Audio Book Award Goes to Einstein, His Life and Universe

The thirteenth audio books awards ceremony known as 'The Audies', took place in the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on May 30th 2008. Sometimes known as 'The Oscars' of the audiobook medium, the Audies are selected by distinguished members of the Audio Publishers Association, and awards are bestowed in over 30 categories.

The winner of the Mystery category was Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. This audio book is narrated by Will Patton and the abridged version is 6 hours in length, whilst the unabridged version is over 16 hours long. Dave Robicheaux returns in another Bayou adventure, this one more gruesome and gut-wrenching than any that have come before. Hurricane Katrina has ravaged New Orleans, and it has left the streets and buildings flooded and the city awash with opportunists, looters, and vicious criminals. There is no order, no law. Police are shooting randomly at innocent people, prison guards have abandoned their posts, bodies float through the streets and hang from trees, and every drug dealer, murderer and rapist is out taking advantage of the desperate lawlessness that holds the city captive.

In the midst of it all is Robicheaux, doing his best to help regulate the post-Katrina madness, all the while on a dogged search for a pair of dangerous fugitives, a dope-addicted, fallen priest, and a vigilante insurance salesman who takes his family's protection too far. This promises to be the most taxing and emotional case Robicheaux has had to work.

In his singular style that defies genre, James Lee Burke has created a haunting picture of life in New Orleans after Katrina. Filled with complex characters and vivid descriptions of the destruction and death that gripped the Big Easy, The Tin Roof Blowdown is an action-packed crime thriller as well as a poignant story of what disaster and desperation can do to people.

The winner of the Biography Memoir Category was Einstein, His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson. This audio book is narrated by Edward Herrmann and is 22 hours long. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.

Based on newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk - a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate - became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This left him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals.

The winner of 3 categories, namely, The Achievement in Production category, Original Work category, and Audio Drama category went to Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls by Yuri Rasovsky. This audiobook is narrated by Phil Proctor, Simon Templeman, Moira Quirk, Martin Jarvis, Rosalind Ayres, Robertson Dean, and W. Morgan Sheppard.

According to legend, Sweeney Todd had his barber shop at number 186 Fleet Street, next door to St. Dunstan's Church, just a few blocks away from the Royal Courts of Justice. On this site, they say, he robbed and murdered more than 150 customers. To dispose of their remains, he carried them through underground tunnels to the bakery of one Mrs. Lovett a few blocks away, where they supplied the stuffing for her meat pies, the favorite mid-day repast of the lawyers who worked nearby and got their shaves from Sweeney Todd. The man you lunched with yesterday could be your lunch today! The story first appeared in 1846 as a best-selling "penny dreadful," a sensational thriller published in installments. Before the final chapters even had a chance to hit the stands, the first stage version was packing them in at the Royal Britannia Saloon. Since then there have been numerous stage and literary versions of the story.

The winner of The Business Information/Educational category was Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear by Dr. Frank Luntz. This audiobook is narrated by the author and LJ Ganser and is 6 hours long.

Why are some people so much better than others at talking their way into a job or out of trouble? What makes some advertising jingles cut through the clutter of our crowded memories? What's behind winning campaign slogans and career-ending political blunders? Why do some speeches resonate and endure while others arc forgotten moments after they are given? The answers lie in the way words are used to influence and motivate, the way they connect thought and emotion. And no person knows more about the intersection of words and deeds than language architect and public-opinion guru Dr. Frank Luntz. In Words That Work, Dr. Luntz not only raises the curtain on the craft of effective language, but also offers priceless insight on how to find and use the right words to get what you want out of life. Whether your goal is to boost company sales, win political office, inspire your employees, or get that raise you deserve, Dr. Luntz has something instructive to say about how language can help. Learn about the phenomenon of transforming mere words into an effective arsenal for the war of perception we all wage each and every day.

The winner of The Children's Title For Ages 12+ category was Bloody Jack Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy, by L.A. Meyer. This audiobook is narrated by Katherine Kellgren and is 8 hours long.

Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas. There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life - if only she doesn't get caught...

The winner of The Audiobook adapted from another Medium category was Twilight Zone Radio Dramas: Collection 11 by various authors. This audio book is narrated by Stacy Keach, Fred Willard, Blair Underwood and others. The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas will keep you glued to the edge of your seat, whether listening in your home or in your car. Each tale unites classic stories and musical scores with contemporary sound effects and readings by distinguished guest stars.

Read More

Sandburg awards dinner gathers literary celebs in glittery cavalcade

Left to right: Neil Steinberg, Nami Mun, Don DeLillo, Walter Isaacson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel attend the Chicago Public Library Foundation and Chicago Public Library’s Carl Sandburg Literary Award Dinner Wednesday.

Mine is not one of those columns studded with bold-faced celebrity names, mainly because the closest I usually come to mingling with celebrities is having an office right in between the offices of Richard Roeper and Bill Zwecker. But whatever malign force in the universe generally keeps me from star-choked events lifted Wednesday night, and I found myself at the annual Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner, the advent of which I of course dreaded, predicting “a series of minor humiliations as punishment for the hubris of reaching toward a tiny honor.” That’s how these dinners always are; I end up tucked behind a plant in the corner of a vast ballroom, squinting into spotlights at the distant speck of a well-known person accepting a cube of lucite, feeling like a supernumerary shuffling through the role of Townsman in a Cheap Suit in an elaborate pageant celebrating someone else.

The idea that the Sandburg dinner was going to be different first dawned on me about five minutes into the opening reception, when I spied honoree Don DeLillo sitting at a small table. I plopped down in the chair next to him and introduced myself. He explained, in a whisper, that his voice is fading, no doubt the standard East Coast literary set line that major authors use to politely blow off intrusive small potato bores — not that it worked.

“That’s OK,” I said brightly, “I’ll do the talking for both of us,” and proceeded to praise Underworld and White Noise and lay out my own career in an agonizing detail that I hope did not destroy the evening for him.

After that it was off to the races. I cornered mystery writer Sara Paretsky, looking soigne, and talked to her about an email exchange she didn’t recall. Then I bumped into my old pal, New York University sociologist Eric Klinenberg, author of the influential Heat Wave and, more recently, Going Solo. I got a hearty hello from my pal Bill Kurtis and ran into director Robert Falls, whom I seem to run into everywhere. His wife, Kat Falls, whose sci-fi novel Dark Life is in development at Disney, was being honored, and we took turns happily sticking pins in a certain Wall Street Journal drama critic we mutually dislike and, speaking of which, I luckily detected Walter Jacobson in time to avert my eyes and rush off in the opposite direction.

They arranged us in alphabetical order, so we could march across a stage and be recognized as Official Literary Sorts, putting me next to Sen. Adlai Stevenson III, who gave an update on his doings in China, and unspooled a tale of rescuing Carl Sandburg after he got trapped in the elevator of the governor’s mansion. Architect Stanley Tigerman borrowed a pen and impressed me by then returning it.

Just sitting got old, fast, and I wandered over to say hello to Second City founder Bernie Sahlins, reminding him that I had not seen him since the wake Del Close threw for himself the evening before he committed suicide to cheat the Grim Reaper, who was about to kill him with cancer, a wild affair that included Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and a satanic priest who performed a dark ritual.

Speaking of darkness, Rick Kogan was there, thank God, and we talked about his success as a host on WBEZ. He introduced me to poet and short story writer Stuart Dybek, and to Kevin Coval, founder of Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival and we discussed the joys of the Uptown Poetry Slam at the Green Mill, and lauded our mutual friend, slam poet Patricia Smith.

The marching across stage part took a while, and I tried to make small talk with an unloquacious Scott Turow — selling 25 million books must render you taciturn — who accepted plaudits for Presumed Innocent and his other mysteries. He did laugh, when novelist Peter Orner crossed the stage, and I said I had read his debut novel, Love and Shame and Love, and perhaps he could have more accurately titled it Shame and Love and Shame.

Space dwindles, and I’m leaving folks out — Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, folk singer Bonnie Koloc, NPR Saturday Edition’s Scott Simon, whom I badgered unmercifully, demanding that he feature my new book on his program. Walter Isaacson, who won the Sandburg award for non-fiction, shared tales of Steve Jobs, Nami Mun , given the 21st Century Award, who movingly told the 700 people gathered to benefit the Chicago Public Library about being homeless, and how homeless shelters and Planned Parenthood helped her get off the streets. Zenobia Johnson Black came up and said she is a big fan of the Sun-Times, and introduced me to her husband, activist, historian and icon Timuel Black, and I think I shocked the poor man by practically grabbing him by his lapels and demanding that he have lunch with me later, and he agreed, if only to escape my clutches.

My wife, Edie, laughed at me all the way home in the car. “I got this dinner I gotta go to,” she whined, in an amazing imitation of a glum nasal depressive bemoaning his latest woe. “You wanna keep me company?”

Read More

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

On the bases of more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

Please mention your views on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson comments in comments. We are providing downloading link of this book.

DOWNLOAD

Read More

Steve Jobs On Medical Leave, Now What's Next for Apple?

The media is rife with speculation about Steve Jobs health after it has been announced that he will be taking another medical leave. What is the future of the company? What effect will Steve Jobs absence from Apple have on its stock performance? What ails Jobs and how serious is it?

Steve Jobs has requested that his privacy be respected during his period of recuperation. Let's hope his wishes are respected and there's no prying into his medical records or personal family affairs by sleazy bloggers or "journalists" looking to get some kind of "scoop."

It is not out of line, however, to speculate on Apple's future, as many pundits and analysts are already doing. Unfortunately, Much of the speculation about the whole thing involves needless handwringing if not downright hysteria. It's time for a few cool heads to set the record straight.

Let's examine some of the realities and misconceptions surrounding Steve Jobs and Apple's future.

No one can truly speculate on Steve Jobs health except his doctors.

Although cancer is certainly no minor matter, it is not the death sentence it once was. Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a cancerous pancreatic tumor in 2004 and had a liver transplant in 2009. This was successful, but the drugs needed to keep the body from rejecting such a transplant can cause side effects and other medical problems.

Steve Jobs is still with Apple.

Although Steve Jobs is on medical leave, he will continue on as CEO and be involved in strategic decisions with Apple.

Steve Jobs is a genius.

During his career Steve Jobs has revolutionized not one industry but several: computers with the Apple II and later the Macintosh, operating systems with NeXT, animation with Pixar, music and entertainment with Apple's iTunes, the cell phone industry with the iPhone and now the entire world of tablet PCs with the iPad. Steve Jobs has had an amazing ability to intuitively grasp what the public wants and to see opportunities that others have missed. In addition, the strength of his personality and reputation had given him and Apple considerable heft when it comes to negotiation.

Steve Jobs ego has gotten in the way at times.

Certainly, much of the speculation surrounding Apple after Steve Jobs is not surprising. Steve Jobs has presented himself as Apple's public face. He has run the keynotes, given most of the big announcements, and made Apple a very personality-driven company. Although this has built the Apple mystique over the years, it had the downside of leading to speculation about Apple's future after Jobs is no longer with the company. Certainly, Jobs' ego is one of the things that led to his original ouster from Apple back in 1985.

Steve Jobs is not Apple.

Apple is a multibillion dollar, multinational corporation which, according to Wikipedia, has 46,600 full time employees and 2,800 temporary full time employees worldwide, and worldwide annual sales of $65.23 billion.

Apple is much bigger than one man. In fact, Apple continued to enjoy a wide user base and popularity during the time between Steve Jobs ouster and his eventual return. Although Jobs is a unique technology visionary, runs Apple in a very hands-on fashion, and is, in fact, the public face of the corporation, it would be a mistake to think that he is the only one keeping it going.

Steve's recent health problems have not come suddenly, nor have they been a big surprise.

Steve Jobs has been suffering from health issues for a number of years now. Being the forward-thinking guy he is, Jobs has certainly not overlooked the fact that he will not be around forever. Steve Jobs knows what it takes to succeed in business and has surrounded himself with an excellent team of very talented people. He has been careful to groom Tim Cook as his right-hand man, making sure that there will be someone available to maintain operations of the company if he should ever have to leave.

Apple has an incredible management team consisting of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Peter Oppenheimer, Phil Schiller, Jonathan Ive, Ron Johnson, Sina Tamaddon, Bertrand Serlet, Scott Forstall and Bob Mansfield. Ive, who has been with Apple since 1992 has been the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design since 1997.

Steve Jobs has been gone from Apple before.

It is easy to forget that Steve Jobs has not always been with Apple. He was ousted from the company in 1985, just one year after the introduction of the Macintosh, and did not return until 1997, over 10 years later.

During that time, Apple was not stagnant, either. The company introduced many innovative products, such as the Newton, a groundbreaking handheld computer; the PowerBook, which established the modern ergonomic layout and form factor of the laptop computer; System 7, a major advance in operating systems; the PowerPC processor, a new computing architecture using Motorola and IBM hardware; and TrueType font technology, an open standard for fonts that greatly simplified font management.

Sure, Apple has had some missteps during that time, but it would be a mistake to think that everything Steve Jobs touches has turned to gold either; the Xserve has been discontinued, the Macintosh Cube flopped and the Apple TV has yet to really take off.

Apple has an incredible momentum going with the Mac, iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone and now the iPad.

Apple enjoys millions of loyal customers and users. Apple store openings often draw crowds of thousands, some of whom wait in line for as long as a day before the opening, and some of whom even fly in from other countries for the event. The cube-shaped store on Fifth Avenue in New York drew crowds half a mile long for its grand opening; some of the visitors even took the opportunity to propose marriage at the event. Mac users have been fiercely loyal to their machine because of the ease of use of the operating system and applications and the industrial design of the devices themselves.

Mac users are intensely loyal.

The Macintosh has enjoyed a "halo effect," as users of the iPod, iPhone and other Mac products have been inspired to try Apple's other offerings, including its desktop computers. This means that the Mac user base has been growing over the past several years. The loyalty of Mac users has inspired the phrase "Cult of Macintosh." Users of Macs and Apple's other products love their devices because of Apple's innovative industrial design, software made to be easy to use from the ground up, advanced operating system, award-winning support, compatibility with PCs and third-party hardware, ability to work with Microsoft Office and other PC files, and non-susceptibility to PC viruses.

In short, Apple has a public image, brand loyalty, reputation for innovation and user base that would make most of the world's biggest corporations green with envy. No matter what may happen in the future, one thing is certain: Apple's future as a technology leader is secured.

Read More