Showing results by narrator "Dennis Holland" in All Categories

It would be sheer folly to try to conceal the true nature of Althalus, for his flaws are the stuff of legend. He is, as all men know, a thief, a liar, an occasional murderer, an outrageous braggart, and a man devoid of even the slightest hint of honor. Yet of all the men in the world, it is Althalus, unrepentant rogue and scoundrel, who will become the champion of humanity in its desperate struggle against the forces of an ancient god determined to return the universe to nothingness.

For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why - and how - it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from “wild” folk belief to “domesticated” dogma.

March 2002. While the world watches Afghanistan, Jack Noble is in Baghdad, Iraq—on loan from the Marines to the CIA. Supposed to be part of the team, he ends up just a security detail. When he and his partner Bear confront four CIA agents abusing an Iraqi family, they’re arrested within hours. Jack only wanted to finish his service, but his intervention lands him in a conspiracy reaching the highest levels of the U.S. government.

A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were - and still are. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that kind of book.

What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we - in the West, at least - largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean - of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.

A military unit is thrust back into Paleolithic times with only their guns and portable hardware. Ten soldiers on convoy in Afghanistan suddenly find themselves lost in time. Somehow they arrived in Earth's Paleolithic Asia. With no idea how they arrived or how to get back, the shock of the event is severe. They discover groups of the similarly displaced: imperial Romans, Neolithic Europeans, and a small cadre of East Indian peasants.

A preeminent geneticist hunts the Neanderthal genome to answer the biggest question of them all: what does it mean to be human? What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pbo’s mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009.

Jack Noble thought the mission was simple—track the target, gather intel, and get out clean. But nothing is ever simple. Not for Jack. When the operation goes sideways, he’s forced into a deadly confrontation with a powerful adversary who always seems one step ahead. Cut off from his team and left to operate alone, Jack finds himself in the crosshairs of an international conspiracy with stakes far higher than he realized. His only option? Go on the offensive. From covert black sites in the Mediterranean to the underworld of Berlin, Jack must outmaneuver operatives who know his every move.

On a sunny spring day, in an ordinary kitchen, Rosemary answers an unexpected phone call. A car has hit her husband, Hugh. Rosemary arrives at the hospital just in time to see him before he's rushed into surgery. Thinking of their twin daughters, Rosemary pleads with her unconscious husband as he lies on a gurney. "Don't you leave me Hugh Rawlins. Anna and Mary need you. I love you." Overwhelmed, but determined to bring Hugh back home, Rosemary leans on family and friends as Hugh endures two emergency brain surgeries, a coma, and a confused awakening.

It was supposed to be over. But nothing in Jack Noble’s world ever stays that way. Captured. Transported. Delivered straight into the hands of his former handler, Frank Skinner. The man Jack once spared is now calling in the debt—and the cost is higher than Jack ever expected. Forced back into the shadow world of covert operations, Jack is tasked with one last mission. But this one isn’t about justice. It’s about survival. A woman he thought was dead has resurfaced, and her enemies have declared war. The only way out is to go in deeper than ever before.

Three explosive thrillers. One relentless hero pushed to the edge. Jack Noble has spent his life running toward danger—but sometimes the hardest battles are the ones that hit closest to home.

Jack Noble never expected to see London again—not like this. With his name cleared and his past buried, he thought he could finally walk free. But freedom is a lie. An old enemy has resurfaced, and Jack is pulled into a deadly game where allies are scarce, and enemies seem to be everywhere. When an ambush leaves him framed for murder, Jack is forced to rely on the one person he swore he’d never trust again. Betrayal lurks in every shadow, and every step deeper into the conspiracy tightens the noose around his neck. Old debts come due, and Jack has to pay in blood.

Jack Noble was just passing through—a small town, a broken-down Jeep, and a quiet place to lay low. But small towns have secrets, and this one is about to explode. A chance encounter with an old ally and a barroom brawl with the town's most dangerous men light the fuse on a powder keg of corruption, betrayal, and blood.

When a simple surveillance operation in Iraq goes violently wrong, Marine-turned-covert-agent Jack Noble finds himself caught in a deadly web of betrayal, conspiracy, and cover-ups. Branded a fugitive and pursued by the very government he served, Jack must rely on his instincts, his partner Rile “Bear” Logan, and a whole lot of grit to survive.

Militant atheism is on the rise. In recent years, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have produced a steady stream of best-selling books denigrating religious belief. These authors are merely the leading edge of a larger movement that includes much of the scientific community. In response, mathematician David Berlinski, himself a secular Jew, delivers a biting defense of religious thought.

Written for anyone who wants to develop a deeper more meaningful relationship with God, Mansions of the Heart offers a step-by-step guide through a spiritual formation road map based on Teresa of Avila's Seven Mansions. The book includes a Mapping Tool that will help you discern your place on your spiritual journey and offers church leaders a process for helping church members to grow into spiritual maturity.

For 18 years Jack has been a “transplant tourism director,” sending wealthy Americans and Europeans in need of kidneys and other organs to third-world countries where they would buy them from transplant centers on the take. The death of a client and a newfound relationship lead to a crisis of conscience as he is forced to choose between a $2 million commission - and participating in a murder.

How does the brain work? How different is a human brain from other creatures' brains? Is the human brain still evolving? In this fascinating book, Michael O'Shea provides a non-technical introduction to the main issues and findings in current brain research, and gives a sense of how neuroscience addresses questions about the relationship between the brain and the mind.

In a radical break with the past, information now flows like water, and we must learn how to tap into its stream. Individuals and companies can no longer rely on the stocks of knowledge that theyve carefully built up and stored away. Information now flows like water, and we must learn how to tap into the stream.