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Force
- What It Means to Push and Pull, Slip and Grip, Start and Stop
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
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Force
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Publisher's summary
An eminent engineer and historian tackles one of the most elemental aspects of life: how we experience and utilize physical force
Force explores how humans interact with the material world in the course of their everyday activities. This book for general audiences also considers the significance of force in shaping societies and cultures.
Celebrated author Henry Petroski delves into the ongoing physical interaction between people and things that enables them to stay put or causes them to move. He explores the range of daily human experience whereby we feel the sensations of push and pull, resistance and assistance. The book is also about metaphorical force, which manifests itself as pressure and relief, achievement and defeat.
Petroski draws from a variety of disciplines to make the case that force—represented especially by our sense of touch—is a unifying principle that pervades our lives. In the wake of a prolonged global pandemic that increasingly cautioned us about contact with the physical world, Petroski offers a new perspective on the importance of the sensation and power of touch.
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Story4 out of 5 stars 891
With this updated edition of his earlier book, A Place of My Own, listeners can revisit the inspired, intelligent, and often hilarious story of Pollan’s realization of a room of his own—a small, wooden hut, his “shelter for daydreams” — built with his admittedly unhandy hands. Inspired by both Thoreau and Mr. Blandings, A Place of My Own not only works to convey the history and meaning of all human building, it also marks the connections between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Pollan is the master of hipster porn
- By Darwin8u on 02-28-15
By: Michael Pollan
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The Man Who Made Things out of Trees
- By: Robert Penn
- Narrated by: Robert Penn
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Out of all the trees in the world, the ash is the most closely bound up with who we are. From tool handles to arrows, wheels and bowls to furniture and baseball bats, humans have made more and varied use of ash than any other kind of wood. Journeying across the English-speaking world, Robert Penn meets craftsmen with rare skills and a knowledge of the properties of ash developed over millennia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing tale and daunting warning
- By Amazon Customer on 06-11-19
By: Robert Penn
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Fatal Flight
- The True Story of Britain's Last Great Airship
- By: Bill Hammack
- Narrated by: Bill Hammack
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Fatal Flight brings vividly to life the year of operation of R.101, the last great British airship - a luxury liner three and a half times the length of a 747 jet, with a spacious lounge, a dining room that seated 50, glass-walled promenade decks, and a smoking room.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Probably better in a visual media
- By Aner on 08-22-17
By: Bill Hammack
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How to Build a Car
- By: Adrian Newey
- Narrated by: Richard Trinder
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,535
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,343
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,342
The world's foremost designer in Formula One, Adrian Newey OBE is arguably one of Britain's greatest engineers and this is his fascinating, powerful memoir. How to Build a Car explores the story of Adrian's unrivalled 35-year career in Formula One through the prism of the cars he has designed, the drivers he has worked alongside and the races in which he's been involved.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Snooze fest
- By moo on 02-09-20
By: Adrian Newey
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Uncommon Carriers
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: John McPhee
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 228
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 162
From Pulitzer Prize-winner John McPhee, author of The Founding Fish, comes the fascinating story of an often overlooked, yet vitally important part of America. This first-hand account of the transportation sector features evocative portraits of the men and women who deliver our consumer and industrial goods.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Geologist's Curiosity/Patience and a Poet's Pen
- By Darwin8u on 09-01-14
By: John McPhee
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The Great Bridge
- The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 27 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,756
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,437
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,438
This monumental book tells the enthralling story of one of the greatest accomplishments in our nation's history, the building of what was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge rose out of the expansive era following the Civil War, when Americans believed all things were possible.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Historian and not a Novelist
- By Tim on 06-01-12
By: David McCullough
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Ingenious
- A True Story of Invention, Automotive Daring, and the Race to Revive America
- By: Jason Fagone
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4 out of 5 stars 34
In 2007, the X Prize Foundation announced that it would give $10 million to anyone who could build a safe, mass-producible car that could travel one hundred miles on the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas. The challenge attracted more than one hundred teams from all over the world, including dozens of amateurs. Many designed their cars entirely from scratch, rejecting decades of thinking about what a car should look like.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels.
- By Shamu from New York on 12-07-13
By: Jason Fagone
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Rust
- The Longest War
- By: Jonathan Waldman
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 218
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 181
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Story4 out of 5 stars 182
In Rust journalist Jonathan Waldman travels from Key West, Florida, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to meet the colorful and often reclusive people concerned with corrosion. He sneaks into an abandoned steelworks with a brave artist and nearly gets kicked out of Can School. Across the Arctic he follows a massive high-tech robot, hunting for rust in the Alaska pipeline.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Almost too geeky for geeks
- By Norman B. Bernstein on 03-26-15
By: Jonathan Waldman
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Explore/Create
- My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark
- By: Richard Garriott, David Fisher
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
An inventor, adventurer, entrepreneur, collector, and entertainer, and son of legendary scientist-astronaut Owen Garriott, Richard Garriott de Cayeux has been behind some of the most exciting undertakings of our time. A legendary pioneer of the online gaming industry - and a member of every gaming Hall of Fame - Garriott invented the multi-player online game, and coined the term "Avatar" to describe an individual's online character. In this fascinating memoir, Garriott invites listeners on the great adventure that is his life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Modern Day Explorer
- By Elijah on 04-17-17
By: Richard Garriott, and others
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The Skylark of Space
- Skylark Series #1
- By: E. E. "Doc" Smith
- Narrated by: Reed McColm
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 202
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 146
Brilliant government scientist Richard Seaton discovers a remarkable faster-than-light fuel that will power his interstellar spaceship, The Skylark. His ruthless rival, Marc DuQuesne, and the sinister World Steel Corporation will do anything to get their hands on the fuel. They kidnap Seaton's fiancée and friends, unleashing a furious pursuit and igniting a burning desire for revenge that will propel The Skylark across the galaxy and back.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Space Operas - Good Story telling!
- By Madge on 01-27-10
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Expanded Universe, Vol. 2
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
Robert A. Heinlein has been hailed as one of the most forward-thinking science fiction writers of all time, and Expanded Universe (presented in two volumes) offers the perfect collection of his works to provide listeners with true insights into his uniquely creative mind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I Nostradamus type warning for today
- By mort on 06-26-18
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The Secret Life of Lobsters
- By: Trevor Corson
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
In this intimate portrait of an island lobstering community and an eccentric band of renegade biologists, journalist Trevor Corson escorts the listener onto the slippery decks of fishing boats, through danger-filled scuba dives, and deep into the churning currents of the Gulf of Maine to learn about the secret undersea lives of lobsters.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Uninteresting and poorly written
- By Alexandra DuSablon on 01-10-20
By: Trevor Corson
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The Flicker Men
- A Novel
- By: Ted Kosmatka
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 675
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 615
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Story4 out of 5 stars 620
A quantum physicist shocks the world with a startling experiment, igniting a struggle between science and theology, free will and fate, and antagonizing forces not known to exist. Eric Argus is a washout. His prodigious early work clouded his reputation and strained his sanity. But an old friend gives him another chance, an opportunity to step back into the light.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Started out good but fell flat
- By Ed A on 08-04-15
By: Ted Kosmatka
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Waldo & Magic, Inc.
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 249
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 223
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 226
North Power Air is in trouble. Their aircraft are crashing at an alarming rate and no one can figure out the cause. Desperate for an answer, they turn to Waldo, a crippled misanthropic genius who lives in a home in orbit around Earth, where the absence of gravity means that his feeble muscle strength does not confine him helplessly in a wheelchair. But Waldo has little reason to want to help the rest of humanity - until he learns that the solution to Earth’s problems also holds the key to his own.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I'M NEVER IN A HURRY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-13-16
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Longitude
- By: Dava Sobel
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Neil Armstrong
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,231
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,050
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,050
In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment--from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton--had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on....
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5 out of 5 stars
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To hear Neil Armstongs Voice
- By Boots on 01-19-13
By: Dava Sobel