Brian Nishii has narrated 79 audiobooks on Listento.it by 83 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 4,417 ratings. The most-rated is The Obesity Code.
The Obesity Code
Summary
We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic, but despite being inundated with diet advice we are only getting fatter. We count calories and exercise regularly, yet still the pounds won't budge. Why? In this highly enjoyable and provocative book, Dr Jason Fung sets out a groundbreaking new theory: that obesity is caused by our hormones rather than a lack of self-control. He reveals that overproduction of insulin in the body is the root cause of obesity and obesity-related illnesses including type 2 diabetes and offers robust scientific evidence that reversing insulin resistance is the only way to lose weight in the long term. It turns out that when we eat is just as important as what we eat, so in addition to his five basic steps - a set of lifelong eating habits that will improve your health and control your insulin levels - Dr Fung explains how to use intermittent fasting to break the cycle of insulin resistance and reach a healthy weight - for good.
©2016 Jason Fung (P)2017 Audible, Inc
The Obesity Code
Summary
Everything you believe about how to lose weight is wrong. Weight gain and obesity are driven by hormones - in everyone - and only by understanding the effects of insulin and insulin resistance can we achieve lasting weight loss. In this highly listenable and provocative book, Dr. Jason Fung sets out an original, robust theory of obesity that provides startling insights into proper nutrition. In addition to his five basic steps - a set of lifelong habits that will improve your health and control your insulin levels - Dr. Fung explains how to use intermittent fasting to break the cycle of insulin resistance and reach a healthy weight - for good. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2016 Jason Fung (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Musashi
Summary
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi was the child of an era when Japan was emerging from decades of civil strife. Lured to the great Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 by the hope of becoming a samurai - without really knowing what it meant - he regains consciousness after the battle to find himself lying defeated, dazed, and wounded among thousands of the dead and dying. On his way home, he commits a rash act, becomes a fugitive, and brings life in his own village to a standstill - until he is captured by a weaponless Zen monk. The lovely Otsu, seeing in Musashi her ideal of manliness, frees him from his tortuous punishment, but he is recaptured and imprisoned. During three years of solitary confinement, he delves into the classics of Japan and China. When he is set free again, he rejects the position of samurai and for the next several years pursues his goal relentlessly, looking neither to the left nor to the right. Ever so slowly it dawns on him that following the way of the sword is not simply a matter of finding a target for his brute strength. Continually striving to perfect his technique, which leads him to a unique style of fighting with two swords simultaneously, he travels far and wide, challenging fighters of many disciplines, taking nature to be his ultimate and severest teacher and undergoing the rigorous training of those who follow the way. He is supremely successful in his encounters, but in The Art of War, he perceives the way of peaceful and prosperous governance and disciplines himself to be a real human being. He becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival. Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese storytelling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety, and absolute dedication to the way of the samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely. Full of gusto and humor, it has an epic quality and universal appeal.
©1971 Fumiko Yoshikawa (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Life in the Fasting Lane
Summary
Take the guesswork (and fear) out of fasting with real-life and expert advice. In recent years, intermittent fasting - restricting calorie intake for a set number of hours or days - has become an increasingly popular diet strategy. While some in the medical community initially dismissed the idea as a dangerous fad, recent research not only validates the safety of fasting for weight loss but also offers compelling evidence of wide-ranging health benefits, from reversal of diabetes and other metabolic disorders to enhanced cognitive function and increased longevity. But for many who are eager to try out fasting, the regimen can feel a bit intimidating. After all, abstaining from food doesn't sound like much fun. People rightly wonder: How often can I eat? Will I be able to focus at work? Will I have enough energy to exercise? And perhaps the most concerning question of all: Won't I be hungry all the time?! Enter Dr. Jason Fung - world-renowned fasting expert - his colleague, Megan Ramos, and Eve Mayer, who has experienced the life-changing benefits of fasting through Dr. Fung's program. Together, they've teamed up to write a one-of-a-kind guide that answers the most common questions people have about fasting - and offers a customizable program that provides real results. In Life in the Fasting Lane, Dr. Fung, Ramos, and Mayer take the listener by the hand and walk them through the basics of a fasting lifestyle - from the science behind fasting as a health and weight loss strategy to the real-life choices and dilemmas people commonly encounter. While Dr. Fung and Ramos explain the fundamentals of fasting and offer a customizable approach, Mayer shares her in-the-trenches perspective and hard-won knowledge as a success story who turned her life around with fasting. With chapters that address everything from meal planning to mental strategies; exercise to socializing, Life in the Fasting Lane is a unique and accessible guide to developing a sustainable and beneficial fasting routine that offers dramatic, lifelong results. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Jason Fung, Eve Mayer, and Megan Ramos (P)2020 HarperAudio
The Complete Book of Five Rings
Summary
The Complete Book of Five Rings is an authoritative version of Musashi's classic The Book of Five Rings, translated and annotated by a modern martial arts master, Kenji Tokitsu. Tokitsu has spent most of his life researching the legendary samurai swordsman and his works, and in this book he illuminates this seminal text, along with several other works by Musashi. These include "The Mirror of the Way of Strategy", which Musashi wrote when he was in his 20s; "Thirty-five Instructions on Strategy", and "Forty-two Instructions on Strategy", which were precursors to The Book of Five Rings; and "The Way to Be Followed Alone", which Musashi wrote just days before his death. Heard together, these five texts give listeners an unusually detailed, nuanced view of Musashi's ideas on swordsmanship, strategy, and self-cultivation. Tokitsu puts all these writings into historical and philosophical context and makes them accessible and relevant to today's listeners and martial arts students. Tokitsu understands Musashi's writings - and Musashi as a martial artist - unusually well and is able to provide a rare insight into the man and his historical contribution.
©2000 Kenji Tokitsu, English Translation 2004, 2010 by Shambhala Publications, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark
Summary
Padawan Reath Silas is being sent from the cosmopolitan galactic capital of Coruscant to the undeveloped frontier - and he couldn't be less happy about it. He'd rather stay at the Jedi Temple, studying the archives. But when the ship he's traveling on is knocked out of hyperspace in a galactic-wide disaster, Reath finds himself at the center of the action. The Jedi and their traveling companions find refuge on what appears to be an abandoned space station. But then strange things start happening, leading the Jedi to investigate the truth behind the mysterious station, a truth that could end in tragedy....
©2020 Claudia Gray (P)2020 Listening Library
Twilight of Democracy
Summary
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post and The Financial Times "How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document...is Applebaum's answer." (Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny) A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in democracies around the world are turning toward nationalism and authoritarianism. From the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else. Despotic leaders do not rule alone; they rely on political allies, bureaucrats, and media figures to pave their way and support their rule. The authoritarian and nationalist parties that have arisen within modern democracies offer new paths to wealth or power for their adherents. Applebaum describes many of the new advocates of illiberalism in countries around the world, showing how they use conspiracy theory, political polarization, social media, and even nostalgia to change their societies. Elegantly written and urgently argued, Twilight of Democracy is a brilliant dissection of a world-shaking shift and a stirring glimpse of the road back to democratic values.
©2020 Anne Applebaum (P)2020 Random House Audio
The Burning Issue of the Day
Summary
January 1910. A journalist has been killed in a suspicious blaze. Everything points to a group of suffragettes, but the apparent culprit insists she is innocent.
When Lady Hardcastle receives a letter from a suffragette requesting her urgent help, the retired spy turned sleuth knows only she stands between an accused young woman and the gallows. Evidence at the scene makes Lizzie Worrel’s innocence difficult to believe, and with the police treating it as an open-and-shut case of arson, Lady Hardcastle faces a barrage of resistance as she tries to dig out the truth.
With her trusted maid and confidante, the formidable Flo, Lady Hardcastle sets off in pursuit of the truth as time runs out for the accused suffragette. Was she set up? And if so, is the real culprit a traitor to the cause - or part of a darker conspiracy?
©2019 by T E Kinsey. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Cancer Code
Summary
Author of the international best sellers The Diabetes Code and The Obesity Code Dr. Jason Fung returns with an eye-opening biography of cancer in which he offers a radical new paradigm for understanding cancer - and issues a call to action for reducing risk moving forward. Our understanding of cancer is slowly undergoing a revolution, allowing for the development of more effective treatments. For the first time ever, the death rate from cancer is showing a steady decline...but the “War on Cancer” has hardly been won. In The Cancer Code, Dr. Jason Fung offers a revolutionary new understanding of this invasive, often fatal disease - what it is, how it manifests, and why it is so challenging to treat. In this rousing narrative, Dr. Fung identifies the medical community’s many missteps in cancer research - in particular, its focus on genetics, or what he terms the “seed” of cancer, at the expense of examining the “soil”, or the conditions under which cancer flourishes. Dr. Fung - whose groundbreaking work in the treatment of obesity and diabetes has won him international acclaim - suggests that the primary disease pathway of cancer is caused by the dysregulation of insulin. In fact, obesity and type 2 diabetes significantly increase an individual’s risk of cancer. In this accessible listen, Dr. Fung provides a new paradigm for dealing with cancer, with recommendations for what we can do to create a hostile soil for this dangerous seed. One such strategy is intermittent fasting, which reduces blood glucose, lowering insulin levels. Another, eliminating intake of insulin-stimulating foods, such as sugar and refined carbohydrates. For hundreds of years, cancer has been portrayed as a foreign invader we’ve been powerless to stop. By reshaping our view of cancer as an internal uprising of our own healthy cells, we can begin to take back control. The seed of cancer may exist in all of us, but the power to change the soil is in our hands.
©2020 Jason Fung (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
A River in Darkness
Summary
A New York Times bestseller and Amazon Charts Most Read and Most Sold book. A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Memoir & Autobiography. The harrowing true story of one man’s life in - and subsequent escape from - North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes. Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian. In this memoir translated from the original Japanese, Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life. A River in Darkness is not only a shocking portrait of life inside the country but a testament to the dignity - and indomitable nature - of the human spirit.
©2000 by Masaji Ishikawa. (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2017 by Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown.
Shadow of the Fox
Summary
One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish - and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos. Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn. Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure - one part of the ancient scroll. There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll...at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart. With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself. New from the New York Times best-selling author of The Talon Saga and The Iron Fey. Fans of Sarah J. Maas, Julie C. Dao, Marie Lu, Cassandra Clare, and more best-selling YA fantasy will be captivated by book one of this enchanting new series. “One of my all-time favorite fantasy novels! I'm in love with this book, its characters, its worldbuilding!” (Ellen Oh, author of the Prophecy and Spirit Hunters series)
©2018 Julie Kagawa (P)2018 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited.
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea
Summary
A band of savage 13-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disallusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.
©1965 Copyright 1965 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright renewed 1993 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Originally published in Japanese as Gogo No Eiko by Kodansha in 1963. (P)2010 Audible, Inc
Hagakure
Summary
Living and dying with bravery and honor is at the heart of Hagakure, a series of texts written by an 18th-century samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo. It is a window into the samurai mind, illuminating the concept of bushido (the Way of the Warrior), which dictated how samurai were expected to behave, conduct themselves, live, and die. While Hagakure was for many years a secret text known only to the warrior vassals of the Nabeshima clan to which the author belonged, it later came to be recognized as a classic exposition of samurai thought. The original Hagakure consists of over 1,300 short texts that Tsunetomo dictated to a younger samurai over a seven-year period. William Scott Wilson has selected and translated here 300 of the most representative of those texts to create an accessible distillation of this guide for samurai. No other translator has so thoroughly and eruditely rendered this text into English. For this edition, Wilson has added a new introduction that casts Hagakure in a different light than ever before. Tsunetomo refers to bushido as "the Way of death", a description that has held a morbid fascination for readers over the years. But in Tsunetomo's time, bushido was a nuanced concept that related heavily to the Zen concept of muga, the "death" of the ego. Wilson's revised introduction gives the historical and philosophical background for that more metaphorical reading of Hagakure, and through this lens, the classic takes on a fresh and nuanced appeal.
©1979, 2002, 2012 English translation by William Scott Wilson. Introduction by William Scott Wilson (P)2014 Audible Inc.
The Essential Dogen
Summary
Eihei Dogen (1200 - 1253), founder of the Soto School of Zen Buddhism, is one of the greatest religious, philosophical, and literary geniuses of Japan. His writings have been studied by Zen students for centuries, particularly his masterwork, Shobo Genzo or Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. This is the first book to offer the great master's incisive wisdom in short selections taken from the whole range of his voluminous works. The pithy and powerful readings, arranged according to theme, provide a perfect introduction to Dogen - and inspire spiritual practice in people of all traditions.
©2013 The San Francisco Zen Center (P)2014 Audible Inc.
The Art of Peace
Summary
The inspirational teachings in this collection show that the real way of the warrior is based on compassion, wisdom, fearlessness, and love of nature. The teachings are drawn from the talks and writings of Morihei Ueshiba, founder of the popular Japanese martial art of Aikido, a mind-body discipline he called the "Art of Peace", which offers a nonviolent way to victory in the face of conflict. Ueshiba believed that Aikido principles could be applied to all the challenges we face in life - in personal relationships, as we interact with society, and at work and in business. This edition is a much-expanded version of the original miniature edition that appeared in the Shambhala Pocket Classics series. It features a wealth of new material, including a biography of Ueshiba; an essay by John Stevens that presents Ueshiba's views on "The Art of War versus the Art of Peace"; newly translated doka, didactic "Poems of the Way"; and Ueshiba's own calligraphies.
©2002 John Stevens (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Soul of the Sword
Summary
One thousand years ago, a wish was made and a sword of rage and lightning was forged. Kamigoroshi. The Godslayer. A weapon powerful enough to seal away the formidable demon Hakaimono. Now he has broken free. Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has one task: to take her piece of the ancient and powerful Scroll of a Thousand Prayers to the Steel Feather temple in order to prevent the summoning of the Harbinger of Change, the great Kami Dragon who will grant one wish to whomever holds the scroll. But she has a new enemy now, more dangerous than any she has yet faced. The demon Hakaimono is free at last, and he has possessed the very person Yumeko trusted to protect her from the evil at her heels, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan. Hakaimono has only one goal: to break the curse of the sword and set himself free to rain chaos and destruction over the land forevermore. To do so, he will need the scroll. And Yumeko is the only one standing in his way.
©2019 Julie Kagawa (P)2019 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Night of the Dragon
Summary
In the epic finale to New York Times best-selling author Julie Kagawa’s Shadow of the Fox trilogy, the scroll has been taken, and no one is safe. To save everyone she loves from imminent death, kitsune shape-shifter Yumeko gave up the final piece of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. Now, she and her ragtag band of companions must make one desperate final effort to stop the Master of Demons from using the scroll to call the Great Kami Dragon and make the wish that will plunge the empire into chaos. Shadow clan assassin Kage Tatsumi has regained control of his body and agreed to a true deal with the devil - the demon inside him, Hakaimono. They will share his body and work with Yumeko to stop a madman, and to separate Hakaimono from Tatsumi and the cursed sword that trapped the demon for nearly a millennium. But even with their combined skills and powers, this unlikely team of heroes knows the forces of evil may be impossible to overcome. And there is another player in the battle for the scroll, a player who has been watching, waiting for the right moment to pull strings that no one even realized existed...until now. Books in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy: Shadow of the Fox Soul of the Sword Night of the Dragon
©2020 Julie Kagawa (P)2020 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Japanese Destroyer Captain
Summary
This highly regarded war memoir was a best seller in both Japan and the United States during the 1960s and has long been treasured by historians for its insights into the Japanese side of the surface war in the Pacific. The author was a survivor of more than one hundred sorties against the Allies and was known throughout Japan as the Unsinkable Captain. A hero to his countrymen, Capt. Hara exemplified the best in Japanese surface commanders: highly skilled, hard driving, and aggressive. Moreover, he maintained a code of honor worthy of his samurai grandfather, and, as readers of this book have come to appreciate, he was as free with praise for American courage and resourcefulness as he was critical of himself and his senior commanders.
©1967 Tameichi Hara (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Our Dogs, Ourselves
Summary
From the number one New York Times best-selling author of Inside of a Dog, an eye-opening, informative, “entertaining, and enlightening” (BookPage) celebration of the human-canine relationship for the curious dog owner and science-lover alike. We keep dogs and are kept by them. We love dogs and (we assume) we are loved by them. We buy them sweaters, toys, shoes; we are concerned with their social lives, their food, and their health. The story of humans and dogs is thousands of years old but is far from understood. In Our Dogs, Ourselves, Alexandra Horowitz explores all aspects of this unique and complex relationship that “dog lovers will savor and absorb” (Shelf Awareness). As Horowitz considers the current culture of dogdom, she reveals the odd, surprising, and contradictory ways we live with dogs. We celebrate their individuality but breed them for sameness. Despite our deep emotional relationships with dogs, legally they are property to be bought, sold, abandoned, or euthanized as we wish. Even the way we speak to our dogs is at once perplexing and delightful. In 13 thoughtful and charming chapters, Our Dogs, Ourselves affirms our profound affection for this most charismatic of animals — and makes us “see canine companions in new ways” (Science News).
©2019 Alexandra Horowitz (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio
If Cats Disappeared from the World
Summary
"Brian Nishii narrates this imaginative tale set in Japan about the complexities of death, life, and cats...A brief, charming parable." —AudioFile Magazine The international phenomenon that has sold more than a million copies in Japan, If Cats Disappeared from the World is a funny, heartwarming, and profound meditation on the meaning of life. The postman’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat, Cabbage, to keep him company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can tackle his bucket list, the Devil appears to make him an offer: In exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, our narrator will get one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week.... With each object that disappears, the postman reflects on the life he’s lived, his joys and regrets, and the people he’s loved and lost. Genki Kawamura’s timeless tale is a moving story of loss and reconciliation, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters most in life.
©2012; 2019 Text copyright Genki Kawamura; Translation copyright Eric Selland (P)2019 Macmillan Audio