New Full Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, History & Culture

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/731647 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Martyr and the Red Kimono: A Fearless Priest’s Sacrifice and A New Generation of Hope in Japan Author: Naoko Abe Narrator: Ami Okumura Jones Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 12 hours 52 minutes Release date: April 18, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. On the 14th of August 1941, a Polish monk named Maximilian Maria Kolbe was murdered in Auschwitz. Kolbe's life had been remarkable. Fiercely intelligent and driven, he founded a movement of Catholicism and spent several years in Nagasaki, ministering to the 'hidden Christians' who had emerged after centuries of oppression. A Polish nationalist as well as a monk, he gave sanctuary to fleeing refugees and ran Poland's largest publishing operation, drawing the wrath of the Nazis. His death was no less remarkable: he volunteered to die, saving the life of a fellow prisoner. It was an act that profoundly transformed the lives of two Japanese men. Tomei Ozaki was just seventeen when the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, destroying his home and his family. Masatoshi Asari worked on a farm in Hokkaido during the war and was haunted by the inhumane treatment of prisoners in a nearby camp. Forged in the crucible of an unforgiving war, both men drew inspiration from Kolbe's sacrifice, dedicating their lives to humanity and justice. In The Martyr and the Red Kimono, award-winning author Naoko Abe weaves together a deeply moving and inspirational true story of resistance, sacrifice, guilt and atonement. ©2024 Naoko Abe (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/722939 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King Author: Patrick Olivelle Narrator: Neil Shah Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 12 hours 6 minutes Release date: April 16, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: There are few historical figures more integral to South Asian history than Emperor Ashoka, a third-century BCE king who ruled over a larger area of the Indian subcontinent than anyone else before British colonial rule. Ashoka sought not only to rule his territory but also to give it a unity of purpose and aspiration, to unify the people of his vastly heterogeneous empire not by a cult of personality but by the cult of an idea—'dharma'—which served as the linchpin of a new moral order. He aspired to forge a new moral philosophy that would be internalized not only by the people of his empire but also by rulers and subjects of other countries, and would form the foundation for his theory of international relations, in which practicing dharma would bring international conflicts to an end. His fame spread far and wide both in India and in other parts of Asia, and it prompted diverse reimaginations of the king and his significance. In this deeply researched book, Patrick Olivelle draws on Ashoka's inscriptions and on the art and architecture he pioneered to craft a detailed picture of Ashoka as a ruler, a Buddhist, a moral philosopher, and an ecumenist who governed a vast multiethnic, multilinguistic, and multireligious empire.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/763267 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Man's Search for Meaning Author: Viktor E. Frankl Narrator: Theo Solomon Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 5 hours 43 minutes Release date: April 9, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 9 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: As relevant today as it was when it was first published, Man’s Search for Meaning is a book for finding strength and purpose in times of great despair. “This is a book I reread a lot … it gives me hope … it gives me a sense of strength.”—Anderson Cooper, Anderson Cooper 360/CNN Viktor E. Frankl was a medical doctor at a psychiatric hospital in 1942 when he became a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps in World War II. In 1946, he published this book about his camp experiences and a method of psychotherapy he developed. Forty-five years later, it was still named one of the most influential books in the United States. Part One describes his three years in four Nazi concentration camps, which took the lives of his wife, father, mother, and brother. He closely observed inmates’ reactions to their situation, as well as how survivors came to terms with their liberation. Part Two, introducing logotherapy, is an academic discussion of the psychological reactions experienced by all inmates to one degree or another. It solidified Frankl’s early theory that humanity’s primary motivational force is finding meaning in one’s life. In Germany, titled Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager, or A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp, its title in the first English translation was From Death-Camp to Existentialism. As of 2022, this book has sold 16 million copies and been published in 52 languages.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/753818 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah Series: Part of Jewish Lives Author: Ian Buruma Narrator: Lee Beddow Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 22 minutes Release date: April 9, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Ian Buruma explores the life and death of Baruch Spinoza, the Enlightenment thinker whose belief in freedom of thought and speech resonates in our own time Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677) was a radical free thinker who led a life guided by strong moral principles despite his disbelief in an all-seeing God. Seen by many as Satan's disciple during his lifetime, Spinoza has been regarded as a secular saint since his death. Many contradictory beliefs have been attached to his name: rationalism or metaphysics, atheism or pantheism, liberalism or despotism, Jewishness or anti-Semitism. However, there is no question that he viewed freedom of thought and speech as essential to an open and free society. In this insightful account, the award-winning author Ian Buruma stresses the importance of the time and place that shaped Spinoza, beginning with the Sephardim of Amsterdam and followed by the politics of the Dutch Republic. Though Spinoza rejected the basic assumptions of his family's faith, and was consequently expelled from his Sephardic community, Buruma argues that Spinoza did indeed lead a modern Jewish life. To Heine, Hess, Marx, Freud, and no doubt many others today, Spinoza exemplified how to be Jewish without believing in Judaism. His defense of universal freedom is as important for our own time as it was in his.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/741708 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Testing Education: A Teacher's Memoir Author: Kathy Greeley Narrator: Suzie Althens Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 14 hours 57 minutes Release date: April 8, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Since the 2002 implementation of No Child Left Behind, the American public education system has been fundamentally changed. Excessive testing, standardized curriculums, destructive demands on children, corporate-­style evaluations, and top-­down mandates have become the norm. In response, record numbers of demoralized educators have quit, and millions of students have been left educationally impoverished. This troubling transformation has been exhaustively critiqued by scholars and commentators. Yet one crucial voice has been missing. In Testing Education, Kathy Greeley recounts the impact of education reform from a teacher's point of view. Based on a teaching career ranging nearly forty years, Greeley details how schools went from learning communities infused with excitement, intellectual stimulation, and joy to sterile spaces of stress, intimidation, and fear. In this ultimately hopeful memoir, Greeley asks us to learn from the past to reimagine the future of public education.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/764518 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World Author: Rae Wynn-Grant Narrator: Rae Wynn-Grant Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 18 minutes Release date: April 2, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: In this vulnerable and urgent memoir, Rae Wynn-Grant explores the ever-shifting relationship between humans, animals, and the earth through her personal journey to becoming a wildlife ecologist. Growing up in the diverse and bustling California Bay Area, renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant always felt worlds away from the white male adventurers she watched explore the wilderness on TV. She dreamed of a future where she could spend sleepless nights under the crowded canopies of the Amazon and the starry skies of the savanna. But as Rae set off on her own expeditions in the wild, she saw nature’s delicate balance in a new light. Wild Life follows Rae on her adventures and explorations in some of the world’s most remote locales. Hers is a story about a nearly twenty-year career in the wild?carving a niche as one of very few Black female scientists?and the challenges she had to overcome, expectations she had to leave behind, and the many lessons she learned along the way. An incredible journey spanning the Great Plains of North America to the rainforests of Madagascar, Wild Life sheds light on our pivotal relationship and responsibility to the natural world and the relatives?both human and otherwise?that we share it with.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/751970 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Headstrap: Legends and Lore from the Climbing Sherpas of Darjeeling Author: Deepa Balsavar, Nandini Purandare Narrator: Jeed Saddy Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 18 minutes Release date: April 1, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: This captivating chronicle delves into the untold story of a tribe of people who have played a significant role in mountain exploration and climbing in the Himalayas. Situated in northern India, Darjeeling was developed as a colonial retreat by the British in the early 1830s and soon became famous for its tea gardens, attracting locals from around the region, Nepal, and Tibet in search of work. When Darjeeling became the jumping-off point for early Himalayan expeditions, workers from the Sherpa and Bhutia communities soon established themselves as the preferred high-altitude porters, bringing fame, entwined with tales of valor, courage, and sacrifice, to the city. These are some of their stories. Over the course of a decade, authors Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar conducted a series of interviews with Sherpas from Darjeeling, as well as their family members, descendants, friends, and contemporary climbers. Headstrap weaves a vivid tapestry of this particular Sherpa community, giving them the recognition in mountaineering literature that they deserve.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/751971 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Arctic Traverse: A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range Author: Michael Engelhard Narrator: Patrick Lawlor Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 6 minutes Release date: April 1, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: A lyrical memoir that interweaves wilderness, homeland, cultural connections, historical figures, humor, and gritty experiences across northern Alaska From the award-winning author of Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an Arctic Icon comes an intimate exploration of Alaska's northernmost mountain range with observations on Indigenous cultures, conservation, and intense cross-country travel, all shaped by respect for the land. Follow author Michael Engelhard through tussock-studded tundra for a remarkable tale of bear encounters and white-knuckled river moments, as well as poetic reflections on a vast, untamed landscape. A trained anthropologist, Engelhard evokes classic writers like Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, and Ellen Meloy with profound dives into human and natural history and vivid meditations on Alaskan wildlife, flora, and geology. When he embarked on this thru-hike, fewer people had completed it solo in a single push than had dived to the floor of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of Earth's oceans. Much more than a captivating account of a human-powered solo thru-hike and float, Arctic Traverse illuminates the spirit of Alaska, drawing on encounters with Indigenous elders, guided clients, scientists, and others as well as on Engelhard's long-held dream and his experiences of the land itself.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/741562 to listen full audiobooks. Title: A Political Theory for the Jewish People Author: Chaim Gans Narrator: Barry Abrams Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 8 minutes Release date: March 26, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Chaim Gans's A Political Theory for the Jewish People examines the two dominant interpretations of Zionism, contrasts them with post-Zionist alternatives, and develops a third model. Proprietary Zionism, Gans argues, is the version that is most popular among the Israeli Jewish public. It conceives of the land of Israel/historic Palestine as the property of the Jewish people. It also conceives of the entire Jewish people as belonging to Israel. Hierarchical Zionism is common among Israel's educated elites and interprets the Jewish right to self-determination as a right to hegemony within the Israeli state. It remains silent on the relationship between Israeli and non-Israeli Jews. Post-Zionist approaches, conversely, critique the rationale for the continued existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state. Gans disagrees with these approaches, and in their stead advocates egalitarian Zionism, which is based on an egalitarian interpretation of the right to national self-determination. As such, it interprets the historical link between the Jews and the land of Israel in terms of identity rather than property. Ultimately, the book argues that egalitarian Zionism is superior to its rivals both in the authenticity of its relationship to Jewish history and in its implications for denizens of Israel and Jews around the world.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/737662 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family Author: Najla Said Narrator: Najla Said Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 5 minutes Release date: March 26, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: A frank and entertaining memoir, from the daughter of Edward Said, about growing up second-generation Arab American and struggling with that identity. The daughter of a prominent Palestinian father and a sophisticated Lebanese mother, Najla Said grew up in New York City, confused and conflicted about her cultural background and identity. Said knew that her parents identified deeply with their homelands, but growing up in a Manhattan world that was defined largely by class and conformity, she felt unsure about who she was supposed to be, and was often in denial of the differences she sensed between her family and those around her. The fact that her father was the famous intellectual and outspoken Palestinian advocate Edward Said only made things more complicated. She may have been born a Palestinian Lebanese American, but in Said’s mind she grew up first as a WASP, having been baptized Episcopalian in Boston and attending the wealthy Upper East Side girls’ school Chapin, then as a teenage Jew, essentially denying her true roots, even to herself—until, ultimately, the psychological toll of all this self-hatred began to threaten her health. As she grew older, making increased visits to Palestine and Beirut, Said’s worldview shifted. The attacks on the World Trade Center, and some of the ways in which Americans responded, finally made it impossible for Said to continue to pick and choose her identity, forcing her to see herself and her passions more clearly. Today, she has become an important voice for second-generation Arab Americans nationwide.