Fred Sanders has narrated 141 audiobooks on Listento.it by 180 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 9,074 ratings. The most-rated is Elon Musk.
We Stand Divided
Summary
From National Jewish Book Award Winner and author of Israel, a bold reevaluation of the tensions between American and Israeli Jews that reimagines the past, present, and future of Jewish life. Relations between the American Jewish community and Israel are at an all-time nadir. Since Israel’s founding 70 years ago, particularly as memory of the Holocaust and of Israel’s early vulnerability has receded, the divide has grown only wider. Most explanations pin the blame on Israel’s handling of its conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s attitude toward non-Orthodox Judaism, and Israel’s dismissive attitude toward American Jews in general. In short, the cause for the rupture is not what Israel is; it’s what Israel does. These explanations tell only half the story. We Stand Divided examines the history of the troubled relationship, showing that from the outset, the founders of what are now the world’s two largest Jewish communities were responding to different threats and opportunities, and had very different ideas of how to guarantee a Jewish future. With an even hand, Daniel Gordis takes us beyond the headlines and explains how Israel and America have fundamentally different ideas about issues ranging from democracy and history to religion and identity. He argues that as a first step to healing the breach, the two communities must acknowledge and discuss their profound differences and moral commitments. Only then can they forge a path forward, together.
©2019 Daniel Gordis (P)2019 HarperAudio
In the Hands of the People
Summary
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham offers a collection of inspiring words about how to be a good citizen, from Thomas Jefferson and others, and reminds us why our country’s founding principles are still so important today. Thomas Jefferson believed in the covenant between a government and its citizens, in both the government’s responsibilities to its people and also the people’s responsibility to the republic. In this illuminating book, a project of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, the number one New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham presents selections from Jefferson’s writing on the subject, with an afterword by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed and comments on Jefferson’s ideas from others, including Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Frederick Douglass, Carl Sagan, and American presidents. This curated collection revitalizes how to see an individual’s role in the world, as it explores such Jeffersonian concepts as religious freedom, the importance of a free press, public education, participation in government, and others. Meacham writes, “In an hour of 21st-century division and partisanship, of declining trust in institutions and of widespread skepticism about the long-term viability of the American experiment, it is instructive to return to first principles. Not, to be sure, as an exercise in nostalgia or as a flight from the reality of our own time, but as an honest effort to see, as Jefferson wrote, what history may be able to tell us about the present and the future.” Read by Fred Sanders and Edoardo Ballerini, with Paul Boehmer, Mark Bramhall, Amanda Carlin, Janina Edwards, Robert Fass, Jim Frangione, Dion Graham, Johnny Heller, JD Jackson, Arthur Morey, George Newbern, and Christine Rendel.
©2020 Jon Meacham (P)2020 Random House Audio
Swim Back to Me
Summary
From Ann Packer, author of the New York Times best-selling novels The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and Songs Without Words, a collection of burnished, emotionally searing stories, framed by two unforgettable linked narratives that express the transformation of a single family over the course of a lifetime. A wife struggles to make sense of her husband’s sudden disappearance. A mother mourns her teenage son through the music collection he left behind. A woman shepherds her estranged parents through her brother’s wedding and reflects on the year her family collapsed. A young man comes to grips with the joy - and vulnerability - of fatherhood. And, in the masterly opening novella, two teenagers from very different families forge a sustaining friendship, only to discover the disruptive and unsettling power of sex. Ann Packer is one of our most talented archivists of family life, with its hidden crevasses and unforeseeable perils, and in these stories she explores the moral predicaments that define our social and emotional lives, the frailty of ordinary grace, and the ways in which we are shattered and remade by loss. With Swim Back to Me, she delivers shimmering psychological precision, unfailing intelligence, and captivating drama: her most enticing work yet.
©2011 Ann Packer (P)2011 Random House Audio
This Hallelujah Banquet
Summary
In this powerful new interpretation of the book of Revelation, the late, revered author and translator of The Message Bible offers timely insights into how we can lean into growth, not in spite of challenging times, but because of them. “Insightful and inviting.... This is Eugene at his pastoral best.” (Rev. Dr. Glenn Packiam, associate senior pastor at New Life Church and author of Blessed Broken Given) The book of Revelation is filled with angels and dragons, fantastic beasts and golden cities, bottomless pits and mysterious numbers. It’s dramatic, sure - but what exactly does that have to do with the tests we face today? Actually, a lot. When the apostle John penned the book of Revelation, believers lived in a time of deception and injustice. But his message doesn’t just reflect their cries for things to be made right; it reveals heaven’s perspective of the bigger picture. In this never-before-published work, Eugene H. Peterson traces the dramatic symbolism found in John’s letters to the seven churches, uncovering Christ’s instructions to these ancient communities. Along the way, encounter seven key tests, of our love, suffering, truth, holiness, reality, witness, and commitment, tests from Christ that can deepen our faith and even shape our future. This Hallelujah Banquet is your personal invitation to grow deep and begin living now in a generous, abundant, and hopeful reality in Christ.
©2021 Eugene H. Peterson (P)2020 Random House Audio
Rescued
Summary
Discover the astonishing lessons rescue dogs can teach us about life, love, and ourselves In the follow-up to his New York Times best seller Rescue Road, acclaimed journalist Peter Zheutlin offers a heartwarming and often humorous new look into the world of rescue dogs. Sharing lessons from his own experiences adopting Labs with large personalities as well as stories and advice from dozens of families and rescue advocates, Zheutlin reveals the surprising and inspiring life lessons rescue dogs can teach us, such as: How to "walk a mile in a dog's paws" to get a brand-new perspective Living with a dog is not one continuous Hallmark moment - but it's never dull! Why having a dog helps you see your faults and quirks in a new light, even if you can't "shed" them completely How to set the world right, one dog at a time For anyone who loves, lives with, or has ever wanted a dog, this charming book shows how the dogs whose lives we save can change ours for the better, too.
©2017 Peter Zheutlin (P)2017 Penguin Audio
The Leader in Me
Summary
Change your child's future starting today: Learn how to use Stephen R. Covey's proven 7 Habits to create a leadership program for kids of all ages, so they can be more effective, more goal oriented, and more successful. In today's world, we are inundated with information about who to be, what to do, and how to live. But what if there was a way to learn not just what to think about but how to think? A program that taught how to manage priorities, focus on goals, and be a positive influence? The Leader in Me is that program. In this best seller, Stephen R. Covey took the 7 Habits that have already changed the lives of millions of people and showed how even young children can use them as they develop. These habits - be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw - are being adapted by schools around the country in leadership programs, most famously at the A.B. Combs Elementary school in Raleigh. Not only does it work, but it works better than anyone could have imagined. This audiobook is full of examples of how students blossom under the program - a classroom that decided to form a support group for one of their classmates who had behavioral problems, the fourth grader who found a way to overcome his fear of public speaking and wound up taking his class to see him compete in a national storytelling competition, or the seven-year-old who told her father that they needed to go outside and play because they both needed to "sharpen the saw". Perfect for individuals and businesspeople alike, The Leader in Me shows how easy it is to incorporate these skills into daily life. It is a timely answer to many of the challenges facing today's young people, corporations, parents, and educators - one that is perfectly matched to the growing demands of our certain future.
©2008, 2014 FranklinCovey Co. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Weather 101
Summary
Learn the science behind weather and weather prediction in this clear and straightforward new guide. Weather is everywhere, and while it's typically not thought about most of the time, it can get everyone's attention in an instant - whether it's the swirling destruction of a tornado, the wreckage from a hurricane, or the havoc of climate change on the environment. Weather 101 gives you the basics on weather, from blue skies to hail to dust storms, with information on the science of how weather works, how to predict the weather in your area, how to be ready for natural disasters, and how climate change is affecting weather patterns across the world. With this guide you'll be a weather expert in no time!
©2017 Kathleen Sears (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio
Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War
Summary
Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War is an entertaining look at the Civil War stories that don’t get told, and the misadventures you haven’t read about in history books. Share in all the humorous and strange events that took place behind the scenes of some of the most famous Civil War moments. Picture a pedestal in a public park with no statue on top; Rowland’s book explains that when the members of the New York Monument Commission went to hire a sculptor to finish the statue, they were shocked to discover that there was no money left in the agency’s accounts to pay for the project. The money for the statue of Dan Sickles had been stolen—stolen by former monument committee chairman Dan Sickles! Brig. Gen. Philip Kearny was the son of a New York tycoon who had helped found the New York Stock Exchange, and who groomed his boy to be a force on Wall Street. The younger Kearny decided his call was to be a force on the field of battle, so despite a law degree and an inheritance of better than $1 million, he joined the U.S. Army and studied cavalry tactics in France. His dashing figure in the saddle earned him the name of Kearny the Magnificent, probably because Kearny rode with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other while holding the horse’s reins in his teeth. This habit proved useful after he lost his left arm in the Mexican War, because he was able to continue to wave his sword with all the menace to which he was accustomed while still guiding his horse.
©2011 Tim Rowland (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Resetting the Table
Summary
A bold, science-based corrective to the groundswell of misinformation about food and how it's produced, examining in detail local and organic food, food companies, nutrition labeling, ethical treatment of animals, environmental impact, and every other aspect from farm to table Consumers want to know more about their food - including the farm from which it came, the chemicals used in its production, its nutritional value, how the animals were treated, and the costs to the environment. They are being told that buying organic foods, unprocessed and sourced from small local farms, is the most healthful and sustainable option. Now, Robert Paarlberg reviews the evidence and finds abundant reason to disagree. He delineates the ways in which global food markets have in fact improved our diet, and how "industrial" farming has recently turned green, thanks to GPS-guided precision methods that cut energy use and chemical pollution. He makes clear that America's serious obesity crisis does not come from farms, or from food deserts, but instead from "food swamps" created by food companies, retailers, and restaurant chains. And he explains how, though animal welfare is lagging behind, progress can be made through continued advocacy, more progressive regulations, and perhaps plant-based imitation meat. He finds solutions that can make sense for farmers and consumers alike and provides a road map through the rapidly changing worlds of food and farming, laying out a practical path to bring the two together.
©2020 Robert Paarlberg (P)2020 Random House Audio
Volume Control
Summary
The surprising science of hearing and the remarkable technologies that can help us hear better Our sense of hearing makes it easy to connect with the world and the people around us. The human system for processing sound is a biological marvel, an intricate assembly of delicate membranes, bones, receptor cells, and neurons. Yet many people take their ears for granted, abusing them with loud restaurants, rock concerts, and Q-tips. And then, eventually, most of us start to go deaf. Millions of Americans suffer from hearing loss. Faced with the cost and stigma of hearing aids, the natural human tendency is to do nothing and hope for the best, usually while pretending that nothing is wrong. In Volume Control, David Owen argues this inaction comes with a huge social cost. He demystifies the science of hearing while encouraging listeners to get the treatment they need for hearing loss and protect the hearing they still have. Hearing aids are rapidly improving and becoming more versatile. Inexpensive high-tech substitutes are increasingly available, making it possible for more of us to boost our weakening ears without bankrupting ourselves. Relatively soon, physicians may be able to reverse losses that have always been considered irreversible. Even the insistent buzz of tinnitus may soon yield to relatively simple treatments and techniques. With wit and clarity, Owen explores the incredible possibilities of technologically assisted hearing. And he proves that ears, whether they're working or not, are endlessly interesting.
©2019 David Owen (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Fishbone's Song
Summary
An orphan reflects on the lessons he was taught by the wise old man who raised him in this lyrical novel that sounds like poetry from three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary Paulsen. Deep in the woods, in a rustic cabin, lives an old man and the boy he's raised as his own. This sage old man has taught the boy the power of nature and how to live in it and, more importantly, to respect it. In Fishbone's Song, this boy reminisces about the magic of the man who raised him and the tales that he used to tell - all true, but different each time.
©2016 Gary Paulsen. All rights reserved. (P)2016 Simon & Schuster
The Whore's Child and Other Stories
Summary
To this irresistible debut collection of short stories, Richard Russo brings the same bittersweet wit, deep knowledge of human nature, and spellbinding narrative gifts that distinguish his best-selling novels. His themes are the imperfect bargains of marriage; the discoveries and disillusionments of childhood; the unwinnable battles men and women insist on fighting with the past. A cynical Hollywood moviemaker confronts his dead wife’s lover and abruptly realizes the depth of his own passion. As his parents’ marriage disintegrates, a precocious fifth-grader distracts himself with meditations on baseball, spaghetti, and his place in the universe. And in the title story, an elderly nun enters a college creative-writing class and plays havoc with its tidy notions of fact and fiction. The Whore’s Child is further proof that Russo is one of the finest writers we have, unsparingly truthful yet hugely compassionate.
©2003 Richard Russo (P)2011 Random House Audio
Rules of Estrangement
Summary
A guide for parents whose adult children have cut off contact that reveals the hidden logic of estrangement, explores its cultural causes, and offers practical advice for parents trying to reestablish contact with their adult children. “Finally, here’s a hopeful, comprehensive, and compassionate guide to navigating one of the most painful experiences for parents and their adult children alike.” (Lori Gottlieb, psychotherapist and New York Times best-selling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone) Labeled a silent epidemic by a growing number of therapists and researchers, estrangement is one of the most disorienting and painful experiences of a parent's life. Popular opinion typically tells a one-sided story of parents who got what they deserved or overly entitled adult children who wrongly blame their parents. However, the reasons for estrangement are far more complex and varied. As a result of rising rates of individualism, an increasing cultural emphasis on happiness, growing economic insecurity, and a historically recent perception that parents are obstacles to personal growth, many parents find themselves forever shut out of the lives of their adult children and grandchildren. As a trusted psychologist whose own daughter cut off contact for several years and eventually reconciled, Dr. Joshua Coleman is uniquely qualified to guide parents in navigating these fraught interactions. He helps to alleviate the ongoing feelings of shame, hurt, guilt, and sorrow that commonly attend these dynamics. By placing estrangement into a cultural context, Dr. Coleman helps parents better understand the mindset of their adult children and teaches them how to implement the strategies for reconciliation and healing that he has seen work in his 40 years of practice. Rules of Estrangement gives parents the language and the emotional tools to engage in meaningful conversation with their child, the framework to cultivate a healthy relationship moving forward, and the ability to move on if reconciliation is no longer possible. While estrangement is a complex and tender topic, Dr. Coleman's insightful approach is based on empathy and understanding for both the parent and the adult child.
©2020 Joshua Coleman (P)2020 Random House Audio
Sometimes Brilliant
Summary
When a powerful mystic steps on the hand of a radical young hippie doctor from Detroit, it changes lives and the world. Sometimes Brilliant is the adventures of a philosopher, mystic, hippie, doctor, groundbreaking tech innovator, and key player in the eradication of one of the worst pandemics in human history. His story, of what happens when love, compassion and determination meet the right circumstances to effect positive change, is the kind that keeps hope and the sense of possibility alive. After sitting at the feet of Martin Luther King at the University of Michigan in 1963, Larry Brilliant was swept up into the civil rights movement, marching and protesting across America and Europe. As a radical young doctor he followed the hippie trail from London over the Khyber Pass with his wife Girija, Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm commune to India. There, he found himself in a Himalayan ashram wondering whether he had stumbled into a cult. Instead, one of India’s greatest spiritual teachers, Neem Karoli Baba, opened Larry’s heart and told him his destiny was to work for the World Health Organization to help eradicate killer smallpox. He would never have believed he would become a key player in eliminating a 10,000-year-old disease that killed more than half a billion people in the 20th century alone. Brilliant’s unlikely trajectory, chronicled in Sometimes Brilliant, has brought him into close proximity with political leaders, spiritual masters, cultural heroes, and titans of technology around the world—from the Grateful Dead to Mikhail Gorbachev, from Ram Dass, the Dalai Lama, Lama Govinda, and Karmapa to Steve Jobs and the founders of Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Microsoft and eBay and Presidents Carter, Clinton, Bush and Obama. Anchored by the engrossing account of the heroic efforts of the extraordinary people involved in smallpox eradication in India, this is a riveting and fascinating epidemiological adventure, an honest reckoning of an entire generation, and a deeply moving spiritual memoir. It is a testament to faith, love, service, and what it means to engage with life’s most important questions in pursuit of a better, more brilliant existence.
©2016 Larry Brilliant (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
The Liberation of Paris
Summary
Prize-winning and best-selling historian Jean Edward Smith tells the dramatic story of the liberation of Paris during World War II - a triumph that was achieved through the remarkable efforts of Americans, French, and Germans, all racing to save the city from destruction. Following their breakout from Normandy in late June 1944, the Allies swept across Northern France in pursuit of the German army. The Allies intended to bypass Paris and cross the Rhine into Germany, ending the war before winter set in. But as they advanced, local forces in Paris began their own liberation, defying the occupying German troops. Charles de Gaulle, the leading figure of the Free French government, urged General Dwight Eisenhower to divert forces to liberate Paris. Eisenhower’s most senior staff recommended otherwise, but Ike wanted to help position de Gaulle to lead France after the war. And both men were concerned about partisan conflict in Paris that could leave the communists in control of the city and the national government, perhaps even causing a bloodbath like the Paris Commune. Neither man knew that the German commandant, Dietrich von Choltitz, convinced that the war was lost, dissembled and schemed to surrender the city to the Allies intact, defying Hitler’s orders to leave it a burning ruin. In The Liberation of Paris, Jean Edward Smith puts this dramatic event in context, showing how the decision to free the city came at a heavy price: It slowed the Allied momentum and allowed the Germans to regroup. After the war, German generals argued that Eisenhower’s decision to enter Paris prolonged the war for another six months. Was Paris worth this price? Smith answers this question in his superb, dramatic history of one of the great events of World War II - published 75 years after the liberation.
©2019 Jean Edward Smith (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio
Shikake
Summary
We are living in a time when behavioral change is necessary for our health and survival. Yet we find it exceedingly difficult to transform our own habits, let alone those of other people. Enter Naohiro Matsumura, whose powerful new design method is as astonishingly simple in its logic as it is sophisticated in its psychology. It allows any of us to address challenges in our homes, our public spaces, and our social interactions. As Matsumura shows, a shikake-or "device" in Japanese-is a design that exerts influence on us through subtle nudging, rather than direct command; it encourages a particular behavior without telling its (often unwitting) user the primary purpose of that behavior. For example: footprints in a store guide shoppers and keep them socially distant; a basketball hoop placed over a trash can entices children to tidy up their rooms; a symbol of a shrine in a public square encourages respectfulness; and a staircase painted to look like piano keys prompts exercise through play. Combining traditional Japanese aesthetics with the lessons of behavioral economics, Matsumura reveals how to identify the hidden design cues that already shape our world, and how shikakes can help us confront some of the most pressing challenges of our era, from pandemics to declining civic engagement to climate change and beyond. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2016 Naohiro Matsumura (P)2021 Tantor
America and Iran
Summary
An important, urgently needed book - a hugely ambitious, illuminating portrait of the two-centuries-long entwined histories of Iran and America, and the first book to examine, in all its aspects, the rich and fraught relations between these two powers - once allies, now adversaries. By an admired historian and the author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil - "he would do Graham Greene proud" (Kirkus Reviews). In this rich, fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of the relations of these two powers back to the Persian Empire of the 18th century - the subject of great admiration of Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams - and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government. Drawing on years of archival research both in the United States and Iran - including access to Iranian government archives rarely available to Western scholars - the Iranian-born, Oxford-educated historian leads us through the four seasons of US-Iran relations: the "spring" of mutual fascination; the "summer" of early interactions; the "autumn" of close strategic ties; and the long, dark "winter" of mutual hatred. Ghazvinian, with grasp and a storyteller's ability, makes clear where, how, and when it all went wrong. And shows why two countries that once had such heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies; showing us, as well, how it didn't have to turn out this way.
©2020 John Ghazvinian (P)2020 Random House Audio
The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
Summary
A rich, magical Gothic mystery from the legendary John Bellairs Rose Rita wishes she could go to camp like her best friend, Lewis. She's sure that boys get to have all the fun - until Mrs. Zimmermann offers her an adventure of her own. Mrs. Zimmermann's cousin Oley has left her his farm as well as a ring that he thinks is magic. But when the two arrive at the deserted farm, the ring has mysteriously vanished. What power does it have? And will the person who took it use the ring to do evil?
©1976 John Bellairs (P)2018 Recorded Books
Love, Gudrun Ensslin
Summary
Let us begin Banker Bingo. One banker per month will be assassinated unless the government takes practical steps to reduce the widening deficit between the rich and the poor. This is the threat made by maverick anarchist billionaire Rory Carlisle, which is intended to be carried out by ex-Baader Meinhof operative, Georg Krendler. Rory Carlisle is wealthy beyond imagination - a killer, ruthless and about to begin the most insidious darknet anarchy of our digital age. Georg Krendler was in with Baader Meinhof, he loved Gudrun Ensslin, he was there when they stood together against the system ruling and ruining Germany. He's a witness, a loose end - a loose end fleeing for his life, hiding in England until his creed bubbles up from his past and reaches into his present. He has no legacy. If he wants a legacy, he needs to stand for something. He needs to start playing Banker Bingo and eliminate these corrupt financiers before they enslave society.
©2018 Simon Corbin (P)2020 Simon Corbin
Spanish for Beginners
Summary
Have you always been fond of learning Spanish but just never felt confident enough to learn a new language? Are you curious to understand the meaning of those hit Latino songs? Would you like to watch your favorite Netflix series without subtitles, without taking long-hour Spanish lessons or spending an extended amount of time in a Spanish-speaking country? Don't waste your time on useless lessons that teach you only about the theory. With our new revolutionary course, you have the opportunity to learn from native Spanish speakers about the secret of the language, and the truly useful tips to be able to write and speak Spanish in everyday life. The traditional method taught does not give you the efficient results. Hours and hours of studying the rules would only make you lost. Think about how you learned your native language? When you were finally able to speak the first few words, did you study the theory? Or you simply listened and emulated what your parents said to you? The fast and steady growth of the Spanish speaking population has made Spanish a necessity in business and a key language, with more than 400 million native speakers all over the world and as second language in USA and Europe. That’s what you will learn: You will understand the basics of Spanish language, such as spelling and pronunciation You will focus in the important parts of speech Why not all the verbs are important - A list of only fundamentals verbs Discover the four types of sentences The authentic ways to communicate in Spanish Improve your ninja kit useful baggage of words to order food, ask information in the airport, find the best deal in the shopping, and manage any emergency or health issues Over 1,000 common Spanish phrases that you can learn on your downtime Practical exercise for the everyday life And much, much more... Even if you never open a language book before or you were never involved in any Spanish classes, the practical approach of this book together with the practical exercises will guide you step by step in learning Spanish. In less than no time, without even realizing it, you will begin to understand the texts in the songs, movies, and talking in Spanish.
©2020 Spanish Learning Revolution (P)2020 Spanish Learning Revolution