Kirk O. Winkler has narrated 4 audiobooks on Listento.it by 5 authors, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is America's First Adventure in China.
America's First Adventure in China
Summary
In 1784, when Americans first voyaged to China, they confronted Chinese authorities who were unaware that the United States even existed. Nevertheless, a long, complicated, and fruitful trade relationship was born after American traders, missionaries, diplomats, and others sailed to China with lofty ambitions: to acquire fabulous wealth, convert China to Christianity, and even command a Chinese army. In America's First Adventure in China, John Haddad provides a colourful history of the evolving cultural exchange and interactions between these countries. He recounts how American expatriates adopted a pragmatic attitude - as well as an entrepreneurial spirit and improvisational approach - to their dealings with the Chinese. Haddad shows how opium played a potent role in the dreams of Americans who either smuggled it or opposed its importation, and he considers the missionary movement that compelled individuals to accept a hard life in an alien culture. As a result of their efforts, Americans achieved a favourable outcome - they established a unique presence in China - and cultivated a relationship whose complexities continue to grow. John Haddad is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Popular Culture at Penn State Harrisburg. He was awarded the Gutenberg-e Prize in 2002 for his dissertation, which was published as The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture, 1776-1876.
©2013 Temple University (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks
A Life on Hold
Summary
You're going about your daily routine when you suddenly feel an odd squirming in your chest. You quickly realize that it is your heart, flopping around like a fish out of water. What do you do? You probably panic! Maybe you also experience dizziness, nausea, or shortness of breath, or maybe you have no other symptoms at all. But it's still very scary because...it's your heart! This is how chronic atrial fibrillation starts for many of us, and those who develop it often have little to no prior medical history to speak of. Once the demon a-fib has set in, though, we soon find our lives redirected down a dark uncharted path, our days consumed by vain attempts to divine the elusive origins of this mysterious malady as we desperately seek a panacea that can give us back our "normal", or at least some way to weaken the grasp that this unwelcome beast now has on our lives. Through it all, we put on performances of a lifetime for the rest of the world, acting as though all is well while coping as best we can with this invisible disorder...one that he who has never suffered through it cannot possibly understand. Try as we might, though, our lives and relationships will surely end up the worse for wear. Within this book lies one man's personal account of how this condition impacted his life, how he managed to overcome it, the valuable knowledge that was acquired along the way, and the permanent marks that the journey has left on his subsequent existence. This medical autobiography is written in an informal first-person conversational style with accounts and information presented in such a way that it should be easy for just about everyone to understand and relate to.
©2014 Kevin J. Kauffman (P)2017 Kevin J. Kauffman
The First Space Race: Launching the World's First Satellites
Summary
The First Space Race reveals the inside story of an epic adventure with world-altering stakes. From 1955 to 1958, American and Soviet engineers battled to capture the world's imagination by successfully launching the world's first satellite. The race to orbit featured two American teams led by rival services - the US Army and the Navy - and a Soviet effort so secret that few even knew it existed. This race ushered in the Space Age with a saga of science, politics, technology, engineering, and human dreams. Moved by patriotism, inquisitiveness, and pride, people on both sides of the Iron Curtain put forth heroic efforts to make that first satellite possible. Some aspects of this story, like the US Navy's NOTSNIK satellite project, are almost unknown. Even some details of well-known programs, such as the appearance of America's pioneering Explorer 1 satellite and the contributions made by its rival, Project Vanguard, are generally misremembered. In this book, authors Matt Bille and Erika Lishock tell the whole story of the first space race. They trace the tale from the origins of spaceflight theory and through the military and political events that engendered the all-out efforts needed to turn dreams into reality and thus shape the modern world. The book is published by Texas A&M University Press.
©2004 Matt Bille and Erika Lishock (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks
Unfinished Business
Summary
We all have things to do until we die. When you die, your "to-do" list gets cancelled. Unless your corpse is prepared for burial by Meg Hargrave. For 13 years, Meg has prepared corpses at the Peaceful Slumber Funeral Parlor. When she prepares the corpse of a World War II veteran, something extraordinary happens. She becomes aware of a task that had been weighing heavily on the man's mind and she feels compelled to finish it. Her next client is a woman killed in a car crash while driving to see her suicidal brother. Meg soon finds herself determined to give the brother the will to live. Each new corpse brings a new mission and Meg powerless to stop it. It's a bizarre, nightmarish curse until Meg realizes that she is the last hope for these souls to rest in peace. Until she embalms the corpse of a sociopath... Detective Dave Steere is investigating night club owner Mike McMahon. When McMahon is murdered and the evidence points to Meg, Steere's gut tells him that something isn't right. Now he has to figure out if he's tracked down a murderer, a victim...or something he can't explain.
©2013 Tim Baker (P)2013 Tim Baker