Please click on a cover illustration to listen to a sample of the audiobook.
Kentucky Traveler
My Life in Music
by Ricky Skaggs
In Kentucky Traveler, Ricky Skaggs, the music legend who revived modern bluegrass music, gives a warm, honest, one-of-a-kind memoir of 40 years in music – along with the Ten Commandments of Bluegrass, as handed down by Ricky’s mentor, Bill Monroe; the Essential Guide to Bedrock Country Songs, a lovingly compiled walk through the songs that have moved Skaggs the most throughout his life; Songs the Lord Taught Us, a primer on Skaggs’ most essential gospel songs; and a bevy of personal snapshots of his musical heroes.
For fans of Johnny Cash’s autobiography, lovers of O Brother Where Art Thou, and fans of country music and bluegrass, Kentucky Traveler is a priceless look at America’s most cherished and vibrant musical tradition through the eyes of someone who has lived it.
A Trucker’s Tale
Wit, Wisdom, and True Stories from 60 Years on the Road
by Ed Miller
Driving one highway after another at sunrise, winding through the mountainside, hearing the call to rise of the roosters, or simply exchanging “fishing stories” with the other guys at the truck stops. Like that one about the trucker who stopped along the highway and helped a little old lady who had a flat tire. By the time the trucker had told his tale a dozen times, the simple tire change story turned into one where an old lady was accompanied by her gorgeous, blond, and 21-year-old granddaughter – you know how that ends. Imagine the story traded from one driver to the next. Each time, a more outrageous yarn is spun.
They say that only truck drivers experience the true grandeur and landscape of America. In A Trucker’s Tale, Ed Miller gives an inside look at the allure of the work and the colorful characters who haul our goods on the open road. He shares what it was like to grow up in a trucking family, his experience as an equipment officer in Vietnam, and the trials and tribulations of life as a trucker. His tales are often funny, sometimes sad, cringeworthy, or unbelievable. Many are the results of what he calls “just plain stupidity.” Together they paint a compelling portrait of a vibrant but little-known industry, and reveal why he just kept on truckin’.
Satan is Real
The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers
by Charlie Louvin with Benjamin Whitmer
The beautiful and tragic saga of the Louvin Brothers—one of the most legendary country duos of all time—is one of America’s great untold stories. Charlie Louvin was a good, God-fearing, churchgoing singer, but his brother, Ira, had the devil in him and was known for smashing his mandolin to splinters onstage, cussing out Elvis Presley, and trying to strangle his third wife with a telephone cord.
The Los Angeles Times called them “the most influential harmony team in the history of country music,” but Emmylou Harris may have hit closer to the heart of the matter, saying “there was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers.” For readers of Johnny Cash’s irresistible autobiography and Merle Haggard’s My House of Memories, no country music library will be complete without this raw and powerful story of the duo that everyone from Dolly Parton to Gram Parsons described as their favorites: the Louvin Brothers.
Artemus: Meanderings
A Whimsical Journey Down the Untamed Stream of Consciousness
by Arthur Flavell
An entertaining, thought-provoking blend of memoir, old-time storytelling, homespun philosophy, and the occasional errant thought, all delivered with Southern style and a distinctive country flavor.
These treasures are the result of matriculation in The Advanced School of Hard Knocks (from which I graduated Summa Cum Laude) and I felt it was only right to share them. Perhaps one or two will bring a smile to your face and a lift to your spirit. So, sing a song and let your consciousness stream free. May your journey be educational, enriching, and above all… joyful.
SOG Medic: Stories from Vietnam and Over the Fence
by Joe Parnar and Robert Dumont
In the years since the Vietnam War, the elite unit known as SOG has spawned many myths, legends, and war stories. Special Forces medic Joe Parnar served with SOG during 1968 in FOB2/CCC near the tri-border area that gave them access to the forbidden areas of Laos and Cambodia. Parnar recounts his time with the recon men of this highly classified unit, as his job involved a unique combination of soldiering and lifesaving. His stories capture the extraordinary commitment made by all the men of SOG and reveal the special dedication of the medics, who put their own lives at risk to save the lives of their teammates. Parnar also discusses his medical training with the Special Forces.
During his tour with SOG, Parnar served as a dispensary medic, chase medic, Hatchet Force medic, and as a recon team member. This variety of roles gave him experience not only in combat but in dealing with and treating the civilians and indigenous peoples of that area. There is a graphic account of a Laotian operation involving America’s most decorated soldier, Robert Howard, during which Parnar had to treat a man with a blown-off foot alongside nearly 50 other casualties. It is a reminder of the enormous responsibility and burden that a medic carried.
Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend
by Gary L. Roberts
In Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend, the historian Gary Roberts takes aim at the most complex, perplexing, and paradoxical gunfighter of the Old West, drawing on more than 20 years of research – including new primary sources – in his quest to separate the life from the legend.
Doc Holliday was a study in contrasts: the legendary gunslinger who made his living as a dentist; the emaciated consumptive whose very name struck fear in the hearts of his enemies; the degenerate gambler and alcoholic whose fierce loyalty to his friends compelled him, more than once, to risk his own life; and the sidekick whose near-mythic status rivals that of the West’s greatest heroes. With lively details of Holliday’s spirited exploits, his relationships with such Western icons as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, this book sheds new light on one of the most mysterious figures of frontier history.
The Notorious Reno Gang
The Wild Story of the West’s First Brotherhood of Thieves,
Assassins, and Train Robbers
by Rachel Dickinson
The true story of the world’s first robbery of a moving train, and the real origins of the Wild West.
They were the first outlaws to rob a moving train. But from 1864 to 1868, the Reno brothers and their gang of counterfeiters, robbers, burglars, and safecrackers also held the town of Seymour, Indiana, hostage, making a large hotel near the train station their headquarters.
When the gang robbed the Adams Express car of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad on the outskirts of Seymour on October 6, 1866, it shocked the world – and made other burgeoning outlaws like Jesse James sit up and take notice. The extraordinary – and extra-legal – efforts to take them out defined the term “frontier justice”.
From the first report of the robbery, Allan Pinkerton’s operatives were on the scene, followed by kidnappings, lynchings, and an extradition from Canada to Indiana that caused an international incident. In the end, 10 members of the Reno Gang were hanged, including three of the Reno brothers. And no one was ever charged with the murders
The Notorious Reno Gang tells the complete story for the first time, revealing how these gangsters, Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, and the little city of Seymour ushered in the Wild West.
Inspiration for Your Soul
by Theresa Gordon Duggan
This audiobook is about my life convictions and the pain and sorrows that I encountered while going through the storms in my life. This audiobook is meant to encourage and uplift your spirit and is designed to make you think about how good God is and what he’s done, and is doing in your life. It is not intended to take away from the Holy Bible or to replace the Holy Bible.
May you listen to this book with love and an understanding mind. When you are going through the storms of life or just needing encouragement, this audiobook will lead you to the Lord. I hope that it will be as enjoyable to you as it was for me writing it.
May God bless each and every one that listens to this inspirational book. In Jesus’s Name.
Hard Roll:
A Paramedic’s Perspective of Life and Death in New Orleans
by Jon McCarthy
Known as one of America’s most dangerous cities, New Orleans plays host to incidents ranging from the tragic and disturbing to the completely bizarre – and during his career as an emergency medic, Jon McCarthy saw it all. He chronicles some of the most formative calls of his career in this autobiography that sounds like crime fiction. McCarthy demonstrates with detail and clarity that the difficult choice is often the right choice. While not for the faint of heart, each entry in this collection provides poignant insight into the bonds between medics and the people and city they serve.
Born in Tallahassee, Florida, and a veteran of the United States Coast Guard, Jon McCarthy is proud to be an emergency room paramedic. Since 1996, he has worked in emergency medical services in helicopters, clinics, hospitals, and on the streets of New Orleans. He is one of the co-creators of the New Orleans EMS Field Training Officer (FTO) program and served as the Lead FTO for five years. McCarthy was featured on The Learning Channel program Paramedics and has a side career as an actor.
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock
by Gene Odom with Frank Dorman
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock is an intimate chronicle of the band from its earliest days through the plane crash and its aftermath, to its rebirth and current status as an enduring cult favorite. From his behind-the-scenes perspective as Ronnie Van Zant’s lifelong friend and frequent member of the band’s entourage who was also aboard the plane on that fateful flight, Gene Odom reveals the unique synthesis of blues/country rock and songwriting talent, relentless drive, rebellious Southern swagger and down-to-earth sensibility that brought the band together and made it a defining and hugely popular Southern rock band — as well as the destructive forces that tore it apart. Illustrated throughout with rare photos, Odom traces the band’s rise to fame and shares personal stories that bring to life the band’s journey.
American Detective:
Behind the Scenes of Famous Criminal Investigations
by Thomas A. Reppetto
From the Roaring Twenties to the 1970s detectives reigned supreme in police departments across the country. In this tightly woven slice of true crime reportage, Thomas A. Reppetto offers a behind-the-scenes look into some of the most notable investigations to occur during the golden age of the detective in American criminal justice.
From William Burns, who during his heyday was known as America’s Sherlock Holmes, to Thad Brown, who probed the notorious Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles, to Elliott Ness, who cleaned up the Cleveland police but failed to capture the “Mad Butcher” who decapitated at least a dozen victims, American Detective offers an indelible portrait of the famous sleuths and investigators who played a major role in cracking some of the most notorious criminal cases in U.S. history. Along the way Reppetto takes us deep inside the detective bureaus that were once the nerve centers behind crime-fighting on the streets of America’s great cities, including the FBI itself, under the direction of America’s “top cop,” J. Edgar Hoover.
According to Reppetto, detectives were once able watchdogs until their role in policing became diluted by patrol strategies ranging from “stop and frisk” to community policing. Reppetto argues against these current policing systems and calls for a return to the primacy of the detective in criminal investigations.
Storytelling and the Sciences of Mind
by David Herman
With Storytelling and the Sciences of Mind, David Herman proposes a cross-fertilization between the study of narrative and research on intelligent behavior. The book as a whole centers on two questions: How do people make sense of stories, and how do people use stories to make sense of the world? Examining narratives from different periods and across multiple media and genres, Herman shows how traditions of narrative research can help shape ways of formulating and addressing questions about intelligent activity, and vice versa.
Using case studies that range from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to sequences from The Incredible Hulk comics to narratives told in everyday interaction, Herman considers storytelling both as a target for interpretation and as a resource for making sense of experience itself. In doing so, he puts ideas from narrative scholarship into dialogue with such fields as psycholinguistics, philosophy of mind, and cognitive, social, and ecological psychology. After exploring ways in which interpreters of stories can use textual cues to build narrative worlds, or storyworlds, Herman investigates how this process of narrative worldmaking in turn supports efforts to understand – and engage with – the conduct of persons, among other aspects of lived experience.
Electric Living: The Science Behind the Law of Attraction
by Kolie Krutcher
The Law of Attraction works because “consciousness creates.” Although much has been written about how the Law of Attraction works, this book details why it works – for good or bad. Skeptics and adherents alike will find Kolie Crutcher’s exploration of the science behind this this potent law a fascinating read. An electrical engineer by training, Crutcher applies his in-depth knowledge of electrical engineering principles and practical engineering experience detailing why human beings become what they think about.
Kolie Crutcher is founder and CEO of the Wall Street company, GET MONEY, a premier lifestyle magazine for entrepreneurs. “This book is the real deal when it comes to the Law of Attraction. Kolie’s philosophy of Consciousness Creates is the key that unlocks the door to tremendous vibrant living, to great thinking, and to abundance-be it health or wealth . A must-read for anyone who wants to be successful in life.” -Freeway Ricky Ross
Addressing classic and quantum physics, the conscious and subconscious mind, infinite intelligence and free will, Electric Living: The Science Behind the Law of Attraction deftly gives readers a practical, step-by-step analysis for how to harness their thoughts and emotions so that the Law of Attraction will benefit them in their pursuit of success and vibrant living.
The Law of Attraction for Teens
by Christopher A. Combates
Whether it’s achieving better grades, creating better relationships with your friends, parents, or teachers, getting a car, scoring a date for the prom, or finding your dream job, the Law of Attraction works! Like attracts like – when we align our goals with our best intentions and highest purpose, we can easily improve our lives. In this book, the author helps the young adult understand when the Law of Attraction is working positively (producing the results you want) and learn how to think, act, and communicate in the most positive way possible.
“When we were up against the wall with our marketing campaign, Thomas at The Write Stuff turned it around for us. Not only did he provide exceptional copy to increase our brand awareness and sales, he also recommended a number of different ways we could leverage our marketing dollars to get a better return on investment. We were focusing on Facebook like everyone else, but he told us we needed to approach B2B sales through LinkedIn. Our sales increased 250%.”
Perfect Husband: The True Story of the Trusting Bride Who Discovered Her Husband Was a Coldblooded Killer
by Gary Provost
As seen on A Current Affair – the shocking story of Florida’s most bizarre multiple murder case. As Lisa and Kosta Fotopoulos lay sleeping in their home, a burglar broke in and shot Lisa at point-blank range in the head. Miraculously, she survived to learn the sobering truth about her would-be assassin – and about her sociopathic husband’s deadly agenda.
Fatal Dosage: The True Story of a Nurse on Trial for Murder
by Gary Provost
Becoming a nurse was the realization of Anne Capute’s lifelong dream. Now she had everything she wanted—until the nightmare began at Morton General Hospital.
THE CRIME
Licensed practical nurse Anne Capute administered a fatal dose of morphine to a dying patient, Norma Leanues. Anne claimed she was following common practice at Morton General, with a verbal approval by Dr. Hillier, to administer unrestricted doses of morphine as a humane antidote to the unbearable suffering of terminal cases.
THE CHARGE
One day after the death of Mrs. Leanues, Dr. Hillier was off on a European vacation, and Anne Capute was suspended. Three days later she was advised to retain a lawyer—she would be standing trial for first degree murder.
THE TRIAL
One after another, doctors and nurses with whom Anne had worked so closely testified against her. And the most damaging prosecution witness of all was Dr. Hillier. Suddenly Anne’s life’s dream was destroyed. And as her personal life, too, began to shatter, there remained little hope of acquittal—or justice.
Anne Capute: A woman on trial for her life. One dedicated nurse battling against the vast influence of the medical establishment. Hers is a true story of courage, drama, and penetrating suspense that no reader will soon forget.
Shocking True Stories of Citizens Who Took the Law Into Their Own Hands
by Gary Provost
AN EYE FOR AN EYE
They are battered women, grieving parents, and burglarized homeowners who responded to criminal violence by taking the law into their own hands. Their cases have struck a deep chord in American society. Are they victims of a failing judicial system or criminals themselves? True crime writer Gary Provost examines the stories of ordinary citizens who have taken on the roles of judge, jury and — sometimes — executioner. Are their acts a higher form of justice…or merely revenge? You decide:
* Bernhard Goetz, who shot four teenagers when they approached him on a subway train and demanded money
* The young man who gunned down his own friend for killing his teenaged sister in a drunk-driving accident
* The mother who risked her life to track down and apprehend her daughter’s rapist
* “Grambo,” the Dallas grandmother who held a burglar at gunpoint for forty-five minutes while waiting for the police
* The battered wife who hired a hit man to murder her husband after seventeen years of abuse
Fascinating, penetrating, and chilling, Into Their Own Hands is a controversial and thought-provoking look at what’s wrong with crime and punishment in America today and what happens when victims don’t just get mad — they get even.
“I Hear America Singing”: Folk Music and National Identity
by Rachel Clare Donaldson
Folk music is more than an idealized reminder of a simper past. It reveals a great deal about present-day understandings of community and belonging. It celebrates the shared traditions that define a group or nation. In America, folk music–from African American spirituals to English ballads and protest songs–renders the imagined community more tangible and comprises a critical component of our diverse national heritage.
In “I Hear America Singing,” Rachel Donaldson traces the vibrant history of the twentieth-century folk music revival from its origins in the 1930s through its end in the late 1960s. She investigates the relationship between the revival and concepts of nationalism, showing how key figures in the revival–including Pete Seeger , Alan Lomax, Moses Asch, and Ralph Rinzler–used songs to influence the ways in which Americans understood the values, the culture, and the people of their own nation.
As Donaldson chronicles how cultural norms were shaped over the course of the mid-twentieth century, she underscores how various groups within the revival and their views shifted over time. “I Hear America Singing” provides a stirring account of how and why the revivalists sustained their culturally pluralist and politically democratic Americanism over this tumultuous period in American history.
Penn Traffic Forever
by Robert Jeschonek
The Penn Traffic Department Store is back in business in the pages of this one-of-a-kind book. Now’s your chance to revisit this Johnstown, Pennsylvania landmark or experience its magic for the very first time. The whole true story of the legendary store, its employees, and the shoppers who loved it is right here, complete with all your favorite treats and traditions.
Help yourself to Penn Way candies…have a burger and fries in the Penn Traffic restaurant…relax on the mezzanine…and wait on the sidewalk on a cold winter’s night for the grand unveiling of the most spectacular Christmas window in town. You’ll never forget this trip through history, from the store’s pre-Civil War beginnings to its dramatic finale 123 years later, with three devastating floods, an epic fire, and a high-stakes robbery in between. Hundreds of photos, never before gathered in one place, will whisk you back in time to the people and events that made Penn Traffic great…and carry you forward for a special tour of the Penn Traffic building as it stands today, complete with traces and treasures from the store’s glory days.
You’ll feel like you’ve returned to the store of your dreams, especially when you cook up the authentic goodies in the Penn Traffic recipe section, handed down from the store’s own bakery and candy kitchen all-stars. If you’ve ever longed to go back to the magical department store where you always felt at home, or you just wish for a simpler, sweeter place where the air smells like baking bread and the customer is always right, step inside.
In Tune With The Infinite
by Ralph Waldo Trine
Though it is clear the inspiration for the concepts presented in this text originated from many sources, the thoughts themselves are uniquely those of the author and derive from his own experience. Ralph Waldo Trine was conversant with the sacred texts of many religions and belief systems. He was no doubt influenced by his namesake, Emerson and that other brilliant voice of enlightenment, Walt Whitman.
Trine’s ideas often mirror those of earlier thinkers, but the intriguing thing about his work is the manner in which the language and practical applications of those ideas have stood the test of time.
The first edition of In Tune With The Infinite was published in 1898, well over a century ago. For those who have explored more modern texts on the spiritual life, you may be surprised to encounter some of the same ideas presented here, often in nearly the same language. Publications such as Jane Roberts’ Seth books, Esther Hicks’ channeling of the Abraham consciousness and even popular offerings such as Richard Bach’s Illusions all echo the same truths.
There is much here to admire. If for no other reason than providing a daily dose of positive, uplifting concepts to our minds, it is worth the time to explore the thoughts and ideas of one who felt compelled to preserve them to help future seekers.