Contemporary Culture

Listeners of this book will gain a clear understanding of what makes the Japanese, and their society, tick.

A historical epic about a girl from a remote Tongan island who becomes her people's queen. Talking corpses, poetic parrots, and a fan that wafts the breath of life—this is the world young Kōrero finds herself thrust into when a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote its...

“The best book about adultery since Madame Bovary.” —Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection A New Yorker, NPR, ELLE, and Esquire Best Book of the Year A hilariously acerbic sliding doors novel about a chance meeting between two young parents, both happily married (just not to each other)...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of the runaway phenomenon Unbroken comes a universal underdog story about the horse who came out of nowhere to become a legend. “Fascinating . . . Vivid . . . A first-rate piece of storytelling, leaving us not only with a vivid portrait of a...

Conklin’s audiobook is an interesting and informal discussion with the listener about the five principles of human performance; principle by principle, section by section. These five theories about how humans perform in organizations are principles, the building blocks of human performance, through which we have established a new way to think about safety and reliability in our worlds...and changing the way we think about work is a vital step toward improvement.

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST A razor-sharp new collection of stories of visionary childhood misfits and struggling adult dreamers from this legendary writer of “perfectly indescribable fiction . . . To read Williams...

Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity...doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Our attention is the most precious - and overdrawn - resource we have. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind's role in the environment, and find more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress.

A KIRKUS BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR LONGLISTED FOR THE FREUDENHEIM TRANSLATION PRIZE From “one of the great—if not the greatest—contemporary Yiddish novelists” (Elie Wiesel), the long-awaited English translation of a work, Tolstoyan in scope, that chronicles the last...

Harry Potter lives in a world that is both magical and historical. Hogwarts pupils ride an old-fashioned steam train to school, notes are taken on parchment with quill pens, and Muggle legends come to life in the form of werewolves, witches, and magical spells. This book is the first to explore the real history in which Harry's world is rooted. Did you know that bezoars and mandrakes were fashionable luxury items for centuries? Find out how Europeans first developed the potions, spells, and charms taught at Hogwarts, from Avada Kedavra to love charms.

Charming, handsome Trey Anderson balances the pressures of school popularity with a job at his family’s beloved local bookshop, Wonderland. Quirky, creative Ariel Spencer needs tuition for the prestigious art program of her dreams, and an opening at Wonderland is the answer. When Trey and Ariel learn that Wonderland is on the brink of being shut down by a neighborhood gentrifier, they team up to stop the doors from closing before the Christmas Eve deadline—and embark on a hate-to-love journey that will change them forever.

With accomplished precision and gentle eloquence, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the crosscurrents set in motion when immigrants, expatriates, and their children arrive, quite literally, at a cultural divide. The nine stories in this stunning debut collection unerringly chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of...

The Namesake follows the Ganguli family through its journey from Calcutta to Cambridge to the Boston suburbs. Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli arrive in America at the end of the 1960s, shortly after their arranged marriage in Calcutta, in order for Ashoke to finish his engineering degree at MIT...

This illuminating and insightful audiobook analyzes problems with the culture's underlying worldviews and suggests how Christians can offer solutions to current problems as a way to rebuild culture and faith.

Ash shook off the images swarming his head and tried to focus on her again; it wasn’t hard. She was so beautiful, those plump lips naturally lined by a darker stain of pink as they blossomed into a cherry in the center, those wide eyes so rich and opaque he could stare into them for hours and never separate pupil from iris. The lashes kissing the delicate smattering of freckles on her mahogany cheek—“I can’t begin to tell you how much your friendship means to me,” Ash said, still drinking in her face. She was so close. It would take nothing to just come a little closer, just there...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, a "mesmerizing" novel about the Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants striving to join Manhattan's inner circle (USA Today). Casey Han is a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean immigrants immersed in a glamorous...

Firefighter Caleb Holt lives to rescue people from flames. But when his marriage is in danger of collapse, how far will he go to save it? Based on the beloved film Fireproof and the inspiration for The Love Dare, this New York Times bestseller reminds us that God will choose to save us...

One young woman’s summer of infinite possibility takes a turn she never saw coming in “this 1980s coming-of-age tale [that’s] chillingly compelling. Get ready to be transported.”—People (Best Books of the Month) “I haven’t felt this kind of excitement reading a story set in the...

Welcome to Heaven, Inc., the grossly mismanaged corporation in the sky. For as long as anyone can remember, the founder and CEO (known in some circles as "God") has been phoning it in. Lately, he's been spending most of his time on the golf course. And when he does show up at work, it's not to...

Named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, Real Simple, Lit Hub, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Post, Kirkus Reviews, and The New York Public Library "A saga rich with origin myths, national and personal . . . Castillo is part of a younger generation of American...