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ID: 294098

Title: Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection

Author: John T. Cacioppo, William Patrick

Narrator: Dick Hill

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10:34:23

Language: English

Release date: 08-19-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: Non-Fiction, Psychology

Summary:

John T. Cacioppo's groundbreaking research topples one of the pillars of modern medicine and psychology: the focus on the individual as the unit of inquiry. By employing brain scans, monitoring blood pressure, and analyzing immune function, he demonstrates the overpowering influence of social context-a factor so strong that it can alter DNA replication. He defines an unrecognized syndrome, chronic loneliness; brings it out of the shadow of its cousin, depression; and shows how this subjective sense of social isolation uniquely disrupts our perceptions, behavior, and physiology, becoming a trap that not only reinforces isolation but can also lead to early death. He gives the lie to the Hobbesian view of human nature as a 'war of all against all,' and he shows how social cooperation is, in fact, humanity's defining characteristic. Most important, he shows how we can break the trap of isolation for our benefit both as individuals and as a society.

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ID: 118025

Title: Count of Monte Cristo

Author: Alexandre Dumas

Narrator: David Case

Format: Abridged

Length: 17:30:00

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Historical Fiction, Action & Adventure, Classics

Summary:

This is an Abridged Edition

For Edmond Dantes, life couldn't be better. At nineteen, he is soon to be captain of his own ship and about to be married to his true love, Mercedes. But his life is suddenly turned upside down when, on his wedding day, he is arrested. Without a fair trial, he is condemned to solitary confinement in the miserable Chateau d'If. Soon it is clear that Edmond has been framed by a handful of powerful enemies, jealous of his success.

While locked away, Edmond learns from another prisoner, Abbe Faria, of a secret treasure hidden on the island of Monte Cristo. Faria teaches Edmond history, science, languages, and philosophy, turning him into a well-rounded individual. Edmond concocts a daring and audacious plan: escape and find the treasure. But years pass before Edmond can escape. Once he does, he transforms himself into the Count of Monte Cristo and launches his plan for revenge against those who imprisoned him.

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ID: 118024

Title: Black Beauty

Author: Anna Sewell

Narrator: Simon Vance

Format: Unabridged

Length: 06:00:00

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: Kids, Animals & Nature, Classics

Summary:

Every child loves a story about a horse, and Black Beauty remains one of the finest, most touching ever written. Set in Victorian London, the novel follows the shifting fortunes of a horse as he moves from owner to owner. Narrated by the noble Black Beauty himself, the tale offers an animal's perspective of the world and highlights the thoughtless, even cruel treatment animals endured during that period.

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ID: 117631

Title: Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season

Author: Nick Heil

Narrator: David Drummond

Format: Unabridged

Length: 08:30:00

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: History, Asia, Science & Technology, Animals & Nature

Summary:

In early May 2006, a young British climber named David Sharp lay dying near the top of Mount Everest while forty other climbers walked past him on their way to the summit. A week later, Lincoln Hall, a seasoned Australian climber, was left for dead near the same spot. Hall's death was reported around the world, but the next day he was found alive after spending the night on the upper mountain with no food and no shelter.

If David Sharp's death was shocking, it was not singular: despite unusually good weather, ten others died attempting to reach the summit that year. In this meticulous inquiry into what went wrong, Nick Heil tells the full story of the deadliest year on Everest since the infamous season of 1996. He introduces Russell Brice, the outfitter who has done more than anyone to provide access to the summit via the mountain's north side-and who some believe was partially responsible for Sharp's death. As more climbers attempt the summit each year, Heil shows how increasingly risky expeditions and unscrupulous outfitters threaten to turn Everest into a deadly circus.

Written by an experienced climber and outdoor writer, Dark Summit is both a riveting account of a notorious climbing season and a troubling investigation into whether the pursuit of the ultimate mountaineering prize has spiralled out of control.

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ID: 118027

Title: Origin of Species

Author: Charles Darwin

Narrator: David Case

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17:00:00

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: Science & Technology, Biology & Chemistry

Summary:

On December 27, 1831, the young naturalist Charles Darwin left Plymouth Harbor aboard the HMS Beagle. For the next five years, he conducted research on plants and animals from around the globe, amassing a body of evidence that would culminate in one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind-the theory of evolution.

Darwin presented his stunning insights in a landmark book that forever altered the way human beings view themselves and the world they live in. In The Origin of Species, Darwin convincingly demonstrates the fact of evolution: that existing animals and plants cannot have appeared separately but must have slowly transformed from ancestral creatures. Most important, the book fully explains the mechanism that effects such a transformation: natural selection, the idea that made evolution scientifically intelligible for the first time.

One of the few revolutionary works of science that is readily accessible to the nonscientist, The Origin of Species not only launched the science of modern biology but has also influenced virtually all subsequent literary, philosophical, and religious thinking.

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ID: 294101

Title: Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba...and Then Lost It to the Revolution

Author: T. J. English

Narrator: Mel Foster

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13:18:09

Language: English

Release date: 08-11-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: History, World

Summary:

In Havana Nocturne, T. J. English offers a riveting, multifaceted true tale of organized crime, political corruption, roaring nightlife, revolution, and international conflict that interweaves the dual stories of the mob in Havana and the event that would overshadow it: the Cuban Revolution.

Bringing together long-buried historical information and English's own research in Havana-including interviews with the era's key survivors-Havana Nocturne takes readers back to Cuba in the years when it was a veritable devil's playground for mob leaders Meyer Lansky and Charles 'Lucky' Luciano. Thanks to strong ties with the island's brutal dictator, President Batista, the mob soon owned the biggest luxury hotels and casinos and launched an unprecedented tourist boom. But their dreams collided with those of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and others who would lead the country's disenfranchised to overthrow their corrupt government and its foreign partners-an epic cultural battle that English captures in all its sexy, decadent, ugly glory.

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ID: 294097

Title: Sand Castle

Author: Rita Mae Brown

Narrator: Marguerite Gavin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:32:27

Language: English

Release date: 08-11-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: Fiction & Literature, General

Summary:

It's August 1952, and seven-year-old Nickel sets off for a day at the seashore with her mother, aunt, and cousin Leroy. Everyone is excited when they reach Chesapeake Bay-everyone except for Leroy, who is recently motherless and frightened of the world around him. Nickel delights in tormenting her cousin, but, as the group lounges on the beach and begins work on a magnificent sand castle, the sisters try to coax him out of his shell by telling stories about their own childhood trips to the shore. However, Nickel's taunting of Leroy escalates, and the family history between her mother and aunt rises to the surface-and then a crab bites Leroy, and they must all come together. Only years later can Nickel see that day for what it truly was-a life-changing lesson about family and the pleasure and heartbreak that comes with it.

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ID: 117754

Title: Man with the Iron Heart

Author: Harry Turtledove

Narrator: William Dufris

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21:00:00

Language: English

Release date: 08-05-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fiction & Literature, Historical Fiction

Summary:

In the real world, Reinhard Heydrich-the number-two man in the SS and an architect of the holocaust-was assassinated in Czechoslovakia in May 1942. Eulogized by Hitler himself as 'The Man with the Iron Heart,' Heydrich-also known as 'The Butcher' and 'The Hangman'-was one of the most ruthless and calculating of the Nazi elite.

In The Man with the Iron Heart, Heydrich survives that fated assassination attempt only to hatch an insurgency as insidious as anything conceived by Osama bin Laden, designed to keep the German battlefront alive long after the supposed end to hostilities. The Allies thought the war was over, but their problems are just beginning.

The Man with the Iron Heart is the gripping story of the hunt for Rienhard Heydrisch and of the effort to suppress urban guerrilla warfare sixty years before we really run into it in Iraq. Powerful and compelling, Turtledove has never been better.

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ID: 118018

Title: Scarlet Letter

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrator: Shelly Frasier

Format: Unabridged

Length: 09:00:00

Language: English

Release date: 08-04-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Classics

Summary:

It is 1642 in the Puritan town of Boston. Hester Prynne has been found guilty of adultery and has borne an illegitimate child. In lieu of being put to death, she is condemned to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as a reminder of her shameful act.

Hester's husband had been lost at sea years earlier and was presumed dead, but he reappears in time to witness Hester's humiliation on the town scaffold. Upon discovering her deed, the vengeful husband becomes obsessed with finding the identity of the man who dishonored his wife. To do so he assumes a false name, pretends to be a physician, and forces Hester to keep his new identity secret. Meanwhile, Hester's lover, the beloved Reverend Dimmesdale, publicly pressures her to name the child's father while secretly praying that she will not. Hester defiantly protects his identity and reputation, even when faced with losing her daughter, Pearl.

Hailed by Henry James as 'the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country,' Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a masterful portrayal of humanity's continuing struggle with sin, guilt, and pride.

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ID: 117643

Title: Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization

Author: Nicholson Baker

Narrator: Norman Dietz

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14:00:00

Language: English

Release date: 08-04-08

Publisher: Tantor Media

Genres: History, World, Military

Summary:

Human Smoke delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s. Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented sources-including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches, memoirs, and diaries-the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate and examine the gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust.

Praised by critics and readers alike for his exquisitely observant eye and deft, inimitable prose, Baker has assembled a narrative within Human Smoke that unfolds gracefully, tragically, and persuasively. This is an unforgettable book that makes a profound impact on our perceptions of historical events and mourns the unthinkable loss humanity has borne at its own hand.

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