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.
More Awesome Than Money
Summary
Their idea was simple. Four NYU undergrads wanted to build a social network that would allow users to control their personal data instead of surrendering it to big businesses like Facebook. They called it Diaspora. In days they raised $200,000, and reporters, venture capitalists, and the digital community's most legendary figures were soon monitoring their progress. Max dreamed of being a CEO. Ilya was the idealist. Dan coded like a pro. And Rafi tried to keep them all on track. But as the months passed and the money ran out, the Diaspora Four fell victim to errors, bad decisions, and their own hubris. In November 2011, Ilya committed suicide. Diaspora has been tech news since day one, but the story reaches far beyond Silicon Valley to the now urgent issues about the future of the Internet. With the cooperation of the surviving partners, New York Times best-selling author Jim Dwyer tells a riveting story of four ambitious and naive young men who tried to rebottle the genie of personal privacy - and paid the ultimate price.
©2014 Jim Dwyer (P)2014 Tantor
Medieval Christianity
Summary
For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign - a miraculous, brutal, and irrational time of superstition and strange relics. The pursuit of heretics, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the domination of the "Holy Land" come to mind. Yet the medieval world produced much that is part of our world today, including universities, the passion for Roman architecture and the emergence of the Gothic style, pilgrimage, the emergence of capitalism, and female saints. This new narrative history of medieval Christianity combines what is familiar and unfamiliar to modern audiences. Elements of novelty in the book include a steady focus on the role of women in Christianity; the relationships among Christians, Jews, and Muslims; the experience of ordinary parishioners; the adventure of asceticism, devotion, and worship; and instruction through drama, architecture, and art. Kevin Madigan expertly integrates these areas of focus with more traditional themes, such as the evolution and decline of papal power, the nature and repression of heresy, sanctity and pilgrimage, the conciliar movement, and the break between the old Western church and its reformers.
©2015 Yale University (P)2015 Tantor
Tirpitz
Summary
Whilst the Kriegsmarine's surface fleet, restricted for much of the period after 1919 by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, was relatively small in comparison to the Royal Navy, it did possess a number of highly potent battleships and other capital vessels that could - and did - pose a major threat to British interests in the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean. Amongst the most powerful were the two battleships - the Bismarck and the Tirpitz. The awesome power of the former was demonstrated by its destruction of HMS Hood in May 1941, although it was itself to be sunk shortly afterward. For Royal Navy planners and tacticians, the close monitoring of the other German capital ships was a pressing need, particularly if the Germans were ever to pose a serious threat to the all-important convoys across the Atlantic and to Russia. Moreover considerable effort went into trying to neutralize the threat either by keeping the German warships penned into harbor or by sinking them.
©2009 Niklas Zetterling, Michael Tamelander and Norstedts Forlagsgrupp AB. Translation copyright 2009 Niklas Zetterling (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Secrets of the Secret Service
Summary
From the author of the number-one New York Times best seller Crisis of Character comes an explosive new exposé of the Secret Service. The United States Secret Service is tasked with protecting our presidents, their families, and the complex in which they live and work. Given this important mission, world stability rests upon the shoulders of its agents. In his new book, former Secret Service officer Gary Byrne takes listeners behind the scenes to understand the agency's history and today's security failings that he believes put Americans at risk. The American public knows the stories of Secret Service heroism, but they don't know about the hidden legacy of problems that have plagued the agency ever since its creation. Gary Byrne says that decades of catastrophic public failures, near misses, and bureaucratic and cultural rot threaten to erode this critical organization from the inside out. Today, as it works to protect President Trump, the Secret Service stands at a crossroads, and the time needed to choose the right course is running out. Agents and officers are leaving the Secret Service in droves, or they're being overworked to the point where they lose focus on the job. Management makes decisions based on politics, not the welfare of their employees. Byrne believes that this means danger for the men and women of the Secret Service, danger for the president they protect, and danger for the nation. In this book, he shares what he has witnessed and learned about the Secret Service with the hope that the problems of this most important agency can be fixed before it's too late.
©2018 Gary J. Byrne (P)2018 Hachette Audio
The Hall: A Celebration of Baseball's Greats
Summary
A deluxe baseball treasury unlike any other, complete with essays, photos, and player bios from The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Everyone dreams of Cooperstown. It's a hallowed name in baseball, for players as well as their fans. It's a house where legends live; it's everything that's great about the game. Never before has the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum published a complete registry of inductees with plaques, photographs, and extended biographies. In this unique, 75th anniversary edition, hear the stories of every player inducted into the Hall, organized by position. Each section begins with an original essay by a living Hall of Famer who played that position: Hank Aaron, George Brett, Orlando Cepeda, Carlton Fisk, Tommy Lasorda, Joe Morgan, Jim Rice, Cal Ripken Jr., Nolan Ryan, and Robin Yount.
©2014 The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (P)2014 Hachette Audio
Physics for Future Presidents
Summary
We live in complicated, dangerous times. They are also hyper-technical times. As citizens who will elect future presidents of the most powerful and influential world, we need to know - truly understand, not just rely on television's talking heads - if Iran's nascent nuclear capability is a genuine threat to the West, if biochemical weapons are likely to be developed by terrorists, if there are viable alternatives to fossil fuels that should be nurtured and supported by the government, if nuclear power should be encouraged, and if global warming is actually happening. Written in everyday, nontechnical language, Physics for Future Presidents explains the science behind the concerns that our nation faces in the immediate future. Even active readers of serious journalism will be surprised at the lessons contained herein. It is must-have information for all presidents - and citizens - of the 21st century.
©2006 Richard A. Muller (P)2011 Tantor
The Communist
Summary
In his memoir, Barack Obama omits the full name of his mentor, simply calling him "Frank." Now, the truth is out: Never has a figure as deeply troubling and controversial as Frank Marshall Davis had such an impact on the development of an American president. Although other radical influences on Obama - from Jeremiah Wright to Bill Ayers-have been scrutinized, the public knows little about Davis, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, cited by the Associated Press as an "important influence" on Obama, one whom he "looked to" not merely for "advice on living" but as a "father" figure. While the Left has willingly dismissed Davis (with good reason), here are the indisputable, eye-opening facts: Frank Marshall Davis was a pro-Soviet, pro–Red China communist. His Communist Party USA card number, revealed in FBI files, was CP number 47544. He was a prototype of the loyal Soviet patriot, so radical that the FBI placed him on the federal government's Security Index. In the early 1950s, Davis opposed U.S. attempts to slow Stalin and Mao. He favored Red Army takeovers of Central and Eastern Europe, and communist control in Korea and Vietnam. Dutifully serving the cause, he edited and wrote for communist newspapers in both Chicago and Honolulu, courting contributors who were Soviet agents. In the 1970s, amid this dangerous political theater, Frank Marshall Davis came into Barack Obama's life.Aided by access to explosive declassified FBI files, Soviet archives, and Davis's original newspaper columns, Paul Kengor explores how Obama sought out Davis and how Davis found in Obama an impressionable young man, one susceptible to Davis's worldview that opposed American policy and traditional values while praising communist regimes. Kengor sees remnants of this worldview in Obama's early life and even, ultimately, his presidency. Kengor charts with definitive accuracy the progression of Davis's communist ideas from Chicago to Hawaii. He explores how certain elements of the Obama administration's agenda reflect Davis's columns advocating wealth redistribution, government stimulus for "public works projects," taxpayer-funding of universal health care, and nationalizing General Motors. Davis's writings excoriated the "tentacles of big business," blasted Wall Street and "greedy" millionaires, lambasted GOP tax cuts that "spare the rich," attacked "excess profits" and oil companies, and perceived the Catholic Church as an obstacle to his vision for the state-all the while echoing Davis's often repeated mantra for transformational and fundamental "change."And yet, The Communist is not unsympathetic to Davis, revealing him as something of a victim, an African American who suffered devastating racial persecution in the Jim Crow era, steering this justly angered young man on a misguided political track. That Davis supported violent and heartless communist regimes over his own country is impossible to defend. That he was a source of inspiration to President Barack Obama is impossible to ignore. Is Obama working to fulfill the dreams of Frank Marshall Davis? That question has been impossible to answer, since Davis's writings and relationship with Obama have either been deliberately obscured or dismissed as irrelevant. With Kengor's The Communist, Americans can finally weigh the evidence and decide for themselves.
©2012 Paul Kengor (P)2012 Tantor
Train Tracks
Summary
A number-one New York Times best-selling author and superstar radio personality, Michael Savage is admired by millions for his tough talk and no-punches-pulled common sense about the state of our union and its leaders. In Train Tracks, a more personal side of Savage shines through in this marvelous collection of "American Stories for the Holidays". Like Glen Beck’s blockbuster, The Christmas Sweater, Michael Savage’s poignant, personal stories of home, family, and the holidays will resonate with listeners everywhere. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2012 Utopia Productions (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers
The Obesogen Effect
Summary
An eye-opening account of the landmark research into the hidden chemicals that are endangering our health and keeping us fat Being overweight is not just the result of too many cheeseburgers or not enough exercise. According to leading-edge science, there are silent saboteurs in our daily lives that contribute greatly to our obesity epidemic: obesogens. These weight-inducing offenders, most of which are chemicals, disrupt our hormonal systems, alter how we create and store fat, and change how we respond to dietary choices. Because they are largely unregulated, obesogens lurk all around us - in food, furniture, plastic products such as water bottles and food storage containers, and other surprising exposure points. Even worse: research has shown that the effects of some obesogens can be passed on to future generations by irreversibly interfering with the expression of our genes. The good news is we can protect ourselves by becoming more informed consumers. In The Obesogen Effect, Dr. Bruce Blumberg describes how obesogens work, reveals where they are found, and offers a practical three-step solution for reducing exposures. He explains why one size does not fit all in a weight loss program, what hides in our household goods, and how we should shop for items we buy every day - from vegetables and meats to canned soup as well as household cleaners, air fresheners, and personal care products. The Obesogen Effect is an urgent call to action to protect your body, clean up your life, and set a straight course for better health. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2018 Bruce Blumberg (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Lincoln's Body
Summary
Nineteenth-century African Americans felt deep affection for their "liberator" as a "homely" man who did not hold himself apart; Southerners felt a nostalgia for Abraham Lincoln as a humble "conciliator". Later, educators glorified Lincoln as a symbol of nationhood to help assimilate poor immigrants. Monument makers focused not only on a gigantic body but also on a nationalist "union", downplaying "emancipation". Among both Black and White liberals in the 1960s and 1970s, Lincoln was derided or fell out of fashion. Recently, Lincoln has been embodied once again (as idealist and pragmatist) by outstanding historians, by self-identified Lincolnian president Barack Obama, and by actor Daniel Day-Lewis - all keeping Lincoln alive in a body of memory that speaks volumes about our nation.
©2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Distress Investing
Summary
Financial innovation, new laws and regulations, and the financial meltdown of 2007-2008 are just a few of the forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, today's distress investment environment. Combine this with the fact that the discipline of distress investing doesn't always follow what conventional wisdom says, and you can see why it is one of the most challenging areas in finance. Nobody understands this better than Martin Whitman - the legendary founder of Third Avenue Management LLC and a pioneer in the field of distressed markets - and leading academic Dr. Fernando Diz of Syracuse University. That's why they decided to write Distress Investing. As an outgrowth of annual distress and value investing seminars the two have taught together at Syracuse University's Martin J. Whitman School of Management, this reliable resource will help you gain a better understanding of the essential principles and techniques associated with distress investing and show you how to effectively apply them in the real world. Divided into four comprehensive parts - the General Landscape of Distress Investing, Restructuring Troubled Issuers, the Investment Process, and Cases and Implications for Public Policy - this book comprehensively covers the practice of buy-and-hold investing in distressed credits, whether it be performing loans or the reinstated issues of a reorganized issuer. From the changes to US bankruptcy code and creditor rights to cash bailouts, you'll quickly learn how to analyze distressed situations such as pricing issues, arbitrage opportunities, tax disadvantages, and the reorganization of funding plans. Along the way, case studies of both large and small distress investing deals - from Kmart to Home Products International - will give you a better perspective of the business.
©2009 Martin J. Whitman and Fernando Diz (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Clark Howard's Living Large in Lean Times
Summary
Clark Howard is a media powerhouse and penny-pincher extraordinaire who knows a thing or two about money. A lifelong entrepreneur who is now the hugely popular host of a talk radio program and television show and the bestselling author of several books, Clark consistently delivers expert financial advice to his wide and devoted fan base. Living Large in Lean Times is Clark's ultimate guide to saving money, covering everything from cell phones to student loans, coupon websites to mortgages, investing to electric bills, and beyond. In his candid and friendly next-door-neighbor manner, Clark shares the small, manageable steps everyone can follow to build a path towards independence and wealth. Chock-full of more than 250 invaluable tips, the book outlines how to: Locate missing and unclaimed money in your name Lower your student loan payment Find legitimate work-at-home opportunities Get unlimited texting and e-mailing for less than $10 per month Know what personal info not to post to social media sites Determine the best mortgage rate, and much, much more As Clark demonstrates, there are myriad ways to reduce debt, buy smarter, and build a future. Follow his lead and he'll get you there.
©2011 Clark Howard, Mark Meltzer and Theo Thimou (P)2011 Tantor
A Man and His Ship
Summary
At the peak of his power, in the 1940s and 1950s, William Francis Gibbs was considered America's best naval architect. His quest to build the finest, fastest, most beautiful ocean liner of his time, the S.S. United States, was a topic of national fascination. When completed in 1952, the ship was hailed as a technological masterpiece at a time when "made in America" meant the best. Gibbs was an American original, on par with John Roebling of the Brooklyn Bridge and Frank Lloyd Wright of Fallingwater. Forced to drop out of Harvard following his family's sudden financial ruin, he overcame debilitating shyness and lack of formal training to become the visionary creator of some of the finest ships in history. He spent 40 years dreaming of the ship that became the S.S. United States. William Francis Gibbs was driven, relentless, and committed to excellence. He loved his ship, the idea of it, and the realization of it, and he devoted himself to making it the epitome of luxury travel during the triumphant post-World War II era. Biographer Steven Ujifusa brilliantly describes the way Gibbs worked and how his vision transformed an industry. A Man and His Ship is a tale of ingenuity and enterprise, of a truly remarkable journey on land and sea.
©2012 Steven Ujifusa (P)2012 Tantor
The Esperanza Fire
Summary
The Esperanza Fire started October 26, 2006, in the San Jacinto Mountains above the Banning Pass near Cabazon, California. It destroyed 41,000 acres and dozens of homes and cost the taxpayers $16 million dollars. But by far the highest costs of the conflagration were the lives of the five-man crew of Engine 57, the first engine crew ever killed fighting a wildland blaze. Fire and superheated gases had erupted in a freak "area ignition," sending flames racing across three-quarters of a mile in mere seconds, engulfing the crew and the house they were defending. The deadly blaze was quickly determined to be no accident. Within a week, serial arsonist Raymond Lee Oyler was arrested and charged with almost two dozen counts of arson - and five counts of first degree murder. The Esperanza Fire recounts with drama and precision the gripping details of the fire and of Oyler's precedent-shattering trial and its stunning conclusion. John Maclean spent more than five years researching the Esperanza Fire and covering the trial of Raymond Oyler. The result is a thrilling, moment-to-moment insider's chronicle of that devastating and tragic inferno and the pursuit, capture, and prosecution of the man who intentionally set it.
©2013 John N. Maclean. (P)2013 HighBridge Company
The Longest Road
Summary
September 1996 found Philip Caputo on Barter Island, a wind-scoured rock in the Beaufort Sea populated by two hundred Inupiat and a handful of whites. As he gazed upon an American flag above the only school for a 150 miles, he marveled that the children in that school pledged allegiance to the same flag as the children of Cuban immigrants on Key West, almost six thousand miles away. Awed by America’s vastness and diversity and filled with a renewed appreciation for its cohesiveness, an idea began to form. With enough time, gas money, and nerve he could drive from the southernmost point to the northernmost point of the United States that is reachable by road, talking to people as he went and trying to better understand what holds our great country together. Cicada-like, the idea went dormant, not to be reawakened for 14 years. In 2011, America was struggling through the greatest economic downturn since the Depression and was more divided than it had been in living memory. Caputo, who had just turned 70, his wife, and their two English setters took off in a truck hauling an Airstream camper from Key West, Florida, en route via back roads and state routes to Deadhorse, Alaska. The journey took four months and covered 17,000 miles, during which Caputo interviewed more than 80 Americans from all walks of life to get a picture of what their lives and the life of the nation are really about in the 21st century.
©2013 Philip Caputo. Recorded by arrangement with Henry Holt and Company, LLC. All rights reserved. (P)2013 HighBridge Company
The Age of Acquiescence
Summary
A groundbreaking investigation of how and why, from the 18th century to the present day, American resistance to our ruling elites has vanished. From the American Revolution through the Civil Rights movement, Americans have long mobilized against political, social, and economic privilege. Hierarchies based on inheritance, wealth, and political preferment were treated as obnoxious and a threat to democracy. Mass movements envisioned a new world supplanting dog-eat-dog capitalism. But over the last half-century that political will and cultural imagination have vanished. Why? The Age of Acquiescence seeks to solve that mystery. Steve Fraser's account of national transformation brilliantly examines the rise of American capitalism, the visionary attempts to protect the democratic commonwealth, and the great surrender to today's delusional fables of freedom and the politics of fear. Effervescent and razorsharp, The Age of Acquiescence will be one of the most provocative and talked-about books of the year.
©2015 Steve Fraser (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Clark Howard's Living Large for the Long Haul
Summary
Americans from all walks of life are still feeling the roller-coaster effects of the Great Recession. For many, home values are still too low and unemployment is still too high. Others have prospered despite the ups and downs. In Clark Howard’s Living Large for the Long Haul, the renowned broadcaster examines our new paradigm through the eyes of those whose financial portfolios have beaten the odds, and those whose economic situation has gone off course. Through these fascinating personal accounts, listeners uncover amazing opportunities and smart decisions, finding advantages in bleak times for lasting payoffs in the long run.
©2013 Clark Howard (P)2013 Tantor
Dark Invasion
Summary
Combining the pulsating drive of Showtime's Homeland with the fascinating historical detail of such of narrative nonfiction bestsellers as Double Cross and In the Garden of Beasts, Dark Invasion is Howard Blum’s gritty, high-energy true-life tale of German espionage and terror on American soil during World War I, and the NYPD Inspector who helped uncover the plot - the basis for the film to be produced by and starring Bradley Cooper. When a “neutral” United States becomes a trading partner for the Allies early in World War I, the Germans implement a secret plan to strike back. A team of saboteurs - including an expert on germ warfare, a Harvard professor, and a brilliant, debonair spymaster - devise a series of “mysterious accidents” using explosives and biological weapons, to bring down vital targets such as ships, factories, livestock, and even captains of industry like J. P. Morgan. New York Police Inspector Tom Tunney, head of the department’s Bomb Squad, is assigned the difficult mission of stopping them. Assembling a team of loyal operatives, the cunning Irish cop hunts for the conspirators among a population of more than eight million Germans. But the deeper he finds himself in this labyrinth of deception, the more Tunney realizes that the enemy’s plan is far more complex and more dangerous than he suspected.Full of drama and intensity, Dark Invasion is riveting war thriller that chillingly echoes our own time.
©2014 Howard Blum (P)2014 HarperCollinsPublishers
Amazon Unbound
Summary
From the best-selling author of The Everything Store, an unvarnished picture of Amazon’s unprecedented growth and its billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, revealing the most important business story of our time. Almost 10 years ago, Bloomberg journalist Brad Stone captured the rise of Amazon, an internet pioneer quietly changing the way we shop online, in his bestseller The Everything Store. But ever since, Amazon has expanded exponentially, inventing novel products like Alexa and disrupting countless industries, while its workforce has quintupled in size and its valuation has soared to well over a trillion dollars. Jeff Bezos’s empire, once housed in a garage, now spans the globe. Between services like Whole Foods, Prime Video, and Amazon’s cloud computing unit, AWS, plus Bezos’s ownership of The Washington Post, it’s impossible to go a day without encountering its impact. We live in a world run, supplied, and controlled by Amazon and its iconoclast founder. In Amazon Unbound, Brad Stone presents a deeply reported, vividly drawn portrait of how a retail upstart became one of the most powerful and feared entities in the global economy. With unprecedented access to current and former executives, employees, regulators, and critics, Stone shows how seismic changes inside the company over the past decade led to dramatic innovations, as well as to missteps that turned public sentiment against its sharp-elbowed business practices and gameshow treatment of its search for a second headquarters. Stone also probes the evolution of Bezos himself - who started as a geeky technologist totally devoted to building Amazon, but who transformed to become a fit, disciplined billionaire with global ambitions; who ruled Amazon with an iron fist, even as he found his personal life splashed over the tabloids. As his empire expands, the book investigates how Bezos gradually pulled away from day-to-day activities at Amazon to focus on his many interests outside of it, announcing his momentous transition from CEO to executive chairman. Definitive, timely, and revelatory, Stone has provided an unvarnished portrait of a man and company that we couldn’t imagine modern life without.
©2021 Brad Stone (P)2021 Simon & Schuster Audio
Cyber War
Summary
Author of the number one New York Times best seller Against All Enemies, former presidential advisor and counter-terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke sounds a timely and chilling warning about America's vulnerability in a terrifying new international conflict -cyber war! Every concerned American should listen to this startling and explosive book that offers an insider's view of White House situation room operations and carries the listener to the frontlines of our cyber defense. Cyber War exposes a virulent threat to our nation's security. This is no X-Files fantasy or conspiracy theory madness - this is real.
©2010 Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake (P)2020 Tantor