Mel Foster has narrated 117 audiobooks on Listento.it by 121 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 1,054 ratings. The most-rated is Bright Line Eating.
The Bitter Road to Freedom
Summary
Americans are justly proud of the role the United States played in liberating Europe from Nazi tyranny. For many years, we have celebrated the courage of the Allied soldiers, sailors, and aircrews who defeated Hitler's regime and restored freedom to the continent. But in recounting the heroism of the "greatest generation," Americans often overlook the wartime experiences of European people themselves - the very people for whom the war was fought. In this brilliant new book, historian William I. Hitchcock surveys the European continent from D-Day to the final battles of the war and the first few months of the peace. Based on exhaustive research in five nations and dozens of archives, Hitchcock's groundbreaking account shows that the liberation of Europe was both a military triumph and a human tragedy of epic proportions. Hitchcock gives voice to those who were on the receiving end of liberation, moving them from the edge of the story to the center. From France to Poland to Germany, from concentration camp internees to refugees, farmers to shopkeepers, husbands and wives to children, the experience of liberation was often difficult and dangerous. Their gratitude was mixed with guilt or resentment. Their lives were difficult to reassemble. This strikingly original, multinational history of liberation brings to light the interactions of soldiers and civilians, the experiences of noncombatants, and the trauma of displacement and loss amid unprecedented destruction. This book recounts a surprising story, often jarring and uncomfortable, and one that has never been told with such richness and depth. Today, with American soldiers once again waging wars of liberation in faraway lands, this book serves as a timely and sharp reminder of the terrible human toll exacted by even the most righteous of wars.
©2008 William I. Hitchcock (P)2008 Tantor
Lady Yesterday
Summary
Tracking down a runaway wife is run of the mill. That's yesterday's blues. But finding the trombonist father of black, beautiful, reformed hooker Iris threatens to blow up into the case of a lifetime. The trail Amos Walker follows through Detroit's smoky music clubs leads him to dens of hard crime and harder drugs - where Iris and Amos will be lucky to escape with their lives, much less the truth about a past packed with menacing secrets. And that's no jazz.
©1987 Loren D. Estleman (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Never Street
Summary
A search for a vanished husband proves one of Amos Walker’s strangest cases yet. What could be more innocent than watching old movies? For Neil Catalin, a wealthy man with a happy home, old-fashioned pictures were a hobby that became an obsession. But he wasn’t watching The Wizard of Oz. Crime movies were his passion, the sort where life is cheap and death is free, and Catalin sank himself into them as an escape from the stresses of suburbia, when soaring debt threatened to overwhelm the life he had created. Now he has disappeared, and his wife believes the clue may be in his collection of gruesome classics. She calls on Amos Walker, who ventures into a black-and-white past in his hunt for the missing man. The journey is far from escapism, because this is Detroit, where the guns don’t fire blanks.
©1997 Loren D. Estleman (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The Jefferson Bible
Summary
In the early 19th century, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, conceived the idea of extracting a gospel purified of what he saw as extraneous philosophical, mythological, and theological elements. To do so, he took verses from the four canonical gospels and arranged them into a single narrative, focusing on the actual words of Jesus. This work was never published during Jefferson's lifetime but was inherited by his grandson and printed for the first time in the early 20th century. The original bound manuscript, popularly referred to as The Jefferson Bible, is held by the United States National Museum in Washington.
Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor
Angel Eyes
Summary
When a client disappears before she can give him his assignment, Detroit PI Amos Walker must hunt down a woman he barely knows After a tour in Vietnam and several years working the streets of Detroit as a private investigator, Amos Walker has seen a lot. But he’s never encountered anything quite like his newest assignment. Ann Maringer, an aging stripper hard at work at one of the city’s many low-grade joints, hires him to find a missing person: herself. She expects to disappear any day now, she says, and she wants to be found. He goes to her apartment the next day, hoping for more information, but Ann was true to her word and has disappeared completely, leaving behind nothing but a carton of Bel-Airs and a dead man on the floor. Unshaken by the body or the circumstances, Walker sets out to find his client. After all, she paid in advance.
©1981 Loren D. Estleman (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Silent Thunder
Summary
The tabloids were full of it. Constance Thayer, after a night of clubbing, drinks, and drugs, had taken an automatic pistol from the collection of her industrialist husband Doyle Thayer Jr. and emptied it into his back, as he lay naked and unconscious in their Iroquois Heights home. The news of Constance Thayer's X-rated past breathed new life into the scandal for another month. Walker's job was to gather enough dirt on the late Mr. Thayer to make his widow look clean by comparison. What he found was a monstrous magnate, a dubious corpse, and a gang of country-style gunrunners.
©1989 Loren D. Estleman (P)2013 Audible Inc.
Aretha Franklin
Summary
Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul documents the beloved singing star’s rocky personal life and internationally acclaimed show business career. An in-depth and frank examination of Aretha, this definitive biography traces her career from her beginnings as a 12-year-old member of a church choir in the early 1950s, recording her first album at the age of 14, a major recording contract at 18, and stardom in her 20s, right up through her headline-grabbing 2010 health scare, to her triumphant return: singing to her cheering Detroit hometown fans in summer 2011. This New York Times best-selling author’s detailed research includes interviews with the most important people in Aretha’s life, including record producers Jerry Wexler, Clyde Otis, and Clive Davis; her first husband; several of Franklin’s singing star contemporaries; and a rare one-on-one session with Aretha herself. Bego’s portrayal of the singing sensation is done with clarity and neutrality. A no-holds-barred look at her roller-coaster life, it takes her from two teenage pregnancies and an abusive first marriage, to drinking problems, battles with her weight, the murder of her father, and tabloid wars. This critically acclaimed, freshly updated biography will give readers a clear understanding of what makes Aretha Franklin the “Queen of Soul.”
©2012 Mark Bego (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Party Is Over
Summary
There was a time, not so very long ago, when perfectly rational people ran the Republican Party. So how did the party of Lincoln become the party of lunatics? That is what this book aims to answer. Fear not, the Dems come in for their share of tough talk - they are zombies, a party of the living dead. Mike Lofgren came to Washington in the early eighties - those halcyon, post-Nixonian glory days - for what he imagined would be a short stint on Capitol Hill. He has witnessed quite a few low points in his 28 years on the Hill - but none quite so pitiful as the antics of the current crop of legislators whom we appear to have elected. Based on the explosive article Lofgren wrote when he resigned in disgust after the debt ceiling crisis, The Party Is Over is a funny and impassioned exposé of everything that is wrong with Washington. Obama and his tired cohorts are no angels, but they have nothing on the Republicans, whose wily strategists are bankrupting the country one craven vote at a time. Be prepared for some fireworks.
©2012 Mike Lofgren (P)2012 Tantor
Vulcan's Hammer
Summary
After the 20th century’s devastating series of wars, the world’s governments banded together into one globe-spanning entity, committed to peace at all costs. Ensuring that peace is the Vulcan supercomputer, responsible for all major decisions. But some people don’t like being taken out of the equation. And others resent the idea that the Vulcan is taking the place of God. As the world grows ever closer to all-out war, one functionary frantically tries to prevent it. But the Vulcan computer has its own plans, plans that might not include humanity at all.
©1960 Philip K. Dick (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Downriver
Summary
An ex-con hires Detroit PI Amos Walker to find the people who put him behind bars. Countless tragedies occurred in the three days of the 1967 Detroit riots, and one of them belonged to Richard DeVries. A 22-year-old black man about to get his chance to play for the Pistons, he was spotted tossing a Molotov cocktail at an abandoned building and arrested on the spot. The police added armed robbery to the arson charge, and sent DeVries up the river for knocking over an armored car that he had never seen before. 20 years later he’s set free, and the first man he calls on is Amos Walker. With 20 years of savings he buys a month of Walker’s time, asking him for help finding the men who robbed the armored car. DeVries has already paid for stealing that $200,000, and now it’s time to collect it.
©1988 Loren D. Estleman (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
A Man and His Mountain
Summary
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist tells the story of the self-made billionaire who built the Kendall-Jackson empire from nothing into the biggest-selling brand of premium wines in the U.S. Jess Stonestreet Jackson was one of a small band of pioneering entrepreneurs who put California's wine country on the map. His life story is a compelling slice of history, daring, innovation, feuds, intrigue, talent, mystique, contrarianism, and luck, offering a unique window on the elegant, adventurous, and cut-throat worlds of Jackson's two passions: wine and horseracing. Time after time his decisions would be ignored, derided, then finally envied and imitated, as whole industries watched him become a billionaire and tried to keep up. He reinvented himself at mid-life, and became founder and CEO of Kendall-Jackson. The empire he constructed endures and thrives even after his death in 2011. In A Man and His Mountain, Edward Humes brings us the no-holds-barred tale of the brilliant, infuriating, successful man who seemed to win more than his share by staying far ahead of the pack.
©2013 Edward Humes (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business
Summary
It's one of the toughest economies in years, but don't fear - the doctor is in Are you among the thousands of retailers frustrated by market challenges and looking for ways to take control of your business? Are you looking for the advice of an expert consultant, but unable to spend the money? Then The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business is for you. By providing a step-by-step approach to evaluate your current business practices, The Retail Doctor offers professional guidance. Redesign your organizational structure Reap the maximum returns on your investment Keep your business financially healthy Following the advice in this audio will help you devise a sound strategy to accomplish your goals and outperform your competitors. You'll also gain clear insight into all areas of human resource management, sales training, merchandising methods, and marketing. While your competitors are looking for a magic bullet to solve their problems, with The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business, you can be making changes that will guarantee enormous returns and financial success.
©2010 Bob Phibbs (P)2012 Gildan Media
Collision Course
Summary
One of the largest, fastest, and most beautiful ships in the world, the Andrea Doria was en route to New York from Italy. Departing from the United States was the much smaller Stockholm. On the foggy night of July 25, 1956, 53 miles southeast of Nantucket, the Stockholm sliced through the Doria's steel hull. Within minutes, the sea was pouring into the Italian liner. Eleven hours later, she capsized and sank into the ocean. Associated Press journalist Alvin Moscow recounts the heroic, rapid response of other ships - which averted a catastrophe of the same scale as that of the Titanic - and the official inquest. Moscow delivers a fact-filled, fascinating drama of how a supposedly unsinkable ship ended up at the bottom of the sea.
©2004 Alvin Moscow (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
About the Night
Summary
On a hot summer day in 1947, on a grandstand overlooking Jerusalem, Elias and Lila fall deeply, irrevocably in love. Tragically, they come from two different worlds. Elias is a Christian Arab living on the eastern side of the newly divided city, and Lila is a Jew living on the western side. A growing conflict between their cultures casts a heavy shadow over the region and their burgeoning relationship. Between them lie not only a wall of stone and barbed wire but also the bitter enmity of two nations at war. Told in the voice of Elias as he looks back upon the long years of his life, About the Night is a timely story of how hope can nourish us, loss can devastate us, and love can carry us beyond the boundaries that hold human beings apart.
©2010 Anat Talshir (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Translation © 2016 by Evan Fallenberg.
Saving Grace
Summary
His only chance to save a young girl's life is to put his trust in a headline-hunting kidnapper.
Former reporter Scott Fleetwood and his family are still recovering after tangling with a notorious kidnapper, the Piper, when another kidnapper grips the city. The Shepherd has snatched a young girl from a vacationing family. Other than money, he has one demand: he'll talk only to Scott.
Special Agent Tom Sheils is on the case and will watch over Scott every step of the way. The Shepherd promises the girl's safety as long as Scott follows the rules of his game. Forced to trail the kidnapper's twisting lead - and haunted by the last victim he failed to save - Scott is desperate to keep the past from making a brutal comeback.
But just when Scott and Sheils think they're winning and that it will all be over soon, the Shepherd ups the stakes. Scott begins to realize he's a pawn in a scheme that runs deeper than greed...and colder than death.
©2018 Simon Wood (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Summer World
Summary
As the snow melts and the spring approaches, the animal kingdom awakens. In Summer World, Bernd Heinrich, the best-selling author of Winter World, brings us an up-close and personal view of that awakening and rebirth. Almost all life on the surface of the earth derives its energy from the sun, either directly through photosynthesis or indirectly by consuming plants, making summer the time when nature is most active - feeding, fighting, mating, and nesting. From frogs, wasps, and caterpillars to hummingbirds and woodpeckers, Heinrich explores these animals' adaptations for surviving and procreating during the short window of summer, and he delights in the seemingly infinite feats of animal inventiveness he discovers there. Infused with his inexhaustible enchantment with nature, Summer World encourages a sense of wonder and discovery for the natural world and its busiest season.
©2009 Bernd Heinrich (P)2009 Tantor
Sugartown
Summary
Spring has come to Detroit's Sugartown enclave, and Amos Walker would like to feel kindly toward the human race. Unfortunately, his first case of the new season immediately leads him into trouble among the Polish settlers of neighboring Hamtramck, when old Martha Evancek hires him to look for her missing grandson. But even before Walker gets a chance to investigate, he's presented with a second case: an eminent Russian novelist who fears that someone is out to kill him. Walker knows the two cases are connected, but finding that link might cost him his life.
©1984 Loren D. Estleman (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
When They Were Boys
Summary
This is the real story of the Beatles' harrowing rise to fame, focusing on that seven-year stretch from the time the boys met as teenagers in the 1950s to early 1964, when the Fab Four prepared to invade America. From the boys' humble beginnings in Liverpool, to the cellars of Hamburg, When They Were Boys includes stories never before told, including heartbreaks, lucky breaks, and dramatic twists of timing, fate, loyalty, and betrayal. Included are an eyewitness account of that first meeting between Lennon and McCartney, the inside story of how Ringo replaced Pete Best, an exploration of the brilliant but troubled soul of manager Brian Epstein, the real scoop on their disastrous first visit to Germany, and the death of Stu Sutcliffe. With an eye for life in Liverpool during the 50s and 60s, and with the help of his own conversations with the Beatles in the early years, Larry Kane brings to life the evolution of the group that changed music forever.
©2013 Larry Kane (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc., all rights reserved.
A Wanted Man
Summary
The past has a way of catching up with folks in Stone Creek, Arizona. Schoolmarm Lark Morgan and Marshal Rowdy Rhodes are determined to hide their secrets - and deny their instant attraction. That shouldn't be too hard, since each suspects the other of living a lie. Her too-fancy clothes and big-city ways inspire gossip all over town; his blond good looks and impudent grin belong to a man sporting a gunfighter's coat. But Rowdy and Lark have one truth in common: the very real dangers they face. Like the gang of robbers wreaking havoc on the railroad heading toward Stone Creek - the men Ranger Sam O'Ballivan expects Rowdy to nab. And as past and current troubles collide, Rowdy and Lark must surrender their stubborn pride to the greatest power of all - an undying love.
©2007 Linda Lael Miller (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Motor City Blue
Summary
"If I see my name in tomorrow's paper yours will be in the next edition. Bordered in black." Marla Bernstein is a pretty, dark-haired teenager who also happens to be the ward of Ben Morningstar - a semi-retired mobster who prefers to keep family business out of the newspapers. When Marla suddenly disappears, the gang boss is forced to call in private eve Amos Walker, who quickly learns his new employer doesn't take "no" for an answer when he offers a job opportunity. Unfortunately, the only clue to Marla's whereabouts is a pornographic photograph that clearly proves that she's become part of a world that disgusts even her criminal guardian.... The photo, in turn, leads Walker into the seedy world of Detroit's porn shops and blue movies, where Marla's trail becomes even murkier and increasingly more dangerous to follow. As first cases go, Walker could have certainly asked for one less challenging. You can share your thoughts about Loren D. Estleman's Motor City Blue in the new ibooks virtual readers' group at www.ibooksinc.com.
©1980 Loren D. Estleman (P)2012 Audible, Inc.