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
Spring Snow
Summary
The first novel of Mishima's landmark tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. Spring Snow is set in Tokyo in 1912, when the hermetic world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders -- rich provincial families unburdened by tradition, whose money and vitality make them formidable contenders for social and political power. Among this rising new elite are the ambitious Matsugae, whose son has been raised in a family of the waning aristocracy, the elegant and attenuated Ayakura. Coming of age, he is caught up in the tensions between old and new -- fiercely loving and hating the exquisite, spirited Ayakura Satoko. He suffers in psychic paralysis until the shock of her engagement to a royal prince shows him the magnitude of his passion, and leads to a love affair that is as doomed as it was inevitable.
©1972 Copyright 1972 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Originally published in Japan as Haru no Yuki by Shinchosha Company, Tokyo, in 1968. c. 1968 by Yukio Mishima (P)2010 Audible, Inc
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 templeâs greatest treasure - one part of the ancient scroll. There are many who would claim the dragonâs 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, Yumekoâs 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. âOne of my all-time favorite fantasy novels! I'm in love with this book, its characters, its worldbuilding!â (Ellen Oh, author of the Prophecy and Spirit Hunters series)
©2018 Julie Kagawa (P)2018 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited.
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
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
Life on a Young Planet
Summary
Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites - such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty. The very latest discoveries in paleontology - many of them made by the author and his students - are integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science to forge a broad understanding of how the biological diversity that surrounds us came to be. Moving from Siberia to Namibia to the Bahamas, Knoll shows how life and environment have evolved together through Earth's history. Listeners go into the field to confront fossils, enter the lab to discern the inner workings of cells, and alight on Mars to ask how our terrestrial experience can guide exploration for life beyond our planet. Along the way, Knoll brings us up-to-date on some of science's hottest questions, from the oldest fossils and claims of life beyond the Earth to the hypothesis of global glaciation and Knoll's own unifying concept of "permissive ecology." PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2003 Princeton University Press (P)2019 Tantor
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.
Our Dogs, Ourselves
Summary
From the number one New York Times best-selling author of Inside of a Dog, an eye-opening, informative, âentertaining, and enlighteningâ (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 âdog lovers will savor and absorbâ (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 â and makes us âsee canine companions in new waysâ (Science News).
©2019 Alexandra Horowitz (P)2019 Simon & Schuster 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 Worrelâs 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 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.
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
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.
John Gielgud's Hamlet (Dramatized)
Summary
This outstanding historical recording made in 1941 for radio is widely regarded as one of the finest Hamlet performances ever, and one of John Gielgud's greatest moments. Though he went on to record it for commercial release, nothing matched this recording in the BBC studios, made before the days of editing.
Public Domain (P)2006 Naxos AudioBooks
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.
Snow Country
Summary
The story of the doomed love affair of a wealthy sophisticate, Shimamura, and the geisha Komako, at a mountain hotspring resort in western Japan, one of the snowiest regions on earth.
©1984 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
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
To Hold Up the Sky
Summary
From New York Times best-selling author Cixin Liu comes a short story collection of captivating visions of the future and incredible re-imaginings of the past. In To Hold Up the Sky, Cixin Liu takes us across time and space, from a rural mountain community where elementary students must use physics to prevent an alien invasion; to coal mines in northern China where new technology will either save lives of unleash a fire that will burn for centuries; to a time very much like our own, when superstring computers predict our every move; to 10,000 years in the future, when humanity is finally able to begin anew; to the very collapse of the universe itself. Written between 1999 and 2017 and never before published in English, these stories came into being during decades of major change in China and will take you across time and space through the eyes of one of science fiction's most visionary writers. Experience the limitless and pure joy of Cixin Liu's writing and imagination in this stunning collection. Stories included are: "Contraction" "Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming" "The Village Teacher" "Fire in the Earth" "Time Migration" "Ode to Joy" "Mirror" "Sea of Dreams" "Cloud of Poems" "The Thinker" This program is read by: Vikas Adam, Feodor Chin, Greg Chun, Robert Fass, Catherine Ho, Natalie Naudus, Brian Nishii, P. J. Ochlan, Emily Woo Zeller, and Nancy Wu A Macmillan Audio production from Tor BooksÂ
©2020 Cixin Liu (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
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.
The Temple of the Golden Pavillion
Summary
A hopeless stutterer, taunted by his schoolmates, Mizoguchi feels utterly alone until he becomes an acolyte at a famous temple in Kyoto. But he quickly becomes obsessed with the temple's beauty, and cannot live in peace as long as it exists.
©1959 Copyright information US: Copyright 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. This translation Copyright Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1959. Originally published in Japanese as Kinkakuji. (P)2010 Audible, Inc
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 manâs life in - and subsequent escape from - North Korea, one of the worldâs 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.
Samurai Rising
Summary
Minamoto Yoshitsune should not have been a samurai. But his story is legend in this real-life saga. This epic warrior tale may sound like a novel, but this is the true story of the greatest samurai in Japanese history. When Yoshitsune was just a baby, his father went to war with a rival samurai family - and lost. His father was killed, his mother captured, and his surviving half-brother banished. Yoshitsune was sent away to live in a monastery. Skinny, small, and unskilled in the warrior arts, he nevertheless escaped and learned the ways of the samurai. When the time came for the Minamoto clan to rise up against their enemies, Yoshitsune answered the call. His daring feats and impossible bravery earned him immortality.
©2016 Pamela S. Turner (P)2016 Recorded Books
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.
A Man
Summary
A man follows another man's trail of lies in a compelling psychological story about the search for identity, by Japan's award-winning literary sensation Keiichiro Hirano in his first novel to be translated into English. Akira Kido is a divorce attorney whose own marriage is in danger of being destroyed by emotional disconnect. With a midlife crisis looming, Kido's life is upended by the reemergence of a former client, Rié Takemoto. She wants Kido to investigate a dead man - her recently deceased husband, Daisuké. Upon his death she discovered that heâd been living a lie. His name, his past, his entire identity belonged to someone else, a total stranger. The investigation draws Kido into two intriguing mysteries: finding out who Rié's husband really was and discovering more about the man he pretended to be. Soon, with each new revelation, Kido will come to share the obsession with - and the lure of - erasing one life to create a new one. In A Man, winner of Japanâs prestigious Yomiuri Prize for Literature, Keiichiro Hirano explores the search for identity, the ambiguity of memory, the legacies with which we live and die, and the reconciliation of who you hoped to be with who youâve actually become.
©2018 Keiichiro Hirano. Translation © 2020 by Eli K. P. William. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Sound of Waves
Summary
Set in a remote fishing village in Japan, The Sound of Waves is a timeless story of first love. A young fisherman is entranced at the sight of the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. They fall in love, but must then endure the calumny and gossip of the villagers.
©1956 Copyright 1956 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright renewed 1984 by Meredith Weatherby. Originally published in Japan as Shiosai. (P)2010 Audible, Inc
Culture Hacks
Summary
International business requires a deep level of industry insight but also a keen understanding of the cultural differences that impact how business is done. If youâre an American working in China or Japan for the first time, you may not realize the way each culture thinks and reasons is quite different from your own, which can lead to frequent misunderstandings. You may be unaware, for example, that Americans reason in a linear manner, Chinese in a lateral manner, and Japanese intuitively. Or that Japanese view the world in literal terms, while Americans and Chinese are more balanced between abstract and literal. You wonât see about these differences in a typical business etiquette book, but they are foundational to the way each culture considers and conducts their business. In Culture Hacks, Richard Conrad draws on his 25 years of experience living and working in Asia to explain the different ways Americans, Chinese, and Japanese think, reason, and interpret the world. Heâll equip you to successfully navigate unfamiliar territory by offering best practices and recommendations for interacting with and understanding each other.
©2019 Richard Conrad (P)2019 Richard Conrad
The Great Passage
Summary
A charmingly warm and hopeful story of love, friendship, and the power of human connection. Award-winning Japanese author Shion Miura's novel is a reminder that a life dedicated to passion is a life well lived. Inspired as a boy by the multiple meanings to be found for a single word in the dictionary, Kohei Araki is devoted to the notion that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years creating them at Gembu Books, it's time for him to retire and find his replacement. He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime - a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics - whom he swipes from his company's sales department. Led by his new mentor and joined by an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining accomplishment: completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language. On his journey, Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work, inspired by the bond that connects us all: words.
©2012 Shion Miura (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2017 Juliet Winters Carpenter.
The Heart of Meditation
Summary
His Holiness the Dalai Lama provides intimate details on an advanced meditation practice called Dzogchen using a visionary poem by the 19th-century saint Patrul Rinpoche, author of the Buddhist classic Words of My Perfect Teacher. The Dalai Lama deftly connects how training the mind in compassion for other beings is directly related to - and in fact a prerequisite for - the very pinnacle of Buddhist meditation. He presents his understanding, confirmed again and again over millennia, that the cultivation of both compassion and wisdom is absolutely critical to progress in meditation and goes into great depth on how this can be accomplished. While accessible to a beginner, he leads the listener in very fine detail on how to identify innermost awareness - who we really are - how to maintain contact with this awareness, and how to release oneself from the endless stream of our thoughts to let this awareness, always present, become consistently apparent.
©2016 Dalai Lama Trust (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Beauty and Sadness
Summary
Returning to Kyoto, where temple bells announce the New Year, a grave and penitent Oki is drawn to a haunting obsession from his past. Gently lyrical, yet fierce with the stark intensity of passion, Kawabata's last novel tells the story of the lasting consequences of a brief love affair.
©1975 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
The Lonesome Bodybuilder
Summary
A housewife takes up bodybuilding and sees radical changes to her physique - which her workaholic husband fails to notice. A boy waits at a bus stop, mocking businessmen struggling to keep their umbrellas open in a typhoon - until an old man shows him they hold the secret to flying. A woman working in a clothing boutique waits endlessly on a customer who won't come out of the fitting room - and who may or may not be human. A newlywed notices her husband's features are beginning to slide around his face - to match her own. In these 11 stories, the individuals who lift the curtains of their orderly homes and workplaces are confronted with the bizarre, the grotesque, the fantastic, the alien - and through it, find a way to liberation. The Lonesome Bodybuilder is the English-language debut of one of Japan's most fearlessly inventive young writers. BBC Culture Magazine Pick Akutagawa Prize Kenzaburo Oe Prize Vulture.com Pick Nylon Magazine Pick Millions.com Pick Huffington Post Pick Bustle Pick
©2018 Yukiko Motoya (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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 âWar on Cancerâ 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 communityâs many missteps in cancer research - in particular, its focus on genetics, or what he terms the âseedâ of cancer, at the expense of examining the âsoilâ, 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 individualâs 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 weâve 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.Â
©2020 Jason Fung (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Night of the Dragon
Summary
In the epic finale to New York Times best-selling author Julie Kagawaâs 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
Hiroshima Boy
Summary
LA gardener Mas Arai returns to Hiroshima to bring his best friendâs ashes to a relative on the tiny offshore island of Ino, only to become embroiled in the mysterious death of a teenage boy who was about the same age Mas was when he survived the atomic bomb in 1945. The boyâs death affects the elderly, often-curmudgeonly, always-reluctant sleuth, who cannot return home to Los Angeles until he finds a way to see justice served.
©2018 Naomi Hirahara (P)2018 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.
Cash Crash Jubilee
Summary
A cyber-dystopian thriller unlike any other. In a near-future Tokyo, every action - from blinking to sexual intercourse - is intellectual property owned by corporations that charge licensing fees. A BodyBank computer system implanted in each citizen records their movements from moment to moment and connects them to the audio-visual overlay of the ImmaNet so that every inch of this cyber-dystopian metropolis crawls with information and shifting cinematic promotainment. Amon Kenzaki works as a liquidator for the Global Action Transaction Authority. His job is to capture bankrupt citizens, remove their BodyBanks, and banish them to BankDeath Camps where they are forever cut off from the action-transaction economy. Amon always plays by the rules and is steadily climbing the Liquidation Ministry ladder. With his savings accumulating and another promotion coming, everything seems to be going well until he is asked to cash crash a charismatic politician and model citizen and soon after is charged for an incredibly expensive action called "jubilee" that he is sure he never performed. To restore balance to his account, Amon must unravel the secret of jubilee but quickly finds himself asking dangerous questions about the system to which he's devoted his life, and the costly investigation only drags him closer and closer to the pit of bankruptcy. In book 1 of the Jubilee Cycle, Cash Crash Jubilee, debut novelist Eli K. P. William wields the incisive power of speculative fiction to show how, in a world of corporate finance run amok, one man will do everything for the sake of truth and justice.
©2015 Eli K. P. William (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
Ascendancies
Summary
Two dozen tales of future shock and twisted history from an undisputed king of cyberpunk science fiction, including Nebula Award finalists âSunken Gardenâ and âDori Bangs.â Time magazine describes Bruce Sterling as âone of Americaâs best-known science fiction writers and perhaps the sharpest observer of our media-choked culture working today in any genre.â Sterlingâs abilities are on full display in Ascendancies, a collection of speculative fiction from a world-class world-building futurist, alternate historian, and mad prophet operating at the peak of his extraordinary powers. Here are twenty-four stories that span the illustrious career of the author who, along with William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, injected the word cyberpunk into the science fiction lexicon. These tales not only traverse galaxies and employ mind-boggling technologies, they also cut back across the centuries into a richly imagined past with style and a sharp satiric edge. Sterlingâs unparalleled imagination and courageous originality carry the reader into the future universe of the warring Shapers and Mechanists, rival sects of exiled humanity with radically opposed views of human augmentation. Several stories feature the questionable adventures of the footloose con man Leggy Starlitz in a somewhat-skewed and still-dangerous post-Cold War world. Sterling explores the cyberpunk trope of technology gone wild and the resultant decline of civilization with appropriate gravity, while presenting parables of strangers stuck in very strange lands in a more whimsical vein. Whether chronicling an alienâs encounter with Crusaders in disputed Palestine, depicting the discovery of the key to immortality in a nineteenth-century Times Square magic shop, or portraying bicycles and bad guys in a near-future Tennessee, Sterlingâs stories are smart, surprising, genre bending, bold, and outstanding, one and all.
©2007 Bruce Sterling. âIntroductionâ by Karen Joy Fowler, © 2007 by Karen Joy Fowler. âForewordâ by Bruce Sterling, © 2007 by Bruce Sterling. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Sumokitty
Summary
Watch out, mice! This cat is a sumo champion! A stray kitty gets a job in a sumo stable, chasing mice in exchange for food. But when eating like a sumo wrestler slows our feline hero down, he realizes he must train like a wrestler, too. Through hard work and perseverance - and with a little help from a big buddy - SumoKitty is born! A funny and heartwarming story inspired by the Japanese saying, "Fall down seven times, stand up eight."
©2019 David Biedrzycki (P)2019 Recorded Books
Engineering Infinity
Summary
The universe shifts and changes: suddenly you understand, you get it, and are filled with wonder. That moment of understanding drives the greatest science-fiction stories and lies at the heart of Engineering Infinity. Whether it's coming up hard against the speed of light - and with it the enormity of the universe, realizing that terraforming a distant world is harder and more dangerous than you'd ever thought, or simply realizing that a hitchhiker on a starship consumes fuel and oxygen with tragic results, it's hard science-fiction where a sense of discovery is most often found and where science-fiction's true heart lies. This exciting and innovative science-fiction anthology collects together stories by some of the biggest names in the field, including Gwyneth Jones, Stephen Baxter and Charles Stross. Author bio: Jonathan Strahan is an editor and anthologist. He coedited The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology series in 1997 and 1998. He is also the reviews editor of Locus. He lives in Perth, Western Australia, with his wife and their two daughters. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.Â
©2018 See PDF (P)2018 Recorded Books
If Cats Disappeared from the World
Summary
Our narratorâs days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat, Cabbage, for company, he was unprepared for the doctorâs diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can set about tackling his bucket list, the devil appears with a special offer: in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, he can have one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week.... Because how do you decide what makes life worth living? How do you separate out what you can do without from what you hold dear? In dealing with the devil, our narrator will take himself - and his beloved cat - to the brink. If Cats Disappeared from the World is a story of loss and reconciliation, of one manâs journey to discover what really matters in modern life. This beautiful tale is translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland, who also translated The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide. Fans of The Guest Cat will also surely love If Cats Disappeared from the World.
©2018 Genki Kawamura (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio
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
Hello, Habits
Summary
The internationally best-selling author of Goodbye, Things shares insights and practices to help us embrace habits and become the best versions of ourselves. Fumio Sasaki changed his life when he became a minimalist. But before minimalism could really stick, he had to make it a habit. All of us live our lives based on the habits weâve formed, from when we get up in the morning to what we eat and drink to how likely we are to actually make it to the gym. In Hello, Habits, Sasaki explains how we can acquire the new habits that we want - and get rid of the ones that donât do us any good. Drawing on leading theories and tips about the science of habit formation from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and sociology, along with examples from popular culture and tried-and-tested techniques from his own life, he unravels common misperceptions about âwillpowerâ and âtalentâ, and offers a step-by-step guide to success. Ultimately, Sasaki shows how ordinary people like himself can use his principles of good habit-making to improve themselves and change their lives.
©2018, 2021 Fumio Sasaki (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing
The Color of Air
Summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of Women of the Silk and The Samurai's Garden comes a gorgeous and evocative historical novel about a Japanese-American family set against the backdrop of Hawaiâi's sugar plantations. Daniel Abe, a young doctor in Chicago, is finally coming back to Hawai'i. He has his own reason for returning to his childhood home, but it is not to revisit the past, unlike his Uncle Koji. Koji lives with the memories of Danielâs mother, Mariko, the love of his life, and the scars of a life hard-lived. He canât wait to see Daniel, who heâs always thought of as a son, but he knows the time has come to tell him the truth about his mother, and his father. But Danielâs arrival coincides with the awakening of the Mauna Loa volcano, and its dangerous path toward their village stirs both new and long ago passions in their community. Alternating between past and present - from the day of the volcano eruption in 1935 to decades prior - The Color of Air interweaves the stories of Daniel, Koji, and Mariko to create a rich, vibrant, bittersweet chorus that celebrates their lifelong bond to one other and to their immigrant community. As Mauna Loa threatens their lives and livelihoods, it also unearths long held secrets simmering below the surface that meld past and present, revealing a path forward for them all.Â
©2020 Gail Tsukiyama (P)2020 HarperAudio
Bushido: The Soul of Japan (AmazonClassics Edition)
Summary
Inazo Nitobé's Bushido: The Soul of Japan is a poetic inquiry into the ethos of his homeland. Through a study of the way of the samurai, Nitobe identifies the seven virtues most widely recognized by the Japanese: rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, honor, and loyalty. In sharing these moral guidelines, handed down over generations, Nitobe gives the world unique insight into a previously unexplored code of honor. Written in English and only translated years later into Japanese, Bushido was an inspiration to many Western leaders, including two US presidents - Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. After centuries, the samurai principles are now applied around the world and recognized as universal ideals. Revised edition: Previously published as Bushido: The Soul of Japan, this edition of Bushido: The Soul of Japan (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
Public Domain (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Walking the Kiso Road
Summary
Take a trip to old Japan with William Scott Wilson as he travels the ancient Kiso Road, a legendary route that remains much the same today as it was hundreds of years ago. The Kisoji, which runs through the Kiso Valley in the Japanese Alps, has been in use since at least 701 CE. In the 17th century, it was the route that the daimyo (warlords) used for their biennial trips - along with their samurai and porters - to the new capital of Edo (now Tokyo). The natural beauty of the route is renowned - and famously inspired the landscapes of Hiroshige, as well as the work of many other artists and writers. Wilson, esteemed translator of samurai philosophy, has walked the road several times and is a delightful and expert guide to this popular tourist destination; he shares its rich history and lore, literary and artistic significance, cuisine and architecture, as well as his own experiences.
©2015 William Scott Wilson (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Hexarchate Stories
Summary
The essential short story collection set in the universe of Ninefox Gambit. An ex-Kel art thief has to save the world from a galaxy-shattering prototype weapon.... A general outnumbered eight-to-one must outsmart his opponent.... A renegade returns from seclusion to bury an old comrade.... From the incredible imagination of Hugo- and Arthur C. Clarke-nominated author Yoon Ha Lee comes a collection of stories set in the world of the best-selling Ninefox Gambit. Showcasing Lee's extraordinary imagination, this collection takes you to the very beginnings of the Hexarchate's history and reveals new never-before-heard stories.
©2019 Yoon Ha Lee (P)2019 Recorded Books
Mazes of Power
Summary
This debut work of sociological science fiction follows a deadly battle for succession, where brother is pitted against brother in a singular chance to win power and influence for their family. The cavern city of Pelismara has stood for a thousand years. The Great Families of the nobility cling to the myths of their golden age while the city's technology wanes. When a fever strikes, and the Eminence dies, seventeen-year-old Tagaret is pushed to represent his Family in the competition for Heir to the Throne. To win would give him the power to rescue his mother from his abusive father, and marry the girl he loves. But the struggle for power distorts everything in this highly stratified society, and the fever is still loose among the inbred, susceptible nobles. Tagaret's sociopathic younger brother, Nekantor, is obsessed with their family's success. Nekantor is willing to exploit Tagaret, his mother, and her new servant Aloran to defeat their opponents. Can he be stopped? Should he be stopped? And will they recognize themselves after the struggle has changed them?
©2019 Juliette Wade (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
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." âAudioFile 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 postmanâs days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat, Cabbage, to keep him company, he was unprepared for the doctorâs 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 heâs lived, his joys and regrets, and the people heâs loved and lost.   Genki Kawamuraâs timeless tale is a moving story of loss and reconciliation, of one manâs journey to discover what really matters most in life.
©2012; 2019 Text copyright Genki Kawamura; Translation copyright Eric Selland (P)2019 Macmillan Audio
The Naked World
Summary
In a world stripped bare of digital images and promotainment, unveiled with the audiovisual overlay of the ImmaNet, in an exposed world, a naked world, Amon Kenzaki awakens, lost and alone. He must now travel deep into the District of Dreams in search of Rashana Birla, the one person that might help him unravel the mystery of jubilee. But deprived of the apps and informational tools he's depended on his entire life, traversing the largest bankdeath camp on Earth is no easy task. Inside an ephemeral labyrinth of slowly-dissolving disposable skyscrapers clogged to the limit with the bankdead masses, Amon soon finds himself face to face with two dangerous groups: a cult called the Opportunity Scientists, who preach bizarre superstitions about economic salvation, and a supposedly humanitarian organization called the Philanthropy Syndicate, whose mandate of serving the poor conceals rapacious motives. Amon takes refuge in Xenocryst, a community that genuinely strives to improve conditions in the camps, where he begins to work towards its cause and reconciles himself to his newfound poverty. But when political forces threaten the community's existence and the lives of its members, he is forced to team up with a vending-machine designer, an Olympic runner, a fertility researcher, a corporate tycoon, and many others to expose the heinous secret festering at the heart of the action-transaction market he once served. In book two of the Jubilee Cycle, Eli K. P. William delves beneath the surface of his cyber-dystopian Tokyo to unearth the fate of outcasts trapped in its depths and shine a light on the financial obstacles blocking one individual's efforts to help them.
©2017 Eli K. P. William (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
The Case of the Angry Actress
Summary
Detective Masuto investigates a Hollywood mogulâs sudden death. The residents of Beverly Hills tend to underestimate a Buddhist homicide detective, and Masao Masuto is happy to let them make that mistake. A second-generation Japanese-American, he relishes the thrill of a puzzling murder case. And Masuto will need all his powers of deduction to understand the murder of Al Greenberg. The producer was giving a party when his heart stopped. After years of bad health, Greenbergâs abrupt death is no surprise. But one of the dead manâs producing partners claims to have overheard an unknown woman taunting Greenberg, while he pleaded, "put that gun away and give me my medicine." It appears Greenberg was frightened to death. To find the killer, Masuto must dig into the darkest secrets of the mogulâs past. Greenberg will not be the last to die.
©1967 William Morrow and Company, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Summer of the Big Bachi
Summary
In the foothills of Pasadena, Mas Arai is just another Japanese-American gardener, his lawnmower blades clean and sharp, his truck carefully tuned. But while Mas keeps lawns neatly trimmed, his own life has gone to seed. His wife is dead. And his livelihood is falling into the hands of the men he once hired by the day. For Mas, a life of sin is catching up to him. And now bachi - the spirit of retribution - is knocking on his door. It begins when a stranger comes around, asking questions about a nurseryman who once lived in Hiroshima, a man known as Joji Haneda. By the end of the summer, Joji will be dead, and Mas' own life will be in danger. For while Mas was building a life on the edge of the American dream, he has kept powerful secrets: about three friends long ago, about two lives entwined, and about what really happened when the bomb fell on Hiroshima in August 1945. A spellbinding mystery played out from war-torn Japan to the rich tidewaters of LA's multicultural landscape, this stunning debut novel weaves a powerful tale of family, loyalty, and the price of both survival and forgiveness.
©2004 Naomi Hirahara (P)2015 Audible Inc.
Go
Summary
Two young loversâ¦one little secret.
As a Korean student in a Japanese high school, Sugihara has had to defend himself against all kinds of bullies. But nothing could have prepared him for the heartache he feels when he falls hopelessly in love with a Japanese girl named Sakurai. Immersed in their shared love for classical music and foreign movies, the two gradually grow closer and closer.
One night, after being hit by personal tragedy, Sugihara reveals to Sakurai that he is not Japanese - as his name might indicate.
Torn between a chance at self-discovery that heâs ready to seize and the prejudices of others that he canât control, Sugihara must decide who he wants to be and where he wants to go next. Will Sakurai be able to confront her own bias and accompany him on his journey?
©2000, 2007 Kazuki Kaneshiro; translation © 2018 by Takami Nieda (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Story of Sushi
Summary
Everything you never knew about sushi: its surprising origins, the colorful lives of its chefs, and the bizarre behavior of the creatures that compose it. Trevor Corson takes us behind the scenes at America's first sushi-chef training academy, as eager novices strive to master the elusive art of cooking without cooking. He delves into the biology and natural history of the edible creatures of the sea, and tells the fascinating story of an Indo-Chinese meal reinvented in 19th-century Tokyo as a cheap fast food. He reveals the pioneers who brought sushi to the United States and explores how this unlikely meal is exploding into the American heartland just as the long-term future of sushi may be unraveling. The Story of Sushi is at once a compelling tale of human determination and a delectable smorgasbord of surprising food science, intrepid reporting, and provocative cultural history.
©2007 Trevor Corson (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
The Tale of Genji, Volume 1
Summary
Murasaki Shikibu, born into the middle ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian period (794-1185 CE), wrote The Tale of Genji, widely considered the world's first novel, during the early years of the 11th century. Expansive, compelling, and sophisticated in its representation of ethical concerns and aesthetic ideals, Murasaki's tale came to occupy a central place in Japan's remarkable history of artistic achievement and is now recognized as a masterpiece of world literature. The Tale of Genji is presented here in a flowing new translation for contemporary listeners, who will discover in its depiction of the culture of the imperial court the rich complexity of human experience that simultaneously resonates with and challenges their own. Washburn embeds annotations for accessibility and clarity and renders the poetry into triplets to create prosodic analogues of the original.
©2015 Dennis Washburn (translation) (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ametora
Summary
Look closely at any typically "American" article of clothing these days, and you may be surprised to see a Japanese label inside. From high-end denim to oxford button-downs, Japanese designers have taken the classic American look - known as ametora, or "American traditional" - and turned it into a huge business for companies like Uniqlo, Kamakura Shirts, Evisu, and Kapital. This phenomenon is part of a long dialogue between Japanese and American fashion; in fact many of the basic items and traditions of the modern American wardrobe are alive and well today thanks to the stewardship of Japanese consumers and fashion cognoscenti, who ritualized and preserved these American styles during periods when they were out of vogue in their native land. In Ametora, cultural historian W. David Marx traces the Japanese assimilation of American fashion over the past 150 years, showing how Japanese trendsetters and entrepreneurs mimicked, adapted, imported, and ultimately perfected American style, dramatically reshaping not only Japan's culture but also our own in the process.
©2015 W. David Marx (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Training the Samurai Mind
Summary
Through the ages, the samurai have been associated with honor, fearlessness, calm, decisive action, strategic thinking, and martial prowess. Their ethos is known as bushido, the Way of the Warrior-Knight. Here, premier translator Thomas Cleary presents a rich collection of writings on bushido by warriors, scholars, political advisors, and educators from the 15th century through the 19th century that provide a comprehensive, historically rich view of samurai life and philosophy. Training the Samurai Mind gives an insider's view of the samurai world: the moral and psychological development of the warrior, the ethical standards they were meant to uphold, their training in both martial arts and strategy, and the enormous role that the traditions of Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism had in influencing samurai ideals. The writings deal with a broad range of subjects - from military strategy and political science, to personal discipline and character development. Cleary introduces each piece, putting it into historical context, and presents biographical information about the authors. This is an essential listen for anyone interested in military history and samurai history, and for martial artists who want to understand strategy.
©2008 Thomas Cleary (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Snakeskin Shamisen
Summary
From Summer of the Big Bachi to Gasa-Gasa Girl, Naomi Hirahara's acclaimed novels have featured one of mystery fiction's most unique heroes: Mas Arai, a curmudgeonly LA gardener, Hiroshima survivor, and inveterate gambler. Few things get Mas more excited than gambling, so when he hears about a $500,000 win - from a novelty slot machine! - he's torn between admiration and derision. But the stakes are quickly raised when the winner, a friend of Mas' pal, G. I. Hasuike, is found stabbed to death just days later. The last thing Mas wants to do is stick his nose in someone else's business, but at G. I.'s prodding he reluctantly agrees to follow the trail of a battered snakeskin shamisen (a traditional Okinawan musical instrument) left at the scene of the crime...and suddenly finds himself caught up in a dark mystery that reaches from the islands of Okinawa to the streets of LA - a world of heartbreaking memories, deception, and murder.
©2006 Naomi Hirahara (P)2015 Audible Inc.
Thousand Cranes
Summary
With a restraint that barely conceals the ferocity of his characters' passions, one of Japan's great postwar novelists tells the luminous story of Kikuji and the tea party he attends with Mrs. Ota, the rival of his dead father's mistress. A tale of desire, regret, and sensual nostalgia, every gesture has a meaning, and even the most fleeting touch or casual utterance has the power to illuminate entire lives - sometimes in the same moment that it destroys them.
©1986 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Live from Golgotha
Summary
Timothy (later St. Timothy) is in his study in Thessalonika, where he is bishop of Macedonia. It is A.D. 96, and Timothy is under terrific pressure to record his version of the Sacred Story, since, far in the future, a cyberpunk (the Hacker) has been systematically destroying the tapes that describe the Good News, and Timothy's Gospel is the only one immune to the Hacker's deadly virus. Meanwhile, thanks to a breakthrough in computer software, an NBC crew is racing into the past to capture - live from the suburb of Golgotha - the Crucifixion, for a TV special guaranteed to boost the network's ratings in the fall sweeps. As a stream of visitors from 20th-century America channel in to the first-century Holy Land - Mary Baker Eddy, Shirley MacLaine, Oral Roberts and family - Timothy struggles to complete his story. But is Timothy's text really Hacker-proof? And how will he deal with the truth about Jesus' eating disorder? Above all, will he get the anchor slot for the Big Show at Golgotha without representation by a major agency, like CAA 1,896 years in the future? Tune in.
©1992 Gore Vidal (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Strawberry Yellow
Summary
Curmudgeonly Japanese American gardener and unwitting detective Mas Arai is back in this fifth in the Edgar Award-winning series. Naomi Hirahara has created a memorable protagonist unlike any other: a Hiroshima survivor, Los Angeles gardener, widower, gambler, grandfather, and solver of crimes. In Strawberry Yellow he returns to the strawberry farms of his youth and encounters family intrigue, danger, and murder. The series' most compelling and evocative mystery yet is set in the strawberry fields of Watsonville, California, where young Mas first arrived as a Hiroshima survivor in the 1940s. He returns for the funeral of a cousin and quickly gets entangled in the murder of a young woman. Was his cousin murdered, too? Mas has to figure out what happened, keep himself safe, and uncover the mystery of the Strawberry Yellow blight and a new strawberry varietal so important it could be inspiring a murderer. Naomi Hirahara is an engaging speaker who's always a hit at bookstore and mystery events. She's very active in the Japanese-American community in California and is a past president of the Southern California chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. She won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original Mystery for Snakeskin Shamisen, the third in the Mas Arai series.
©2013 Naomi Hirahara (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
The Case of the One-Penny Orange
Summary
Detective Masuto investigates a string of strange Southern California crimes that lead all the way back to Nazi Germany. Returning from a funeral, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Briggs find their Beverly Hills mansion ransacked. As they wait for the police, they discover something unusual: Despite the chaos, nothing appears to be missing - a fact that greatly interests Beverly Hills police detective Masao Masuto. But the Zen detective only has a few minutes to ponder the strange break-in before a murder intervenes. The victim is Ivan Gaycheck, a stamp dealer whom Masuto remembers for his stout frame and unplaceable accent. A .22-caliber bullet killed Gaycheck, but - just like the Briggs's home invasion - nothing in the shop has been disturbed. Suspecting a connection between the two crimes, Masuto dives into the case, uncovering a strange conspiracy that stretches back to the darkest days of World War II.
©1977 E. V. Cunningham (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The Case of the Murdered Mackenzie
Summary
Detective Masuto reopens an investigation into a murderous film star - with deadly consequences⦠On the day that Eve Mackenzie murders her husband, Masao Masuto is on a plane to Japan. For years he and his wife, both American-born Japanese, have dreamed of visiting their homeland, and though the trip is a delight, the Zen Buddhist detective cannot help but check the international papers for news of murder on his home turf of Beverly Hills. Part of him regrets missing the sensational Mackenzie killing. Once a high-profile film star, Eve faded from the public eye after marrying a wealthy Scotsman - an unhappy marriage that ended in bloodshed. When Masuto returns home, Eve is headed toward an inevitable conviction. Why, then, does he reopen the case? The evidence against the Hollywood starlet is so airtight that Masuto suspects a frame-up. As he pries into the closed case, more blood spills. Eve Mackenzie may not have murdered her husband, but she is far from innocent.
©1984 E. V. Cunningham (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Becoming Your Own Therapist and Make Your Mind an Ocean
Summary
This audiobook contains both of the very popular Lama Yeshe booklets, Becoming Your Own Therapist and Make Your Mind an Ocean. These lectures explore the general topics of Buddhism and the mind and are followed by question-and-answer sessions that include a fascinating historic exchange between Lama and a group of psychiatrists illuminating the differences between Western and Buddhist concepts of mental health. Becoming Your Own Therapist: These three public talks given by Lama Yeshe present the general topic of Buddhism and each is followed by a lively exchange between Lama and the audience. Lama always enjoyed the give and take of these exchanges and pretty much anything went! While these talks were labeled lectures, Lama actually wanted each of us to use them as mirrors for our minds, to look beyond the words and find ourselves and in this way become our own psychologists. Make Your Mind an Ocean: The talks given by Lama in this section explore the functions of the mind. Two were lunchtime lectures at Melbourne and Latrobe Universities and one was an evening lecture given to the general public. Perhaps of greatest interest is the lecture entitled "A Buddhist Approach to Mental Illnessâ in which Lama met with a group of psychiatrists at Prince Henry's Hospital who were delighted to listen and question Lama and thereby reveal the differences between Western and Buddhist concepts of mental health. The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA) is the collected works of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. The Archive was founded in 1996 by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the Archiveâs spiritual director, to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings in as many ways as possible. Visit us online at www.LamaYeshe.com.
©2003 Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
The Case of the Sliding Pool
Summary
A rare California deluge unearths a hidden body - and a decades-old crime Rain has spoiled Masao Masuto's vacation. For six days the storm has trapped the Zen Buddhist detective and his family inside their Los Angeles cottage. By the morning of his vacation's final day, he is so stir crazy that the call to come to work is a relief. Detective Masuto knows no better cure for boredom than a puzzling murder. Nothing remains of the deceased man but his bones. A mudslide caused by the long, punishing storm destroyed the terrace of a Beverly Hills mansion, dislodging the swimming pool and opening a grave which had been covered for three decades. The skeleton's deep stab wound suggests a professional's hand - possibly a World War II veteran with commando training. As Masuto pries into the past, the aged murderer takes deadly steps to cover up his long-forgotten crime. The detective finds himself locked in a game of cat and mouse with a brilliant and ruthless killer.
©1981 E. V. Cunningham (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Killer Instinct
Summary
DR. JESSICA CORAN A brilliant and determined FBI medical examiner, she was an expert student of the criminal mind who thought she could face anything. That was before Wisconsin. Before she saw one of his victims... THE VAMPIRE KILLER The FBI agent had a special code name for his unusual method of torture: Tort 9, the draining of the victim's blood. The newspapers called him the Vampire-Killer. But his own twisted love letters were signed "Teach"... and were addressed to the one woman he wanted most of all: His hunter, his prey, Dr. Jessica Coran.
©2009 Robert W. Walker (P)2013 Robert W. Walker
Sayonara Slam
Summary
Japan faces Korea in the World Baseball Classic at Dodger Stadium, and curmudgeonly gardener Mas Arai finds himself embroiled in a murder. A Japanese tabloid writer drops dead on the field, and Mas gave the victim his last drink. It turns out there's more at stake than a baseball championship - international diplomacy depends upon uncovering secrets buried decades ago.
©2016 Naomi Hirahara (P)2018 Audible, Inc.
Sky Above, Great Wind
Summary
Ryokan (1758-1831) is, along with Dogen and Hakuin, one of the three giants of Zen in Japan. But unlike his two renowned colleagues, Ryokan was a societal dropout, living mostly as a hermit and a beggar. He was never head of a monastery or temple. He liked playing with children. He had no dharma heir. Even so, people recognized the depth of his realization, and he was sought out by people of all walks of life for the teaching to be experienced in just being around him. His poetry and art were wildly popular even in his lifetime. He is now regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Edo Period, along with Basho, Buson, and Issa. He was also a master artist-calligrapher with a very distinctive style, due mostly to his unique and irrepressible spirit, but also because he was so poor he didn't usually have materials: His distinctive thin line was due to the fact that he often used twigs rather than the brushes he couldn't afford. He was said to practice his brushwork with his fingers in the air when he didn't have any paper. There are hilarious stories about how people tried to trick him into doing art for them, and about how he frustrated their attempts. As an old man, he fell in love with a young Zen nun who also became his student. His affection for her colors the mature poems of his late period. This collection contains more than 140 of Ryokan's poems, with selections of his art, and of the very funny anecdotes about him.
©2012 Kazuaki Tanahashi (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Noir Fatale
Summary
NEW SCIENCE FICTION, URBAN FANTASY, AND MYSTERY STORIES WITH A NOIR THEME FROM BEST-SELLING AUTHORS LAURELL K. HAMILTON delivering an Anita Blake series story, LARRY CORREIA, penning a Grimnoir series adventure, an original Honor Harrington series tale from DAVID WEBER, AND MORE.  The silky note of a saxophone. The echoes of a womanâs high heels down a deserted asphalt street. Steam rising from city vents to cloud the street-lit air. A man with a gun. A dame with a problem.... NOIR.  From the pulpy pages of Black Mask Magazine in the 1920s and '30s, through the film noir era of the 1940s, to today, noir fiction has lured many a reader and movie-goer away from the light and into the dark underbelly of society. Names such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain; titles like The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice...these have inhabited our collective consciousness for decades. Humanity, it seems, loves the dark. And within the dark, one figure stands out: that of the femme fatale.  Here then, Noir Fatale an anthology containing the full spectrum of noir fiction, each incorporating the compelling femme fatale character archetype. From straightforward hardboiled detective story to dark urban fantasy to the dirty secrets of futuristic science fiction - all with a hard, gritty feel. As Raymond Chandler said, âDown these mean streets, a man must walk who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.â Because, as these stories prove, doing the right thing doesnât necessarily mean you get the big bucks or the girl. But you do the right thing anyway.  All new stories by  Larry Correia Kacey Ezell Laurell K. Hamilton David Weber Sarah A. Hoyt Robert Buettner Alistair Kimble Griffin Barber Michael Massa Christopher L. Smith and Michael Ferguson Hinkley Correia Patrick Tracy Steve Diamond  Larry Correia is the creator of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times best-selling Monster Hunter series, with first entry Monster Hunter International, as well as urban fantasy hardboiled adventure saga the Grimnoir Chronicles, with first entry Hard Magic, and epic fantasy series The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, with first entry Son of the Black Sword and latest entry, House of Assassins. He is an avid gun user and advocate and shot on a competitive level for many years. Kacey Ezell is an active duty USAF helicopter pilot who also writes sci-fi/fantasy/alt history/horror fiction. Her first novel was a Dragon Award finalist in 2018, and her stories have been featured in Baenâs Yearâs Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction compilation in 2017 and 2018.
©2019 Larry Correia and Kacey Ezell (P)2019 Audible, Inc.
Blood Hina
Summary
Mas Arai's best friend, Haruo, is getting married, and he has grudgingly agreed to serve as best man. But when an ancient Japanese doll display of Haruo's fiance goes missing, the wedding is called off with fingers pointed at Haruo. To solve the mystery and to save Haruo's life, Mas must untangle a web of secrecy, heartbreaking memories, and murder.
©2013 Naomi Hirahara (P)2015 Audible Inc.
The Tale of Genji, Volume 2
Summary
Murasaki Shikibu, born into the middle ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian period (794-1185 CE), wrote The Tale of Genji - widely considered the worldâs first novel - during the early years of the 11th century. Expansive, compelling, and sophisticated in its representation of ethical concerns and aesthetic ideals, Murasakiâs tale came to occupy a central place in Japanâs remarkable history of artistic achievement and is now recognized as a masterpiece of world literature. The Tale of Genji is presented here in a flowing new translation for contemporary listeners, who will discover in its depiction of the culture of the imperial court the rich complexity of human experience that simultaneously resonates with and challenges their own. Dennis Washburn embeds annotations for accessibility and clarity and renders the poetry into triplets to create prosodic analogues of the original.
©2015 Dennis Washburn (translation) (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
The Grave on the Wall
Summary
Winner of the 2020 PEN Open Book Award Best of 2019: Nonfiction - Entropy Magazine A memoir and book of mourning, a grandsonâs attempt to reconcile his own uncontested citizenship with his grandfatherâs lifelong struggle. Award-winning poet Brandon Shimoda has crafted a lyrical portrait of his paternal grandfather, Midori Shimoda, whose life - child migrant, talented photographer, suspected enemy alien and spy, desert wanderer, American citizen - mirrors the arc of Japanese America in the 20th century. In a series of pilgrimages, Shimoda records the search to find his grandfather and unfolds, in the process, a moving elegy on memory and forgetting. Praise for The Grave on the Wall: "Shimoda brings his poetic lyricism to this moving and elegant memoir, the structure of which reflects the fragmentation of memories.⦠It is at once wistful and devastating to see Midori's life come full circle.... In between is a life with tragedy, love, and the horrors unleashed by the atomic bomb." (Booklist, starred review) "In a weaving meditation, Brandon Shimoda pens an elegant eulogy for his grandfather Midori, yet also for the living, we who survive on the margins of graveyards and rituals of our own making." (Karen Tei Yamashita, author of Letters to Memory) "Sometimes a work of art functions as a dream. At other times, a work of art functions as a conscience. In the tradition of Juan Rulfoâs Pedro Páramo, Brandon Shimoda's The Grave on the Wall is both. It is also the type of fragmented reckoning only America could instigate." (Myriam Gurba, author of Mean) âWithin this haunted sepulcher built out of silence, loss, and grief - its walls shadowed by the traumas of racial oppression and violence - a green river lined with peach trees flows beneath a bridge that leads back to the grandson." (Jeffrey Yang, author of Hey, Marfa: Poems) "It is part dream, part memory, part forgetting, part identity. It is a remarkable exploration of how citizenship is forged by the brutal US imperial forces - through slave labor, forced detention, indiscriminate bombing, historical amnesia and wall. If someone asked me, Where are you from? I would answer, From The Grave on the Wall." (Don Mee Choi, author of Hardly War) "Shimoda intercedes into the absences, gaps and interstices of the present and delves the presence of mystery. This mystery is part of each of us. Shimoda outlines that mystery in silence and silhouette, in objects left behind at site-specific travels to Japan and in the disparate facts of his grandpaâs FBI file. Gratitude to Brandon Shimoda for taking on the mystery which only literature accepts as the basic challenge." (Sesshu Foster, author of City of the Future) "Shimoda is a mystic writer⦠He puts what breaches itself (always) onto the page, so that the act of writing becomes akin to paper-making: an attention to fibers, coagulation, texture and the water-fire mixtures that signal irreversible alteration or change.⦠He has written a book that touches the bottom of my own soul." (Bhanu Kapil, author of Ban en Banlieue) "The Grave on the Wall is a passage of aching nostalgia and relentless assembly out of which something more important than objective truth is conjured - a ritual frisson, a veracity of spirit. I am grateful to have traveled along.â (Trisha Low, The Believer)
©2019 Brandon Shimoda (P)2020 Audible, Inc.
Black Wind
Summary
F. Paul Wilsonâs powerful World War II novel is an unforgettable historical saga of passion and terror, the ravages of war, the pain of betrayal, and the glory of love. At the heart of the story are four people torn between love and honor: Matsuo Okumo, born in Japan, raised in America, and hated in both lands; Hiroki Okumo, his brother, a modern samurai sworn to serve a secret cult and the almighty Emperor; Meiko Satsuma, the woman they both love; and Frank Slater, the American who turned away when Matsuo needed him, and who now struggles to repay his debt of honor.
©2010 F. Paul Wilson (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
Cult X
Summary
The magnum opus by Akutagawa Prize-winner Fuminori Nakamura, Cult X is a story that dives into the psychology of fringe religion, obsession, and social disaffection. When Toru Narazaki's girlfriend, Ryoko, disappears, he tries to track her down, despite the warnings of a private detective he's hired to find her. Ryoko's past is shrouded in mystery, but the one concrete clue to her whereabouts is a previous address where she lived: in a compound in the heart of Tokyo, with a group that seems to be a cult led by a charismatic guru with a revisionist Buddhist scheme of life, death, and society. Narazaki plunges into the secretive world of the cult, ready to expose himself to any of the guru's brainwashing tactics if it means he can learn the truth about Ryoko. But the cult isn't what he expected, and he has no idea of the bubbling violence beneath its surface. Inspired by the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, Cult X is an exploration of what draws individuals into extremism. This multi-faceted novel is nothing less than a tour de force, capturing the connections between astrophysics, neuroscience, and religion. It is an invective against predatory corporate consumerism and exploitative geopolitics, and it is a love story about compassion in the face of nihilism.
©2014 Fuminori Nakamura; 2018 Kalua Almony (translation) (P)2018 Recorded Books
Only a Shadow
Summary
The author of Daughter of the Sword takes readers to feudal Japan, where men and empires rise and fall by the sword⦠The Tiger on the Mountain is a legendary blade, crafted by the master swordsmith Inazuma, and reputed to possess magical powers. In 1442 Japan, the sword dwells inside the impregnable fortress of Hirata Nobushige, the enemy of the Iga clan. Venerable shinobi Jujiro has recruited the brave young ninja Tada to steal the sword and restore power to the Iga clan. If Tada is successful, heâll go from being the clanâs orphaned ward to a legend for the ages - and heâll be able to ask for Old Jujiroâs granddaughterâs hand in marriage. If he fails, the clan will be annihilated. Getting inside the castle is next to impossible - getting out is inconceivable. But as Tada prepares himself for one of the boldest thefts in history, the greatest obstacle he faces may just prove to be himself⦠Donât miss Daughter of the Sword, the first Novel of the Fated Blades!
©2012 Steve Bein (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment
Summary
About 1,000 years ago, the great Indian pandit and yogi, Dipamkara Shrijnana (Atisha), was invited to Tibet to reestablish the Buddhadharma which had been suppressed and corrupted for almost two centuries. One of Atisha's main accomplishments in Tibet was his writing of the seminal text A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, in which he extracted the essence of all 84,000 teachings of the Buddha and organized them into a clear, steplike arrangement that makes it easy for any individual practitioner to understand and practice the Dharma. This genre of teachings is known as lam-rim, or steps of the path, and forms an essential part of every school of Tibetan Buddhism. In this book His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives a commentary to not only Atisha's revolutionary work but also to Lines of Experience, a short lam-rim text written by Lama Tsong Khapa who was perhaps the greatest of all Tibetan lam-rim authors. In bringing together the teachings of Atisha, Lama Tsong Khapa and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this book offers listeners one of the clearest and most authoritative expositions of the Tibetan Buddhist path ever published. It is highly recommended listening whether you are at beginning, the middle, and the end of the path. These teachings were given by His Holiness in Los Angeles in 2000 and were sponsored and published by Thubten Dhargye Ling in partnership with the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA) is the collected works of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. The Archive was founded in 1996 by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the Archiveâs spiritual director, to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings in as many ways as possible. Visit us online at www.LamaYeshe.com.
©2002 Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
The Boy in the Earth
Summary
Fuminori Nakamura's Akutagawa Prize-winner plunges us into the depths of a young man's winding, troubled psyche. An unnamed taxi driver in Tokyo has experienced a rupture in his everyday life. He cannot stop daydreaming of suicide, envisioning himself returning to the earth in what soon become terrifying blackout episodes. His live-in girlfriend, Sayuko, is in a similarly bad phase, surrendering to alcoholism to escape the memory of her miscarriage. He meets with the director of the orphanage where he once lived, and must confront awful memories of his past and an abusive family before determining what to do next.
©2005 Fuminori Nakamura; 2017 Translation by Allison Markin Powell (P)2017 Recorded Books
Gasa-Gasa Girl
Summary
From the time she was a child, Mas Arai's daughter, Mari, was completely gasa-gasa - never sitting still, always on the go, getting into everything. And Mas, busy tending lawns, gambling, and struggling to put his Hiroshima past behind him, never had much time for the family he was trying to support. For years now his resentful daughter has lived a continent away in New York City and had a life he knew little about. But an anxious phone call from Mari asking for his help plunges the usually obstinate Mas into a series of startling situations, from maneuvering in an unfamiliar city to making nice with his tall, blond son-in-law, Lloyd, to taking care of a sickly child...to finding a dead body in the rubble of a former koi pond. The victim was Kazzy Ouchi, a half-Japanese millionaire who also happened to be Mari and Lloyd's boss. Stumbling onto the scene, Mas sees more amiss than the detectives do, but his instinct is to keep his mouth shut. Only when the case threatens his daughter and her family does Mas take action: patiently, stubbornly tugging at the end of a tangled, dangerous mystery. And as he does, he begins to lay bare a tragic secret on the dark side of an American dream.... Both a riveting mystery and a powerful story of passionate relationships across a cultural divide, Gasa-Gasa Girl is a tale told with heart and wisdom: an unforgettable portrait of fathers, daughters, and other strangers.
©2005 Naomi Hirahara (P)2015 Audible Inc.
Our Only Home
Summary
âThis impassioned account is ideal for readers well versed in current climate change activism, especially efforts spearheaded by Greta Thunberg.â (Library Journal) From the voice of the beloved world religious leader comes an eye-opening manifesto that empowers the generation of today to step up, take action, and save our environment. Saving the climate is our common duty. With each passing day, climate change is causing Pacific islands to disappear into the sea, accelerating the extinction of species at alarming proportions, and aggravating a water shortage that has affected the entire world. In short, climate change can no longer be denied - it threatens our existence on earth. In this new audiobook, the Dalai Lama, one of the most influential figures of our time, calls on political decision makers to finally fight against deadlock and ignorance on this issue and to stand up for a different, more climate-friendly world and for the younger generation to assert their right to regain their future.
©2020 Dalai Lama (P)2020 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
The Case of the Poisoned Eclairs
Summary
A dog's murder leads detective Masuto to a most unusual poisoning case In Beverly Hills, murder has suddenly gone out of style. For five weeks, the head of the city's tiny homicide squad, Zen detective Masao Masuto, has worked only robbery investigations. But after more than a month without a corpse, this dry spell is about to end. The dead woman is Ana Fortez, a Chicana whose death was originally classified as terminal food poisoning brought on by a feast of botulism-infested clairs. But because botulism can only grow in an airtight space, the medical examiner warns Masuto that the fatal bacteria must have been purposefully injected into the pastry. When a wealthy housewife's dog drops dead after munching on premium chocolates, Masuto finds that her bonbons have been laced with the same toxin. He begins a search for a killer targeting the sweet tooth of Beverly Hills - proof that crime in Southern California never stays boring for long.
©1979 E. V. Cunningham (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The Case of the Russian Diplomat
Summary
A murder investigation at a high-priced hotel reveals a deadly plot reaching the highest seats of power They call the pool at the Beverly Glen Hotel "the naked hooker." To the frustration of the Beverly Hills police department, the women there are so high class that it's impossible to distinguish guests and girlfriends from professionals. Women flock to the lavish hotel because it teems with film stars, businessmen - and America's richest criminals. Tonight, to detective Masao Masuto's chagrin, there is the body of a naked man in the pool. Though the management insists the death was accidental, Masuto doubts that any man would hide his own clothes before taking a midnight swim. The woman who reported the body is gone by the time the police reach her room, and the man they find there, Jack Stillman, insists there was nobody staying with him. The next day Stillman is dead, and Masao Masuto has a killing spree to deal with - one that leads to a tangled web of espionage and international conspiracy.
©1978 E. V. Cunningham (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The Case of the Kidnapped Angel
Summary
Detective Masuto investigates a Hollywood kidnapping that leads to a shocking conspiracy. Angel is Hollywood royalty. Her husband, Mike Barton, is one of the silver screenâs most bankable stars, and their marriage has all the hallmarks of a Beverly Hills fairy tale. But everything about Angelâs past is kept secret, including her real name. When reporters ask why Mike dubbed her Angel, she says that she must have fallen from heaven. No one knows where Angel Barton is from, and now no one knows where she has gone. When his wife disappears, Barton readily agrees to a million dollar ransom demanded by her kidnappers, but Zen detective Masao Masuto doesnât buy his performance. As Masuto pries into the strange kidnapping case, he finds that Barton might be much more likely to pay to get rid of his wife than to keep her.
©1982 E. V. Cunningham (P)2014 Audible, Inc.