Showing results by narrator "George Newbern" in All Categories

Paying attention is a crucial human skill, yet many of us have forgotten how to listen carefully and observe intentionally. Deluged by social media and hobbled by the increasing social isolation it fosters, we need to rediscover the deeply human ways we connect with others. Christian Madsbjerg, a philosopher and entrepreneur, understands this dilemma and provides both practical insights and a range of tools for experiencing the world with greater richness and texture.

Plenty of books offer useful advice on how to get better at making quick-thinking, intuitive choices. But what about more consequential decisions, the ones that affect our lives for years, or centuries, to come? Our most powerful stories revolve around these kinds of decisions: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to start a company, how to end a war. Full of the beautifully crafted storytelling and novel insights that Steven Johnson's fans know to expect, Farsighted draws lessons from cognitive science, social psychology, military strategy, environmental planning and great works of literature.

In What Can I Do? Fonda’s deeply personal journey as an activist is weaved alongside interviews with leading climate scientists and discussions of issues such as water, migration and human rights to emphasise what is at stake. Throughout, Fonda provides concrete solutions and actions that everybody can take in order to combat the climate crisis in their community. As Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace US and Fonda's partner in developing FDF, has declared, 'Change is inevitable; by design, or by disaster'.

When psychologists try to understand the way our minds work, they frequently come to a conclusion that may seem startling: people often make decisions without having given them much thought - or, more precisely, before they have thought about them consciously. When we decide how to vote, what to buy, where to go on vacation and myriad other things, unconscious thoughts that we are not even aware of typically play a big role.

When young lawyer Lizzie gets a call for help from an old friend accused of murdering his wife, she reluctantly says yes. Zach is the chief suspect in his wife, Amanda’s, murder but there’s no way he could be guilty – is there? The further Lizzie dives into the glossy world of Brooklyn’s Park Slope, the more she realises that things don’t add up. Zach doesn’t know the most basic details of his wife’s past, and Amanda’s friends barely know he exists.

In Made from Scratch, the late business maverick Kent Taylor tells the legendary story of Texas Roadhouse and in the process reveals its recipe for success: embracing unorthodox business practices. Because isn’t it a little unusual for a company to do almost no advertising? Is it wild to give away free peanuts and rolls and keep prices low, even as costs rise, or to keep the menu basically the same since it opened? Does it fly in the face of reason to prohibit coats and ties at headquarters and to have a CEO who dressed like he was part of the landscaping crew?

He’s seen something that could get him killed. But what? Freddie Makin is a spy for hire. For a year he’s been watching Jiang Cheng, an academic whose life seems suspiciously normal. To Freddie it’s just a job: he never asks who’s paying him and why - until the day someone is sent to kill him, and suddenly the watcher becomes the watched. On the run from whoever wants him dead, Freddie knows he must have seen something incriminating. The only trouble is, he has no idea what. Is the CIA behind all this - or does it go higher than that? Have his trackers uncovered his own murky past?

When it comes to keeping your brain in tip-top shape, you aren't limited to crossword puzzles, brain games, and Sudoku. The keys to keeping your mind sharp are already in your hands: eleven simple but powerful lifestyle factors often have a greater impact on our health than our genetics. In The Age-Proof Brain, scientist and popular speaker Dr. Marc Milstein shares "complex science in simple (and often humorous) examples, case histories, and 'how-to' guidelines that are guaranteed to change your life" (Dr. James B. Mass).

For the many millions of headache sufferers and fans of Mary Roach, Siddartha Mukerjee, and Ed Yong, a deeply reported, sometimes harrowing, and frequently humorous journey into the author’s own excruciating headaches, and the science behind these surprisingly mysterious disorders that may, finally, offer relief.

When he set out to visit all of the planet’s countries by age thirty-five, compulsive goal-seeker Chris Guillebeau never imagined that his journey’s biggest revelation would be how many people like himself exist—each pursuing a challenging quest. These quests are as diverse as humanity itself, involving exploration, the pursuit of athletic or artistic excellence, or battling against injustice and poverty. Everywhere that Chris visited he found ordinary people working toward extraordinary goals, making daily down payments on their dreams.

Emotions are inseparable from how we humans think, choose, and act. In Emotional Design, cognitive scientist Don Norman shows how the principles of human psychology apply to the invention and design of new technologies and products. In The Design of Everyday Things, Norman made the definitive case for human-centered design, showing that good design demanded that the user's must take precedence over a designer's aesthetic if anything, from light switches to airplanes, was going to work as the user needed.

Pursued by police and bounty hunters, Dan Lambert flees south toward the Louisiana bayous. In the swamplands he meets Arden Halliday, a young woman who bears the vivid burdens of her own past, and who is searching for a legendary faith healer called the Bright Girl. Looking for simple kindness in a world that rarely shows it, bound by a loyalty stronger than love, Dan and Arden set off on a journey of relentless suspense and impassioned discovery...over dark, twisting waterways into the mysterious depths of the human heart.

Devastated after both my fiancée and best friend betrayed me, I traveled to a distant isle in the Pacific Northwest, clinging to a job as an artist's assistant to escape my broken heart. Little did I know that I would find something else entirely when I met Briggs Tutheridge. His kindness and sensitivity were not at all what I expected. Still, his reputation was well-known and notorious, with bevies of admirers who wanted nothing more than a brief affair. That wasn't me. I was a wallflower destined to live in the shadows, and no amount of wishing could change that.

Over the years, color has dazzled, enhanced, and clarified the world we see. The experimental palettes of painting, the advent of the color photograph, Technicolor pictures, color printing, and so on have created a vivid and vibrant continuum. These ways of representing reality in “living color” echo our evolutionary reliance on and indeed privileging of color as a complex and vital form of consumption, classification, and creation. It’s everywhere we look, yet do we really know much of anything about it?

As the global economic landscape shifts at an increasing rate, it's more important than ever that citizens understand the building blocks of the new world economy. In this lively guide, Randy Charles Epping cuts through the jargon to explain the fundamentals. In 36 engaging chapters, Epping lays bare everything from NGOs and nonprofits to AI and data mining. With a comprehensive glossary and absolutely no graphs, The New World Economy: A Beginner's Guide is essential listening for anyone who wants to understand what is going on in the world around them.

Diran used to make his living as an assassin - one of the best money could buy. But after a life-altering spiritual experience, he's turned his back on killing. All he wants is peace. But in a shoddy port city, his past catches up to him, and killing may be the only way to bring peace to a city on the verge of destruction.

Children of all ages will adore this audiobook collection of some of the most notable stories in history. Listen to tales from the Grimm brothers, journey through the jungle with Mowgli in The Jungle Book, embrace youth with Wendy in Peter Pan, and run across pastures in Black Beauty.

Addiction is a worldwide curse that seems to be growing in seriousness on a yearly basis. While to the general public addiction may seem almost inescapable, the truth is that there are solutions to overcoming the various addictions, though to date they seem more elusive than attainable. The goal of Escaping Addiction is to highlight the variety of causes of addiction alongside an array of useful tools anyone can use to break the cycle of addiction, whether it’s to alcohol, drugs, food, or video games.

In Underestimated: An Autism Miracle, Generation Rescue’s cofounder J.B. Handley and his teenage son Jamison tell the remarkable story of Jamison’s journey to find a method of communication that allowed him to show the world that he was a brilliant, wise, generous, and complex individual who had been misunderstood and underestimated by everyone in his life.

Low Morrison is not your average teen. You could blame her hippie parents or her dreary, isolated island hometown. Whatever the reason, Low just doesn’t fit in—and neither does newcomer Freya, an ethereal beauty and once-famous social media influencer. After signing up for Freya’s pottery class, Low quickly falls under her spell. Buoyed by Low’s adoration, Freya is compelled to share her darkest secrets and deepest desires. Finally, Low feels a sense of belonging ... until Jamie walks through the studio door. Freya, Jamie and their husbands become fast friends, leaving Low alone once again.