Audiobooks narrated by Rob Shapiro

Patton's Prayer: A True Story of Courage, Faith, and Victory in World War II

From Alex Kershaw, author of the New York Times bestseller Against All Odds, comes an epic story of courage, resilience, and faith during the Second World War General George Patton needed a miracle. In December 1944, the Allies found themselves stuck. Rain had plagued the troops daily since September, turning roads into rivers of muck, slowing trucks and tanks to a crawl. A thick ceiling of clouds had grounded American warplanes, allowing the Germans to reinforce. The sprint to Berlin had become a muddy, bloody stalemate, costing thousands of American lives. Patton seethed, desperate for some change, any change, in the weather. A devout Christian, he telephoned his head chaplain. "Do you have a good prayer for the weather?" he asked. The resulting prayer was soon printed and distributed to the 250,000 men under Patton's command. "Pray when driving," the men were told. "Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for the cessation of immoderate rains, for good weather for Battle. . . . Pray for victory. . . . Pray for Peace." Then came the Battle of the Bulge. Amid frigid temperatures and heavy snow, 200,000 German troops overwhelmed the meager American lines in Belgium's Ardennes Forest, massacring thousands of soldiers as the attack converged on a vital crossroads town called Bastogne. There, the 101st Airborne was dug in, but the enemy were lurking, hidden in the thick blanket of fog that seemed to never dissipate. A hundred miles of frozen roads to the south, Patton needed an answer to his prayer, fast, before it was too late.

Alex Kershaw (Author), Rob Shapiro, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

An American Dreamer: Life in a Divided Country

An immersive account of a man navigating the startling changes underway in contemporary America, from the Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Award-winning author of The Good Soldiers and Thank You for Your Service "Finkel's account is poetic, profound, and irresistibly page-turning."-Geraldine Brooks, author of Horse Brent Cummings, an Iraq war veteran, has come home feeling he survived one war only to find himself in the midst of another one. The country he loves and defended for twenty-eight years seems to be unraveling in front of his eyes. Raised to believe in a vision of America that values fairness, honesty, and respect for others, Cummings is increasingly engulfed by the fear and anger sweeping through his beloved country as he tries to hold on to hope for America's future. David Finkel, known for his unique, in-depth reporting, spent fourteen years immersed in Brent Cummings's world to create this intimate, acutely observed, and beautifully written portrait of a man's life, thoughts, and feelings as America becomes ever more divided. Cummings was one of the unforgettable figures in Finkel's The Good Soldiers, a book about which The New York Times stated, "Finkel has made art out of a defining moment in history. You will be able to take this book down from the shelf years from now and say: This is what happened. This is what it felt like." In An American Dreamer, Finkel chronicles the everyday experiences of people, through moments of hope and despair, illuminating the struggles of many Americans today in a deeply fractured country at a time of crisis.

David Finkel (Author), Rob Shapiro, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe

From three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author Steve Sheinkin, a true story of two Jewish teenagers racing against time during the Holocaust―one in hiding in Hungary, and the other in Auschwitz, plotting escape. It is 1944. A teenager named Rudolf (Rudi) Vrba has made up his mind. After barely surviving nearly two years in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, he knows he must escape. Even if death is more likely. Rudi has learned the terrible secret hidden behind the heavily guarded fences of concentration camps across Nazi-occupied Europe: the methodical mass killing of Jewish prisoners. As trains full of people arrive daily, Rudi knows that the murders won't stop until he reveals the truth to the world―and that each day that passes means more lives are lost. Lives like Rudi's schoolmate Gerta Sidonová. Gerta's family fled from Slovakia to Hungary, where they live under assumed names to hide their Jewish identity. But Hungary is beginning to cave under pressure from German Nazis. Her chances of survival become slimmer by the day. The clock is ticking. As Gerta inches closer to capture, Rudi and his friend Alfred Wetzler begin their crucial steps towards an impossible escape. This is the true story of one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, and how his death-defying escape helped save over 100,000 lives.

Steve Sheinkin (Author), Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Diary Keepers: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times – World War II in the Netherlands, as Writte

Based on select writings from an exceptional Amsterdam archive containing more than two thousand Dutch diaries from World War II, The Diary Keepers illuminates a part of history we haven’t seen in quite this way before. This audiobook is read by Nina Siegal, Maggi-Meg Reed, Nan McNamara, Catherine Taber, Jenna Lamia, Rob Shapiro, Mike Ortego, Robert Petkoff, Steven Jay Cohen and Jim Meskimen Nina Siegal, an accomplished journalist and novelist, weaves together excerpts from the daily journals of collaborators, resistors, and the persecuted—a Dutch Nazi police detective, a Jewish journalist imprisoned at Westerbork transit camp, a grocery store owner who saved dozens of lives—into a braided nonfictional narrative of the Nazi occupation and the Dutch Holocaust, as individuals experienced it day by day. Siegal provides the context, both historical and personal, while she tries to make sense of her own relationship to this past. As a “second-generation survivor” born and raised in New York, she attempts to understand what it meant for her mother and maternal grandparents to live through the war in Europe in those times. When Siegal moved to Amsterdam, those questions came up again, as did another horrifying one: Why did 75 percent of the Dutch Jewish community perish in the war, while in other Western European countries the proportions were significantly lower? How did this square with the narratives of Dutch resistance she had heard so much about, and in what way did it relate to the famed Dutch tolerance? Searching and singular, The Diary Keepers takes us into the lives of seven diary writers and follows their pasts into the present, through interviews with those who preserved and inherited these diaries. Along the way, Siegal investigates the nature of memory and how the traumatic past is rewritten again and again.

Nina Siegal (Author), Catherine Taber, Jenna Lamia, Jim Meskimen, Maggie-Meg Reed, Mike Ortego, Nan Mcnamara, Rob Shapiro, Robert Petkoff, Steven Jay (Narrator)

Audiobook

How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovatio

Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant, new reality. Think of how Apple's iPod went from a project with a single employee to an enormously successful product launch in eleven months. But they are the exception. Consider how London's Crossrail project delivered five years late and billions overbudget. More modest endeavours, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly fail. Why? Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life's work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg. In How Big Things Get Done, he identifies the errors that lead projects to fail, and the research-based principles that will make yours succeed: - Understand your odds. If you don't know them, you won't win. - Plan slow, act fast. Getting to the action quick feels right. But it's wrong. - Think right to left. Start with your goal, then identify the steps to get there. - Find your Lego. Big is best built from small. - Master the unknown unknowns. Most think they can't, so they fail. Flyvbjerg shows how you can. Full of vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House to the making of the latest Pixar blockbusters, How Big Things Get Done reveals how to get any ambitious project done - on time and on budget.

Bent Flyvbjerg, Dan Gardner (Author), Ben Shapiro, Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

Audiobook

Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller

From Alec Nevala-Lee, the author of the Hugo and Locus Award finalist Astounding, comes a revelatory biography of the visionary designer who defined the rules of startup culture and shaped America’s idea of the future. During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the twentieth century. As the architectural designer and futurist best known for the geodesic dome, he enthralled a vast popular audience, inspired devotion from both the counterculture and the establishment, and was praised as a modern Leonardo da Vinci. To his admirers, he exemplified what one man could accomplish by approaching urgent design problems using a radically unconventional set of strategies, which he based on a mystical conception of the universe’s geometry. His views on sustainability, as embodied in the image of Spaceship Earth, convinced him that it was possible to provide for all humanity through the efficient use of planetary resources. From Epcot Center to the molecule named in his honor as the buckyball, Fuller’s legacy endures to this day, and his belief in the transformative potential of technology profoundly influenced the founders of Silicon Valley. Inventor of the Future is the first authoritative biography to cover all aspects of Fuller’s career. Drawing on meticulous research, dozens of interviews, and thousands of unpublished documents, Nevala-Lee has produced a riveting portrait that transcends the myth of Fuller as an otherworldly generalist. It reconstructs the true origins of his most famous inventions, including the Dymaxion Car, the Wichita House, and the dome itself; his fraught relationships with his students and collaborators; his interactions with Frank Lloyd Wright, Isamu Noguchi, Clare Boothe Luce, John Cage, Steve Jobs, and many others; and his tumultuous private life, in which his determination to succeed on his own terms came at an immense personal cost. In an era of accelerating change, Fuller’s example remains enormously relevant, and his lessons for designers, activists, and innovators are as powerful and essential as ever. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Alec Nevala-Lee (Author), Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Nature of the Game: Links Golf at Bandon Dunes and Far Beyond

Essential reading for every golfer from the sport's most acclaimed course developer-a comprehensive, firsthand account of restoring the inherent satisfactions of this centuries-old game, from the beauty of natural courses to the joys of walking the course "Mike Keiser is the best thing to happen to golf since the Big Bertha. He's the guy who single-handedly saved us from the Fake 100-foot Waterfall Era. He gave us back nature, walking and buddy trips. This is a fascinating read on how in the world he did it."-Rick Reilly, golf writer An avid golfer with a demanding career in the greeting card business, Mike Keiser found a new calling on the authentic links courses of Scotland and Ireland. Seized by the beauty of the landscape and the holes running through it, he determined this was how golf was meant to be: inclusive, not private; played on foot, not riding a cart; the courses natural, neither lavish nor contrived. Vowing to transplant this experience to the States, Keiser entered the golf business and, ignoring the advice of experts, built a true links course in Oregon. Bandon Dunes has redefined the game here and become a destination for golfers everywhere. Those same convictions have now produced other top-ranked courses by Keiser-in Wisconsin, Nova Scotia, Tasmania, and elsewhere-whose magical allure demonstrates what the world's most gifted golf course architects can accomplish by working on designs that hew to the natural landscape. Keiser's further commitments-to the caddies, greens crews, and staff at his resorts; to the communities in which they're located; and to deep environmental stewardship-enhance the singular appeal of these immensely popular courses. At once an account of inventing a new, life-changing business, a guide to historic course design, and a paean to the sport that has recently experienced a surge of growth, The Nature of the Game is essential reading for every golfer. *Includes a downloadable PDF containing beautiful photographs and mementos from the printed book

Mike Keiser, Stephen Goodwin (Author), Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

Audiobook

Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial

'Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and told with the air of suspense that few writers can handle, Wastelands is a story I wish I had written.' -From the Foreword by John Grisham The once idyllic coastal plain of North Carolina is home to a close-knit, rural community that for more than a generation has battled the polluting practices of large-scale farming taking place in its own backyard. After years of frustration and futility, an impassioned cadre of local residents, led by a team of intrepid and dedicated lawyers, filed a lawsuit against one of the world's most powerful companies-and, miraculously, they won. As vivid and fast-paced as a thriller, Wastelands takes us into the heart of a legal battle over the future of America's farmland and into the lives of the people who found the courage to fight. There is Elsie Herring, the most outspoken of the neighbors, who has endured racial slurs and the threat of a restraining order to tell the story of the waste raining down on her rooftop from the hog operation next door. There is Don Webb, a larger-than-life hog farmer turned grassroots crusader, and Rick Dove, a riverkeeper and erstwhile military judge who has pioneered the use of aerial photography to document the scale of the pollution. There is Woodell McGowan, a quiet man whose quest to redeem his family's ancestral land encourages him to become a better neighbor, and Dr. Steve Wing, a groundbreaking epidemiologist whose work on the health effects of hog waste exposure translates the neighbors' stories into the argot of science. And there is Tom Butler, an environmental savant and hog industry insider whose whistleblowing testimony electrifies the jury. Fighting alongside them in the courtroom is Mona Lisa Wallace, who broke the gender barrier in her small southern town and built a storied legal career out of vanquishing corporate giants, and Mike Kaeske, whose trial skills are second to none. With journalistic rigor and a novelist's instinct for story, Corban Addison's Wastelands captures the inspiring struggle to bring a modern-day monopoly to its knees, to force a once-invincible corporation to change, and to preserve the rights-and restore the heritage-of a long-suffering community.

Corban Addison (Author), Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

Audiobook

I am I. M. Pei

The world-renowned architect I. M. Pei is the twenty-fourth hero in the New York Times bestselling picture book biography series, adapted for audio. This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great--the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero's childhood influences. This book features I. M. Pei, the award-winning Chinese American architect whose projects include the John F. Kennedy Library and the pyramid at the Louvre.

Brad Meltzer (Author), Caroline Mclaughlin, Catherine Ho, Feodor Chin, Francois Chau, Graham Halstead, James Sie, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Infodemic: How Censorship and Lies Made the World Sicker and Less Free

An inside look at how the governments of Iran, Russia, India, Egypt, Brazil, India and the US used COVID as a pretense to undermine freedom The Infodemic lays bare the mechanisms of modern censorship and shows how they were used to undermine the response to the greatest global pandemic in a century. Beginning in China, the book charts the onslaught of COVID censorship through Iran, Russia, India, Egypt, Brazil, India and inside the Trump White House. Modern censors not only restrict the flow of information but also open the floodgates to overwhelm the public with lies and half truths. Increased surveillance in the name of public health, the collapse of public trust in institutions, and the demise of local news reporting, help governments hijack the flow of information and usurp power. The Infodemic shows how, under the cover of COVID, governments have undermined freedom and taken control. This new global political order may be the legacy of the disease. THIS AUDIOBOOK MAY INCLUDE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. INFORMATION RELATED TO COVID-19 CONTINUES TO EVOLVE. AUDIOBOOKS.COM ENCOURAGES YOU TO SEEK UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE FROM YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH UNIT.

Joel Simon, Robert Mahoney (Author), Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

Audiobook

Squish #5: Game On!

Soon to be an animated show on HBO Max! It's SQUISH-a hilarious, action packed graphic novel series, now adapted for audio, from the award-winning creators of Babymouse! Filled with superheroes, comics within comics, and gross-out science, Squish is perfect for fans of Dog Man, Captain Underpants, and My Weird School. Beep! Beep! Squish can't get enough of his awesome new video game Mitosis! (Mitosis is what happens when cells divide. Who says video games can't be educational?) In fact, he may even be obsessed! He plays at home . . . at school. . . even in his sleep! Are video games taking over Squish's life?! And can Squish's favorite comic book hero, Super Amoeba, stop the Creeping Black Mold that's taking over Small Pond? Find out in Squish #5: Game On-saving the world, one cell at a time! Here's what people are saying about everyone's favorite amoeba! New York Times: 'An energetic, good-hearted escapade, one that young readers will enjoy.' Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews: * 'Hilarious. If ever a new series deserved to go viral, this one does.' The Bulletin: 'A perfect mix of writing that is simple enough for early readers but still remarkably snarky, clever, and entertaining. Kids will soak up the humor, tidbits of science instruction, and adventure.'

Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm (Author), Andrea Emmes, Fred Sanders, Jim Meskimen, Jorjeana Marie, Kirby Heyborne, Marc Cashman, Mark Deakins, Mary Dilts, Maxwell Glick, Rene Ruiz, Rob Shapiro, Tonya Cornelisse (Narrator)

Audiobook

Squish #6: Fear the Amoeba

Soon to be an animated show on HBO Max! He's ba-ack! From the award-winning creators of Babymouse, it's the most spine-tingling* Squish yet! Gulp! A SCARY new movie has everyone talking-and Squish is SPOOKED out of his cellular mind! But it's just a movie, right? Right?! Will Squish be eaten alive by a TERRIFYING movie monster? Will his friends think he's (gasp!) totally chicken? And can Squish's comic book hero, Super Amoeba, defeat his CREEPIEST foe yet? Find out the answers to these questions and more in the 6th Squish adapted-for-audio novel: Fear the Amoeba-saving the world, one cell at a time! *Amoebas do not actually have spines. Filled with superheroes, comics within comics, and gross-out science, Squish is perfect for fans of Dog Man, Captain Underpants, and My Weird School.

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Rob Shapiro