Showing results by narrator "Michael John" in All Categories

As the American Civil War rages, an officer who longs for the glory of battle has been assigned to staff duties away from the battlefield. Now a captain, he is assigned to a combat unit and faces battle for the first time. He finds there is no glory, only controlled terror for those engaged in war.

We have all experienced it. A scene, a smell, a sound, or a song will carry us back to another time, another place, and to memories pleasant or unpleasant. For Private Grayrock of the Federal Army in the fall of 1861, the trigger is a mockingbird.

First Lieutenant George Thurston, the new guy, earns the respect of his fellows by his seeming disregard for his own life. When death takes an unfair advantage and strikes with an unfamiliar weapon, it is even more disquieting to those most familiar with it.

Short story number fourfrom "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce is a short fiction, "A Son of the Gods" a story for which the American Civil War furnished the dramatic setting. It is a masterpiece of power of description subtlety of touch, and literary finish. Why would a Lieut. ride a white horse in front of the enemy lines drawing their fire and admiration in an act of insanity or unparalleled heroism.

"Parker Addison, Philosopher" is short story number nine from the collected works of Ambrose Bierce volume 2. Three men die as one of them philosophizes about his pending execution.

Killed at Resaca, is a short story of the American Civil War by Ambrose Bierce. Bierce is a master of the surprise ending. This short story of bravery and betrayal is no exception. Ambrose Bierce was a veteran of the American Civil War, and like many veterans, anger simmers just below the surface. In this short story Bierce’s simmering anger comes out in a surprising way at the end of the story.

"The Coup de Grâce" a short story by Ambrose Bierce, himself a troubled veteran of the American Civil War, details a fictional situation, which may be based on some truth. An act so humane and yet so repugnant it would not be spoken of. War is unglamorous and ugly.

Ambrose Bierce is a wordsmith who paints with a marvelous portrait with words. This short story with its surprise ending draws you in like a month to the flame. The story itself is entertaining, but with a surprise ending one is drawn to rethinking the story, and re-reading again. The American Civil War where brother fought brother father fought son is well represented in this story. After the Civil War Pierce became a journalist in San Francisco, and was a prolific producer of short stories.

Ambrose Bierce, a veteran of the Civil War and writer of note, had a fascination with death and PTSD as a result of his war experience. "One of the Missing" follows Private Jerome Searing, an Army scout, as he goes behind enemy lines. In today's military, Searing would probably be in the Navy Seals or Army Special Forces. He was good at his job, and his job was soldiering.

In volume number eight of the Tom Swift series by Victor Appleton, narrated by John Michaels, our hero, Tom Swift, takes his airship, the Red Cloud, and his friends above the Arctic Circle in search of gold. They find the gold, but not without dealing with savage Indians, scoundrels, violent storms, and of course the evil Fogers. Please note that some of the language, attitudes, and references, although acceptable when this book was copyrighted in 1911, are not politically correct today.

Ambrose Bierce participated in one of the bloodiest wars in American history, and though he survived, the war haunted him the rest of his life. Today we have a name for the demon that haunts many of those "more fortunate" who survive: post-traumatic stress disorder. In World War I and World War II they called it shell-shocked. The battle of Chickamauga was surpassed in casualties only by the battle of Gettysburg.

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is widely regarded as one of the significant works of English literature. Conrad takes us not only into the darkness of the early 20th century Congo, but also into the deeper darkness of the human psyche. John W Michaels' masterful narration of this work takes you into the troubled mind of a man tormented not only by the isolation of the tropical wilderness, but also man's inhumanity to man.

Wayland Fuller Dunaway served as a Captain of Copany I, of the 40th Virginia Regiment of the Army of Northern Virginia fought in all the battles of Lee's Army until he was captured after the Battle of Gettysburg, whereupon he is incarcerated at Johnson's Island until the end of the war. This narrative gives an excellent picture of life in the Army of Northern Virginia.

Twenty four classic fairy tales compiled in 1905 by Hamilton Wright Mabie, this enchanting book isn't your Disney classic. Little Red Riding Hood does get eaten by the Big Bad Wolf, but in most cases the princes and princesses go on to live long and happy lives and the wicked step mothers get their just dues.

This novel by John Fox, Jr., narrated by John Michaels, captures the essence of pre coal-mining life in the Eastern Kentucky mountains, isolated since the Revolutionary War, as the residents move into the 20th century. Fox weaves the love story of Hale, an outsider and June Tolliver, a mountain girl against the background of coal companies ravaging the mountains and a 30-year fued between the Tollivers and the Falins.

First published in 1893 as a children's book to encourage the humane treatment of animals, Beautiful Joe has taken it's place along with Black Beauty, becoming a favorite of several generations of youngsters. Beautiful Joe narrates the story of his mutilation at the hands of a cruel master and the love he finds in the home of a caring family full of kids and animals.

They have been romanticized and glorified in the movies and TV, but these are perhaps more accurate portrayals of Wyatt Earp and his contemporaries. Published in 1923, Fredrick R. Beckholdt bases most of these stories upon research and interviews with old timers who witnessed many events portrayed here. Becholdt's portrayal of of the outlaws, hostile Indians, cowboys, gamblers, cold blooded killers, prospectors, and lawmen who inhabited the Wild West is riveting.

From the onset of the war, Basil L. Gildersleeve, native of Charleston, South Carolina, a scholar, and professor of Greek at the University of Virginia left his students every Spring to return to the army until he was wounded during a skirmish in the Shenadoah Valley in 1864. Thirty years later he authored The Creed of the Old South, and A Southerner in the Peloponnesian War included in this audiobook.

This book, Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Memorial Edition, takes us to 14 homes of the great, including Dickens, Shakespere, Victor Hugo, and Thomas Edison.

Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s 9-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family. In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind.