Paula Parker has narrated 7 audiobooks on Listento.it by 8 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 5 ratings. The most-rated is The Nurture Assumption.
The Nurture Assumption
Summary
What makes children turn out the way they do? Why is it that good parents don't always turn out good kids? Judith Rich Harris questions the assumption that nurture is the crucial factor. Using examples from folklore, literature, and scientific research, Harris puts forth the electrifying theory that children aren't socialized by their parents, they're socialized by other children. It is what happens outside the home, while kids are in the company of their peers, that matters most. The Nurture Assumption challenges everything we've been taught about rearing children and everything we believe about the emotional hangups of adults. It offers wise counsel on what parents can and cannot do, and relief from guilt for those who have tried their hardest but have somehow failed to produce a happy, confident, well-adjusted child.
©1998 Judith Rich Harris (P)1998 Audio Renaissance
Gourmet Rhapsody
Summary
In the heart of Paris, in the posh building made famous in The Elegance of Hedgehog, Pierre Athens, the greatest food critic in the world, is dying. Revered by some and reviled by many, Monsieur Arthens has been lording it over the world's most esteemed chefs for years, passing judgment on their creations, deciding their fates with a stroke of his pen, destroying and building reputations on a whim. But now, during these his final hours, his mind has turned to simpler things. He is desperately searching for that singular flavor, that sublime something once sampled, never forgotten, the Flavor par excellence. Indeed, this flamboyant and self-absorbed man desires only one thing before he dies: one last taste. Thus begins a charming voyage that traces the career of Monsieur Arthens from childhood to maturity across a celebration of all manner of culinary delights. Alternating with the voice of the supercilious Arthens is a chorus belonging to his acquaintances and familiars: relatives, lovers, a would-be protégé, even a cat. Each will have his or her say about M. Arthens, a man who has inspired only extreme emotions in people. Here, as in The Elegance of Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery's story celebrates life's simple pleasures and sublime moments while condemning the arrogance and vulgarity of power.
©2009 Muriel Barbery (P)2009 HighBridge Company
Cyberselfish
Summary
In Cyberselfish Borsook journeys through and rants about high tech culture, profiling the worlds of ravers, gilders, cypherpunks, anarcho-capitalists, and other Silicon Valley life forms, and exploring the theory and practice of technolibertarianism in all its manifestations. She visits the Bionomics Institute, a libertarian thinktank, to explore how its para/pseudo/crypto "biological" thinking pervades high tech discourse on technology, economics, and life. She journeys to the front lines of the "crypto wars" to explain why cryptography has been such an important issue to both the U.S. government and the high tech community. She deconstructs Wired, the magazine that defined an era, and shows how many high tech thought leaders have at least one foot in the philosophies and misogyny of days long gone by. She also investigates the perplexing dilemma of philanthropy in high tech, exposing how little of the billions generated in the new economy filters into our culture at large, and defining what she calls the "cat-dead-rat" phenomenon, whereby high tech give unto the world the thing it loves, not necessarily what the world wants or needs. Finally, she examines the factors that have led to technolibertarianism, and wonders aloud about the extent to which high tech's creativity and energy and money and contributions to our general welfare are undermined by its self-centered politically myopic worldview. Whether she is parsing Silicon Valley personal ads, hanging out with high tech gurus, attending conferences-cum-rallies or exposing the flaws in technolibertarian thinking, Borsook is full of original observations, mordant wit, and furious passion that readers wake up to the social and political consequences of having computer geeks run the world. Cyberselfish is sure to raise the hackles of high techies and to clarify what makes the rest of us so nervous about the brave new cyberworld.
Executive Producer: Laura WilsonProducer: Lisa CahnOriginal cover photograph by Geoff SpearOriginal cover design by John GallAuthor photograph by Leslie Kosoff©2000 by Paulina Borsook(p) 2001 Random House, Inc.
Sharing the Sheets
Summary
Regina has been craving attention from Mark, her common law husband of eight years. As far as she's concerned, he's a square, and she finds herself making excuses to stay out of the house and out of his sight. With no kids and feeling stuck with a man who has no intentions of marrying her in the eyes of God, she makes a decision that will only bring drama and confusion into her once predictable life. Regina's sudden cold shoulder toward Mark makes him wonder if his first and only love has changed her mind about spending the rest of their lives together. Although he's never felt the need to comply with society's standards and get a marriage certificate to prove he's committed, Mark disregards his beliefs and pops the question. Will he regret his decision? More importantly, since Regina has already found new pleasures to keep her content, is Mark's proposal too late?
©2015 Natalie Weber (P)2015 Recorded Books
Hood Misfits Volume 2
Summary
The Misfits are back and now they are international. Trigga, Diamond, and the crew are in London. Dame has been handled and everything should be perfect. But when a plan works too perfectly, there is bound to be some unfinished business. Secrets are exposed. Diamond has learned the game and now she must continue to embrace a life she was not meant to live while understanding the truths of her own past. Trigga thought he was going to be able to give his new family peace but when ghosts from the past appear in London, that peace starts to unravel the new gang. Can Trigga keep Diamond safe, and while doing so, can he really trust those who are around him if he doesn't really know them himself? E.N.G.A was once just a motto. Now it is a way of life. Travel through the streets of London, England, and meet some new misfits, as a battle royal begins and eventually takes them back to the streets of Atlanta for a final showdown.
©2015 Brick & Storm (P)2015 Recorded Books
A Short History of Women
Summary
The novel opens in England in 1915, at the deathbed of Dorothy Townsend, a suffragist and one of the first women to integrate Cambridge University. Her decision to starve herself for the cause informs and echoes in the later, overlapping narratives of her descendants. Among them are her daughter Evie, who becomes a professor of chemistry at Barnard College in the middle of the century and never marries, and her granddaughter Dorothy Townsend Barrett, who focuses her grief over the loss of her son by repeatedly defying the ban on photographing the bodies of dead soldiers returned to Dover Air Force base from Iraq. The contemporary chapters chronicle Dorothy Barrett's girls, both young professionals embarrassed by their mother's activism and baffled when she leaves their father after 50 years of marriage. Walbert deftly explores the ways in which successive generations of women have attempted to articulate what the 19th century called "the woman question". Her novel is a moving reflection on the tides of history, and how the lives of our great-grandmothers resonate in our own.
©2009 Kate Walbert (P)2010 HighBridge Company
145th Street: Short Stories
Summary
From the award-winning author of Monster, this collection of powerful and poignant stories about 145th Street - an unforgettable block in the heart of Harlem - celebrates African-American life in all of its glory. “Myers is a master.” (The New York Times Book Review) On Harlem’s 145th Street, things happen that don’t happen anywhere else in the world. Get to know Big Joe, who’s throwing his own funeral while he’s here to enjoy it, and everyone’s invited. Meet Kitty and Mack, teens with a love story more real than anything they’ve ever known. Follow Monkeyman, the quietest kid on the block and the last person you’d expect the Tigros gang to target. And don’t miss the block party of the year - the whole neighborhood will be there. From danger and despair to hilarity and joy, literary legend Walter Dean Myers captures every mood and every beat of life in this vibrant Harlem. Stories and and touching tributes from authors, artists, and literary legends reflecting on Myer’s legacy are narrated by: Brandon Gill, Almarie Guerra, Johnny Heller, Dominic Hoffman, Sullivan Jones, JaQwan J. Kelly, Adenrele Ojo, Paula Parker, Heather Alicia Simms, Bahni Turpin
©2001 Walter Dean Myers (P)2020 Listening Library