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MAY, 2013

9 AM (Mon-Fri)
 

SILENT NO MORE
by Aaron Fisher

Read by Matt Robbins. (7 episodes, 05/02/13 – 05/10/13).

Book jacket illustration.Victim 1, at fourteen years of age, spoke up against Jerry Sandusky in the Penn State scandal, and now for the first time tells his story.

Aaron Fisher was an eager and spirited eleven-year-old when legendary Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky recruited him into his Second Mile children’s charity. Offering support at a critical time in Aaron’s life, Sandusky gave him gifts and attention, winning the boy’s trust even as he isolated him from his family and peers. Before long, Sandusky’s attention escalated into sexual assault. When Aaron summoned the courage to speak up, he found himself ostracized and harassed by the very people who were supposed to protect him. The investigation set off by his coming forward would drag on for three years—and would launch the biggest scandal in the history of sports.

In Silent No More, Aaron Fisher recounts his harrowing quest to bring Sandusky’s crimes to light—from the intense feelings of guilt that kept him from speaking up earlier and the fear he felt at accusing a man who was a pillar of the community and a hero to the largest alumni network in the world, to the infuriating delays in the arrest and conviction of his abuser. He catalogs the devastating personal toll the case took on him: the shattered relationships, panic attacks, and betrayal of trust that continued to haunt him even after the charges went public in the fall of 2011. But he also speaks of his mother’s desperate efforts to get him out of harm’s way, the invaluable help of psychologist Michael Gillum, and the vindication he felt at inspiring numerous other victims to step forward . . . and at knowing that, thanks to him, there would be no future victims of Jerry Sandusky.

In the end, Aaron Fisher won his fight to expose the truth, achieving some measure of closure. Told in the honest and unforgettable voices of Aaron; his mother, Dawn; and his psychologist, Mike, this inspiring book completes Aaron’s transformation from a nameless casualty into a resounding voice for change.

 

FALLEN ANGEL
by Daniel Silva

Read by Jim Beattie (12 episodes, 05/13/13 – 05/28/13)

Book jacket illustration.Gabriel Allon—art restorer, spy, and assassin—returns in a spellbinding new thriller from the #1 New York Times-bestselling master of intrigue and suspense

When last we encountered Gabriel Allon in Portrait of a Spy, he was pitted in a blood-soaked duel with a deadly network of jihadist terrorists. Now, exposed and war-weary, he has returned to his beloved Rome to restore a Caravaggio masterpiece for the Vatican.

But while working early one morning in the conservation laboratory, Gabriel is summoned to Saint Peter's Basilica by his friend and occasional ally Monsignor Luigi Donati, the all-powerful private secretary to his Holiness Pope Paul VII. The body of a beautiful woman lies smashed and broken beneath Michelangelo's magnificent dome. The Vatican police rule the death a suicidal fall, though Gabriel, with his restorer's eye and flawless memory, suspects otherwise. So, it seems, does the monsignor. Concerned about a potential scandal, Donati fears a public inquiry will inflict more wounds on an already-damaged Church; he calls upon Gabriel to use his matchless talents and experience to quietly pursue the truth—with one important caveat.

"Rule number one at the Vatican," Donati said. "Don't ask too many questions."

Gabriel soon discovers that the dead woman had uncovered a dangerous secret—a secret that threatens powers beyond the Vatican. To solve the mystery, Gabriel joins forces with a master art thief to penetrate a criminal smuggling network that is looting timeless treasures of antiquity and selling them to the highest bidder. But there is more to this network than just greed. An old enemy is plotting revenge, an unthinkable act of sabotage that will plunge the world into a conflict of apocalyptic proportions. Once again Gabriel must return to the ranks of his old intelligence service—and place himself, and those he holds dear, on the razor's edge of danger.

An intoxicating blend of art and intrigue, The Fallen Angel moves swiftly from the private chambers of the Vatican, to a glamorous art gallery in St Moritz, to the hidden alleyways of Istanbul—and finally, to a pulse-pounding climax in the ancient city of Jerusalem, the world's most sacred and contested parcel of land. Each setting is rendered with the care of an Old Master, as are the spies, lovers, priests, and thieves who inhabit its pages. It is a story of faith and of the destructive power of secrets. And it is an all-too-timely reminder that those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.

 

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

Read by Susan Sweeney. (15 episodes, 05/29/13 – 06/18/13).

Book jacket illustration.In the most devastating political detective story of the century, two Washington Post reporters, whose brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation smashed the Watergate scandal wide open, tell the behind-the-scenes drama the way it really happened.

Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing with headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward kept the tale of conspiracy and the trail of dirty tricks coming — delivering the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post and toppled the President. This is the book that changed America.

Described as "absolutely mesmerizing" by the Chicago Sun-Times, The Final Days is a portrayal of Nixon's dramatic last days in the White House.

 


10 AM (Mon-Fri)

THE PRESIDENTS CLUB
by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy.

Read by Ed Wolpert and Sandra Mathis. (23 episodes, 04/04/13 – 05/06/13).

Book jacket illustration.The Presidents Club, established at Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration by Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover, is a complicated place: its members are bound forever by the experience of the Oval Office and yet are eternal rivals for history’s favor. Among their secrets: How Jack Kennedy tried to blame Ike for the Bay of Pigs. How Ike quietly helped Reagan win his first race in 1966. How Richard Nixon conspired with Lyndon Johnson to get elected and then betrayed him. How Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter turned a deep enmity into an alliance. The unspoken pact between a father and son named Bush. And the roots of the rivalry between Clinton and Barack Obama.

Time magazine editors and presidential historians Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy offer a new and revealing lens on the American presidency, exploring the club as a hidden instrument of power that has changed the course of history.

 

THE DOVEKEEPERS
by Alice Hoffman

Read by Timothy Gunter. (22 episodes, 05/07/13 – 06/05/13)

Book jacket illustration.The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman’s most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel.

In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.

The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets—about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love. The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman’s masterpiece.


10 PM (Mon-Fri)

 

MOWTOWN: MUSIC, MONEY, SEX AND POWER
by Gerald Posner

Read by C. L. Walker. (17 episodes, 04/26/13 – 05/15/13).

Book jacket illustration.In 1959, twenty-nine-year-old Berry Gordy, who had already given up on his dream to be a champion boxer, borrowed eight hundred dollars from his family and started a record company. A run-down bungalow sandwiched between a funeral home and a beauty shop in a poor Detroit neighborhood served as his headquarters. The building’s entrance was adorned with a large sign that improbably boasted “Hitsville U.S.A.” The kitchen served as the control room, the garage became the two-track studio, the living room was reserved for bookkeeping, and sales were handled in the dining room. Soon word spread that any youngster with a streak of talent should visit the only record label that Detroit had seen in years. The company’s name was Motown.

 Motown cuts through decades of unsubstantiated rumors and speculation to tell the true behind-the-scenes narrative of America’s most exciting musical dynasty. It follows the company and its amazing roster of stars from the tumultuous growth years in Detroit, to the drama and intrigue of Hollywood in the 1970s, to resurgence in 2002.

 Set against the civil rights movement, the decay of America’s northern industrial cities, and the social upheaval of the 1960s, Motown is a tale of the incredible entrepreneurship of Berry Gordy. But it also features the moving stories of kids from Detroit’s inner-city projects who achieved remarkable success and then, in many cases, found themselves fighting the demons that so often come with stardom—drugs, jealousy, sexual indulgence, greed, and uncontrollable ambition.

 Motown features an extraordinary cast of characters, including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder. They are presented as they lived and worked: a clan of friends, lovers, competitors, and sometimes vicious foes. Motown reveals how the hopes and dreams of each affected the lives of the others and illustrates why this singular story is a made-in-America Greek tragedy, the rise and fall of a supremely talented yet completely dysfunctional extended family.

 Based on numerous original interviews and extensive documentation, Motown benefits particularly from the thousands of pages of files crammed into the basement of downtown Detroit’s Wayne County Courthouse. Those court records provide the unofficial—and hitherto largely untold—history of Motown and its stars, since almost every relationship between departing singers, songwriters, producers, and the label ended up in litigation.

 From its peaks in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Motown controlled the pop charts and its stars were sought after even by the Beatles, through the inexorable slide caused by their failure to handle their stardom, Motown is a riveting and troubling look inside a music label that provided the unofficial soundtrack to an entire generation.

 

MAD RIVER
by John Sanford

Read by Anne Teddlie. (12 episodes, 05/16/13 – 05/29/13 )

Book jacket illustration.Bonnie and Clyde, they thought. And what’s-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns.

The first person they killed was a highway patrolman. The second was a woman during a robbery. Then, hell, why not keep on going? As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, some of it captured on the killers’ cell phones and sent to a local television station, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the growing army of cops trying to run them down. But even he doesn’t realize what’s about to happen next.

 

 

 

AMERICA AGAIN
by Stephen Colbert

Read by Ken Traina. (6 episodes, 05/30/13 – 06/05/13)

Book jacket illustration.Book store nation, in the history of mankind there has never been a greater country than America. You could say we're the #1 nation at being the best at greatness.

But as perfect as America is in every single way, America is broken! And we can't exchange it because we're 236 years past the 30-day return window. Look around—we don't make anything anymore, we've mortgaged our future to China, and the Apologist-in-Chief goes on world tours just to bow before foreign leaders. Worse, the L.A. Four Seasons Hotel doesn't even have a dedicated phone button for the Spa. You have to dial an extension! Where did we lose our way?!

It's high time we restored America to the greatness it never lost!

Luckily, AMERICA AGAIN will singlebookedly pull this country back from the brink. It features everything from chapters, to page numbers, to fonts. Covering subject's ranging from healthcare ("I shudder to think where we'd be without the wide variety of prescription drugs to treat our maladies, such as think-shuddering") to the economy ("Life is giving us lemons, and we're shipping them to the Chinese to make our lemon-flavored leadonade") to food ("Feel free to deep fry this book-it's a rich source of fiber"), Stephen gives America the dose of truth it needs to get back on track.


11 PM (Mon-Sat)

RED MIST
by Patricia Cornwell

Read by Sandra Mathis (14 episodes, 04/16/13 – 05/01/13)

Book jacket illustration.With high-tension suspense and cutting-edge technology, Patricia Cornwell—the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer—once again proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthrall in this remarkable novel featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.

On her quest to find out exactly what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months before, Scarpetta drives to the Georgia Prison for Women to meet a convicted sex offender and the mother of a vicious and diabolically brilliant killer. Against the advice of her FBI criminal intelligence agent husband, Benton Wesley, Scarpetta is determined to hear this woman out.

Scarpetta has both personal and professional reasons to learn more about a string of grisly killings: the murder of a Savannah family years earlier, a young woman on death row, and then other inexplicable deaths that begin to occur at a breathtaking pace. Driven by inner forces, Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding’s death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale.

And she is the only one who can stop it

 

WICKED APPETITE
by Janet Evanovich

Read by Brad Ketch. (8 episodes, 05/02/13 – 05/10/13)

Book jacket illustration.Lizzy Tucker has inherited a historic house in Marblehead, Massachusetts, taken a new job as pastry chef for Dazzle’s Bakery in Salem, and set her sights on a comfortable future. The comfortable future and any hope for normalcy evaporates when dark haired, dark hearted Gerewulf Grimoire and his nemesis, a blond beach bum named Diesel, enter Dazzle’s and change Lizzy’s life forever.

Grimoire has set his sights on the Stones of SALIGIA, rumored to have found their way to Salem. These seven stones, each representing one of the seven deadly sins, can bestow frightening powers upon its owner.  Powers that would be dangerous in Grimoire’s hands…

Diesel is a man with a mission: To stop Grimoire at all costs. In order to do so he’ll need to convince the baker she alone has the ability to keep Grimoire from the stones. Once Lizzy and Diesel become a team, Diesel will have to guard Lizzy’s body...day and night.

The Seven Deadly Sins pretty much cover everything that’s wicked. Diesel thinks they also pretty much cover everything that’s fun. And Lizzy thinks Diesel and The Sins cover everything her mother warned her about…

 

KILLERS OF THE DREAM
by Lillian Smith

Read by Maurice Glatzer. (9 episodes, 05/11/13 – 05/21/13)

Book jacket illustration.A Southern white writer, educator, and activist, Lillian Smith (1897–1966) spoke out all her life against injustice. In Killers of the Dream (1949), her most influential book, she draws on memories of her childhood to describe the psychological and moral cost of the powerful, contradictory rules about sin, sex, and segregation—the intricate system of taboos—that undergirded Southern society.

Published to wide controversy, it became the source (acknowledged or unacknowledged) of much of our thinking about race relations and was for many a catalyst for the civil rights movement. It remains the most courageous, insightful, and eloquent critique of the pre-1960s South.

"I began to see racism and its rituals of segregation as a symptom of a grave illness," Smith wrote. "When people think more of their skin color than of their souls, something has happened to them." Today, readers are rediscovering in Smith's writings a forceful analysis of the dynamics of racism, as well as her prophetic understanding of the connections between racial and sexual oppression.

 

WHERE WE BELONG
by Emily Griffin

Read by Martha Kennedy (12 episodes, 05/22/13 – 06/04/13)

Book jacket illustration.From the author of six New York Times bestselling novels, Emily Giffin, comes the unforgettable story of one powerful secret, its effect on two families, and the life-altering journey that follows…

Marian Caldwell is a thirty-six-year-old television producer living her dream in New York City. With a fulfilling career and picture-perfect relationship, she has convinced everyone, including herself, that her life is just as she wants it to be. But one night, Marian answers a knock on the door . . . only to find Kirby Rose, an eighteen-year-old girl with a key to a past that Marian thought she had locked away forever.

From the moment Kirby appears on her doorstep, Marian’s meticulously constructed world will be shaken to its core, resurrecting memories of a passionate young love affair that threaten everything that has come to define her. For the precocious and headstrong Kirby, the encounter will spur a process of discovery that ushers her across the threshold of adulthood, forcing her to reevaluate her family and future in a wise and bittersweet light.

As Marian and Kirby embark on a quest to find the one thing missing in their lives, each will come to recognize that where we belong is often where we least expect to find ourselves. A place that we may have willed ourselves to forget, but that the heart remembers forever.

 


 

12 AM (Tues-Sun)


FIFTY SHADES DARKER
by E. L James

Read by Gwen Waymon. (18 episodes, 04/14/13 – 05/04/13).

Book jacket illustration.Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. 
 
But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
 
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.

This book is intended for mature audiences. 

 

AN ACCIDENTAL AFFAIR
by Eric Jerome Dickey

Read by Roy Harris (14 episodes, 05/05/13 – 05/21/13)

Book jacket illustration.New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey once again “pushes romance and deceit to the next level” (USA Weekend) in this tantalizing tale of a high-profile marriage rocked by scandal, obsession, and murder.

Screenwriter James Thicke is a man whose mysterious past runs as deep as his violent streak. Now he and his volatile movie star wife, Regina Baptiste, have channeled their passions into an electrifying new project: a film rumored to cross the boundaries of on-screen sexuality. But it’s James’s limits that are about to be tested—by a surreptitiously filmed video of his wife with her co-star Johnny Bergs, in the most comprising of situations. Within hours, it goes viral.

Regina claims she is innocent. But the humiliation and rage leave James with only one recourse—an act of violence that sends him on the run and into hiding. Seething with bitter betrayal, and a still-consuming love for his troubled wife, he nurses a slow-boiling desire for something more permanent: revenge. His need for vengeance takes James and Regina on a headlong odyssey of obsession, sexual impulse, blackmail, and murder. And getting back will be hell.

 

DEVIL BONES
by Kathy Reichs

Read by Tom Jowers. (10 episodes, 05/22/13 – 06/01/13)

Book jacket illustration.Now in mass market from the bestselling author, forensic anthropologist, and producer of the FOX television hit Bones—the riveting #1 New York Times bestselling Temperance Brennan novel.

In a house under renovation in Charlotte, North Carolina, a plumber discovers a forgotten cellar, and some rather grisly remains—the severed head of a teenage girl, several decapitated chickens, and a couple of cauldrons containing beads, feathers, bones, and other relics of religious ceremonies. In a river not far away, an adolescent boy’s torso carved with a pentagram, is found. Are these crimes the work of Satanists and devil worshippers?

Nothing is clear, neither when the deaths occurred, nor where. Was the skull brought to the cellar or was the girl murdered there? As Temperance Brennan is called in to investigate, citizen vigilantes intent on a witch hunt are led by a preacher turned politician, looking for revenge.

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2AM (Tues-Sun)

ADVANCE YOUR SWAGGER
by Fonzworth Bentley

Read by Althea Barnett (3 episodes, 04/28/13–05/01/13).

Book jacket illustration.“My manners were the first ingredient that set me apart from my peers,” notes the suave and stylish Fonzworth Bentley, Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former personal assistant and a celebrity in his own right. Now, in this one-of-a-kind book, Bentley shares his surefire strategies for success.

Just how does a guy move from Atlanta to New York City without knowing a soul in the entertainment industry and become, in less than two years, the P.A. to one of the biggest moguls in hip-hop history? Bentley attributes his accomplishment to one key equation: Manners + Confidence + Style = Swagger. With this formula, Bentley transformed himself into an icon of unflappable grace, elegance, and good manners–and now he’s on a mission to help you step up your game, advance your swagger, get ahead, and live out your dreams.

Inside you’ll learn everything you need to know about

• manners and the magic of Please and Thank You
• the art of eating well, from which glass to use to handling the napkin
• the basics of fine dining, whether you’re a host or a guest
• the do’s and “oh no you di’int’s” of cell phones, e-mail, and text messaging
• projecting confidence through your body language
• the power of introductions, even when you can’t remember someone’s name
• what to do before, during, and after a job interview
• body maintenance, from hair to toes to pearly whites
• the principles of timeless fashion, so you never go out of style
• 15 things every man and 15 things every woman must have in his or her closet Plus “Bent Hints”–little things to keep in mind for any occasion

Though we seem to be in the midst of what Bentley calls “the Golden Age of Disrespect,” he demonstrates how we can add a touch of class and dignity to our lives. He’s here to make sure your color schemes are fly and your stance is stage-ready.

Filled with photographs to illustrate his lessons, Advance Your Swagger is the lifestyle book of the year. He’s taken care of his world–now let Mr. Bentley whip yours into style.

 

NAT KING COLE
by Daniel Mark Epstein

Read by Bernard Tanner. (20 episodes, 05/02/13 –05/24/13)

Book jacket illustration.Written with the rhythmic styling of a novel and with a prose that reflects the vocal lyricism of its subject, this book follows Nat King Cole’s oftentimes difficult journey from his beginnings as a jazz child prodigy to his brilliant stardom in a society still rife with racial prejudice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE MEMORY CURE
by Majid Fotuhi, MD, PHD.

Read by Rosemary Scalessa. (6 episodes, 05/25/13 –05/31/13)

Book jacket illustration.Dr. Majid Fotuhi, M.D., Ph.D. is the head of the Center for Memory and Brain Health at LifeBridge Brain & Spine Institute in Baltimore. Dr. Fotuhi has faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University and MIT. He received his M.D. (Cum Laude) from the Harvard-MIT division of Health Sciences and Technology in Boston, and his Ph.D. in neuroscience and neurology residency training at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore. He has published a dozen scientific articles and has received numerous awards for his work in neurobiology, including a prestigious teaching award from the American Academy of Neurology.

 

 

 

 

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