to the people who live there, at Helsingør’s Krogen Castle? How will Horatio preserve his honor and the prince’s legacy while surviving this murderous kingdom and the men who would rule it? This historical adventure story tells the fictional tale of how Horatio’s oath gave birth to the legend of Hamlet.

Freelance journalist Nathan Troy is a global citizen looking for eye-opening news. Living in Beijing, he stumbles upon a ward full of patients afflicted with an unknown, deadly disease. Facing closed doors and open hostility, he won't rest until he exposes the dark conspiracy. But as he digs deeper for answers, mysterious figures try to scare him off the trail with tortuous violence. To his horror, it looks as though there's no stopping a shadowy cabal of mad scientists from wielding an epidemic designed for ethnic cleansing.

One man killed, another poised on the edge between life and death...And it’s not over yet. Adam Rutledge regrets that he missed his chance to stop the man terrorizing Beecham County, and that people close to him are suffering because of it. But Adam’s torment is only beginning. No one is safe from the man in the shadows, as Adam will soon learn. But the serial killer isn’t the only threat he faces. Something even darker is assaulting Adam’s mind, an evil he can’t begin to comprehend.

As Los Angeles comes of age in 1966, two undercover cops struggle to keep up while maintaining a balance in the growing drug trade. Boundaries are broken and borders are crossed in an effort to do good - while doing bad.

Adam Rutledge is still reeling from a close encounter with a ruthless criminal, and his dark dreams hint at a coming danger. When the unthinkable happens and another child is taken, suspicion falls upon Adam, who has no alibi and no way to explain his psychic abilities. Adam runs from the law to find the missing child and clear his name. His mind stretched to the breaking point, he learns the painful key to saving the child. He must uncover his family’s terrifying secrets. But bringing the past to light could make Adam the last of his bloodline.

Adam Rutledge is haunted by his childhood. The drifter never forgot how helpless he felt when his best friend was abducted, and his hometown never forgot his involvement. But when a strange dream sends him back to Cold Springs, he realizes that another child has gone missing and he has no choice but to help. Adam knows that to prevent history from repeating itself, he'll need to dive deep into the darkness of his own upbringing. When his efforts unleash dreams and visions he's spent decades burying, he's unsure if his sanity will survive.

Jake's loved and lost, suffered failed relationships and felt sorrow, but the new girl in his life may be the one to put an end to that life. His girlfriend, Samantha, is sweet and kind. Jake would do anything for her. Just having returned from attending Samantha's family reunion and been officially accepted as one of the family, he can't believe his luck, especially as he's driving off into the sunset and looking forward to those precious, anticipated moments alone with her. What could possibly go wrong? He falls head over heels for her but not exactly in the way he intended.

Bradley Michaels is just another man ending just another workday at just another job. He can list the usual complaints, can point his finger at the usual causes, and he can go about his routine as if one day is absolutely no different from the next. Until God himself just shows up uninvited and shakes up Bradley's entire existence by flaunting his own. It's not fair, but Bradley never claimed life is. And he tries to handle the new, omniscient presence in his head with calm attention and cool collectedness.

Gunnery Sargent Perceval Stone, a third generation Marine, is suddenly medically retired. After all of the collective damage of many wars and actions, an IED leaves him with TBI (traumatic brain injury) and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Walking away confused from the only home and family he has ever known, he has a phone in his pocket that he does not know how to use, a pesky yeoman stalking his every move, and is on an $800 motorcycle, headed west from Bethesda, MD, searching for what it means to be a civilian, and what makes home, home. And then the phone rings....

Steel...smart, aggressive, ironic, spare and cynical...has been content working homicide at the LAPD until his father, the legendary Sheriff Burton Steel, falls ill with Lou Gehrig's disease. Sheriff Steel is headquartered in Freedom, a privileged coastal community located 100 miles north of Los Angeles. His health failing, he asks his son Buddy to come home to cover his back and to groom him to be his successor. Buddy reluctantly agrees. He returns to Freedom despite having outgrown its small town limits, wary of his father's authoritarianism.

Throughout history, leaders and nations have attempted to control and contain their citizens while others have worked to counter them. Significant individuals, decisions, and documents have been turning points in the history of liberty, from the beginning of the human race to today.