John Pruden has narrated 178 audiobooks on Listento.it by 158 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 2,266 ratings. The most-rated is American Sniper.
David Crockett: The Lion of the West
Summary
His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett", and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories. Born into a humble Tennessee family in 1786, Crockett never "killed him a b'ar" when he was only three. But he did cut a huge swath across early-19th-century America - as a bear hunter, a frontier explorer, a soldier serving under Andrew Jackson, an unlikely congressman, and, finally, a martyr in his now-controversial death at the Alamo. Wallis's David Crockett is more than a riveting story. It is a revelatory, authoritative biography that separates fact from fiction, providing us with an extraordinary evocation of a true American hero and the rough-and-tumble times in which he lived.
©2011 Michael Wallis (P)2011 Tantor
The Meat Racket
Summary
How much do you know about the meat on your dinner plate? Journalist Christopher Leonard spent more than a decade covering the country's biggest meat companies, including four years as the national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press. Now he delivers the first comprehensive look inside the industrial meat system, exposing how a handful of companies executed an audacious corporate takeover of the nation's meat supply. Leonard's revealing account shines a light on the inner workings of Tyson Foods, a pioneer of the industrial system that dominates the market. You'll learn how the food industry got to where it is today and how companies like Tyson have escaped the scrutiny they deserve. You'll discover how these companies are able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. And you'll even see how big business and politics have derailed efforts to change the system, from a years-long legal fight in Iowa to the Obama administration's recent failed attempt to pass reforms. Important, timely, and explosive, The Meat Racket is an unvarnished portrait of the food industry that now dominates America's heartland.
©2014 Christopher Leonard (P)2014 Tantor
Silent Assassin
Summary
In this electrifying novel of relentless suspense, Black Ops veteran Leo J. Maloney unleashes an unthinkable conspiracy from the deepest corridors of power… Silent Assassin. Code named Cobra, former CIA agent Dan Morgan is pulled in when every other option has failed. His mission: find Nikolai Novokoff, a ruthless KGB officer turned international arms dealer. Locate the weapons of mass destruction that the rogue terrorist is threatening to unleash on the world. And terminate with extreme prejudice... In the world of clandestine ops, where the line between friends and enemies is constantly shifting, especially in the halls of Washington, Morgan must survive a merciless maze of deceit - and risk everything - to stop a madman.
©2013 Leo J. Maloney (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Healing a Spouse's Grieving Heart
Summary
Helping widows and widowers learn how to cope with the grief of losing their helpmate, their lover, and perhaps their financial provider, this guide reveals how to find continued meaning in life when doing so seems difficult. Bereaved spouses will find advice on when and how to dispose of their mate's belongings, dealing with their children, and redefining their role with friends and family. Suggestions are provided for elderly mourners, young widows and widowers, unmarried lovers, and same-sex partners. The information and comfort offered apply to individuals whose spouse died recently or long ago.
©2013 Alan Wolfelt, PhD (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Roosevelt's Beast
Summary
1914: Brazil's Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Plagued by hunger and suffering the lingering effects of malaria, Theodore Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and the other members of the now-ravaged Roosevelt-Rondon scientific expedition are traveling deeper and deeper into the jungle. When Kermit and Teddy are kidnapped by a never-before-seen Amazonian tribe, the great hunters are asked one thing in exchange for their freedom: Find and kill a beast that leaves no tracks and that no member of the tribe has ever seen. But what are the origins of this beast, and how do they escape its brutal wrath?
©2014 Louis Bayard (P)2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Assassin
Summary
Charles Knight is released from an especially unpleasant stay in prison, only to rejoin a society overwhelmed by looting, riots, arson, viral panic, mob-think, and economic decay...with a presidential election in the balance. The cronies are in charge, abetted by their media lackeys and political puppets. They’ll do anything to get what they want. How can Charles stop the deadly crimes - crimes that push millions into poverty, servitude, and ignorance - committed by those who control the law, print the money, and confuse the minds of the people? Will a highly unorthodox presidential candidate and a cryptocurrency network that turns the surveillance state on its head be enough to expose and defeat them? Or do some people just need to be killed? The cronies are moving fast. Charles Knight needs to move faster.
©2020 Doug Casey and John Hunt (P)2020 HighGround Books, LLC
What Kind of Creatures Are We?
Summary
Noam Chomsky is widely known and deeply admired for being the founder of modern linguistics, one of the founders of the field of cognitive science, and perhaps the most avidly read political theorist and commentator of our time. In these lectures, he presents a lifetime of philosophical reflection on all three of these areas of research to which he has contributed for over half a century. In clear, precise, and non-technical language, Chomsky elaborates on 50 years of scientific development in the study of language, sketching how his own work has implications for the origins of language, the close relations that language bears to thought, and its eventual biological basis. He expounds and criticizes many alternative theories, such as those that emphasize the social, the communicative, and the referential aspects of language. Chomsky reviews how new discoveries about language overcome what seemed to be highly problematic assumptions in the past. He also investigates the apparent scope and limits of human cognitive capacities and what the human mind can seriously investigate, in the light of history of science and philosophical reflection and current understanding. Moving from language and mind to society and politics, he concludes with a searching exploration and philosophical defense of a position he describes as "libertarian socialism," tracing its links to anarchism and the ideas of John Dewey, and even briefly to the ideas of Marx and Mill, demonstrating its conceptual growth out of our historical past and urgent relation to matters of the present.
©2016 Noam Chomsky (P)2018 Tantor
Threat Level Alpha
Summary
Black ops veteran Leo J. Maloney delivers a high-level thriller that spans the globe, changes the game, and raises the threat level to all-out worldwide destruction.... Threat Level Alpha They strike without warning, in key locations around the world. In Russia, a Soviet-era storage facility is raided by terrorists. In the Philippines, an important international conference is under siege. In the United States, Dan Morgan is stalked by Russian agents. And at Berkeley, Morgan’s daughter is kidnapped with other students and taken to a remote laboratory. The attacks are neither coincidental nor random. They are part of a carefully orchestrated plan by a new and merciless organization. As Zeta Division struggles to make sense of the international chaos, Dan Morgan races to stop a deadly biochemical weapon - one that Morgan’s daughter is being forced to help build....
©2018 Leo J. Maloney (P)2018 Audible, Inc.
Dark Territory
Summary
"Maloney has a real winner." (Marc Cameron, Black Ops veteran) Leo J. Maloney delivers a lightning-fast thriller that puts America's top operatives on a collision course with Russia's deadliest weapon...Dark Territory The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest rail line in the world. But for Dan Morgan's daughter, Alex, it could be the shortest trip of her life - and the last. After taking out a sadistic North Korean officer, she boards the train to make her escape. But she's not the only passenger with a hidden agenda. Dan Morgan has two choices: save his daughter before fighter jets blow up the train. Or stop a madman from annihilating the world. Either way, this train ride is a one-way ticket toward disaster - and the last stop is World War III....
©2018 Leo J. Maloney (P)2018 Audible, Inc.
Warning Order
Summary
In the second book in the explosive Search and Destroy thriller series, Mason Kane, a special ops hero with a questionable past, joins forces with the CIA to neutralize a radical off-shoot of ISIS and unravel a conspiracy emanating from the White House's inner sanctum. After almost losing his life while foiling a terror plot that threatened to draw the United States into another war, Mason Kane, disgraced American soldier and special operations legend, is still on the government's blacklist. To finally clear his name, Mason strikes a deal with the CIA, throwing himself back into the deadly world of black ops. But when an asset tied to ISIS leads an old friend into a trap, Mason goes off the grid and finds himself trapped in the middle of a plot involving an extremely violent and highly capable terror cell - with ties to the US president's inner circle. With the help of DOD operative Renee Hart and a team of elite special ops soldiers, Mason is determined to stop an attack aimed at crippling the United States military before time runs out. Set in the shadows of the war on terror and inspired by the experiences of 82nd Airborne paratrooper Joshua Hood, Warning Order is an action-packed thriller that throws the listener into the murky world of clandestine operations.
©2016 Joshua Hood (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Termination Orders
Summary
In the tradition of bestsellers by Robert Ludlum and Vince Flynn, Termination Orders introduces Dan Morgan, a retired black-ops agent who must return to duty to thwart a deadly international conspiracy. Once a trained killer for the CIA, Dan Morgan has built a new life for himself. But when he receives a desperate plea from his former black-ops partner - reportedly killed in a foreign battle zone - he flies in to help. It should be a routine mission, extracting a human asset from the region, but it’s not - it’s an ambush. Now Morgan is running for his life, with crucial evidence in his possession. With his contacts dead and his family in danger, Morgan must take on a full-scale conspiracy in the highest echelons of a vast global network that plays by its own rules. Leo J. Maloney spent over thirty-five years in black ops, accepting highly secretive missions that would put him in the most dangerous hot spots in the world. Since leaving that career, he has had the opportunity to try his hand at acting in independent films and television commercials. He has ten movies to his credit, both as an actor and behind the camera as a producer, technical advisor, and assistant director.
©2012 Leo J. Maloney (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Operation Vengeance
Summary
The New York Times best-selling author of Viper Pilot delivers an electrifying narrative account of the top-secret US mission to kill Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese commander who masterminded Pearl Harbor. "Operation Vengeance is colorful, intimate, eye-popping history, delivered at a breakneck pace. I loved it." (Lynn Vincent) In 1943, the United States military began to plan one of the most dramatic secret missions of World War II. Its code name was Operation Vengeance. Naval Intelligence had intercepted the itinerary of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, whose stealth attack on Pearl Harbor precipitated America’s entry into the war. Harvard-educated, Yamamoto was a close confidant of Emperor Hirohito and a brilliant tactician who epitomized Japanese military might. On April 18, the US discovered, he would travel to Rabaul in the South Pacific to visit Japanese troops, then fly to the Japanese airfield at Balalale, 400 miles to the southeast. Set into motion, the Americans’ plan was one of the most tactically difficult operations of the war. To avoid detection, US pilots had to embark on a circuitous, 1,000-mile odyssey that would test not only their skills but the physical integrity of their planes. The timing was also crucial: the slightest miscalculation, even by a few minutes - or a delay on the famously punctual Yamamoto’s end - meant the entire plan would collapse, endangering American lives. But if these remarkable pilots succeeded, they could help turn the tide of the war - and greatly boost Allied morale. Informed by deep archival research and his experience as a decorated combat pilot, Operation Vengeance focuses on the mission’s pilots and recreates the moment-by-moment drama they experienced in the air. Hampton recreates this epic event in thrilling detail and provides groundbreaking evidence about what really happened that day.
©2020 Dan Hampton (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Clear by Fire
Summary
Inspired by the experiences of a decorated combat veteran and former member of the 82nd Airborne Division, Clear by Fire is a blistering new military thriller about an American hero who, in order to clear his name, must take down a highly classified band of soldiers that has gone murderously rogue. Mason Kane was a loyal American soldier and a proud member of the elite, off-the-books Anvil Program - a group of black ops soldiers who wage war from the shadows. But all that changed when his commander, as a part of a twisted scheme to force America's continued involvement in the Middle East, ordered an innocent Afghan family murdered. Refusing the order, Mason finds himself on the run, hunted by his former comrades and labeled a terrorist by the country he served faithfully. Relying only on his survival skills and the help of female Special Operations operative Renee Hart, Kane must embark on his gravest mission yet: unraveling the conspiracy that reaches all way to the president's inner circle and stopping the world's most dangerous soldiers from completing their treacherous plan. Set in the shadows of the war on terror, this realistic, action-packed adventure puts a twist on the traditional military thriller and starts a brand-new series that fans of Brad Thor and Brad Taylor will love.
©2015 Joshua Hood (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Trump and the American Future
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Newt Gingrich lays out the stakes of the 2020 elections and what the end results could mean for the future of American citizens. The 2020 election will be a decisive choice for America, especially as we emerge from the coronavirus crisis. Will the American people choose four more years of President Trump to lead us back to strong economic growth, a foreign and trade policy of putting American interests first, dismantling the deep state, and dramatically reforming the bureaucracies? Or will they reject Trumpism and elect the radical Democratic policies of big government, globalism, and socialist policies that Joe Biden represents? Not since the election of 1964 has the choice in an election been so stark. Trump and the American Future by Newt Gingrich will lay out the stakes of the 2020 election and provide a clarion call for all Americans on why it is vital to return President Trump to the White House for a second term. Featuring insights gleaned from the lifetime of experience and access only Newt Gingrich can bring, Trump and the American Future will be crucial listening for every citizen who wants to continue to make America great again.
©2020 Newt Gingrich (P)2020 Hachette Audio
Instant Replay
Summary
This classic sports book takes listeners inside the 1967 season of the Green Bay Packers, following that storied team from training camp to their dramatic victory in Super Bowl II. Candid and often amusing, Jerry Kramer describes from a player's perspective a bygone era of sports, filled with blood, grit, and tears. No game better exemplifies this period than the classic "Ice Bowl" conference championship game between the Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, which Kramer, who made the crucial block in the climactic play, describes in thrilling detail. We also get a rare and insightful view of the Packers' legendary leader, coach Vince Lombardi. As vivid and engaging as it was when it was first published, Instant Replay is an irreplaceable reminder of the glory days of pro football.
©2008 Jerry Kramer (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks
The Bears of Brooks Falls
Summary
A natural history and celebration of the famous bears and salmon of Brooks River. On the Alaska Peninsula, where exceptional landscapes are commonplace, a small river attracts attention far beyond its scale. Each year, from summer to early fall, brown bears and salmon gather at Brooks River to create one of North America's greatest wildlife spectacles. As the salmon leap from the cascade, dozens of bears are there to catch them (with as many as 43 bears sighted in a single day), and thousands of people come to watch in person or on the National Park Service's popular Brooks Falls Bearcam. The Bears of Brooks Falls tells the story of this region and the bears that made it famous in three parts. The first forms an ecological history of the region, from its dormancy 30,000 years ago to the volcanic events that transformed it into the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. The central and longest section is a deep dive into the lives of the wildlife along the Brooks River, especially the bears and salmon. Listeners will learn about the bears' winter hibernation, mating season, hunting rituals, migration patterns, and their relationship with Alaska's changing environment. Finally, the book explores the human impact, both positive and negative, on this special region and its wild population.
©2021 Michael Fitz (P)2021 Tantor
Pirate's Honor
Summary
A pirate captain of the Inner Sea, Torius Vin makes a living raiding wealthy merchant ships with his crew of loyal buccaneers. Few things matter more to Captain Torius than ill-gotten gold-but one of those is Celeste, his beautiful snake-bodied navigator. When a crafty courtesan offers the pirate crew a chance at the heist of a lifetime, it's time for both man and naga to hoist the black flag and lead the Stargazer's crew to fame and fortune. But will stealing the legendary Star of Thumen chart the corsairs a course to untold riches-or send them all to a watery grave?
©2013 Paizo Publishing, LLC (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
Shooting Midnight Cowboy
Summary
A history of the controversial Oscar-winning film that signaled a dramatic shift in American popular culture The director John Schlesinger’s Darling was nominated for five Academy Awards and introduced the world to the transcendently talented Julie Christie. Suddenly the toast of Hollywood, Schlesinger used his newfound clout to film an expensive Eastmancolor adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd. Expectations were huge, making the movie’s complete critical and commercial failure even more devastating, and Schlesinger suddenly found himself persona non grata in the Hollywood circles he had hoped to join. Given his recent travails, Schlesinger’s next project seemed doubly daring, bordering on foolish. James Leo Herlihy’s novel Midnight Cowboy, about a Texas hustler trying to survive on the mean streets of 1960s New York, was dark and transgressive. Perhaps something about the book’s unsparing portrait of cultural alienation resonated with him. His decision to film it began one of the unlikelier convergences in cinematic history, centered around a city that seemed, at first glance, as unwelcoming as Herlihy’s novel itself. Glenn Frankel’s Shooting Midnight Cowboy tells the story of a modern classic that, by all accounts, should never have become one in the first place. The film’s boundary-pushing subject matter - homosexuality, prostitution, sexual assault - earned it an X rating when it first appeared in cinemas in 1969. For Midnight Cowboy, Schlesinger - who had never made a film in the United States - enlisted Jerome Hellman, a producer smarting from a failed marriage, and Waldo Salt, a formerly blacklisted screenwriter with a tortured past. The decision to shoot on location in New York, at a time when the city was approaching its gritty nadir, backfired when a sanitation strike filled Manhattan with garbage fires and fears of dysentery. Much more than a history of Schlesinger’s film, Shooting Midnight Cowboy is an arresting glimpse into the world from which it emerged: a troubled city that nurtured the talents and ambitions of the pioneering Polish cinematographer Adam Holender and the legendary casting director Marion Dougherty, who discovered both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight and supported them for the roles of Ratso Rizzo and Joe Buck - leading to one of the most intensely moving joint performances ever to appear on screen. We follow Herlihy himself as he moves from the experimental confines of Black Mountain College to the theaters of Broadway, influenced by close relationships with Tennessee Williams and Anaïs Nin, and yet unable to find lasting literary success. By turns madcap and serious, and enriched by interviews with Hoffman, Voight, and others, Shooting Midnight Cowboy is not only the definitive account of the film that unleashed a new wave of innovation in American cinema but also the story of a country (and an industry) beginning to break free from decades of cultural and sexual repression.
©2021 Glenn Frankel (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing