Kerry Shale has narrated 16 audiobooks on Listento.it by 16 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 29 ratings. The most-rated is Solitude.
Solitude
Summary
Governor General's Award-winner Michael Harris explores the profound emotional and intellectual benefits of solitude, and how we may achieve it in our fast-paced world.
The capacity to be alone - properly alone - is one of life's subtlest skills. Real solitude is a contented and productive state that garners tangible rewards: It allows us to reflect and recharge, improving our relationships with ourselves and, paradoxically, with others. Today, the zeitgeist embraces sharing like never before. Fueled by our dependence on online and social media, we have created an ecosystem of obsessive distraction that dangerously undervalues solitude. Many of us now lead lives of strangely crowded loneliness - we are ever-connected, but only shallowly so.
Award-winning author Michael Harris examines why our experience of solitude has become so impoverished and how we may grow to love it again in the frenzy of our digital landscape. Solitude is an optimistic and encouraging story about discovering true quiet inside the city, inside the crowd, inside our busy and urbane lives. Harris guides listeners away from a life of ceaseless pings toward a state of measured connectivity, one that balances solitude and companionship.
Rich with true stories about the life-changing power of solitude, and interwoven with reporting from the world's foremost brain researchers, psychologists, and tech entrepreneurs, Solitude is a beautiful and convincing statement on the benefits of being alone.
©2017 Michael Harris (P)2018 Doubleday Canada
Doctor Who: The Lost Angel
Summary
Kerry Shale reads an exciting original story featuring the 12th Doctor, as played on TV by Peter Capaldi, in an adventure with the Weeping Angels. All Alex Yow wants is to become a photojournalist and break her first story. All Brandon Yow wants is for his sister to keep out of trouble and come home. But that's not going to happen, because Alex has taken a picture of a statue. A statue that can move. A statue that makes people disappear. A statue that is hunting them down. In upstate New York, the Doctor is chasing weird energies that should not exist. Teaming up with Alex and Brandon, he discovers a powerful force enslaved to another's will. Who controls the lonely assassin that prowls the streets? What secrets are the residents of Rickman hiding? And will Alex and Brandon survive the night of the Weeping Angels? Kerry Shale, who played Dr Renfrew in the TV story 'Day of the Moon', reads this action-packed original audiobook by George Mann and Cavan Scott, based on the hit BBC TV series. Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes approx.
©2017 George Mann and Cavan Scott (P)2017 BBC Worldwide Ltd.
Why Trust Science?
Summary
Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy Do doctors really know what they are talking about when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when our own politicians don't? In this landmark book, Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength - and the greatest reason we can trust it. Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late 19th century to today, Oreskes explains that, contrary to popular belief, there is no single scientific method. Rather, the trustworthiness of scientific claims derives from the social process by which they are rigorously vetted. This process is not perfect - nothing ever is when humans are involved - but she draws vital lessons from cases where scientists got it wrong. Oreskes shows how consensus is a crucial indicator of when a scientific matter has been settled, and when the knowledge produced is likely to be trustworthy. Based on the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Princeton University, this timely and provocative book features critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.
©2019 Naomi Oreskes (P)2019 Princeton University Press
Slumdog Millionaire (a.k.a. Q&A)
Summary
A small prison cell in India holds an 18-year-old penniless waiter from a Mumbai slum. But Ram Mohammad Thomas isn't a criminal. He is under arrest for correctly answering 12 tricky trivia questions on the show Who Will Win a Billion? Reluctant to part with the jackpot of one billion rupees, the show directors bribe the police to arrest Ram, accusing him of cheating. For how else could a poor, uneducated orphan know so much: the name of the smallest planet, global capitals, and diplomatic policy? Ram is rescued by a lawyer who draws from him the always compelling, touching, and sometimes comic story of his life, explaining the source of his knowledge. An inspired performance by reader Kerry Shale captures the spirit of this off-beat novel, a blend of high comedy and touching melancholy. This novel was originally published with the title Q&A and is the basis for the movie Slumdog Millionaire.
©2005 Vikas Swarup (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Freud
Summary
In this fully updated second edition, the author clearly introduces and assesses all of Freud's thought, focusing on those areas of philosophy on which Freud is acknowledged to have had a lasting impact. These include the philosophy of mind, free will and determinism, rationality, the nature of the self and subjectivity, and ethics and religion. He also considers some of the deeper issues and problems Freud engaged with, brilliantly illustrating their philosophical significance: human sexuality, the unconscious, dreams and the theory of transference. The author's approach emphasises the philosophical significance of Freud’s fundamental rule - to say whatever comes to mind without censorship or inhibition. This binds psychoanalysis to the philosophical exploration of self-consciousness and truthfulness as well as opening new paths of inquiry for moral psychology and ethics. The second edition includes a new introduction and conclusion. The text is revised throughout, including new sections on psychological structure and object relations and on Freud’s critique of religion and morality.
©2005, 2015 Jonathan Lear (P)2019 Taylor & Francis
History of the Conquest of Mexico
Summary
In 1519, Hernando Cortés arrived in Mexico to investigate stories of a wealthy empire. What he encountered was beyond his wildest dreams; an advanced civilization with complex artistic, political, and religious systems (involving extensive human sacrifice) and replete with gold. This was the Aztec empire, headed by the aloof emperor, Montezuma. With just a handful of men, Cortés achieved the impossible, crushing the Aztecs and their allies, and effectively annexing the whole territory for Spain. One of the most extraordinary stories of conquest in mankind's history, it is told here in the classic account by the American historian W.H. Prescott.
Public Domain (P)2002 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
Crack
Summary
A shattering account of the crack cocaine years from award-winning American historian David Farber, Crack tells the story of the young men who bet their lives on the rewards of selling "rock" cocaine, the people who gave themselves over to the crack pipe, and the often-merciless authorities who incarcerated legions of African Americans caught in the crack cocaine underworld. Based on interviews, archival research, judicial records, underground videos, and prison memoirs, Crack explains why, in a de-industrializing America in which market forces ruled and entrepreneurial risk-taking was celebrated, the crack industry was a lucrative enterprise for the "Horatio Alger boys" of their place and time. These young, predominately African American entrepreneurs were profit-sharing partners in a deviant, criminal form of economic globalization. Hip Hop artists often celebrated their exploits but overwhelmingly, Americans - across racial lines - did not. Crack takes a hard look at the dark side of late 20th-century capitalism.
©2019 David Farber (P)2019 Cambridge University Press
A Long Island Story
Summary
It is 1953, a heat wave is sweeping across America and the Grossmans - Ben, Addie and their two children - are moving their lives from the political heart of Washington, DC to suburban Long Island. Benny was a successful lawyer in the Department of Justice, but all that has come tumbling down. With the McCarthy era of paranoia, persecution, and propaganda at its height, his past has come back to haunt him, forcing him to pack up his family and leave the capital behind. With their future uncertain, life in Long Island starts to open old wounds for Ben and Addie, and both start to wonder if they were meant for more, whether their future might look different than they planned and whether their marriage - their family - is worth fighting for.... A Long Island Story is a portrait of a marriage in crisis, of a unique and fascinating period in US history and of a seemingly perfect family fighting their demons behind closed doors.
©2018 Rick Gekoski (P)2018 Canongate Books Ltd
Spooked
Summary
A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist’s explosive examination of the booming industry shaping our modern world: former journalists and spies going for hire - and financed by companies, politicians, lawyers, and the rich and powerful to excavate the lives of their enemies and opponents for dirt and secrets. While most people now know of Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy, and Fusion GPS, the firm that hired him to dig up dirt on Donald Trump, private investigators have operated behind the scenes for decades, from the end of the Civil War, when Allan Pinkerton formed the first detective agency, to the 1970s, when Jules Kroll founded Kroll Associates to help Fortune 50 companies defend themselves against corporate raiders. But in the 21st century, that’s all changing. Today, private spies are shaping presidential elections, Hollywood management, government policies, and the fortunes of companies. They are also peering into our personal lives as never before, using off-the shelf technology to listen to our phone calls, monitor our emails, and decide what we see on social media. Private spying has never been cheaper and the business has never been more lucrative - while its power to influence has never been more pervasive. Fusion GPS, Black Cube, The Steele Dossier, the Theranos scandal, Harvey Weinstein’s campaign against his accusers - one thing all of these major recent news stories share is the critical, and still under reported, involvement of the private espionage business. Spooked is a twisting and disturbing tour deep inside this hidden billion-dollar industry defined by connections and betrayals, in which information is currency and loyalties shift with every client. Drawing on his depth of knowledge and unique access to sources, Barry Meier takes a fresh look at high-profile events readers think they know, and offers new and shocking revelations about them and the influential yet little-known people involved - powerful stealth operatives who are shaping the world we live in.
©2008 Barry Meier (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
The Good Soldier
Summary
Two couples, two marriages; both seemingly perfect, both falling apart. Beneath the surface gentility of the American John Dowell with his wife Florence and the landed grace of Edward and Leonora lie fictions and deceit. There are secret desires, hidden power-games, suicides and madness. Everyone is hiding something; even the narrator can’t be trusted. Brilliantly inventive, tragic and ironic, The Good Soldier is one of the great novels of the 20th century.
Public Domain (P)2010 Naxos Audiobooks
Great Explorers
Summary
Here are the stories of nine great adventures and the lives of the men who took part in them. They pushed back the frontiers of man's knowledge of the world by their vision, courage, and sheer doggedness. They were very different people, from bold adventurers facing the unknown with enjoyment to careful, more scientific individuals. Their journeys are placed within their historical context, but also contain the words of the men themselves.
©2003 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2003 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
Dancing with the Gods
Summary
When Kent Nerburn received a letter from Jennifer, a young woman questioning her calling to spend her life in the arts, the writer and artist was struck by how closely her questions mirrored the doubts and yearnings of his own youth. Nerburn resolved that he would write his own letter: a letter of welcome and encouragement to all young artists setting out on the same strange and magical journey, sharing the wisdom of a life spent working in the arts. From struggles with money and the bitterness of rejection, to spiritual questions of inspiration and authenticity, Dancing with the Gods offers insight, solace and courage to help young artists on the winding road to artistic fulfilment. Tender and joyous, it is a celebration of art's power to transform the darkest of human experience and give voice to the grandest of human hopes.
©2018 Kent Nerburn (P)2018 Canongate Books Ltd
Moses and Other Stories from the Old Testament
Summary
Here are the main stories from The Old Testament: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, Abraham and Isaac, Moses, The Ten Commandments, David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale, Daniel and the Lion's Den, and more. In these days where religion plays a diminishing role, it is important that we know the stories of The Bible not least because they appear repeatedly in art, literature, drama, music, and even in films and computer games! David Angus' informal text especially written for this recording is brought to life by the friendly story-telling talents of Kerry Shale. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
The Death Instinct
Summary
A spellbinding literary thriller about terror, war, greed, and the darkest secrets of the human soul, by the author of the million-copy best seller The Interpretation of Murder Under a clear blue September sky, America's financial center in lower Manhattan became the site of the largest, deadliest terrorist attack in the nation's history. It was September 16, 1920. Four hundred people were killed or injured. The country was appalled by the magnitude and savagery of the incomprehensible attack, which remains unsolved to this day.The bomb that devastated Wall Street in 1920 explodes in the opening pages of The Death Instinct, Jed Rubenfeld's provocative and mesmerizing new novel. War veteran Dr. Stratham Younger and his friend, Captain James Littlemore of the New York Police Department, are caught on Wall Street on the fateful day of the blast. With them is the beautiful Colette Rousseau, a French radiochemist whom Younger meets while fighting in the World War. A series of inexplicable attacks on Rousseau, a secret buried in her past, and a mysterious trail of evidence lead Young, Littlemore, and Rousseau on a thrilling international and psychological journey, from Paris to Prague, from the Vienna home of Dr. Sigmund Freud to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., and ultimately to the hidden depths of our most savage instincts. As the seemingly disjointed pieces of what Younger and Littlemore learn come together, the two uncover the shocking truth behind the bombing. Blending fact and fiction in a brilliantly convincing narrative, Jed Rubenfeld has forged a gripping historical mystery about a tragedy that holds eerie parallels to our own time.
©2010 Jed Rubenfeld (P)2011 Penguin
The Jefferson Bible: A Biography
Summary
This audiobook narrated by Kerry Shale traces the life and times of a uniquely American testament. In his retirement, Thomas Jefferson edited the New Testament with a penknife and glue, removing all mention of miracles and other supernatural events. Inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, Jefferson hoped to reconcile Christian tradition with reason by presenting Jesus of Nazareth as a great moral teacher - not a divine one. Peter Manseau tells the story of the Jefferson Bible, exploring how each new generation has reimagined the book in its own image as listeners grapple with both the legacy of the man who made it and the place of religion in American life. Completed in 1820 and rediscovered by chance in the late 19th century after being lost for decades, Jefferson's cut-and-paste scripture has meant different things to different people. Some have held it up as evidence that America is a Christian nation founded on the lessons of the Gospels. Others see it as proof of the Founders' intent to root out the stubborn influence of faith. Manseau explains Jefferson's personal religion and philosophy, shedding light on the influences and ideas that inspired him to radically revise the Gospels. He situates the creation of the Jefferson Bible within the broader search for the historical Jesus, and examines the book's role in American religious disputes over the interpretation of scripture. Manseau describes the intrigue surrounding the loss and rediscovery of the Jefferson Bible, and traces its remarkable reception history from its first planned printing in 1904 for members of Congress to its persistent power to provoke and enlighten us today.
©2020 Peter Manseau (P)2020 Princeton University Press
The Edgar Allan Poe BBC Radio Collection
Summary
Edgar Allan Poe's most celebrated stories, as heard on BBC Radio - plus bonus documentaries and two thrilling original dramas. The master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe has inspired generations of horror writers with his chilling Gothic tales and is also credited with inventing the detective fiction genre in 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'. This radio collection features five of his classic tales - 'The Pit and the Pendulum', 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Oblong Box', 'The Fall of the House of Usher' and 'The Masque of the Red Death', read by David Horovitch, Brian Gear, James Aubrey, Sean Barrett and Don Gilet. Also included is his renowned poem 'The Raven', read by Patrick Romer. Here, too, are adaptations of Poe's suspenseful story of piracy and slavery, 'The Gold Bug', starring Clarke Peters and Rhashan Stone, and his pioneering mystery story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', starring James Fleet and Andrew Scott. Radio 3's The Essay: Loving the Raven sees Poe enthusiasts Andrew Taylor, Joanne Harris, Louise Welsh, Mark Lawson and Kim Newman discussing the author's enduring legacy and cult status, while in Adventures in Poetry: The Raven, Peggy Reynolds explores Poe's most iconic work. Also included are two original dramas featuring Poe himself. Obsessed by a woman's unsolved murder, Edgar Allan Poe is presented with a disturbing revelation on the night before his death in Peter Mackie's The Real Mystery of Marie Roget, starring Ed Bishop. And in Christopher Cook's The Strange Case of Edgar Allan Poe, starring Kerry Shale and John Moffatt, Poe's famous detective C. Auguste Dupin investigates the bizarre death of his creator. Content warning: 'The Gold Bug' is set in a time when slavery was still prevalent in America and contains racist language from that era. Track listing: 'The Pit and the Pendulum' 'The Tell-Tale Heart' 'The Oblong Box' 'The Fall of the House of Usher' 'The Masque of the Red Death' 'The Raven' 'The Gold Bug' 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' The Essay: Loving the Raven Adventures in Poetry: The Raven The Real Mystery of Marie Roget The Strange Case of Edgar Allan Poe
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd