Allan Robertson has narrated 32 audiobooks on Listento.it by 34 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 168 ratings. The most-rated is Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes.
Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes
Summary
What was clear to the original readers of Scripture is not always clear to us. Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text. For example: When Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to "dress modestly", we automatically think in terms of sexual modesty. But most women in that culture would never wear racy clothing. The context suggests that Paul is likely more concerned about economic modesty - that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair, and gold jewelry. Some readers might assume that Moses married "below himself" because his wife was a dark-skinned Cushite. Actually, Hebrews were the slave race, not the Cushites, who were highly respected. Aaron and Miriam probably thought Moses was being presumptuous by marrying "above himself". Western individualism leads us to assume that Mary and Joseph traveled alone to Bethlehem. What went without saying was that they were likely accompanied by a large entourage of extended family. Biblical scholars Brandon O'Brien and Randy Richards shed light on the ways that Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. They identify nine key areas where modern Westerners have significantly different assumptions about what might be going on in a text. Drawing on their own cross cultural experience in global mission, O'Brien and Richards show how better self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences in language, time, and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways. Getting beyond our own cultural assumptions is increasingly important for being Christians in our interconnected and globalized world. Learn to read Scripture as a member of the global body of Christ.
©2012 E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Boys Adrift
Summary
Something scary is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere 20 years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically. While Emily is working hard at school and getting A's, her brother, Justin, is goofing off. He's more concerned about getting to the next level in his video game than about finishing his homework. Now, Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the scientific literature and draws on more than 20 years of clinical experience to explain why boys and young men are failing in school and disengaged at home. He shows how social, cultural, and biological factors have created an environment that is literally toxic to boys. He also presents practical solutions, sharing strategies that educators have found effective in reengaging these boys at school as well as handy tips for parents about everything from homework to video games to medication.
©2016 Leonard Sax (P)2017 Hachette Audio
The Case Against Education
Summary
Why we need to stop wasting public funds on education Despite being immensely popular - and immensely lucrative - education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity - in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee. Learn why students hunt for easy A's and casually forget most of what they learn after the final exam, why decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for the average worker but instead in runaway credential inflation, how employers reward workers for costly schooling they rarely if ever use, and why cutting education spending is the best remedy. Caplan draws on the latest social science to show how the labor market values grades over knowledge and why the more education your rivals have, the more you need to impress employers. He explains why graduation is our society's top conformity signal and why even the most useless degrees can certify employability. He advocates two major policy responses. The first is educational austerity. Government needs to sharply cut education funding to curb this wasteful rat race. The second is more vocational education, because practical skills are more socially valuable than teaching students how to outshine their peers. Romantic notions about education being "good for the soul" must yield to careful research and common sense - The Case Against Education points the way. Cover design by Leslie Flis. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2018 Princeton University Press (P)2018 Audible, Inc.
The Million-Dollar Financial Advisor
Summary
The best financial advisors are well equipped to succeed regardless of market conditions. Based on interviews with 15 top advisors, each doing several million dollars worth of business every year, The Million-Dollar Financial Advisor distills their universal success principles into 13 distinct lessons. Each is explained step-by-step for immediate application by veteran and new financial professionals alike. The book also features two complete case studies. First there is the "best of the best" advisor whose incredible success showcases the power of all the book's principles working together in concert. The second is an account of a remarkable and inspiring career turnaround and demonstrates that it's never too late to reinvent oneself. Brimming with practical advice from the author and expert insights from his interview subjects, The Million-Dollar Financial Advisor is a priceless success tool for any and all financial advisors.
©2010 David J. Mullen, Jr. (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Shoot for the Moon
Summary
"This is the best book on Apollo that I have read. Extensively researched and meticulously accurate, it successfully traces not only the technical highlights of the program but also the contributions of the extraordinary people who made it possible." (Mike Collins, Command module pilot, Apollo 11) For the 50th anniversary, the epic story of Apollo 11 and the astronauts, flight controllers, and engineers who made it happen, by the author of the best-selling A Terrible Glory and The Blood of Heroes On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon, a moment forever ingrained in history. Perhaps the world's greatest technological achievement - and a triumph of American spirit and ingenuity - the Apollo 11 mission, and the entire Apollo program, was a mammoth undertaking involving more than 410,000 men and women dedicated to putting a man on the Moon and winning the Space Race against the Soviets. Seen through the eyes of the those who lived it, Shoot for the Moon reveals the dangers, the challenges, and the sheer determination that defined not only Apollo 11, but also the Mercury and Gemini missions that made it possible. Both sweeping and intimate, and based on exhaustive research and dozens of fresh interviews, best-selling author James Donovan's Shoot for the Moon is the definitive and thrilling account of one of humankind's most extraordinary feats of exploration.
©2019 James Donovan (P)2019 Hachette Audio
The Six Secrets of Raising Capital
Summary
Based on Bill Fisher's three-day seminars that regularly sell out all over the world, this audiobook offers the kind of capital-raising street smarts no entrepreneur can do without. As a banker in Silicon Valley in the '80s and a businessman who founded a number of successful companies beginning in the '90s, Fisher has seen firsthand the kind of rookie mistakes aspiring entrepreneurs make that end up stopping them before they have a chance to get started. Fisher looks at six traditional steps in the capital-raising process and digs beneath the surface to expose subtle but critical aspects of each - knowledge that, until now, could come only with experience. For example, entrepreneurs believe that great business ideas get funded. Not true - just look at the failure rates of venture-backed companies. Great business stories get funded, and all great business stories have a similar construction and shape. And of course the entrepreneur needs an investor, but each investor comes with his or her own personality issues. You need the right match for long-term success, not just whoever is waving the biggest check - a temptation that is easy for cash-strapped entrepreneurs to succumb to. Having this book is like going into your investor meetings with a trusted advisor who knows all the ins and outs of raising capital.
©2014 Bill Fisher (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Tesla
Summary
Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the 20th century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius. Even at the end of his life when he was living in poverty, Tesla still attracted reporters to his annual birthday interview, regaling them with claims that he had invented a particle-beam weapon capable of bringing down enemy aircraft. Plenty of biographies glamorize Tesla and his eccentricities, but until now none has carefully examined what, how, and why he invented. In this groundbreaking book, W. Bernard Carlson demystifies the legendary inventor, placing him within the cultural and technological context of his time, and focusing on his inventions themselves as well as the creation and maintenance of his celebrity. Drawing on original documents from Tesla's private and public life, Carlson shows how he was an "idealist" inventor who sought the perfect experimental realization of a great idea or principle, and who skillfully sold his inventions to the public through mythmaking and illusion. This major biography sheds new light on Tesla's visionary approach to invention and the business strategies behind his most important technological breakthroughs.
©2013 Princeton University Press (P)2013 Audible Inc.
You Shall Be as Gods
Summary
Erich Fromm's innovative analysis of the Old Testament as a striking early example of radical humanism. The Old Testament is one of the most carefully studied books in the world’s history. It is also one of the most misunderstood. This founding text of the world’s three largest religions is also, Erich Fromm argues, an impressive radical humanist text. He sees the stories of mankind’s transition from divided clans to united brotherhood as a tribute to the human power to overcome. Filled with hopeful symbolism, You Shall Be as Gods shows how the Old Testament and its tradition is an inspiring ode to human potential.
©1966 Erich Fromm, 1991 by the Estate of Erich Fromm (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The End of the Story
Summary
Published in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S. Hilger excavated the still-existing manuscripts, letters and various published versions of the stories, creating a definitive "preferred text" for Smith's entire body of work. This first volume of the series, brings together 25 of his fantasy stories, written between 1925 and 1930, including such classics as "The Abominations of Yondo," "The Monster of the Prophecy," "The Last Incantation" and the title story.
©2006 The Estate of Clark Ashton Smith (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Deeper Dating
Summary
Lose weight. Act confident. Play hard to get. This approach to dating doesn't lead to love, it leads to insecurity and loneliness. In Deeper Dating, psychotherapist Ken Page offers a new path to finding meaningful and lasting relationships. Learn how to attract people who love you for who you really are, become more self-assured and emotionally available, and lose your taste for relationships that diminish your self-esteem. With exercises, practical tools, and inspiring stories, Deeper Dating will guide you on a journey to find the love - and personal fulfillment - you long for. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2015 Ken Page (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
The Habit of Rivers
Summary
Originally published in 1994, this book was a fly-fishing phenomenon in the way Howell Raines' Fly Fishing Through the Mid-Life Crisis was. Taking his fishing hobby to near metaphysical levels, Ted Leeson tells about his passions: rivers, trout, and fly fishing. With wry humor and rare insight, he explores questions that engage most fishermen: What is it about rivers that draws us so irresistibly, and why does fly fishing seem such an aptly suited response? Above all, The Habit of Rivers is about ways of seeing the wonderfully textured world that emanates from a river.
©1994 Ted Leeson (P)2014 Audible Inc.
High Noon
Summary
It's one of the most revered movies of Hollywood's golden era. Starring screen legend Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly in her first significant film role, High Noon was shot on a lean budget over just 32 days but achieved instant box-office and critical success. It won four Academy Awards in 1953, including a best actor win for Cooper. And it became a cultural touchstone, often cited by politicians as a favourite film, celebrating moral fortitude. Yet what has been often overlooked is that High Noon was made during the height of the Hollywood blacklist, a time of political inquisition and personal betrayal. In the middle of the film shoot, screenwriter Carl Foreman was forced to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about his former membership in the Communist Party. Refusing to name names, he was eventually blacklisted and fled the United States. (His coauthored screenplay for another classic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, went uncredited in 1957.) Examined in light of Foreman's testimony, High Noon's emphasis on courage and loyalty takes on deeper meaning and importance. In this book, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Frankel tells the story of the making of a great American Western, exploring how Carl Foreman's concept of High Noon evolved from idea to first draft to final script, taking on allegorical weight. Both the classic film and its turbulent political times emerge newly illuminated.
©2017 Bloomsbury US (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
The Era, 1947-1957
Summary
Celebrated sports writer Roger Kahn casts his gaze on the golden age of baseball, an unforgettable time when the game thrived as America's unrivaled national sport. The Era begins in 1947, with Jackie Robinson changing major league baseball forever by taking the field for the Dodgers. Dazzling, momentous events characterize the decade that followed - Robinson's amazing accomplishments; the explosion on the national scene of such soon-to-be legends as Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Bobby Thomson, Duke Snider, and Yogi Berra; Casey Stengel's crafty managing; the emergence of televised games; and the stunning success of the Yankees as they play in nine out of eleven World Series. The Era concludes with the relocation of the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, a move that shook the sport to its very roots.
©1993 Roger Kahn (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
The Door to Saturn
Summary
Published in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S. Hilger excavated the still-existing manuscripts, letters and various published versions of the stories, creating a definitive "preferred text" for Smith's entire body of work. This second volume of the series brings together 20 of his fantasy stories.
©2007 The Estate of Clark Ashton Smith (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Where the Evidence Lies
Summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of the Lincoln Rhyme series, a short story about Lincoln Rhyme solving a mysterious plane crash with no forensic evidence. A small jet with only one pilot onboard crashes into the Atlantic Ocean. Local authorities are unsure whether the cause of the crash is a bomb or a violent storm. The case seems like it will be an easy one to solve for former NYPD homicide detective Lincoln Rhyme to solve. The evidence is inside the cockpit, but there is one problem. The wreckage sits at the bottom of the Puerto Rican Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, that stretches to 28,000 feet. The plane can't be raised. And there's no way to get to where the evidence lies. "Where the Evidence Lies" by Jeffery Deaver is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books' Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!
©2016 Jeffery Deaver (P)2016 Hachette Audio
Impasse
Summary
In Royce Scott Buckingham's Impasse, a man is left to die in Alaska while on an "adventure vacation" and must somehow survive to get his revenge on those who betrayed him. Forty and facing a midlife crisis, Stu Stark has lost his mojo. He simply gave up after being fired from his prestigious job as a prosecuting attorney for losing the biggest case of his career. So when Stu's best friend gifts him a one-week trip into the Alaskan wilderness to rediscover his manhood, Stu thinks it just might do him some good. But after a horrible week, Stu is crushed when he realizes no one is coming back for him. Dying, Stu is found by a grizzled, old hunter who informs him that winter has set in, and they're not going anywhere for a while. So begins Stu's training to become the man he never was...and to get revenge on those who betrayed him. This adult debut by the internationally best-selling YA author is a modern-day take on The Count of Monte Cristo.
©2015 St. Martin’s Press LLC (P)2015 Audible Inc.
Mortuary Confidential
Summary
When the casket reached the front of the sanctuary, there was a loud cracking sound as the bottom fell out. And with a thump, down came Father Iggy. From shoot-outs at funerals to dead men screaming and runaway corpses, undertakers have plenty of unusual stories to tell - and a special way of telling them. In this macabre and moving compilation, funeral directors across the country share their most embarrassing, jaw-dropping, irreverent, and deeply poignant stories about life at death's door. Discover what scares them and what moves them to tears. Learn about rookie mistakes and why death sometimes calls for duct tape. Enjoy tales of the dearly departed spending eternity naked from the waist down and getting bottled and corked--in a wine bottle. And then meet their families - the weepers, the punchers, the stolidly dignified, and the ones who deliver their dead mother in a pickup truck. If there's one thing undertakers know, it's that death drives people crazy. These are the best "bodies of work" from America's darkest profession.
©2010 Kenneth McKenzie and Todd Harra (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Born Fighting
Summary
Born Fighting shows that the Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only five percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army). It illustrates how the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. And it explores how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, hard luck, stubbornness, and mistrust of the nation's elite formed and still dominates blue-collar America, the military services, the Bible Belt, and country music. Both a distinguished work of cultural history and a human drama that speaks straight to the heart of contemporary America, Born Fighting reintroduces America to its most powerful, patriotic, and individualistic cultural group - one too often ignored or taken for granted.
©2004 Jim Webb (P)2015 ListenUp Production, LLC
Hellfire Boys
Summary
An explosive look into the dawn of chemical warfare during World War I "A terrifying piece of history that almost no one knows." (Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of In the Kingdom of Iceand Blood and Thunder) In 1915, when German forces executed the first successful gas attack of World War I, the world watched in horror as the boundaries of warfare were forever changed. Cries of barbarianism rang throughout Europe, yet Allied nations immediately jumped into the fray, kickstarting an arms race that would redefine a war already steeped in unimaginable horror. Largely forgotten in the confines of history, the development of the US Chemical Warfare Service in 1917 left an indelible imprint on World War I. This small yet powerful division, along with the burgeoning Bureau of Mines, assembled research and military unites devoted solely to chemical weaponry, outfitting regiments with hastily made gas-resistant uniforms and recruiting scientists and engineers from around the world into the fight. As the threat of new gases and more destructive chemicals grew stronger, the chemists' secret work in the laboratories transformed into an explosive fusion of steel, science, and gas on the battlefield. Drawing from years of research, Theo Emery brilliantly shows how World War I quickly spiraled into a chemists' war, one led by the companies of young American engineers-turned-soldiers who would soon become known as the "Hellfire Boys". As gas attacks began to mark the heaviest and most devastating battles, these brave and brilliant men were on the front lines, racing against the clock - and the Germans - to protect, develop, and unleash the latest weapons of mass destruction.
©2017 Theo Emery (P)2017 Hachette Audio
Jason and Medeia
Summary
A mythological masterpiece about dedication and the disintegration of romantic affection. In this magnificent epic poem, John Gardner renders his interpretation of the ancient story of Jason and Medeia. Confined in the palace of King Creon, and longing to return to his rightful kingdom Iolcus, Jason asks his wife, the sorceress Medeia, to use her powers of enchantment to destroy the tyrant King Pelias. Out of love she acquiesces, only to find that upon her return Jason has replaced her with King Creon's beautiful daughter, Glauce. An ancient myth fraught with devotion and betrayal, deception and ambition, Jason and Medeia is one of the greatest classical legends, and Gardner's masterful retelling is yet another achievement for this highly acclaimed author.
©1973 John Gardner (P)2013 Audible, Inc.