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Stationary Bike (audiobook) by Stephen King

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Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2006 Read by Ron McClarty Stephen King Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes I am not sure who the person was at Simon and Schuster Audio that decided to record Stephen King's short stories as separately packaged stories, but I think it was a stroke of brilliance. I am leery of listening to a 30-40 hour audiobook for a taste of King's special brand and I am equally leery of a short story collection - I get tired of mentally shifting gears so often. In this short story, Richard Sifkitz is an overweight graphic artist (he specializes in book covers and advertisements) who was told by his doctor that he needs to lose a little weight and eat better because his cholesterol is too high. The doctor compares his cardiovascular system to a road maintenance crew and says that Sifkitz is working his crew to death and soon enough it will start to fail. Sifkitz resolves to work out and buys a stationary bike. He paints a simple painting of a

Civil War (Marvel Comics) (audiobook) by Stuart Moore

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Adapted from the graphic novel series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven Published by GraphicAudio in 2013 Multi-cast performance Duration: Approximately 6 hours. NOTE: This review was written before the Marvel Studios movie of the same name was released. Clearly, this comic series inspired the movie. For me, this novelization is superior to the movie. At the start of this review I want you to know that I am a fan of comics, but not a fanboy (and I use that term with affection since I am a fanboy of other things, just not superheroes). I watch most of the movies, read a few graphic novel collections from time to time that are several years old that I find in my local (and excellent) public library. I talk comics with a friend of mine who is a serious fan, but I am not. I have never been to a comic book store. I have no t-shirts with superhero logos. The only superhero movie I own is the Adam West Batman movie. However, I am a huge fan of the work that GraphicAudio

The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America by Scott Weidensaul

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Published in 2012 by Houghton Miffllin Harcourt Publishing Company I have had Scott Weidensaul's The First Frontier for longer than a year, buried in my legendary pile of books (actually, I am more organized than that, they are all in 4 milk crates) but when I heard an interview with Wiedensaul on the John Batchelor radio show I was reminded to dig it out. Weidensaul is to be commended for a very thorough job of researching the history of the relationship between the natives and the European colonists. The records are scant, the spelling is haphazard and so much of it is buried in myth and politics. He starts with the disposition of the American Indian population prior to the arrival of Europeans. The limited history of pre-Colombian contact is discussed (with the Vikings and various fishing fleets) and the discussion of the similarities of differences of the various American Indians arrayed along the Atlantic coastline is quite interesting. But, as Weidensaul's

My Mother's Secret by J.L. Witterick

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Published in 2013 by iUniverse J.L. Witterick's My Mother's Secret is the true tale of  Franciszka Halamajowa and her daughter Helena who are  native Poles trying to survive the German occupation of their country. They speak German since Franciszka was married to a German (the father of Helena) but she left him to return to Poland before the war. Helena works in a German factory and is dating the manager, the son of the owner. She and her mother are somehow scraping by even though the war is a daily reality for them and German soldiers have been known to park their vehicles right next to their house and officers have even come over for dinner. Oh, and they are also hiding two Jewish families and a German soldier who refuses to fight, keeping them all fed and unaware of each other. German soldiers in a Polish village in 1942 or 1943 Witterick tells this story in a spare writing style that emphasizes the matter-of-fact way that these two ladies took in families that

Streets of Fire (audiobook) by Thomas H. Cook

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"That's the trouble with a situation like this - you just don't know who is who." Published by Highbridge Audio in 2012 Read by Ray Chase Duration: 11 hours, 35 minutes Thomas H. Cook's Streets of Fire is set in Birmingham, Alabama in the spring of 1963 during Martin Luther King's famed "Birmingham Campaign" that featured the Children's March, "Bull" Connor, boycotts and fire hoses being turned on demonstrators. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.  Photo courtesy of  Library of Congress,  Prints and Photographs Division, AL-898-5 Sergeant Ben Wellman is called away from taking detailed notes on Martin Luther King's speeches at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church (one of many policemen that were used as spies who filled notebooks and turned them in to their superiors) to investigate a dead body found in a shallow grave in an abandoned ball field in Bearmatch, a black neighborhood. Generally, the all whi

Riders of Judgment (Danny Duggin #3) by Ralph Compton

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Unique twist on the traditional Western but fails to deliver Originally published in 2001. Riders of Judgment is the third in the "Danny Duggin" series. The first two book are Death Rides a Chestnut Mare and the second is The Shadow of a Noose. The trilogy is about Danielle Duggin, the crack shot daughter of a master gunsmith who was gunned down by a ruthless gang led by Saul Delmano, the rich and spoiled son of a man who has led his own gang for decades. Danielle transforms into "Danny" and starts to hunt down the 10 men in the gang that killed her father. She has a list of names and is slowly working her way through it, marking them off as she kills them. She is joined by her twin brothers in her second book. In the third book they are down to one last name: Saul Delmano. Saul Delmano is hiding in Mexico, protected by the government of Mexico because Delmano's father rules the valley he lives in and polices it and shares some of the spoils with c