The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality
Summary
At the end of his career, Albert Einstein was pursuing a dream far more ambitious than the theory of relativity. He was trying to find an equation that explained all physical reality - a theory of everything. He failed, but others have taken up the challenge in a remarkable quest that is shedding light on unsuspected secrets of the cosmos. Experimental physicist and award-winning educator Dr. Don Lincoln of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory takes you on this exciting journey in The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality. Suitable for the intellectually curious at all levels and assuming no background beyond basic high-school math, these 24 half-hour lectures cover recent developments at the forefront of particle physics and cosmology, while delving into the history of the centuries-long search for this holy grail of science. You trace the dream of a theory of everything through Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger, Feynman, Gell-Mann, Weinberg, and other great physicists, charting their progress toward an all-embracing, unifying theory. Their resulting equations are the masterpieces of physics, which Dr. Lincoln explains in fascinating and accessible detail. Studying them is like touring a museum of great works of art - works that are progressing toward an ultimate, as-yet-unfinished masterpiece. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2017 The Great Courses (P)2017 The Teaching Company, LLC
Lambslide
Summary
From the international best-selling author of Bel Canto and Commonwealth, Ann Patchett, comes a hilarious childrenâs story about a slide made just for lambs. Nicolette Farmer is running for class president, and the rest of the Farmer family tells her sheâll win by a landslide. A pack of overconfident lambs mistakenly hear lambslide and canât believe thereâs a slide made just for them. But when they canât find one on the farm, thereâs only one thing left to do: take a vote! They campaign. They bargain. They ask all the other animals if they, too, would like a lambslide. Will the lambs ever get their special slide?
©2019 Ann Patchett (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
Summary
Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto examines her deepest commitments: to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Together, these essays, previously published in The Atlantic, Harper, Vogue, and The Washington Post, form a resonant portrait of a life lived with loyalty and with love. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage takes us into the very real world of Ann Patchett's life. Stretching from her childhood to the present day, from a disastrous early marriage to a later happy one, it covers a multitude of topics, including relationships with family and friends, and charts the hard work and joy of writing, and the unexpected thrill of opening a bookstore. As she shares stories of the people, places, ideals, and art to which she has remained indelibly committed, Ann Patchett brings into focus the large experiences and small moments that have shaped her as a daughter, wife, and writer.
©2013 Ann Patchett (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers
Truth & Beauty
Summary
The author of Bel Canto, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, and long-running New York Times best seller, turns to nonfiction in a moving chronicle of her decades-long friendship with the critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy. What happens when the person who is your family is someone you aren't bound to by blood? What happens when that person is not your lover, but your best friend? In her frank and startlingly intimate first work of nonfiction, Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett shines light on the little-explored world of women's friendships and shows us what it means to stand together. Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and after enrolling in the Iowa Writer's Workshop began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. In her critically acclaimed memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy wrote about the first half of her life. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life but the parts of their lives they shared together. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans 20 years, from the long cold winters of the Midwest to surgical wards to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined. This is a tender, brutal book about loving the person we cannot save. It is about loyalty and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.
©2004 Ann Patchett (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Because of Winn-Dixie
Summary
The classic heartwarming tale from Kate DiCamillo - now with an afterword from the beloved author, reflecting on 20 years in print One summer's day, 10-year-old India Opal Buloni goes down to the local supermarket for some groceries - and comes home with a dog. But Winn-Dixie is no ordinary dog. It's because of Winn-Dixie that Opal begins to make friends. And it's because of Winn-Dixie that she finally dares to ask her father about her mother, who left when Opal was three. In fact, as Opal admits, just about everything that happens that summer is because of Winn-Dixie. This updated edition of Kate DiCamillo's classic novel invites listeners to make themselves at home - whether they're experiencing the book for the first time or returning to an old favorite.
©2000 Kate DiCamillo (P)2021 Listening Library
Escape Goat
Summary
From the international best-selling author of Bel Canto, Ann Patchett, comes a hilarious childrenâs audiobook about a scapegoat who escapes blame just in time, read by the author! The Farmer family has a big problem! Every day, their goat escapes, and every day, Mr. Farmer brings him back. So when things start to go awry on the farm, it must be the goatâs fault. Whoâs to blame when Mrs. Farmerâs petunias are trampled? Or when all the cupcakes for Archieâs party disappear? And when the whole bucket of paint is spilled? Of course, everyone blames the goat! But is it really his fault?
©2020 Ann Patchett (P)2020 HarperCollins
Thalia Book Club: Sally Mann's Hold Still
Summary
One of America's most renowned and controversial photographers, Sally Mann, whose photos inspired the feature film What Remains, discusses her beautiful and revealing new memoir, Hold Still. In lyrical prose and startlingly revealing photographs, she crafts a totally original form of personal history that has the pause-resisting drama of a great novel. Introduction by Malcolm Jones (culture and book critic for the Daily Beast). In conversation with Ann Patchett (Bel Canto).
©2015 Symphony Space (P)2015 Symphony Space