Showing results by narrator "Tom Lennon" in All Categories

For a Dollar and a Dream shows how, in an era of stagnant upward mobility, millions of Americans turned to the lottery as their only chance at achieving the American Dream. Gamblers were not the only ones who bet on betting. As voters revolted against higher taxes in the late twentieth century, states saw legalized gambling as a panacea, a way of generating revenue without cutting services or raising taxes. Alongside stories of winners and losers, Jonathan Cohen charts the untold history of the nation's lottery system, revealing how players and policymakers alike got hooked.

Why did Winthrop Rockefeller, scion of one of the most powerful families in American history, leave New York for an Arkansas mountaintop in the 1950s? In this richly detailed biography of the former Arkansas governor, John A. Kirk delves into the historical record to fully unravel that mystery for the first time. Kirk pursues clues threaded throughout Rockefeller’s life and casts a powerful new light on his relationship with his adopted state, where his legacy continues to be felt more than half a century after his governorship.

The Last Jewish Gangster: The Middle Years starts in 1968 with Hardy sentenced to 12 years in the world’s most dangerous prison in Mexico after taking the rap for his mother’s counterfeiting scheme, hoping to have finally earned her respect. Once he’s released from prison, Hardy returns to Brooklyn and tries to go straight, but drifts back into a world of crime. He gets Sammy “the Bull” Gravano to join his crew to pull major heists like kidnapping drug lords for million-dollar ransoms and robbing cop bag men. To evade the law, he goes to Europe and ends up in Israel.

We need effective leaders today more than ever before. In fact, the root cause behind failed businesses and failed governments is usually either a lack of leadership or the presence of destructive or ineffective leadership. In this collection of dissertations on topics relevant to effective leadership, you'll be challenged to think. Balance is getting something just right. However, since the world is always changing, the sweet spot is always changing, too. What was in balance yesterday may not be today.

When a nightclub stripper is brutally murdered, her boyfriend is quickly arrested and charged with the crime. Carson is hired by the accused man’s 12-year-old daughter to prove him innocent. Things quickly get out of hand. Bodies pile up, and it appears that a serial killer might be at work, and perhaps his client’s father could actually be guilty. The Memphis underworld of the 1960s is somehow involved and complicating the investigation.

To all those individuals who have dogs in their lives, and fully know how brilliant these family members can be. To all who completely know just how loving and loyal their dog, or dogs, are. To those many others who never had a dog to love and cherish, I'm hoping that this anthology gives them a little push to seek the adoption of these loving animals.

Bullets and Bandages: Bond of Brothers is a story inspired by the words of a US Army Field Medic, 21st Infantry, and his stories about his tour in Vietnam 1968-69. Through those stories, the author was given the unique insight into the men who struggled to survive in a war many of us didn't understand. The author also brings to us some of his own experiences, in this challenging time in our history.

Carson has been hired by an insurance company to resolve a $1.5-million-dollar life insurance claim, but things get quickly complicated. Bodies appear, and it seems that these deaths might be connected to the missing hunter - but how? Facts reveal that the missing man’s job as an independent truck driver is linked to his disappearance, and perhaps to the mysterious murders. Carson’s investigation unearths some very unusual characters, along with a wife who appears to be interested in everything but finding her missing husband.

Edward Jennings travels from the Eastern battlefields of the Civil War to turbulent New Mexico Territory's Tularosa Basin in his quest for a fresh start! This land of sun-blasted desert is empty for a reason. Harsh nature, wild Indians, and desperate refugees are only a few of the obstacles in his way!

Twice a Slave is the story of a Cherokee slave, a forbidden romance, and tragedies that build faith. One man who is determined to find his purpose and discover his identity becomes a slave a second time, and he changes the course of history in Louisiana. He was born into slavery before the American Revolution, the son of a Cherokee mother and an English father who faced incredible difficulties.

The son of a white man and Cherokee slave, Joseph Willis gains his freedom and swims the mighty Mississippi on a mule. Driven by three winds - a wind of freedom driving him from North Carolina, a mighty rushing wind compelling him across the Mississippi River into the Louisiana Territory, and a wind of war fueled by slavery Antebellum Louisiana Rooted in a time of tradition and chivalry - Joseph discovers a land of innocence lost.

The best men I've known have been cowmen. There's a code they live by - it's their way of life. It starts with an abiding reverence for the good Lord. They're taught to honor and respect their parents and to share both blanket and bread. Their words are their bond, a handshake their contract. They're good stewards of his creation, the land. They believe the words in his book.

It's been six months since the surprise attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor.... Now, it is the spring of 1942.... Steve Carmichael has just graduated from the University of Florida. From the time he was a boy growing up on a Central Florida cattle ranch, he has been flying. His dad had purchased an old mail-route bi-plane when Steve was 11 and, within a year, the youngster was soaring with the birds in the airplane.

Eighty million baby boomers are now in or approaching their 60s and moving into retirement. While this transition may be difficult, the succeeding years can be fulfilling, invigorating, and joyous. Written by the New York Times best-selling author team Richard and Linda Eyre, Life in Full creates a seven-question blueprint for how to spend the next 20 years living the life you have always wanted and enjoying the life fulfillment you deserve.

The tiny house movement is an emerging and growing trend in architecture and home design. It has been present in the real estate market for years but has only now grown to become the latest craze in the architectural world. Many people have decided that less is actually more, and even more are beginning to downsize their living to create a more suitable and much more affordable lifestyle.

Centuries ago, a clean, endless power source was discovered coursing through space. We found a way to harness it and life became easy - no more struggling. Without warning, a technologically advanced alien race came along and just took it away. We took electricity for granted. Just another bill, sitting on the counter waiting to be paid. Until it's gone. Billions perished. Frozen to death in their homes. Starved when manufacturers and farmers couldn't produce enough food. We'd built a helpless civilization dependent on universal power.

Jude Johnstone and his photographer buddy Grover once traveled together for magazine articles. Times have changed. Jude is now a tabloid reporter in Miami, and Grover runs a dying camera store. Then Jude gets a tip leading to the location of a disappeared Powerball winner of $900M, and finds him in hiding in a South Beach penthouse.

Nell Ryder is a sardonic and urbane school teacher transplanted to small-town Michigan in Joyce Carol Oates’ play. But when she gets into a dispute with an aggrieved parent, Nell finds herself accused of impropriety with one of her adolescent charges.

“Stand absolutely still, Amanda,” she read, “and you won’t get hurt.” Two seconds later a bullet from a sniper’s rifle shattered the driver’s side window of her Lexus SUV. That’s how it began, early on a Friday morning when Amanda, Harry’s wife, found the note tucked under her windshield wiper. The incident was quickly followed by a series of events that would put his family and friends in deadly danger and test Harry to his limits.

Here are stories and emails written from the fictional writer Robin Masters. Or is he fiction? Could he exist in another dimension? With nods and winks to stories and travel articles written for magazines, the author has included “Easter eggs” and more.