Eric Martin has narrated 60 audiobooks on Listento.it by 57 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 408 ratings. The most-rated is Hacking Darwin.
The Last Good Heist
Summary
On August 14, 1975, eight daring thieves ransacked 148 massive safe-deposit boxes at a secret bank used by organized crime, La Cosa Nostra, and its associates in Providence, Rhode Island. The crooks fled with duffel bags crammed full of cash, gold, silver, stamps, coins, jewels, and high-end jewelry. The true value of the loot has always been kept secret, partly because it was ill-gotten to begin with, and partly because there was plenty of incentive to keep its true worth out of the limelight. It's one thing for authorities to admit that they didn't find a trace of goods estimated to be worth between $3 million and $4 million, and entirely another when what was at stake was more accurately valued at about $30 million, the equivalent of $120 million today. It was the biggest single payday in the criminal history of the Northeast. Nobody came close, not the infamous James "Whitey" Bulger, not John "The Dapper Don" Gotti, not even the Brinks or Wells Fargo robbers. The heist was bold enough and big enough to rock the underworld to its core, and it left La Cosa Nostra in the region awash in turmoil. The Last Good Heist is the inside story of the robbery and its aftermath.
©2016 Tim White, Randall Richard, and Wayne Worcester (P)2016 Tantor
Talking to Skeletons: Behind the Scenes with a Radiologist
Summary
Four-time Wall Street Journal Top-10 best-selling author! Is it cancer or just a bad pixel? Talking to Skeletons chronicles seven extraordinary nights Jourdan spent shadowing a radiologist in a teaching hospital. Told with the wit and warmth that have earned Jourdan five national best sellers, this book paints an insightful portrait of one man's life and work. It's a uniquely personal tour of a private world that, as a bonus, gives listeners an intimate peek at how Jourdan creates her best-selling medical narratives. In essence, it is a biography, and at the same time, a lovely and intelligent medical selfie. Jourdan's first-rate medical writing illuminates the mysterious black and white world that stands at the front lines of modern healthcare.
©2015 Carolyn Jourdan (P)2017 Carolyn Jourdan
Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition)
Summary
Roll the Bones tells the story of gambling: where it came from, how it has changed, and where it is now. This is the new Casino Edition, which updates and expands the global history of gambling to include a greater focus on casinos, from their development in European spas to their growth in Reno and Las Vegas. New material chronicles in greater depth the development of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and their spread throughout the United States. A new chapter better places Atlantic City's casinos into their correct context, and new material accounts for the rise of casinos in Asia and online gaming. From the first modern casino in Venice (1638), casinos have grown incredibly. During the 18th and 19th centuries, a series of European spa towns, culminating in Monte Carlo, hosted casinos. In the United States during those same years, gambling developed both in illegal urban gambling halls and in the wide-open saloons of the Western frontier. Those two strands of American gambling came together in Nevada's legal casinos, whose current regime dates from 1931. Developing with a healthy assist from elements affiliated with organized crime, these casinos eventually outgrew their rough-hewn routes, becoming sun-drenched pleasure palaces along the Las Vegas Strip. With Nevada casinos proving successful, other states, beginning with New Jersey in 1976, rolled the dice. From there, casinos have come to America's tribal lands, rivers, and urban centers. In the last decade, gambling has moved online, while Asia - with multibillion-dollar projects in Macau and Singapore - has become a new casino frontier. Roll the Bones will give you a better appreciation for how long casinos and gambling have been with us - and what they mean to us today. This audio edition includes a brand-new exclusive author interview with background on the book and developments since its print publication.
©2013 David G. Schwartz (P)2018 David G. Schwartz
First Comes Duty
Summary
The hero of the Genevieve Incident is assigned to the Monitor Insolent as she escorts a freighter into the northern reaches of league space. Their destination: the distant world of Cimmeria. While the Cimmerians are striving to find their own identity under the yoke of a corrupt regime, far from their world the Pruessen Navy have made their own plans for Cimmeria. As the battle lines are drawn, one rookie ensign, a handful of friends, and a ragtag band of freedom fighters try to hold the line against an implacable enemy who outgun and outnumber them. Nathan's hastily conceived plan of attack may cost him his life, but for an officer in the Athenian Navy, nothing comes before his duty.
©2015 PJ Strebor (P)2017 Tantor
Midworld
Summary
A jungle planet must defend against exploitative aliens in this novel by the number one New York Times best-selling author of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. From the rich imagination of science-fiction great Alan Dean Foster comes the story of Midworld, a Humanx Commonwealth planet that's equally fragile and hostile. Covered by a lush rainforest, Midworld is home to a primitive society that lives in harmony with the natural world. But the arrival of an exploitative human company, whose workers know nothing of Midworld's delicate ecosystem, sparks a conflict. Should Midworld's villagers aid the humans or stand against them? The hero of Foster's addictive pause-resister, Born, decides to lead two humans across the perilous jungle. His choice propels Midworld toward annihilation - and leads him headlong into a battle for survival.
©1975 Alan Dean Foster (P)2019 Tantor
The Convenient Terrorist
Summary
A startling spotlight on the darkest corners of America’s “War on Terror”, where nothing is quite what it seems. The Convenient Terrorist is the definitive inside account of the capture, torture, and detention of Abu Zubaydah, the first “high-value target” captured by the CIA after 9/11. But was Abu Zubaydah, who is still being indefinitely held by the United States under shadowy circumstances, the blue-ribbon capture that the Bush White House claimed he was? Authors John Kiriakou, who led the capture of Zubaydah, and Joseph Hickman, who took custody of him at Guantanamo, draw a far more complex and intriguing portrait of the al-Qaeda “mastermind” who became a symbol of torture and the “dark side” of US security. From a onetime American collaborator to a poster boy for waterboarding, Abu Zubaydah became a “convenient terrorist” - a way for US authorities to sell their “War on Terror” to the American people.
©2017 John Kiriakou, Joseph Hickman (P)2017 Novel Audio Inc.
Vengeance
Summary
Leading politician and best-selling author Newt Gingrich and novelist Pete Earley are back with another gripping international thriller. A terrorist drives an explosive-packed rental truck into Major Brooke Grant's Washington, DC wedding, intending to detonate a deadly bomb. Saved by a last-minute fluke, Brooke seeks revenge against the master terrorist responsible, an international radical Islamist known only as the Falcon, who is determined to murder her, bring America to its knees, and create a modern-day caliphate. An unorthodox, newly sworn-in president recruits Brooke to join a clandestine CIA team in pursuit of the Falcon. With help from an odd coupling - a Saudi intelligence officer and an Israeli Mossad agent - Brooke goes after her elusive zealot nemesis. But before the trio can close in on their target, they discover that America's worst nightmare has come true. Intertwined with backroom Washington political intrigue, Vengeance is a fast-paced, realistic thriller that entertains while raising serious questions about our national security, the power of religious faith to inspire good and evil, the consequences of revenge, and the validity of our constitutional safeguards. Former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich and Washington Post reporter turned novelist Pete Earley are at their best in this third installment of their best-selling Brooke Grant series.
©2017 Newt Gingrich (P)2017 Hachette Audio
The Astronaut Maker
Summary
One of the most elusive and controversial figures in NASA's history, George W. S. Abbey was called "the Dark Lord", "the Godfather", and "UNO" (unidentified NASA official) by those within NASA. He was said to be secretive, despotic, a Space Age Machiavelli. Yet Abbey had more influence on human spaceflight than almost anyone in history. From young pilot and wannabe astronaut to engineer, bureaucrat, and finally director of the Johnson Space Center ("mission control"), Abbey's story has never been fully told - until now. The Astronaut Maker takes listeners inside NASA to learn the real story of how Abbey rose to power and wielded it out of the spotlight. Over a 37-year career, he oversaw the selection of every astronaut class from 1978 to 1987, deciding who got to fly, and when; was with the Apollo 1 astronauts the night before the fire that killed them in January 1967; was in mission control the night of the Apollo 13 accident and organized the recovery effort; led NASA's recruitment of women and minorities as Space Shuttle astronauts - including hiring Sally Ride; and much more. By the coauthor of the acclaimed astronaut memoirs DEKE! and We Have Capture and informed by countless hours of interviews with Abbey and his family, friends, adversaries, and former colleagues, The Astronaut Maker is the ultimate insider's account of ambition and power politics at NASA.
©2018 St. Croix Productions, Inc. (P)2018 Tantor
Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas
Summary
Jay Sarno built two path-breaking Las Vegas casinos, Caesars Palace (1966) and Circus Circus (1968), and planned but did not build a third, the Grandissimo, which would have started the mega-resort era a decade before Steve Wynn built The Mirage. As mobsters and accountants battled for the soul of the last American frontier town, Las Vegas had endless possibilities - if you didn't mind high stakes and stiff odds. Sarno invented the modern Las Vegas casino, but he was part of a dying breed - a back-pocket entrepreneur who'd parlayed a jones for action and a few Teamster loans into a life as a Vegas casino owner. For all of his accomplishments, his empire didn't last. Sarno sold out of Caesars Palace shortly after it opened - partially to get away from the bookies and gangsters who'd taken over the casino - and he was forced to relinquish control of Circus Circus when the federal government indicted him on charges of offering the largest bribe in IRS history - a bribe he freely admitted paying, on the advice of his attorney, Oscar Goodman. Though he ultimately walked out of court a free man, he never got Circus back. And though he guessed the formula that would open up Las Vegas to millions in the 1990s with the design of the Grandissimo, but he wasn't able to secure the financing for the casino, and when he died in 1984, it remained only a frustrating dream. Sarno's casinos - and his ideas about how to build casinos - created the template for Las Vegas today. Before him, Las Vegas meant dealers in string ties and bland, functional architecture. He taught the city how to dress up its hotels in fantasy, putting toga dresses on cocktail waitresses and making sure that even the stationery carried through with the theme. He saw Las Vegas as a place where ordinary people could leave their ordinary lives and have extraordinary adventures. And that remains the template for Las Vegas today.
©2013 David G. Schwartz (P)2014 David G. Schwartz
Prompt and Utter Destruction
Summary
In this concise account of why America used atomic bombs against Japan in 1945, J. Samuel Walker analyzes the reasons behind President Truman's most controversial decision. Delineating what was known and not known by American leaders at the time, Walker evaluates the options available for ending the war with Japan. In this new edition, Walker incorporates a decade of new research - mostly from Japanese archives only recently made available - that provides fresh insight on the strategic considerations that led to dropping the bomb. From the debate about whether to invade or continue the conventional bombing of Japan to Tokyo's agonizing deliberations over surrender and the effects of both low- and high-level radiation exposure, Walker continues to shed light on one of the most earthshaking moments in history. Rising above an often polemical debate, the third edition presents an accessible synthesis of previous work and new research to help make sense of the events that ushered in the atomic age.
©1997, 2004 The University of North Carolina Press (P)2019 Tantor
Prison Planet
Summary
"After a failed planetary rebellion, the rebel leader and his men are all given life sentences on Halberd, the RIM Confederacy prison planet and sent to the maximum island penitentiary - a prison that has never had a successful escape. And under his admiral's orders, Captain Tanner Scott has also been sent to do RIM Navy duty on the planet with the mission to give up his alcohol dependency. While he knows that this is what is expected of him by the admiral, he finds it more difficult to do that he'd ever imagined. Tanner meets a woman - the sister of the rebel leader and while he falls in love with her, he is not sure that the feeling is mutual. Yet he tries to straighten out his life and his drinking but instead he is faced with the choice of a lifetime - love or death. Against incredible odds in the middle of a prison planet escape, he makes his choice...and more than his own life depends upon that choice...forever changing the future of the RIM!"
©2015 Jim Rudnick (P)2016 Jim Rudnick
Sleeper Ship
Summary
"As penance for not being honest with his admiral, Captain Tanner Scott has been sent on a boring routine maintenance mission of checking the RIM boundary buoys one after another, and that lets him enjoy his Scotch in peace. Imagine his surprise when a Sleeper ship suddenly arrives on the RIM, and he learns that the thousands of alien Sleepers are all children! While making that known has already gotten RIM confederacy realms fighting, the real hidden problem is the secret that a virus infects the alien Sleepers. Finding out the Sleeper's secret is one thing but the news of what that virus could bring to the RIM and what it might do is the real reason that a powerful RIM royal realm wants to enslave the alien Sleepers. When Captain Scott realizes that another RIM planetary realm has also learned what the virus could be worth, they too try to take over the Sleeper ship and that means that Tanner can't as per usual self-medicate with Scotch but instead has to overcome the RIM's adversaries and somehow save the alien Sleepers too!"
©2015 Jim Rudnick (P)2015 Jim Rudnick
Pirates
Summary
Tanner Scott, a RIM confederacy naval officer, has fought many battles against both humans and aliens. Years ago he proved victorious against a band of aliens. His ongoing fight with his own alcoholism, however, remains a stalemate. And suddenly pirates have appeared on the RIM. They have kidnapped the passengers of many craft sand sold them into slavery, and Scott is ordered to find them and rescue them. But the pirates aren't acting alone. They are sponsored by a powerful royal with ambitious plans, and she isn't about to let some navy captain stand in the way of her mining empire. Scott must rescue the slaves while simultaneously navigating the treacherous space of interstellar politics. If he fails, a royal will gain more power, the entire confederacy may unravel, and Scott's alcohol addiction will be the least of his worries....
©2015 Jim Rudnick (P)2015 Jim Rudnick
Not Your Mother's Goose
Summary
Not Your Mother's Goose proves that fairy tales and nursery rhymes aren't just for kids anymore. Envision it as the Cliffs Notes of children's stories - if Cliffs Notes was overtaken by Dave Barry or the folks at The Onion. Not Your Mother's Goose is a series of totally irreverent, mega-sarcastic fairy-tale recaps, along with a host of hilarious fake news stories and headlines ranging from Rapunzel getting a bikini wax to Old McDonald bombing on Wheel of Fortune after only buying vowels. The net result is a madcap trip that will leave you laughing all the way from Rumpelstiltskin's Twitter feed to Humpty Dumpty's Facebook page (where Jack is still trying to grow a beanstalk - in FarmVille).
©2015 Topher Goggin (P)2015 Topher Goggin
Nimble Be Jack
Summary
Jack Nolan believes he has finally settled into a comfortable routine owning his South Florida bar, Cap's Place. He's put the end of his law career and his divorce behind him and is enjoying the relaxed pace around Cap's Place, when an organized crime boss decides to take over the bar. Jack suddenly finds his life in danger and his bar in jeopardy. Running from one threat to another Jack attempts to navigate his way out of this rapidly deteriorating crisis. In endeavoring to protect others from being sucked into his quagmire, Jack resorts to what may turn out to be an even more dangerous source of help. Has he traded one devil for another?
©2015 Robert C. Tarrant (P)2017 Tantor
The Impending Crisis
Summary
David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession. The Impending Crisis remains one of the most celebrated works of American historical writing.
©1976 Estate of David M. Potter (P)2017 Tantor
Cap's Place: A Jack Nolan Novel
Summary
Jack Nolan had his life all mapped out as he pursued a promising career as an attorney in Michigan. Suddenly his world was knocked out of orbit and he found himself living with his Uncle Mickey above Mickey's bar in South Florida. Mickey's untimely death leads to Jack becoming a bar owner. Jack's protective approach to his life includes staying emotionally uninvolved with everyone around him, those who work at the bar, customers, and the objects of his frequent one-night stands. Without warning, Jack finds himself struggling to protect his beautiful bartender from unknown forces intent on killing her. Jack is confronted with decisions that require him to ignore rules he had previously deemed unbreakable. The characters who inhabit Cap's Place turn out to be much more complex than Jack ever anticipated.
©2012 Robert C. Tarrant (P)2017 Tantor
Education
Summary
Discover the secret to true education as you listen to these vital principles recognizing God as Source and Teacher. Understand where many have failed, and live the truth that makes us free. Looking to obtain an advanced degree in Education? Gain fresh insight into the source of all learning and knowledge. This is great instruction for those who teach others or for personal development. Education is a must listen for any serious student of life.
©2006 Remnant Publications
Geology
Summary
In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Jan Zalasiewicz gives a brief introduction to the fascinating field of geology. Describing how the science developed from its early beginnings, he looks at some of the key discoveries that have transformed it before delving into its various subfields, such as sedimentology, tectonics, and stratigraphy. Analyzing the geological foundations of the Earth, Zalasiewicz explains the interlocking studies of tectonics, geophysics, and igneous and metamorphic petrology and geochemistry and also describes how rocks are dated by radiometric dating. Considering the role and importance of geology in the finding and exploitation of resources (including fracking), he also discusses its place in environmental issues, such as foundations for urban structures and sites for landfill, and in tackling issues associated with climate change. Zalasiewicz concludes by discussing the exciting future and frontiers of the field, such as the exploration of the geology of Mars.
©2018 Jan Zalasiewicz (P)2018 Tantor
American Heritage History of the United States
Summary
Douglas Brinkley takes us on the incredible journey of the United States - a nation formed from a vast countryside on whose fringes 13 small British colonies fought for their freedom, then established a democratic nation that spanned the continent and went on to become a world power. This book will be treasured by anyone interested in the story of America.
©2015 American Heritage (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books