Showing results for "Book Matters" in Literature & Fiction

What is it about Stoicism that Marcus found so important then, and that millions find relevant today? In the 12 fascinating lectures of Books That Matter: Meditations, professor Massimo Pigliucci explores the questions Marcus believed were crucial to address in a life of value, the answers he proposed, and the many ways in which you can use Stoic philosophy. While Meditations was originally written for an audience of just one, what Marcus wanted to examine certainly still applies to us today. What exactly should we be mindful of in this life?

A classic of medieval Italian literature, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron still matters for us today. And Boccaccio scholar Kristina Olson reveals why in the 10 lectures of Books that Matter: The Decameron. Here, you’ll listen between the lines of stories that range from hopeful and spiritual to cynical and bawdy. You’ll hear words turn a sinner into a saint, brutes made noble through the power of love, and riches rediscovered on the open seas.

Every town has at least one beloved if misunderstood eccentric, and Beanie Bradsher belongs to Mayhew Junction. Some - LouWanda Crump, for example - would call Beanie a spectacle, but Beanie just marches - and dresses - to the beat of a different drum.

Should leaders be feared or loved? Can dictators give rise to democracy? Should rulers have morals or wear them like a mask? Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince puts forth unsettling questions like these, whose answers redefined centuries of political wisdom. But what does it really mean to be Machiavellian? These 24 lectures are more than just a close reading of one of the great books of Western history.

John Glover reads a selection of unabridged short stories, including "Gray Matter" from Stephen King's best-selling collection Night Shift...

Despite the tragic events at Hanssen Scientific, Monique Durand and her newfound companions continue their search for the source of her compelling visions. Are they somehow linked to the secrets of dark matter, as Professor Hanssen is so desperate to believe? Or does the truth reach even deeper - into our Universe's past, and our planet's ultimate future? To find out, they'll need to outwit the Consortium, a secretive group of trillionaires who now have what they need to achieve their own, long-awaited end-game.

Rudolph "Rudy" Dersch is the newly minted CEO of the world's largest, multi-trillion-dollar corporate conglomerate. But the job comes with an unexpected twist - an invitation to join the Consortium, a small, secretive group of global elites who effectively decide what's best for the rest of humanity. How does Rudy's struggle to reconcile business and family impact the world's future? And who, if anyone, can break the Consortium's iron grip on the status quo?

A monthly podcast about books and the people who write them. Packed with reading recommendations, author interviews and insightful advice on finding books for you and your family from the helpful staff at Connected Libraries.

Oe's most important novel, A Personal Matter, has been called by The New York Times "close to a perfect novel". In A Personal Matter, Oe has chosen a difficult, complex though universal subject: how does one face and react to the birth of an abnormal child?

From the get-go of the Game, Raven's been through a lot. But in the grand scheme of things, all his ups and downs are just steppingstones to greatness. Knowing this, he keeps pressing on, facing whatever comes his way and never wavering from his core beliefs. But now he's hit another tough choice: to kill or to help? And it's not just anyone; it's about Abenkhriar, the Guard of his Floor and a servant to someone who's not to be crossed.

One week. If you survive, you choose a Cosmic Power ... If you survive. Jace isn’t one to give up. Not when his sister dies. Not when he loses his legs. And definitely not when The Cosmic System takes over Earth. With nothing more than his street smarts, the clothes on his back, and a river otter companion, he must survive a planet full of vicious predators that see him as an easy meal. If he can survive? He gets to choose a Cosmic Power and a Class. A path to ascension. A way to bring his sister back.

Jace Seren has achieved what no others have before: become a Tier 10 Ascendant within The Cosmic System. As part of this achievement, he is now permanently infused with it and can never lose the phenomenal powers he has gained. Even better, he can no longer die to old age—though a violent end is still quite possible. Having placed a gate upon Oblivion—the singularity at the center of his universe—Jace must gear up and go into another layer of reality: the Astral Verge. A realm of chaos wrought from the emotions and thoughts of countless universes.

Jace Seren has been assigned his next task for the Dark Between Stars: visiting a rogue planet that was flung out of its orbit millennia past. Many Complexes await completion—promising Stardust, Boons, and danger. Jace will come up against many threats; Black Hole Conclave cultists seeking to drive the world into oblivion, Astral Demons from a different layer of reality who seek his destruction, and mercenaries chasing the bounty placed upon his head by the leader of the Nebula Alliance.

Nathaniel Firstborn Whaler is an Ecolitan, both a professor at the Institute and a field agent with extraordinary powers. Sent to a backwater colony planet nominally to determine its economic viability, Whaler evades an assassin's bullets only steps from the spaceport. He soon uncovers evidence that the planet will become the flashpoint for interstellar conflict between two empires, with each prepared to blame the Ecolitan Institute should war break out. Whaler must do everything in his power to stop what might become the worst disaster in human history.

Molly McKenzie's bright personality and on-trend fashion and beauty advice have earned her an impressive social-media following, as well as a shiny monthly paycheck. When her manager-turned-boyfriend tells her of an upcoming audition to host a makeover show for America's underprivileged youth, all her dreams finally seem to be coming true. There's just one catch: She has little experience interacting with people in need.

After achieving Tier 3 as a Dark Matter Aspirant, Jace Seren and his allies—Priam Westerfold, Greg Bhastal, and Quinn Cipher—are on their way to Earth. Their mission is dangerous: take down all five megacorporations to clear the way for the Star Council to instill their control over the world and lift Earth’s civilization to its pinnacle of possibility. Corpo-mercs, cybered-up soldiers, lingering Aspirants, and Ascendants? That’s only the start of it. For the Nebula Alliance already has agents on Earth, and they do not take kindly to hostile takeovers.

Jory Harcourt doesn't have to go looking for trouble. Wherever he goes, it seems to find him - particularly when his partner, Sam Kage, is working undercover on a federal task force. After the recession forces him to close his business, Jory goes to work as a matchmaker and event planner. From there, it's only a matter of time before his big mouth and up-front attitude make him the rope in a tug-of-war between a trust-fund baby and a drug-smuggling criminal.

Major Jimjoy Earle Wright, secret agent of the Empire, is intelligent and highly trained. But he succeeds all too well in overthrowing a military dictatorship - and the result is a new government inimical to the Empire and disgrace for Jimjoy. After surviving two assassination attempts, Jimjoy realizes that it's his own imperial superiors who want him dead; that, in fact, his worst enemies could become his best friends. He fights his way to safety on the planet Accord, where the Ecolitan Institute wins his loyalty and changes his identity.

Geneva Fielding is a researcher in the Archives of the Applied History department, prepping time travelers for their destinations. She loves the smell of old paper and chocolate croissants. One day, a Traveler fails an important test and cannot go. Instead of canceling the Trip, the dean appoints Geneva and her friend Peter Donatelli, a physicist, to take his place. They have three days to prepare to Travel to 1630s New England.

Having grown up at Wedderburn Castle in the serene Scottish Lowlands, Orin Hume is thrust into the dazzling realm of London society and Court circles as Poet Laureate of Britain. But at the height of his fame a former tragedy and his ties to a lass he once loved lead him home to Berwickshire again. When his return is further marred by lost love letters and scheming kin who conspire to keep the pair apart, can Lady Maryn Lockhart, now Duchess of Fordyce, forgive him? Or will the shadows of the past and the complexities of the present rewrite their love story?