Energy
An Audio Guide
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Narrated by:
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Dave Ferguson
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By:
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Vaclav Smil
About this listen
In this user-friendly and informative audiobook, prolific author and academic Vaclav Smil provides an introduction to this far-reaching term and gives the reader a greater understanding of energy's place in both past and present society. Starting with an explanation of the concept, he goes on to cover such exciting topics as the inner workings of the human body and the race for more efficient and environmentally friendly fuels.
Whether you're after insight or dinner-table conversation, Energy will amaze and inform, uncovering the science behind one of the most important concepts in our universe.
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Editorial reviews
Energy: it's all around us, and this introductory guide from respected Canadian scientist Vaclav Smil explains how it works. Beginning with a simple definition of the term, and then digging into energy's history and the complex ways it exists in nature and the human body, this audiobook is an easy-to-understand, conceptually rich summary of the multitudinous ways that energy affects our lives. A pleasant, confident narration from Dave Ferguson makes this an easy listen for students, fans of science, and anybody curious about the forces that move us.
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- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.
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Not one boring moment!
- By WRWF on 12-22-17
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Cosmic Queries
- StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
- By: James Trefil, Lindsey N. Walker - editor, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating audiobook, Tyson and coauthor James Trefil, a renowned physicist and science popularizer, take on the big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia - How did life begin? What is our place in the universe? Are we alone? - and provide answers based on the most current data, observations, and theories.
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Not worth it
- By Daniel Earl on 03-15-21
By: James Trefil, and others
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Ranger Confidential
- Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
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Not the best from Vaclav, but near the top
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Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
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Nihil novum sub soli
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The grid is an accident of history and of culture, in no way intrinsic to how we produce, deliver and consume electrical power. Yet this is the system the United States ended up with, a jerry-built structure now so rickety and near collapse that a strong wind or a hot day can bring it to a grinding halt. The grid is now under threat from a new source: renewable and variable energy, which puts stress on its logics as much as its components.
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A disappointment
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Not a good format for this book
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Not the best from Vaclav, but near the top
- By Tan on 07-19-23
By: Vaclav Smil
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How the World Really Works
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Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
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Nihil novum sub soli
- By Sam J. on 08-29-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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The Grid
- The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
- By: Gretchen Bakke
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The grid is an accident of history and of culture, in no way intrinsic to how we produce, deliver and consume electrical power. Yet this is the system the United States ended up with, a jerry-built structure now so rickety and near collapse that a strong wind or a hot day can bring it to a grinding halt. The grid is now under threat from a new source: renewable and variable energy, which puts stress on its logics as much as its components.
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A disappointment
- By Ronald on 09-24-16
By: Gretchen Bakke
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Oil
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Without oil, there would be no globalisation, no plastic, little transport, and a global political landscape that few would recognise. It is the lifeblood of the modern world, and humanity’s dependence upon it looks set to continue for decades to come. In this captivating audiobook, Vaclav Smil explains all matters related to ‘black gold’, from its discovery in the earth, right through to the political maelstrom that surrounds it today.
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Absolutely Masterful! Comprehensive yet succinct.
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Numbers Don't Lie
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Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment - your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?
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Strange book
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Growth
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Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.
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PDF should come with this book...
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By: Vaclav Smil
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Size
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Size explains the regularities—and peculiarities—of the key processes shaping life (from microbes to whales), the Earth (from asteroids to volcanic eruptions), technical advances (from architecture to transportation), and societies and economies (from cities to wages).
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Worth a read
- By Rurik McKaiser on 05-21-23
By: Vaclav Smil
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Made in the USA
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- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Made in the USA, Vaclav Smil powerfully rebuts the notion that manufacturing is a relic of predigital history and that the loss of American manufacturing is a desirable evolutionary step toward a pure service economy. Smil argues that no advanced economy can prosper without a strong, innovative manufacturing sector and the jobs it creates. Smil assesses various suggestions for solving America's manufacturing crisis, including lowering corporate tax rates, promoting research and development, and improving public education. Will America act to reinvigorate manufacturing?
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first half was good
- By Jim on 12-12-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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The New Map
- Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
- By: Daniel Yergin
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The world is being shaken by the collision of energy, climate change, and the clashing power of nations in a time of global crisis. The "shale revolution" in oil and gas - made possible by fracking technology, but not without controversy - has transformed the American economy, ending the "era of shortage", but introducing a turbulent new era. Almost overnight, the United States has become the world's number one energy powerhouse - and, during the coronavirus crisis, brokered a tense truce between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
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Not his best: Overly broad, kind of sloppy
- By Jonathan Kelman on 02-23-21
By: Daniel Yergin
What listeners say about Energy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- KlausK
- 06-07-18
Too many numbers for Audio, but great book
Really good book, but I think I should have read it, not listened to. Numbers loose a lot of their meaning when you only hear them and you cannot stop to compare.
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- See Reverse
- 03-02-18
Listening to the Encyclopedia of Energy
It takes a while to build up the constitution to listen to Vaclav Smil for a week, but I'm never too disappointed that I did. This book reads a lot like an encyclopedia, which means you're definitely going to be picking up tidbits on the evolution of our human understanding of energy, and relative efficiencies, but don't expect too much story to it. Overall worthwhile, but if you're not a die-hard of non-fiction, or really interested in energy derived from solar energy at some point during its creation... you're not going to stick with this listen.
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3 people found this helpful
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- William
- 07-04-23
Not really for “beginners”
As someone that has long had an interest in energy and the policies surrounding the choices we face, and as someone that loves math, I enjoyed this book.
My issue with the book is in calling it a beginner’s guide… it isn’t. Unlike most of the Bolinda Guides that I have read (and thoroughly enjoyed), this book will throw a lot of numbers at you and assumes the reader has a basic understanding of terminology and principles of energy.
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- Yaman
- 07-26-15
Worth reading a few times over!
There is so much to learn from this book about energy, and it is one I will be returning to more than once in the not so distant future!
Thank you Bolinda for making it into an audiobook. It couldn't have been an easy task!
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- Rich Weatherill
- 07-25-15
Great journey through the concept of energy
Great narration & introduction to energy and the role it plays in our lives. First chapters are a little bit like high school textbook but after that foundation the ideas continue to build on previous concepts. I look forward to listening to Smil's "Oil" next.
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- J. Rector
- 01-20-16
Incredibly balanced, complete & organized.
Would you listen to Energy: Bolinda Beginner Guides again? Why?
Fantastic outline of energy systems with well-balanced presentation of ideas that should not be but usually are controversial.
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- clinton
- 10-04-19
beginner or not... great book
love the specifics. great research and leaves open for reader/listener to make interpretations. looking forward to others on this subject by this author.
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- Celina Harp
- 05-06-16
Good subject too good voice
The science and organization by the author was well executed. But the speakers voice, the epitome of a game show host, was overdone, repetitive in tone, and distracting.
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- Review name
- 04-03-16
Utterly boring book/audio
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
The book is very boring and does not capture the reader's attention. The author merelt enumerats a million ways of energy, its measurement, and impact and compared the quantum of energy with some day-to-day activity. The book and the content never impressed me. It is neither for the scholars nor for the layman.
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