Social Science Audiobooks | Non-Fiction

What's Love Got to Do with It?: Understanding and Healing the Rift Between Black Men and Women

According to renowned sociology scholar Donna L. Franklin, relationships between American black men and women are in a state of crisis. The schism between black men and women is the result of complex, large-scale societal, economic, and cultural trends, and the African-American legacy of slavery. Franklin asserts that black men and women need to learn how to work to together for the health and maintenance of the family. In What's Love Got to Do With It? Franklin offers readers a path to healing their own troubled relationships. With narrator Robin Miles incisive reading, this important text breathes with urgency.

Donna Franklin (Author), Robin Miles (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Men's Health Playbook: All the Right Moves for Dating, Sex, and Marriage

Witty and insightful, Men's Health writers Joe Kita, Lisa Jones, Hugh O'Neill, Ron Geraci and others share their personal and often comical experiences as they tackle the universal topics of love, life, and exactly how to find and keep that special someone. The Men's Health Playbook features selected articles from Men's Health including: • 50 Things She Wishes You Knew • Check into the Love Lab • Have You Met Your Match? • Get a Wife! • How to Impress a Woman • Make the Best of PMS • The Men's Health Charm School and much, much more... Whether you're looking for a new love, repairing a broken heart, or you're just stumped on the mystery of the opposite sex, The Men's Health Playbook is the all-inclusive guide to figuring it out - or at least getting a few laughs in trying.

Men's Health (Author), Hank Jacobs, Nicole Fonarow (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century

A brilliant ensemble of the world's most visionary scientists provides twenty-five original never-before-published essays about the advances in science and technology that we may see within our lifetimes. Theoretical physicist and bestselling author Paul Davies examines the likelihood that by the year 2050 we will be able to establish a continuing human presence on Mars. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi investigates the ramifications of engineering high-IQ, geneticially happy babies. Psychiatrist Nancy Etcoff explains current research into the creation of emotion-sensing jewelry that could gauge our moods and tell us when to take an anti-depressant pill. And evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explores the probability that we will soon be able to obtain a genome printout that predicts our natural end for the same cost as a chest x-ray. (Will we want to read it? And will insurance companies and governments have access to it?) This fascinating and unprecedented book explores not only the practical possibilities of the near future, but also the social and political ramifications of the developments of the strange new world to come. Also includes original essays by: Lee Smolin Martin Rees Ian Stewart Brian Goodwin Marc D. Hauser Alison Gopnik Paul Bloom Geoffrey Miller Robert M. Sapolsky Steven Strogatz Stuart Kauffman John H. Holland Rodney Brooks Peter Atkins Roger C. Schank Jaron Lanier David Gelernter Joseph LeDoux Judith Rich Harris Samuel Barondes Paul W. Ewald

John Brockman (Author), Henry Levya, Henry Leyva, Jennifer Wiltsie, Oliver Wyman, Simon Prebble (Narrator)

Audiobook

Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Centr

"The climbers swept up in the events of August 2000 are people little different from the rest of us. Though their climbing skills taught them a thing or two about survival, it was their individual characters and their compassion for one another that kept them alive. Like anyone who has witnessed warfare and death, they feel pain over the memories that they recount in this story. It is their hope that others may learn from their experience." -from the Introduction Before dawn on August 12, 2000, four of America's best young rock climbers, the oldest of them only twenty-five, were sleeping in their portaledges high on the Yellow Wall, in the Pamir-Alai mountain range of Kyrgyzstan, in central Asia. By daybreak, they would be taken at gunpoint by fanatical militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which operates out of secret bases in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and which is linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. The desperadoes-themselves barely out of their teens-intended to use their hostages as human shields and for ransom as they moved across Kyrgyzstan. They hid the climbers by day and marched them by night through freezing, treacherous mountains, with little food, no clean water, and the constant threat of execution. The four would see a fellow hostage, a Kyrgyz soldier, executed before their eyes. And in a remarkable life-and-death crucible over six terrifying days, they would be forced to choose between saving their own lives and committing an act none of them thought they ever could. In Over the Edge, the four climbers-Jason "Singer" Smith, John Dickey, Tommy Caldwell, and Beth Rodden-finally tell the complete story of their nightmarish ordeal. In riveting detail, author Greg Child re-creates the entire hour-by-hour drama, from the first ricocheting bullets to the climactic and agonizing decision the climbers had to make in order to gain their freedom and survival. Set in a powder-keg region of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, this is a deeply compelling book about loyalty and the unshakeable human will to survive.

Greg Child (Author), Aramand Schultz (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fear Less: Real Truth About Risk, Safety, and Security in a Time of Terrorism

Gavin de Becker, author of the best-seller The Gift of Fear, is America's foremost authority on managing violent behavior. In this time of great anxiety and uncertainty, his guidance is needed more than ever. De Becker addresses the concerns many have asked since the terrifying events of September 11, 2001. Is air travel safe? Are we at risk of chemical or biological weapons attacks? Can further acts be prevented by our government and military? How should parents discuss these concerns with their children? These and other vital questions are answered with the expertise only de Becker can bring to the table. A reassuring, empowering guide, Fear Less offers specific recommendations for improving the security of our nation--and ourselves. Narrator Tom Stechschulte lends his comforting voice to this crucial book.

Gavin De Becker (Author), Tom Stechschulte (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Passion of Artemisia

After Artemisia Gentileschi, a promising young painter, is raped by her instructor, a papal court orders her torture and her father betrays her. Shamed but not vanquished, she asks her harsh parent to arrange her marriage to another painter and, thus vindicated in the eyes of society and the church, she begins a new life. But not a happy one. Artemisia's visceral passion to create art-specifically, to depict on canvas the kind of strong heroine she herself has become-threatens to overwhelm her roles as wife and daughter. Her struggle to reconcile her conflicting passions lies at the heart of Artemisia's story, ingeniously crafted by Susan Vreeland, whose gift of language is matched by her uncanny ability to evoke a distant time and place. Vreeland's previous novel, the best-selling Girl in Hyacinth Blue, dazzled the critics and was voted a Book Sense Book of the Year finalist. Once again bringing the visual arts to vivid life, The Passion of Artemisia is a glowing, subtly delineated portrait of a remarkable woman, the first to make a significant contribution to art history.

Susan Vreeland (Author), Gigi Bermingham (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Itch

Abra Dixon is well educated, fashionable, and married to the perfect man. She also runs a film production company with her childhood friend, Natasha. Abra's perfect life is suddenly thrown off course when her husband leaves her for a sexy young model. As Abra and Natasha try to find a backer for their latest film, they must navigate the opulent world of directors and investors. But now Abra must learn to be single and strong again. In a world where everyone seems so confident, Abra will need to develop her own definition of success.

Benilde Little (Author), Caroline Clay (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Broken Hearth: Reversing the Moral Collapse of the American Family

Bestselling author William Bennett addresses the central social issue of our time-the deline of the family-in a book as intellectually provocative and politically controversial as his landmark The Death of Outrage. Our recent economic prosperity has masked the devastation of the American family, which is now under seige as never before. From the dramatic rise in illegitimacy, divorce, and single parenthood to the call for the recognition of gay marriages, the traditional nuclear family is being radically challenged and undermined, along with the moral and legal consensus that once supported it. Now in The Broken Hearth, William Bennett, America's foremost conservative spokesperson on matters of family values, presents a strong, well-reasoned, and informed defense of the traditional family. Interweaving history, anthropology, law, social science, and the teachings of Western religions, he argues that marriage between a man and a woman and the creation of a permanent, loving, and nurturing environment for children is a great historical achievement, one that should not be lightly abandoned in favor of more "progressive" arrangements. Bennett displays his ability to combine fearless conviction, acute insight, and respect for his adversaries in thorough, balanced, and enlightening discussions of single parenthood, cohabitation, gay marriage, and other trends that are undercuttingthe ideal of the family as the essential foundation of society. Looking closely at the concerns and questions that divide America, Bennett provides a powerful affirmation of family life and the values and benefits it bestows on individuals and on society as a whole.

William J. Bennett (Author), Eric Park (Narrator)

Audiobook

The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated

More than a quarter of a century ago, Leo Rosten published the first comprehensive and hilariously entertaining lexicon of the colorful and deeply expressive language of Yiddish. Said to give body and soul to the Yiddish language, The Joys of Yiddish went on to become an indispensable tool for writers, journalists, politicians, and students, as well as a perennial bestseller for three decades.Rosten described his book as a relaxed lexicon of Yiddish, Hebrew, and Yinglish words often encountered in English, plus dozens that ought to be, with serendipitous excursions into Jewish humor, habits, holidays, history, religion, ceremonies, folklore, and cuisine the whole generously garnished with stories, anecdotes, epigrams, Talmudic quotations, folk sayings, and jokes. To this day, it is considered the seminal work on Yiddish in America a true classic and a staple in the libraries of Jews and non-Jews alike. With the recent renaissance of interest in Yiddish, and in keeping with a language that embodies the variety and vibrancy of life itself, The New Joys of Yiddish brings Leo Rosten's masterful work up to date. Revised for the first time by Lawrence Bush in close consultation with Rosten's daughters, it retains the spirit of the original with its wonderful jokes, tidbits of cultural history, Talmudic and Biblical references, and tips on pronunciation and enhances it with hundreds of new entries, thoughtful commentary on how Yiddish has evolved over the years, and an invaluable new English-to-Yiddish index. In addition, The New Joys of Yiddish includes wondrous and amusing illustrations by renowned artist R.O. Blechman.From the Hardcover edition.

Leo Calvin Rosten, Leo Rosten (Author), A Full Cast (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Trial by Jury

Jury duty happens to everyone. When the call came to Graham Burnett, a young historian, he had a shock in store. A Trial by Jury is his startling account of how performing this familiar civic duty challenged him in ways he never thought possible and turned into one of the most consuming experiences of his life. Burnett begins with the story of the trial: a body with multiple stab wounds found in a New York apartment, intimations of cross-dressing, male prostitution, mistaken identity. And then, the unexpected drama: Burnett finds himself appointed the foreman, with the responsibility of leading the increasingly frenetic deliberations within the black box of the jury room. Soon he is sequestered—which is to say marooned—with eleven others, a group of people who view their task, and often one another, with palpable distaste. Among his colleagues: a vacuum-cleaner repairman cum urban missionary, a young actress, and a man apparently floundering in a borderland between real life and daytime television. As Burnett steers the contentious politics of their temporary no-exit society toward the verdict, he undergoes an unexpected awakening. Having been plucked from his cozy nest in the world of books and ideas and then plunged into the netherworld of lurid crime, he learns the limits of what intellect alone can accomplish in the real world. Above all, Burnett discovers firsthand the terrifying ultimate power of the state and the agonies of being asked to do justice within the rigid dictates of the law. Part true crime, part political treatise, part contemplation of right, wrong, and the power of words, A Trial by Jury is a mesmerizing narrative of one man’s encounter with crime and punishment, American style. It profoundly affects one’s sense of the privileges—and the perils—of citizenship.

D. Graham Burnett (Author), D. Graham Burnett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Ava's Man

With the same emotional generosity and effortlessly compelling storytelling that made All Over But the Shoutin’ a national bestseller, Rick Bragg continues his personal history of the Deep South. This time he’s writing about his grandfather Charlie Bundrum, a man who died before Bragg was born but left an indelible imprint on the people who loved him. Drawing on their memories, Bragg reconstructs the life of an unlettered roofer who kept food on his family’s table through the worst of the Great Depression; a moonshiner who drank exactly one pint for every gallon he sold; an unregenerate brawler, who could sit for hours with a baby in the crook of his arm. In telling Charlie’s story, Bragg conjures up the backwoods hamlets of Georgia and Alabama in the years when the roads were still dirt and real men never cussed in front of ladies. A masterly family chronicle and a human portrait so vivid you can smell the cornbread and whiskey, Ava’s Man is unforgettable.

Rick Bragg (Author), Rick Bragg (Narrator)

Audiobook

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

In this groundbreaking work, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. It is a story that spans 13,000 years of human history, beginning when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Jared Diamond (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Social Science Audiobooks in Non-Fiction