Showing results by narrator "Jonathan Ross" in All Categories

Plagues, pandemics, and infectious diseases have shaped the history of the Jewish people. Of course, there were the ten biblical plagues that famously smote the Egyptians—from the rain of frogs to the deaths of the firstborn—but that is just the start of the story. In The Eleventh Plague, Brown investigates the relation between Judaism and infectious diseases throughout the ages, from premodern and early-modern plagues, to rabbinic responses to smallpox and cholera, and to the curious practice of "Black Weddings" in which two orphans are married in a cemetery.

Joey Kopecky and his friends, Shazad and Leanora, have the weight of the world on their shoulders. As the new Order of the Majestic, it is their responsibility to keep magic alive and free for all and to fight the influence of the Invisible Hand, a sinister group of magicians intent on rounding up the world’s remaining magical items and keeping everything to themselves. It’s a vital mission and a sacred duty, but the Invisible Hand has been playing this game - and playing it well - for centuries.

Reeling from a breakup with his almost fiancée, the narrator of Andrew Palmer’s debut novel returns to his hometown in Iowa to house-sit for a family friend. There, a chance flick of the TV remote and a new correspondence with an old friend plunge him into unlikely twin obsessions: the reality show The Bachelor and the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet John Berryman. As his heart begins to mend, his fascination with each deepens, and somewhere along the way, representations of reality become harder and harder to distinguish from real life.

Head lice have invaded Edith B. Sugarman Elementary School, and George wants nothing more than to remain scotch-free from the vermin. Well, that and he wants his dad's booth at Career Day to be infinitely more popular than his enemy Louis Farley's dad's booth. He even bet his skull ring for Louis' wheelie sneakers to prove his dad's job is cooler. But when it comes to the day of the event, George isn't so confident he will win the bet or stay lice free!

Meet your new sales force: They love collaboration, live and breathe technology, and happily bring assignments home. They also show up late, resist authority, text their friends in meetings, and job hop like there's no tomorrow. You can bark orders all you want, but it won't work with millennials. To get great sales results, you need to let go of old-school approaches and learn to speak their language. Creating Sales Stars is your field guide to managing today's emerging sales professionals.

So you have a brilliant idea for a digital product. Now what? This concise, easy-to-listen-to manual will walk you through the steps of creating great apps and other products. With an unwavering focus on user experience and a commitment to ongoing iteration, the authors break down all the elements and exercises that go into creating products people won’t just buy, but will love to use.

In this alternately humorous and horrifying memoir, a Jewish father shleps his reluctant children around Europe on a hard-charging tour of Holocaust sites and memorials in order to impress on them the profound evil of Hitler’s war against the Jews and the importance of combatting genocide.

Famous founding father Benjamin Franklin was a proud subject of the British Empire—until he wasn’t. It took nearly seventy years and seven not-so-easy steps to turn Benjamin Franklin from a loyal British subject to a British traitor—and a fired-up American revolutionary. In this light, whimsical narrative, young listeners learn how Franklin came to be a rebel, beginning with his childhood lesson in street smarts when he buys a whistle at an inflated price

When five members of a middle school marching band are accidentally projected into an alternative universe during a field trip to the NASA headquarters, their fates land in the hands of the Multiverse Allied Council: a group of extraterrestrial delegates responsible for preserving harmony across the multiverse. Then Dev, Isaiah, Tessa, Maeve, and Lewis discover that Earth’s destruction is imminent due to an environmental collapse caused by humans. What can they do when their most formidable skill is marching in formation?

It's a signal paradox of our times that we live in an information society but do not know how it works. And without understanding how our information is stored, used and protected, we are vulnerable to having it exploited. In Fancy Bear Goes Phishing, Scott Shapiro exposes the secrets of the digital age. With lucidity and wit, he establishes that cybercrime has less to do with defective programming than with the faulty wiring of our psyches and society. And because hacking is a human story, he tells the fascinating tales of perpetrators.

The world of quantum physics is generally thought of as hopelessly esoteric. But, believe it or not, even the most mundane of everyday activities is profoundly influenced by the abstract and exotic world of the quantum. In Breakfast with Einstein, Chad Orzel illuminates the strange phenomena lurking just beneath the surface of our ordinary lives by digging into the surprisingly complicated physics involved in his (and anyone's) morning routine.

Rot is a mutant potato. Like most mutant potatoes, Rot loves all sorts of games and contests. So when he sees a sign for the “Cutest in the World Contest,” he can’t wait to enter. But when Rot realizes who he’s up against - an itty-bitty baby bunny, a little-wittle cuddly kitten, and an eenie-weenie jolly jellyfish - he loses confidence. Will the judges find room in their hearts for an adorable mutant potato?

In our cities, we stand in silent buses and tube carriages, barely acknowledging one another. Online, we retreat into silos and carefully curate who we interact with. But while we often fear strangers, or blame them for the ills of society, history and science show us that they are actually our solution. Throughout human history, our attitude to the stranger has determined the fate and wellbeing of both nations and individuals. A raft of new science confirms that the more we open ourselves up to encounters with those we don't know, the healthier we are.

A real-life astronaut is coming to Edith B. Sugarman Elementary School, and one lucky kid gets to interview him! Not only that, a trip to a space adventurer program is also up for grabs. To win the contest, students must complete a physical fitness challenge and come up with three interesting questions to ask the astronaut. As always, George intends to beat his rival, Louie. But when the competition heats up, George is too distracted to notice how much the prize means to his best friend.

Brothers Cole and Tinn are determined to solve a mystery almost as old as they are: What happened to their long-missing father? Joseph Burton vanished without a trace, leaving the babies’ mother to raise them—one human, one a goblin changeling—alone. Some say Joseph abandoned his family, others that he met foul play looking for a way to get rid of the changeling imposter. Cole is determined to learn his father’s true fate, so he and Tinn set out on a dangerous quest to the deepest, most deadly limits of the Oddmire.

I'm Sam. I'm just this guy. Okay, yeah, I'm a golem created from the substance of his own magic by the late Hierarch of Southern California. With a lot of work, I might be able to wield magic myself. I kind of doubt it, though. Not like Daniel Blackland can.

Reasonspace is in shambles after the disappearance of all magical creatures. Without faster-than-light travel, supply and communication routes have dried up, leaving humankind stranded and starving. Cowboy Jim and his complement of Reason soldiers search for the relocated Bala using the only surviving FTL drive. On their new utopian planet, the Bala are on the brink of civil war between those who want peace under old-fashioned unicorn rule and those who seek revenge on their human oppressors. Only Captain Jenny and her brain parasite can stop the Reason plan to enslave the Bala again.

There is a tendency to fetishize small business even as it shrinks before our eyes. Americans extol the virtues of small, local, often family-run shops, yet buy from big-box retailers and chains that dominate the competition. Even before the pandemic, small businesses seemed endangered. When Covid-19 hit, the resounding question was: How will they be able to survive this?

Status was once easy to identify—fast cars, fancy shoes, sprawling estates, elite brands. But in place of Louboutin’s and Lamborghinis, the relevance of the rich, famous, and gauche is waning and a riveting revolution is underfoot. Chuck Thompson—dubbed “savagely funny” by The New York Times and “wickedly entertaining” by the San Francisco Chronicle—sets out to determine what “status” means today and learns that what was once considered the low life has become the high life.

The War on Drugs doesn't work. This became obvious to El Paso City Representatives Susie Byrd and Beto O'Rourke when they started to ask questions about why El Paso's sister city, Ciudad Juarez, has become the deadliest city in the world - 8,000-plus deaths since January 1, 2008. Byrd and O'Rourke soon realized American drug use and United States' failed War on Drugs are at the core of problem.