Booker, Cory. United. Books on Tape. ISBN 9781101926666. Reader TBA.
United States Senator Booker sounds a stirring call to reorient our civic discourse around the principles of empathy and solidarity. Telling candid, inspiring stories from his life and career, and imparting lessons learned from people who motivated him to serve, he speaks of rising above discord, tending to our shared resources, and embracing our common destiny.
Burns, Eric. The Golden Lad: The Haunting Story of Quentin and Theodore Roosevelt. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504673457. Read by Traber Burns.
More than a century has passed since Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, but he still continues to fascinate. He became a war hero, reformed the NYPD, busted the largest railroad and oil trusts, passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, created national parks and forests, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and built the Panama Canal. Yet it was the cause he championed the hardest—America’s entry into World War I—that would ultimately divide and destroy him when his youngest son, Quentin, his favorite, died in an air fight.
Carlsen, William. Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504695343. Reader TBA.
In 1839, John Lloyd Stephens, a dashing U.S. special ambassador to Central America, and Frederick Catherwood, an acclaimed British architect and draftsman, set out into the unexplored jungles of the Yucatan. Deep in the jungles, they stumbled upon the wondrous ruins of the Mayan civilization—an astonishing find that would change western understanding of human history. Here Carlsen uncovers the rich history of the ruins as he follows Stephens and Catherwood’s journey through present-day Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
Carlson, Brady. Dead Presidents: An American Adventure into the Strange Deaths and Surprising Afterlives of Our Nation’s Leaders. HighBridge. ISBN 9781681680446. Read by Tom Zingarelli.
NPR host Brady Carlson takes listeners to presidential gravesites, monuments, and memorials to tell the death stories of our greatest leaders. Mixing biography and travelog, Carlson explores whether William Henry Harrison really died of a cold, why Zachary Taylor’s remains were exhumed 140 years after his death, and how what killed James A. Garfield wasn’t an assassin’s bullet. He tells the surprising stories of the Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore, and Grant’s Tomb. And he explains why “Hooverball” is still played in Iowa, why Millard Fillmore’s final resting place is beside that of funk legend Rick James, and why Ohio and Alaska continue to battle over the name of Mt. McKinley.
Damour, Lisa. Untangled. Books on Tape. ISBN 9780147522481. Read by the author.
Damour, director of the Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls, pulls back the curtain on the teenage years and shows why your daughter’s erratic and confusing behavior is actually healthy, necessary, and natural. Untangled explains what’s going on, prepares parents for what’s to come, and lets them know when it’s time to worry. Damour draws on decades of experience and the latest research to reveal the seven distinct—and absolutely normal—developmental transitions that turn girls into grown-ups, including Parting with Childhood, Contending with Adult Authority, Entering the Romantic World, and Caring for Herself.
Fisher, Carrie. The Princess Diarist. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504683258. Reader TBA.
Fisher again explores her life as the child of Tinseltown royalty, her adventures as Princess Leia, and her misadventures as Bi-Polar Woman of the Year—with another series of hilarious, jaw-dropping, and interconnected autobiographical essays.
Fitzpatrick, Ellen. The Highest Glass Ceiling. Dreamscape. ISBN 9781520000213.Reader TBA.
Since Victoria Woodhull launched her symbolic bid for the presidency in 1872, dozens of women have sought the presidency over the past 150 years. Their quest began long before women won the vote and it unfolded over decades when a woman’s pursuit of any higher political office was met with prejudice, mockery, and hostility. Even after women started voting in 1920, they remained shut out of rooms where presidential candidacies were often born. Whether a woman will break through the glass ceiling during the current election cycle is uncertain, Fitzpatrick acknowledges. But it will happen sooner or later.
Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. HighBridge. ISBN 9781681680521. Read by Laurence Kennedy.
From the rise and fall of empires in China, Persia, and Rome itself to the spread of Buddhism and advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to Western imperialism and the great wars of the 20th century, this work illuminates how the Silk Roads—the crossroads of the world, the meeting place of East and West—perhaps more than anything else, shaped global history over the past two millennia. It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures, and religions, and it was the appetites for foreign goods that drove economies and the growth of nations. From the first cities in Mesopotamia to the emergence of Greece and Rome to the depredations by the Mongols, the transmission of the Black Death, the struggles of the Great Game, and the fall of Communism, the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East.
Glenny, Misha. Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio. Dreamscape. ISBN .97-1520000299. Reader TBA.
Nemesis is the story of an ordinary man who became the king of the largest slum in Rio, the head of a drug cartel, and perhaps Brazil’s most wanted criminal, a tale of gold hunters and evangelical pastors, bent police and rich-kid addicts, quixotic politicians and drug lords with math degrees. Traversing through rain forests and high-security prisons, filthy slums and glittering shopping malls, this is also the story of how change came to Brazil, of a country’s journey into the global spotlight, and the battle for the city of Rio, as it struggles to break free from a tangled web of corruption, violence, drugs, and poverty.
Goodman, Ruth. How To Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life. HighBridge. ISBN 9781681681467. Reader TBA.
On the heels of her How To Be a Victorian, Goodman travels even further back in English history to the era closest to her heart, the dramatic period from the crowning of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I. Drawing on her own adventures living in re-created Tudor conditions, Goodman serves as listeners’ intrepid guide to 16th-century living. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this work celebrates the ordinary lives of those who labored through the era. From sounding the “hue and cry” to alert a village to danger to malting grain for homemade ale, from the gruesome sport of bear-baiting to cuckolding and cross-dressing, the madcap habits and revealing intimacies of life in the time of Shakespeare are vividly rendered.
McMeekin, Sean. The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908-1923. Recorded Books. ISBN 9781490698212. Read by Richard Poe.
This retelling of 20th-century history from the Ottoman perspective delivers new insights into World War I and the contemporary Middle East. Between 1911 and 1922, a series of wars would engulf the Ottoman Empire and its successor states, in which the central conflict, of course, is World War I. McMeekin brings to light the entire strategic narrative that led to an unstable new order in postwar Middle East-much of which is still felt today and makes new the epic stories from the Ottoman front, from Gallipoli to the exploits of Lawrence in Arabia, and introduces a vast range of new stories to Western readers. The book chronicles the emergence of modern Turkey and the carve-up of the rest of the Ottoman Empire, offering a new perspective on such issues as the ethno-religious bloodletting and forced population transfers which attended the breakup of empire, the Balfour Declaration, the toppling of the caliphate, and the partition of Iraq and Syria, bringing the contemporary consequences into clear focus.
Pettegree, Andrew. Brand Luther : How an Unheralded Monk Turned His Small Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europeand Started the Protestant Reformation. Recorded Books. ISBN 9781490698199. Read by Paul Hecht.
When an obscure monk named Martin Luther tacked his “theses” on the door of the Wittenberg church in 1517, protesting corrupt practices, he was virtually unknown. Within months, his ideas spread across Germany, then all of Europe; within years, their author was not just famous, but infamous, responsible for catalyzing the violent wave of religious reform that would come to be known as the Protestant Reformation and engulfing Europe in decades of bloody war. Pettegree illustrates Luther’s great gift not simply as a theologian, but as a communicator, indeed, as the world’s first mass-media figure, its first brand. He recognized in printing the power of pamphlets, written in the colloquial German of everyday people, to win the battle of ideas. Publishing in advance of the Reformation’s 500th anniversary, Brand Luther fuses the history of religion, of printing, and of capitalism.
Power, Carla. If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504700597. Read by Kate Reading.
Journalist Carla Power and her longtime friend Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi found a way to confront ugly stereotypes and persistent misperceptions that were cleaving their communities. Frustrated and bewildered by the battles being fought in their names, both knew that a close look at the Quran would reveal a faith that preached peace and not mass murder; respect for women and not oppression. And so they embarked on a yearlong journey through the controversial text. Their story takes them to madrasas in India and pilgrimage sites in Mecca, as they encounter politicians and jihadis, feminist activists and conservative scholars. Armed with a new understanding of each other’s worldviews, Power and Akram offer eye-opening perspectives, destroy long-held myths, and reveal startling connections between worlds that have seemed hopelessly divided for far too long.
Rehm, Diane. On My Own. Books on Tape. ISBN 9780399566134. Read by the author.
The beloved NPR radio host speaks out about the long drawn-out death (from Parkinson’s) of her husband of 54 years, and of her struggle to reconstruct her life without him. With John gone, Diane was indeed on her own, coping with the inevitable practical issues as well as profoundly emotional ones. Her focus is on her own roller-coaster experiences, but she has also solicited the moving stories of such recently widowed friends as Roger Mudd and Susan Stamberg, which work to expose the reader to a remarkable range of reactions to the death of a spouse. John’s unnecessarily extended death spurred Diane into becoming a kind of poster person for the “right to die” movement.
Shatner, William with David Fisher. Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man. Macmillan Audio. ISBN 9781427273239. Read by the author.
Shatner and Leonard Nimoy first met as journeymen actors on the set of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Little did they know that their next roles, in a new sci-fi television series, would shape their lives in ways no one could have anticipated. In 79 television episodes and six feature films, they grew to know each other better than most friends could ever imagine. Over the course of nearly half a century, Shatner and Nimoy saw each other through personal and professional highs and lows. In this powerfully emotional audiobook, Shatner tells the story of a man who was his friend for more than 50 years, recounting anecdotes and untold stories of their lives on and off set, as well as gathering stories from Nimoy’s close friends and family to present a full picture of a rich life..
Stein, Jean. West of Eden. Books on Tape. ISBN 9780451481924. Reader TBA.
Stein’s oral history illuminate the bold aspirations of five larger-than-life individuals and their families. At the center of each family is a dreamer who finds fortune and strife in Southern California: Edward Doheny, the Wisconsin-born oil tycoon whose corruption destroyed the reputation of a U.S. president and led to his own son’s violent death; Jack Warner, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who founded one of the world’s most iconic film studios; Jane Garland, the troubled daughter of an aspiring actress who could never escape her mother’s schemes; Jennifer Jones, an actress from Oklahoma who won the Academy Award at 25 but struggled with despair amid her fame and glamour. Finally, Stein chronicles the ascent of her own father, Jules Stein, an eye doctor born in Indiana who transformed Hollywood with the creation of an unrivaled agency and studio. In each chapter, Stein paints a portrait of an outsider who pins his or her hopes on the nascent power and promise of Los Angeles.
Webb, Caroline. How To Have a Good Day. Books on Tape. ISBN 9781101924846. Read by the author.
Economist and former McKinsey partner Webb shows listeners how to use recent findings from behavioral economics, psychology, and neuroscience to transform their approach to everyday working life. Advances in these behavioral sciences are giving us ever better understanding of how our brains work, why we make the choices we do, and what it takes for us to be at our best. But it has not always been easy to see how to apply these insights in the real world. Webb explains exactly how to apply this science to our daily tasks and routines. She translates three big scientific ideas into step-by-step guidance that shows us how to set better priorities, make our time go further, ace every interaction, be our smartest selves, strengthen our personal impact, be resilient to setbacks, and boost our energy and enjoyment.
White, Marco Pierre. The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef. Brilliance. ISBN 9781511366519. Read by Tim Bentinck.
The first British chef (and the youngest chef anywhere) to win three Michelin stars—and the only chef ever to give them all back—is a chain-smoking, pot-throwing multiply married culinary genius whose fierce devotion to food and restaurants has been the only constant in a life of tabloid-ready turmoil. Here White tells the story behind his ascent from working-class roots to culinary greatness, relaying raucous and revealing tales featuring some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond, including Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsay, Michael Caine, Damien Hirst, and Prince Charles.