Ron Butler has narrated 146 audiobooks on Listento.it by 132 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 3,035 ratings. The most-rated is Kingdom of Ash.
Black Fortunes
Summary
The astonishing untold history of America's first Black millionaires - former slaves who endured incredible challenges to amass and maintain their wealth for a century, from the Jacksonian period to the Roaring '20s - self-made entrepreneurs whose unknown success mirrored that of American business heroes such as Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and Thomas Edison. While Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Michael Jordan, and Will Smith are among the estimated 35,000 Black millionaires in the nation today, these famous celebrities were not the first Blacks to reach the storied 1 percent. Between the years of 1830 and 1927, as the last generation of Blacks born into slavery were reaching maturity, a small group of smart, tenacious, and daring men and women broke new ground to attain the highest levels of financial success. Black Fortunes is an intriguing look at these remarkable individuals, including Napoleon Bonaparte Drew - author Shomari Wills' great-great-great-grandfather - the first Black man in Powhatan County (contemporary Richmond) to own property in post-Civil War Virginia. His achievements were matched by five other unknown Black entrepreneurs including: Mary Ellen Pleasant, who used her Gold Rush wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown Robert Reed Church, who became the largest landowner in Tennessee Hannah Elias, the mistress of a New York City millionaire, who used the land her lover gave her to build an empire in Harlem Orphan and self-taught chemist Annie Turnbo-Malone, who developed the first national brand of hair care products Madam C. J Walker, Turnbo-Malone's employee who would earn the nickname America's "first female Black millionaire" Mississippi school teacher O. W. Gurley, who developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a "town" for wealthy Black professionals and craftsmen that would become known as "the Black Wall Street" A fresh, little-known chapter in the nation's story - a blend of Hidden Figures, Titan, and The Tycoons - Black Fortunes illuminates the birth of the Black business titan and the emergence of the Black marketplace in America as never before. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2018 Shomari Wills (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions
Summary
His journey is meticulously documented through detailed accounts of his time secluded behind the doors of the recording studio as well as his days on tour. With unprecedented access to the musicians, singers, and studio engineers who knew Prince best, including members of the Revolution and the Time, Duane Tudahl weaves an intimate saga of an eccentric genius and the people and events who helped shape the groundbreaking music he created. From Sunset Sound Studios' daily recording logs and the Warner Bros. vault of information, Tudahl uncovers hidden truths about the origins of songs such as "Purple Rain", "When Doves Cry", and "Raspberry Beret" and also reveals details about Prince's unreleased outtakes. This definitive chronicle of Prince's creative brilliance during 1983 and 1984 provides a new experience of the Purple Rain album as an integral part of Prince's life and the lives of those closest to him.
©2018 Duane Tudahl (P)2018 Tantor
They Can't Kill Us All
Summary
One of the Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2016 - Publishers Weekly One of the Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2016 - Elle 11 Fall Books We Can't Wait to Read - Seattle Times A Best Book of Fall 2016 - Boston Globe One of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's 20 Books to Watch, fall 2016 A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it. Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today. In an effort to grasp the magnitude of the response to Michael Brown's death and understand the scale of the problem police violence represents, Lowery speaks to Brown's family and the families of other victims as well as local activists. By posing the question "what does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?", Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure, and too few jobs. Studded with moments of joy and tragedy, They Can't Kill Us All offers a historically informed look at the standoff between the police and those they are sworn to protect, showing that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in the broader struggle for justice. As Lowery brings vividly to life, the protests against police killings are also about the black community's long history of being on the receiving end of perceived and actual acts of injustice and discrimination. They Can't Kill Us All grapples with a persistent if also largely unexamined aspect of the otherwise transformative presidency of Barack Obama: the failure to deliver tangible security and opportunity to those Americans most in need of both.
©2016 Wesley Lowery (P)2016 Hachette Audio
Why We Drive
Summary
From "one of the most influential thinkers of our time" (Sunday Times), a brilliant and defiant celebration of driving as a unique pathway of human freedom, one now critically threatened by automation. "A thoughtful, entertaining, and substantive work about the joys of driving." (Wall Street Journal) "Why We Drive weaves philosophers, thinkers, and scientific research with shade-tree mechanics and racers to defend our right to independence, making the case that freedom of motion is essential to who we are as a species.... We hope you'll read it." (Road & Track) Once we were drivers, the open road alive with autonomy, adventure, danger, trust, and speed. Today we are as likely to be in the back seat of an Uber as behind the wheel ourselves. Tech giants are hurling us toward a shiny, happy "self-driving" future, selling utopia but equally keen to advertise to a captive audience strapped into another expensive device. Are we destined, then, to become passengers, not drivers? Why We Drive reveals that much more may be at stake than we might think. Ten years ago, in the New York Times best-selling Shop Class as Soulcraft, philosopher-mechanic Matthew B. Crawford - a University of Chicago PhD who owned his own motorcycle shop - made a revolutionary case for manual labor, one that ran headlong against the pretentions of white-collar office work. Now, using driving as a window through which to view the broader changes wrought by technology on all aspects of contemporary life, Crawford investigates the driver's seat as one of the few remaining domains of skill, exploration, play - and freedom. Blending philosophy and hands-on storytelling, Crawford grounds the narrative in his own experience in the garage and behind the wheel, recounting his decade-long restoration of a vintage Volkswagen as well as his journeys to thriving automotive subcultures across the country. Crawford leads us on an irreverent but deeply considered inquiry into the power of faceless bureaucracies, the importance of questioning mindless rules, and the battle for democratic self-determination against the surveillance capitalists. A meditation on the competence of ordinary people, Why We Drive explores the genius of our everyday practices on the road, the rewards of "folk engineering", and the existential value of occasionally being scared shitless. Witty and ingenious throughout, Why We Drive is a rebellious and daring celebration of the irrepressible human spirit.
©2020 Matthew B. Crawford (P)2020 HarperAudio
Mr. Loverman
Summary
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is 74 and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney, London, for years. A flamboyant character with a fondness for William Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father, grandfather - and also secretly gay. His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away? With an abundance of laugh-out-loud humor and wit, Mr. Loverman explodes cultural myths and shows the extent of what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves.
©2014 Bernardine Evaristo (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
That's Not What Happened
Summary
It’s been three years since the Virgil County High School Massacre. Three years since my best friend, Sarah, was killed in a bathroom stall during the mass shooting. Everyone knows Sarah’s story - that she died proclaiming her faith. But it’s not true. I know because I was with her when she died. I didn’t say anything then, and people got hurt because of it. Now Sarah’s parents are publishing a book about her, so this might be my last chance to set the record straight...but I’m not the only survivor with a story to tell about what did - and didn’t - happen that day. Except Sarah’s martyrdom is important to a lot of people, people who don’t take kindly to what I’m trying to do. And the more I learn, the less certain I am about what’s right. I don’t know what will be worse: the guilt of staying silent or the consequences of speaking up....
©2018 Kody Keplinger (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Impostors
Summary
The National Best Seller The award-winning producer of The Rachel Maddow Show exposes the Republican Party as a gang of impostors, meticulously documenting how they have abandoned their duty to govern and are gravely endangering America For decades, American voters innocently assumed the two major political parties were equally mature and responsible governing entities, ideological differences aside. That belief is due for an overhaul: In recent years, the Republican Party has undergone an astonishing metamorphosis, one so baffling and complete that few have fully reckoned with the reality and its consequences. Republicans, simply put, have quit governing. As MSNBC's Steve Benen charts in his groundbreaking new book, the contemporary GOP has become a "post-policy party". Republicans are effectively impostors, presenting themselves as officials who are ready to take seriously the substance of problem solving, but whose sole focus is the pursuit and maintenance of power. Astonishingly, they are winning - at the cost of pushing the political system to the breaking point. Despite having billed itself as the "party of ideas", the Republican Party has walked away from the hard but necessary work of policymaking. It is disdainful of expertise and hostile toward evidence and arithmetic. It is tethered to few, if any, meaningful policy preferences. It does not know, and does not care, about how competing proposals should be crafted, scrutinized, or implemented. This policy nihilism dominated the party's posture throughout Barack Obama's presidency, which in turn opened the door to Donald Trump - who would cement the GOP's post-policy status in ways that were difficult to even imagine a few years earlier. The implications of this approach to governance are all-encompassing. Voters routinely elect Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence to powerful offices, expecting GOP policymakers to have the technocratic wherewithal to identify problems, weigh alternative solutions, forge coalitions, accept compromises, and apply some level of governmental competence, if not expertise. The party has consistently proven those hopes misguided. The result is an untenable political model that's undermining the American policymaking process and failing to serve the public's interests. The vital challenge facing the civil polity is coming to terms with the party's collapse as a governing entity and considering what the party can do to find its policymaking footing anew. The Impostors serves as a devastating indictment of the GOP's breakdown, identifying the culprits, the crisis, and its effects, while challenging Republicans with an imperative question: Are they ready to change direction? As Benen writes, "A great deal is riding on their answer."
©2020 Steve Benen (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Miguel Street
Summary
"A stranger could drive through Miguel Street and just say 'Slum!' because he could see no more." But to its residents, this derelict corner of Trinidad's capital is a complete world, where everybody is quite different from everybody else. There's Popo the carpenter, who neglects his livelihood to build "the thing without a name". There's Man-man, who goes from running for public office to staging his own crucifixion, and the dreaded Big Foot, the bully with glass tear ducts. There's the lovely Mrs. Hereira, in thrall to her monstrous husband. In this tender, funny early novel, V. S. Naipaul renders their lives (and the legends their neighbors construct around them) with Dickensian verve and Chekhovian compassion. Set during World War II and narrated by an unnamed - but precociously observant - neighborhood boy, Miguel Street is a work of mercurial mood shifts, by turns sweetly melancholy and anarchically funny. It overflows with life on every page.
©2010 V. S. Naipaul (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Framed
Summary
How much can you trust your closest friend? Beth Montgomery seems to have the perfect life: a beautiful house in the hills above Los Angeles, a handsome, ambitious husband, and plans of starting a family. So it doesn't occur to her to worry when the news breaks of a quadruple homicide across town, a botched drug deal that leaves an undercover officer among the dead. Beth certainly would never think to tie the murders to the sudden reappearance in her life of wild, sexy Cassie Ogilvy, the estranged best friend she hasn't seen since they were college roommates. As Cassie confidently settles into Beth's new life, making herself comfortable not only in Beth's guestroom but with her husband as well, it becomes increasingly clear that her old friend has a lot to hide. But it isn't until a shocking late-night phone call, and Cassie's even more startling disappearance, that Beth begins to understand that her world, as she knew it, is gone forever. Unfurling over the span of three fraught, heart-pounding days, McInnis's masterful suspense debut is fast-paced and diabolically unpredictable - a fresh, surprising, and powerfully smart twist on the traditional thriller.
©2020 S. L. McInnis (P)2020 Grand Central Publishing
A Lover's Vow
Summary
She's all he's ever wanted. He's everything she'll ever need. Business mogul Dalton Granger is as passionate as he is gorgeous, but private investigator Jules Bradford won't give him the time of day. She knows all about the youngest Granger brother - a charming bad boy whose only interest is playing the field. But Dalton is more complicated than that, and he's determined to show Jules that behind all the bravado is the honest heart of a devoted son and brother...and a man whose own life is in peril. Jules is the only person who can protect Dalton, and they embark on a mission to save his family and his legacy. But when their late nights in the office turn into early mornings in the bedroom, Jules and Dalton soon realize they have more at stake than they ever imagined.
©2015 Brenda Streater Jackson (P)2017 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited.
The Private Equity Playbook
Summary
Private equity firms are on the rise and rapidly changing the game. Today, more than 5,500 PE firms own tens of thousands of companies, so it is essential for CEOs and senior management executives to understand exactly how private equity firms operate. This invaluable resource can help you devise a winning PE game plan for your own company that offers you greater freedom and financial success. CEO Adam Coffey has almost 20 years of experience building businesses for private equity companies. In this authoritative yet approachable handbook, he covers: The history and landscape of private equity Ground rules for finding the right firm to partner with Techniques for navigating the new governance Strategies for continued growth in the private equity space And more The Private Equity Playbook provides all the coaching you'll need to compete and win on this new playing field.
©2019 Adam Coffey (P)2019 Adam Coffey
Full Dissidence
Summary
A bold and impassioned meditation on injustice in our country that punctures the illusion of a postracial America and reveals it as a place where authoritarianism looms large. Whether the issues are protest, labor, patriotism, or class division, it is clear that professional sports are no longer simply fun and games. Rather, the industry is a hotbed of fractures and inequities that reflect and even drive some of the most divisive issues in our country. The nine provocative and deeply personal essays in Full Dissidence confront the dangerous narratives that are shaping the current dialogue in sports and mainstream culture. The audiobook is a reflection on a culture where African Americans continue to navigate the sharp edges of whiteness - as citizens who are always at risk of being told, often directly from the White House, to go back to where they came from. The topics Howard Bryant takes on include the player-owner relationship, the militarization of sports, the myth of integration, the erasure of black identity as a condition of success, and the kleptocracy that has forced America to ask itself if its beliefs of freedom and democracy are more than just words. In a time when authoritarianism is creeping into our lives and is being embraced in our politics, Full Dissidence will make us question the strength of the bonds we think we have with our fellow citizens, and it shows us why we must break from the malignant behaviors that have become normalized in everyday life.
©2020 Howard Bryant (P)2020 Beacon Press
A Brother's Honor
Summary
The Granger brothers left behind their family's Virginia estate - and the bad memories it holds - years ago. But their dying grandfather's request brings them home: to a failing business, a legacy of secrets, and a deathbed promise to make things right. As the eldest brother, attorney Jace Granger is determined to take responsibility for Granger Aeronautics, his family's failing business. But the years of mismanagement seem impossible to untangle. As CEO, he hires a consultant to turn the company around. Smart, sexy Shana Bradford is the right person for the job - and the right woman to turn Jace's world upside down. But the passion between them is jeopardized when old secrets begin to emerge. A woman from Jace's past suddenly reappears. And an explosive discovery changes everything Jace thinks he knows about his mother - and his father, who was convicted of her murder. Jace Granger tried to leave his family history behind once before. But this time he needs to face the past - or risk losing his future.
©2013 Brenda Streater Jackson (P)2017 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Truth Doesn't Have a Side
Summary
One day in 2002 the 50-year old body of former Pittsburgh Steeler and hall of famer Mike Webster was laid on a cold table in front of pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu. Webster's body looked to Omalu like the body of a much older man, and the circumstances of his behavior prior to his death were clouded in mystery. But when Omalu cut into Webster's brain, it appeared to be normal. Something didn't add up. It was at this moment, Omalu studying slides of Webster's brain tissue under a microscope, that the world of contact sports would never be the same: the discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. CTE can result in an array of devastating consequences including deterioration in attention, memory loss, social instability, depression, and even suicide. And Omalu's discovery of CTE in the brain of an American football player has become the catalyst of a blazing controversy across all contact sports. At the center of that controversy stands the unlikely Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born American citizen, a mild-mannered, gentle man of faith. It is fascinating that it would take someone on the outside of American culture to make this amazing discovery, and refuse to let it be kept hidden. Dr. Omalu began his life in strife, growing up in war-torn Nigeria. But his medical studies in forensic pathology proved to be a lifeline. It fed his natural curiosity and awakened within a deeper desire to always search for the truth. Who would have thought that such an unexpected character would play such a role in bringing to life this world-changing data? In Truth Doesn't Have a Side, discover the truth about CTE: Its causes and symptoms, how we might keep our children safe and guide professional athletes when CTE sets in. The problem of CTE is coming to light with each new story about an athlete's concussion problem, and we are likely facing dramatic changes to professional sports. You'll be inspired by Dr. Bennet Omalu a man driven by his love and concern for the welfare of all people, and his professional vow to speak the truth.
©2017 Omalu, LLC (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Robert Ludlum's The Treadstone Resurrection
Summary
The first novel in an explosive new series inspired by Robert Ludlum's Bourne universe, The Treadstone Resurrection introduces an unforgettable hero and the shadowy world that forged him.... Treadstone made Jason Bourne an unstoppable force, but he's not the only one. Operation Treadstone has nearly ruined Adam Hayes. The top-secret CIA Black Ops program trained him to be an all but invincible assassin, but it also cost him his family and any chance at a normal life. Which is why he was determined to get out. Working as a carpenter in rural Washington state, Adam thinks he has left Treadstone in the past, until he receives a mysterious email from a former colleague, and soon after is attacked by an unknown hit team at his job site. Adam must regain the skills that Treadstone taught him - lightning reflexes and a cold conscience - in order to discover who the would-be killers are and why they have come after him now. Are his pursuers enemies from a long-ago mission? Rival intelligence agents? Or, perhaps, forces inside Treadstone? His search will unearth secrets in the highest levels of government and pull him back into the shadowy world he worked so hard to forget.
©2019 Joshua Hood (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Saving Ruby King
Summary
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by Ms. Magazine, USA Today, Book Riot, The Rumpus, Library Journal, PureWow, The Everygirl, Parade, and more. “Forever and to the end. That’s what they say instead of I love you.” When Ruby King’s mother is found murdered in their home in Chicago’s South Side, the police dismiss it as another act of violence in a Black neighborhood. But for Ruby, it’s a devastating loss that leaves her on her own with her violent father. While she receives many condolences, her best friend, Layla, is the only one who understands how this puts Ruby in jeopardy. Their closeness is tested when Layla’s father, the pastor of their church, demands that Layla stay away. But what is the price for turning a blind eye? In a relentless quest to save Ruby, Layla uncovers the murky loyalties and dangerous secrets that have bound their families together for generations. Only by facing this legacy of trauma head-on will Ruby be able to break free. An unforgettable debut novel, Saving Ruby King is a powerful testament that history doesn’t determine the present and the bonds of friendship can forever shape the future.
©2020 Catherine Adel West (P)2020 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
'Til the Well Runs Dry
Summary
Lauren Francis-Sharma's 'Til the Well Runs Dry opens in a seaside village in the north of Trinidad where young Marcia Garcia, a gifted and smart-mouthed 16-year-old seamstress, lives alone, raising two small boys and guarding a family secret. When she meets Farouk Karam, an ambitious young policeman, the risks and rewards in Marcia's life amplify forever. On an island rich with laughter, Calypso, Carnival, cricket, beaches and salty air, sweet fruits and spicy stews, the novel follows Marcia and Farouk from their amusing and passionate courtship through personal and historical events that threaten Marcia's secret, entangle the couple and their children in a scandal, and endanger the future for all of them. 'Til the Well Runs Dry tells the twinned stories of a spirited woman's love for one man and her bottomless devotion to her children. For listeners who cherish the previously untold stories of women's lives, here is a story of grit and imperfection and love that has not been told before.
©2014 Lauren Francis-Sharma (P)2015 Tantor
Dragons in a Bag
Summary
The dragon's out of the bag in this diverse, young urban fantasy from an award-winning author! When Jaxon is sent to spend the day with a mean old lady his mother calls Ma, he finds out she's not his grandmother - but she is a witch! She needs his help delivering baby dragons to a magical world where they'll be safe. There are two rules when it comes to the dragons: Don't let them out of the bag, and don't feed them anything sweet. Before he knows it, Jax and his friends Vikram and Kavita have broken both rules! Will Jax get the baby dragons delivered safe and sound? Or will they be lost in Brooklyn forever? An NPR Best Book of the Year A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
©2018 Zetta Elliott (P)2018 Listening Library
Reflections on a Ravaged Century
Summary
Robert Conquest has been called by Paul Johnson "our greatest living modern historian". As a new century begins, Conquest offers an illuminating examination of our past failures and a guide to where we should go next. Graced with one of the most acute gifts for political prescience since Orwell, Conquest assigns responsibility for our century’s cataclysms not to impersonal economic or social forces but to the distorted ideologies of revolutionary Marxism and National Socialism. The final, sobering chapters of Reflections on a Ravaged Century concern themselves with some coming storms, notably that of the European Union, which Conquest believes is an economic, cultural, and geographical misconception divisive of the West and doomed to failure. Winner of the Ingersoll Prize; winner of the Richard M. Weaver Prize; a New York Times Notable Book.
©2000 Robert Conquest (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Man on the Run
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Carl Weber delivers a riveting, action-packed drama full of the twists and turns for which he's become known. It was the night before his wedding, 15 years ago, when the nightmare began for Jay Crawford - locked up for a crime he never committed. Now he's escaped prison and wants nothing more than to clear his name and protect his family. To get justice he'll need the help of the three best friends who have always had his back - Wil, Kyle, and Allan. But a man on the run requires absolute trust...and Jay may just be setting himself up for the ultimate betrayal.
©2016 Carl Weber (P)2016 Hachette Audio