Showing results by narrator "Roger Clark" in All Categories

Can jokes win a hostile room, a hopeless argument, or even an election? You bet they can, according to Cicero, and he knew what he was talking about. One of Rome's greatest politicians, speakers, and lawyers, Cicero was also reputedly one of antiquity's funniest people. After he was elected commander-in-chief and head of state, his enemies even started calling him "the stand-up Consul". How to Tell a Joke provides a lively new translation of Cicero's essential writing on humor alongside that of the later Roman orator and educator Quintilian.

George Bernard Shaw has been called the second greatest playwright in English (after William Shakespeare) and one of the inventors of modern celebrity as the most famous public intellectual of his time. Beginning in the 1880s, as a critic and as a playwright, he transformed British drama, bringing to it intellectual substance, ethical imperatives, and modernity itself, setting the theatrical course for the subsequent century. That his legacy endures 70 years after his death is testament to the prescience of his thinking and his prolific creativity.

Clive Palmer, age forty-eight, was a former history teacher from London who was sent to prison. After prison, he moved to the county of Wiltshire. Ten months later, he was dead. Wiltshire’s Crime Review Team investigates cold cases and has successfully resolved more than a dozen. Headed by former police detective Gus Freeman, the team uses old witness statements plus fresh clues to start the hunt again.

McCormack's myth-tinged debut novel gives us the unforgettable Crowe and his endlessly curious and self-mythologizing stories. Crowe is born in the remote village of Furnace in the West of Ireland and raised by his grandfather, a man of "madness and bullying love", who teaches him grim lessons about existence. Entirely silent until his third birthday, Crowe becomes an observant and isolated teenager, eventually leaving Furnace for university in a "wrong-footed" and bewildering city. There he meets a woman who will change his life and outlook.

Rising star and spoken word poet Jae Nichelle debuts her luminous thoughts in God Themselves, a new collection of stirring poetry. Nichelle taps into her experiences of growing up in the South as a queer Black woman to courageously confront the effects of a forced religion and the inherent dangers of living life in a female body. God Themselves is divided into three equally moving sections: Everything, Everywhere, and Love. Nichelle braids her wisdom—as seen in the poem “What to Do When There’s Nothing You Can Do”––and witty generational humor—seen in “Sanctity: An Exposé”—into every poem.

A constant yet oftentimes concealed practice in war has been the use of informers and collaborators by parties to an armed conflict. Despite the prevalence of such activity, and the serious and at times fatal consequences that befall those who collaborate with an enemy, international law applicable in times of armed conflict does not squarely address the phenomenon. The recruitment, use, and treatment of informers and other collaborators is addressed only partially and at times indirectly by international humanitarian law.

It’s not the charred remains of Tony Phelan that really trouble Dublin law enforcement or the traces of accelerant, so much as the bullet hole in his chest. When a weapon is recovered at the back of the still-smouldering house, it will be the first clue that the death is connected to China. And when Phelan is identified as an airport worker, the investigation begins to focus on suspicious goings-on in relation to a regular A300 freight flight from Shanghai. But pointing the finger at the Chinese is all the rage, and maybe detectives have just been led up the garden path.

Detective Rainey Astor has run headfirst into danger for as long as she can remember. Her trip to Salem was no different, and although she and Elijah are back in Billings, nothing could have prepared them for the repercussions they will face upon their return home. Determined to get back to normal despite the fact that everything's changed, Rainey dives back into work at the same time bodies of dead witches start popping up all over town. Their ritualistic style murders scream sacrifice, but there's something darker at work.

Sydney spent his time playing all the real-time strategy games that he could get his hands on. While in the middle of one of the biggest games of his life the world seemed to come to an end. Waking up in a strange world as something called a Dungeon Core with more than a few things around him that would be happy to kill him, he begins work on building his defenses while learning about the world. Luckily for him, his new form's abilities happens to be exactly like the strategy games he loved back on Earth. He was a pro then, he would be a pro again.

Attempting to escape his abusive father and generations of cyclical poverty, young Jonah Hargrove joins the mysterious River - a teenage girl carrying thousands of dollars in stolen meth - and embarks on a Southern Gothic odyssey through the East Texas river bottoms. They are pursued by local drug kingpin, John Curtis, and his murderous enforcer, Dakota Cade, with whom River was romantically involved. But Cade and Curtis have their own enemies, as their relationship with the cartel controlling their meth supply begins to sour.

In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. "A Is for Ax" offers alphabetized look at the killing of a parent, while the title story tracks a chilling sibling rivalry. Other works here offer multiple-quiz on the road to Calvary, a door-to-door saleswoman trafficking in strange and menacing feats, and a self-mutilating artist pushing himself to the limit. These sly and dangerous stories show us a young writer who was already a master of wicked formal play, and whose sly takes on life and death remain profoundly unsettling.

Jonas Dante is the eldest son of Simon Dante, the infamous Pirate Wolf. While conducting business in London, Jonas meets the beautiful jewel thief, Bellanna Harper. When Dante rescues her from an attack that leaves her homeless and hunted by killers, Bella finds herself in even more peril, trapped aboard Dante's ship and carried south to the Pirate Wolf's tropical island stronghold. Sea battles, intrigues, betrayals and heart-pounding adventure swirls around a breathtaking romance between two evenly matched, indomitable characters.

Urgency - that frantic feeling that we need to be doing more, and faster - is a destructive force in today's workplace. Unnecessary urgency can be toxic, causing stress and burnout. But not all urgency is bad, and sometimes we really do need to get things done quickly. Too little urgency can lead to inaction and lost productivity. So how do we find the right balance where we can use urgency as a meaningful tool to keep productivity up without generating burnout? Urgent! is a guide to using urgency for good to help achieve your goals, to drive success, and minimize stress.

Íosac Mulgannon is a man called to stand. Losing a grip on his mental and physical health, he is burdened with looking after a mute child whom the local villagers view as cursed. The aging farmer stubbornly refuses to succumb in the face of adversity and will do anything, at any cost, to keep hold of his farm and the child. This dark and lyrical debut novel confronts a claustrophobic rural community caught up in the uncertainties of a rapidly changing world.

Tales of blood, magic, and steel by masters of the craft!

Sidney's victory over the undead instills within him the confidence to think that the island is his for the taking, but it becomes clear that others are staking a claim on the same lands. His newest foes use the dirtiest of tactics to employ the unwilling to do his bidding. A whole new weapon must be developed and deployed to ensure that Sidney can lay claim to his new home and create a safe haven for his new people and lay the groundwork for his new empire.

With the battle of the living dead looming over his shoulder Sidney redoubles his efforts to be ready for the fight. He brings in new technology from some of his favorite games to help with this threat. While working, he finds that the Undead Core is not idly waiting for the battle and is working on his own plans that make things more complicated for the future. With his community growing, so does all the pains of trying to manage it all.

Beasts of the Earth tells the story of Harlen LeBlanc, a dependable if quiet employee of the Carter Hills High School’s grounds department whose carefully maintained routine is overthrown by an act of violence. As the town searches for answers, LeBlanc strikes out on his own to exonerate a friend while drawing the eyes of the law to himself and fending off unwelcome voices that call for a sterner form of justice.

The death of Donald Ray in a freak car accident becomes the catalyst for the release of passions, needs, and hurts. Clayton’s discovery of dead Donald Ray upends his longtime emotional numbness. Darlene, the seventeen-year-old widow, struggles to reconnect with her late husband while proving herself still alive. Soon Clayton and Darlene’s bond of loss and death works its magic, drawing them into an affair that brings the loneliness in Clayton’s marriage to a crisis. When Aurilla Cutter, Clayton’s mother-in-law, learns about the affair, her own memories are set loose.

The stories in this anthology range from quietly strange to ambitiously speculative. Humans transform into cosmic energy or sentient algae. A man wakes up in a new body in a world with continents cut out, months absent from the calendar year, and souls misplaced. Students at a high school regularly vanish without a trace. A woman descends into the depths of the ocean and encounters all-knowing creatures who may have the answers to her deepest questions.