Showing results by narrator "Kevin R Free" in All Categories

In 1911, famed cartoonist Winsor McCay debuted one of the first animated cartoons, based on his sophisticated newspaper strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, itself inspired by Freud’s recent research on dreams. McCay is largely forgotten today, but he unleashed an art form and the creative energy of artists from Otto Messmer and Max Fleischer to Walt Disney and Warner Bros.’ Chuck Jones. Wild Minds is an ode to our colorful past and to the creative energy that later inspired The Simpsons, South Park, and BoJack Horseman.

The Something Like series is drawing to a close! Before it ends, reunite with favorite characters and meet others for the first time in this special collection of fourteen stories. Highlights include Something Like Champagne, in which Marcello searches for the truth behind a drunken vision. In Something Like Bunnies, a young Jace Holden struggles with his first crush. Ben and Tim return in Something Like Memories as they debate when exactly they should celebrate their anniversary.

It's moving day at Chez Holmes. Somehow, against Kit's better instincts, he and J.X. are setting up house together. But while J.X. is off at a writing conference, Kit unpacks a crate that should contain either old books or new china. It doesn't. Within the mounds of Styrofoam popcorn is a dead body. A very dead body. There goes the neighborhood.

In the early '80s, the music industry wrote off hip-hop as a passing fad. Few could or would have predicted that the improvised raps and raw beats busting out of New York City's urban underclass would one day become a multimillion-dollar business and one of music's most lucrative genres. Among those few were two visionaries: Russell Simmons, a young black man from Hollis, Queens, and Rick Rubin, a Jewish kid from Long Island.

How do you learn to be a Black man in America? For young Black men today, it means coming of age during the presidency of Barack Obama. It means witnessing the deaths of Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Akai Gurley, and too many more. It means celebrating powerful moments of Black self-determination for LeBron James, Dave Chappelle, and Frank Ocean. In Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, Mychal Denzel Smith chronicles his own personal and political education during these tumultuous years.

New York Times and Essence best-selling author Omar Tyree is a pioneer in the megapopular urban fiction genre. His stories feature sexy guys and girls navigating life and love in the city. Set in sunny San Diego, Pecking Order follows Ivan David, an accountant slowly growing fed up with his rich, spoiled clientele. He has a plan to promote business networking parties, but when he meets local diva Lucina Gallo, his simple plan becomes more trouble than it's worth.

"Something Like Stars" playfully explores what would happen if someone made a movie about Ben, Tim, and Jace. Harold attempts to befriend Noah and Felix in "Something like Us", unrequited feelings challenging their relationship. Marcello prepares for the inevitable while revealing secrets from his past in "Something like Goodbye". And in "Something like Heaven", Ben must decide once and for all who his heart - and his future - belongs to.

With San Francisco doomed to fall off the continent, the bard must summon the Nightflyers, the soul-devouring shadow creatures from the dreaming world.

Greetings, initiate! Carter Kane, here. Congratulations on reaching Brooklyn House in one piece. This accomplishment signals that you're descended from Ancient Egyptian royalty, and you have magic powers. But what good is power without knowing how to use it? That's where this training manual comes in. Packed with quizzes, stories, and insights about Ancient Egyptian deities, creatures (the friendly and the deadly), the mysterious Duat, and more, this primer will prime those with the blood of the pharaohs to take their first steps down the path of the gods.

Former presidents have an unusual place in American life. King George III believed that George Washington’s departure after two terms made him “the greatest character of the age.” But Alexander Hamilton worried former presidents might “[wander] among the people like ghosts.” They were both right. Life After Power tells the stories of seven former presidents, from the Founding to today. Each changed history. Each offered lessons about how to decide what to do in the next chapter of life.

Drawing on extensive interviews with key players and in-depth research, this eye-opening, wildly entertaining oral history shows us how we got to this point. It’s a rollicking tale full of bad behavior, inflated egos, and a corporate culture that rewarded skirting the rules and breaking norms. But working there was never boring and now, you can discover the entire remarkable true story of America’s favorite tabloid newspaper.

For some, love seems an impossible dream. Growing up gay in small-town Missouri, Jace Holden thought his chance would never come. When he meets Victor - a wild soul and fellow outsider - his chances of finding love go from bleak to a very uncertain, maybe. Bracing his heart, Jace chases after his desire, hoping for a warm hand to hold his tight.

High profile lawyer Jordan Wainwright guards his secrets closely, especially his adoption by the powerful Wainwright family. Attorney Aziza Fleming has been burned before, first by a bad marriage and then by a harassment case that nearly destroyed her career. Sophisticated and irresistibly sexy, Jordan could be everything she wants. But he'll have to choose between keeping a decades-old secret and embracing their newly-found passion...

A murderous fall down icy stairs is nearly the death of Anna Hitchcock, the much-beloved "American Agatha Christie" and Christopher Holmes' former mentor. Anna's plea for him to host her annual winter writing retreat touches all Kit's sore spots - traveling, teaching writing classes, and separation from his new lover, J.X. Moriarity. For J.X., Kit's cancellation of yet another romantic weekend is the death knell of a relationship that has been limping along for months. But that's just as well, right?

Recipient of a Zora Neal Hurston Literary Award, Rochelle Alers is the best-selling author of the Hideaway novels. In this sizzling series debut, a casual meeting of high-profile lawyer Jordan Wainwright and attorney Aziza Fleming soon leads to unexpected fireworks. Aziza thinks Jordan could be everything she desires—if he’s the trustworthy man she needs. Jordan must now choose between keeping a decades-old secret or embracing their newfound passion.

A working stargate dating back more than 10,000 years has been discovered in North Dakota, on a Sioux reservation near Devils Lake. Travel through the gate currently leads to three equally mysterious destinations: (1) an apparently empty garden world, quickly dubbed Eden; (2) a strange maze of underground passageways; and (3) a space station with a view of a galaxy that appears to be the Milky Way.

I know how crazy this will sound, but after a freak accident, I woke up in the 1950s...and met a really special guy. His name is Daniel Parker. He's adorable, sweet, hot, and everything else I've been searching for. There might be a way to return to my own time, but I'm not sure I can leave him.

From the organization We Need Diverse Books and Dhonielle Clayton, the co-author of Blackout, comes a fantasy collection of short stories from a list of diverse, award-winning, and best-selling authors. This critically acclaimed young adult anthology welcomes every voice to lead, empower, and take command of their universe.

PLAYGROUND follows four lives – a marine biologist, an artist, a schoolteacher, and an AI pioneer – that intersect on an island in French Polynesia when it is chosen as a base for seasteading, humanity’s next great adventure.

Eric Banyon, better known as Bedlam's Bard, is finally about to graduate from Julliard and enter the Real World and so, with the help of a psychiatrist who specializes in the problems of magicians, he's finally coming to terms with his past. But a spur-of-the-moment trip home to Boston to visit his parents brings him more trouble than even Eric thought possible.