Showing results by narrator "Bruce Davis" in All Categories

Being a young Mafia boss was an enormous boost to a man's ego. Some men couldn't take the pressure and responsibilities. They were simply eliminated. Tony and I had our challenges. A man is born weak and has to be taught to be strong. He needs to ignore things that would make a normal man emotional. That was the Mafia thinking. The Mafia way. We were exposed to the dirtiest, unethical situations. Laws and conscience didn't steer our lives. The problem was that people got hurt. The people that counted. The very people that meant the most got trampled.

James Gillett joined the rangers in 1875 and for the next six years, he would be combatting thieves and murderers, fighting in the Mason County War, capturing vigilantes, and providing law and order for the towns. First published in 1921, Gillett's account of his six years of service relates how the Rangers maintained law and order on the frontier. Gillett witnessed the kind of action that established the Rangers' enduring reputation.

The Devil's Pool is George Sand's most popular novella. Set in rural France, the narrative explores relations between the sexes, the power of fantasy in human life and the plight of the underprivileged. Two of the main characters are Father Maurice and his son-in-law Germain, who is considering marriage again after the death of his wife. His father-in-law organises a meeting with the rich widow, Catherine Leonard, but he finds her vain and haughty and much in demand. He seeks out the company of Marie, a shepherdess from his own village, who would prefer a younger husband.

Ostensibly written by an English knight, The Book of Marvels and Travels claim to recount his experiences in Egypt, the Levant, India, and China. It describes a journey from Europe to Jerusalem and further into Asia, and the many weird and wonderful peoples and practices of the East. The author claims to have traveled in land populated by Amazons, dog-headed people, cannibals, one-footed tribes, and Pygmies.

Francis Pretty was a diarist and sailor who wrote detailed accounts of his two separate circumnavigations of the globe. The first was with Sir Francis Drake (1577-1580) and the second with Thomas Cavendish (1588).

Once I graduated college, my life fell into a rut - my father's rut. The only way out of the rut was excitement. During the day, I worked with my dad at his insurance agency. He knew I was bored in the office and sent me to take photos of insurance losses. I also took pictures of expensive items that his clients insured. Once I saw the valuables and how carelessly they were kept, a seed began to grow in my mind. I fantasized about breaking in and taking the items.

The life story of Billy Dixon, a buffalo hunter and scout from the Texas Panhandle who was active as far as Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma, offers a genuine depiction of life on the old western frontier. Billy helped found the town of Adobe Walls, ended a siege during the Second Battle of Adobe Walls with a long-distance shot, and received the US Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Buffalo Wallow Fight. Billy later served as postmaster at Adobe Walls, sheriff of Hutchinson County, Texas, and state land commissioner.

I missed the period of my life when I trusted everyone. I think most people have that period. I blindly trusted until, one by one, I was betrayed by the people who was closest to me. The people who were supposed to love me and be honest to me let me down. I lost confidence in humanity. I lost confidence in love, loyalty. and family. The only friends that remained were some of my workers. We were life's misfits, sharing our stories of lost dreams and failures.

Lillian's job was to observe Jackson. He was a brilliant software designer/engineer. Their project was to develop artificial limbs so perfect that they could pass through an x-ray machine at an airport. Jackson's skills were state of the art. As a team, Lillian and Jackson were promoted to create the perfect dogs, intended to be service dogs. The project was very successful and the company flourished. His next project was to develop a robot so real it could enter society, undetected. It would be so close to human that it didn't know if it was built and not born.

Eric was a respected contractor, he made a fortune during the building boom. He lived a clean humble life and invested his money well. His employees did the opposite - they spent all they earned and partied away their savings. Some of them despised Eric, they felt that he had capitalized on their strong backs. They felt that Eric looked down on them, most of them were in legal troubles. Some had drug problems and others had child support troubles from several woman.

This is the story about a high school football star that turns to drugs to enhance his game. He experiments with steroids and other mind altering drugs. He loses his high school sweetheart to drugs and alcohol. Francis mixed any drugs that he can get his hands on, risking his mental and physical health. He became delusional and he can't distinguish what is real or part of his drug induced illusions.

I met Harry, the hypnotist, when my wife and I decided to quit smoking and lose a few pounds. We went with another couple. I thought the show was a sham and he used actors planted in the audience to pretend they were under a spell to make his show interesting. I had a few beers before the show. Drinking was another vice I needed to quit. I said I was on to his sham. My voice carried, and he decided to bring me on stage.

Stan was a misfortunate orphan, he was raised by his uncle Hector. Hector was mentally unstable and the worst foster father a parent could leave their child to. Hector was a war scorn madman that brought Stan to the remote woods to be raised. Hector had an abnormal desire to hunt and kill. Although he hunted the most dangerous beast of the forest, he craved hunting humans. Living away from society kept him from becoming a serial killer. He passed on his sick thoughts as well as his exceptional hunting skills.

Father Kent was given a parish that could soil the reputation of the holiest man. A priest has vows, and one of them is to keep the secrets of confessions. Father Kent's conscience was tested when he heard confessions from members of the crime family the Marconis. His church was their family parish. They gave large donations, and expected absolution for their sins. The mafia women were no different than the men.

It is a well-known fact that there are at least two serial killers per state in the United States. One hundred unprovoked killers. If counting medical killers and gang killers, the FBI numbers are greater than 300. Stan went to war, he killed many men on both sides. When he returned, he couldn’t stop himself from becoming the most feared serial killer the United States had ever seen. He hung victims under bridges in Boston and wrote "The Boston Strangler" on their foreheads.

I was in the land of the Patriot. I met a beautiful girl at a frat party, but I was too slow to get her number. I saw her again at a victory bonfire. She dropped her phone, and I found it. The next day when I went through it, I found she had training pictures of terrorists' camps. I showed it to my professor whom I trusted. He turned the phone into the Homeland Security Department, and I was contacted by two agents. They informed me that there was a tracking app on the phone, and the terrorists not only knew who I was, but where I was.

The most powerful memories of my life were the teenage years that I spent with my brother Bruce. He was my mother's favorite son, born with multiple sclerosis (MS). I used to take him swimming almost everyday, being weightless in the water made him feel powerful and normal. He fought his disease and other than tiring easily he was no different than any other teen. Since we were both excellent swimmers and always at the pool, we were offered a chance to fill in as lifeguards at the beach. It was a great summer with a large crowd and plenty of sunshine.

Bart was a poor college graduate without a job and buried in debt. Things changed when he inherited his uncle's property. It came with a strange farmhand named Alan. The farm didn't provide typical vegetables or animals. Instead, it produced marijuana, and wolf-dogs bred for professional dogfights. One dog gave him winnings of 80,000 dollars in a single match. The dogs were a mix of great dane and wolf. They were fed live animals and shot with steroids to increase their size and anger. They were the ultimate fighting dogs - supersized wolves.

This is the uplifting story of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the founder of the modern nursing profession, from her earliest days as the daughter of English squire to her role as Angel of the Crimea, and her later life of service. With the training she received at hospitals on the Continent, she was fully prepared to care for the wounded in the Crimean War (between Russia and an alliance of Great Britain, France, and Turkey).

The satirical novel, Babbitt (1922), by Sinclair Lewis, is a critique of the social pressure toward conformity and what Lewis regarded as the emptiness of middle-class life. The setting is the city of Zenith in the Midwest. The book’s first seven chapters describe a day in the life of a realtor, George F. Babbitt, starting with his morning routine.