Showing results by narrator "BJ Harrison" in All Categories

What must Ruscha do to secure the magic word that kills when it’s uttered? Taken from a Danish folk tale, and spiced up with lively characters and murky atmosphere, this short tale delivers some wonderful chills. Elizabeth Ellet wrote for the magazines, or periodicals in the mid-1800s, and the name of Mrs. Ellet was recognized in literary circles. Today, Ellet is perhaps known best for the scandal she leaked about Edgar Allan Poe’s rumored affair with Frances Sargent Osgood when both were married to other people.

A country doctor visits the spacious house of a Baron. But when he arrives, he draws up in shock. Everything inside and outside of the house, down to the clothing of the inhabitants, is all the same color—white. Why is everything about the house eerily bloodless? Mary Fortune was one of the earliest female writers of crime fiction, and likely the first to write from the point of view of the detective. She enjoyed a prolific career in Australia, where she also wrote under the pseudonyms Waif Wanderer and W.W.

Bryan Dalyrimple returns to his hometown as a war hero after World War I. But after the ticker tape parades and back-slapping handshakes, he finds himself stuck in a dead-end job with little room for advancement, and frustration begins to mount. He decides to turn to the only option left for him—crime. Originally published in the 1920 short story collection Flappers and Philosophers, Fitzgerald shines a light on the sentiment toward the returning doughboys of World War I, and the dwindling opportunities awaiting them upon their return.

The night’s stillness is broken as Dr. Petrie rushes out to care for a dying patient, the subtle machinations of villainy begin their work, and the nefarious Dr. Fu-Manchu again rears his insidious head in London. Arthur Henry Ward (Sax Rohmer) is best known for creating the criminal mastermind Dr. Fu-Manchu. The Wire Jacket contains the first three chapters of the novel The Return of Fu-Manchu, and can be listened to as a stand-alone story.

A Christmas ball sets the plans in motion for the wealthy Julian Mastakovich, for an immensely wealthy business man has just announced that his daughter has a dowry of 300,000 rubles. First published in 1848, and adapted into a motion picture in 2000, Dostoyevsky shines a light on the business end of well-moneyed marriage. It begins when an 11-year-old girl gets an extravagant doll at a Christmas ball.

Everett’s brother rocked the world with his incredible musical talent. And Everett is…fine. But he’s okay with that. He’s a member of “a certain lovable class of men who never accomplish anything in particular”. But when traveling in the West, Everett meets a remarkable woman who is dying, and discovers that she has a history her brother, he gives her the greatest gift of all during her final days—the gift of understanding.

A wife’s indiscretion is answered with cruel estrangement. Yet when the couple meets again six years later in a train car, as two strangers traveling together, the Baron discovers the magnitude of his loss. Guy de Maupassant was a master of the short story, using every literary device and turn of phrase with masterful effect. A Meeting is an elegant tale that explores the consequences of unbridled, and bridled, passion.

A Jury of Her Peers is based on a murder case Glaspell covered as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. Largely ignored upon its initial publication, it was revived by feminists in the 1970s. A Jury of Her Peers is an innovative exploration of the inequalities of women’s lives in the public and private spheres. Dealing with themes of the male subjugation of women, sexism at home and the workplace, and the ways the law fails to protect women from violence, Glaspell’s tale remains hauntingly relevant after 100 years.

Showcasing three of O. Henry’s sharpest short stories, Crisis of Conscience highlights the choices available for folks whose options are limited and difficult. In the first, "An Unfinished Story", O. Henry uses a technique of only half telling two stories, delivering a clear and powerful message. The other two tales, "A Retrieved Redemption" and "A Blackjack Bargainer", are more traditional narratives, each examining folks who are trying to get back up on the straight and narrow, and their terrible wrangle with the most evil adversary of all – hope.

Awful, rich people - and the folks who want to be just like them. Drawing freely from the real people and actual events of its setting in 1920s Long Island (with literary license, of course), The Great Gatsby looks at the acquisition of the American Dream of wealth, power, and prestige, and what the costs are to those who realize that dream. And if that sounds a bit too highbrow for you, there are speakeasies, a broken nose, wild parties, and a bit of rough and tumble as well.

Scratchy Wilson will have his day. When word gets around that Sheriff Jack Potter is arriving on the afternoon train with his bride, Scratchy intends to raise all kinds of hell. Published in 1898, Crane’s story was indicative of the growing sentiment for the American West. B.J. Harrison’s authentic and textured narration brings a greater depth to this American classic.

Sure, you have some concept of a supreme being - but is your god-notion God? The one true God? The biblical God? The God who is? To anyone who has ears to hear, I simply say that it’s time to open the book and truly behold the dreadful holiness and terrifying awe of "I am". Certainly, it is long past time in this era of low-resolution preaching, denominational banality, and pervasive biblical illiteracy. For indeed, the Bible is unmistakably clear: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

A seasoned, award-winning professional money manager delivers an eye-opening and insightful take on a frequently overlooked - and critically important - investing strategy. The author walks listeners through a crash-course in how to take full advantage of the greatest opportunity for wealth accumulation: a bull market. Unloved Bull Markets is the perfect book for investors who seek to base their decisions on data and logic, rather than fears and intuition, and want to focus on the profitable climb instead of distressing worries.

B.J. Harrison reads Louisa May Alcotts famous novella "Behind a Mask", which is widely considered to be Alcotts masterpiece in sensation fiction. A wealthy Victorian-era family recruits Jean Muir as sixteen-year-old Bellas governess. But soon enough, Jean Muir appears to have everyone under her spell, and to have the power to do everything as she pleases. This novella from the late 19th century was initially published under Louisa May Alcotts pseudonym A. M. Barnard...

Career Diplomacy takes listeners inside the world of American diplomats in the US Foreign Service. Members of the Foreign Service represent the country abroad, protect and support American citizens overseas, manage government programs and facilities, and move foreign policy from the abstract to the actual.

John Carter has exposed the fraudulent Martian religion, and now there are many who want him to pay. Among them are the defrocked and black-hearted Thurid, and the bitter patriarch Matai Shang. These two villains concoct a plot that will not only plunge the Martian governments into perpetual chaos, but will condemn the plucky Dejah Thoris to a life of cruelty and misery.

Only one yellow rose bush exists in the whole of the Hungarian Plain known as the Hortobágy, and its flowers are only given by the maiden who runs the Hortobágy Inn. But when she has a lover’s spat with her betrothed, and remembers a recipe for love she learned from a gypsy woman, how could she know that she would poison her beloved?

All Kimt ever wanted to be was a healer in the temple of Ran. But an evil sorceress stole her body, and lived the life Kimt was meant to live. When her granddaughter is threatened, Kimt hatches a plan to take her life back. What she hadn't bargained for was starting life over again, as a young woman, and a powerful sorceress.

Rotiaqua was the unwanted daughter of the Baron Reik. Her only crime was being born a woman. Rotiaqua makes friends with a distant wizard child born of low birth. When Reik finally decides to accept her as his heir, he calls her from exile to the castle and court where she learns her childhood friend is hawking a new religion and calling himself a priest, and he wants her to be his priestess.

Sabrina Morgan has learned not to rely on anyone. Her reputation for being a strong-willed woman with no time for men and romance has been well-earned. So has her record as her squad’s lead bomb tech. She has never come up against a device she couldn’t defuse. Until now. Firefighter Jake Donovan can’t believe his luck when the notoriously unattainable Blonde Bomber runs into his arms. He’s not easy to scare off - after all, it’s his job to rush in where others fear to tread.