Greg Chun has narrated 15 audiobooks on Listento.it by 17 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 54 ratings. The most-rated is Our Dogs, Ourselves.
Our Dogs, Ourselves
Summary
From the number one New York Times best-selling author of Inside of a Dog, an eye-opening, informative, “entertaining, and enlightening” (BookPage) celebration of the human-canine relationship for the curious dog owner and science-lover alike. We keep dogs and are kept by them. We love dogs and (we assume) we are loved by them. We buy them sweaters, toys, shoes; we are concerned with their social lives, their food, and their health. The story of humans and dogs is thousands of years old but is far from understood. In Our Dogs, Ourselves, Alexandra Horowitz explores all aspects of this unique and complex relationship that “dog lovers will savor and absorb” (Shelf Awareness). As Horowitz considers the current culture of dogdom, she reveals the odd, surprising, and contradictory ways we live with dogs. We celebrate their individuality but breed them for sameness. Despite our deep emotional relationships with dogs, legally they are property to be bought, sold, abandoned, or euthanized as we wish. Even the way we speak to our dogs is at once perplexing and delightful. In 13 thoughtful and charming chapters, Our Dogs, Ourselves affirms our profound affection for this most charismatic of animals — and makes us “see canine companions in new ways” (Science News).
©2019 Alexandra Horowitz (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio
The Way of Chuang Tzu (Second Edition)
Summary
Classic writings from the great Zen master in exquisite versions by Thomas Merton, with a preface by his holiness the Dalai Lama, now in audio for the first time. Working from existing translations, Thomas Merton composed a series of his own versions of the classic sayings of Chuang Tzu, the most spiritual of Chinese philosophers. Chuang Tzu, who wrote in the fourth and third centuries BC, is the chief authentic historical spokesperson for Taoism and its founder, Lao Tzu (a legendary character known largely through Chuang Tzu’s writings). Indeed, it was because of Chuang Tzu and the other Taoist sages that Indian Buddhism was transformed, in China, into the unique vehicle we now call by its Japanese name: Zen. The Chinese sage abounds in wit and paradox and shattering insights into the true ground of being. Thomas Merton, no stranger to Asian thought, brings a vivid, modern idiom to the timeless wisdom of Tao.
©1965 The Abbey of Gethsemani (P)2018 New Directions
Blue
Summary
This program includes sections recorded by Steve Aoki while on tour. The music. The mix. His life. "Sometimes I think my whole life can be seen through shades of blue...." (Steve Aoki) Blue is the remarkable story of Steve Aoki, the superstar DJ/producer who started his career as a vegan straight-edge hardcore music kid hellbent on defying his millionaire father, whose unquenchable thirst to entertain - inherited from his dad, Rocky Aoki, founder of Benihana - led him to global success and two Grammy nominations. Ranked among the top-10 DJs in the world today, Grammy-nominated artist, producer, label head, fashion designer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Steve Aoki is an authentic global trendsetter and tastemaker who has been instrumental in defining contemporary youth culture. Known for his outrageous stage antics (cake throwing, "rave rafting", champagne spraying, and the "Aoki Jump") and his endearing personality, Steve is also the brains behind indie record label Dim Mak, which broke acts such as The Kills, Bloc Party, and The Gossip. Dim Mak also put out the first releases by breakout EDM stars The Chainsmokers and The Bloody Beetroots, as well as the early releases for Grammy-nominated artist Iggy Azalea, in addition to EDM star Zedd and electro duo MSTRKFT. In Blue, Aoki recounts the epic highs of music festivals, clubs, and pool parties around the world, as well as the lows of friendships lost to drugs and alcohol, and his relationship with his flamboyant father. This audiobook reveals how Aoki became a force of nature as an early social media adopter, helping to turn dance music into the phenomenon it is today. (His performances are watched by millions in person and online at events such as Tomorrowland, Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra Music Festival, and many more.) All this, while remaining true to his DIY punk rock principles, which value spontaneity, fun, and friendship above all else - demonstrable by the countless cakes he has flung across cities worldwide.
©2019 DJ Kid Millionaire, Ltd. (P)2019 Macmillan Audio
The Wisdom of the Desert
Summary
The Wisdom of the Desert was one of Thomas Merton's favorites among his own books, surely because he had hoped to spend his last years as a hermit. The personal tones of the translations and the blend of reverence and humor so characteristic of him show how deeply Merton identified with the legendary authors of these sayings and parables, the fourth-century Christian fathers who sought solitude and contemplation in the deserts of the Near East. The hermits of Screte, who turned their backs on a corrupt society remarkably like our own, had much in common with the Zen masters of China and Japan, and Father Merton made his selection from them with an eye to the kind of impact produced by the Zen mondo.
©1960 Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc. (P)2019 New Directions Publishing Corporation
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 Books
©2020 Cixin Liu (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
Chasing a Flawed Sun
Summary
The phrase "heroin saved my life" could be considered both controversial and even offensive to some. However, in Chasing a Flawed Sun, the author shows us how, after breaking him down and almost taking his life several times, the battle with the drug did just that. This is a true story. A transparent story of the life of a young man in America, who, like many of our lost youth, found his way into the drug culture. This story is an autopsy into the mind, heart, and soul of an addict. It begins at childhood and takes us through the thoughts, turmoil, and inner conflicts of a person lost in the undercurrent of addiction, and ends in a climax of self-discovery and realization. It is a gripping tale of a suburban youth and his journey through the streets of Baltimore, institutions, prisons, addiction, and worst of all, his own mind. What makes it so unique is the vulnerability and transparency with which it is told. It is the goal of this story to not only to tell a vivid tale but to also share hope and experience with those who are actively struggling with their own demons, and to shed some light to those who have lost or are currently dealing with a loved one who is struggling with addiction, alcoholism and/or a lost sense of "self". Daniel McGhee lives and owns several businesses just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. He also owns a non-profit and works with addicts, children, and homeless in his area. In his 18 years in recovery, he’s learned to enjoy writing, fitness, and traveling the world. He enjoys going to other countries either for relief work, exploration, or just chasing the sun that never ceases.
©2019 Daniel McGhee (P)2019 Daniel McGhee
Zen and the Birds of Appetite
Summary
Merton, one of the rare Western thinkers able to feel at home in the philosophies of the East, made the wisdom of Asia available to Westerners. "Zen enriches no one," Thomas Merton provocatively begins in his opening statement to Zen and the Birds of Appetite, one of the last books to be published before his death in 1968. "There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while...but they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the 'nothing,' the 'no-body' that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey." This gets at the humor, paradox, and joy that one feels in Merton's discoveries of Zen during the last years of his life, a joy that was very much present in this collection of essays. Exploring the relationship between Christianity and Zen, especially through his dialogue with the great Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki, the book makes an excellent introduction to a comparative study of these two traditions, as well as giving the listener a strong taste of the mature Merton. Never does one feel him losing his own faith; rather, one feels that faith getting deeply clarified and affirmed. Just as the body of "Zen" cannot be found by the scavengers, so too, Merton suggests, with the eternal truth of Christ.
©1968 The Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc. (P)2019 New Directions Publishing Corp.
Almond
Summary
This story is, in short, about a monster meeting another monster. One of the monsters is me. Yunjae was born with a brain condition called alexithymia that makes it hard for him to feel emotions like fear or anger. He does not have friends - the two almond-shaped neurons located deep in his brain have seen to that - but his devoted mother and grandmother aren’t fazed by his condition. Their little home above his mother’s used bookstore is decorated with colorful Post-it notes that remind him when to smile, when to say "thank you", and when to laugh. Yunjae grows up content, even happy, with his small family in this quiet, peaceful space. Then on Christmas Eve - Yunjae’s 16th birthday - everything changes. A shocking act of random violence shatters his world, leaving him alone and on his own. Struggling to cope with his loss, Yunjae retreats into silent isolation, until troubled teenager Gon arrives at his school and begins to bully Yunjae. Against all odds, tormentor and victim learn they have more in common than they realized. Gon is stumped by Yunjae’s impassive calm, while Yunjae thinks if he gets to know the hotheaded Gon, he might learn how to experience true feelings. Drawn by curiosity, the two strike up a surprising friendship. As Yunjae begins to open his life to new people - including a girl at school - something slowly changes inside him. And when Gon suddenly finds his life in danger, it is Yunjae who will step outside of every comfort zone he has created to perhaps become a most unlikely hero. The Emissary meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime in this poignant and triumphant story about how love, friendship, and persistence can change a life forever.
©2020 Won-pyung Sohn (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Fortune Smiles
Summary
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his acclaimed novel about North Korea, The Orphan Master's Son, Adam Johnson is one of America's most provocative and powerful authors. Critics have compared him to Kurt Vonnegut, David Mitchell, and George Saunders, but Johnson's new book will only further his reputation as one of our most original writers. Subtly surreal, darkly comic, both hilarious and heartbreaking, Fortune Smiles is a major collection of stories that gives voice to the perspectives we don't often hear while offering something rare in fiction: a new way of looking at the world. In six masterful stories, Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal. "Nirvana", which won the prestigious Sunday Times short story prize, portrays a programmer, whose wife has a rare disease, finding solace in a digital simulacrum of the president of the United States. In "Hurricanes Anonymous" - first included in the Best American Short Stories anthology - a young man searches for the mother of his son in a Louisiana devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine" follows a former warden of a Stasi prison in East Germany who vehemently denies his past, even as pieces of it are delivered in packages to his door. And in the unforgettable title story, Johnson returns to his signature subject, North Korea, depicting two defectors from Pyongyang who are trying to adapt to their new lives in Seoul, while one cannot forget the woman he left behind. Unnerving, riveting, and written with a timeless quality, these stories confirm Johnson as one of America's greatest writers and an indispensable guide to our new century.
©2015 Adam Johnson (P)2015 Random House Audio
The Princess Game
Summary
There are no happy endings for the Princesses of Chaminade High in this short, twisty tale of teenage murder games by the New York Times bestselling author of The School for Good and Evil series. The victims are the most popular girls in school, each murdered and arranged in a grim fairy-tale tableau. To find the killer, rookie detective Callum Pederson has gone undercover where the Princes hold court. He’s found enough secrets among the bros to bring them in for questioning - but he could very well get lost in the games the Princes play. The Princess Game is part of Faraway, a collection of retold fairy tales that take the happily-ever-after in daring new directions. Whether read or listened to in one sitting, prepare to be charmed, moved, enlightened, and frightened all over again.
©2020 Soman Chainani (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
I'm Waiting for You
Summary
“Her fiction is a breath-taking piece of a cinematic art itself. Reminiscent of the world we experienced in Matrix, Inception, and Dark City, still it leads us to this entirely original structure, which is a ground-breaking, mystic literary and cinematic experience. Indeed, powerful and graceful.” (Bong Joon-ho, Oscar-winning director of Parasite) In this mind-expanding work of speculative fiction, available in English for the first time, one of South Korea’s most treasured writers explores the driving forces of humanity - love, hope, creation, destruction, and the very meaning of existence - in two pairs of thematically interconnected stories. Two worlds, four stories, infinite possibilities In “I’m Waiting for You” and “On My Way”, an engaged couple coordinates their separate missions to distant corners of the galaxy to ensure - through relativity - they can arrive back on Earth simultaneously to make it down the aisle. But small incidents wreak havoc on space and time, driving their wedding date further away. As centuries on Earth pass and the land and climate change, one thing is constant: the desire of the lovers to be together. In two separate yet linked stories, Kim Bo-Young cleverly demonstrate the idea love that is timeless and hope springs eternal, despite seemingly insurmountable challenges and the deepest despair. In “The Prophet of Corruption” and “That One Life”, humanity is viewed through the eyes of its creators: godlike beings for which everything on Earth - from the richest woman to a speck of dirt - is an extension of their will. When one of the creations questions the righteousness of this arrangement, it is deemed a perversion - a disease - that must be excised and cured. Yet the Prophet Naban, whose “child” is rebelling, isn’t sure the rebellion is bad. What if that which is considered criminal is instead the natural order - and those who condemn it corrupt? Exploring the dichotomy between the philosophical and the corporeal, Kim ponders the fate of free will as she considers the most basic of questions: Who am I?
©2021 Bo-Young Kim (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers
Faraway
Summary
Classic fables take on new meaning as five of today’s most original bestselling authors serve up some deliciously modern twists. New reflections on evil queens, charmless princes, and star-crossed lovers branch out in provocative and enchanting directions. Follow the path and see where it leads... THE PRINCE AND THE TROLL by Rainbow Rowell A charming everyman and a mysterious something-under-the-bridge cross paths in a short fairy tale by the number one New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and the Simon Snow series. HAZEL AND GRAY by Nic Stone Two anxious young lovers lost in the woods. A beckoning mansion in a dark clearing. A short modern-day retelling of Hansel and Gretel by the number one New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin. THE PRINCESS GAME by Soman Chainani There are no happy endings for the Princesses of Chaminade High in this short, twisty tale of teenage murder games by the New York Times bestselling author of The School for Good and Evil series. THE CLEANERS by Ken Liu Touch the past or wash it away? Two sisters have a choice in this unforgettable short story of everyday magic and the power of memory by the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author Ken Liu. THE WICKEDS by Gayle Forman The reviled villainesses of Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel team up to set the record straight in a subversively funny short story by the number one New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay. Full list of narrators includes Kate Rudd and Frankie Corzo.
©2020 The Prince and the Troll © 2020 by Rainbow Rowell. Hazel and Gray © 2020 by Logolepsy Media Inc. The Princess Game © 2020 by Soman Chainani. The Cleaners © 2020 by Ken Liu. The Wickeds © 2020 by Gayle Forman Inc. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
This Light Between Us
Summary
For fans of The Librarian of Auschwitz, This Light Between Us is a powerfully affecting story of World War II about the unlikeliest of pen pals - a Japanese American boy and a French Jewish girl - as they fight to maintain hope in a time of war. "I remember visiting Manzanar and standing in the windswept plains where over ten thousand internees were once imprisoned, their voices cut off. I remember how much I wanted to write a story that did right by them. Hopefully this book delivers." (Andrew Fukuda) In 1935, 10-year-old Alex Maki from Bainbridge Island, Washington, is disgusted when he’s forced to become pen pals with Charlie Lévy of Paris, France - a girl. He thought she was a boy. In spite of Alex’s reluctance, their letters continue to fly across the Atlantic - and along with them, the shared hopes and dreams of friendship. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the growing Nazi persecution of Jews force them to confront the darkest aspects of human nature. From the desolation of an internment camp on the plains of Manzanar to the horrors of Auschwitz and the devastation of European battlefields, the only thing they can hold onto are the memories of their letters. But nothing can dispel the light between them.
©2020 Andrew Fukuda (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
Time Is a Fine White Lie
Summary
An Australian shamaness traveling in the body of a Chicago bartender leads to a surreal rendezvous with a presumed-dead rock star. An OkCupid encounter turns into blissful madness when souls connect over a national tragedy. A bloody accident at a city bus stop gives way to an absurdly rewarding feast. This collection of seven short stories poses the question: What phenomena are occurring under our nose, right now, that appear completely random but are consistent and solid periodic events we simply lack the scope to see, the comprehension to grasp, or the vocabulary to name? Time Is a Fine White Lie may be the closest thing we have to a traveler’s journal from that latent, ephemeral possibility — at once a tribute, warning, antidote, and gateway — to that which we take for granted.
©2020 William Steffey (P)2020 Aquariphone, LLC.
The Weddings
Summary
For Jack Cho, a fortysomething gay man, being able to marry someone he loves is so unfamiliar it’s terrifying. Then a wedding invitation from a college friend brings about a collision with those fears--and his own secret history. Jack and his new boyfriend, Caleb, are attending the wedding of Jack’s estranged straight friend Scott. No sooner do the guests start to mingle than questions arise about relationships, tradition, Jack’s feelings for the groom, and what’s at stake as he navigates daunting territory, both new and old. In this wry and surprising short story, award-winning author Alexander Chee extends an invitation to the party--and awakening--of a lifetime. Alexander Chee’s The Weddings is part of Inheritance, a collection of five stories about secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single sitting. By yourself, behind closed doors, or shared with someone you trust.
©2019 Alexander Chee (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.