Showing results by narrator "Jeff Woodman" in All Categories

An impeccable ear for language, an eye for the smallest shifts in the cultural landscape, and a preternatural understanding of motivation and behavior, Ann Beattie's renowned storytelling abilities are on dazzling display in The Doctor's House. The novel opens with Nina's account of her brother's sexual appetites and betrayals, and leads into her mother's narrative.

Consider for a moment 55 words. It's an absurdly tiny number. No, it's an impossible tiny number. It's what O. Henry might have conjured up if he'd only had the back of a business card to write upon. You'll find murder and suspense, horror and intrigue, love and betrayal, plus distant worlds and inner demons. All in a measly 55 words!

In the fall of 2005, after surviving the first year and a half of the end of the world, there is very little left for the remaining people of apocalyptic Canada. Salvage teams gather what supplies remain, survivors are brought in more and more rarely, and a cure is rumoured for the undead plague that has ravaged the world.

Luther Abernathy has a bad habit of opening everyone’s mail and sharing their most intimate secrets with anyone who will listen. So it’s no surprise J.R. finds him murdered one day. Time for Biggie to offer her sleuthing abilities in the investigation.

It’s springtime at South Orange Middle School. Pete Saltz is in love with Anabelle, a girl in his eighth grade class, and she likes him, too. But they’re both so shy, they won’t even look at each other, much less show their feelings. It will take more than chance to get them together. Fortunately, Ed Sitrow, another eighth grader, has a master plan. He’ll cast Pete and Anabelle in the lead roles of a school production of Romeo and Juliet. Then they will have to kiss each other in the last act. Soon the whole school is looking forward to the play - and the big scene.

High school sleuths P.C. Hawke and Mackenzie Riggs quickly regret their decision to take a difficult calculus class from a tough instructor at Columbia University. But even though she's mean, Professor Dunaway certainly seems an unlikely candidate for murder. Though there are plenty of suspects, a lot of things about this case just don't add up.

Bill Buford spends a wild night in the park; Jonathan Safran Foer envisions it as a tiny, transplanted piece of a mythical Sixth Borough; and Marie Winn answers definitively Holden Caulfield's question of where the ducks go when the park's ponds freeze over. There are bird sightings and fish sightings; Jackie Kennedy and James Brown sightings; and pieces by Colson Whitehead, Paul Auster, and Francine Prose. This vibrant collection presents Central Park in all its many-faceted glory, a 51-block swath of special magic.

An attack on a Japanese warship brings Japan and China to the brink of war. Meanwhile top Covert-One operative Colonel Jon Smith is sent on a mission to recover mysterious material from the wreckage of the Fukushima nuclear reactor. When Smith fails to return, CIA agent Randi Russell heads off on an unsanctioned mission to find him.

In May of 2004 the dead return to life and begin to hunt the living. Within a few weeks nations have fallen and the few survivors are scattered and desperate. Rise follows a group of survivors on their journey through the apocalyptic Canadian Rockies, the desolate and empty lands of northern British Columbia and Alberta.

Nancy Bell’s best-selling Biggie series combines Texas small-town humor with tantalizing mysteries. As J.R., Biggie Weatherford’s 12-year-old grandson, recounts Biggie’s uncanny ability to solve the peskiest cases, his observations are spiced with his wry adolescent view of grownups. A trip to a nearby town introduces J.R. to a ghost and presents Biggie with a perplexing local murder.

A victim of foul play, Firman Birdsong spends the Grand Opening of the Birdsong brothers’ chicken restaurant dead under a table—with his gravy covered, parsley-garnished body and his tomato-stuffed mouth. Biggie and her young grandson, J.R., investigate the murder. But as the suspect list swells, J.R. believes Biggie cares more about detecting than protecting him from a brewing custody battle—and the investigation takes an awful turn.

People say New York City is a jungle. Still, P.C. Hawke is a little surprised when his best friend, Mackenzie, invites him to tag along with her police coroner mother to examine a scientist who has been mauled by jaguars at the Bronx Wildlife Conservation Park. But when the two teenage sleuths learn that the scientist actually died because he was given a lethal dose of gorilla blood after the attack, they quickly realize that the most vicious predator imaginable is loose in the park - a human killer!

Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Zindel delights even the most reluctant listeners with his thrilling P.C. Hawke Mysteries. Everyone is upset when P.C.'s junior class trip ends with classmate Timmy Warner plunging to his death over a 300-foot waterfall. So when Timmy's mom exhibits some strange behavior at the funeral, P.C. and his friend Mackenzie just have to investigate. What they don't expect is that the trail of clues will lead them to Los Angeles-and to a surfer who's a dead ringer for their dead classmate!

When the Devil comes to take him, Wakefield, a motivational speaker and architecture buff, isn't ready. He plies the Dark One with scotch and strikes a bargain: He, Wakefield, will take a year to search for an alternative life.

A successful journalist, Victoria Griffith, makes her first foray into children's fiction with the story of Alberto Santos-Dumont, the larger-than- life Brazilian who many argue flew before the Wright brothers. It was 1906 in Paris when Alberto, challenged by a fellow inventor, turned his dirigible into a flying machine and cemented his place in the history of flight.

As far as romance goes, Dr. Jakob Sammelsohn is fairly incurable. Twice married, once divorced, once widowed - all by the tender age of 12 - he finally flees his small village and his pious, vengeful father. A lovelorn Candide, young Dr. Sammelsohn wanders optimistically through history - pursued by the amorous ghost of his dead wife.

Eve is haunted by her dead cats, Willie is not content to turn a blind eye to suffering, and Maria carries on lengthy conversations with a silent caller. Theirs are the odd, but strangely realistic stories you will find in this collection. Avi’s stories address real concerns in a way young people can relate to. Always entertaining, they broach difficult topics like divorce, teenage runaways, adolescent cruelty, and homelessness.

Bartholomew works for legendary showman P.T. Barnum as the world’s thinnest man. After a decade in the circus, Bartholomew feels his enthusiasm waning, until one evening when a mysterious woman arrives on the scene. Tasked with following her for Barnum, Bartholomew soon embarks on a magical journey of discovery.

Caught in a riptide of haphazard underemployment, at turns violent and unpredictable, suffering under a bad economy with no family or friends to speak of, Stratton Brown longs for the chance to escape his small-town past and build a new life. He sets out for Chicago, where he meets a new and fresh hell: a nine-to-fiver in a nondescript, meaningless company, and an obsessive love affair with woman who may be a bit too attached to her abusive ex-boyfriend. Is this all America has to offer its 20-somethings?

Learn the 25 keys to improving your management and leadership skills, including effective communication, efficient implementation, and strong team building. This program is part of The New York Times Pocket MBA Series. The series also includes a valuable program on Sales and Marketing.