Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/392721 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: A Brief History of Japan: Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun

Author: Jonathan Clements

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 42 minutes

Release date: October 22, 2019

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 3

Ratings of Narrator: 1 of Total 1

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

This fascinating history tells the story of the people of Japan, from ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two centuries in self-imposed seclusion. First revealed to Westerners in the chronicles of Marco Polo, Japan was a legendary faraway land defended by a fearsome Kamikaze storm and ruled by a divine sovereign. It was the terminus of the Silk Road, the furthest end of the known world, a fertile source of inspiration for European artists, and an enduring symbol of the mysterious East. In recent times, it has become a powerhouse of global industry, a nexus of popular culture, and a harbinger of post-industrial decline. With intelligence and wit, author Jonathan Clements blends documentary and storytelling styles to connect the past, present, and future of Japan, and in broad yet detailed strokes reveals a country of paradoxes: a modern nation steeped in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes resting on the world's most active earthquake zone; a fast-paced urban and technologically advanced country whose land consists predominantly of mountains and forests.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/477183 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: [German] - Japan, für dich ein Spaziergang!: Mit diesem Hörbuch wird deine Japanreise ein entspannter Genuss mit viel Spass, Freude und fröhlichen Begegnungen!

Author: Ronja Sakata

Narrator: Ronja Sakata

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 3 hours 57 minutes

Release date: October 20, 2019

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

Du denkst in Japan machst du alles falsch und trittst in jedes Fettnäpfchen? Mit diesem Hörbuch lösen sich deine Unsicherheiten und Sorgen in Luft auf, denn du bekommst ein konkretes Drehbuch für Japan, inklusive Japanisch. Deine Reisevorfreude vervielfacht sich und du bekommst ganz viel Lust darauf noch mehr Japanisch zu lernen. Wie? Online mit dem Gratis Japanischkurs der Autorin. ronjasakata.com

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/476993 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: [German] - Japan, für dich ein Spaziergang!: Mit diesem Hörbuch wird deine Japanreise ein entspannter Genuss mit viel Spass, Freude und fröhlichen Begegnungen!

Author: Ronja Sakata

Narrator: Ronja Sakata

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 3 hours 48 minutes

Release date: October 20, 2019

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

Du denkst in Japan machst du alles falsch und trittst in jedes Fettnäpfchen? Mit diesem Hörbuch lösen sich deine Unsicherheiten und Sorgen in Luft auf, denn du bekommst ein konkretes Drehbuch für Japan, inklusive Japanisch. Deine Reisevorfreude vervielfacht sich und du bekommst ganz viel Lust darauf noch mehr Japanisch zu lernen. Wie? Online mit dem Gratis Japanischkurs der Autorin. ronjasakata.com

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/393307 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Samurai: A Concise History

Author: Michael Wert

Narrator: P.J. Ochlan

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 3 hours 58 minutes

Release date: October 15, 2019

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.75 of Total 4

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

The idea of the sword-wielding samurai, beholden to a strict ethical code and trained in deadly martial arts, dominates popular conceptions of the samurai. As early as the late seventeenth century, they were heavily featured in literature, art, theater, and even comedy, from the Tale of the Heike to the kabuki retellings of the 47 Ronin. This legacy remains with us today in the legendary Akira Kurosawa films, the shoguns of HBO's Westworld, and countless renditions of samurai history in anime, manga, and video games. Acknowledging these common depictions, this book gives listeners access to the real samurai as they lived, fought, and served. Much as they capture the modern imagination, the samurai commanded influence over the politics, arts, philosophy, and religion of their own time, and ultimately controlled Japan from the fourteenth century until their demise in the mid-nineteenth century. On and off the battlefield, whether charging an enemy on horseback or currying favor at the imperial court, their story is one of adventures and intrigues, heroics and misdeeds, unlikely victories and devastating defeats. This book traces the samurai throughout this history, exploring their roles in watershed events such as Japan's invasions of Korea at the close of the sixteenth century and the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/392997 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community

Author: Richard J. Samuels

Narrator: David De Vries

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 52 minutes

Release date: October 15, 2019

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

The prewar history of the Japanese intelligence community demonstrates how having power over much, but insight into little can have devastating consequences. Its postwar history has also been problematic for national security. In Special Duty Richard J. Samuels dissects the fascinating history of the intelligence community in Japan. Looking at the impact of shifts in the strategic environment, technological change, and past failures, he probes the reasons why Japan has endured such a roller-coaster ride when it comes to intelligence gathering and analysis, and concludes that the ups and downs of the past century—combined with growing uncertainties in the regional security environment—have convinced Japanese leaders of the critical importance of striking balance between power and insight. Using examples of excessive hubris and debilitating bureaucratic competition before the Asia-Pacific War, the unavoidable dependence on US assets and popular sensitivity to security issues after World War II, and the tardy adoption of image-processing and cyber technologies, Samuels's bold book highlights the century-long history of Japan's struggles to develop a fully functioning and effective intelligence capability, and makes clear that Japanese leaders have begun to reinvent their nation's intelligence community.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/393042 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture

Author: Roger J. Davies, Osamu Ikeno

Narrator: Eric Jason Martin

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 49 minutes

Release date: September 24, 2019

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

In The Japanese Mind, Roger Davies offers Westerners an invaluable key to the unique aspects of Japanese culture. Listeners of this book will gain a clear understanding of what makes the Japanese, and their society, tick. Among the topics explored: aimai (ambiguity), amae (dependence upon others' benevolence), amakudari (the nation's descent from heaven), chinmoku (silence in communication), gambari (perseverance), giri (social obligation), haragei (literally, 'belly art'; implicit, unspoken communication), kenkyo (the appearance of modesty), sempai-kohai (seniority), wabi-sabi (simplicity and elegance), and zoto (gift giving), as well as discussions of child-rearing, personal space, and the roles of women in Japanese society. All in all, this book is an easy-to-use introduction to the distinguishing characteristics of Japanese society; an invaluable resource for anyone—business people, travelers, or students—perfect for course adoption, but also for anyone interested in Japanese culture.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/376643 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Hiroshima

Author: John Hersey

Narrator: George Guidall

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 5 hours 24 minutes

Release date: September 17, 2019

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.59 of Total 17

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 3

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author John Hersey's seminal work of narrative nonfiction which has defined the way we think about nuclear warfare.  “One of the great classics of the war' (The New Republic) that tells what happened in Hiroshima during World War II through the memories of the survivors of the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. 'The perspective [Hiroshima] offers from the bomb’s actual victims is the mandatory counterpart to any Oppenheimer viewing.' —GQ Magazine   “Nothing can be said about this book that can equal what the book has to say. It speaks for itself, and in an unforgettable way, for humanity.” —The New York Times   Hiroshima is the story of six human beings who lived through the greatest single manmade disaster in history. John Hersey tells what these six -- a clerk, a widowed seamstress, a physician, a Methodist minister, a young surgeon, and a German Catholic priest -- were doing at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, when Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. Then he follows the course of their lives hour by hour, day by day. The New Yorker of August 31, 1946, devoted all its space to this story. The immediate repercussions were vast: newspapers here and abroad reprinted it; during evening half-hours it was read over the network of the American Broadcasting Company; leading editorials were devoted to it in uncounted newspapers. Almost four decades after the original publication of this celebrated book John Hersey went back to Hiroshima in search of the people whose stories he had told. His account of what he discovered about them -- the variety of ways in which they responded to the past and went on with their lives -- is now the eloquent and moving final chapter of Hiroshima.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/365647 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Maoism: A Global History

Author: Julia Lovell

Narrator: Nancy Wu

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 21 hours 43 minutes

Release date: September 3, 2019

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 2

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

*** WINNER OF THE 2019 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019 SHORTLISTED FOR THE NAYEF AL-RODHAN PRIZE FOR GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING SHORTLISTED FOR DEUTSCHER PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING*** 'Revelatory and instructive… [a] beautifully written and accessible book’ The Times For decades, the West has dismissed Maoism as an outdated historical and political phenomenon. Since the 1980s, China seems to have abandoned the utopian turmoil of Mao’s revolution in favour of authoritarian capitalism. But Mao and his ideas remain central to the People’s Republic and the legitimacy of its Communist government. With disagreements and conflicts between China and the West on the rise, the need to understand the political legacy of Mao is urgent and growing. The power and appeal of Maoism have extended far beyond China. Maoism was a crucial motor of the Cold War: it shaped the course of the Vietnam War (and the international youth rebellions that conflict triggered) and brought to power the murderous Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; it aided, and sometimes handed victory to, anti-colonial resistance movements in Africa; it inspired terrorism in Germany and Italy, and wars and insurgencies in Peru, India and Nepal, some of which are still with us today – more than forty years after the death of Mao. In this new history, Julia Lovell re-evaluates Maoism as both a Chinese and an international force, linking its evolution in China with its global legacy. It is a story that takes us from the tea plantations of north India to the sierras of the Andes, from Paris’s fifth arrondissement to the fields of Tanzania, from the rice paddies of Cambodia to the terraces of Brixton. Starting with the birth of Mao’s revolution in northwest China in the 1930s and concluding with its violent afterlives in South Asia and resurgence in the People’s Republic today, this is a landmark history of global Maoism.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/411751 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Night in the American Village: Women in the Shadow of the US Military Bases in Okinawa

Author: Akemi Johnson

Narrator: Nancy Wu

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 50 minutes

Release date: August 27, 2019

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 1

Ratings of Narrator: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

A beautifully written examination of the complex relationship between the women living near the US bases in Okinawa and the servicemen who are stationed there At the southern end of the Japanese archipelago lies Okinawa, host to a vast complex of US military bases. A legacy of World War II, these bases have been a fraught issue in Japan for decades—with tensions exacerbated by the often volatile relationship between islanders and the military, especially after the brutal rape of a twelve-year-old girl by three servicemen in the 1990s. But the situation is more complex than it seems. In Night in the American Village, journalist Akemi Johnson takes readers deep into the “border towns” surrounding the bases—a world where cultural and political fault lines compel individuals, both Japanese and American, to continually renegotiate their own identities. Focusing on the women there, she follows the complex fallout of the murder of an Okinawan woman by an ex–US serviceman in 2016 and speaks to protesters, to women who date and marry American men and groups that help them when problems arise, and to Okinawans whose family members survived World War II. Thought-provoking and timely, Night in the American Village is a vivid look at the enduring wounds of US–Japanese history and the cultural and sexual politics of the American military empire.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/383468 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Lost River

Author: Michel Danino

Narrator: Vishal Menon

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 10 minutes

Release date: July 30, 2019

Genres: Asia

Publisher's Summary:

The Indian subcontinent was the scene of dramatic upheavals a few thousand years ago. The Northwest region entered an arid phase, and erosion coupled with tectonic events played havoc with river courses. One of them disappeared. Celebrated as -Sarasvati' in the Rig Veda and the Mahabharata, this river was rediscovered in the early nineteenth century through topographic explorations by British officials. Recently, geological and climatological studies have probed its evolution and disappearance, while satellite imagery has traced the river's buried courses and isotope analyses have dated ancient waters still stored under the Thar Desert. In the same Northwest, the subcontinent's first urban society'the Indus civilization'flourished and declined. But it was not watered by the Indus alone: since Aurel Stein's expedition in the 1940s, hundreds of Harappan sites have been identified in the now dry Sarasvati's basin. The rich Harappan legacy in technologies, arts and culture sowed the seeds of Indian civilization as we know it now. Drawing from recent research in a wide range of disciplines, this book discusses differing viewpoints and proposes a harmonious synthesis'a fascinating tale of exploration that brings to life the vital role the -lost river of the Indian desert' played before its waters gurgled to a stop.