Audiobooks narrated by Ulf Bjorklund

The Book of Viking Myths: From the Voyages of Leif Erikson to the Deeds of Odin, the Storied History

This fascinating new book reveals the origins of the Vikings—from Thor and Leif Erikson to Loki and the Valkyries—and the tales that have influenced our own lives. For thousands of years, Vikings have held a storied place in our culture—their distinct appearance, their mighty longships, their reputation for causing death and destruction. But who were these strange and mysterious folk? The Book of Viking Myths retells the stories of the Viking people, with myths of their gods and goddesses, monsters, and great heroes. From tales of the beautiful and powerful Freyja, to the gold-toothed Heimdallr, to the wolf Fenrir, Peter Archer explores all the figures and tales that make up Norse mythology. Along with these legends of seafaring, dwarves, giants, and the exploits of Thor, you will also discover the influences that Viking culture has had on our own lives. It's a true exploration of Nordic culture—and a glimpse into the history and lore of these fabled Nordic warriors.

Peter Archer (Author), Ulf Bjorklund, Unknown (Narrator)

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The Viking Code: The Art and Science of Norwegian Success

Harness the power of Norwegian cultural wisdom to improve your life and change the world In The Viking Code: The Art and Science of Norwegian Success, economic philosopher, entrepreneur, investor, and former competitive athlete Anders Indset reveals how Norwegian performance athletes and other successful figures use ingrained cultural values to achieve outsized influence on the world stage, as well as how we all can learn from and apply this cultural wisdom to create a better world in the future. Moving far past stories of barbaric conquests and historical comparisons, this book explores concepts like Hvis du tror du er ferdig utlært, er du ikke utlært, men ferdig—a common trap where you assume you've learned everything there is to know and therefore make failure a near certainty. The author builds on classic sustainability concepts to explore the intersection of progress and capitalism, redefining growth to realize a future worth living. You'll learn to make conscious decisions to achieve the kind of realistic future you want to live in and experience a level of personal progress that is the essence of true success. Finally, you'll discover why and how the Viking Code teaches us all valuable lessons about business, politics, and education, and sheds light on why performance is both important and enjoyable.

Anders Indset (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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Navigating Social Justice: A Schema for Educational Leadership

A highly accessible and easily adaptable conceptual framework that helps educational leaders plan, leverage, and sustain change as they create more equitable schools. In Navigating Social Justice, Martin Scanlan introduces a comprehensive social justice schema that melds organizational learning with leading for equity. Scanlan distills wisdom gleaned from the experiences of a variety of educational professionals as well as from his own more than three decades of work in equity-focused partnership with elementary schools. Scanlan's schema brings together five dimensions-inclusivity, communities of practice, critical formation, social ecosystems, and practical wisdom-that work together holistically to eradicate inequitable practices and policies and promote robust teaching and inclusive learning. For each dimension, the book features real-life vignettes that focus the conversation, exercises that encourage reflection, and suggested opportunities for the application of its central ideas. Each chapter also gives access to online tools, extending its utility. The practical guidance offered in this book not only will enable educational institutions to best meet the needs of families and community members but will also help leaders cultivate the moral and intellectual judgment needed to address social justice issues in schools.

Martin Scanlan (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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The Divine Fist: The Ever Hero Saga

Kasai and Desdemonia escape the Abyss and travel to the Seven Heavens in hopes of salvation, only to be accused of consorting with the enemy and imprisoned for treason on their arrival. Meanwhile, a new threat from beyond time wakes, driven mad by the scent of fresh souls leaking from the Chaos Gate. The Ancients are coming, and they are hungry. All the while, the Three Kingdoms are left defenseless to Sekka's rampaging hordes of demons. The Soul War has begun, and the Ever Hero is needed like never before. However, Kasai's fate and that of the Mortal Realm, will be decided by Raguel, the archangel with a personal vendetta against Aetenos. And how better to enact his revenge on the demigod than to destroy his progeny? If you enjoy an engaging story, pitting the underdog against overwhelming odds, with dark powers turning would-be heroes into finger puppets, and mad ambition which throws worlds into conflict, you'll love the third installment in Jeff Pantanella's page-turning Ever Hero Saga.

Jeff Pantanella (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts

For over fifteen years, writer Jeff Crosby has been searching for a language of the soul-a way to articulate our deepest longings. Through the years he gathered clues from within global music styles, from different cultures, from his own Christian tradition and its sacred texts-and from deep within himself. A lover of words, he sought not only to translate our longings into words but to understand why these seemingly universal yearnings have long remained unnamed. Now, in this book, Crosby gifts us with those so-often-untranslatable desires of our hearts, guiding us to finally find the words and luminous insights for our own longings for home, for friendship, for forgiveness, and for transformation-and how God meets us in the midst of these longings. Eschewing easy answers, Crosby begins the naming process, helping us to make connections-and to recognize, within ourselves and our faith, our heart's true home.

Jeff Crosby (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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Ageing without Ageism?: Conceptual Puzzles and Policy Proposals

Ageing without Ageism? contributes to the essential and timely discussion of age, ageism, population ageing, and public policy. It demonstrates the breadth of the challenges posed by these issues by covering a wide range of policy areas: from health care to old-age support, from democratic participation to education, and from family to fiscal policy. With contributions from twenty-one authors, the discussion bridges the gap between academia and public life by putting in dialogue fresh philosophical analysis and specific new policy proposals. It approaches familiar issues like age discrimination, justice between age groups, and democratic participation across the ages from novel perspectives.

Axel Gosseries, Greg Bognar (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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Scandinavia since 1500: Second Edition

Despite certain distinctions and differences, the lands of Scandinavia, or Norden-Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, and the Faroe Islands-are united by bonds of culture, language, and geography, and by a shared history that comes richly to life in this landmark work. Now in an expanded, updated edition, this definitive chronicle of five centuries of Scandinavian history incorporates the geopolitical developments and momentous events that have marked the Nordic world in recent decades. Scandinavia since 1500 situates the region's political history within the traditional European chronology-in which the long 'modern' period is subdivided into the Renaissance, early modern, modern, and contemporary. Byron J. Nordstrom traces the various ways in which economic, social, and cultural ideas and practices have come to Scandinavia from abroad, only to be modified and recast in a uniquely Nordic character. Long-unquestioned national mythologies come under Nordstrom's scrutiny, along with historical blind spots and erasures. Expanded to include the nature and realities of the increasingly postindustrial economies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Scandinavia since 1500 offers a comprehensive yet nuanced portrait of this unique region in all its political, diplomatic, social, economic, and cultural complexity.

Byron J. Nordstrom (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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The Sinking of the Blücher: The Battle of Drøbak Narrows, April 1940

A lesser-known event during World War II, the sinking of the Blücher is key part of naval history that marked the beginning of the Norwegian Campaign. The Sinking of the Blücher is a comprehensive investigation into why the German cruiser, named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo), was approaching Oslo on the night of 9th April 1940, why and how she was sunk, and the ramifications and significance of the event. The book also explores the influence of the British government and military on the reasons behind Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. This book is a methodical, unbiased compilation of primary sources and archival material. It details the sequence of events leading to the sinking of the Blücher, the flagship of the force that was to seize Oslo, from setting sail for Norway, to evading British submarines in the Skagerrak, and finally sinking to the bottom of the Drøbak Narrows after being struck by Oscarsborg fortress gunfire and torpedoes. The text, which connects intricate accounts of the attacks, paints a picture of the sinking and explains the politics behind the military operations, and the result of the sinking which enabled King Haakon and his government to escape to Britain, join the Allies and continue the resistance from there. Simultaneously, the primary source material individualizes the sailors and military personnel involved.

Geirr Haarr, Tor Jørgen Melien (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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Sleeping Beauties: The Mystery of Dormant Innovations in Nature and Culture

Life innovates constantly, producing perfectly adapted species-but there's a catch. Many animals and plants eke out seemingly unremarkable lives. Passive, constrained, modest, threatened. Then, in a blink of evolutionary time, they flourish spectacularly. Once we start to look, these 'sleeping beauties' crop up everywhere. But why? Looking at the book of life, from apex predators to keystone crops, and informed by his own cutting-edge experiments, renowned scientist Andreas Wagner demonstrates that innovations can come frequently and cheaply to nature, well before they are needed. We have found prehistoric bacteria that harbor the remarkable ability to fight off twenty-first-century antibiotics. And human history fits the pattern too, as life-changing technologies are invented only to be forgotten, languishing in the shadows before they finally take off. In probing the mysteries of these sleeping beauties, Wagner reveals a crucial part of nature's rich and strange tapestry.

Andreas Wagner (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism

Economic growth isn't working, and it cannot be made to work. Offering a counter-history of how economic growth emerged in the context of colonialism, fossil-fueled industrialization, and capitalist modernity, The Future Is Degrowth argues that the ideology of growth conceals the rising inequalities and ecological destructions associated with capitalism, and points to desirable alternatives to it. Not only in society at large, but also on the left, we are held captive by the hegemony of growth. Even proposals for emancipatory Green New Deals or postcapitalism base their utopian hopes on the development of productive forces, on redistributing the fruits of economic growth and technological progress. Yet growing evidence shows that continued economic growth cannot be made compatible with sustaining life and is not necessary for a good life for all. This book provides a vision for postcapitalism beyond growth. It discusses the political economy and the politics of a non-growing economy. It charts a path forward through policies that democratize the economy, 'now-topias' that create free spaces for experimentation, and counter-hegemonic movements that make it possible to break with the logic of growth. Degrowth perspectives offer a way to step off the treadmill of an alienating, expansionist, and hierarchical system.

Aaron Vansintjan, Andrea Vetter, Matthias Schmelzer (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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All the Horses of Iceland

A hypnotic historical fantasy with gorgeous and unusual literary prose, from the captivating author of The Fourth Island. Everyone knows of the horses of Iceland, wild, and small, and free, but few have heard their story. Sarah Tolmie's All the Horses of Iceland weaves their mystical origin into a saga for the modern age. Filled with the magic and darkened whispers of a people on the cusp of major cultural change, All the Horses of Iceland tells the tale of a Norse trader, his travels through Central Asia, and the ghostly magic that followed him home to the land of fire, stone, and ice. His search for riches will take him from Helmgard, through Khazaria, to the steppes of Mongolia, where he will barter for horses and return with much, much more. All the Horses of Iceland is a delve into the secret, imagined history of Iceland's unusual horses, brought to life by an expert storyteller.

Sarah Tolmie (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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Diplomacy and the Future of World Order

Diplomacy in pursuit of peace and security faces severe challenges not seen in decades. The reemergence of strong states, discord in the UN Security Council, destabilizing transnational nonstate actors, closing space for civil society within states, and the weakening of the international liberal order all present new obstacles to diplomacy. In Diplomacy and the Future of World Order, an international group of experts confronts these challenges to peace and conflict diplomacy-defined as the effort to manage others' conflicts, cope with great power competition, and deal with threats to the state system itself. In doing so, they consider three potential scenarios for world order where key states decide to go it alone, return to a liberal order, or collaborate on a case-by-case basis to address common threats and problems. These three scenarios are then evaluated through the prism of regional perspectives from around the world and for their potential ramifications for major security threats including peacekeeping, nuclear nonproliferation, cyber competition, and terrorism. Editors Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall conclude the volume by identifying emerging types of diplomacy that may form the foundation for global peacemaking and conflict management in an uncertain future.

Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, Pamela R. Aall (Author), Ulf Bjorklund (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Ulf Bjorklund