Classical Memoirs

Just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, 36 Japanese bombers attacked Wake Island and destroyed eight of its 12 aircraft. Two more raids shortly followed, further reducing the defensive possibilities for the men who were left to defend this small area of American soil in the center of the Pacific Ocean. The Story of Wake Island takes the listener to the heart of the action from the point of view of the commanding officer. It is a brilliant account of this tragic event that demonstrated the fighting spirit of the American soldier even in the face of unbeatable odds.

Welcome to New York, Notorious USA! The Empire State has witnessed many unique and perverse crimes. Quite a few triggered international headlines. This is where the phrase "serial killer" was born - for good reason! From genius killers to violent child molesters, New York has it all. We also find the demented assassinations of Stanford White and John Lennon, the strange case that inspired Edgar Allen Poe, murders that enthralled filmmakers, scandalous crimes that altered journalism, and even a murderous writer.

When a notorious lawyer, at the request of a famed composer, meticulously conceals his origins, his adoptive mother takes every measure to bury the truth. Pulling strings and enlisting influential allies—including a television icon—she constructs a carefully crafted facade to ensure he never uncovers his past. But as he grows older, cracks in the carefully constructed facade begin to show, leaving him haunted by an unsettling sense that something is being hidden from him.

This audiobook chronicles the entire history of this legendary Christian metal band, covering just about everything there is to know about Stryper - not just the fluff. Such questions as, "How did Stryper evolve?" and "What really happened during the Against the Law time period?" are all answered here. The answers, derived from countless hours of interviews, come directly from the band members themselves and many others.

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure was one of the most banned and censored books in the history of literature. John Cleland (a contrary man of letters, prone to boasting and getting into trouble with the law) wrote it while he was in Fleet debtor’s prison. First published in 1748 and withdrawn within a year, it was not legally republished until a hundred years later. Widely considered to be the first example of literary erotica and a stylistic tour de force, with its combination of charm, daring and love of pleasure.

En 1845, Henry David Thoreau part vivre dans une cabane construite de ses propres mains, au bord de l'étang de Walden, dans le Massachusetts. Là, au fond des bois, il mène pendant deux ans une vie frugale et autarcique, qui lui laisse tout le loisir de méditer sur le sens de l'existence, la société et le rapport des êtres humains à la Nature. Une réflexion sereine qui montre qu'il faut s'abstraire du monde et de ses désirs pour devenir réellement soi-même.

This book reveals, for the first time, the story behind the writing of ‘Desiderata’. Beloved by millions, the poem was first published in 1927, but its true origins, along with the life of its author, have largely been lost to literary history. This account by actor and author Tim Dalgleish includes not only the story of ‘Desiderata’ but two additional, previously unpublished, chapters from a forthcoming biography of Max Ehrmann. This new material helps bring Max Ehrmann, the author of 'Desiderata', out of the shadows.

Gene Stratton-Porter was a naturalist and fierce conservationist as well as an author, and one of the areas she held dearest was the Limberlost swamp. Indeed, she spent her income and life endeavouring to protect it.

Originally published in 1856, The Kidnapped and the Ransomed is the personal memoir of Peter Still, who was born a slave. He was yoked to servitude for more than four decades in Alabama and Kentucky. Still was finally freed with the help of two Jewish brothers.

Francis Sheridan paints a detailed picture of 18th century aristocracy and outlines Miss Sidney as a complex, virtuous, communicative, and unassuming young woman. Her emotional responses, however, begin to change after the disaster caused in her life by her first engagement. As she learns that her fiance has been in a previous relationship, and the affair had led to pregnancy, Miss Sidney was distraught, breaking off the engagement, and eventually finding someone else.

For many years an atheist, C. S. Lewis vividly describes the spiritual quest that convinced him of the truth and reality of Christianity, in his famous autobiography. "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God...perhaps the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." Thus Lewis describes memorably the crisis of his conversion. Surprised by Joy reveals both that crisis and its momentous conclusion that would determine the shape of Lewis' entire life.

The Music Man stands as one of the greatest achievements in American musical theatre, but few know about its rocky beginnings and the against-all-odds success story of its creator, Meredith Willson. Mark Cabaniss steps back into the Golden Age of Broadway and brings to life the origins of this classic show, the music behind it, and the unlikely story of its creator. Interweaving behind-the-scenes accounts of people who worked with Willson, Cabaniss looks at his long and unusual career as a composer, conductor, radio personality, and flutist.

Steinbeck’s vision is grounded in place—first in Central California, where he was born and lived until he was 41, and in his later life when he became a troubadour of the Americas, traversing the U.S. and Mexico. Throughout his long writing life—his work spans the years 1929 to 1966—his vision as a writer was fundamentally holistic and ecological: he believed that to understand people, you had to know something about the places they occupied, their landscapes, their histories, their spirits.

M. William Phelps, explores what goes on behind-the-scenes in this unique serial killer series as he investigates and films an episode. He takes readers and fans of the series deep into his personal life and a dark connection to the Eastbound Strangler case, how he feels about several suspects named by law enforcement, and shares an exclusive interview he conducted with a woman who claims she was with the murderer and his final victim, Kim Raffo, on the night before Kim's body was found. What kind of serial killer removes his victims' shoes and socks and lays them out in a row, facing east?

Every ambitious young man and woman would do well to listen to this book; seasoned businessmen and women will recognize something of their own successes and failures in a life that has had as many ups and downs as a turbulent stock market; and wives will see their own husbands in this audio, as well as their own frustrations with the men they love. We can only hope they possess the character of Bew’s wife, Wendy, whose own story leavens this loaf. Astute listeners will deduce that she is the quiet, unassuming anchor that gives this narrative its heartbeat.

The Romans hated Pompey’s greedy father, Strabo, with a vengeance. Yet when Pompey rose in prominence, Plutarch notes that he developed the opposite character, and the Romans loved him for it. Pompey had many great accomplishments in his military and political life, but his legacy lies in forming the First Triumvirate with Crassus and Caesar. When the alliance eventually dissolved, and Pompey fled from Caesar to his death, the Roman world would never be the same.

The English Governess at the Siamese Court, written in 1870, vividly recounts the experiences of one Anna Harriette Leonowens as governess for the sixty-plus children of King Mongkut of Siam, and translator and scribe for the King himself. Bright, young, and energetic, Leonowens was well-suited to her role and her writings convey a heartfelt interest in the lives, legends, and languages of Siam's rich and poor.

Mr. Washington was born a slave. His family, freed after the Civil War, struggled for a livelihood under terrible conditions. Mr. Washington, however, was determined to be educated, and he took advantage of every opportunity to learn available to him. He rose from poverty and ignorance to help found Tuskegee University. This audiobook should be an inspiration to all who listen.

This audiobook is the autobiography of open-air preacher Jed Smock. Brother Jed has preached at hundreds of colleges and universities across every US state and abroad. He has been practicing confrontational evangelism for five decades. Brother Jed and his wife, Sister Cindy, travel around the States, ministering daily at university campuses.

As he was composing what was to become his most enduring and popular book, E. B. White was obeying that oft-repeated maxim: "Write what you know." Helpless pigs, silly geese, clever spiders, greedy rats - White knew all of these characters in the barns and stables where he spent his favorite hours. In The Story of Charlotte's Web, Michael Sims shows how White solved what critic Clifton Fadiman once called "the standing problem of the juvenile-fantasy writer: how to find, not another Alice, but another rabbit hole."