Showing results by narrator "Eric Jason" in All Categories

China's Belt and Road Initiative is the world's most ambitious and misunderstood geoeconomic vision. To carry out President Xi's flagship foreign-policy effort, China promises to spend more than one trillion dollars for new ports, railways, fiber-optic cables, power plants, and other connections. It touches more than 130 countries and has expanded into the Arctic, cyberspace, and even outer space. Beijing promises that it is promoting global development, but Washington warns that it is charting a path to global dominance.

In China and the World, one of the world's leading China specialists, David Shambaugh, has assembled 15 leading international authorities on China to create the most comprehensive and up-to-date scholarly assessment of China's foreign relations and roles in international affairs.

In Turn and Burn the author takes the readers with him in the cockpit as he shares the fulfillment of his boyhood dream and some of his most memorable adventures and misadventures during a 24-year flying career as a fighter pilot, both in combat and peacetime.

A century ago, nearly all life in the universe was destroyed by the Starless Horrors. Spanning three decades, the Cataclysm wiped out two-thirds of known galaxies and left the rest broken. But eventually, the survivors of countless civilizations and species banded together and prevailed against the onslaught, and those who remained began to rebuild, reconnect, and rediscover hope.

When Max Cromwell joined the military for a year of service, he didn't think he'd become a soldier on an alien world. But then the Zoos Collective had kidnapped him along with other humans to be their army in the Cosmic Games, a conflict between the four godlike civilizations of the Intergalactic Consortium of Civilized Beings. Trapped on the planet Alpha Ludus, Max and his people have been struggling to survive, while simultaneously learning to cultivate mana and develop supernatural abilities. But unlike his fellow humans, Max wields extraordinary powers no one else has been able to channel.

Not too long ago, Lukas Aguilar believed only what he could see and feel for himself. Then an earthquake destroyed his home and cast him into a dangerous dungeon world. He fought to survive, gaining experience and levels but losing the goddess Inanna who inhabited his mind. And he wants her back.

With the threat of another Divine Element Cultivator and the looming presence of a Shadow Immortal, Calron must prepare an army if he's to survive the future. His Cultivation will not be enough as he enters the political sea of the royal court with sharks swimming all around him. No one can be trusted... even the Tower Lords.

The United States and China are engaged in a broad-gauged and global competition for power. While this competition ranges across the entire world, it is centered in Asia. In this book, David Shambaugh focuses on the critical sub-region of Southeast Asia. The United States and China constantly vie for position and influence across this enormously significant area - and the outcome of this contest will do much to determine whether Asia leaves the American orbit after seven decades and falls into a new Chinese sphere of influence.

Danny Plotnick showcases the history of Super 8 filmmaking in this must-listen audiobook. Super 8 offers a detailed look at the beloved medium - one not only embraced by suburban dads, the target audience of the format, but by the art world, punk rockers, and ultimately popular culture. Filmmakers who got their start in Super 8 include Robert Zemeckis, Jim Jarmusch, Todd Haynes, Sam Raimi, Wes Anderson, and Alex Gibney.

In recent years, scientists have hypothesized life-forms that can only be called "weird": organisms that live off acid rather than water, microbes that thrive at temperatures and pressure levels so extreme that their cellular structures should break down, perhaps even organisms that reproduce without DNA. Some of these strange life-forms, unrelated to all life we know, might be nearby: on rock surfaces in the American southwest, hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, or even in our own bodies. Some, stranger still, might live in Martian permafrost, swim in the dark oceans of Jupiter's moons, or survive in the exotic ices on comets.

They were once the most powerful mages in the land, but they were betrayed. Their crafted weapons and armor were stolen and they were exiled. Now, with war on the horizon, the king needs them again. But they won't be wielding magic for the king. Not this time. The Lost Mages are coming home, and this time, they're out for vengeance.

Covering wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, interventions in Iran, Guatemala and Chile, and a retreat from international engagement with the UN, WHO and, increasingly, trade agreements, Pembroke sketches the history of America's retreat from universal principles to provide a clear-eyed analysis of the dangers of American exceptionalism.

Like so many of us, McKibben grew up believing—knowing—that the United States was the greatest country on earth. As a teenager, he cheerfully led American Revolution tours in Lexington, Massachusetts. He sang “Kumbaya” at church. And with the remarkable rise of suburbia, he assumed that all Americans would share in the wealth. But fifty years later, he finds himself in an increasingly doubtful nation strained by bleak racial and economic inequality, on a planet whose future is in peril. And he is curious: What the hell happened?

Will Manning seems to have it all. But he’s hiding a secret. As he embarks on a desperate journey to find a cure for the pain that haunts him, Will finds himself on a path that leads to the first sentient android, Tess, with whom he shares a strange connection. As the bond between Will and Tess grows, Will realizes they are linked by an event he witnessed as a child. When the consequences of that night begin to unfold, they are pulled into a world where nothing is as it seems.

Equal parts music criticism, cultural and comedy history, autobiography, and comic meditation on nostalgia, television, consumerism, childhood, technology, and food, The Weird Accordion to Al does justice to a musical legend and comic genius, the extent of whose remarkable achievements are only now being fully understood and appreciated.

The fascinating biography of the man who laid the foundation for the CIA. One of the most celebrated and highly decorated heroes of World War I, a noted trial lawyer, presidential adviser and emissary, and chief of America’s Office of Strategic Services during World War II, William J. Donovan was a legendary figure. Donovan, originally published in 1982, penetrates the cloak of secrecy surrounding this remarkable man. The result is the definitive biography that Donovan himself had always expected Dunlop would write.

Nothing has changed more in the last few decades than our concept and perception of reality. The effects have manifested in our news, entertainment, and Google searches; we're finding that a lot of things we thought were objective aren't automatically so. Reality is not a concept we want to flush down the toilet with yesterday's food, though. However, we must begin to understand how it works in a world where profit is the driving force.

This collection of original essays covers the turf that made Didion a sensation - Hollywood and Patty Hearst; Malibu, Manson and the Mojave; the Summer of Love and the Central Park Five - while bringing together some of the finest voices of today's Los Angeles and beyond. Slouching Towards Los Angeles is a love letter and thank you note; personal memoir and social commentary; cultural history and literary critique.

After a beautiful but deadly lightshow, humanity is on the brink of extinction. And in the midst of this chaos, the ruthless will be king. Former detective Elijah Wade awaits execution at the hands of a brutal local despot, but even if he can escape, he must find a way across two thousand miles of lawless country if he's to rescue his daughter. If she's still alive. Meanwhile, astronomer Hannah Redman has begun to unravel the mystery of the deadly aurora, and its implications for the survival of humanity. Two sisters fortify their cabin against those who take everything from them.

An unexpected roadmap—or better yet, a book—makes looking for treasure so much easier. Reading into it what the authors have never even thought about makes for a welcome bonus. These are all but lucky waystations on my journey to the doorsteps of this world's greatest mystery. There's a catch: everyone and his brother has already been there, and even the worst losers know the way. So, is this the end of the road? The demise of the Great Plan? Or have they all knocked on the door the wrong way?