Pete Larkin has narrated 46 audiobooks on Listento.it by 60 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 922 ratings. The most-rated is The Everything Store.
The Everything Store
Summary
Audie Award Finalist, Business/Educational, 2014 The definitive story of Amazon.com, one of the most successful companies in the world, and of its driven, brilliant founder, Jeff Bezos. Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To do so, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy that's never been cracked. Until now. Brad Stone enjoyed unprecedented access to current and former Amazon employees and Bezos family members, giving listeners the first in-depth, fly-on-the-wall account of life at Amazon. Compared to tech's other elite innovators - Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg - Bezos is a private man. But he stands out for his restless pursuit of new markets, leading Amazon into risky new ventures like the Kindle and cloud computing, and transforming retail in the same way Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing. The Everything Store will be the revealing, definitive biography of the company that placed one of the first and largest bets on the Internet and forever changed the way we shop and read.
©2013 Brad Stone (P)2013 Hachette Audio
Skunk Works
Summary
From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies. Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds. Here are up-close portraits of the maverick band of scientists and engineers who made the Skunk Works so renowned. Filled with telling personal anecdotes and high adventure, with narratives from the CIA and from air force pilots who flew the many classified, risky missions, this book is a riveting portrait of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the 20th century. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2013 Ben R. Rich (P)2015 Hachette Audio
American Icon
Summary
At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was just months away from running out of cash. With the auto industry careening toward ruin, Congress offered all three Detroit automakers a bailout. General Motors and Chrysler grabbed the taxpayer lifeline, but Ford decided to save itself. Under the leadership of charismatic CEO Alan Mulally, Ford had already put together a bold plan to unify its divided global operations, transform its lackluster product lineup, and overcome a dysfunctional culture of infighting, backstabbing, and excuses. It was an extraordinary risk, but it was the only way the Ford family - America's last great industrial dynasty - could hold on to their company. Mulally and his team pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in business history. As the rest of Detroit collapsed, Ford went from the brink of bankruptcy to being the most profitable automaker in the world. American Icon is the compelling, behind-the-scenes account of that epic turnaround. On the verge of collapse, Ford went outside the auto industry and recruited Mulally - the man who had already saved Boeing from the deathblow of 9/11 - to lead a sweeping restructuring of a company that had been unable to overcome decades of mismanagement and denial. Mulally applied the principles he developed at Boeing to streamline Ford's inefficient operations, force its fractious executives to work together as a team, and spark a product renaissance in Dearborn. He also convinced the United Auto Workers to join his fight for the soul of American manufacturing. Bryce Hoffman reveals the untold story of the covert meetings with UAW leaders that led to a game-changing contract, Bill Ford's battle to hold the Ford family together when many were ready to cash in their stock and write off the company, and the secret alliance with Toyota and Honda that helped prop up the American automotive supply base. In one of the great management narratives of our time, Hoffman puts the reader inside the boardroom as Mulally uses his celebrated Business Plan Review meetings to drive change and force Ford to deal with the painful realities of the American auto industry. Hoffman was granted unprecedented access to Ford's top executives and top-secret company documents. He spent countless hours with Alan Mulally, Bill Ford, the Ford family, former executives, labor leaders, and company directors. In the best-selling tradition of Too Big to Fail and The Big Short, American Icon is narrative nonfiction at its vivid and colorful best.
©2012 Bryce G. Hoffman (P)2012 Tantor
See You in the Cosmos
Summary
A space-obsessed boy and his dog, Carl Sagan, take a journey toward family, love, hope, and awe in this funny and moving novel for fans of Counting by 7s and Walk Two Moons. Eleven-year-old Alex Petroski loves space and rockets, his mom, his brother, and his dog, Carl Sagan - named for his hero, the real-life astronomer. All he wants is to launch his golden iPod into space the way Carl Sagan (the man, not the dog) launched his Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. From Colorado to New Mexico, Las Vegas to LA, Alex records a journey on his iPod to show other lifeforms what life on Earth, his Earth, is like. But his destination keeps changing. And the funny, lost, remarkable people he meets along the way can only partially prepare him for the secrets he'll uncover - from the truth about his long-dead dad to the fact that, for a kid with a troubled mom and a mostly not-around brother, he has way more family than he ever knew. For fans of Wonder and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Jack Cheng's debut is full of joy, optimism, determination, and unbelievable heart. To listen to the first few minutes is to fall in love with Alex and his view of our big, beautiful, complicated world. To listen to the end is to know he and his story will stay with you a long, long time. Read by Kivlighan de Montebello and a full cast, including Brittany Pressley (as Terra), Graham Halstead (as Steve), Michael Crouch (as Ronnie), and Jason Culp (as Zed). Additional narration provided by Therese Plummer, Susan Bennett, Dan Bittner, Pete Larkin, and Courtney Shaw. 2018 Audie Award Winner: Middle Grade Audible Best Kids Audiobook of 2017 - Finalist 2017 Booklist Editors' Choice: Audios for Youth 2018 ALSC Notable Children’s Recording 2018 YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults "The premise of the book - a story told through audio recordings - is a natural fit for an audiobook, and the narrators hit it out of the park." (Booklist, starred review) "Kivlighan de Montebello's engaging young voice embodies 11-year-old Alex Petroski...an altogether captivating listening experience." (AudioFile Earphones Award)
©2017 Jack Cheng (P)2017 Listening Library
Quiet Leadership
Summary
Improving the performance of your employees involves one of the hardest challenges in the known universe: changing the way they think. In constant demand as a coach, speaker, and consultant to companies around the world, David Rock has proven that the secret to leading people (and living and working with them) is found in the space between their ears. "If people are being paid to think," he writes, "isn't it time the business world found out what the thing doing the work, the brain, is all about?" Supported by the latest groundbreaking research, Quiet Leadership provides a brain-based approach that will help busy leaders, executives, and managers improve their own and their colleagues' performance. Rock offers a practical, six-step guide to making permanent workplace performance change by unleashing higher productivity, new levels of morale, and greater job satisfaction. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2006 David Rock (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers
The Fleet at Flood Tide
Summary
The extraordinary story of the World War II air, land, and sea campaign that brought the US Navy to the apex of its strength and marked the rise of the United States as a global superpower. One of America's preeminent military historians, James D. Hornfischer has written his most expansive and ambitious book to date. Drawing on new primary sources and personal accounts of Americans and Japanese alike, here is a thrilling narrative of the climactic end stage of the Pacific War, focusing on the US invasion of the Mariana Islands in June 1944 and the momentous events that it triggered. With its thunderous assault into Japan's inner defensive perimeter, America crossed the threshold of total war. From the seaborne invasion of Saipan to the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, to the largest banzai attack of the war and the strategic bombing effort that led to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marianas became the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender - with consequences that forever changed modern war. These unprecedented operations saw the first large-scale use of Navy underwater demolition teams; a revolution in the fleet's ability to sustain cross-hemispheric expeditionary warfare; the struggle of American troops facing not only a suicidal enemy garrison but desperate Japanese civilians; and the rise of the US Navy as the greatest of grand fleets. From the Marianas, B-29 Superfortresses would finally unleash nuclear fire on an enemy resolved to fight to the end. Hornfischer casts this clash of nations and cultures with cinematic scope and penetrating insight, focusing closely on the people who rose to the challenge under fire: Raymond Spruance, the brilliant, coolly calculating commander of the Fifth Fleet; Kelly Turner, whose amphibious forces delivered Marine General Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith's troops to the beaches of Saipan and Tinian; Draper Kauffman, founder of the navy unit that predated today's SEALs; Paul Tibbets, the creator of history's first atomic striking force, who flew the Enola Gay to Hiroshima; and Japanese warriors and civilians who saw the specter of defeat as the ultimate test of the spirit. From the seas of the Central Pacific to the shores of Japan itself, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a stirring and deeply humane account of World War II's world-changing finale.
©2016 James D. Hornfischer (P)2016 Random House Audio
Basketball
Summary
A sweeping and revelatory history of basketball, drawing upon hundreds of hours of interviews with the greatest players, coaches, executives, and journalists in the history of the game. In an effort to tell the complete story of basketball in all its fascinating dimensions, acclaimed authors Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, and Dan Klores have compiled nearly a thousand hours' worth of interviews with a staggering number of basketball greats. They've talked to hundreds of legendary players, such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Magic Johnson, and spoken with renowned coaches, including Phil Jackson and Coach K, as well as numerous executives, commissioners, and journalists. Most impressive was the extraordinary quality of the interviews. Again and again, players spoke candidly about secrets and told stories they'd never before discussed on the record. The audiobook that grew out of those interviews is an extraordinary project and quite possibly the most ambitious basketball work ever made. At once a definitive oral history and something far more literary and intimate, this is the never-before-told story of how basketball came to be and about what it means to those who've given their lives to the game. Read by James Fouhey, Jim Frangione, Sullivan Jones, Pete Larkin, January LaVoy, and Carol Monda.
©2018 Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, and Dan Klores (P)2018 Random House Audio
Who's in Charge?
Summary
The father of cognitive neuroscience and author of Human offers a provocative argument against the common belief that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes and we are therefore not responsible for our actions. A powerful orthodoxy in the study of the brain has taken hold in recent years: Since physical laws govern the physical world and our own brains are part of that world, physical laws therefore govern our behavior and even our conscious selves. Free will is meaningless, goes the mantra; we live in a “determined” world. Not so, argues the renowned neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga in this thoughtful, provocative book based on his Gifford Lectures - one of the foremost lecture series in the world dealing with religion, science, and philosophy. Who's in Charge? proposes that the mind, which is somehow generated by the physical processes of the brain, “constrains” the brain just as cars are constrained by the traffic they create. Writing with what Steven Pinker has called “his trademark wit and lack of pretension”, Gazzaniga shows how determinism immeasurably weakens our views of human responsibility; it allows a murderer to argue, in effect, “It wasn’t me who did it - it was my brain.” Gazzaniga convincingly argues that even given the latest insights into the physical mechanisms of the mind, there is an undeniable human reality: We are responsible agents who should be held accountable for our actions, because responsibility is found in how people interact, not in brains. An extraordinary book that ranges across neuroscience, psychology, ethics, and the law with a light touch but profound implications, Who’s in Charge? is a lasting contribution from one of the leading thinkers of our time.
©2011 Michael S. Gazzaniga (P)2011 Tantor
The Russian Revolution
Summary
A “powerful revisionist history” (Times UK) of the Russian Revolution, by an award-winning scholar... Between 1917 and 1922, Russia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation. Taking advantage of the collapse of the czarist regime, the Bolsheviks staged a hostile takeover of the Imperial Russian Army, promoting mutinies and mass desertions in order to fulfill Lenin’s program of turning the “imperialist war” into a civil war. Five years later, over 20 million people had died and the Russian economy had collapsed. In The Russian Revolution, acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin traces the events that ended Romanov rule, ushered the Bolsheviks into power, and introduced Communism to the world. Drawing on scores of previously untapped archival materials, McMeekin combines cutting-edge scholarship and a fast-paced narrative to shed new light on one of the most significant turning points of the 20th century. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Sean McMeekin (P)2017 Hachette Audio
Leadership and Training for the Fight
Summary
Tested and effective leadership and teaching advice based on riveting combat stories from a Special Operations veteran. In Leadership and Training for the Fight, MSG Paul R. Howe, U.S. Army Retired, shares ideas on leadership that he has developed through extensive combat experience. Howe tells riveting stories of military operations and analyzes leadership concepts. He also gives advice on how to understand students and how to refine your teaching methods. Written with the unique insight of a Special Operations soldier, this book is the perfect guide for anyone interested in improving leadership skills in civilian or military situations.
©2011 Paul R. Howe (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
The Quarterback Whisperer
Summary
What is an elite NFL QB, and what separates that player from the others? One answer is the coach they share. In the recent history of the biggest game on earth, one man is the common thread that connects several of the very best in the sport: Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, and the resurgent Carson Palmer. That coach is Bruce Arians. A larger than life visionary who trained under the tutelage of Bear Bryant, Arians has had a major impact on the development and success of each of these players. For proof beyond the stats, go to the sources. Known around the game as the "quarterback whisperer", Arians has an uncanny ability both to personally connect with his quarterbacks and to locate what the individual triggers are for that player to succeed. No two quarterbacks are the same. And yet with Arians, they always share success. In this book Arians will explain how he does it. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Bruce Arians (P)2017 Hachette Audio
The Sibling Effect
Summary
Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters - not parents, not children, not friends. From the time we - and they - are born, our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away. Our siblings are the only people we know who truly qualify as partners for life. In this groundbreaking book, renowned science writer Jeffrey Kluger explores the complex world of siblings in a way that's equal parts science, psychology, sociology, and memoir. Based heavily on new and emerging research, The Sibling Effect examines birth order, ongoing twin studies, genetic encoding of behavioral traits, how emotional disorders can affect - and be affected by - sibling relationships, and much more. With his signature insight and humor, Kluger takes big ideas about siblings and turns them into smart, accessible writing that will help anyone understand the importance of siblings in our lives.
©2011 Jeffrey Kluger (P)2011 Tantor
When Buyers Say No
Summary
This is a complete and practical guide which highlights the authors' new strategic approaches to selling when the buyer initially declines or is resistant on a sales opportunity. Hopkins and Katt explain that most sales reps take a traditional linear approach to selling, but that the trick in closing is in taking a more creative and circular approach. That's the key. It all starts with how the buyer initially says, "No." Too many sales reps don't pay close attention as to how that's presented. Hopkins and Katt point out that "no" may suggest all sorts of other options - avenues that can eventually lead to the buyer actually saying yes. The authors introduce a novel concept called the Circle of Persuasion which offers sales reps a new approach in this potentially tricky process. Along the way, When Buyers Say No details prescriptive steps and even sample dialogues that will instruct and guide sales professionals on how to best cultivate buyer-seller relationships. There's particular emphasis on how to establish the kind of rapport that ultimately leads to a successful close.
©2014 Tom Hopkins, Ben Katt (P)2014 Hachette Audio
The China Mirage
Summary
From the best-selling author of Flags of Our Fathers, Flyboys, and The Imperial Cruise, a spellbinding history of turbulent US-China relations from the nineteenth century to World War II and Mao's ascent. In each of his books, James Bradley has exposed the hidden truths behind America's engagement in Asia. Now comes his most engrossing work yet. Beginning in the 1850s, Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans who made their fortunes in the China opium trade. As they - good Christians all - profitably addicted millions, American missionaries arrived, promising salvation for those who adopted Western ways. And that was just the beginning. From drug dealer Warren Delano to his grandson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt; from the port of Hong Kong to the towers of Princeton University; from the era of Appomattox to the age of the A-Bomb, The China Mirage explores a difficult century that defines US-Chinese relations to this day.
©2015 James Bradley (P)2015 Hachette Audio
JFK and the Unspeakable
Summary
At the height of the Cold War, JFK risked committing the greatest crime in human history: starting a nuclear war. Horrified by the specter of nuclear annihilation, Kennedy gradually turned away from his long-held Cold Warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But to the military and intelligence agencies in the United States, who were committed to winning the Cold War at any cost, Kennedy's change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence. Once these dark "Unspeakable" forces recognized that Kennedy's interests were in direct opposition to their own, they tagged him as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent cover-up. Douglass takes listeners into the Oval Office during the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, along on the strange journey of Lee Harvey Oswald and his shadowy handlers, and to the winding road in Dallas where an ambush awaited the president's motorcade. As Douglass convincingly documents, at every step along the way, these forces of the Unspeakable were present, moving people like pawns on a chessboard to promote a dangerous and deadly agenda.
©2008 James W. Douglass (P)2011 Tantor
The Last Campaign
Summary
With new research and previously unavailable interviews, The Last Campaign provides an intimate and absorbing historical narrative that goes right to the heart of America's deepest despairs - and most fiercely held dreams - and tells us more than we had understood before about this complicated man and the heightened dramas of his times. After John F. Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy - formerly Jack's no-holds-barred political warrior - almost lost hope. He was haunted by his brother's murder, and by the nation's seeming inabilities to solve its problems of race, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. Bobby sensed the country's pain, and when he announced that he was running for president, the country united behind his hopes. Over the action-packed 82 days of his campaign, Americans were inspired by Kennedy's promise to lead them toward a better time. And after an assassin's bullet stopped this last great stirring public figure of the 1960s, crowds lined up along the country's railroad tracks to say goodbye to Bobby. Clarke's The Last Campaign is the definitive account of Robert Kennedy's exhilarating and tragic 1968 campaign for president - and a revelatory history that is especially resonant now.
©2008 Thurston Clarke (P)2008 HighBridge Company
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
Energy for Future Presidents
Summary
The near-meltdown of Fukushima, the upheavals in the Middle East, the BP oil rig explosion, and the looming reality of global warming have reminded the president and all U.S. citizens that nothing has more impact on our lives than the supply of and demand for energy. Its procurement dominates our economy and foreign policy more than any other factor. But the "energy question" is more confusing, contentious, and complicated than ever before. We need to know if nuclear power will ever really be safe. We need to know if solar and wind power will ever really be viable. And we desperately need to know if the natural gas deposits in Pennsylvania are a windfall of historic proportions or a false hope that will create more problems than solutions. Richard A. Muller provides all the answers in this must-listen guide to our energy priorities now and in the coming years.
©2012 Richard A. Muller (P)2012 Tantor
Elway
Summary
The unauthorized biography of John Elway, Hall of Fame quarterback, two-time Super Bowl champion, now president of football operations and general manager of the Denver Broncos. John Elway's historic moments are known by two-word phrases. He was at the center of the wildest play in college football history, simply known as "The Play". Before he signed a pro contract, there was "The Trade". His NFL career included "The Drive" and "The Fumble", and, of course, "The Helicopter", one of the most iconic highlights in Super Bowl lore. There are so many memorable comeback victories and heroic plays that people have to make lists rather than consider Elway in the context of any singular event. Yet Elway's story is filled with one challenge after another. At Stanford, he never played in a bowl game. He was ripped for being petulant after refusing to sign with the Baltimore Colts when he was drafted number one overall and later for his failure to get along with Coach Dan Reeves. Over the first 10 years of his career, Elway led Denver to three Super Bowls, but lost in progressively worse fashion each time. Finally, after 15 years of perseverance, Elway led the Broncos to back-to-back championships, including one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history. Elway won the MVP award in his final Super Bowl and then walked away from the game. Within four years, Elway's father and twin sister both died, and he went through a difficult divorce. Reeling in his post-retirement, he returned to football...at the bottom, running the Colorado Crush of the Arena Football League. He waited more than a decade to return to his beloved Broncos. While many people doubted him initially, Elway navigated the Broncos through massive changes and to victory in Super Bowl 50, making Elway the rare Hall of Famer to win a title both on and off the field. Elway has put his passion for competition on display in a way that only a handful of other NFL greats have ever done, and Elway is the most complete look at one of the most accomplished legends in the history of American sports.
©2020 Jason Cole (P)2020 Hachette Books
Black Mask 3: The Maltese Falcon - and Other Crime Fiction from the Legendary Magazine
Summary
From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by "the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine" (Booklist). Never before in audio, these vintage stories are the darkest of the dark, and the best of the best. Crime fiction fans old and new will delight in rediscovering these taut, character-rich, heart-stopping tales, now on audio for the first time. Includes: “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett; read by Jeff Gurner “Cry Silence” by Frederic Brown; read by Oliver Wyman “Waiting for Rusty” by William Cole; read by Pete Larkin
©2010 Otto Penzler. Introduction © 2010 Keith Alan Deutsch. (P)2011 2011 HighBridge Company