Showing results by narrator "Todd Curless" in All Categories

This book is a definitive biography of Martha Canary, the woman popularly known as Calamity Jane. Written by one of today’s foremost authorities on this notorious character, it is a meticulously researched account of how an alcoholic prostitute was transformed into a Wild West heroine. Always on the move across the northern plains, Martha was more camp follower than the scout of legend. A mother of two, she often found employment as waitress, laundress, or dance hall girl and was more likely to be wearing a dress than buckskin.

Successful sea rovers were careful practitioners of a complex profession that sought wealth by stratagem and force of arms. Drawn from the European tradition, yet of various races and nationalities, they raided both ship and town throughout much of the world from roughly 1630 until 1730. Using a variety of innovative tactics and often armed with little more than musket and grenade, many of these self-described "soldiers and privateers" successfully assaulted fortifications, attacked shipping from small craft, and even circumnavigated the globe.

Perhaps no conflict in American history is more important yet more overlooked and misunderstood than the War of 1812. At the climax of the war, inspired by the defeat of Napoleon in early 1814 and the perceived illegality of the Louisiana Purchase, the British devised a plan to launch a three-pronged attack against the Northern, Eastern, and Southern US borders.

In this intimate portrait of one of the Middle Ages' most consequential men, Brian Patrick McGuire delves into the life of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to offer a refreshing interpretation that finds within this grand historical figure a deeply spiritual human being who longed for the reflective quietude of the monastery even as he helped shape the destiny of a church and a continent. Heresy and crusade, politics and papacies, theology and disputation shaped this astonishing man's life, and McGuire presents it all in a deeply informed and clear-eyed biography.

This one-volume narrative history of American Indians in the United States traces the experiences of indigenous peoples from early colonial times to the present day. It demonstrates how Indian existence has varied and changed throughout our nation's history. Although popular opinion and standard histories often depict tribal peoples as victims of US aggression, that is only a part of their story. In this book Roger L. Nichols focuses on the ideas, beliefs, and actions of American Indian individuals and tribes.

When a young woman is found murdered in a seedy massage parlor near his neighborhood, the police recruit Randall Lee - an American acupuncturist and Tai Chi master - as a translator and expert in Chinese culture, to assist in the investigation. Lee discovers that the murderer is an expert in a forbidden Chinese martial art - the dark mirror to his own healing practices - and joins in the hunt for the killer to escape his own inner demons and save the woman he loves.

Building on two decades of original research into workplace issues and friendship patterns, sociologist and consultant Dr. Jan Yager offers insights into how to succeed by mastering workplace relationships. Based on an international survey of 400 men and women and over 100 interviews, Yager discovered a relationship unique to the workplace and business. She calls it a workship - more connected than an acquaintance but not as intimate as a friendship.

Tojo Smith has a serious problem. He is the number one heel for a small wrestling promotion in Texas. He is also an earthbound demon and his mission is to inspire hatred in people. This is his service to the greater evil. But suddenly, the wrestling fans start to cheer for Tojo. He goes from the most hated villain of his promotion to the most cheered antihero. And no matter how loathsome his actions in the ring become, his popularity soars.

Just back from a relaxing vacation, acupuncturist and Tai Chi master Randall Lee returns to find his friend, Detective John Knox, in critical condition following a bizarre attack by a seemingly unstoppable assailant. Against the wishes of the police and his own girlfriend, Randall begins to look into the case...but in vowing to help Knox, Lee must descend into a world of organized crime, mysterious assassins, and his own shadowy past to discover the truth.

In March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775-1776, historian Michael Cecere, consulting primary source documents, examines how Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia ended up supporting the colonies to the north, while East Florida remained within the British sphere.

Declutter Your Mind by Martin Brandt.

The Fantasy Economy challenges the basic assumptions of the education reform movement of the last few decades. Kraus insists that education cannot control the labor market and unreliable corporate narratives fuel this misinformation. Moreover, misguided public policies, such as accountability and school choice, along with an emphasis on workforce development and STEM over broad-based liberal arts education, have only produced greater inequality.

In June of 1861, 46-year-old Harriet Patience Dame joined the Second New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a matron. No Place for a Woman recounts her dedicated service throughout the Civil War. She camped with the regiment on campaign, nursed its wounded after many major battles, and carried out important wartime missions for her state and the Union cause. Late in the 19th century, she battled alongside her friend Dorothea Dix to overcome prejudice against bestowing pensions on women who nursed during the war.

The dimensions are in chaos, magic is illegal, and water is a rare commodity. Kyrin is running from the law. As a magic user, she's marked for death, and as a run-away from the Shadowmere, she's hunted as a weapon. Shifting between dimensions is all that's kept her alive. On the brink of being caught by the Shadowmere, Kyrin stumbles into a dimension devoid of the drought and seemingly untouched by the wrath of the Consortiums.

We live in a world where rock superstars, athletes, celebrities, and successful businesspeople are paraded across the big screen and featured on the news as though beauty and fame and money and power made them modern-day heroes. We seem to have lost sight of who a real hero is. Yet, America needs true heroes now, more than ever before. Not Supermen with superhero powers, but real men and women of character who will stand up and with conviction and make right, and often hard, choices in every circumstance.

On November 10, 1975, SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a giant freighter, sank with its entire crew of 29 aboard, in one of the most violent storms ever witnessed on Lake Superior. In 29 Missing, Kantar tells the Fitz's story from the christening in 1958 as the largest ship on the Great Lakes to the expedition in 1995 to recover the ship's bell in what proved to be a moving memorial to the lost crew.

First published in 1913, this classic tale by Byron Veatch is of a retired colonel who related a story of two samurai youngsters - two of the bravest men he had ever met. It was 1880 when he was in command of Fort Huachuca, Arizona on the Sonora border. He took his troops out to check on a reservation of American Indians who had slipped across the border into Mexico. He tells about his experiences with these two former Japanese samurai who had come to the US just a few weeks before enlisting in the calvary.

Still reeling from the events of Pressure Point, a broken Randall Lee embarks on a journey to the blackest deeps of hell in search of an enemy long presumed dead. To save a little girl and possibly his own soul, Randall must confront the faceless monster who destroyed his family...and the sadistic underground society to which he belongs.

Prehistoric World Cultures provides a broad overview of world prehistory while highlighting significant events, developments, and cultures through time. Organized chronologically and geographically, it gives students a clear understanding of changes through time from the evolution of our species to the development of complex civilizations.

Fort de Chartres, built in 1719-1720 in the heart of what would become the American Midwest, embodied French colonial power for half a century. Lives of Fort de Chartres, by David MacDonald, details the French colonial experience in Illinois from 1720 to 1770 through vivid depictions of the places, people, and events around the fort and its neighboring villages.