Showing results by narrator "John H Mayer" in All Categories

Oak Flat is a serene high-elevation mesa that sits above the Southeastern Arizona desert, 15 miles to the west of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. For the San Carlos tribe, Oak Flat is a holy place, an ancient burial ground and religious site where Apache girls celebrate the coming-of-age ritual known as the Sunrise Ceremony. In 1995, a massive untapped copper reserve was discovered nearby.

In a barracks on an abandoned military base, miles from the nearest road, Thomas watches as the man he has brought wakes up. Kev, a NASA astronaut, doesn't recognize his captor, though Thomas remembers him. Kev cries for help. He pulls at the chain. Thomas didn't want to have to resort to this. But they really needed to have a conversation, and Kev didn't answer his messages. And now, Thomas has a few questions.

A unique biography, organized by subject areas to provide quick access to key facts and illuminating anecdotes about Hitler and his malevolent career. A must listen for anyone interested in a gaining a deeper understanding of one of the most hated figures in modern history

Could you lose weight if you put $20,000 at risk? Would you finally set up your billing software if it meant that your favorite charity would earn a new contribution? If you’ve ever tried to meet a goal and came up short, the problem may not have been that the goal was too difficult or that you lacked the discipline to succeed. From giving up cigarettes to increasing your productivity at work, you may simply have neglected to give yourself the proper incentives.

It was an explosion that reverberated across the country—and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.

When Sir Sidney, a kindly old circus owner, becomes too tired to travel with his show, he places a Help Wanted ad in the newspaper. Enter Barnabas Brambles: "I have a degree in lion taming from the University of Piccadilly Circus." But does Leo the lion need taming? Will Elsa the elephant still get her gourmet peanuts? And what will Brambles say when he discovers Bert and Gert - two mice who travel with the circus on popcorn cleanup patrol?

One hundred and thirty years ago Eadweard Muybridge invented stop-motion photography, anticipating and making possible motion pictures. He was the first to capture time and play it back for an audience, giving birth to visual media and screen entertainments of all kinds. Yet the artist and inventor Muybridge was also a murderer who killed coolly and meticulously, and his trial is one of the early instances of a media sensation.

In curiously parallel lives, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were both orphaned at an early age. Both were brilliant students who attended college - one at Princeton, the other at Columbia - and studied law. Both were young staff officers under General George Washington, and both became war heroes. Politics beckoned them, and each served in the newly formed government of the fledgling nation. Why, then, did these two face each other at dawn in a duel that ended with death for one and opprobrium for the other?

In the seventh book of the Capital Mysteries, KC and Marshall are thrilled to take a tour of the United States Treasury, where stacks and stacks of money zip off the presses in the printing and engraving building, millions of dollars a day. But the friends find that a bundle of bills is missing. That's a hundred thousand dollars—gone! How did the thief slip the money out past cameras, guards, and locked doors? KC has a suspect. She has a clue. Now she just needs to figure out how in the world it was done!

In the ninth book of the Capital Mysteries—an early chapter book mystery series featuring fun facts and famous sites from Washington, D.C.—KC and Marshall are helping out with the baby tigers at the National Zoo when they meet a new friend, Sunwoo, from China. Sunwoo's father is lending the zoo a precious jewel caled the Tiger's Eye to raise money for endangered tigers. But during the zoo's big party, the lights suddenly go out. And when they're turned back on, the jewel is missing! Who stole the Tiger's Eye?

The Spaghetti is a floating palace of elegance and entertainment. There's only one problem: Miss LaPasta doesn't want Barnabas Brambles to come aboard, because she's heard he's the meanest man alive. Lucky for Barnabas Brambles, his boss is Sir Sidney, the nicest man alive.

Today's consumers can seem impossible to understand, and even harder to please. For instance, the average mall shopper will spend about $100, then leave when she hits that limit. She'll probably buy shoes rather than clothing, because she doesn't want to think about her dress size. And the store most likely to get her money isn't the one with the nicest display or the deepest discounts, it's the one closest to her parking spot.

By the time he was 30, Dr. Benjamin Rush had signed the Declaration of Independence, edited Common Sense, toured Europe as Benjamin Franklin’s protégé, and become John Adams’s confidant, and was soon to be appointed Washington’s surgeon general. And as with the greatest Revolutionary minds, Rush was only just beginning his role in 1776 in the American experiment. 

Every year, the president pardons one turkey for Thanksgiving. One. But KC and her best friend, Marshall, think one isn't enough! This year, they want to gather lots of turkeys to be spared. The night before the holiday, the turkeys are in a big flock on the National Mall waiting to be set free. The next morning, they're gone! Who would steal 117 Thanksgiving turkeys? KC and Marshall have to ruffle some feathers to find out! 

In the thirteenth book of the Capital Mysteries—an early chapter book mystery series featuring fun facts and famous sites from Washington, D.C.— KC and Marshall have tickets for the express train out of Union Station. It even has a VIP car at the back for the vice president, the kids, and the secret service agents to travel in. But when KC and Marshall sneak away from the secret service agents to go exploring, someone tampers with the train! And that someone is searching—car by car—for KC and Marshall. There's nowhere to run! 

In the fourth book of the Capital Mysteries—an early chapter book mystery series featuring fun facts and famous sites from Washington, D.C.—KC's mom is getting married...to the President of the United States! KC wants the day to be perfect, but someone keeps leaking wedding secrets. They newspapers have even printed where the president and his bride are going on their honeymoon. To save the wedding, KC and Marshall have to track down the spy in the White House!

Upstream is an in-depth and timely look at salmon - one of the last wild foods on our table - for fans of Susan Orlean, Mark Kurlansky, and John McPhee. As the author travels to meet a variety of colorful people associated with this unique species, from Alaskan anglers to fish farm owners to four-star chefs, he reports on its remarkable place at the intersection of nature, commerce, cuisine, and human history.

In the sixth book of the Capital Mysteries—an early chapter book mystery series featuring fun facts and famous sites from Washington, D.C.—KC gets a front row seat to the Fourth of July festivities at the White House. What better place to be on the fourth than Washington, D.C.? But KC spots fireworks coming from a very peculiar place—the FBI building! Although the president thinks it was an accident, KC and her friend Marshall know better. They are sure those fireworks were covering up a clever crime!

In the first book of the Capital Mysteries—an early chapter book mystery series featuring fun facts and famous sites from Washington, D.C.—KC Corcoran always watches the news. So it's no surprise that she notices right away when the President of the United States starts acting funny on TV.

In the eighth book of the Capital Mysteries—an early chapter book mystery series featuring fun facts and famous sites from Washington, D.C.—it's summertime, and KC and Marshall are camping out on the White House lawn. But late at night, they spot mysterious lights flickering at the top of the Washington Monument. When they go to check it out, they find something even stranger—peanut shells, a broken stone, and a monkey. One thing is sure, this is KC and Marshall's weirdest mystery yet!