Showing results by narrator "BJ Harrison" in All Categories

Awful, rich people - and the folks who want to be just like them. Drawing freely from the real people and actual events of its setting in 1920s Long Island (with literary license, of course), The Great Gatsby looks at the acquisition of the American Dream of wealth, power, and prestige, and what the costs are to those who realize that dream. And if that sounds a bit too highbrow for you, there are speakeasies, a broken nose, wild parties, and a bit of rough and tumble as well.

Scratchy Wilson will have his day. When word gets around that Sheriff Jack Potter is arriving on the afternoon train with his bride, Scratchy intends to raise all kinds of hell. Published in 1898, Crane’s story was indicative of the growing sentiment for the American West. B.J. Harrison’s authentic and textured narration brings a greater depth to this American classic.

A Jury of Her Peers is based on a murder case Glaspell covered as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. Largely ignored upon its initial publication, it was revived by feminists in the 1970s. A Jury of Her Peers is an innovative exploration of the inequalities of women’s lives in the public and private spheres. Dealing with themes of the male subjugation of women, sexism at home and the workplace, and the ways the law fails to protect women from violence, Glaspell’s tale remains hauntingly relevant after 100 years.

Guido has lost it all. At rock bottom and wandering the shore, Guido spies a misshapen creature floating toward him in the water, riding on a huge chest. The creature offers Guido a path of revenge – switching bodies for three days in exchange for the untold riches in the chest. Guido unfortunately fails to see a potential downside. Through skillful handling of the gothic motif of the doppelgänger, Shelley’s tale explores concepts that would eventually culminate into her masterpiece – Frankenstein.

Antony Ferrara is a modern-day sorcerer - a murderer who kills with his supernatural powers. And because nobody believes it, he can work his evil schemes in broad daylight, with a simpering smile. From headless bats to carpets of scarab beetles, from murderous plants to claustrophobic chills in the bowels of a pyramid, Robert Cairn and his Van Helsing-esque father chase Ferrara to Egypt and back to keep him from completing his cunning, nefarious plan.

Showcasing three of O. Henry’s sharpest short stories, Crisis of Conscience highlights the choices available for folks whose options are limited and difficult. In the first, "An Unfinished Story", O. Henry uses a technique of only half telling two stories, delivering a clear and powerful message. The other two tales, "A Retrieved Redemption" and "A Blackjack Bargainer", are more traditional narratives, each examining folks who are trying to get back up on the straight and narrow, and their terrible wrangle with the most evil adversary of all – hope.

Mrs. Peerybingle is bright and sharp as a tack. Her husband John is a carrier, a profession as lumbering and sturdy as he is himself. When the crafty Tackleton seeks to cause mischief to forward his own nefarious plans, John’s steady heart is sorely wounded. Luckily there is a cricket on the hearth to act as a guardian angel for all of them. A huge commercial success when it was first published in 1845, this Christmas fantasy is a lovely portrait of Victorian life.

Sure, you have some concept of a supreme being - but is your god-notion God? The one true God? The biblical God? The God who is? To anyone who has ears to hear, I simply say that it’s time to open the book and truly behold the dreadful holiness and terrifying awe of "I am". Certainly, it is long past time in this era of low-resolution preaching, denominational banality, and pervasive biblical illiteracy. For indeed, the Bible is unmistakably clear: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

Seeking a new life, the Oberstrasse family lands on the wild Maine coast in 1753. They find that the American frontier teems with conniving swindlers, hostile French and Indians, killing diseases, and then a powerful movement for independence from Britain. They have come because Christianne has decided that their infant sons will never soldier for the Landgraf of Hesse like their father, hired out to serve King George of England. Expecting to till the soil, Johann finds that opportunity on the rocky coast comes from the forest, not land, so he learns carpentry and trapping.

For centuries, the West has produced stories about the future in which humans use advanced science and technology to transform the Earth. Michael Rawson uses a wide range of works that include Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, the science fiction novels of Jules Verne, and even the speculations of think tanks like the RAND Corporation to reveal the environmental paradox at the heart of these narratives: the single-minded expectation of unlimited growth on a finite planet.

B.J. Harrison reads Louisa May Alcotts famous novella "Behind a Mask", which is widely considered to be Alcotts masterpiece in sensation fiction. A wealthy Victorian-era family recruits Jean Muir as sixteen-year-old Bellas governess. But soon enough, Jean Muir appears to have everyone under her spell, and to have the power to do everything as she pleases. This novella from the late 19th century was initially published under Louisa May Alcotts pseudonym A. M. Barnard...

H.P. Lovecraft considered The Willows to be "the finest supernatural tale in English literature", and its appeal is obvious. In his tale of an adventurous duo who embark on a seemingly innocuous river trip down the Danube, Blackwood personifies the desolate willows to be ominous, alive, and menacing. The river itself brims with human passions, and the elemental winds and heavenly forces all combine to create a sense of a supernatural intelligence orchestrating it all.

John Carter has exposed the fraudulent Martian religion, and now there are many who want him to pay. Among them are the defrocked and black-hearted Thurid, and the bitter patriarch Matai Shang. These two villains concoct a plot that will not only plunge the Martian governments into perpetual chaos, but will condemn the plucky Dejah Thoris to a life of cruelty and misery.

Only one yellow rose bush exists in the whole of the Hungarian Plain known as the Hortobágy, and its flowers are only given by the maiden who runs the Hortobágy Inn. But when she has a lover’s spat with her betrothed, and remembers a recipe for love she learned from a gypsy woman, how could she know that she would poison her beloved?

All Kimt ever wanted to be was a healer in the temple of Ran. But an evil sorceress stole her body, and lived the life Kimt was meant to live. When her granddaughter is threatened, Kimt hatches a plan to take her life back. What she hadn't bargained for was starting life over again, as a young woman, and a powerful sorceress.

Rotiaqua was the unwanted daughter of the Baron Reik. Her only crime was being born a woman. Rotiaqua makes friends with a distant wizard child born of low birth. When Reik finally decides to accept her as his heir, he calls her from exile to the castle and court where she learns her childhood friend is hawking a new religion and calling himself a priest, and he wants her to be his priestess.

Sabrina Morgan has learned not to rely on anyone. Her reputation for being a strong-willed woman with no time for men and romance has been well-earned. So has her record as her squad’s lead bomb tech. She has never come up against a device she couldn’t defuse. Until now. Firefighter Jake Donovan can’t believe his luck when the notoriously unattainable Blonde Bomber runs into his arms. He’s not easy to scare off - after all, it’s his job to rush in where others fear to tread.

How would you like to learn how to utilize your greatest asset properly? In addition to this, you’ll also learn how you can fast-track your route to success and techniques that will help you get there faster! Backed by scientific insight and psychological research, the information in this book will change your life. Create a new reality for yourself right now, and leave the tired old vision of a limited life behind.

Chris Jenkins, alpha werewolf, wants the woman who destroyed his life dead. Then, he finds her imprisoned and beaten by her own family. So, he rescues her instead. Too make things worse, her soul is bound to a grimoire of black magic and he volunteers his pack to protect the book from falling into the wrong hands. Now, Jade has to live with him. It’s the only way to keep his city safe.

Gustav Braun, former Nazi and physics professor at the University of Heidelberg, spent the better part of his life trying to unravel the mysteries of time. Now in the '80s, time was running out.