Showing results by narrator "Michael Gilboe" in All Categories

Mark Watney wasn't the mission commander of Ares 3, a month-long expedition to Mars. He was just the science geek, botany guru, and mechanical engineer: the lowest guy on the totem pole and the only one who didn't make it back to the ascent vehicle when the storm hit. Left for dead on the surface of a barren planet, Watney must plumb the depths of his considerable ingenuity and resourcefulness to find a way to survive - and to let the people on Earth know he's still alive.

In many ways it is fitting that Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) is one of the best known figures of the French Revolution, if not its most famous. The early years of the Revolution were fueled by Enlightenment ideals, seeking the social overthrow of the caste system that gave the royalty and aristocracy decisive advantages over the lower classes.

Please note: This is a key takeaways and analysis of the book and not the original book. In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't, Jim Collins posits that most American entities (from the federal government and multinational corporations all the way down to individuals) are hindered by being good, and thus not rising to being great.

The Alpha Ship One crew are famous for two things: making Earth heaps of money and doing it under the cover of deep space. The mercenary ship is commissioned to run missions on dangerous planets, to reap great rewards from unsuspecting alien races and to take minerals, precious metals, and invaluable resources for Earth's galactic expansion. They do the work that no other ship in Earth's fleet would dare consider. Why? Because if they get found out, then Earth abandons them; leaves them to rot in the middle of the universe, unaided and unheard of until the very end of time itself.

Walter "Boomer" Stapleton has good reason to believe that he is the ultimate stereotype: divorced, middle-aged, tired of his job, involved with a much younger woman, and soon to lose his only child to college. He is a Baby Boomer, one of an anonymous seventy-seven million Americans at or approaching midlife. With his fiftieth birthday just around the corner, Boomer is finished being a poster child for his generation and determined to forge a new path despite his progressively shrinking set of life options.

A fun, fast, fantastical listen: After an altercation with a clown, I get lost in the woods and find a strange town. When the librarian of the town dies in front of me, I try on his ring. It fits. I’m declared the new librarian by the mayor and townspeople. I get to live in a houseful of books. But I soon learn the job involves more than just tomes and information. In fact, my first assignment is to discover who murdered my predecessor.

This is a summary, analysis, and review of Tiny Habits, a concise and practical guide to creating long-term change by behavior scientist BJ Fogg, who explains the drivers of human behavior and outlines the steps anyone can take to create and sustain positive change.

Uncanny Valley is a captivating account of Anna Wiener’s struggle to find meaning and fulfilment in an industry that was brimming with optimism but felt ever so selfish, insidious, and hostile. This is a summary, analysis, and review of the book and not the original book.

This is a summary, analysis, and review of the book and not the original book. Jenny Offill's third novel Weather follows the thoughts of librarian Lizzie Benson as she deals with raising a family, helping her brother overcome addiction, and preparing for the end of the world. In Offill's signature style of disjointed autofiction, she takes the reader/listener on a journey through the mind of a woman obsessed with doomsday preparation in a world ever threatened by climate change and divisive politics.

Eilene Zimmerman isn’t under any illusions about how the real world operates under self-imposed expectations and rising stress. She shines a spotlight into the obscurity of substance abuse in white-collar settings, and the truth that’s reflected is more than any of us may be ready to accept. In Smacked, she takes a straightforward approach to a discussion that has been avoided at the highest levels of power and influence. With America at peak drug abuse in over a decade, it’s timely counsel.

Martha MacCallum’s Unknown Valor is both a personal exploration of war and heroism as well as a detailed recounting of several of the most strategic successes in the American campaign against Japanese imperialist expansion during the Second World War. MacCallum relays the grueling details of such critical battles as Tarawa and Saipan, and the narrative culminates in the harrowing story of the months spent fighting for Iwo Jima.

This is a summary, analysis, and review of The Splendid and the Vile and not the original book. With a firm grasp of the British struggle under German aggression, Larson crafts a story of epic proportions, taking the listener on a journey of novel insight and unexpected emotion. It’s not about Churchill so much as his preservation of all that Britain valued as a civilization at the height of the Second World War. This book is intended as a companion to, not a replacement for, The Splendid and the Vile.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary, analysis and review of the book and not the original book. Dan Heath’s Upstream explores how individuals and organizations can shift from a reactive to a preventive problem-solving approach to achieve better personal, business, social, and political outcomes.

Jocko Willink’s Leadership Strategy and Tactics is a handy guide to the laws and principles of leadership in combat, business, and life. What does this Start Publishing Notes' summary, analysis, and review include Summary of the original book, easily digestible takeaways distilling the main ideas, a description of the laws and principles of effective leadership, tips to gain more trust and influence, nurture better work relationships, and create high-performance teams, editorial review and analysis, and background on Jocko Willink.

Retiring today is a lot harder than it was a few decades ago. With the right planning, however, retirement can still be another exciting phase of life to look forward to. Leveraging decades of experience as a world-renowned financial advisor, Suze Orman offers detailed advice for cutting expenses, saving more in the right accounts, investing in low-cost funds, paying off debt, getting insurance, and setting up the right end-of life documents. Anyone approaching retirement will find this book an invaluable guide.

In Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn take a personal and harrowing look at the pervasive problems of poverty, drug abuse, and rising death rate in America through the stories of the people in America's forgotten towns. What they discover is a problem that goes far beyond unemployment or personal choice: they discover America's great social depression.

This is a summary, analysis, and review of Ariana Neumann's riveting memoir, in which she digs through her family’s past to uncover a Holocaust story that is as thrilling as it is heart-wrenching.

Open Book is an open monologue about life as Jessica Simpson. It seems there’s more to the blonde pop star than an irreparable legacy of “chicken or tuna?” Bring the Kleenex, but maybe hold the alcohol if you don’t want an ironic finger wagging back at you by the final curtain call. Jessica Simpson, popstar extraordinaire, is more than a blonde bombshell with a cute Southern accent. Her life story overflows with extravagant gestures, magical experiences, faith, and a flair for the dramatic.

In Dangerous Prayers, best-selling author and Life.Church founder Craig Groeschel reveals the prayers that can help Christians develop a more intimate relationship with God, strengthen their faith, and fully embrace God’s plan for their lives.

Profiles in Corruption is a heavily researched, heavily cited investigation, primarily into the Democratic presidential hopefuls in the 2020 election. The overarching theme of the book is both the daily hypocrisy we are faced with in politics and the fact that small corruptions often lead to larger ones once more power is concentrated in a single person and begins to flow to everyone in their orbit. Schweizer leaves no stone unturned as he pores through the financial records, backchannel deals, and blantant corruption.