Showing results by narrator "Mirron Willis" in All Categories

Like the ancient Israelites, the African American community has survived a 400-year collective trauma. What will it take for them to reach the promised land that King foresaw - to be truly free at last? In this classic historical and cultural study, Carl Ellis offers an in-depth assessment of the state of African American freedom and dignity. Stressing how important it is for African Americans to reflect on their roots, he traces the growth of Black consciousness from the days of slavery to the 1990s, noting especially the contributions of King and Malcolm X.

With an extraordinary gift for suspense, McKissack brings us 10 original, spine-tingling tales inspired by African-American history and the mystery of that eerie half hour before nightfall—the dark-thirty.

Reissued with 10% more material, this is the story of a Black man who spent 17 years on a brutal Texas prison plantation and underwent a remarkable transformation. First published in 1984, Racehoss: Big Emma’s Boy is Albert Race Sample’s tale of resilience, revelation, and redemption. With stories that had been edited out of the first edition, a foreword by Texas attorney and writer David R. Dow, and an afterword by Sample’s widow, Carol, this new edition offers a more complete picture of this extraordinary time in America’s recent past.

In this provocative book, Mugambi Jouet describes why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sex, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war.

An inspired and original compilation for the 2016 election year, God Is in the House is a collection of essays by members of Congress who reflect on their deep faith and how it guides them as legislators. Compiled by Representative Virginia Foxx, who personally asked for contributions from congressional colleagues and coworkers, God Is in the House features essays from 18 members of Congress from both political parties, representing 11 faiths and denominations.

When former NFL running back Terrell Fletcher first left his football career, he found himself at a crossroads. His job, his friends, his very identity had been tied to the sport, and it was time to re-envision his life. Thus began a courageous journey to find a new path - and a new purpose. In The Book of You, the author shares his own transformation of faith to help illustrate broader truths about God's intentions for you.

In Mississippi Noir, literary crime fiction master Tom Franklin has assembled a phenomenal short-story collection that highlights a mesmerizing and diverse set of styles and subject matter. Urban, suburban, and rural settings alike unveil new shades of darkness that fall upon Mississippi's past and present.

Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. In the wake of Chicago Noir, Twin Cities Noir, and Kansas City Noir - all popular volumes in the Akashic Noir Series - comes the latest Midwest installment, St. Louis Noir. Masterfully curated by Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest (adapted for film, starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton), this volume will chill the listener with heartland menace.

Buffalo Bill Cody, Bat Masterson, and other legendary heroic figures of America's Old West get the royal treatment in White Hats, a collection of stories by esteemed Western authors. This anthology is expertly compiled by Robert J. Randisi, who has gathered extraordinary stories of those who wear the white hat from well-known authors like John Jakes, Richard S. Wheeler, James Reasoner, and others.

In Dig Deep, J.C. Watts offers seven powerful maxims that have kept him grounded throughout his roller-coaster career from star college quarterback to U.S. Congressman. The first black Republican ever elected to a leadership position in Congress, Watts resisted the rat-race of Washington and eventually declined re-election. His seven simple principles are a blueprint for living a fulfilling and meaningful life without falling to the temptations of reckless ambition or indulgence.

Following the Civil War, Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, thrived as a cauldron of sex and song, violence and passion. But out of this turmoil emerged a center of black progress, optimism, and cultural ferment. Preston Lauterbach tells this vivid, fascinating story through the multigenerational saga of a family whose ambition, race pride, and moral complexity indelibly shaped the city that would loom so large in American life.

The general public has never heard of Jack O'Dell. But many of those who worked with him in the '50s and '60s consider him the unsung hero of the Black Freedom Movement. Victor Navasky, the longtime editor of The Nation and author of the acclaimed book Kennedy Justice, drawing on secret government files and interviews with O'Dell himself, seeks to correct that historical oversight.

Asylum Denied is the gripping story of political refugee David Ngaruri Kenney's harrowing odyssey through the world of immigration processing in the United States. Kenney, while living in his native Kenya, led a boycott to protest his government's treatment of his fellow farmers. He was subsequently arrested and taken into the forest to be executed. This audiobook, told by Kenney and his lawyer Philip G. Schrag from Kenney's own perspective, tells of his near-murder, imprisonment, and torture in Kenya.

San Francisco Noir lashes out with hard-biting tales exploring the shadowy nether regions of scenic "Baghdad by the Bay". In this superb collection, virtuosos of the genre meet up with the best of SF’s literary fiction community to chart a unique psycho-geography for a dark landscape. From inner city boroughs to the outlands, each contributor offers an original story based in a distinct neighborhood.

In early November 1834, an aristocratic young couple from Savannah and South Carolina sailed from New York and began a seventeen-year odyssey in West Africa. Leighton and Jane Wilson sailed along what was for them an exotic coastline, visited cities and villages, and sometimes ventured up great rivers and followed ancient paths.

Letters of a Nation is a unique and timeless collection of extraordinary letters spanning more than 350 years of American history, from the arrival of the Pilgrims to the present day. Many of the more than 200 letters are published here for the first time, and the correspondents are the celebrated and obscure, the powerful and powerless, including presidents, slaves, soldiers, prisoners, explorers, writers, revolutionaries, Native Americans, artists, religious and civil rights leaders, and people from all walks of life.

For the last few years, and especially in 2011, a new extreme weather event seems to pop up each week. Some decide to stick around: Texas and Oklahoma have been suffering from historic droughts for six months, with no sign of relief. No sooner does Hurricane Irene disappear than Tropical Storm Lee appears to flood Louisiana and stir up wildfires in nearby Texas. We seem beset by more, and more extreme, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, torrential rainstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards than any of us can remember.

Christians are a large and influential voting block today. But as each governmental election approaches, an increasing polarity occurs within those claiming the Christian faith. This comes as a result of party-voting rather than voting according to Biblical mandates and authority. To refocus correctly, Dr. Tony Evans goes back to the basics and teaches about how God established government as a divine institution whose tasks include promoting the well-being of those within its realm and protection from evil.

Reggie Jackson and Bob Gibson offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to understand America's pastime from their unique insider perspective.

It's 1916, and time's running out for Scott Joplin. Before he dies, he wants to provide for his wife and secure his place in musical history. He's written a musical drama, and his young piano student, Martin Niederhoffer, convinces him to try to get Irving Berlin to publish and produce the work. The next day, Niederhoffer walks into his office and finds Joplin crouched over the blood-soaked body of a young man. He hustles his teacher away, but the two are seen leaving the building.