Showing results by narrator "Michael Gilboe" in All Categories

Among all the various figures in 19th century America who left controversial legacies, it is hard to find one as influential as Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Mormonism, and the Latter Day Saint movement. Revered as a prophet on the level of Moses by some, reviled as a perpetrator of large-scale fraud by others, what everyone can agree on is that Joseph Smith founded a religious movement that played a crucial role in the settlement of the West, especially in Utah.

When Bertram Wiggly leaves his job as an appliance actuary - calculating the life expectancy of major appliances so their warranties expire precisely one day before they implode - he thinks he's found the perfect place to retire in Medville, with its town square, circled by brick-cobbled streets and quaint shops with bright red and white awnings. But then the town rezones itself for musicals. At any moment an invisible orchestra is apt to strike up a melody and the otherwise sane townsfolk of Medville burst into song.

The Olmec people are widely recognized as the first major civilization of Mexico and are thus generally regarded as the mother civilization of Mesoamerica, making them the people from which all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures derived.

Nobody spent more time in the thick of early American political debates than Thomas Jefferson, one of the most famous and revered Americans. Jefferson was instrumental in all of the aforementioned debates, authoring the Declaration of Independence, laying out the ideological groundwork of the notion of states' rights, leading one of the first political parties, and overseeing the expansion of the United States during his presidency.

The Toltec are one of the most famous Mesoamerican groups in South America, but they are also the most controversial and mysterious. The Toltec have been identified as the group that established a strong state centered in Tula (in present-day Mexico), and the Aztec claimed the Toltec as their cultural predecessors, so much so that the word Toltec comes from the Aztec's word Tōltēcatl, translated as artisan.

He listened attentively when Grandpa talked. Curiosity is a terrible curse, he decided. And curious Zander was. He knew that they were considered outsiders on their street even when he was in the second grade. He just knew it even though people were nice to him and to his mother.

A certain inevitability characterizes the rise to fame of Aretha Franklin. Indeed, while it is true that neither of her parents were pop singers, they were each talented vocalists - Aretha's father, C.L., was a particularly famous preacher, with a voice so melodic that his sermons effectively doubled as musical performances. Moreover, in an age in which economic opportunities were particularly limited for African-Americans, Aretha was fortunate enough to grow up in a household of relative comfort.

The Greek god Hades is something of an enigma. On the one hand, people can view him through a lens that was a byproduct of the Christian tradition: as a terrifying lord of death seated upon his ebony throne, an unseen force of power moving through the world. Certainly, many of the ancient Greeks themselves saw the god in this light.

Retiring today is a lot harder than it was a few decades ago. With the right planning, however, retirement can still be another exciting phase of life to look forward to. Leveraging decades of experience as a world-renowned financial advisor, Suze Orman offers detailed advice for cutting expenses, saving more in the right accounts, investing in low-cost funds, paying off debt, getting insurance, and setting up the right end-of life documents. Anyone approaching retirement will find this book an invaluable guide.

In Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn take a personal and harrowing look at the pervasive problems of poverty, drug abuse, and rising death rate in America through the stories of the people in America's forgotten towns. What they discover is a problem that goes far beyond unemployment or personal choice: they discover America's great social depression.

Let this audiobook guide you to the many places you must see in Venice to not let your once-in-a-lifetime trip go to waste. This audiobook is filled with suggested places to stay - from budget to luxurious - places to visit, local cuisines to try, and places to shop. All these suggested itineraries have been experienced firsthand and are all highly recommended to tourists.

In 10% Happier, Dan Harris takes listeners on his journey to adopt meditation and practice mindfulness. The story begins with Harris chronicling a personal panic attack on national television while he was filling in as a News Reader for a colleague. According to the Nielsen ratings data, over five million saw his panic attack, which was the result of an extended period of what Harris calls "mindlessness", where he was focused on professional advancement and adventure.

In Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz cleverly manipulates Big Data to explore the dark underside of American consciousness. Using powerful new methodologies, the author analyzes anonymous Google searches across a wide range of subjects about which people tend to be secretive.

Gundry says that a plant protein called lectin is responsible for obesity, and many autoimmune disorders. Gundry offers a diet that eliminates lectins, GMOs, and other toxins. This diet will allow people to reduce weight, improve health, and eliminate a wide range of conditions including diabetes, heart disease, lupus, and more. Lectins are plant toxins. Plants evolved lectins as poisons to discourage insects from eating plant seeds or other parts of the plant. Lectins are in most plants, and can cause sickness in humans.

Nathan McBride is on the case again - and this time, the stakes are personal. His friend just saw two people killed, and he believes he knows the man responsible. But as McBride and his partner, Fontana, pursue the investigation, they find themselves on the brink of a shadow war, fought in secret by the powerful and wealthy - a war in which a single decision could change the course of history.

By the middle of the 19th century, New York City's population surpassed the unfathomable number of one million people.This was mostly due to the fact that so many immigrants heading to America naturally landed in New York Harbor, well before the federal government set up an official immigration system on Ellis Island. Many of these immigrants, who were arriving with little more than the clothes on their back, didn't travel far and thus remained in New York.