Showing results by narrator "Jeff Woodman" in All Categories

"How lucky I was, arriving in New York just as everything was about to go to hell." That would be in the autumn of 1972, when a very young and green James Wolcott arrived from Maryland, full of literary dreams, equipped with a letter of introduction from Norman Mailer, and having no idea what was about to hit him. Landing at a time of accelerating municipal squalor and, paradoxically, gathering cultural energy in all spheres as "Downtown" became a category of art and life unto itself, he embarked upon his sentimental education, seventies New York style.

Morgan Fairfield has been given two things: a locked briefcase and a ticket for the maiden voyage of the Titanic. In the briefcase is information vital to the American War Department. To deliver the message, Morgan will have to restore his wavering faith and survive the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Eve is haunted by her dead cats, Willie is not content to turn a blind eye to suffering, and Maria carries on lengthy conversations with a silent caller. Theirs are the odd, but strangely realistic stories you will find in this collection. Avi’s stories address real concerns in a way young people can relate to. Always entertaining, they broach difficult topics like divorce, teenage runaways, adolescent cruelty, and homelessness.

Collie Flanagan was named after his mother's favorite breed of dog. His brother, Bingo, was named for an Irish setter. Their names are the least of their worries because they're Flanagans, members of a wildly wealthy, impossibly articulate family that also includes a philandering father, pigeon-racing uncle, radical activist mother, and domineering media mogul father whose own daughter has accused him of being a murderer.

As they begin fifth grade, Rupert and Amelia discover that their teacher, Miss Switch, is a witch. Using his scientific mind, Rupert helps her solve a spooky dilemma. In return, the witch teaches Rupert and Amelia some magic. But soon Miss Switch disappears, and another teacher takes her place. One night that winter, a dark figure delivers a strange bottle to the children. Scientific curiosity leads Rupert to take the cork out. Suddenly, the bottle releases an ugly demon, Mordo, who plans to kidnap a whole class from Pepperdine Elementary School.

Outside, the wind is howling. Inside the empty house, Taddy is shivering beneath a ragged blanket. He has been alone ever since his aunt and uncle died suddenly from a terrible fever. As his uncle was taking his final breath, he warned of danger in nearby Alexandria. Now Taddy is hiding, afraid of the unknown. When two rough-sounding men sneak in to steal the furniture, they force Taddy into their horse-drawn cart. The next thing he knows, he’s in a tavern in Alexandria, working long hours for crumbs.

Winner of the National Book Award for her collection of stories Ship Fever, Andrea Barrett has become one of our most admired and beloved writers. In this magnificent new book, she unfolds five pivotal moments in the lives of her characters and in the history of knowledge. In these brilliant fictions rich with fact, Barrett explores the thrill and sense of loss that come with scientific progress and the personal passions and impersonal politics that shape all human knowledge.

Born in a bookstore in a blighted 1960's Boston neighborhood, Firmin the rat miraculously learns how to read by digesting his nest of books. Alienated from his family and unable to communicate with the humans he loves, Firmin quickly realizes that a literate rat is a lonely rat. Following a harrowing misunderstanding with his hero, the bookseller, Firmin begins to risk the dangers of Scollay Square, finding solace in the Lovelies of the burlesque cinema. Finally adopted by a down-on-his-luck science fiction writer, the tide begins to turn.

A Gary Paulsen World of Adventure book, The Gorgon Slayer takes young listeners into the exciting world of ancient heroes and monsters.

High school sleuths P.C. Hawke and Mackenzie Riggs quickly regret their decision to take a difficult calculus class from a tough instructor at Columbia University. But even though she's mean, Professor Dunaway certainly seems an unlikely candidate for murder. Though there are plenty of suspects, a lot of things about this case just don't add up.

Bill Buford spends a wild night in the park; Jonathan Safran Foer envisions it as a tiny, transplanted piece of a mythical Sixth Borough; and Marie Winn answers definitively Holden Caulfield's question of where the ducks go when the park's ponds freeze over. There are bird sightings and fish sightings; Jackie Kennedy and James Brown sightings; and pieces by Colson Whitehead, Paul Auster, and Francine Prose. This vibrant collection presents Central Park in all its many-faceted glory, a 51-block swath of special magic.

Reminiscent of Joan Didion's White Album or Kurt Vonnegut's Palm Sunday, Visions and Revisions is a collage-style portrait of a tumultuous era that puts the listener on the streets of NYC during the early '90s AIDS crisis, also touching on such diverse subjects as the serial murders of gay men, Peck's first loves upon coming out, and the transformation of LGBT people from marginal, idealistic fighters to their present place in a world of widespread, if fraught, mainstream acceptance.

Sex. Money. International terrorism. And, of course, the ultimate question- Can a compact backswing save the world? A clubhouseful of acclaimed authors pass the baton (or at least the six-iron) to creat an ensemble tour de force of suspense, romance, and hilarity on the links. Golf is not a team sport. But who says fiction can't be? Get ready....

A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms; a 'blind' old man haunted by memories of the war; and an undersexed guide dog named Sammy Davis Jr., Jr. What they are looking for seems elusive - a truth hidden behind veils of time, language and the horrors of war.

Young Daniel and his family live in a log cabin high on a Tennessee mountain. Whenever Daniel has time, he carves things out of wood. First he makes a beautiful dish for his mother. Then he tries a cup and a spoon. But Daniel wants to create realistic animals just like the famous woodcarver who lives in the valley. All winter long after supper, Daniel sits in front of the warm fireplace with his knife and a large piece of wood. He is working on a duck to sell at the spring fair in the valley.

Learn the 25 keys to unlocking the powerful and useful information buried in corporate financial statements, in this program from the New York Times Pocket MBA series. You can also subscribe to an audio edition of the Times.

When the village Elder tries to buy Darek's blue dragon for his daughter, Darek refuses to sell. The angry Elder makes Darek's father hunt down another dragon, but, knowing that dragons are peaceful and love their children, Darek sets off with his best friend, Pola, to stop the hunt. Can Darek find a way to save the baby dragons without putting his father's life in danger?

Caught in a riptide of haphazard underemployment, at turns violent and unpredictable, suffering under a bad economy with no family or friends to speak of, Stratton Brown longs for the chance to escape his small-town past and build a new life. He sets out for Chicago, where he meets a new and fresh hell: a nine-to-fiver in a nondescript, meaningless company, and an obsessive love affair with woman who may be a bit too attached to her abusive ex-boyfriend. Is this all America has to offer its 20-somethings?

To solve Rhode Island's budget crisis, the state's colorful governor, Attila the Nun, wants to legalize sports gambling, but her plan has unexpected consequences. Organized crime, professional sports leagues, and others who have a lot to lose - or gain - if gambling is made legal flood the state with money to buy the votes of state legislators.

A victim of foul play, Firman Birdsong spends the Grand Opening of the Birdsong brothers’ chicken restaurant dead under a table—with his gravy covered, parsley-garnished body and his tomato-stuffed mouth. Biggie and her young grandson, J.R., investigate the murder. But as the suspect list swells, J.R. believes Biggie cares more about detecting than protecting him from a brewing custody battle—and the investigation takes an awful turn.