Julian Elfer has narrated 53 audiobooks on Listento.it by 57 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 2,080 ratings. The most-rated is Iron Gold.
Roots of Yoga
Summary
The first single, reliable collection of primary material from the source traditions of yoga. Despite the immense popularity of yoga today, there is surprisingly little knowledge of its roots among practitioners. This book brings together, for the first time, the core teachings of yoga in the words of their authors, rather than in the secondary versions of modern interpreters. Including key passages from the Upanishads, the Buddhist and Jaina traditions, the yoga sections of the Indian Tantras, and many texts that are being critically translated for the first time, Roots of Yoga provides a comprehensive and immediate insight into the essential texts of the Indian traditions of yoga. This book is a first stop for anyone wishing to learn more than they are told at their yoga class and an indispensable resource for serious yoga practitioners and teachers.
©2017 James Mallinson and Mark Singleton (P)2021 Tantor
The Borgias
Summary
The Borgia family have become a byword for evil. Corruption, incest, ruthless megalomania, avarice, and vicious cruelty - all have been associated with their name. And yet, paradoxically, this family lived when the Renaissance was coming into its full flowering in Italy. Examples of infamy flourished alongside some of the finest art produced in western history. This is but one of several paradoxes associated with the Borgia family. For the family which produced corrupt popes, depraved princes, and poisoners, would also produce a saint. These paradoxes which so characterize the Borgias have seldom been examined in great detail. Previously history has tended to condemn, or attempt in part to exonerate, this remarkable family. Yet in order to understand the Borgias, much more is needed than evidence for and against. The Borgias must be related to their time, together with the world which enabled them to flourish. Within this context the Renaissance itself takes on a very different aspect. Was the corruption part of the creation, or vice versa? The primitive psychological forces which first played out in the amphitheaters of ancient Greece are all here. Along with the final, tragic downfall.
©2019 Paul Strathern (P)2019 Tantor
The Invention of China
Summary
A provocative account showing that "China" - and its 5,000 years of unified history - is a national myth, created only a century ago with a political agenda that persists to this day. China's current leadership lays claim to a 5,000-year-old civilization, but "China" as a unified country and people, Bill Hayton argues, was created far more recently by a small group of intellectuals. In this compelling account, Hayton shows how China's present-day geopolitical problems - the fates of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and the South China Sea - were born in the struggle to create a modern nation-state. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reformers and revolutionaries adopted foreign ideas to "invent" a new vision of China. By asserting a particular, politicized version of the past the government bolstered its claim to a vast territory stretching from the Pacific to Central Asia. Ranging across history, nationhood, language, and territory, Hayton shows how the Republic's reworking of its past not only helped it to justify its right to rule a century ago - but continues to motivate and direct policy today.
©2020 Bill Hayton (P)2020 Tantor
The Big Show
Summary
Pierre Clostermann DFC was one of the oustanding Allied aces of the Second World War. A Frenchman who flew with the RAF, he survived over 420 operational sorties, shooting down scores of enemy aircraft while friends and comrades lost their lives in the deadly skies above Europe. The Big Show, his extraordinary account of the war, has been described as the greatest pilot's memoir of WWII.
©1948, 2008 Flammmarion (P)2020 Tantor
As Long as I Have You
Summary
All Mari Everett’s life, she’s had two dreams: to own a bookstore, and to reunite with her long lost father. But when he passes away unexpectedly and she inherits his home and business, the only way she can learn about his life - especially why he abandoned her when she was three and never came back - is by leaving California to take over his bookstore in London. Owen Sullivan lives and works on Elderflower Island, a close-knit community in London where it’s impossible to keep a secret. It turns out, however, that Charlie Forsythe kept his daughter a secret from everyone for nearly 30 years. When Mari comes to London, Owen immediately falls for her. He’s never met a woman so intelligent, determined, and honest. Not to mention, so beautiful that she takes his breath away. Soon, everyone on the island - including Owen’s four siblings, parents, and grandmother - is pitching in to help give the bookstore a fresh start. But as insatiable passion develops into love, will Mari and Owen be able to grab hold of their fresh start? Or will their pasts continue to cast a dark shadow over their chance at a brilliant future together in London?
©2019 Oak Press, LLC (P)2021 Oak Press, LLC
Horse People
Summary
Best-selling author Michael Korda's Horse People is the story - sometimes hilariously funny, sometimes sad and moving, always shrewdly observed - of a lifetime love affair with horses, and of the bonds that have linked humans with horses for more than 10,000 years. It is filled with intimate portraits of the kind of people, rich or poor, Eastern or Western, famous or humble, whose lives continue to revolve around the horse. Korda is a terrific storyteller, and his book is intensely personal and seductive, a joy for everyone who loves horses. Even those who have never ridden will be happy to saddle up and follow him through the world of horses, horse people, and the riding life.
©2007 Michael Korda (P)2020 Tantor
Bible
Summary
This is a history of the King James Version of the Bible (known in Britain as the Authorised Version) over the 400 years from its remote beginnings to the present day. Gordon Campbell, expert in Renaissance literatures, tells the fascinating and complex story of how this translation came to be commissioned, of who the translators were, and of how the translation was accomplished. The story does not end with the printing of that first edition, but introduces the subsequent generations who edited and interacted with the text. The present text of the King James Version differs in thousands of small details from the original edition. Campbell traces the textual history from 1611 to the establishment of the modern text by Oxford University Press in 1769. Attitudes to the King James Version have shifted through time and territory, ranging from adulation to deprecation and attracting the attention of a wide variety of adherents. It is more widely read in America today than in any other country, and its particular history in there is given due attention. This book helps to explain the enduring popularity of the King James Version throughout the world today.
©2010 Gordon Campbell (P)2018 Tantor
A Brief History of China
Summary
A Brief History of China tells of the development of a rich and complex civilization where the use of paper, writing, money, and gunpowder were widespread in ancient times and where silk, ceramics, tea, metal implements, and other products were produced and exported around the globe. It examines the special conditions that allowed a single culture to unify an entire continent spanning 10 billion square kilometers under the rule of a single man - and the unbelievably rich artistic, literary and architectural heritage that Chinese culture has bequeathed to the world. Equally fascinating is the story of China's decline in the 19th and early 20th century - as Europeans and Americans took center stage - and its modern resurgence as an economic powerhouse in recent years. In his retelling of a Chinese history stretching back 5,000 years, author and China-expert Jonathan Clements focuses on the human stories which led to the powerful transformations in Chinese society - from the unification of China under its first emperor, Qinshi Huangdi, to the Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan and the consolidation of Communist rule under Mao Zedong. Clements even brings listeners through to the present day, outlining China's economic renaissance under Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping.
©2019 Jonathan Clements (P)2019 Tantor
Lutzen
Summary
The Thirty Years' War (1618-48) was Europe's most destructive conflict prior to the two world wars. Two of European history's greatest generals faced each other at Lutzen in November 1632, midway through this terrible war. Neither achieved his objective. Albrecht von Wallenstein withdrew his battered imperial army at nightfall, unaware that his opponent, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, had died a few hours earlier. The indecisive military outcome found an immediate echo in image and print, and became the object of political and historical disputes. Swedish propaganda swiftly fostered the lasting image of the king's sacrifice for the Protestant cause against the specter of Catholic Habsburg "universal monarchy". The standard assumption that the king had "met his death in the hour of victory" became integral to how Gustavus Adolphus' contribution to modern warfare has been remembered, even celebrated, while the study of Lutzen's wider legacy shows how such events are constantly rewritten as elements of propaganda, religious and national identity, and professional military culture. This book is the first to combine analysis of the battle itself with an assessment of its cultural, political, and military legacy, and the first to incorporate recent archaeological research within a reappraisal of the events and their significance.
©2018 Peter H. Wilson (P)2021 Tantor
The Second Book of General Ignorance
Summary
Just when you thought that it was safe to start showing off again, John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are back with another busload of mistakes and misunderstandings. Here is a new collection of simple, perfectly obvious questions you'll be quite certain you know the answers to. Whether it's history, science, sports, geography, literature, language, medicine, the classics, or common wisdom, you'll be astonished to discover that everything you thought you knew is still hopelessly wrong. For example, do you know who made the first airplane flight? How many legs does an octopus have? How much water should you drink every day? What is the chance of tossing a coin and it landing on heads? What happens if you leave a tooth in a glass of Coke overnight? What is house dust mostly made from? What was the first dishwasher built to do? What color are oranges? Who in the world is most likely to kill you? Whatever your answers to the questions above, you can be sure that everything you think you know is wrong. The Second Book of General Ignorance is a must-have for everyone who knows they don't know everything and an ideal stick with which to beat people who think they do.
©2010 QI Ltd. (P)2019 Tantor
Spartacus
Summary
Spartacus, a fictionalization of a slave revolt in ancient Rome in 71 BC, is well known today because of the 1960 movie starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier. It was originally published in 1951 by Fast himself, after being turned down by every mainstream publisher of the day because of Fast's blacklisting for his Communist Party sympathies. The story of Spartacus, born a slave, trained as a gladiator, who led a slave revolt that was eventually put down by Crassus, was immensely popular and went on to sell millions of copies.
©1951 Howard Fast (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Cruel Is the Night
Summary
Inspired by puzzle-mystery great Agatha Christie, prizewinning Finnish author Karo Hamalainen's first novel in translation is a comedy of murderous intentions. Three cell phones ring in an opulent London suite. The calls go unanswered, because their recipients are dead. Earlier that night, four old friends and lovers meet for a reunion dinner. Miko and Robert haven't seen each other in 10 years; Miko hates Robert for the money he's made with shady ethics. Unbeknownst to Miko, his wife, Veera, also slept with Robert the last time everyone was together. Robert's young trophy wife, Elise, has no old grudges to bear, but will be swept up in the murderous fray. Not only does every diner have a bone to pick with another, but there's an arsenal of deadly weapons hiding in plain sight. And by the end of the night, there will only be one.
©2013, 2017 Karo Hamalainen; translation by Owen Witesman (P)2017 Recorded Books
Sing a New Song
Summary
Humans are relational, emotional beings - and nothing reveals this more beautifully than the book of Psalms. As the psalmists pour out their hearts to God, they uncover the multifaceted character of the Lord almighty and reveal his grace-filled plans for his people. Sing a New Song offers a fresh look at the 150 psalms in the Bible, summarizing each psalm's key themes, revealing how each fits in to both the Psalter as a whole and the rest of scripture, and suggesting practical applications. Designed for use in personal study or in small groups, this book will invigorate your study of the book of Psalms and enable you to see the steadfast love and faithfulness of God reflected in every word.
©2017 Lydia Brownback (P)2020 eChristian