Showing results by narrator "Kevin Free" in All Categories

Song of the Shank is a novel loosely based on the life of Thomas Greene Wiggins, a 19th-century African American piano virtuoso and composer who performed under the stage name Blind Tom. Told through the eyes and minds of people who try to manipulate or use Tom for one reason or another, the novel is an imaginative meditation on issues of blindness, race, and the role and importance of art and critical thinking in our world today.

A joyful collection of the most popular, provocative and unforgettable essays from the New York Times 'Modern Love' column. A young woman goes through the five stages of ghosting grief. A man's promising fourth date ends in the emergency room. A female lawyer with bipolar disorder experiences the highs and lows of dating. A widower hesitates about introducing his children to his new girlfriend. A divorcée in her 70s looks back at the beauty and rubble of past relationships.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar knows there's nothing like the bond you share with a brother. This celebratory audiobook is the perfect way to show how much you appreciate him, so give the gift of love with sweet sentiments from Eric Carle.

Edison Rooker is determined to gain access to the magical world. Problem is, he doesn’t have magic. But he does have a plan: get a job as apprentice to powerful sorceress Antonia Hex. He also has an illegal Spell Binder device, which he must keep hidden from the Magical Consortium, at all costs. With his new job, Edison is given a new name – Rook – which he happily accepts. He’s less happy about working alongside Sun, the grumpy but annoyingly cute apprentice to Antonia’s big rival.

Viola Reyes is annoyed. Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as Vice President that much harder. Vi’s favourite escape from the world is the role playing game Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her – girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario.

Since its publication in 1982, The Color Purple has resonated with generations of readers across the globe. The novel catapulted author Alice Walker to international fame, brought Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg acting acclaim in the 1985 film adaptation, and inspired theatrical productions around the world, including the Tony Award–winning Broadway musical. This cultural touchstone—which so profoundly touches on race, family, survival, spirituality, sisterhood, and love in all forms—continues to beget new iterations, most recently a feature film.

Arek didn’t think about what would happen after he fulfilled the prophecy. He’s officially King of Ere, but only Arek and his mage, the devastatingly handsome Matt, know that the role comes with a catch: marry by your eighteenth birthday—or die. Arek’s got three months to find his One True Love and save his own life. But things go painfully and hilariously wrong...until he discovers that love might have been right in front of him all along.

Jodi Angel's new collection You Only Get Letters from Jail comes at listeners "with a voice dripping with sweat and Schlitz” ( Esquire magazine). These moving and beautifully written stories follow young men caught in the confusing space between boyhood and adulthood, in situations that nobody can possibly prepare you for....

An in-depth exploration of the pivotal Cassius Clay transformed into Muhammad Ali, exploring the events, relationship, and experiences that shaped him.

On 6th June 1944, the Allied invasion began. For hours, wave after wave of soldiers, sailors, and airmen crossed the channel and stormed the Normandy coast, fighting to gain a foothold in Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. It was the largest combined air and seaborne invasion ever, involving over 150,000 Allied troops on the ground, and its eventual success became a critical turning point in the war, spelling the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.

When the boxmates' final adventure takes them from the iconic Tower of Power campus and deepscraper Resistance base to the larger-than-life Bixonic's Co. international space station, their augs are put to the test against a global corporate superpower. Ace, Jayla, Gray, and Leo each face individual decisions that may chart the course of the rest of their lives. Will Ace decide he wants to fly or embrace his emotional genius? Can Leo learn to trust the feelings he can't predict? How will Gray reconcile his identity? Will Jayla use her tech wizardry to save them all?

Understanding 2016 as one battle in a much longer war is essential to understanding the critical threat currently posed to America's electoral sovereignty and how to defend against it. Illuminating how the lessons of the past can be used to protect our democracy in the future, Rigged is an essential book for consumers of every political persuasion.

Thomas Laidlaw returns home from Vietnam with nothing much in mind but to tend his acreage, live apart, and get lost in the roots music he grew up with. Laidlaw’s childhood friend Rodney Redmon is doubly burdened: Not only is he scarred from the war, he is also a black man living in a prejudiced area of Tennessee. Redmon’s homecoming from the war included time in jail - the result of his being framed for real estate fraud by racist forces within the local establishment. Once released, he and Laidlaw rekindle their friendship and both veterans try to put the war behind them.

Poppy, Lily and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they discovered he was suffering abuse at the hands of his stepmother, they came up with a lethal plan: petals of poppy, belladonna and lily in her evening tea so she’d never be able to hurt Raven again. But someone got cold feet, the plot faded to a secret of the past and the group fell apart. Three years later, on the eve of Raven’s 17th birthday, his stepmother turns up dead. But it’s only belladonna found in her tea, and it’s only Belladonna who’s carted off to jail.

Award-winning Karma Wilson, author of Bear Snores On, has created the delightful Hilda Hippo - a hippo who loves to dance despite all the noise she makes while doing so. It’s just that the Ka-bump! Ka-bump! Crash! Crash! Crash! noises disturb her jungle friends. Maybe Hilda could take up knitting? But knitting doesn’t quite suit the would-be ballerina. Perhaps she and her friends can find some sort of compromise!

Jonathan Lewis-Adey was nine when his mother, Sid, vanished entirely from his life. It’s not until he’s a grown man that Jonathan finally reconnects with his beloved lost parent, only to find, to his shock and dismay, that the woman he knew as 'Sid' in Toronto has become an elegant man named Sydney living in his native Trinidad. For nine years, Jonathan has paid regular visits to Sydney, trying with quiet desperation to rediscover the parent he adored inside this familiar stranger.

Wherever your home is, it’s probably not as tough as Gary, Indiana. Gary has been called a lot of things. The Armpit of Chicago. The Land of Robbing Hoods. Hell. For the children of Gary, living often boils down to surviving. Maybe these kids get caught up in games of gin rummy. Maybe they spin tops as a way to scratch something fun out of their desperation. Maybe they stand by helplessly as their tenement buildings go up in flames. Or maybe they get held up at gunpoint by somebody who wants more money than he could steal from his church collection box.

The boxmates from the B.E.S.T. Academy are lost at sea and their best friend, Grayson Bix, is missing. Their hoverpod is busted, their stomachs are empty, and their hopes are crushed. When a mysterious vessel approaches, Ace, Leo, and Jayla are certain they'll be carted back to the Tower of Power, with their punishments for escaping awaiting. But a twist: The crew is rescued and introduced to a vibrant and thriving underwater world that is off the grid and out of Bixonics's eye...and one step closer to finding Grayson.

Riley and Jen have been best friends since they were children and they thought their bond was unbreakable. It never mattered to them that Riley is Black and Jen is white. Then Jen's husband, a Philadelphia police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager and everything changes in an instant.

This story was going to begin like all the best stories. With a school bus falling from the sky. But no one saw it happen. They were all too busy - Jason Reynolds conjures 10 tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings and brilliantly weaves them into one wickedly funny, piercingly poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life.