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  Basic Training , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 130min

  Written to be sold under the pseudonym of "Mark Harvey", this 20,000-word novella was never published in Vonnegut’s lifetime. It appears (from the address on the manuscript, a suburb of Schenectady, New York, and from the style and slant) to have been written in the late 1940s. Vonnegut was working at that time in public relations for General Electric and used pseudonyms to protect himself from the charge of moonlighting. He was trying to sell to the so-called slick magazines of the time, like The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s, while resisting the lure of science fiction - a tension throughout his professional career. Basic Training is a bitter, profoundly disenchanted story that satirizes the military, authoritarianism, gender relationships, parenthood, and most of the assumed mid-century myths of the family. Haley Brandon, the adolescent protagonist, comes to the farm of his relative, the old crazy who insists upon being called The General, to learn to be a straight-shooting American. Haley’s only means of survival will lead him to unflagging defiance of the General’s deranged (but oh so American, oh so military) values. This story and its thirtyish author were no friends of the milieu to which the slick magazines’ advertisers were pitching their products. Another unexpected writer’s influence underlies this story: J.D. Salinger. Throughout the ’40s and before his move to New York, Salinger had produced short stories whose confused or slightly deranged young protagonists (most of them around the age of Haley Brandon) stumbled through pre- and postwar Manhattan and military service, experiencing mild disaffection, alienation, and then terrible anger. All of them came to learn that the people who ran the show were as crazy and dangerous as those nominally on the other side. Shortly after these semi-whimsical social portraits were published, Salinger, like Vonnegut, was drafted, shipped into combat and involved in the Ba ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Colin Hanks. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/adbl/004337/bk_adbl_004337_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  One of These Things First , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 321min

  From New York Times best-selling author Steven Gaines comes a wry and touching memoir of his trials as a gay teen at the famed Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. One of These Things First is a poignant reminiscence of a 15-year-old gay Jewish boy's unexpected trajectory from a life behind a rack of dresses in his grandmother's Brooklyn bra-and-girdle store to Manhattan's infamous Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, whose alumni includes writers, poets, and madmen as well as Marilyn Monroe and best-selling author Steven Gaines. With a gimlet eye and a true gift for storytelling, Gaines captures his childhood shtetl in Brooklyn, and all its drama and secrets, like an Edward Hopper tableau: his philandering grandfather with his fleet of Cadillacs and Corvettes; a giant, empty movie theater, his portal to the outside world; a shirtless teenage boy pushing a lawnmower; and a pair of tormenting bullies whose taunts drive Gaines to a suicide attempt. Gaines also takes the listener behind the walls of Payne Whitney - the "Harvard of psychiatric clinics", as Time magazine called it - populated by a captivating group of neurasthenics who affect his life in unexpected ways. The cast of characters includes a famous Broadway producer who becomes his unlikely mentor; an elegant woman who claims to be the ex-mistress of newly elected president John F. Kennedy; a snooty, suicidal architect; and a seductive young contessa. At the center of the story is a brilliant young psychiatrist who promises to cure a young boy of his homosexuality and give him the normalcy he so longs for. For listeners who love stories of self-transformation, One of These Things First is a fascinating memoir in the vein of Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted and Augusten Burroughs' Running with Scissors. With its novelistic texture and unflagging narrative, this book is destined to become one of the great indelible works of the memoir ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Steven Gaines. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/adbl/025789/bk_adbl_025789_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  We Are What We Pretend to Be: The First and Last Works , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 269min

  Called “our finest black-humorist” by The Atlantic Monthly, Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Now his first and last works come together for the first time in print, in a collection aptly titled after his famous phrase, We Are What We Pretend To Be. Written to be sold under the pseudonym of “Mark Harvey,” Basic Training was never published in Vonnegut’s lifetime. It appears to have been written in the late 1940s and is therefore Vonnegut’s first ever novella. It is a bitter, profoundly disenchanted story that satirizes the military, authoritarianism, gender relationships, parenthood, and most of the assumed mid-century myths of the family. Haley Brandon, the adolescent protagonist, comes to the farm of his relative, the old crazy who insists upon being called The General, to learn to be a straight-shooting American. Haley’s only means of survival will lead him to unflagging defiance of the General’s deranged (but oh so American, oh so military) values. This story and its 30ish author were no friends of the milieu to which the slick magazines’ advertisers were pitching their products. When Vonnegut passed away in 2007, he left his last novel unfinished. Entitled If God Were Alive Today, this last work is a brutal satire on societal ignorance and carefree denial of the world’s major problems. Protagonist Gil Berman is a middle-aged college lecturer and self-declared stand-up comedian who enjoys cracking jokes in front of a college audience while societal dependence on fossil fuels has led to the apocalypse. Described by Vonnegut as, “the stand-up comedian on Doomsday,” Gil is a character formed from Vonnegut’s own rich experiences living in a reality Vonnegut himself considered inevitable. Along with the two works of fiction, Vonnegut’s daughter, Nanette shares reminiscences about her father and commentary on these two works - both exclusive to this edition. In this fiction ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Colin Hanks, Oliver Wyman, Suzanne Toren. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/adbl/006750/bk_adbl_006750_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  First Sight: A Novel, Hörbuch, Digital, 403min

  New York. London. Milan. Paris. Fashion Week in all four cities. A month of endless interviews, parties, and unflagging work and attention to detail at the semiannual ready to wear fashion shows - the famous prêt-à-porter. At the center of the storm and avalanche of work is American Timmie O’Neill, whose renowned line, Timmie O, is the embodiment of casual chic, in fashion and for the home. She has created a business that inspires, fills, and consumes her life. With an unerring instinct for what the next trend will be, an innate genius for business, tireless labor, and sheer fearlessness, starting from nothing, over two decades Timmie has built an international empire that has brought her enormous satisfaction and success. In a world where humility and compassion are all too rare, her humor, kindness, integrity, and creativity are inspirational. Yet as blessed as she feels by her success, Timmie harbors the private wounds of a devastating childhood and past tragedy. She is too smart, too experienced, and too hurt to want much in her personal life beyond a succession of convenient, very limited relationships. Always willing to take risks in business, she never risks her heart. But despite her well-ordered and highly controlled world, it turns out that Timmie O'Neill is not immune to magic when it strikes. And it strikes in Paris during Paris Fashion Week, when an intriguing Frenchman comes into her life when she gets sick. At first, Timmie and Jean-Charles Vernier are only patient and physician. They become confidants and friends, corresponding at a safe distance between Paris and Los Angeles once she goes home. There is every reason why they must remain apart. But neither can deny their growing friendship and the electricity that sparks whenever they meet. First Sight is as complex and compelling as modern life itself: careers, families, histories, losses, duty, obligation, and fear of losing control and getting hurt. It is a tale o Language: English. Narrator: Arthur Morey. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/brll/004940/bk_brll_004940_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Bones of Paradise: A Novel , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 868min

  The award-winning author of The River Wife returns with a multigenerational family saga set in the unforgiving Nebraska Sand Hills in the years following the massacre at Wounded Knee - an ambitious tale of history, vengeance, race, guilt, betrayal, family, and belonging, filled with a vivid cast of characters shaped by violence, love, and a desperate loyalty to the land. Ten years after the Seventh Cavalry massacred more than 200 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, J. B. Bennett, a white rancher, and Star, a young Native American woman, are murdered in a remote meadow on J. B.'s land. The deaths bring together the scattered members of the Bennett family: J. B.'s cunning and hard father, Drum; his estranged wife, Dulcinea; and his teenage sons, Cullen and Hayward. As the mystery of these twin deaths unfolds, the history of the dysfunctional Bennetts and their damning secrets is revealed, exposing the conflicted heart of a nation caught between past and future. At the center of The Bones of Paradise are two remarkable women. Dulcinea, returned after bitter years of self-exile, yearns for redemption and the courage to mend her broken family and reclaim the land that is rightfully hers. Rose, scarred by the terrible slaughters that have decimated and dislocated her people, struggles to accept the death of her sister, Star, and refuses to rest until she is avenged. A kaleidoscopic portrait of misfits, schemers, chancers, and dreamers, Jonis Agee's bold novel is a panorama of America at the dawn of a new century. A beautiful evocation of this magnificent, blood-soaked land - its sweeping prairies, seas of golden grass, and sandy hills, all at the mercy of two unpredictable and terrifying forces, weather and lawlessness - and the durable men and women who dared to tame it. Intimate and epic, The Bones of Paradise is a remarkable achievement: a mystery, a tragedy, a romance, and an unflagging exploration of the be ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Christina Traister. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/harp/005343/bk_harp_005343_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Michael Faraday: The Life and Legacy of the Influential 19th Century Scientist Who Pioneered Electromagnetism , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 79min

  “Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature.” (Michael Faraday) "Without such freedom, there would have been no Shakespeare, no Goethe, no Newton, no Faraday, no Pasteur, and no Lister." (Albert Einstein, in a speech on intellectual freedom after fleeing Nazi Germany, October 3, 1933 ) On April 18, 1955, the phone of 38-year-old Life photographer Ralph Morse started ringing off the hook. By the end of the call, which came from a clearly keen but jittery Life editor, it was like Morse had downed a liter of the world's strongest coffee. The one and only Albert Einstein had died.   Morse raced to Princeton Hospital, where Einstein had been admitted just three days earlier. He dipped into the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and, using a case of premium scotch, persuaded the superintendent to unlock Einstein's office. Morse was able to compactly capture one of the most defining photographs of the man's life and his work. Viewers see the mound of journals and books strewn about on his desk, his pipe and tobacco tin serving as makeshift paper weights, and his blackboard, a wall of complex formulas and equations. It was in this very study that Einstein, perhaps the most celebrated genius in history, displayed the photographs of his five muses. Though only the framed portraits of Gandhi and a German composer have been pictured in Einstein's study, the faces of three other illustrious scientists are said to have once graced his walls.  One of them was Michael Faraday, an endlessly luminous mind equipped with an unflagging hunger for knowledge, a hunger so ungovernable that not even poverty or social norms could stand in the way of his ambitions. Indeed, it was reportedly Einstein's expertise in the lives of Maxwell and Faraday, as well as his mastery of their work and accomplishments, that landed him his first job at the Swiss patent office after months of job-scouring. Moreover, Eins ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Scott Clem. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/116406/bk_acx0_116406_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  First Sight: A Novel , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 783min

  Paris, L.A., and the world of ready to wear fashion provide rich backdrops for Danielle Steel’s deeply involving story of a gifted designer whose talent and drive have brought her everything - except the ability to erase her past and trust relationships. New York. London. Milan. Paris. Fashion Week in all four cities. A month of endless interviews, parties, and unflagging work and attention to detail at the semiannual ready to wear fashion shows - the famous prêt-à-porter. At the center of the storm and avalanche of work is American Timmie O’Neill, whose renowned line, Timmie O, is the embodiment of casual chic, in fashion and for the home. She has created a business that inspires, fills, and consumes her life. With an unerring instinct for what the next trend will be, an innate genius for business, tireless labor, and sheer fearlessness, starting from nothing, over two decades Timmie has built an international empire that has brought her enormous satisfaction and success. In a world where humility and compassion are all too rare, her humor, kindness, integrity, and creativity are inspirational. Yet as blessed as she feels by her success, Timmie harbors the private wounds of a devastating childhood and past tragedy. She is too smart, too experienced, and too hurt to want much in her personal life beyond a succession of convenient, very limited relationships. Always willing to take risks in business, she never risks her heart. But despite her well-ordered and highly controlled world, it turns out that Timmie O’Neill is not immune to magic when it strikes. And it strikes in Paris during Paris Fashion Week, when an intriguing Frenchman comes into her life when she gets sick. At first, Timmie and Jean-Charles Vernier are only patient and physician. They become confidants and friends, corresponding at a safe distance between Paris and Los Angeles once she goes home. There is every reason why they must remain apart. But neither can deny their gr ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Arthur Morey. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/brll/004939/bk_brll_004939_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 339min

  Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, here is Jim Sheeler's unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead. Final Salute is a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them. They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. "The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know," said Major Steve Beck. Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck have ound themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines. Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marine's name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark. In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Salute is the achingly beautiful, devastatingly hone ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Mark Deakins. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/peng/001163/bk_peng_001163_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  It's a Great Life if You Don't Weaken (eBook, ePUB)

  Here's the Story Behind the StoriesFor nearly fifty years, Dave Lopez covered every major story in the Southland. The veteran news reporter was a nightly presence in LA living rooms on KCBS Channel 2 for a remarkable 48-year career on camera. General managers and news directors came and went in the unforgiving world of major market TV news, but Dave outlasted more than twenty regime changes. LA's man in the street kept his head down, nose to the grindstone, and relentlessly chased breaking news. He garnered Emmys, accolades, and tens of thousands of fans along the way.One of the first Hispanic reporters on a major station, Dave's inaugural on-air report on Channel 2 in 1977 concerned an apartment fire that nearly ended in tragedy because none of the firefighters on the scene spoke Spanish. His report ended with the note that the Los Angeles Fire Department was beginning a program to actively recruit bilingual first responders; officials were also thinking of offering Spanish classes at LAFD. Dave was personally breaking barriers decades before Mexican lives officially "mattered"-success he credits entirely to his upbringing.Professional success came early, but the true measure of a man is his family. In this nostalgic look back, Dave recalls the values instilled by his hardworking father-a man he worshiped and feared in equal measures. It is also a love story that began in high school . . . and how the fearless reporter who thought he could conquer or investigate his way out of anything was forced to accept that some foes cannot be beaten. When he lost both his beloved wife and mother and his invincible father fell apart, Dave finally lost his unflagging optimism . . . and was forced to begin again just as the entire world of news was undergoing a sea change.It's a Great Life If You Don't Weaken is an inspirational tale of faith, family, and the news from a true LA native. Set against the backdrop of every major story of the last half- century-from Vietnam War protests to the O.J. Simpson trial to countless politicians behaving badly-this story is a vivid remembrance of a life well lived, both on and off camera.

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  First Sight

  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Paris, L.A., and the world of ready to wear fashion provide rich backdrops for Danielle Steel's deeply involving story of a gifted designer whose talent and drive have brought her everything-except the ability to erase her past and trust relationships. FIRST SIGHT New York. London. Milan. Paris. Fashion Week in all four cities. A month of endless interviews, parties, and unflagging work and attention to detail at the semiannual ready to wear fashion shows-the famous prêt-à-porter. At the center of the storm and avalanche of work is American Timmie O'Neill, whose renowned line, Timmie O, is the embodiment of casual chic, in fashion and for the home. She has created a business that inspires, fills, and consumes her life. With an unerring instinct for what the next trend will be, an innate genius for business, tireless labor, and sheer fearlessness, starting from nothing, over two decades Timmie has built an international empire that has brought her enormous satisfaction and success. In a world where humility and compassion are all too rare, her humor, kindness, integrity, and creativity are inspirational. Yet as blessed as she feels by her success, Timmie harbors the private wounds of a devastating childhood and past tragedy. She is too smart, too experienced, and too hurt to want much in her personal life beyond a succession of convenient, very limited relationships. Always willing to take risks in business, she never risks her heart. But despite her well-ordered and highly controlled world, it turns out that Timmie O'Neill is not immune to magic when it strikes. And it strikes in Paris during Paris Fashion Week, when an intriguing Frenchman comes into her life when she gets sick. At first, Timmie and Jean-Charles Vernier are only patient and physician. They become confidants and friends, corresponding at a safe distance between Paris and Los Angeles once she goes home. There is every reason why they must remain apart. But neither can deny their growing friendship and the electricity that sparks whenever they meet. First Sight is as complex and compelling as modern life itself. Careers, families, histories, losses, duty, obligation, and fear of losing control and getting hurt. It is a tale of daring to take risks, and losing control just enough to have a life, when the opportunity presents itself. When two very different worlds and strong-willed people collide, everything changes in an instant, as they confront the age-old question of whether to lay oneself bare and risk intimacy-or not. Are they brave enough to face what comes next? And will they do it together or apart? Praise for First Sight "A novel about love, in all its heartbreaking and splendid forms."-Kirkus Reviews "Steel is one of the world's most popular authors, and this poignant romance is sure to thrill her many loyal fans and reach many new readers, too."-Booklist "Steel deftly stages heartstring-tugging moments."-Publishers Weekly

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  • Price: 8.49 EUR excl. shipping

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