Cart
  • Sign In
Narrator

Sean Runnette

Sean Runnette

  • A collection of treasured stories by the unchallenged master of American fiction

    Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow has deservedly been celebrated as one of America’s greatest writers. For more than sixty years he stretched our minds, our imaginations, and our hearts with his exhilarating perceptions of life. Here, collected in one volume and chosen by the author himself, are favorites such as “What Kind of Day Did You Have?” “Leaving the Yellow House,” and a previously uncollected piece, “By the St. Lawrence.” With his larger-than-life characters, irony, wisdom, and unique humor, Bellow presents a sharp, rich, and funny world that is infinitely surprising. With a preface by Janice Bellow and an introduction by James Wood, this is a collection to treasure for longtime Saul Bellow fans and an excellent introduction for new readers.

  • Written by Nikola Tesla at the age of sixty-three, this autobiography is a fascinating glimpse into the interior life of a man who may have contributed more to the fields of electricity, radio, and television than any other person living or dead, a man certainly possessed of genius, and one who some consider the most important man of the twentieth century.

    My Inventions is a firsthand account not only of the art and science behind the conception, execution, and reception of Tesla’s most famous inventions but of his early life and first creative efforts as well. History buffs, science enthusiasts, backyard inventors, and anyone who has ever dared to dream big will be thrilled to hear this engaging, informative, and uniquely humorous autobiography.

  • When Chariots of the Gods was published fifty years ago, it began a worldwide change in humanity’s view of the cosmos. In an era of the military space race, Erich von Däniken boldly proclaimed that Earth had been visited by more advanced beings early in our history. But pre-scientific man had no concept of space ships, so he called their vehicles “chariots,” and those driving the chariots became “gods.”

    Over the next five decades, von Däniken’s thirty-two books built an ever-stronger case for Earth being visited by extraterrestrial visitors. And Chariots became an international bestseller, with thirty million copies sold in more than two dozen languages. Also during that time, the case for ET visitations millennia ago was being reexamined by contemporary UFO researchers, who found evidence of modern visitations. And von Däniken expanded his perspective to encompass the present.

    Now, he presents his long-awaited sequel to Chariots of the Gods, proclaiming that the gods never left us, with all-new material to show that ancient aliens are still with us.

    The Gods Never Left Us contends that recent advancements in biotechnology, astrophysics, engineering, and artificial intelligence not only give us a fresh perspective on his ancient astronaut theory but actually validates it. We are―as a race―embarking on the exact same trajectory of our own interplanetary colonization, just as von Däniken suggested Earth itself was colonized.

    ETs are definitely at work today. And that affects all of us.

  • With an introduction by J. J. Pierce, this volume features the twelve most important stories by Cordwainer Smith, a unique writer who has fused wonder and poetry into imaginative tales that transcend both science and fiction.

    Scanners Live in Vain
    Adam Stone has found a way for men to cross deep space alive—a discovery that might kill him.

    The Lady Who Sailed the Soul
    Helen America voyages to the stars—and into a timeless legend of romance.

    Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
    They thought it was a road to a dream that lasts forever—but dreams are made to be broken.

    The Ballad of Lost C’Mell
    Never has there been a girl quite like C’mell. She’s not even human—but she’s all woman.

    And eight more stunning stories by a man who dreamed the future

  • From world-renowned biologist and primatologist Frans de Waal comes this groundbreaking work on animal intelligence destined to become a classic.

    What separates your mind from an animal’s? Maybe you think it’s your ability to design tools, your sense of self, or your grasp of past and future―all traits that have helped us define ourselves as the planet’s preeminent species. But in recent decades, these claims have been eroded—or even disproved outright—by a revolution in the study of animal cognition.

    Take the way octopuses use coconut shells as tools; elephants that classify humans by age, gender, and language; or Ayumu, the young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame.

    Based on research involving crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, whales, and of course chimpanzees and bonobos, Frans de Waal explores both the scope and the depth of animal intelligence. He offers a firsthand account of how science has stood traditional behaviorism on its head by revealing how smart animals really are—and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long.

    People often assume a cognitive ladder, from lower to higher forms, with our own intelligence at the top. But what if it is more like a bush, with cognition taking different, often incomparable, forms? Would you presume yourself dumber than a squirrel because you’re less adept at recalling the locations of hundreds of buried acorns? Or would you judge your perception of your surroundings as more sophisticated than that of a echolocating bat?

    De Waal reviews the rise and fall of the mechanistic view of animals and opens our minds to the idea that animal minds are far more intricate and complex than we have assumed. De Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal―and human―intelligence.

  • How did life begin?

    It is perhaps the most important question science has ever asked. Over the centuries, the search for an answer has been entwined with some of science’s most revolutionary advances, including van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope, Darwin’s theory of evolution, and Crick and Watson’s unveiling of DNA. Now, in an age of genetic engineering and space exploration, some scientists believe they are on the verge of creating life from nonliving elements and that our knowledge of the potential for life on other planets is ever-expanding. In the midst of these exciting developments, A Brief History of Creation provides an essential and illuminating history of Western science, tracing the trials and triumphs of the iconoclastic scientists who have sought to uncover the mystery of how life first came to be.

    Authors Bill Mesler and H. James Cleaves II examine historical discoveries in the context of philosophical debates, political change, and our evolving understanding of the complexity of biology. The story they tell is rooted in metaphysical arguments, in a changing understanding of the age of the earth, and even in the politics of the Cold War. It has involved exploration into the inner recesses of our cells and scientific journeys to the farthest reaches of outer space. This elegantly written narrative culminates in an analysis of modern models for life’s genesis, such as the possibility that some of the earliest life was composed of little more than RNA, and that life arose around deep-sea hydrothermal vents or even on other planets, only to be carried to the earth on meteorites.

    Can we ever conclusively prove how life began? A Brief History of Creation is a fascinating exploration not only of the origin-of-life question but of the very nature of scientific objectivity and the process of scientific discovery.

  • A sterling roster of natural and social scientists in conversation with top-flight journalist Stefan Klein—shedding new light on their work, their lives, and what they still hope to discover

    When acclaimed science writer Stefan Klein asks Nobel Prize–winning chemist Roald Hoffmann what sets scientists apart, Hoffmann says, “First and foremost, curiosity.” In this collection of intimate conversations with nineteen of the world’s best-known scientists (including three Nobel Laureates), Klein lets us listen in as today’s leading minds reveal what they still hope to discover—and how their paradigm-changing work entwines with their lives outside the lab.

    From the sports car that physicist Steven Weinberg says helped him on his quest for “the theory of everything” to the jazz musicians who gave psychologist Alison Gopnik new insight into raising children, these scientists explain how they find inspiration everywhere.

    Hear from renowned scientists including:

    • evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins on selfishness,
    • anthropologist Sarah Hrdy on motherhood,
    • primatologist Jane Goodall on animal behavior,
    • neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran on consciousness,
    • geographer Jared Diamond on chance in history, and
    • many other luminaries.

  • Albert Corde is a professor of journalism and dean of students at a Chicago university. He and his wife, Minna, travel to Bucharest, Romania, where Minna's mother has suffered a stroke and is lying semiconscious in the local state hospital. As Corde tries to adapt to life in his mother-in-law's small apartment and cope with her relations and friends, news filters through to him of problems he left behind in Chicago: one of his students has been murdered, and a series of articles he is writing offends powerful and influential Chicagoans he had thought of as friends. Gradually it becomes clear that Corde's trip abroad is more than a brief interlude in a calm and orderly life, and that nothing will ever be the same again. Witty and erudite, The Dean's December will be a delight to fans of Saul Bellow.

  • The bestselling author of Free Radicals takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the most controversial areas of modern science

    The atom, the big bang, DNA, natural selection—all are ideas that have revolutionized science; and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, bestselling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery.

    Brooks takes us to the extreme frontiers of what we understand about the world. He journeys from the observations that might rewrite our story of how the cosmos came to be, through the novel biology behind our will to live, and on to the physiological root of consciousness. Along the way, he examines how it's time to redress the gender imbalance in clinical trials, explores how merging humans with other species might provide a solution to the shortage of organ donors, and finds out whether the universe really is like a computer or if the flow of time is a mere illusion.

  • With nearly half of marriages ending in divorce, an increasing number of people deciding not to have kids, and more people than ever identifying as LGBT, modern life is clearly in the need of modern relationship advice. Sex from Scratch analyzes the facets of contemporary relationships through the struggles, opinions, and experiences of a diverse group of individuals living in nontraditional relationships. Rather than telling readers how to snag a partner and find "true love," it gleans real-life knowledge from people of all sexualities and genders—including individuals trying to make open relationships work to those who have opted against having children—distilling their hard-earned wisdom. Contributions from Andi Zeisler, Stu Rasmussen, Betty Dodson, and others make this love and dating guidebook an essential, fun, and insightful resource for anyone in any type of relationship.

  • In this essential trilogy of novellas by the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature, French author Patrick Modiano reaches back in time, opening the corridors of memory and exploring the mysteries to be encountered there. Each novella in the volume—Afterimage, Suspended Sentences, and Flowers of Ruin—represents a sterling example of the author's originality and appeal, while Mark Polizzotti's superb English-language translations capture not only Modiano's distinctive narrative voice but also the matchless grace and spare beauty of his prose.

    Although originally published separately, Modiano's three novellas form a single, compelling whole, haunted by the same gauzy sense of place and characters. Modiano draws on his own experiences, blended with the real or invented stories of others, to present a dreamlike autobiography that is also the biography of a place. Orphaned children, mysterious parents, forgotten friends, enigmatic strangers—all appear in this three-part love song to a Paris that no longer exists.

    Shadowed by the dark period of the Nazi Occupation, these novellas reveal Modiano's fascination with the lost, obscure, or mysterious: a young person's confusion over adult behavior; the repercussions of a chance encounter; the search for a missing father; the aftershock of a fatal affair. To read Modiano's trilogy is to enter his world of uncertainties and the almost accidental way in which people find their fates.

  • The wickedest, most wonderful science fiction story ever created in our—or any—time

    Anything can begin at a party in California—and everything does in this bold masterwork by a grand master of science fiction.

    When four supremely sensual and unspeakably cerebral humans—two male, two female—find themselves under attack from aliens who want their awesome quantum breakthrough, they take to the skies—and zoom into the cosmos on a rocket roller-coaster ride of adventure, danger, ecstasy, and peril.