Showing results by narrator "Dennis Holland" in All Categories

How does the brain work? How different is a human brain from other creatures' brains? Is the human brain still evolving? In this fascinating book, Michael O'Shea provides a non-technical introduction to the main issues and findings in current brain research, and gives a sense of how neuroscience addresses questions about the relationship between the brain and the mind.

The great poison of the World Gash spreads through the oceans of Krynn, killing all in its path. Led by Apoletta of the Dargonesti and Utharne of the Dimernesti, the two great aquatic races of sea elves convene a Conclave to address the mysterious, urgent crisis. When undead attack the Conclave, Apoletta and Utharne must unite both their species, brave the storms of the World Gash and confront the ghosts of their past.

The final title in the latest trilogy from Dragonlance author team Thompson & Cook. Writing team Thompson and Cook once again explore the history of the ancient Dragonlance world in A Hero's Justice. Considered the historical specialists of the setting, the authors take their storytelling skills to a colorful and violent era of its history that has not been chronicled in any previous novel series.

How "Aha!" really happens....When do you get your best ideas? You probably answer "At night" or "In the shower" or "Stuck in traffic". You get a flash of insight. Things come together in your mind. You connect the dots. You say to yourself, "Aha! I see what to do." Brain science now reveals how these flashes of insight happen. It's a special form of intuition. We call it strategic intuition, because it gives you an idea for action - a strategy. This new book by William Duggan is the first full treatment of strategic intuition.

The action-filled movie 300 focused on Ancient Greece's epic battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas led 300 Spartans into battle against Xerxes and his million-strong Persian forces. In the sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, the action moves to the sea, covering 10 years starting with the Battle of Marathon and ending with naval engagement the Battle of Artemisium, which occurred the same day as Thermopylae. Rise of an Empire tells the story of the real men and events depicted in the movie.

A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman alive from her totaled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage. Sheila Arsenault is a gorgeous enigma--streetwise and tough-talking, with haunted eyes, fierce desires, and a never-look-back determination. Peter Webster, as straight an arrow as they come, falls for her instantly and entirely. Soon Sheila and Peter are embroiled in an intense love affair, married, and parents to a baby daughter.

Solace is booming out of control. An important temple dedication is bringing merchants, dignitaries, and a host of ne’er-do-wells and surprise visitors to the fabled treetop town. And lately there have been a series of mysterious incidents. Palin has sworn off magic and nowadays acts as town mayor. He desperately needs a new sheriff, as the last one has just been murdered by malefactors unknown. Fortunately, Gerard has quit the knighthood after a quarrel with his father, and arrives just in time to don a sheriff’s badge.

Since the Enlightenment, there has been a very simple but widely held assumption that we are a species of thinking individuals and that human behavior is best understood by examining the psychology of individuals. It appears, however, that this insight is plain wrong. The evidence from a number of leading behavioral and neuroscientists suggests that our species is designed as a herd or group animal. Mark Earls applies this evidence to the traditional mechanisms of marketing and consumer behavior, with a result that necessitates a complete rethinking about these subjects.

Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tel Aviv--the global hubs of entrepreneurial activity all bear the marks of government investment. Yet, for every public intervention that spurs entrepreneurial activity, there are many failed efforts that waste untold billions in taxpayer dollars. When has governmental sponsorship succeeded in boosting growth, and when has it fallen terribly short?

Over the course of nearly two centuries, the innovations, mistakes, and scandals of different market participants have played an important role in shaping today's financial markets. Now, in 100 Minds that Made the Market, Ken Fisher delivers cameo biographies of these pioneers of American financial history. From Joe Kennedy's "sexcapades" to Jesse Livermore's suicide, this book details the drama, the dirt, and the financial principles of an amazingly inventive group of financial minds.

From out of the clouds it comes, breathing ice, terrorizing those who live by the seas of Krynn. It is a terror beyond belief: the Great White Wyrm. And for centuries, a dedicated band of elves known as Dragonsbane has pursued it. They've finally brought the dragon to bay, but a fanatical captain dedicated to the beast's destruction and driven by revenge threatens to bring ruin upon them all.

For 18 years Jack has been a “transplant tourism director,” sending wealthy Americans and Europeans in need of kidneys and other organs to third-world countries where they would buy them from transplant centers on the take. The death of a client and a newfound relationship lead to a crisis of conscience as he is forced to choose between a $2 million commission - and participating in a murder.

And Then the Roof Caved In lays bare the truth of the 2007-08 credit crisis, whose defining emotion at every turn was greed, and whose defining failure is the complicity of the US government in letting that greed rule the day. Written by CNBC's David Faber, this book painstakingly details the truth of what really happened with compelling characters who offer their first-hand accounts of what they did and why they did it.

Every liberal democracy has laws or codes against hate speech - except the United States. For constitutionalists, regulation of hate speech violates the First Amendment and damages a free society. Against this absolutist view, Jeremy Waldron argues powerfully that hate speech should be regulated as part of our commitment to human dignity and to inclusion and respect for members of vulnerable minorities.

While in Palanthas to convince the Knights of Solamnia to aid Solace against her neighbor Samuval, Gerard uth Mondar finds himself pitted against an old opponent from the War of Souls, Galdar the minotaur. But when the Knights' council adjourns due to a devastating magical storm that threatens Palanthas, Gerard and Galdar become uneasy allies on a quest to protect the city by recovering a mysterious stolen chest. The pair must track down the chest before its thief discovers the secret....

After a bloody 10-year war, the mighty city of Tarsis has been brought to its knees. Lord Tolandruth - once the farmer's son Tol - has led the armies of the Ergoth Empire to the enemy's very gates. Poised for final victory, instead he is recalled to Daltigoth. The Emperor is dead, and civil war threatens to tear apart the empire.Tol takes a long, perilous journey back to the seat of power, not only to attend upon a new emperor and be reunited with the woman he loves, but to avenge himself on the wizard who caused his exile. Reclaiming his love and honor calls for sacrifices that will shape his destiny - and the future of Krynn.

Few diseases are more gruesome than typhus. Transmitted by body lice, it afflicts the dispossessed - refugees, soldiers, and ghettoized peoples - causing hallucinations, terrible headaches, boiling fever, and often death. The disease plagued the German army on the Eastern Front and left the Reich desperate for a vaccine. For this they turned to the brilliant and eccentric Polish zoologist Rudolf Weigl.

Paris, 1926. Newspaper reporter Toby Keats, a veteran of the Great War and the only American in Paris who doesn't know Hemingway, has lived a quiet life - until one day he comes into possession of a rare eighteenth-century automate, a very strange and somewhat scandalous mechanical duck. Highly sought after by an enigmatic American banker, European criminals, and the charming young American Elsie Short, the duck is rumored to hold the key to opening a new frontier in weapons technology for the German army, now beginning to threaten Europe once more.

In an expose of the 2008 financial meltdown from the inside, Ziad K. Abdelnour argues that the political and financial elites have done nothing to fix the structural problems. By creating more market bubbles, they are actually waging a war on the most productive members of society. Abdelnour offers several solutions, including understanding that the government's primary objective is to create an environment conducive to the creation of wealth, not job creation, and not providing lifetime support to those who choose not to take advantage of the innumerable opportunities....

In the second half of the 20th century, no American president defined his political era as did Ronald Reagan. He ushered in an age that extolled smaller government, tax cuts, and strong defense, and to this day politicians of both political parties operate within the parameters of the world he made. His eight years in office, from 1981 to 1989, were a time of economic crisis and recovery, a new American assertiveness abroad, and an engagement with the Soviet Union that began in conflict but moved in surprising new directions.