Showing results by narrator "Suzanne Toren" in All Categories

Is our sexuality determined primarily by our genes? Or is it shaped by the social norms and expectations we happen to be born into? This Very Short Introduction audiobook provides an accessible, thoughtful, and thought-provoking introduction to major debates around sexuality in the modern world, highlighting the social and political aspects of sexuality.

Ever wonder what makes us buy from a certain salesperson or prefer one TV news announcer over another? In each case, a human voice is subtly captivating our ear and commanding our attention. Now celebrity voice coach Renee Grant-Williams reveals the trade secrets behind those persuasive voices and shows listeners how to apply positive vocal techniques to business and personal situations. Much more than a guide to proper breathing or voice projection, this is a life-altering "owner's manual" to unleashing and directing the powers of communication within one's speaking voice.

While almost all of Marguerite Duras's novels have been translated into English, her debut The Impudent Ones (Les Impudents) has been a glaring exception - until now. Fans of Duras will be thrilled to discover the germ of her bold, vital prose and signature blend of memoir and fiction in this intense and mournful story of the Taneran family, which introduces Duras' classic themes of familial conflict, illicit romance, and scandal in the sleepy suburbs and southwest provinces of postwar France.

Between January and July 1919, after the war to end all wars, world leaders converged on Paris for the Peace Conference. At its heart were three great powers - Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George and Clemenceau. The peacemakers, so it has been said, failed dismally - failed above all to prevent another war. Margaret MacMillan argues that they have unfairly been made scapegoats for the mistakes of those who came later.

Anyone who has ever loved a book will relish this playful, yet deeply literate collection of essays celebrating the joy of reading. From building castles with books as a child, to the trauma of joining her library with her husband's, the author reveals, with much warmth and humor, the intimate details of her lifelong affair with books. For Anne Fadiman, books are not built for function, and certainly not for decoration. They are close personal friends who never fail to delight and amaze.

To some, Soren Kierkegaard is primarily a philosopher, to others a Christian thinker or theologian. He was also a perceptive psychologist and incisive cultural critic. But above all, Kierkegaard was a writer. Clare Carlisle’s book tackles eight key questions surrounding Kierkegaard’s multi-faceted thinking, exploring above all his view of the world and how we live in it.

Best friends Ellie Bettlebump and Caedmon Tuggle are different as the day is long. Caedmon’s a human, from a non-magical realm known as Wisconsin. Ellie, on the other hand, is full of magic—illegal magic. What they have in common is far more important, however. After the adventure of a lifetime, they are both officially Knights of the Round Table…in training. To graduate to the next level at the Knights Academy, they must complete three quests proving their heroism. If they fail, they’ll have to achieve the dreaded Impossible Quest, and repeat the same year forever.

In the immediate aftermath of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, 12-year-old Clara and her family find an abandoned baby, apparently orphaned in the quake, on the steps of their boarding house home. But Clara suspects that something about the baby is not as it seems. Following her suspicions through a city consumed with fire and devastation, Clara discovers that while the earthquake has brought out the best in some people, it has brought out the worst in others.

Having suffered a tremendous loss, 17-year-old Rosie decides to make a fresh start. Taking a job as a nanny on a houseboat in Paris, she fills the void of loss with a new family. Almost immediately she lets the three children and their needy father, Marc, into her heart.

Nebula Award winner Catherine Asaro's tales of the Skolian Empire have earned tremendous acclaim and a devoted following. War between the Eubian Concord and the Skolians has devastated the galaxy before. Now another epic clash is brewing, and the leaders of both empires might be powerless to stop it. Further complicating matters, both men hide shocking secrets that could spell their doom.

What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people - from the colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to labor organizer Bessie Hillman and the great justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to scores of other activists, workers, wives, and mothers who helped carve out a Jewish American identity.

Na'ama and Udi Newman have many of the trappings of an idyllic shared existence. A couple since they were schoolchildren, they have grown together like vines and settled into a routine of calm domesticity along with their young daughter, Noga. But in a scene worthy of Kafka, the quiet rhythms of their family life suddenly screech to a halt when Udi wakes up one morning to find that he is unable to move his legs.

With the publication of Essay on the Principle of Population and its projection of food shortages in the face of ballooning populations, British theorist Thomas Robert Malthus secured a leading role in modern political and economic thought. In this startling new interpretation, Deborah Valenze reveals how canonical readings of Malthus fail to acknowledge his narrow understanding of what constitutes food production.

After three years of living in the small town of Reigny-sur-Canne, all Katherine Goff really wants is to be accepted by her neighbors into their little community. But as an American expat living in the proud region of Burgundy, that's no easy task. When the elderly Frenchman who lives in the village chateau is found dead at the bottom of a staircase, the town is turned into a hotbed of gossip and suspicion, and Katherine suddenly finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the small town's secrets.

Much Depends on Dinner is a delightful and intelligent history of the food we eat. Presented as a meal, each chapter represents a different course or garnish. Margaret Visser looks to the most ordinary American dinner for her subject - corn on the cob with butter and salt, roast chicken with rice, salad dressed in lemon juice and olive oil, and ice cream - submerging herself in the story behind each food.

Through every family run memories that bind it together - despite everything. The Tulls of Baltimore are no exception. Abandoned by her salesman husband, Pearl is left to bring up her three children alone - Cody, a flawed devil; Ezra, a flawed saint; and Jenny, errant and passionate. Now as Pearl lies dying, stiffly encased in her pride and solitude, the past is unlocked and with it, secrets. A classic novel from one of America's greatest living novelists, now available as an audiobook.

Uta Hagen, one of the great ladies of the American theatre wrote a deeply personal memoir of her life, from her childhood in Germany to the present. Sources is Miss Hagen's lyrical account of the special ways love of nature is intertwined with love of art in her life, providing a rare glimpse of the off-stage life of an actress.

Leading sleep researcher Rosalind Cartwright brings together decades of work on sleep, dreaming, and sleep disorders to propose a new theory of how the mind works continuously. Drawing on her own research and that of others, Cartwright describes how conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings move forward - from waking, into sleep and dreaming, to the next waking day. One main purpose of sleep is to regulate disturbing emotions. Not everyone does this successfully every night.

We all know the pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune. The Germans named this delight in another's failure schadenfreude (from schaden damage, and freude, joy), and it has perplexed philosophers and psychologists for centuries. Schadenfreude illuminates this hidden emotion, inviting listeners to reflect on its pleasures and how we use other people's miseries to feel better about ourselves. With its exploratory, evocative form, it weaves examples from literature, philosophy, film, and music together with personal observation and historical and cultural analysis.

In a desperate bid to escape the trenches of the Eastern front, Peter Faber, an ordinary German soldier, marries Katharina Spinell, a woman he has never met, in a marriage of convenience that promises honeymoon leave for him and a pension for her should he die in the war. With 10 days' leave secured, Peter visits his new wife in Berlin and both are surprised by the passion that develops between them.