Chapter One with Greg Grasso

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NOW ON iTUNES For nearly five years, Greg Grasso has been interviewing noted authors stateside and abroad. What started out as a hobby, is now consuming his free time and interest in Spy, Thriller, Historical and Biographical Authors, looking into what makes them tick, how they process information…

Greg Grasso


    • Jul 13, 2016 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 27m AVG DURATION
    • 87 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Chapter One with Greg Grasso

    Deadly River - Ralph Frerichs

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2016 56:16


    When cholera arrived unexpectedly in Haiti in October 2010, a great mystery unfolded as disease and death decimated the population. Deadly River (Cornell University Press/ILR Press, 2016), and this supplement tell the story of cholera in Haiti, of French epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux’s determined to find its origins so he could help eliminate its reach, and of the political intrigue that has made that effort so difficult. The story involves political maneuvering by powerful organizations such as the United Nations and its peacekeeping troops in Haiti, as well as by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The book explores a quest for scientific truth and dissects a scientific disagreement involving world-renowned cholera experts, embroiled in the political turmoil of a poverty-stricken country. More than that, it raises issues about how wealthy nations and international institutions respond when their interests clash with the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people. The story poses big social questions and offers insight not only into how to eliminate cholera in Haiti, but also how nations, humanitarian agencies, and international organizations such as the UN, WHO and CDC deal with catastrophic infectious disease epidemics.

    Matthew Palmer - The Wolf of Sarajevo

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2016 15:32


    A riveting novel of international suspense from acclaimed author and veteran diplomat Matthew Palmer. Twenty years after the Srebrenica massacre that claimed the life of his friend and colleague, Eric Petrosian is back in Sarajevo at the American embassy, and the specter of war once again hangs over the Balkans. The Bosnian Serb leader, who had for a time been seeking a stable peace, has turned back to his nationalist roots and is threatening to pull Bosnia apart in a bloody struggle for control . . . and behind him is a shadowy mafia figure pulling the strings. As Eric is dragged deeper into the political maelstrom and uncovers a plot of blackmail and ruthless ambitions, Eric is faced with an impossible choice: use the information he’s uncovered to achieve atonement for the past or use it to shape the future.

    National Geographic Celebrates 100 Years - Ford Cochran

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2016 28:57


    Travel with National Geographic photographers as they explore the most fascinating travel adventures in the United States. Take a peak the some of the most interesting "stops" along the way. Explore the world of wonderment as you travel across the U.S. with your kids! Take them to places you would never venture out to...

    Integration Nation: Immigrants, Refugees, and America at Its Best

    Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2016 25:22


    Integration Nation takes readers on a spirited and compelling cross-country journey, introducing us to the people challenging America’s xenophobic impulses by welcoming immigrants and collaborating with the foreign-born as they become integral members of their new communities. In Utah, we meet educators who connect newly arrived Spanish-speaking students and U.S.-born English-speaking students, who share classrooms and learn in two languages. In North Carolina, we visit the nation’s fastest-growing community-development credit union, serving immigrants and U.S.- born depositors and helping to lower borrowing thresholds and crime rates alike. In recent years, politicians in a handful of local communities and states have passed laws and regulations designed to make it easier to deport unauthorized immigrants or to make their lives so unpleasant that they’d just leave. The media’s unrelenting focus on these ultimately self-defeating measures created the false impression that these politicians speak for most of America. They don’t. Integration Nation movingly reminds us that we each have choices to make about how to think and act in the face of the rapid cultural transformation that has reshaped the United States. Giving voice to people who choose integration over exclusion, who opt for open-heartedness instead of fear, Integration Nation is a desperately needed road map for a nation still finding its way beyond anti-immigrant hysteria to higher ground.

    Patrick O'Donnell - Washington's Immortals

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2016 28:31


    In August 1776, little over a month after the Continental Congress had formally declared independence from Britain, the revolution was on the verge of a sudden and disastrous end. General George Washington found his troops outmanned and outmaneuvered at the Battle of Brooklyn, and it looked like there was no escape. But thanks to a series of desperate rear guard attacks by a single heroic regiment, famously known as the “Immortal 400,” Washington was able to evacuate his men and the nascent Continental Army lived to fight another day. Today, only a modest, rusted and scarred metal sign near a dilapidated auto garage marks the mass grave where the bodies of the “Maryland Heroes” lie—256 men “who fell in the Battle of Brooklyn.” In Washington’s Immortals, best-selling military historian Patrick K. O’Donnell brings to life the forgotten story of this remarkable band of brothers. Known as “gentlemen of honour, family, and fortune,” they fought not just in Brooklyn, but in key battles including Trenton, Princeton, Camden, Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, and Yorktown, where their heroism changed the course of the war. Drawing on extensive original sources, from letters to diaries to pension applications, O’Donnell pieces together the stories of these brave men—their friendships, loves, defeats, and triumphs. He explores their arms and tactics, their struggles with hostile loyalists and shortages of clothing and food, their development into an elite unit, and their dogged opponents, including British General Lord Cornwallis. And through the prism of this one group, O’Donnell tells the larger story of the Revolutionary War. Washington’s Immortals is gripping and inspiring boots-on-the-ground history, sure to appeal to a wide readership.

    Clint Emerson - 100 Deadly Skills, The SEAL's Operative Guide.mp2

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2016 36:12


    Roberto Gonzales - Lives in Limbo

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2016 26:17


    Over two million of the nation’s eleven million undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States since childhood. Due to a broken immigration system, they grow up to uncertain futures. In Lives in Limbo, Roberto G. Gonzales introduces us to two groups: the college-goers, like Ricardo, who had good grades and a strong network of community support that propelled him to college and DREAM Act organizing but still landed in a factory job a few short years after graduation, and the early-exiters, like Gabriel, who failed to make meaningful connections in high school and started navigating dead-end jobs, immigration checkpoints, and a world narrowly circumscribed by legal limitations. This vivid ethnography explores why highly educated undocumented youth share similar work and life outcomes with their less-educated peers, despite the fact that higher education is touted as the path to integration and success in America. Mining the results of an extraordinary twelve-year study that followed 150 undocumented young adults in Los Angeles, Lives in Limbo exposes the failures of a system that integrates children into K-12 schools but ultimately denies them the rewards of their labor.

    Hal Niedzviecki - Trees on Mars

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2016 36:59


    The future is big right now—for perhaps the first time, our society is more focused on what is going to happen in the future than what is happening right now. In Trees on Mars: Our Obsession with the Future, cultural critic and indie entrepreneur Hal Niedzviecki asks how and when we started believing we could and should “create the future.” What is it like to live in a society utterly focused on what is going to happen next? Through visits to colleges, corporations, tech conferences, factories and more, Niedzviecki traces the story of how owning the future has become irresistible to us. In deep conversation with both the beneficiaries and victims of our relentless obsession with the future, Niedzviecki asks crucial questions: Where are we actually heading? How will we get there? And whom may we be leaving behind?

    John Jacobs - Life is Good - Casual Interview

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2016 18:59


    Life is not perfect. Life is not easy. Life is good. We see it when we believe it. Each one of us has a choice: to focus our energy on obstacles or opportunities. To fixate on our problems, or focus on solutions. We can harp on what’s wrong with the world (see most news media), or we can cultivate what’s right with the world. What we focus on grows. That’s why the Life is Good community shares one simple, unifying mission: to spread the power of optimism. Optimism is not irrational cheerfulness or “blind” positivity. It’s a pragmatic strategy for approaching life. Optimism empowers us to explore the world with open arms and an eye toward solutions, progress, and growth. It also makes life a hell of a lot more fun. Optimism also enables us to access the ten most important tools we have for living a happy and fulfilling life. We call them the Life is Good Superpowers. But unlike X-ray vision, bullet speed, or Herculean strength, they are accessible to us all. The Life is Good Superpowers can help you overcome obstacles, drive forward with greater purpose, and enjoy the ride of life.

    Stephen Alvarez - Rarely Seen, Photographs of the Extraordinary

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2016 15:15


    In this dazzling book of visual wonders, National Geographic reveals a world very few will have the chance to see for themselves. Shot by some of the world's finest photographers, New York Times bestseller Rarely Seen features striking images of places, events, natural phenomena, and manmade heirlooms seldom seen by human eyes. It's all here: 30,000-year-old cave art sealed from the public; animals that are among the last of their species on Earth; volcanic lightning; giant crystals that have grown to more than 50 tons; the engraving inside Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch. With an introduction by National Geographic photographer Stephen Alvarez, whose work has taken him from the Peruvian Andes to the deepest caves of Papua New Guinea, Rarely Seen captures once-in-a-lifetime moments, natural wonders, and little-seen objects from the far reaches of the globe.

    Simon Singer - America's Safest City

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2016 41:22


    Winner of the American Society of Criminology 2015 Michael J. Hindelang Book Award for the Most Outstanding Contribution to Research in Criminology Since the mid-1990s, the fast-growing suburb of Amherst, NY has been voted by numerous publications as one of the safest places to live in America. Yet, like many of America’s seemingly idyllic suburbs, Amherst is by no means without crime—especially when it comes to adolescents. In America’s Safest City, noted juvenile justice scholar Simon I. Singer uses the types of delinquency seen in Amherst as a case study illuminating the roots of juvenile offending and deviance in modern society. If we are to understand delinquency, Singer argues, we must understand it not just in impoverished areas, but in affluent ones as well. Drawing on ethnographic work, interviews with troubled youth, parents and service providers, and extensive surveys of teenage residents in Amherst, the book illustrates how a suburban environment is able to provide its youth with opportunities to avoid frequent delinquencies. Singer compares the most delinquent teens he surveys with the least delinquent, analyzing the circumstances that did or did not lead them to deviance and the ways in which they confront their personal difficulties, societal discontents, and serious troubles. Adolescents, parents, teachers, coaches and officials, he concludes, are able in this suburban setting to recognize teens’ need for ongoing sources of trust, empathy, and identity in a multitude of social settings, allowing them to become what Singer terms ‘relationally modern’ individuals better equipped to deal with the trials and tribulations of modern life. A unique and comprehensive study, America’s Safest City is a major new addition to scholarship on juveniles and crime in America.

    Tess Gerritsen - Playing with Fire

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2016 19:26


    “When you look at her, what do you see?” “She’s my daughter. Of course I think she’s perfect in every way. But…” “But?” My throat chokes to a whisper. “I’m afraid of her now.” Imagine if you were home alone and your three-year-old daughter violently attacked you. Julia doesn’t understand what is happening to her daughter, but she thinks she knows what’s causing it. She is terrified for Lily, and for herself, but what scares her more is that no one believes her. If she is going to help Lily, she will have to find the answers alone, embarking on a search that will take her half way around the world, to Venice. There, Julia uncovers a heart breaking, long buried tale of tragedy and devastation – a discovery that puts her in serious danger. Some people will do anything in their power to keep the truth silent . . . whatever the cost.

    Robert Crais - The Promise

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2016 18:49


    Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are joined by Suspect heroes LAPD K-9 Officer Scott James and his German shepherd, Maggie, in the new heart-stopping thriller from #1 New York Times-bestselling author Robert Crais. Loyalty, commitment, and the fight for justice have always driven Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. If they make a promise, they keep it. Even if it could get them killed. When Elvis Cole is secretly hired to find a grief-stricken mother, he's led to an ordinary house on a rainy night in Echo Park. Only the house isn't ordinary, and the people hiding inside are a desperate fugitive and a murderous criminal with his own dangerous secrets. As helicopters swirl overhead, Scott and Maggie track the fugitive to this same house, coming face-to-face with Mr. Rollins, a killer who leaves behind a brutally murdered body and enough explosives to destroy the neighborhood. Scott is now the only person who can identify him, but Mr. Rollins has a rule: Never leave a witness alive. For all of them, the night is only beginning. Sworn to secrecy by his client, Elvis finds himself targeted by the police even as Mr. Rollins targets Maggie and Scott. As Mr. Rollins closes in for the kill, Elvis and Joe join forces with Scott and Maggie to follow a trail of lies where no one is who they claim -- and the very woman they promised to save might get them all killed.

    Tavis Smiley - The Covenant with Black America; Ten Years Later

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2016 15:40


    In 2006, Tavis Smiley teamed up with other leaders in the Black community to create a national plan of action to address the ten most crucial issues facing African Americans. The Covenant with Black America, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller, ran the gamut from health care to criminal justice, affordable housing to education, voting rights to racial divides. But a decade later, Black men still fall to police bullets and brutality, Black women still die from preventable diseases, Black children still struggle to get a high quality education, the digital divide and environmental inequality still persist, and American cities from Ferguson to Baltimore burn with frustration. In short, the last decade has seen the evaporation of Black wealth, with Black fellow citizens having lost ground in nearly every leading economic category. So Smiley calls for a renewal of The Covenant, presenting in this new edition the original action plan—with a new foreword and conclusion—alongside fresh data from the Indiana University School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA) to underscore missed opportunities and the work that remains to be done. While life for far too many African Americans remains a struggle, the great freedom fighter Frederick Douglass was right: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

    Joseph Finder - Suspicion

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2015 29:35


    Single father Danny Goodman would do anything — anything — to protect his teenaged daughter, Abby, from more unhappiness after her mother’s death. Struggling to keep her at the private school she loves, he accepts a favor from an unexpected benefactor: Thomas Galvin, father of Abby’s best friend and one of the wealthiest men in Boston. Galvin offers Danny a loan that would be enough to pay Abby’s tuition and relieve some of Danny’s other financial pressures, and Danny can’t help but be charmed by Galvin’s generosity and kindness. Danny’s new friend, however, turns out to have some dangerous enemies — including some Federal investigators who think Danny’s in a perfect position to collect evidence against Galvin. The moment Galvin’s loan hits Danny’s account, Danny finds himself trapped into a dangerous undercover assignment that will put both his life and his daughter’s at risk. Danny tells one lie after another to hide more and more secrets, weaving a net that will ultimately require a

    Cecelia Tichi - Jack London: A Writer's Fight for a Better America

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2015 36:53


    Jack London (1876-1916) found fame with his wolf-dog tales and sagas of the frozen North, but Cecelia Tichi challenges the long-standing view of London as merely a mass-market producer of potboilers. A onetime child laborer, London led a life of poverty in the Gilded Age before rising to worldwide acclaim for stories, novels, and essays designed to hasten the social, economic, and political advance of America. In this major reinterpretation of London's career, Tichi examines how the beloved writer leveraged his written words as a force for the future. Tracing the arc of London's work from the late 1800s through the 1910s, Tichi profiles the writer's allies and adversaries in the cities, on the factory floor, inside prison walls, and in the farmlands. Thoroughly exploring London's importance as an artist and as a political and public figure, Tichi brings to life a man who merits recognition as one of America's foremost public intellectuals. The enhanced e-book edition of Jack London features significant archival motion picture footage

    Sally Loughridge - Daniel and His Starry Night Blanket: A Story of Illness and Sibling Love

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2015 30:40


    This is the tale of a young boy whose older sister gets cancer and, from his perspective, too much of their family's attention. Written and illustrated by Sally Loughridge, the book focuses on the emotional impact of his sister's illness and treatment on him. The author's unique background as a professional artist, cancer survivor, and retired clinical child psychologist enriches the story and the art. When a child has a critical illness, parents must cope with the diagnosis, the treatment course, and their own emotional responses, but as importantly, each child's understanding, reactions, and adjustment. Young siblings may feel abandoned amid intense parental attention to a sick brother or sister. They may envy the special treatment a sibling receives, even stays on a pediatric ward. They may believe that they caused the illness because they were mean to a sibling. They may be scared they too will become ill or even die. Emotions often vacillate quickly, from sadness to anger, envy to worry. In the face of such a crisis, emotional development may even be temporarily derailed. "Daniel and His Starry Night Blanket" can help children feel more comfortable speaking about their feelings, enable family discussion about difficult health matters, model strategies for parents, and increase siblings' understanding of one another.

    David Strange - A Conservative and Compassionate Approach to Immigration Reform

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2015 28:10


    Although the United States is a nation founded by immigrants, Alberto Gonzales and David Strange believe that national immigration policy and enforcement over the past thirty years has been inadequate. This failure by federal leaders has resulted in a widespread introduction of state immigration laws across the country. Gonzales and Strange assert that the solution to current immigration challenges is reform of federal immigration laws, including common sense border control, tougher workplace enforcement, changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act, and a revised visa process. Gonzales and Strange embrace many provisions of current pending legislation, but are sharply critical of others. Their proposals call for an expansion of the grounds of inadmissibility to foster greater respect of law and to address the problem of visa overstays, while also calling for a restriction on grounds of inadmissibility in other areas to address the large undocumented population and increasing humanitarian crisis. They explore nationality versus citizenship and introduce a pathway to nationality as an alternative to a pathway to citizenship. This immigration policy blueprint examines the political landscape in Washington and makes the argument that progress will require compromise and the discipline to act with compassion and respect.

    Bert & John Jacobs - Life is Good

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2015 17:09


    From Life is Good founders and brothers Bert and John Jacobs, this inspiring book of wisdom celebrates the power of optimism: the driving force behind their beloved, socially conscious clothing and lifestyle brand, now worth more than $100 million. Following the chronology of their personal and professional journeys, Bert and John share their unique ride—from their scrappy upbringing outside Boston to the unlikely runaway success of their business. The brothers illuminate ten key "superpowers" accessible to us all: openness, courage, simplicity, humor, gratitude, fun, compassion, creativity, authenticity, and love. Their story, illustrated with the company's iconic artwork, shows how to overcome obstacles and embrace opportunities—whether it's growing stronger from rejection, letting your imagination loose, or simplifying your life to focus on what matters most. In these colorful pages, Bert and John's plainspoken insights are paired with inspiring quotations, playful top-ten lists, deeply moving letter from the Life is Good community, and valuable takeaways from tapping the power of optimism to live your best life. Both entertaining and profound, Life is Good: The Book is the ultimate guide to embracing and growing the good in your life.

    Nick Bunker - An Empire on the Edge, How Britain Came to Fight America

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2015 27:40


    Finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in History Written from a strikingly fresh perspective, this new account of the Boston Tea Party and the origins of the American Revolution shows how a lethal blend of politics, personalities, and economics led to a war that few people welcomed but nobody could prevent. “A great Empire, like a great Cake, is most easily diminished at the edges,” observed Benjamin Franklin, shortly before the American Revolution. In An Empire on the Edge, British author Nick Bunker delivers a powerful and propulsive narrative of the road to war. At the heart of the book lies the Boston Tea Party, when the British stumbled into an unforeseen crisis that exposed deep flaws in an imperial system sprawling from the Mississippi to Bengal. Shedding new light on the Tea Party’s origins and on the roles of such familiar characters as Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Hutchinson, and the British ministers Lord North and Lord Dartmouth, Bunker depicts the last three years of deepening anger on both sides of the Atlantic, culminating in the irreversible descent into revolution.

    David Baldacci - The Keeper

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2015 10:44


    Vega Jane was always told no one could leave the town of Wormwood. She was told there was nothing outside but the Quag, a wilderness filled with danger and death. And she believed it - until the night she stumbled across a secret that proved that everything she knew was a lie. Now just one thing stands between Vega Jane and freedom - the Quag. In order to leave Wormwood and discover the truth about her world, Vega and her best friend Delph must find a way to make it across a terrifying land of bloodthirsty creatures and sinister magic. But the Quag is worse than Vega Jane's darkest imagining. It's a living, breathing prison designed to keep enemies out and the villagers of Wormwood in. The Quag will throw everything at Vega Jane. It will try to break her. It will try to kill her. And survival might come at a price not even Vega Jane is willing to pay. Master storyteller David Baldacci unleashes a hurricane of action and adrenaline that takes readers to the breaking point.

    David Laskin—The Children's Blizzard

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2015 29:15


    An award-winning classic of creative non-fiction, The Children’s Blizzard is the true story of an epic winter storm that hit the Upper Midwest on January 12, 1888. Laskin unfolds this blizzard of unprecedented suddenness and ferocity by focusing on half a dozen pioneer families – most of them immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia. Hailed by the Washington Post as “a vital addition to the lore of Western immigrant pioneering,” this national bestseller has sold over 100,000 copies and has been adopted in history and literature classes in high schools and colleges nationwide.

    Sandra Brown—Operation Thriller

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2015 22:49


    In this episode Brown discusses her book Operation Thriller. Sandra Brown is the author of sixty-two New York Times bestsellers, including LOW PRESSURE (2012), LETHAL(2011), TOUGH CUSTOMER (2010), SMASH CUT (2009), SMOKE SCREEN (2008), PLAY DIRTY (2007), RICOCHET (2006),CHILL FACTOR (2005), and WHITE HOT (2004).Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated into thirty-four languages.

    Laurie King & Les Klinger—A Study in Sherlock

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2015 30:40


    In this episode King and Klinger discuss the story collection they edited entitled a Study in Sherlock. Neil Gaiman. Laura Lippman. Lee Child. These are just three of eighteen superstar authors who provide fascinating, thrilling, and utterly original perspectives on Sherlock Holmes in this one-of-a-kind book. These modern masters place the sleuth in suspenseful new situations, create characters who solve Holmesian mysteries, contemplate Holmes in his later years, fill gaps in the Sherlock Holmes Canon, and reveal their own personal obsessions with the Great Detective.

    Alex Grecian—The Devil's Workshop

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2015 26:20


    They thought he was gone, but they were wrong. Jack the Ripper is loose in London once more. Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad faces the most shocking case of its existence, in the extraordinary new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestsellers The Yard and The Black Country. London, 1890. A small group of the city’s elite, fed up with the murder rate, have made it their business to capture violent criminals and mete out their own terrible brand of retribution. Now they are taking it a step further: They have arranged for four murderers to escape from prison, and into the group’s hands. But the plan goes wrong. The killers elude them, and now it is up to Walter Day, Nevil Hammersmith, and the rest of Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad to hunt the convicts down before they can resume their bloody spree. But the Murder Squad may already be too late. The killers have retribution in mind, and one of them is heading straight toward a member of the Murder Squad, and his family. And that isn’t even the worst of it. During the escape, one of the killers has stumbled upon the location of another notorious murderer, one thought gone for good, but who is now prepared to join forces with them.

    Sandra Brown - Friction

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 30, 2015 24:52


    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown comes a gripping story of family ties and forbidden attraction. Crawford Hunt wants his daughter back. Following the death of his wife four years ago, Crawford, a Texas Ranger, fell into a downward spiral that left him relegated to deskwork and with his five-year-old daughter Georgia in the custody of her grandparents. But Crawford has cleaned up his act, met all the court imposed requirements, and now the fate of his family lies with Judge Holly Spencer. Holly, ambitious and confident, temporarily occupies the bench of her recently deceased mentor. With an election upcoming, she must prove herself worthy of making her judgeship permanent. Every decision is high-stakes. Despite Crawford's obvious love for his child and his commitment to being an ideal parent, Holly is wary of his checkered past. Her opinion of him is radically changed when a masked gunman barges into the courtroom during the custody hearing. Crawford reacts instinctually, saving Holly from a bullet. But his heroism soon takes on the taint of recklessness. The cloud over him grows even darker after he uncovers a horrifying truth about the courtroom gunman and realizes that the unknown person behind the shooting remains at large . . .and a threat.

    Mike Bond—House of Jaguar

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2015 30:11


    Chopper pilot and Vietnam war hero Joe Murphy finds himself in the middle of the brutal Guatemalan revolution when he witnesses an attack on a Mayan village by the Guatemalan Army and its CIA “advisors”. Badly injured, he escapes on a nightmare trek through the jungle, hunted by the Army, the CIA, and death squads.Healed by guerrilla doctor Dona Villalobos, he falls in love with her and tries to save her from the revolution’s widening horror of insanity, tragedy, and death. She convinces him to return to San Francisco to reveal this hidden war to the US media, but the CIA hunts him down there, killing everyone he turns to.He returns to Guatemala to find Dona and to face the war in the jungle and the death squads.Based on the author’s own experiences as the only foreign war correspondent left alive in Guatemala when over 150 journalists had been killed by death squads, House of Jaguar is “a riveting thriller of murder, politics, and lies”

    Eve Spangler - Understanding Israel/Palistine, Race, Nation, and Human Rights in the Conflict

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2015 31:25


    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the longest, ongoing hot-and-cold war of the 20th and 21st centuries. It has produced more refugees than any current conflict, generating fully one quarter of all refugees worldwide. Everyone knows that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is important itself, and is also fueling tensions throughout the Middle East. Yet most people shy away from this conflict, claiming it is "just too complicated" to understand. This book is written for people who want a point of entry into the conversation. It offers both a historic and analytic framework. Readers, whether acting as students, parishioners, neighbors, voters, or dinner guests will find in these pages an analysis of the most commonly heard Israeli positions, and a succinct account of the Palestinian voices we seldom hear. I argue that human rights standards have never been used as the basis on which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be resolved and that only these standards can produce a just and sustainable resolution. This book will be useful for classes in Middle East studies, peace and conflict studies, Middle East history, sociology of race, and political science. It can be helpful for church groups, labor groups, or other grass roots organizations committed to social justice, and for all readers who wish to be informed about this important topic.

    Robert Cunningham - Afghanistan on the Bounce

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2015 27:44


    What was it like to serve in Afghanistan? That is the question civilians often ask returning servicemembers of the armed forces. Afghanistan: On the Bounce brilliantly conveys the full range of the troops’ experiences—on patrol, in combat, in the chow line, and in religious services—through photographs, stories, diagrams, and removable ephemera. As a documentation/production specialist in Afghanistan, photographer Robert L. Cunningham accompanied soldiers of 40 different units on 132 combat missions, following them during their typical on-base routines as well as into hazardous situations. Here are detailed examinations of the servicemembers’ weapons, uniforms, vehicles, and gear, along with reflections on duty, insights into valor and heroism, and clear-eyed humor about life on deployment.

    Raymond Khoury—Rasputin's Shadow

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2015 32:45


    It all starts on a cold, bleak day in 1916, a mining pit in Siberia turns into a bloodbath when its miners attack each other, savagely and ferociously. Minutes later, two men – a mysterious, horrified man of few words, and Grigory Rasputin, trusted confidant of the tsar – hit a detonator, blowing up the mine to conceal all evidence of the carnage. In the present day, FBI agent Sean Reilly is tasked with a new, disturbing case. A Russian embassy attaché seems to have committed suicide by jumping out of a fourth-floor window in Queens. The apartment’s owners, a retired high school teacher and his wife, have gone missing, while a faceless killer, a rogue ex-KGB agent only known as “Koschey”–from an old Russian folk tale, meaning the deathless–is roaming New York City, leaving a trail of death in his wake. Joined by Russian FSB agent Larisa Tchoumitcheva, Reilly’s investigation into the old man’s identity will lead to Korean and Russian mobsters and uncover a deadly search for a mysterious device whose origins reach back in time to the darkest days of the Cold War and to Imperial Russia and which, in the wrong hands, could have a devastating impact on our world.

    Peter Leonard - Eyes Closed Tight

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2015 30:18


    O'Clair is a former Detroit homicide investigator who now owns a motel in Pompano Beach, Florida in his retirement. He runs the place with his much younger girlfriend, Virginia, who's a knockout and can fix anything. One morning, he’s cleaning up after the previous night’s partiers when he sees a lovely young woman stretched out asleep on a lounge chair. He shakes her gently. Then he touches her neck and feels for a pulse. There isn't one. Her skin is cold, body starting to stiffen, definitely in the early stages of rigor. When a second girl is murdered, O'Clair knows someone is trying to send him a message. The way the girls are killed reminds O'Clair of a case he investigated years earlier. Now convinced the Pompano murders are related, O'Clair returns to Detroit Police Homicide to review the murder file and try to figure out what he might have missed. And when Virginia is kidnapped by the killer, the stakes grow exponentially higher. The most powerful work to date by one of the most thrilling suspense novelists of our time, EYES CLOSED TIGHT is relentless, surprising, and deeply satisfying.

    Jeff Deaver - Solitude Creek

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2015 14:10


    Jeffery Deaver, "the master of manipulation" (Associated Press) and "the most creative, skilled and intriguing thriller writer in the world." (Daily Telegraph, UK) returns with the new, long-awaited, Kathryn Dance thriller. A tragedy occurs at a small concert venue on the Monterey Peninsula. Cries of "fire" are raised and, panicked, people run for the doors, only to find them blocked. A half dozen people die and others are seriously injured. But it's the panic and the stampede that killed; there was no fire. Kathryn Dance--a brilliant California Bureau of Investigation agent and body language expert--discovers that the stampede was caused intentionally and that the perpetrator, a man obsessed with turning people's own fears and greed into weapons, has more attacks planned. She and her team must race against the clock to find where he will strike next before more innocents die.

    Tess Gerritsen - What's Next?

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2015 5:49


    Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift”, which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson. Tess’s first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), The Bone Garden (2007), The Keepsake (2008; UK title: Keeping the Dead), Ice Cold (2010; UK title: The Killing Place), The Silent Girl (2011), Last To Die (August 2012), Die Again (January 2015) and Playing With Fire (coming October 27, 2015). Her books have been published in forty countries, and more than 30 million copies have been sold around the world. Her books have been top-3 bestsellers in the United States and number one bestsellers abroad. She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon). Critics around the world have praised her novels as “Pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “Scary and brilliant” (Toronto Globe and Mail), and “Polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publisher Weekly has dubbed her the “medical suspense queen”. Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.

    David Baldacci - Memory Man

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2015 5:32


    Amos Decker's life changed forever--twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good, and left him with an improbable side effect--he can never forget anything. The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare--his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered. His family destroyed, their killer's identity as mysterious as the motive behind the crime, and unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker finds his world collapsing around him. He leaves the police force, loses his home, and winds up on the street, taking piecemeal jobs as a private investigator when he can. But over a year later, a man turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders. At the same time a horrific event nearly brings Burlington to its knees, and Decker is called back in to help with this investigation. Decker also seizes his chance to learn what really happened to his family that night. To uncover the stunning truth, he must use his remarkable gifts and confront the burdens that go along with them. He must endure the memories he would much rather forget. And he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

    Joseph Finder - The Fixer

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 10, 2015 28:55


    New York Times bestselling author Joseph Finder delivers his next breakneck stand-alone thriller about the secrets families can keep, and the danger of their discovery When former investigative reporter Rick Hoffman loses his job, fiancée, and apartment, his only option is to move back into — and renovate — the home of his miserable youth, now empty and in decay since the stroke that put his father in a nursing home. As Rick starts to pull apart the old house, he makes an electrifying discovery — millions of dollars hidden in the walls. It’s enough money to completely transform Rick’s life — and everything he thought he knew about his father. Yet the more of his father’s hidden past that Rick brings to light, the more dangerous his present becomes. Soon, he finds himself on the run from deadly enemies desperate to keep the past buried, and only solving the mystery of his father — a man who has been unable to communicate, comprehend, or care for himself for almost 20 years — will save Rick... if he can survive long enough to do it

    Andrew Gerow Hodges, Jr.- Behind Nazi Lines

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 10, 2015 24:28


    In 1944, hundreds of Allied soldiers were trapped in POW camps in occupied France. The odds of their survival were long. The odds of escaping, even longer. But one-man had the courage to fight the odds . . . An elite British S.A.S. operative on an assassination mission gone wrong. A Jewish New Yorker injured in a Nazi ambush. An eighteen-year-old Gary Cooper lookalike from Mobile, Alabama. These men and hundreds of other soldiers found themselves in the prisoner-of-war camps off the Atlantic coast of occupied France, fighting brutal conditions and unsympathetic captors. But, miraculously, local villagers were able to smuggle out a message from the camp, one that reached the Allies and sparked a remarkable quest by an unlikely—and truly inspiring—hero. Andy Hodges had been excluded from military service due to a lingering shoulder injury from his college-football days. Devastated but determined, Andy refused to sit at home while his fellow Americans risked their lives, so he joined the Red Cross, volunteering for the toughest assignments on the most dangerous battlefields. In the fall of 1944, Andy was tapped for what sounded like a suicide mission: a desperate attempt to aid the Allied POWs in occupied France—alone and unarmed, matching his wits against the Nazi war machine. Despite the likelihood of failure, Andy did far more than deliver much-needed supplies. By the end of the year, he had negotiated the release of an unprecedented 149 prisoners—leaving no one behind. This is the true story of one man’s selflessness, ingenuity, and victory in the face of impossible adversity.

    Jay Richards - Silhouette of Virtue

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2015 39:15


    It is 1973. A small college town in Southern Illinois is terrorized by a spree of sadistic assaults. The rapist tells the victims—all Asian women—that he is making them pay for America’s betrayal in Vietnam. When the only other Black faculty member is accused of the crimes, African American philosophy professor Nathan “Ribs” Rivers struggles to suspend his doubts about his colleague’s innocence. Rivers reluctantly yields to the urgings of his students and takes up leadership of a campus coalition formed to advocate for a fair trial. Professor Rivers embarks on a vision quest for the truth that is as much about his character as it is about the crimes—a quest that threatens to topple his family and career, ignites in him a spiritual crisis, and plunges him headlong toward lethal unknowns.

    Stephanie Sacks - What the Fork Are You Eating?

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2015 16:41


    It's labeled "natural," "grass-fed," or "free-roaming;" yet it might be anything but. It's time to find out what you're actually eating... When your groceries are labeled “low-fat,” “sugar-free,” and even “natural” and "antibiotic-free," it’s easy to assume that you’re making healthy choices. Yet even some of those seemingly wholesome offerings contain chemical preservatives, pesticides, and artificial flavors and coloring that negatively affect your health. In What the Fork Are You Eating?, a practical guide written by certified chef and nutritionist Stefanie Sacks, MS, CNS, CDN, we learn exactly what the most offensive ingredients in our food are and how we can remove (or at least minimize) them in our diets. Sacks gives us an aisle-by-aisle rundown of how to shop for healthier items and create simple, nutritious, and delicious meals, including fifty original recipes.

    Brad Taylor-No Fortunate Son

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2015 27:16


    In the latest thriller in the New York Times bestselling Pike Logan series, a hostage situation places America’s most powerful political elite at the mercy of their worst enemies. When veteran operator Pike Logan and partner Jennifer Cahill receive a letter from Blaisdell Consulting—the umbrella cover company for their real employer, a top-secret counterterrorist unit called the Taskforce—they expect orders for their next mission-impossible tasking. Instead, they learn that their latest actions have gotten them fired, despite having saved thousands of innocent lives. Pike’s shock and fury is redirected when their commander, Colonel Kurt Hale, asks him and Jennifer for help with a personal matter: His niece Kylie, an exchange student in England, has gone missing. Neither Pike nor Jennifer understands how critical her disappearance will become. Meanwhile, all Taskforce teams have been redirected to a developing situation. A terrorist organization has targeted military relatives of key members of the United States government, including the vice president’s son. Their seizure of hostages was far-reaching and meticulously coordinated, and the full extent of the threat—and potential demands—has thrown the government into turmoil. They face a terrible choice: Cease counter-terrorist operations, or watch hostages die one by one. How much is a single life worth? Unless the Taskforce can decipher the web of lies devised by their enemies, the United States is about to find out.

    Mick Ebeling-Not Impossible

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2015 37:10


    Mick Ebeling—a film and TV producer by trade, an optimist by nature—set out on a simple act of kindness that quickly turned into a lifelong mission. In the process he discovered that he could, indeed, change the world. And, as he recounts his own adventures in this fast-paced, fascinating new book, he shows you how you can, too. Then the question becomes: What other great challenges—and what other great inventions—might be made “not impossible”? From the beginning, Ebeling has dreamed big, but that doesn’t mean his accomplishments have come easily. He’s had to deal with the voice in his head we all recognize—the skeptical, pessimistic one that says, “Sorry, this ain’t gonna happen.” Yet he has found the courage to ignore that voice and move on. And believe. And get things done. Fascinating, inspiring, and a true testament to the power of determination, Not Impossible is bursting with optimism and new ideas. It will motivate you to believe that all problems have the ability to be solved—and that you have the ability to change the world and make miracles happen.

    David Baldacci - The Escape

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2014 10:22


    THE ESCAPE It’s a prison unlike any other. Military discipline rules. Its security systems are unmatched. None of its prisoners dream of escaping. They know it’s impossible . . . until now. John Puller’s older brother, Robert, was convicted of treason. His inexplicable escape from prison makes him the most wanted criminal in the country. Some in the government believe that John Puller represents their best chance at capturing Robert alive, and so Puller must bring in his brother to face justice. But Puller quickly discovers that his brother is pursued by others who don’t want him to survive. Puller is in turn pushed into an uneasy, fraught partnership with another agent, who may have an agenda of her own. They dig more deeply into the case together, and Puller finds that not only are her allegiances unclear, but there are troubling details about his brother’s conviction . . . and someone out there doesn’t want the truth to ever come to light. As the nationwide manhunt for Robert grows more urgent, Puller’s masterful skills as an investigator and strengths as a fighter may not be enough to save his brother—or himself.

    John P Davidson - The Obedient Assassin

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2014 39:03


    A dark and riveting thriller that reimagines the life and mission of the Spanish nationalist enlisted to murder Leon Trotsky: Based on a true chapter of world history and ten years of research, here is the story of the real-life reluctant soldier and killer, Ramón Mercader—the obedient assassin Ramón Mercader was plucked from the front of the Spanish Civil War by the Soviets and conscripted to murder the great in­tellectual Leon Trotsky, a leader of the Bolshevik Revolution who was exiled in the 1920s for opposing Joseph Stalin.

    Lee Child - Personal

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2014 11:13


    Someone has taken a long-range shot at the French president but failed to kill him. The suspected sniper has serious skills and is a hard man to find. Reacher tracked him down once and put him in jail. Now he's asked to hunt him again, and put him away permanently. Tracking the shooter will take Reacher from France to England after a killer with a treacherous vendetta. He'll need to uncover who did the hiring and what's behind the assassination attempt before executing his orders.

    Kira Peikoff - No Time to Die

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2014 27:16


    In a Washington, D.C. research lab, a brilliant scientist is attacked by his own test subjects. At Columbia University, a talented biochemist is lured out of her apartment and never seen again. In the Justice Department’s new Bioethics Committee, agent Les Mahler sees a sinister pattern emerging… Zoe Kincaid is a petite college student whose rare genetic makeup may hold the key to a powerful medical breakthrough. When she is kidnapped, the very thing mankind has wanted since the dawn of time threatens to unleash our final destruction.

    washington no time justice department time to die peikoff bioethics committee
    MIke Kelly - The Bus on Jaffa Road

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2014 26:24


    A Story of Middle East Terrorism and the Search for Justice After their children are killed in a terrorist bombing, three American families attempt to find out who was responsible. After winning a judgment in a U.S. court, the families encountered an unforeseen enemy – their own government.

    Eric Leuthardt—RedDevil 4

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2014 23:06


    RedDevil 4 is spine-tingling techno-thriller based on cutting edge research from surgeon and inventor Eric C. Leuthardt.Renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Hagan Maerici is on the verge of a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that could change the way we think about human consciousness. Obsessed with his job and struggling to save his marriage, Dr. Maerici is forced to put his life’s work on the line when a rash of brutal murders strikes St. Louis.

    James Lee Burke—Wayfaring Stranger

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2014 32:00


    In his most ambitious work yet, New York Times bestseller James Lee Burke tells a classic American story through one man's unforgettable life—connecting a fateful encounter with Bonnie and Clyde to heroic acts at the Battle of the Bulge and finally to the high-stakes gambles and cutthroat players who ushered in the dawn of the American oil industry. In 1934, sixteen-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends with Weldon firing a gun and being unsure whether it hit its mark. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland barely survives the Battle of the Bulge, in the process saving the lives of his sergeant, Hershel Pine, and a young Spanish prisoner of war, Rosita Lowenstein—a woman who holds the same romantic power over him as the strawberry blonde Bonnie Parker, and is equally mysterious. The three return to Texas where Weldon and Hershel get in on the ground floor of the nascent oil business. In just a few years’ time Weldon will spar with the jackals of the industry, rub shoulders with dangerous men, and win and lose fortunes twice over. But it is the prospect of losing his one true love that will spur his most reckless, courageous act yet—one that takes its inspiration from that encounter long ago with the outlaws of his youth. A tender love story and pulse-pounding thriller that crosses continents and decades of American history, Wayfaring Stranger “is a sprawling historical epic full of courage and loyalty and optimism and good-heartedness that reads like an ode to the American Dream”

    Mike Bond - Casual Conversation

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2014 26:33


    Bestselling author, environmental activist, human rights and war correspondent, award-winning poet and international energy expert, Mike Bond has lived and worked in over thirty countries on seven continents. His works have been translated into many languages and have been praised by critics on both sides of the Atlantic for their intricate plots, fascinating characters, extraordinary settings, and explosive pace.Based on his own experiences in dangerous, remote, and war-torn regions, his novels look deeply into the dark side of man as well as the good. They depict the terror and fury of battle and the intense joy of love, the beauty of the vanishing natural world, and the nature of the universe and its many meanings for human life. His lean unsentimental raw prose, free of best-seller formulas and literary pretension, conveys through the lives of real people what it means to be deeply alive, to hunger for a better world.How do we live, his books ask, at the deepest level? In what ways does evil masquerade as good? What are politics, government, and intelligence behind their many masks? What are the secrets behind the international deals, dirty wars, assassinations, and coups? What are the stories that have never been told? How does one lead a good life and care for others in a world of danger and evil?Dealing with political truths few else discuss, Mike Bond’s books have been widely quoted by military experts, intelligence analysts, and political thinkers. They put us at the deepest level into real places, covering the most significant issues of our time in exciting stories of the real people who live them.

    Allan Topol—The Spanish Revenge

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2014 35:19


    Craig Page, the bold and daring EU Director of Counterterrorism, becomes the focal point of an effort to stop the feared terrorist Ahmed Sadi, whose goal is to provoke a Muslim uprising in Western Europe. Ahmed, a Muslim fanatic born in Paris to parents who emigrated from Algeria, calls himself Musa Ben Abdil, after a Muslim hero from the Fifteenth Century War with Spain. Page teams up once again the resourceful Elizabeth Crowder, a newspaper reporter who has also become his lover. Ahmed’s plans become far more menacing when he is joined by Chinese General Zhou, who had been exiled to France for his devious actions in The China Gambit. With Zhou’s assistance, Ahmed’s plan is to launch a horrific attack on the heart of Christianity.

    Greg Zuckerman—The Frackers

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2014 23:06


    In five years, the United States has seen a historic burst of oil and natural gas production, easing our insatiable hunger for energy. A new drilling process called fracking has made us the world’s fastest growing energy power, on track to pass Saudi Arabia by 2020. But despite headlines and controversy, no previous book has shown how the revolution really happened.

    Nelson DeMille—The Quest

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2014 29:45


    An earlier, shorter version of The Quest was published in paperback in 1975. In 2013, I rewrote The Quest and doubled its length, making it, I hope, a far better story than the original, without deviating from the elements that made the story so powerful and compelling when I first wrote it. In other words, what made The Quest worth rewriting remains, and whatever is changed is for the better. A sweeping adventure that's equal parts thriller and love story, Nelson DeMille's newest novel takes the reader from the war torn jungles of Ethiopia to the magical city of Rome. While the Ethiopian Civil War rages, a Catholic priest languishes in prison. Forty years have passed since he last saw daylight. His crime? Claiming to know the true location of Christ's cup from the Last Supper. Then the miraculous happens - a mortar strikes the prison and he is free! Old, frail, and injured, he escapes to the jungle, where he encounters two Western journalists and a beautiful freelance photographer taking refuge from the carnage. As they tend to his wounds, he relates his incredible story. Motivated by the sensational tale and their desire to find the location of the holiest of relics, the trio agrees to search for the Grail. Thus begins an impossible quest that will pit them against murderous tribes, deadly assassins, fanatical monks, and the passions of their own hearts. THE QUEST is suspenseful, romantic, and filled with heart-pounding action. Nelson DeMille is at the top of his game as he masterfully interprets one of history's greatest mysteries.

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