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  Don Don , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 456min

  Don Don is the story of two very different men who live on opposite sides of the globe: Don Holmes, a brash and bullish American millionaire with a formidable appetite for self-gratification and excess; and Ajahn Dohn, a wise and noble Thai Buddhist monk who lives a life of compassion and restraint. On the same day, during the same hour, in the same minute, both men are told that they are dying, that they have, at best, just one year left to live. The question is, what will they do now that they know? In this, his second novel, Nick Taussig provides a meditation on death from two very different and interconnected perspectives. There is the immortal, rapacious American millionaire Don Holmes, for whom death comes as an affront, and there is the noble and benevolent Thai Buddhist monk Ajahn Dohn, for whom death comes as the fate of all that lives. Once both men know that they are dying, they set out on contrasting journeys. Don Holmes descends into hedonism and excess before seeking spiritual renewal and making a dignified attempt to reconcile himself with those he'll leave behind, whereas Ajahn Dohn journeys from the temple to the city, moving from a quiet acceptance of his imminent death to a rousing need to re-immerse himself in the material and sensual world. These comparative stories vary and diverge throughout, before finally knitting back together to give the novel a neat figure-of-eight shape. Though the two men at first seem so diametrically opposed in outlook and again at their first fractious meeting, by the end they have almost merged into one. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Nick Taussig. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/aqur/000009/bk_aqur_000009_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  • Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping
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  Anthill , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 714min

  Inspirational and magical, here is the story of a boy who grows up determined to save the world from its most savage ecological predator: Man himself. "What the hell do you want?" snarled Frogman at Raff Cody, as the boy stepped innocently onto the reputed murderer's property. Fifteen years old, Raff, along with his older cousin, Junior, had only wanted to catch a glimpse of Frogman's 1,000-pound alligator. Thus, begins the saga of Anthill, which follows the thrilling adventures of a modern-day Huck Finn, whose improbable love of the "strange, beautiful, and elegant" world of ants ends up transforming his own life and the citizens of Nokobee County. Battling both snakes bites and cynical relatives who just dont understand his consuming fascination with the outdoors, Raff explores the pristine beauty of the Nokobee wildlands. And in doing so, he witnesses the remarkable creation and destruction of four separate ant colonies (The Anthill Chronicles), whose histories are epics that unfold on picnic grounds, becoming a young naturalist in the process. An extraordinary undergraduate at Florida State University, Raff, despite his scientific promise, opts for Harvard Law School, believing that the environmental fight must be waged in the courtroom as well as the lab. Returning home a legal gladiator, Raff grows increasingly alarmed by rapacious condo developers who are eager to pave and subdivide the wildlands surrounding the Chicobee River. But one last battle awaits him in his epic struggle. In a shattering ending that no reader will forget, Raff suddenly encounters the angry and corrupt ghosts of an old South he thought had all but disappeared, and learns that war is a genetic imperative, not only for ants but for men as well. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Kevin T. Collins. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/adbl/002372/bk_adbl_002372_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  • Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping
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  China

  THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Bravo; this is a big, complex and utterly involving portrait of 19th-century China' THE TIMESThe internationally bestselling author portrays the great clash of East and West in his new epic: China China in the nineteenth century: a proud and ancient empire forbidden to foreigners. The West desires Chinese tea above all other things but lacks the silver to buy it. Instead, western adventurers resort to smuggling opium in exchange.The Qing Emperor will not allow his people to sink into addiction. Viceroy Lin is sent to the epicentre of the opium trade, Canton, to stop it. The Opium Wars begin - heralding a period of bloody military defeats, reparations, and one-sided treaties which will become known as the Century of Humiliation. From Hong Kong to Beijing to the Great Wall, from the exotic wonders of the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City, to squalid village huts, the dramatic struggle rages across the Celestial Kingdom. This is the story of the Chinese people, high and low, and the Westerners who came to exploit the riches of their ancient land and culture.We meet a young village wife struggling with the rigid traditions of her people, Manchu empresses and warriors, powerful eunuchs, fanatical Taiping and Boxer Rebels, savvy Chinese pirates, artists, concubines, scoundrels and heroes, well-intentioned missionaries and the rapacious merchants, diplomats and soldiers of the West. Fortunes will rise and fall, loves will be gained and lost.This is an unforgettable tale told from both sides of the divide. The clash of worldviews, of culture and heritage, is shown in a kaleidoscope of jaw-dropping set pieces. China is a feat of the imagination that will enthral, instruct and excite, and show us how things once were, and how the turmoil of the nineteenth century led to modern China's revolution and rebirth.

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  • Price: 9.99 EUR excl. shipping
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  Saber-Toothed Tigers: The History and Legacy of the Most Famous Extinct Cat Species , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 115min

  “Unrelenting angst through every fiber Forever hanging over the precipice of defeat It follows you: a rapacious saber-toothed tiger Implacable stare, neither attacks nor retreats...” (Tom Quigley, Savanna Mind (2016)) It is difficult to ignore the effortless cool of a saber-toothed tiger. The fanged feline was equipped with the savage strength of a lion, the lethal stealth of a puma, the intimidating gait of a black bear, and the strapping, muscular arms of a gorilla. Amazingly, however, those traits did not stand out as much as the long, dagger-like fangs that earned the Smilodon its famous nickname. The saber-toothed tiger, legend has it, was as ferocious as it was fearless, often tackling beasts twice its size. Saber-toothed tigers were arguably the most fabled of all the Ice Age creatures. The fearsome beast has earned itself quite the reputation, and it has been referenced to, appeared in, and inspired unique characters in endless books, films, comics, and other pop culture mediums. For example, Marvel's Victor Creed, otherwise known as “Sabretooth”, is most known as Wolverine's nemesis, and he’s depicted as a hulking, vigorously robust menace in a red and orange-gold jumpsuit with a hunched back, a shock of wild blond hair, tiger-like claws, and frightening fangs. As that indicates, the prehistoric creature is often portrayed as impossibly cunning, unfeeling villains. Even in films geared toward children, such as the first of the Ice Age animations, the saber-toothed tigers, excluding Diego, are depicted as vicious and vindictive, lawless fiends whose sights are set on a Neanderthal toddler. The name and reputation of the ruthless saber-toothed tiger, as enduring as it is chilling, overshadows those of its contemporaries, and the fanged feline remains a household name and one of the foremost symbols of the Ice Age to this very day. So, what is it about the Smilodon that has captured - and ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Daniel Houle. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/190713/bk_acx0_190713_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  • Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping
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  A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth and the Battle for the Good Life in Napa and Sonoma , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 409min

  When acclaimed journalist Alan Deutschman came to the California wine country as the lucky houseguest of very rich friends, he was surprised to discover a raging controversy. A civil war was being fought between the Napa Valley, which epitomized elitism, prestige and wealthy excess, and the neighboring Sonoma Valley, a rag-tag bohemian enclave so stubbornly backward that rambunctious chickens wandered freely through town. But the antics really began when new-money invaders began pushing out Sonoma's poets and painters to make way for luxury resorts and trophy houses that seemed a parody of opulence. A Tale of Two Valleys captures these stranger-than-fiction locales with the wit of a Tom Wolfe novel and uncorks the hilarious absurdities of life among the wine world's glitterati. Deutschman found that on the weekends the wine country was like a bunch of gracious hosts smiling upon their guests, but during the week the families feuded with each other and their neighbors like the Hatfields and McCoys. Napa was a comically exclusive club where the super-rich fought desperately to get in. Sonoma's colorful free spirits and iconoclasts were wary of their bohemia becoming the next playground for the rapacious elite. So, led by a former taxicab driver and wine-grape picker, a cheese merchant and an artist who lived in a barn surrounded by wild peacocks, they formed a populist revolt to seize power and repel the rich invaders. Deutschman's cast of characters brims with eccentrics, egomaniacs and a mysterious man in black who crashed the elegant Napa Valley Wine Auction before proceeding to pay a half-million dollars for a single bottle. What develops is nothing less than a battle for the good life, a clash between old and new, the struggle for the soul of one of America's last bits of paradise. A Tale of Two Valleys is also available in hardcover from Broadway Books. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Michael Cerveris. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/rhau/000114/bk_rhau_000114_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  • Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping
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  Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles into the Darkness , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 929min

  The harrowing story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless, miles-long tunnel, hundreds of feet below the ocean, to do a nearly impossible job - with deadly results.A quarter-century ago, Boston had the dirtiest harbor in America. The city had been dumping sewage into it for generations, coating the seafloor with a layer of “black mayonnaise.” Fisheries collapsed, wildlife fled, and locals referred to floating tampon applicators as “beach whistles.” In the 1990s, work began on a state-of-the-art treatment plant and a 10-mile-long tunnel - its endpoint stretching farther from civilization than the earth’s deepest ocean trench - to carry waste out of the harbor. With this impressive feat of engineering, Boston was poised to show the country how to rebound from environmental ruin. But when bad decisions and clashing corporations endangered the project, a team of commercial divers was sent on a perilous mission to rescue the stymied cleanup effort. Five divers went in; not all of them came out alive. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents collected over five years of reporting, award-winning writer Neil Swidey takes us deep into the lives of the divers, engineers, politicians, lawyers, and investigators involved in the tragedy and its aftermath, creating a taut, action-packed narrative. The climax comes just after the hard-partying DJ Gillis and his friend Billy Juse trade assignments as they head into the tunnel, sentencing one of them to death. An intimate portrait of the wreckage left in the wake of lives lost, the audiobook - which Dennis Lehane calls "extraordinary" and compares with The Perfect Storm - is also a morality tale. What is the true cost of these large-scale construction projects, as designers and builders, emboldened by new technology and pressured to address a growing population’s rapacious needs, push the limits of the possible? This is a story about human risk - how it is calcula ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: David H. Lawrence XVII. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/rand/003791/bk_rand_003791_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  • Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping
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  Rewilding Africa (eBook, ePUB)

  Conservationist Grant Fowlds lives to save and protect Africa's rhinos, elephants and other iconic wildlife, to preserve their habitats, to increase their range and bring back the animals where they have been decimated by decades of war, as in Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This vivid account of his work tells of a fellow conservationist tragically killed by the elephants he was seeking to save and a face-off with poachers, impoverished rural people exploited by rapacious local businessmen. Fowlds describes the impact of the Covid pandemic on conservation efforts, the vital wildlife tourism that sustains these and rural communities; and tells of conservationists' efforts to support people through the crisis. Lockdowns may have brought a welcome lull in rhino and other poaching, but also brought precious tourism to a standstill. He shows how the pandemic has highlighted the danger to the world of the illicit trade in endangered wildlife, some of it sold in 'wet markets', where pathogens incubate and spread. He describes a restoration project of apartheid-era, ex-South African soldiers seeking to make reparations in Angola, engulfed for many years in a profoundly damaging civil war, which drew in outside forces, from Cuba, Russia and South Africa, with a catastophic impact on that country's wildlife. Those who fund conservation, whether in the US, Zambia or South Africa itself, are of vital importance to efforts to conserve and rewild: some supposed angel-investors turn out to be not what they had appeared, some are thwarted in their efforts, but others are open-hearted and generous in the extreme, which makes their sudden, unexpected death an even greater tragedy. A passionate desire to conserve nature has also brought conservationists previously active in far-off Venezuela to southern Africa. Fowlds describes fraught meetings to negotiate the coexistence of wildlife and rural communities. There are vivid accounts of the skilled and dangerous work of using helicopters to keep wildebeest, carrying disease, and cattle apart, and to keep elephants from damaging communal land and eating crops such as sugar cane. He tells of a project to restore Africa's previously vast herds of elephants, particularly the famed 'tuskers', with their unusually large tusks, once prized and hunted almost to extinction. The range expansion that this entails is key to enabling Africa's iconic wildlife to survive, to preserving its wilderness and, in turn, helping humankind to survive.There is a heartening look at conservation efforts in Mozambique, a country scarred by years of war, which are starting to bear fruit, though just as a new ISIS insurgency creates havoc in the north of the country. What will humanity's relationship with nature be post-pandemic? Will we have begun to learn that by conserving iconic wildlife and their habitats we help to preserve and restore precious pockets of wilderness, which are so vital not only the survival of wildlife, but to our own survival on our one precious planet.

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  • Price: 7.49 EUR excl. shipping

• Rewilding Africa

  Conservationist Grant Fowlds lives to save and protect Africa's rhinos, elephants and other iconic wildlife, to preserve their habitats, to increase their range and bring back the animals where they have been decimated by decades of war, as in Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This vivid account of his work tells of a fellow conservationist tragically killed by the elephants he was seeking to save and a face-off with poachers, impoverished rural people exploited by rapacious local businessmen. Fowlds describes the impact of the Covid pandemic on conservation efforts, the vital wildlife tourism that sustains these and rural communities; and tells of conservationists' efforts to support people through the crisis. Lockdowns may have brought a welcome lull in rhino and other poaching, but also brought precious tourism to a standstill. He shows how the pandemic has highlighted the danger to the world of the illicit trade in endangered wildlife, some of it sold in 'wet markets', where pathogens incubate and spread. He describes a restoration project of apartheid-era, ex-South African soldiers seeking to make reparations in Angola, engulfed for many years in a profoundly damaging civil war, which drew in outside forces, from Cuba, Russia and South Africa, with a catastophic impact on that country's wildlife. Those who fund conservation, whether in the US, Zambia or South Africa itself, are of vital importance to efforts to conserve and rewild: some supposed angel-investors turn out to be not what they had appeared, some are thwarted in their efforts, but others are open-hearted and generous in the extreme, which makes their sudden, unexpected death an even greater tragedy. A passionate desire to conserve nature has also brought conservationists previously active in far-off Venezuela to southern Africa. Fowlds describes fraught meetings to negotiate the coexistence of wildlife and rural communities. There are vivid accounts of the skilled and dangerous work of using helicopters to keep wildebeest, carrying disease, and cattle apart, and to keep elephants from damaging communal land and eating crops such as sugar cane. He tells of a project to restore Africa's previously vast herds of elephants, particularly the famed 'tuskers', with their unusually large tusks, once prized and hunted almost to extinction. The range expansion that this entails is key to enabling Africa's iconic wildlife to survive, to preserving its wilderness and, in turn, helping humankind to survive.There is a heartening look at conservation efforts in Mozambique, a country scarred by years of war, which are starting to bear fruit, though just as a new ISIS insurgency creates havoc in the north of the country. What will humanity's relationship with nature be post-pandemic? Will we have begun to learn that by conserving iconic wildlife and their habitats we help to preserve and restore precious pockets of wilderness, which are so vital not only the survival of wildlife, but to our own survival on our one precious planet.

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  • Price: 12.99 EUR excl. shipping
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  Rapacious (Darquepunk Nuit #1)

  Rapacious (Darquepunk Nuit #1): ab 2.53 €

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  • Price: 2.53 EUR excl. shipping
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  Tamara Kostianovsky

  Tamara Kostianovsky - Rapacious Beauty: ab 29.9 €

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  • Price: 29.90 EUR excl. shipping

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