When Eddie was twelve years old, all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. Although his life had gotten harder — and money tighter — since his father died and the family bakery closed…Eddie dreamed that somehow his mother would find a way to have his dream bike gleaming beside their modest Christmas tree that magical morning.

What he got from her instead was a sweater. “A stupid, handmade, ugly sweater” that young Eddie left in a crumpled ball in the corner of his room.

Scarred deeply by the realization that kids don’t always get what they want, and too young to understand that he already owned life’s most valuable treasures, that Christmas morning was the beginning of Eddie’s dark and painful journey on the road to manhood. It will take wrestling with himself, his faith, and his family — and the guidance of a mysterious neighbor named Russell — to help Eddie find his path through the storm clouds of life and finally see the real significance of that simple gift his mother had crafted by hand with love in her heart.

Based on a deeply personal true story, The Christmas Sweater is a warm and poignant tale of family, faith and forgiveness that offers us a glimpse of our own lives — while also making us question if we really know what’s most important in them.

In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life-journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who thought, wrote, and spoke out for the “Great Cause” come what might; who traveled far and wide in all seasons and often at extreme risk; who rose to become the second President of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was rightly celebrated for his integrity, and regarded by some as “out of his senses”; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history.

Much about John Adams’s life will come as a surprise to many. His rocky relationship with friend and eventual archrival Thomas Jefferson, his courageous voyage on the frigate Boston tin the winter of 1778 and his later trek over the Pyrenees are exploits few would have dared and that few listeners will ever forget.

Like his masterful, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Truman, David McCullough’s John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This is history on a grand scale — an audiobook about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, It is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.

Hayden Reese once believed he could have it all, and once, he almost did: a wife, a daughter he adored, a child on the way. But little by little, a chain of heartaches stripped him of all he loved, and a flash of violence changed his destiny.

Now at middle age, newly sprung from jail in a remote California town, Hayden is utterly alone. His girlfriend has left, and he just buried his beloved dog. It seems God may never be done with Hayden Reese. And that’s the “good” news.

Catherine Ryan Hyde’s stirring retelling of the Book of Job illuminates one man’s fall from grace, his powerful confrontation with the past, and his poignant return to hope and forgiveness.

In the decades that followed the American Civil War, artist James E. Kelly (1855-1933) conducted in-depth interviews with more than forty Union generals in an effort to accurately portray them in their greatest moment of glory.

“I had always felt a great lack of certain personal details,” Kelly explained. “I made up my mind to ask from the living officers every question that I would have asked Washington or his generals had they posed for me, such as what they considered the principal incidents in their career and particulars about costumes and surroundings.”

When, during one interview, a general declared, “I don’t see how you can show this in a picture,” Kelly responded, “Just tell me the facts, and I’ll attend to the picture.” By recording those stirring facts, Kelly left us a truly unique picture of the great figures of the American Civil War.

This historical magnum opus covers 4,000 years of the extraordinary history of the Jews as a people, a culture, and a nation. It shows the impact of Jewish character on the world: their genius, imagination and, most of all, their ability to persevere despite severe persecutions. Compelling insights into events and individuals are chronologically detailed, from Moses and Jesus to Spinoza, Marx, Freud, the Rothschilds, and Golda Meir.

“Why have I written a history of the Jews?…When I was working on my History of Christianity, I became aware for the first time in my life of the magnitude of debt Christianity owes to Judaism…the book gave me the chance to reconsider objectively, in the light of a study covering nearly 4,000 years, the most intractable of all human questions: what are we on earth for? Is history merely a series of events whose sum is meaningless?”—from the Prologue

An Unfinished Life is the first authoritative single-volume life of John F. Kennedy to be written in nearly four decades. Drawing upon firsthand sources, freshly unearthed documents, and never-before-opened archives, prizewinning historian Robert Dallek reveals more than we ever knew about Jack Kennedy, forever changing the way we think about his life, his presidency, and his legacy.

An Unfinished Life describes the birth of the Kennedy dynasty, the complexity of Jack’s early years, and the mixture of adulation and resentment that tangled his relationships with his mother, Rose, and his father, Joseph. Forced into the shadow of his older brother, Joe, Jack struggled to find a place for himself until World War II, when he became a national hero and launched his career. Dallek reveals for the first time the full story of Kennedy’s wartime actions and the true details of how Joe was killed, opening the door to Jack’s ascendancy.

Here is the gripping story of Jack’s transformation from an awkward speaker to a brilliant politician with irresistible charm. An Unfinished Life carries us from Jack’s work as a senator from Massachusetts, through the fiercely contested 1960 campaign against Nixon, and takes us on to the White House itself An Unfinished Life also discloses for the very first time that Kennedy was far sicker than we ever knew.

While laboring to present an image of robust good health, Kennedy was secretly in and out of hospitals throughout his life, so ill that he was administered last rites on several different occasions. Here is a vivid portrait of a man who, because he knew how close he was to death, lived as much as he could – sometimes hurting others in the process.

Never shying away from Kennedy’s weaknesses, Dallek also brilliantly explores his strengths. The result is a full portrait of a bold, brave, human Kennedy, once again a hero. An Unfinished Life is the account Americans have been waiting forty years to hear. Now, at long last, we have the definitive audio biography of Jack Kennedy.

Also sprach Zarathustra was conceived and written by Friedrich Nietzsche during the years 1881 -1885; the first three Parts were published in 1883 and 1884. The book formed part of his ‘campaign against morality’, in which Nietzsche explored the ethical consequences of the ‘death of God’. Heavily critical not only of Christian values but also of their modern replacements, Thus spoke Zarathustra argues for a new value-system based around the prophecy of the Ubermensch, or Superman.

For the first time, Nietzsche gives his philosophy a narrative frame: the founder of the ancient religion of Persia, Zarathustra, takes the central role. Rejected by society at large, Zarathustra gains a devoted band of followers to whom he delivers ‘discourses’ on a huge range of subjects. Haunted by visions and driven by his own ‘will to power’, Zarathustra eventually leaves these friends to return to his lonely mountain home, where he makes his most important discovery: that of the ‘eternal return’.

A literary as well as a philosophical masterpiece, Thus spoke Zarathustra survived an initially poor reception, to be recognised as a seminal text in modern culture. Its appropriation by the National Socialist movement in Germany early in the twentieth century has tainted its reputation unjustly; but there are signs that the rehabilitation of Nietzsche, and of this, his most incendiary work, is almost complete.

Hemingway’s classic novel about contraband, intrigue and love

To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.

Harshly realistic, yet with one of the most subtle and moving relationships in the Hemingway oeuvre, To Have and Have Not is literary high adventure at its finest.

Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the Twentieth Century, and for his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway wrote in short, declarative sentences and was known for his tough, terse prose. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Ernest Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the Twentieth Century.

As part of the expatriate community in 1920s Paris, the former journalist and World War I ambulance driver began a career that lead to international fame. Hemingway was an aficionado of bullfighting and big-game hunting, and his main protagonists were always men and women of courage and conviction, who suffered unseen scars, both physical and emotional.

He covered the Spanish Civil War, portraying it in fiction in his brilliant novel For Whom the Bell Tolls , and he subsequently covered World War II. His classic novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. He died in 1961.

Will Patton’s numerous film credits include Remember the Titans, The Punisher, The Mothman Prophesies, Armageddon , and The Spitfire Grill . He starred in the TNT miniseries, Into the West and on the CBS series The Agency , and won Obie Awards in the theater for his performances in Fool for Love and What Did He See .

Based on three years of research, Innovate Like Edison offers readers an in-depth view of Edison’s comprehensive innovation approach–-an analysis which has never previously been documented.

Listeners will learn to apply Edison’s Five Competencies of Innovation™ either to their work lives or their personal lives, following the timeless principles Edison used to generate his record-breaking 1,093 U.S. patents.

Author:

Michael Gelb, a renowned innovator in the field of creative thinking and leadership development, is the bestselling author of How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Body Learning, Samurai Chess and Present Yourself! Since 1978 Michael Gelb has conducted seminars around the world for companies such as BP, IBM, DuPont, KPMG, and YPO. He lives in Edgewater, New Jersey.

Narrator:

Rick Adamson is an actor and award-winning audiobook reader who has also been a narrator on the Listen & Live Audio titles Epic and Why Geese Don’t Get Obese (And We Do). Additionally, he can be heard on hundreds of commercials, educational and corporate projects.

“Ayn Rand’s writings have altered and shaped the lives of millions. This selection of essays is an example of her best.”
Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank

“Although this omnibus volumeis written for an audience of believers, readers unfamiliar with [Rand's] novels might find it a useful starting point.”
Publishers Weekly

“Her essays are lively, spirited, and challenging.”
Best Sellers

“For those who want to understand the philosophic implications of our era, this collection by Ayn Rand is an excellent place to begin.”
News-Leader

Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand’s answer: Everyone.

This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: a rational, conscious, and therefore practical one, or a contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal one.

Written with all the clarity and eloquence that have placed Ayn Rand’s objectivist philosophy in the mainstream of American thought, these essays range over such basic issues as education, morality, censorship, and inflation to prove that philosophy is the fundamental force in all our lives.