Christopher Grove has narrated 50 audiobooks on Listento.it by 75 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 473 ratings. The most-rated is Let My People Go Surfing.
The 10 Golden Rules of Customer Service
Summary
Through the story of a $6,000 egg, Deb and Todd Duncan reveal that even the smallest interactions have the power to create lifelong patrons or alienate once-devoted customers. The 10 Golden Rules of Customer Service represents the costly mistake of removing customer satisfaction from the bottom line. The teachable moments divulged throughout the audiobook transcend industry or career level and encourage everyone to contribute. You must go above and beyond in order to get ahead.
©2015, 2019 Todd and Deb Duncan (P)2019 Gildan Media, LLC
Moon Shot
Summary
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation's most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA's effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the 20th century's greatest feat - landing humans on another world. Collaborating with NBC's veteran space reporter Jay Barbree, Shepard, and Slayton narrate, in gripping detail, the story of America's space exploration from the time of Shepard's first flight until he and 11 others had walked on the moon.
©2011 Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, and Jay Barbree (P)2019 Tantor
The Woman on the Stairs
Summary
In a museum far from home, a man stumbles onto a painting of a woman for whom he once, long ago, risked everything, and who then mysteriously disappeared from his life. As a young lawyer, the nameless protagonist of The Woman on the Stairs became entangled in the affairs of three people mired in a complex and destructive relationship. An artist, the woman whose portrait he had painted, and her husband became a triangle that drew the lawyer deeper and deeper into their tangled web. Now, encountering the painting that triggered it all, the lawyer must reconcile his past and present selves; when he eventually locates the woman, he is forced to confront the truth of his love and the reality that his life has been irrevocably changed. With The Woman on the Stairs, the internationally acclaimed author of The Reader delivers a powerful new novel about obsession, creativity, and love. Intricately crafted, poignant, and beguiling, this is Bernhard Schlink writing at his peak.
©2017 Bernhard Schlink (P)2017 Random House Audio
A Better Human
Summary
Of all the religions, creeds, and self-help manifestos the world has produced, most concentrate on how to achieve salvation in aspects other than the here-and-now, with our lives merely transitory testing grounds for a higher realm or our actions guided so that we maximize life in a state of "enlightened hedonism", consuming rapaciously but really achieving not much at all. But there's one philosophy that provides a concrete foundation for living well, for living "a good life" in this world. Stoicism. A Better Human looks at what the Stoic philosophers said and did, how it impacted their lives by increasing their tranquility, joy, and success, and it uses a mixture of personal experience and pop-culture storytelling to show how the Stoic lifestyle can impact you, today, here and now.
©2017 George Bradley (P)2017 George Bradley
Twilight of American Sanity
Summary
A landmark book from "one of the world's most prominent psychiatrists" (The Atlantic, June 2017): Eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances analyzes the national psyche, viewing the rise of Donald J. Trump as darkly symptomatic of a deeper societal distress. Equally challenging and profound, Twilight of American Sanity makes sense of our time and charts the way forward. It is comforting to see President Donald Trump as a crazy man, a one-off, an exception - not a reflection on us or our democracy. But in ways I never anticipated, his rise was absolutely predictable and a mirror on our soul.... What does it say about us, that we elected someone so manifestly unfit and unprepared to determine mankind's future? Trump is a symptom of a world in distress, not its sole cause. Blaming him for all our troubles misses the deeper, underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent. Calling Trump crazy allows us to avoid confronting the craziness in our society - if we want to get sane, we must first gain insight about ourselves. Simply put: Trump isn't crazy, but our society is. (from Twilight of American Sanity) More than three years in the making: the world's leading expert on psychiatric diagnosis, past leader of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM ("the bible of psychology"), and author of the influential international best seller on the medicalization of ordinary life, Saving Normal, draws upon his vast experience to deliver a powerful critique of modern American society's collective slide away from sanity and offers an urgently needed prescription for reclaiming our bearings. Widely cited in recent months as the man who quite literally wrote the diagnostic criteria for narcissism, Allen Frances, MD, has been at the center of the debate surrounding President Trump's mental state - quoted in Evan Osnos' May 2017 New Yorker article ("How Trump Could Get Fired") and publishing a much-shared opinion letter in the New York Times ("An Eminent Psychiatrist Demurs on Trump's Mental State"). Frances argues that Trump is "bad not mad" - that the real question to wrestle with is how we as a country could have chosen him as our leader. To answer this, Frances looks deeply at the American past and present. Twilight of American Sanity is an essential work for understanding our national crisis.
©2017 Allen Frances (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
LSAT Necessary
Summary
Learn from this proven how-to guide to gain points on the LSAT - quick! It's simple, concise, and teaches you the fundamentals on how to think before stepping into a test prep course or taking the LSAT. It's the ultimate primer: it's necessary. This step-by-step guide will teach you how to: 1. Think logically with easy-to-follow critical-thinking scripts. 2. Spot argument patterns to predict answers quickly. 3. Master sufficient and necessary conditions. 4. Solve for assumptions easily. 5. Make inferences fast. 6. Make bullet-proof sketches to crush logic games. 7. Learn to "not read" properly in reading comp to bag points faster. 8. Strategically skip questions to increase your LSAT score. Written by a natural non-logical thinker and business entrepreneur who battled this beast and got into his top choice law schools. Listen to this before taking a prep course or finding a tutor. It will cut your learning time in half. Caution: If you're scoring above a 150, then this book is not for you! Now is the best time to apply to law school: applications are down, and schools want you. Let LSAT Necessary be your first step to success.
©2016 Aarambh Shah (P)2016 Aarambh Shah
Empire of Resentment
Summary
Since Trump's victory and the UK's Brexit vote, much of the commentary on the populist epidemic has focused on the emergence of populism. But, Lawrence Rosenthal argues, what is happening globally is not the emergence but the transformation of right-wing populism. Rosenthal suggests that right-wing populism is a protean force whose prime mover is the resentment felt toward perceived elites, and whose abiding feature is its ideological flexibility, which now takes the form of xenophobic nationalism. In 2016, American right-wing populists migrated from the free marketeering Tea Party to Donald Trump's "hard hat," anti-immigrant, America-First nationalism. This was the most important single factor in Trump's electoral victory. In Italy, for example, the Northern League reinvented itself in 2018 as an all-Italy party, switching its fury from southerners to immigrants, and came to power. Rosenthal paints a vivid sociological, political, and psychological picture of the transnational quality of this movement, which is now in power in at least a dozen countries. The future of democratic politics in the United States and abroad depends on whether right-wing populists stay with this nationalist ideology and whether the liberal and left parties have the political capacity to effect a progressive populism of their own.
©2020 Lawrence Rosenthal (P)2020 Tantor
Tobacco
Summary
Tobacco was first cultivated and enjoyed by the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, who used it for medicinal, religious, and social purposes long before the arrival of Columbus. But when Europeans began to colonize the American continents, it became something else entirely - a cultural touchstone of pleasure and success and a coveted commodity that would transform the world economy forever. Iain Gately's Tobacco tells the epic story of an unusual plant and its unique relationship with the history of humanity, from its obscure ancient beginnings through its rise to global prominence to its current embattled state today. In a lively narrative, Gately makes the case for the tobacco trade being the driving force behind the growth of the American colonies, the foundation of Dutch trading empire, the underpinning cause of the African slave trade, and the financial basis for our victory in the American Revolution. Informed and erudite, Tobacco is a vivid and provocative look into the complex history of this precious plant.
©2001 Iain Gately. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Neoliberalism (2nd Edition)
Summary
Anchored in the principles of free-market economics, neoliberalism emerged in the 1990s as the world's most dominant economic paradigm. However, the 2008 global financial crisis and the related European sovereign debt crisis triggered a decade of economic volatility and insecurity that boosted the fortunes of the one percent while saddling the 99 percent with stagnant wages and precarious work. As a result of this Great Recession, neoliberalism fortunes have waned considerably. This downward trend further accelerated with the recent surge of national populism around the world that brought to power outspoken critics of neoliberalism like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, and Narendra Modi. Is neoliberalism doomed, or will it regain its former glory? And what are the major types of neoliberalism, and how did they evolve over the decades? Responding to these crucial questions, this Very Short Introduction explores the considerable variations of neoliberalism around the world, and discusses the origins, evolution, and core ideas of neoliberalism. This new edition brings the story of neoliberalism up to date, and asks whether new versions of neoliberalism might succeed in drowning out the rising tide of national populism and its nostalgic longing for a return to territorial sovereignty and national greatness.
©2021 Manfred B. Steger and Ravi K. Roy (P)2021 Tantor
You Ought to Do a Story About Me
Summary
“This masterpiece of dogged and loving reporting will astonish you and touch your heart. The struggles and quest for redemption of football star Jackie Wallace make for a fall-from-grace tale that’s both unsettling and uplifting.” (Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci) The heartbreaking, timeless, and redemptive story of the transformative friendship binding a fallen-from-grace NFL player and a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who meet on the streets of New Orleans, offering a rare glimpse into the precarious world of homelessness and the lingering impact of systemic racism and poverty on the lives of NOLA’s citizens. In 1990, while covering a story about homelessness for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Ted Jackson encountered a drug addict sleeping under a bridge. After snapping a photo, Jackson woke the man. Pointing to the daily newspaper by his feet, the homeless stranger looked the photojournalist in the eye and said, “You ought to do a story about me.” When Ted asked why, he was stunned by the answer. “Because, I’ve played in three Super Bowls.” That chance meeting was the start of Ted’s 30-year relationship with Jackie Wallace, a former NFL star who rose to the pinnacle of fame and fortune, only to crash and lose it all. Getting to know Jackie, Ted learned the details of his life, and how he spiraled into the “vortex of darkness” that left him addicted and living on the streets of New Orleans. Ted chronicles Jackie's life from his teenage years in New Orleans through college and the NFL to the end of his pro career and the untimely death of his mother - devastating events that led him into addiction and homelessness. Throughout, Ted pays tribute to the enduring friendship he shares with this man he has come to know and also look at as an inspiration. But Ted is not naïve; he speaks frankly about the vulnerability of such a relationship: Can a man like Jackie recover, or is he destined to roam the streets until his end? Tragic and triumphant, inspiring and unexpected, You Ought to Do a Story About Me offers a rare glimpse into the precarious world of homelessness and the lingering impact of systemic racism and poverty on the lives of NOLA’s citizens. Lyrical and evocative, Ted's account is pure, singular, and ambitious - a timeless tale about loss, redemption, and hope in their multifarious forms. “This book will melt your heart. The story of Jackie Wallace is an unforgettable tale of hope, grace, and the miracle of the human spirit. Ted Jackson writes with searing honesty and deep love for a troubled man who started as his subject and became his lifelong friend." (Jonathan Eig, best-selling author of Ali: A Life and Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig)
©2020 Ted Jackson (P)2020 HarperAudio
The Public Option
Summary
Whenever you go to your local public library, send mail via the post office, or visit Yosemite, you are taking advantage of a longstanding American tradition: the public option. Some of the most useful and beloved institutions in American life are public options - yet they are seldom celebrated as such. These government-supported opportunities coexist peaceably alongside private options, ensuring equal access and expanding opportunity for all. Ganesh Sitaraman and Anne Alstott challenge decades of received wisdom about the proper role of government and consider the vast improvements that could come from the expansion of public options. Far from illustrating the impossibility of effective government services, as their critics claim, public options hold the potential to transform American civic life, offering a wealth of solutions to seemingly intractable problems, from housing shortages to the escalating cost of health care. From broadband internet to higher education, The Public Option reveals smart new ways to meet pressing public needs while spurring healthy competition. More effective than vouchers or tax credits, public options could offer us all fairer choices and greater security.
©2019 Ganesh Sitaraman and Anne L. Alstott (P)2019 Tantor
The Compatibility Gene
Summary
The Compatibility Gene takes readers on a global journey of discovery spanning 60 years, involving scores of scientists, and encompassing the history of transplants and immunology. That journey has revealed astonishing links between who we are as individuals and our never-ceasing struggle to survive disease. Most of the 25,000 genes we possess are the same for all of us. Compatibility genes are those that vary most from person to person and give each of us a unique molecular signature. These genes determine both the extent to which we are susceptible to a vast range of illnesses and the different ways each of us fights disease. In The Compatibility Gene, distinguished immunologist Daniel Davis draws on new research to suggest a number of even more fascinating - and controversial - conclusions about compatibility genes: that we find others more or less sexy according to their compatibility genes (dating services are starting to match people in this way); that the wiring between some neurons is kept or broken according to the activity of compatibility genes; and that compatibility genes influence the chances of a couple having a successful pregnancy. Profoundly personal, life-forming, and life-changing decisions appear to be governed by the actions of a few inherited genes. Most importantly, Davis proposes that because we each respond slightly differently to any particular disease, in the not-too-distant future vaccines and other medications may be tailored to match our compatibility genes, a revolutionary breakthrough in the fight against disease. Including vivid portraits of the scientists who worked tirelessly to unlock the secrets of compatibility genes, as well as patients who survived disease due to lucky genetic inheritances, The Compatibility Gene explains an aspect of human biology that will undoubtedly have profound impacts on medical practice in the 21st Century.
©2014 Daniel M. Davis (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Bigger Than Bernie
Summary
Bernie Sanders' 2016 candidacy expanded the scope of political possibility in the United States, putting socialism and class politics back on the map. His radical campaign - not just for the Democratic presidential candidacy but against "the billionaire class" - helped catalyze other transformative left-wing politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to seek and win office, just as he inspired teachers from West Virginia to Los Angeles to win hard-fought, historic strike campaigns. Sanders has, in short, helped cohere a new movement in American politics. But even when coverage of Sanders takes stock of the sea change he has affected in American politics, it all too often fails to grasp what's unique about his approach. The senior senator from Vermont has demanded new policies and political approaches in this country - though he has also hinted at more, calling repeatedly for a "political revolution", something that he says would involve "millions of Americans" getting involved in politics not just at the ballot box, but in their workplaces and neighborhoods, too. In this book, Micah Uetricht and Meagan Day go beyond a simple balance sheet of Democratic Party politics. In a clear and effective style, they detail what we need to do to get beyond the Sanders campaign or presidency to transform the US from top to bottom.
©2020 Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht (P)2020 Kalorama
Economics for Dummies, 3rd Edition
Summary
The economy is always changing, but some things are eternal! Economics for Dummies, 3rd Edition, gives you everything you need to understand our rapidly evolving economy as well as the basics that never change. What's the best way to fight poverty? How can governments boost employment and wage growth? What can be done to protect endangered species and the environment? This book answers all of those questions in simple language while tracking with a traditional introductory economics class. Following in the steps of the first and second editions, the thoroughly updated 3rd Edition is a useful study guide and supplement to any high school or college level economics class. Discover the ins and outs of irrational consumers. Understand and apply the most powerful tool in economics: the model of supply and demand. Understand the origins and aftermath of financial crises, and more. Economics for Dummies has supplied hundreds of thousands of students with an approachable reference book, while also providing an informational outlet for anyone curious about how businesses, consumers, and governments interact to produce and distribute all the goods and services that we enjoy today.
©2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (P)2019 Gildan Media, LLC.
Sleight of Hand
Summary
Two months ago Dr. Cassandra Hart was forced to kill a man. The man who murdered her best friend, almost killed Drake and seriously wounded her. Now she's back at work in her Pittsburgh ER, but nothing seems the same. When she fears that a young boy is being abused by his "perfect" mother, her friends and colleagues worry that she's returned to work too soon, imagining dangers that don't exist. Others accuse her of trying to cover up her own alleged mistakes in the boy's treatment by making a false report of abuse. Drake's facing problems of his own, trying to cope with the aftermath of the night two months ago when his passion for Cassie led to a confrontation with a killer. He's on desk duty, reviewing cold cases, and delves into the homicide case that killed his father seven years ago. But after so long, what good can he do, a cop without a gun? The stakes escalate when Cassie is almost killed and Drake finds evidence that the killer his father was tracking might be planning to strike again - this time targeting a young boy. With the lives of two children at stake, how can they walk away?
©2009 CJ Lyons, LLC (P)2013 CJ Lyons, LLC
Toxic Inequality
Summary
Since the Great Recession, most Americans' standard of living has stagnated or declined. Economic inequality is at historic highs. But inequality's impact differs by race; African Americans' net wealth is just a 10th that of White Americans, and over recent decades, White families have accumulated wealth at three times the rate of Black families. In our increasingly diverse nation, sociologist Thomas M. Shapiro argues, wealth disparities must be understood in tandem with racial inequities - a dangerous combination he terms "toxic inequality". In Toxic Inequality, Shapiro reveals how these forces combine to trap families in place. Following nearly 200 families of different races and income levels over a period of 12 years, Shapiro's research vividly documents the recession's toll on parents and children, the ways families use assets to manage crises and create opportunities, and the real reasons some families build wealth while others struggle in poverty. The structure of our neighborhoods, workplaces, and tax code - much more than individual choices - push some forward and hold others back. America's growing wealth gap and its yawning racial divide have been forged by history and preserved by policy, and only bold, race-conscious reforms can move us toward a more just society.
©2017 Thomas M. Shapiro (P)2019 Tantor
Five Easy Theses
Summary
A New York Times best-seller A business leader and esteemed economic thinker outlines simple solutions to America's five most pressing public policy issues, from health care to education to inequality. America today confronts a host of urgent problems, many of them seemingly intractable but some we are entirely capable of solving. In Five Easy Theses, James M. Stone presents specific commonsense solutions to a handful of our most pressing challenges, showing how simple it would be to shore up Social Security, rein in an out-of-control financial sector, reduce inequality, and make health care and education better and more affordable. The means are right in front of us, Stone explains, in various policy options that - if implemented - could preserve or enhance government revenue while also channeling the national economy toward the greater good. Accessible and thought provoking, Five Easy Theses reveals that a more democratic, prosperous America is well within our reach. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2016 James Stone (P)2016 Random House Audio
Great Fortune
Summary
In this hugely appealing book, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, acclaimed author and journalist Daniel Okrent weaves together themes of money, politics, art, architecture, business, and society to tell the story of the majestic suite of buildings that came to dominate the heart of midtown Manhattan and with it, for a time, the heart of the world. At the center of Okrent's riveting story are four remarkable individuals: tycoon John D. Rockefeller, his ambitious son Nelson Rockefeller, real estate genius John R. Todd, and visionary skyscraper architect Raymond Hood. In the tradition of David McCullough's The Great Bridge, Ron Chernow's Titan, and Robert Caro's The Power Broker, Great Fortune is a stunning tribute to an American landmark that captures the heart and spirit of New York at its apotheosis.
©2003 Last Laugh, Inc. (P)2019 Tantor
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop
Summary
American democracy is at an impasse. After years of zero-sum partisan trench warfare, our political institutions are deteriorating. Our norms are collapsing. Democrats and Republicans no longer merely argue; they cut off contact with each other. In short, the two-party system is breaking our democracy, and driving us all crazy. Deftly weaving together history, democratic theory, and cutting-edge political science research, Lee Drutman tells the story of how American politics became so toxic, why the country is trapped in a doom loop of escalating two-party warfare, and why it is destroying the shared sense of fairness and legitimacy on which democracy depends. He argues that the only way out is to have more partisanship - more parties, to short-circuit the zero-sum nature of binary partisan conflict. Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop makes a compelling case for large scale electoral reform - importantly, reform not requiring a constitutional amendment - that would give America more parties, making American democracy more representative, more responsive, and ultimately more stable.
©2020 Lee Drutman (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
The Wars of the Roosevelts
Summary
The award-winning author presents a provocative, thoroughly modern revisionist biographical history of one of America's greatest and most influential families - the Roosevelts - exposing heretofore unknown family secrets and detailing complex family rivalries with his signature cinematic flair. Drawing on previously hidden historical documents and interviews with the long-silent "illegitimate" branch of the family, William J. Mann paints an elegant, meticulously researched, and groundbreaking group portrait of this legendary family. Mann argues that the Roosevelts' rise to power and prestige was actually driven by a series of intense personal contests that at times devolved into blood sport. His compelling and eye-opening masterwork is the story of a family at war with itself, of social Darwinism at its most ruthless - in which the strong devoured the weak and repudiated the inconvenient. Mann focuses on Eleanor Roosevelt, who, he argues, experienced this brutality firsthand, witnessing her uncle Theodore cruelly destroy her father, Elliott - his brother and bitter rival - for political expediency. Mann presents a fascinating alternate picture of Eleanor, contending that this "worshipful niece" in fact bore a grudge against TR for the rest of her life and dares to tell the truth about her intimate relationships without obfuscations, explanations, or labels. Mann also brings into focus Eleanor's cousins, TR's children, whose stories propelled the family rivalry but have never before been fully chronicled, as well as her illegitimate half brother, Elliott Roosevelt Mann, who inherited his family's ambition and skill without their name and privilege. Growing up in poverty just miles from his wealthy relatives, Elliott Mann embodied the American dream, rising to middle-class prosperity and enjoying one of the very few happy long-term marriages in the Roosevelt saga. For the first time, The Wars of the Roosevelts also includes the stories of Elliott's daughter and grandchildren. Deeply psychological and finely rendered, The Wars of the Roosevelts illuminates not only the enviable strengths but also the profound shame of this remarkable and influential family.
©2016 William J. Mann (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers