Patrick Lawlor has narrated 240 audiobooks on Listento.it by 216 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 4,357 ratings. The most-rated is It.
Fidel Castro
Summary
For decades, people have tried to persuade the leader of the Cuban Revolution to tell his own life story. Ignacio Ramonet, the celebrated editor in chief of Le Monde diplomatique, has finally succeeded. For the first time, in a series of extensive and probing interviews, Fidel Castro describes his life from the 1950s to the present day. In frank and compelling detail, he discusses his parents and his childhood, his earliest influences, the beginnings of the revolution, his relationship with Che Guevara, the drama of the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Jimmy Carter years, Cuban migration to the United States, his dealings with successive American presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush, and his relationship with such controversial leaders as Saddam Hussein and Hugo Chavez. Along the way, Ramonet challenges Castro to discuss his views on a number of controversial questions, from human rights and freedom of the press to the repression of homosexuality and the survival of the death penalty in Cuba. This book will stand as the definitive record of an extraordinary life lived in turbulent times.
©2006 Ignacio Ramonet (P)2008 Tantor
Once a Runner
Summary
Once a Runner captures the essence of what it means to be a competitive runner; to devote your entire existence to a single-minded pursuit of excellence. It has become one of the most beloved sports novels ever written. Originally self-published in 1978 and sold at road races out of the trunk of the author's car, reading the book became a rite of passage for many runners, and tattered copies were handed down like sacred texts from generation to generation. Once a Runner is the story of Quenton Cassidy, a collegiate runner at fictional Southeastern University whose lifelong dream is to run a four-minute mile. He is less than a second away when the political and cultural turmoil of the Vietnam War era intrudes into the staid recesses of his school's athletic department. After he becomes involved in an athletes' protest, Cassidy is suspended from his track team. Under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, Bruce Denton, a graduate student and former Olympic gold medalist, Cassidy gives up his scholarship, his girlfriend, and possibly his future to withdraw to a monastic retreat in the countryside and begin training for the race of his life: a head-to-head match with the greatest miler in history. This audiobook is a rare insider's account of the incredibly intense lives of elite distance runners; an inspiring, funny, and spot-on tale of one man's quest to become a champion.
©2009 John L Parker (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
iWoz
Summary
The mastermind behind Apple Computer sheds his low profile and steps forward to tell his story for the first time. Before cell phones that fit in the palm of your hand and slim laptops that fit snugly into briefcases, computers were like strange, alien vending machines. They had cryptic switches, punch cards, and pages of encoded output. But in 1975, a young engineering wizard named Steve Wozniak had an idea: what if you combined computer circuitry with a regular typewriter keyboard and a video screen? The result was the first true personal computer, the Apple I, a widely affordable machine that anyone could understand and figure out how to use. Wozniak's life before and after Apple is a "home-brew" mix of brilliant discovery and adventure, as an engineer, a concert promoter, a fifth-grade teacher, a philanthropist, and an irrepressible prankster. From the invention of the first personal computer to the rise of Apple as an industry giant, iWoz presents a no-holds-barred, rollicking, firsthand account of the humanist inventor who ignited the computer revolution.
©2006 Steve Wozniak (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.
The First Days of School
Summary
The bestselling book ever on classroom management and teaching for student achievement with over 3.7 million copies sold. The audiobook walks a teacher, either novice or veteran, through structuring and organizing a classroom for success that can be applied at any time of the year at any grade level, pre-K through college. The book is used in thousands of school districts, in over 120 countries, and in over 2,114 college classrooms, and has been translated into 5 languages. It's practical, yet inspiring. But most important, it works! This is the most requested book for what works in the classroom for teacher and student success.
©2009 Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Posted
Summary
From John David Anderson, author of the acclaimed Ms. Bixby's Last Day, comes a humorous, poignant, and original contemporary story about bullying, broken friendships, and the failures of communication between kids. In middle school, words aren't just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever. When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes - though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well. In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost's lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it's clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won't easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.
©2017 John David Anderson (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Boyd
Summary
John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest US fighter pilot ever - the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than 40 seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft - the F-15 and F-16. Still, others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story. Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world, and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. On a personal level, Boyd rarely met a general he couldn't offend. He was loud, abrasive, and profane. A man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes - a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune, but for his country.
©2002 Robert Coram (P)2016 Tantor
Me, Myself, and Us
Summary
In the past few decades, personality psychology has made considerable progress in raising new questions about human nature - and providing some provocative answers. New scientific research has transformed old ideas about personality based on the theories of Freud, Jung, and the humanistic psychologies of the 1690s, which gave rise to the simplistic categorizations of the Meyer-Briggs Inventory and the "enneagream." But the general public still knows little about the new science and what it reveals about who we are. In Me, Myself, and Us, Brian Little, Ph.D., one of the psychologists who helped re-shape the field, provides the first in-depth exploration of the new personality science and its provocative findings for general readers. The audiobook explores questions that are rooted in the origins of human consciousness but are as commonplace as yesterday's breakfast conversation. Are our first impressions of other people's personalities usually fallacious? Are creative individuals essentially maladjusted? Are our personality traits, as William James put it, "set like plaster" by the age of 30? Is a belief that we are in control of our lives an unmitigated good? Do our singular personalities comprise one unified self or a confederacy of selves, and if the latter, which of our mini-mes do we offer up in marriage or mergers? Are some individuals genetically hard-wired for happiness? Which is the more viable path toward human flourishing, the pursuit of happiness or the happiness of pursuit? Little provides a resource for answering such questions, and a framework through which readers can explore the personal implications of the new science of personality. Questionnaires and interactive assessments throughout the audiobook facilitate self-exploration, and clarify some of the stranger aspects of our own conduct and that of others. Brian Little helps us see ourselves, and other selves, as somewhat less perplexing and definitely more intriguing.
©2014 TRAQ Consulting Inc. (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Carly's Voice
Summary
At the age of two, Carly Fleischmann was diagnosed with severe autism and an oral motor condition that prevented her from speaking. Doctors predicted that she would never intellectually develop beyond the abilities of a small child. Although she made some progress after years of intensive behavioral and communication therapy, Carly remained largely unreachable. Then, at age 10, Carly had a breakthrough. While sitting in her kitchen with her devoted therapist, Howie, Carly reached over to the laptop and typed "MEAN", referring to Howie's efforts to get her to do her work for the day. She then went on to further explain her recalcitrant mood by typing "TEETH HURT", much to Howie's astonishment. This was the beginning of Carly's journey toward self-realization. Although Carly still struggles with all the symptoms of autism, which she describes with uncanny accuracy and detail, she now has regular, witty, and profound conversations on the computer with her family, her therapists, and the thousands of people who follow her via her blog and on Facebook and Twitter. A 2009 segment on 20/20 brought her story to national attention, and she has since appeared on television with Larry King, Ellen DeGeneres, and Holly Robinson Peete, all of whom have developed warm relationships with her. In Carly's Voice, her father, Arthur Fleischmann, blends Carly's own words with his story of getting to know his remarkable daughter. One of the first books to explore firsthand the challenges of living with autism, it brings listeners inside a once-secret world in the company of an inspiring young woman who has found her voice and her mission.
©2012 Arthur Fleischmann and Carly Fleischmann (P)2012 Tantor
Colonization: Second Contact
Summary
In the extraordinary World War tetralogy, set against the backdrop of World War II, Harry Turtledove, whom Publishers Weekly has called the "Hugo-winning master of alternate SF," wove an explosive saga of world powers locked in conflict against an enemy from the stars. Now he expands his magnificent epic into the volatile 1960s, when the space race is in its infancy and humanity must face its greatest challenge: alien colonization of planet Earth. Yet even in the shadow of this inexorable foe, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany are unable to relinquish their hostilities and unite against a massive new wave of extraterrestrials. For all the countries of the world, this is the greatest threat of all. This time, the terrible price of defeat will be the conquest of our world and perhaps the extinction of the human race itself.
©2009 Harry Turtledove (P)2010 Tantor
Three Cups of Tea
Summary
In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time: Greg Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban. Award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin has collaborated on this spellbinding account of Mortenson's incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are often feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself. At last count, his Central Asia Institute had built 55 schools. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world, one school at a time.
©2006 Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (P)2006 Tantor Media Inc
The Night Stalkers
Summary
Here are thrilling, never-before-heard stories of the Army's elite aviation unit - the most daring and professional helicopter crews in the world. Special Operations pilots are notoriously reticent; they don't talk about their missions, at least not to anyone outside their small community. But now, with the publication of The Night Stalkers, Durant and Steven Hartov shed a fascinating light on these mysterious super commandos and take readers into a world they have only imagined. From Iran to Grenada to Iraq, the 160th SOAR (A) has been at the point of the spear and in the thick of combat, delivering and supporting Delta operators, Rangers, and SEAL teams around the globe, in all weather, night or day. Simply put, they are the best of the best, and here for the first time are their hair-raising true stories of battle, capture, victory, and loss.
©2006 Michael J. Durant, Steven Hartov, and Robert L. Johnson (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.
Union Forever
Summary
Colonel Andrew Keane and his blue-coated soldiers were not the first humans time-space-warped to a world so familiar yet so foreign. Humans abounded on the perverse planet-humans treated like cattle by the alien warrior overlords. Keane's Civil War weaponry defeated the swords, spears and crossbows of his monstrous adversaries. And part of the human population was freed, but the other part became puppets of the overlords in a vast counterattack. Now it was human vs. human, gun vs. gun, ironclad against ironclad, as the empires of Roum and Cartha clashed in gut-wrenching, soul-stirring struggle for the future of a world beyond time.
©1991 William R. Forstchen (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Summary
The 24 stories that make up Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman generously express the incomparable Haruki Murakami’s mastery of the form. Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an ice man, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things for which we might wish. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit Murakami’s ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and entertaining.
©2006 Haruki Murakami (P)2013 Random House Audio
The Monkey's Raincoat
Summary
"Elvis Cole provides more fun for the reader than any L.A. private eye to come along in years."--Joseph Wambaugh WINNER OF THE ANTHONY AND MACAVITY AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL • NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AND SHAMUS AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL Meet Elvis Cole, L.A. private eye.... He quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He's a literate, wisecracking Vietnam vet who is determined never to grow up. Praise for The Monkey's Raincoat "Outstanding characters, tight plot, and scintillating prose style.... This fast-paced story speeds Elvis Cole to a chilling, heart-stopping ending."--Mystery Scene "Is Bob Crais good? Put it this way: if they're taking you out to put you against the firing squad wall, and you want to enjoy your last moments on earth, pass on the last cigarette and ask for an Elvis Cole novel."--Harlan Ellison "Far and away the most satisfying private eye novel in years. Grab this one - it's a winner!"--Lawrence Block "The best private eye novel of the year...lots of action; bright, crisp dialogue; and sharply drawn characters."--The Denver Post "Robert B. Parker has some competition on his hands.... Elvis Cole is an appealing character and Crais's style is fresh and funny.--Sue Grafton "In Crais, a new star has appeared on the private eye scene - a dazzling first novel.--Tony Hillerman
©2008 Robert Crais (P)2008 Brilliance Audio
Crazy Like Us
Summary
It is well known that American culture is a dominant force at home and abroad; our exportation of everything from movies to junk food is a well-documented phenomenon. But is it possible that America's most troubling impact on the globalizing world has yet to be accounted for? In Crazy Like Us, Ethan Watters reveals that the most devastating consequence of the spread of American culture has not been our golden arches or our bomb craters but our bulldozing of the human psyche itself: We are in the process of homogenizing the way the world goes mad. America has been the world leader in generating new mental health treatments and modern theories of the human psyche. We export our psychopharmaceuticals packaged with the certainty that our biomedical knowledge will relieve the suffering and stigma of mental illness. We categorize disorders, thereby defining mental illness and health, and then parade these seemingly scientific certainties in front of the world. The blowback from these efforts is just now coming to light: It turns out that we have not only been changing the way the world talks about and treats mental illness - we have been changing the mental illnesses themselves.
©2010 Ethan Watters (P)2016 Tantor
Dark Legend
Summary
He woke deep within the ground, and the first sensation he felt was hunger. An overwhelming hunger for blood that demanded satisfaction. But as he hunted the dark streets of Paris for prey, a voice called to him, soothing, calming, giving him the strength to control his craving. Francesca Del Ponce was a healer, a woman who radiated goodness as powerfully as the sun did light. But surely his obsession with her would turn him as his twin brother had turned, leaving the world with two monsters instead of one.
©2002 Christine Feehan (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers
Life in a Jar
Summary
During World War II, Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker, organized a rescue network of fellow social workers to save 2,500 Jewish children from certain death in the Warsaw ghetto. Incredibly, after the war her heroism, like that of many others, was suppressed by communist Poland and remained virtually unknown for 60 years. Unknown, that is, until three high school girls from an economically depressed, rural school district in southeast Kansas stumbled upon a tantalizing reference to Sendler's rescues, which they fashioned into a history project, a play they called Life in a Jar. Their innocent drama was first seen in Kansas, then the Midwest, then New York, Los Angeles, Montreal and finally Poland, where they elevated Irena Sendler to a national hero, championing her legacy of tolerance and respect for all people. Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project is a Holocaust history and more. It is the inspirational story of Protestant students from Kansas, each called in her own complex way to the history of a Catholic woman who knocked on Jewish doors in the Warsaw ghetto and, in Sendler's own words, "tried to talk the mothers out of their children".
©2011 Jack Mayer (P)2015 Tantor
Flesh
Summary
If we’re honest, no one really cares about theology unless it reveals a gut-level view of God’s presence. According to pastor and ministry leader Hugh Halter, only the incarnational power of Jesus satisfies what we truly crave, and once we taste it, we’re never the same. God understands how hard it is to be human, and the incarnation - God with us - enables us to be fully alive. With refreshing, raw candor, Flesh reveals the faith we all long to experience - one based on the power of Christ in the daily grind of work, home, school, and life. For anyone burned out, disenchanted, or seeking a fresh, honest-to-God encounter, Flesh will invigorate your faith.
©2014 eChristian (P)2014 eChristian
Roughneck Nine-One
Summary
On April 6, 2003, 26 Green Berets, including those of Sergeant First Class Frank Antenori's Special Forces A-Team (call sign Roughneck Nine One), fought a vastly superior force at a remote crossroads near the village of Debecka, Iraq. The enemy unit had battle tanks and 150 well-trained, well-equipped, and well-commanded soldiers. The Green Berets stopped the enemy advance, then fought them until only a handful of Iraqi survivors finally fled the battlefield. In the process, the Nine One encountered hordes of members of the news media. And at the peak of the fight, a US Navy F-14 dropped a 500-pound bomb into the middle of a group of supporting Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, killing and wounding dozens. Roughneck Nine One is the never-before-told, unsanitized story of the fight for the crossroads at Debecka, and a unique inside look at a Special Forces A-team as it recruits and organizes, trains for combat, and eventually fights a battle against a huge opposing force.
©2006 Frank Antenori and Hans Halberstadt (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.
Aftershocks
Summary
Set in the same universe as the Worldwar series, the Colonization series brings us to Earth in the 1960s, where four superpowers rule: the United States, Russia, Nazi Germany, and the aliens of the Race. The arrival of the aliens shot Earth technology forward at a dizzying rate---the world of 1960 includes routine space shuttle traffic, computers on every desk, and other high-tech advancements. Aftershocks reveals that it was the United States that launched the nuclear offensive against the aliens, and when the aliens learn the truth, Indianapolis disappears in nuclear fire. In alien-held China, a full-fledged rebellion is launched, and in Poland, a nuclear bomb goes missing - held by Jewish forces who seek to use it against the Nazis. The nations of Earth begin to realize that their only hope in holding back the aliens will be to work together. Because separately, they may face extinction.
©2009 Harry Turtledove (P)2010 Tantor