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MURDER at the MENDEL(Joanne Kilbourn #2) (audiobook) by Gail Bowen

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Published in 2012 by Post Hypnotic Press Originally published in 1991 Read by Lisa Bunting Duration: 6 hours, 33 minutes Unabridged Gail Bowen's Joanne Kilbourn character carries on into her second book. Life has changed for her - she has moved her family to Saskatoon in Saskatchewan to be close to her daughter in college and to teach at the same university.  The local art center was called the Mendel (I say was because it has since been slated to close and move to a new location with a new name) and a childhood friend of Joanne Kilbourne who has since become a controversial artist has an exhibit at the Mendel. The artist, named Sally Love, and Kilbourn used to be very close but after the suicide of Love's father when they were 13 years old Sally Love moved away. Kilbourn and Love renew their friendship. Sally Love's exhibition has brought a number of protesters out because of her art. She has a lot of art with overt sexual themes, including a 200 square foot f

FREE FIRE (Joe Picket #7) by C.J. Box

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Published in May of 2008 In the previous book in the Joe Pickett series, In Plain Sight , Joe lost his job as a Wyoming game warden. In this book Joe gets his job back, sort of. Governor Rulon, a man who delights in doing things that irritate bureaucracies, has offered him a chance to work as a Game Warden "without portfolio" (as they might say in diplomatic circles). Joe is an independent agent, working for the Governor but the Governor wants plausible deniability for everything Joe does. The Governor offers this to Joe because of a situation that developed in Yellowstone National Park. A local attorney went into a part of the park that is in Idaho, shot four campers and then turned himself in. The campers all worked for Zephyr, a private contractor that runs the hotels, the gift shops and does the maintenance around the park. But, due to a loophole in the law described in detail  here  he was not able to be tried for anything. Due to federal law and his right to a tr

THE BATTLE of EZRA CHURCH and the STRUGGLE for ATLANTA (audiobook) by Earl J. Hess

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Published in May of 2015 by Blackstone Audio Read by Joe Barrett Duration: 8 hours, 29 minutes Unabridged During the Atlanta campaign in the Summer of 1864 Confederate President Jefferson Davis changed the nature of the campaign with the simple stroke of a pen. Up to that point, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman was slowly forcing his way southward towards Atlanta by way of a series of flanking maneuvers. His opponent, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, was slowly retreating, hoping to find an opening for a fatal strike against his opponent. Unfortunately for him, Sherman's mistakes were too small to be exploited and eventually Johnston found himself backed up against Atlanta itself. Oliver O. Howard (1830-1909). Photo by Matthew Brady. At this point, President Davis intervened and removed Johnston on July 17, replacing him with John Bell Hood. While Johnston was cautious, Hood was by nature an aggressive general. Also, given the circumstances of Johnston

HARMLESS: AN UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE STORY (audiobook) by Ernie Lindsey

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Published in 2013 by Ernie Lindsey Read by DJ Holte Duration: 10 hours, 34 minutes Unabridged First things first - this is a weird book. It was written to be that way. The author, Ernie Lindsey, set out to write a book in which the main character is totally unlikable but by the end of the book the reader will be rooting for this unlikable fellow. Did he succeed? Well, Steve Pendragon is certainly unlikable. It's not like he is an evil man. Rather, he is a clueless, thoughtless man. He keeps on flirting with his neighbor long after he should have gotten the clue that she did not want him to flirt with her any longer (in an office environment it would have careened into sexual harassment territory long before). It's not like he backs her up in the corner and puts his hands on her. He just does creepy things like have her mail delivered to his house so he has to walk it to her door every day. He stares at her from his window as she sunbathes. He gets into her car to

IN PLAIN SIGHT (Joe Pickett #6) by C.J. Box

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  Published in 2006. I have been reading C.J. Box's series about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett for the last five years now after having someone recommend him to me on Amazon. The problem is, I have made absolutely no effort to read them in order - I just read them as I find them. So, I have read #1 and #9-13 plus several of Box's standalone novels. In Plain Sight is the first one that I felt a little lost in it as I jumped in but I got things figured out after 50 or 60 pages and still enjoyed another adventure with Joe Pickett. In this book, Joe is dealing with a new boss at the state level who is much more bureaucrat than he is game warden. While they butt heads, the town of Saddlestring is being torn apart by an internal family feud with the Scarlett family. The Scarletts are one of the original white families to move into the area and they have been stunningly successful over the generations. They have the biggest ranch with the best land. They are on all of the

LETTER from BIRMINGHAM JAIL (audiobook) by Martin Luther King, Jr.

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          A Brilliant Essay Published by Mission Audio in April of 2013. Originally published in 1963 in various newspapers and magazines Read by Dion Graham Duration: 51 minutes This letter was written in response to a group of African American preachers who were calling for an end to the nonviolent resistance to the racist order in Birmingham, Alabama. This included sit-ins, marches and violating a court order to end all such demonstrations. King was arrested for violating this order (yes, he was arrested for speaking his mind and being involved in a peaceful assembly - a double violation of his First Amendment rights) and kept is squalid conditions in the overcrowded Birmingham jail. Recreation of the Birmingham Jail cell where this letter was written at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo by Adam Jones, Ph.D.   Letter from Birmingham Jail was written, at first, on scrap bits of paper and smuggled out by way of his lawyers and re-assembled b