Showing results by narrator "John Rayburn" in All Categories

This book marks an epoch in my literary career. It is written in blood. It is the outpouring of a soul as deeply seared by Fate’s unkindness as the fairway on the dog-leg hole of the second nine was ever seared by my iron. It is the work of a very nearly desperate man, an 18-handicap man who has got to look extremely slippy if he doesn’t want to find himself in the 20s again.

It seems very unreal but the author is not only top-notch with his plot handling but he never strays from the bounds of reason. It isn’t easy to fool someone like detective sergeant Blick of Scotland Yard, but he does it. Blick is called in by an archeologist named Mr. Fransenmery to help solve the killing of Guy Markenmore, who had been away from the area for seven years and had returned because of the expected death of his father.

It was a lonely English courtyard where attorneys received traditional apprenticeship … one of the ancient Inns of Court. The bludgeoned body of a well-dressed elderly man was found there at midnight, an apparent murder victim. Investigative newspaper reporter Frank Spargo was one of the first to arrive at the crime scene and he was puzzled about why such a prosperous looking man had been wandering there at that time of night. The only item found on the body was a small paper with a young barrister’s address.

Richard Viner is basically an average young man on the street who, more or less accidentally, finds a dead body in a dimly lit alley while he’s taking his usual nightly stroll. He calls police and when they arrive they figure it’s likely a robbery gone wrong because the dead man’s valuables are missing. However, a prime suspect is arrested trying to pawn some jewelry belonging to the victim. He happens to be an old school-mate of Viner. Viner discovers the old chum is down and out and needs the money, so he decides to investigate and try get his pal vindicated.

Humor and overall literary style have changed a lot in the 132 years since this book was published in 1889. However, the information remains informative, primarily because there is a certain amount of truthfulness about it that manages to disregard the passage of time. It takes in some unusual events that either did happen, or could have. It involves three men and a dog that is sometimes smarter than any of them. Between them, they come up with some depth of thought and at least a minor ability to understand human nature.

It was a magical time enhanced by radio as well as the great live performances. Radio and music of the Big Band Era were made for each other, and the so-called Swing Years were a golden age of rhythm. It was not just music that made you want to dance. It was music that made you glow, music that made you want to sing, music that made you come alive, music for falling in love. And, despite the passage of time, it still is.

One of America’s best-known stories in all of literature began with the imagination-stretching tale of probably the most famous little girl in English literature.

This was the first effort by Frederick Faust aimed at writing a Western, and he used the pen name of Max Brand to produce it. There was a different style of literary focus, a variance that brought forth feelings of melodrama. However, as the story developed, that impression was changed drastically with startling examples of action, conflict, and revenge that set it apart. It was regarded as one of his most successful efforts in a career that produced perhaps as many as 25 to 30 million words, resulting in well more than 500 novels and short stories.

King Solomon’s Mines is a variety of lost-world literature in what was one of the first English adventure novels that took place in Africa. It is told in a relatively rare first-person format. One story has stated that the author, H. Rider Haggard, wrote the book on a bet and that it took him only six weeks to do it.

In truth the mastery of flying was the work of thousands of men—this man a suggestion and that an experiment, until at last only one vigorous intellectual effort was needed to finish the work. But the inexorable injustice of the popular mind has decided that of all these thousands, one man, and that a man who never flew, should be chosen as the discoverer, just as it has chosen to honor Watt as the discoverer of steam and Stephenson of the steam-engine.

Unassuming in plot and style, Heidi may none the less lay claim to rank as a world classic. In the first place, both background and characters ring true. The air of the Alps is wafted to us in every moment; the house among the pines, the meadows, and the eagle poised above the naked rocks form a picture that no one could willingly forget. And the people, from the kindly towns-folk to the quaint and touching peasant types, are as real as any representation of human nature need be. Every goat even, has its personality.

A 17th-century writer named Charles Perrault was sometimes called Mother Goose, an imaginary author of fairy tales. His early material was inspired and derived from earlier folk tales that he greatly embellished and improved. This collection includes "Cinderella", along with other such known favorites as “Sleeping Beauty", “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Blue Beard”, and “Puss in Boots”, along with such lesser known fairy tales as “The Ridiculous Wishes”, “Little Thumb”, “Ricky of the Tuft", “Griselda,” and “Donkey Skin”.

This is the story of two young brothers from the backwoods of Maine … Randy and Earl Portney. Having a difficult time financially, unable to pay their rent, even how to keep on eating, they weren’t sure how to resolve their dilemma. Then, virtually out of the blue, they got an unexpected invitation letter from their Uncle Foster. He was going to head out for the big search for gold in Alaska and he wanted to know if the boys would go with him.

Their instincts and intelligence were valuable assets for teenage brothers, Joe and Frank Hardy, as they followed in the footsteps of their well-known father, Fenton Hardy, a former police detective. They had wits and courage that gave them what it took to solve cases in their fictional home of Bayport in the upper east coast area of the US. They never lost their nerve despite being frequently confronted by danger. In this instance there is a robbery at the Tower Mansion and a friend of the Hardy Boys’ father is falsely accused. Young Joe and Frank take on the case.

Broadcasting veteran John Rayburn presents a historic reenactment of the classic 1956 World Series championship games between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. Don Larsen’s perfect game, the only in World Series history, was in Game 5, Monday, October 8, 1956. This was the final Series for the Dodgers while still in Brooklyn. Their next Series appearance came after moving to Los Angeles. The Dodgers scored only one run in the final 28 innings of the Series. Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra each hit three home runs for the Yankees.

A subtitle of this book is “The Lost World Under the Sea,” and it’s somewhat based on the famed legend of Atlantis. That was an ancient city or continent that was supposedly inundated by the sea. Whether it actually existed has been a question that has lasted for thousands of years. Greek philosopher Plato wrote about it around 360 BC, so even his possible information was second-hand. Tsunamis (sea storms) have existed for centuries and if there really was an Atlantis, any survivors may have fled inland and built new cities.

This was a time that was a major part of western history, a sort of baptism of sweat and blood. Great buffalo herds covered mile after mile, and hide hunters swarmed the plains. They were hard-riding and reckless and killed buffalo by the tens of thousands, bringing on near extinction. The invasion was part of the great western migration, and it caused major confrontations with such Indian tribes as Comanche, Kiowa, Arapaho, and others.

The story you’re about to hear is the second Charlie Chan novel, and it features a parrot named Tony who is witness to a crime. The unusual bird spoke Chinese and had a less-than-perfect use of English grammar but was killed by the criminals as a precaution. Chan himself was a friend of a family selling jewels and agreed to deliver them on his first trip to mainland California. While there he masquerades as a pidgin-speaking cook during his undercover investigation. His profound and original intelligence offers genial humor and witty dialogue.

A German advocate of the Kaiser discovers he is a facial/physical match for young Englishman Everard Dominey, who is near death after harrowing experiences in Africa. The remarkable doppelgänger resemblance leads Major-General Baron Leopold Von Ragastein to infiltrate the UK in perfect disguise. He wants to lead his country’s efforts as Europe is racing toward war. Part of the plan is to murder Dominey and have the Baron take his place in English society.

There were times when Bertie Wooster, the fictional narrator of these stories, was thought of as being at least a trifle feather-brained. However, he had a valet who seemed to know everything about everything. These are among more than 300 short stories written by a man who began a short-lived career in banking after his college days. However, it didn’t take long for P. G. Wodehouse to decide he didn’t like that kind of job, and he began writing in whatever spare time he had.