Showing results by narrator "Bruce Mann" in All Categories

Recent political events around the world have raised the specter of an impending collapse of democratic institutions. Contemporary concerns about the decline of liberal democracy are reminiscent to the tumult of the 1930s and 1940s in Europe. Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in Germany during the rise of National Socialism, and each reflected on what the rise of totalitarianism meant for the aspirations of modern politics.

In 1869, a great mystery was born. As astronomers observed a total solar eclipse, for the first time they saw the faint glow of the solar corona, the sun's outer atmosphere. Measurements of a previously unknown wavelength that made up this solar light sparked hot debate among scientists, but it was another 60 years before they discovered that this wavelength was in fact iron being burned at a staggering three million degrees Celsius. With the sun's surface only 6,000 degrees, this shouldn't be possible.

Lunar Island is trying to heal. The necromantic plague that ravaged the land has been eradicated, and Emperor Auguste, the young and charming leader of the Allyrian Empire, has a plan: rid the island of necromancy once and for all. Though Greggori "Grey" Astor wants what's best for his people, he knows that allying himself with Auguste threatens the one person he loves most: necromancer Nedra Brysstain. Feeling like he already failed to save Nedra once, Grey becomes determined to help the Emperor rebuild Lunar Island while still keeping Nedra safe from harm.

My name resounds across the Universe, attracting lots of unwelcome attention. I am the Unconquerable. The Demi God. The Death Bringer. And strangely enough, now that I am at my strongest, many Players seek to test my limits.

The only son of a poor British coal miner, Robert Coffin sets sail for the far ends of the Earth in search of his fortune, leaving his young bride and infant child behind in England. In the sordid and dangerous South Pacific port of Kororareka, on the sprawling island the native Maori call "the Land of the Long White Cloud," Coffin builds a successful new life as a merchant. He gains an unwavering respect for the aboriginal people and their culture, and finds comfort in the arms of his fiery Irish mistress. But the unexpected arrival of his wife and son throws his world into turmoil.

Whether planned or unexpected, change presents leaders with their toughest sustained challenges - regardless of the leader's seniority or the organization's size. For many leaders, change brings drama - and the replaying of familiar stories. In A Question of Leadership, Keith Leslie provides a wide range of illustrative case studies derived from both research and his firsthand experience in the public and private sectors as a former partner at both Deloitte and McKinsey.

If there's anything the recession of 2009 taught us, it was the importance of investing in our customers, but when was this any different? So says Joseph Jaffe, best-selling author of Life After the 30-Second Spot and Join the Conversation, and a leading expert and thought leader on new media and social media. In most businesses, it costs roughly five-to-10 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one, and yet companies continue to disproportionately spend their budgets into the "wrong" end of the funnel the mass media or awareness side.

Leadership Results explores the fall of traditional leadership thinking and the struggling multibillion-dollar leadership development industry that is failing to deliver results, and explains the mindset, skills, ways of being, and methods that will get results in the evolving paradigm. The Leadership Results model is practical and predictive, providing a way forward for companies seeking to build sustainable leadership capacity, develop individual leaders, boost employee engagement, and deliver breakthrough results through shared and collective leadership.

Leif Erikson was born to be an explorer. His father, Erik the Red, had established the first European settlement in present-day Greenland, and although he didn't yet know it, Leif was destined to embark on an adventure of his own. The wise and striking Viking landed in the area known as Vinland almost five centuries before Christopher Columbus even set sail! "Leif the Lucky" and the other fierce, sea-fearing pirates were accomplished navigators who raided foreign lands for resources, hunted for their food, and passed down Old Norse myths from one generation to the next.

The term fighter ace grew in prominence with the introduction and development of aerial combat in the First World War. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied but is usually considered to be five or more. For the Luftwaffe, a number of its fighter pilots, many of whom had fought with the Legion Condor in Spain, had already gained their Experte, or ace, status in the Battle of France.

This book is about what Mark Carney has called "the social license for financial markets" and how it can point us toward a more sustainable future. Author David Rouch argues that what it reveals contrasts sharply with the usual portrayals of markets as places of unrestrained financial self-interest. Drawing attention to a more complex reality and the presence of justice-focused aspirations in finance can positively impact individual, institutional, and systemic behavior: change, not imposed by regulators, but emerging from the very substance of market relationships.

England's recent lurch to the right appears to be but one example of the nationalist wave sweeping across the world, yet as acclaimed Irish critic Fintan O'Toole suggests in The Politics of Pain, it is, in reality, a phenomenon rooted in World War II. We must look not to the vagaries of the European Union but, instead, far back to the end of the British empire, if we hope to understand our most fraternal ally - and the royal mess in which the British now find themselves.

Aric may have found a new home and a new family in the desert, but once more, the emperor rears his ugly head. This time, his Paladins are coming to seize not only the Guild, but Aric himself. Meanwhile, in the north, as Cassia flees the imperial hounds close on her heels, Fadan seeks the support of a rebellion fragmented by politics and personal interests.

In the final days of World War II in Europe, Georgians serving in the Wehrmacht on Texel island off the Dutch coast rose up and slaughtered their German masters. Hitler ordered the island to be retaken and fighting continued for weeks, well after the war's end. The uprising had it origins in the bloody history of Georgia in the 20th century, a history that saw the country move from German occupation, to three short years of independence, to Soviet rule after it was conquered by the Red Army in 1921.

It's night time, and a young man sits writing at a table. He's afraid. Afraid of having to decide - on a woman, a group of friends, an annual holiday destination. He's afraid of becoming numb to emotion. Afraid of growing up. But all of that is about to change. When an acquaintance makes him a proposition, our unnamed protagonist is drawn into a scheme where each night at seven o'clock, he must commit one of the seven sins - a task that forces him to decide how far he is truly willing to go in his efforts to stave off habit and ennui and save his own life.

In The Passionate Muse, Oatley, who is both a prize-winning novelist and a distinguished research psychologist, offers a hybrid book that alternates sections of an original short story, "One Another", with chapters that illuminate the psychology of emotion and fiction. Oatley not only provides insight into how people engage in stories, he also illuminates the value of emotion and the importance of stories for our psychological well-being. Indeed, he offers evidence that the more fiction we read, the better is our understandings of others.

The legendary seal which was keeping the Horsemen of the Apocalypse under lock and key has been broken. Planet Earth is engulfed in a surge of natural disasters which have already claimed thousands of lives. While Sergei is getting ready to fight back, traveling across worlds to learn archery from the powerful giant Vill, the horsemen's minions also come awake, ready to take on the mythical Guards of the Interworld Network in the name of their dreadful masters.

Zacharias Swanwick, 21 years old and living in 19th century Bristol, England, has discovered a young man named Wyndor from another world. In this world of Erala, starlit beings called Velans dwell. Drawn to the mystery, Zacharias decides to help Wyndor find a Velan object that can return him to Erala and which is currently within a manor owned by a man named Jeremy Lipking. Without this object, Wyndor is slowly dying.

In the Second World War, Poznan was a key river crossing and railway junction on the Polish-German border. When the alarm was given indicating the Red Army's approach in January 1945, the city's 80-100,000 German civilians were speedily evacuated, leaving a garrison of some 15,000 men, mostly poorly-armed infantry, to face the rigors of a siege conducted by a massively superior and ruthless enemy anxious to acquire this transport center, which was vital for the advance on Berlin.

Mystery cults are one of the most intriguing areas of Greek and Roman religion. In the nocturnal mysteries at Eleusis, participants dramatically reenacted the story of Demeter's loss and recovery of her daughter Persephone; in the Bacchic cult, bands of women ran wild in the Greek countryside to honor Dionysus; in the mysteries of Mithras, men came to understand the nature of the universe and their place within it through frightening initiation ceremonies and astrological teachings.