Other books that might interest you

• 

  Newjack - Guarding Sing Sing

  Ted Conover

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing is the story of Conover's rookie year as a guard at Sing Sing. It is a nerve-jangling account of his passage into the storied prison and the culture of its guards-both fresh-faced "newjacks" like Conover and brutally hardened veterans. As he struggles to be a good officer, Conover angers inmates, dodges blows, works to balance decency with toughness, and participates in prison rituals-strip frisks, cell searches, cell "extractions"-that exact a toll on inmates and officers alike. 
   
  The tale begins with the corrections academy and ends with the flames and smoke of New Year's Eve on Conover's floor of the notorious B-Block. Along the way, Conover also recounts the history of Sing Sing, from draconian early punishment, to fame as the citadel of capital punishment, to its present status as New York State's "bottom of the barrel" prison. 
   
  This audiobook will become a landmark of American journalism-the definitive presentation of the impasse between the need to imprison criminals and the dehumanization of inmates and guards-that almost inevitably takes place behind bars. 
   
  "Newjack is an astonishing work by a gifted-and dedicated-journalist. Ted Conover takes us into the dangerous, sad, amusing and instructive soul of one of America's best known prisons." -Tom Brokaw

  Show book

• 

  How Santa Claus Came to...

  Bret Harte

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Originally published in Harte's 1875 short-story collection The Tales of the Argonauts, How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar is set in California in the early 1860s and, like the rest of the tales in that collection, features the gold-seeking Argonauts. In this tale, like many of Harte's others, the folly and grit of human existence balance any good intentions, good cheer, or hope, resulting in a more complicated and somewhat bleak ending than is commonly found in most Christmas tales. This recording of How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar was recorded as part of Dreamscape's Classic Christmas Stories: A Collection of Timeless Holiday Tales.

  Show book

• 

  Days on the Road: Crossing the...

  Sarah Raymond Herndon

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “We had spent almost all our money for toll, ferrying and other expenses on the road.  It might be a serious matter to be in a strange place without money . . . There is nothing we can spare so well as Dick.  . . . It would not do to be sentimental under existing circumstances.”  This is the practical pioneer woman Sarah Raymond Herndon writing in her journal about selling her horse to finance the final days of her family’s trek across the plains to Montana.   However, when her brother, Hillhouse, actually sells her beloved pony, Sarah is distraught.  “I sobbed out loud.  I could not help crying.  I let the purse (with the money) roll out of my lap into the bottom of the wagon.”  But then, she stiffens her resolve and displays a quiet sense of humor: “Of course, I knew the wagon bed was tight, and there was no danger of (the purse) being lost.” Sarah became the first school teacher in Virginia City, Montana.  Her account of crossing the plains in 1865 is rich in emotion and incident.  Summary by Sue Anderson

  Show book

• 

  The Helpers - Profiles from the...

  Kathy Gilsinan

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A deeply moving narrative of the coronavirus pandemic, told through portraits of eight individuals who worked tirelessly to help others. In March 2020, COVID-19 overtook the United States, and life changed for America. In a matter of weeks the virus impacted millions, with lockdown measures radically reshaping the lives of even those who did not become infected. Yet despite the fear, hardship, and heartbreak from this period of collective struggle, there was hope. In The Helpers, journalist Kathy Gilsinan profiles eight individuals on the frontlines of the coronavirus battle: a devoted son caring for his family in the San Francisco Bay Area; a not-quite-retired paramedic from Colorado; an ICU nurse in the Bronx; the CEO of a Seattle-based ventilator company; a vaccine researcher at Moderna in Boston; a young chef and culinary teacher in Louisville, Kentucky; a physician in Chicago; and a funeral home director in Seattle and Los Angeles. These inspiring individual accounts create an unforgettable tapestry of how people across the country and the socioeconomic spectrum came together to fight the most deadly pandemic in a century.

  Show book

• 

  Noon - Stories and poems from...

  Cherry Potts

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Everyone thinks of noon as being a split second as the clock's hands draw together, the bell tolls twelve times - but there is so much more to it than that - Solar noon happens as much as half an hour either side of what the clock tells you, deadlines are met, or passed, shadows vanish, vampires hide - or do they? Stories and Poems from 2018's Solstice Shorts festival, read live in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Ynys Mon, Carlisle, London and Cork on the stroke of... or nearly, Noon.
  
  Featuring stories from Barbara Renel, Clare Shaw, Diana Powell, Elaine Hughes, Karen Ankers, Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier, Liam Hogan, Lily Peters, Marka Rifat, Patience Mackarness, Roppotucha Greenberg, Su Yin Yap;
  
  and poems from Alison Gerhard, Alison Lock, Anne Elizabeth Bevan, Catriona Yule, Elinor Brooks, Gareth Culshaw, Graham Burchell, Ian Grosz, Jane Aldous, Laila Sumpton.

  Show book

• 

  The Richest Man Who Ever Lived -...

  Greg Steinmetz

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Jacob Fugger lived in Germany at the turn of the sixteenth century, the grandson of a peasant. By the time he died, his fortune amounted to nearly two percent of European GDP. Not even John D. Rockefeller had that kind of wealth.Most people become rich by spotting opportunities, pioneering new technologies, or besting opponents in negotiations. Fugger did all that, but he had an extra quality that allowed him to rise even higher: nerve. In an era when kings had unlimited power, Fugger had the nerve to stare down heads of state and ask them to pay back their loans-with interest. It was this coolness and self-assurance, along with his inexhaustible ambition, that made him not only the richest man ever but a force of history as well. Fugger helped trigger the Reformation and likely funded Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe.The ultimate untold story, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived is more than a tale about the richest and most influential businessman of all time. It is a story about palace intrigue, knights in battle, family tragedy and triumph, and a violent clash between the 1 percent and everybody else.

  Show book