Showing results by narrator "Laurence Dobiesz" in All Categories

Walking upright on two feet is a uniquely human skill. It defines us as a species. It enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. It freed our hands and freed our minds. We put one foot in front of the other without thinking - yet how many of us know how we do that, or appreciate the advantages it gives us? In this hymn to walking, neuroscientist Shane O’Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits it confers on our bodies and minds. In Praise of Walking celebrates this miraculous ability.

In these four dialogues, Plato develops the Socratic belief in responsibility for one's self and shows Socrates living and dying under his philosophy. In Euthyphro, Socrates debates goodness outside the courthouse, Apology sees him in court, rebutting all charges of impiety, in Crito, he refuses an entreaty to escape from prison, and in Phaedo, Socrates faces his impending death with calmness and skillful discussion of immortality.

At only 16 years old, Josef Lewkowicz became a number, prisoner 85314. Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, he and his father were separated from their family and herded to the Kraków-Plaszów concentration camp. Forced to carry out hard labour in brutal conditions, and to live under the constant threat of extreme violence and sudden death, before the war was over Josef would witness the unique horrors of six of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Ebensee.

Illumen Hall is an elite boarding school. Tragedy strikes when the body of a student is discovered at their exclusive summer party - on her back is an elaborate tattoo of a magpie. When new girl Audrey arrives the following term, running from her own secrets back home in America, she is thrown into solving the case. Despite her best efforts to avoid any drama, her new roommate Ivy was close to the murdered girl, and the two of them can't help but get pulled in.

Colonialism has not disappeared; it has taken a new form. In the new world order where data is the new oil, big Tech companies are grabbing our most basic natural resources - our data - exploiting our labour and connections, and repackaging our information to control our views, track our movements, record our conversations and discriminate against us. In this searing, cutting-edge guide, two leading global researchers and founders of the concept of data colonialism reveal how history can help us understand the emerging future - and how we can fight back.

When an elderly gentleman is found dead at the foot of a staircase, ship's officer Timothy Birch is ready to declare it a tragic accident. But James Temple, a strong-minded Scotland Yard inspector, is certain there is more to this misfortune than meets the eye. Birch agrees to investigate, and the trail quickly leads to the theft of a priceless painting. Its very existence is known only to its owner...and the dead man.

Almost everything we do generates data. Digital technology is now so pervasive that it's very hard to escape its influence, and with that growth comes fear. But whatever the news has told you about data and technology, think again. Data expert and tech insider Sam Gilbert shows that, actually, this data revolution could be the best thing that ever has happened to us. Good Data examines the incredible new ways this information explosion is already helping us and explains why the best is yet to come.

In 2007, Russell Edwards, fuelled by fascination and determination, discovered a shawl – an unexpected key in the historical mystery of Jack the Ripper. With an intriguing blend of forensic investigation and historical research, the book explores the gripping evidence, a blood-stained shawl, connected to the universally infamous criminal, Jack the Ripper. Persistent and fearless, Edwards embarks on a captivating seven-year quest to authenticate the shawl and unearth its concealed truths. His search takes him deeper into the heart of one of history's most chilling real crime stories.

In a city scarred by war, can love and loyalty survive? In war-torn Poland, 1944, Julia searches for her missing father - a high-ranking officer - and risks everything to join the resistance in Warsaw. But her mission takes a terrifying turn when she's corralled into the ghetto by Nazis. Just when it seems she'll share her best friend's tragic fate, Nikolaj, her childhood sweetheart, resurfaces in a German uniform.

From the prize-winning author of Ring of Steel, a gripping history of the First World War's longest and most terrible siege. In the autumn of 1914 Europe was at war. The battling powers had already suffered casualties on a scale previously unimaginable. On both the Western and Eastern fronts elaborate war plans lay in ruins and had been discarded in favour of desperate improvisation. In the West this resulted in the remorseless world of the trenches; in the East all eyes were focused on the old, beleaguered Austro-Hungarian fortress of Przemysl.

In Graham Diamond's collaboration with Aron Goldfarb, the reader feels the struggles of people trying to survive during the Holocaust. The author recounts his experiences in Poland during the Holocaust, when he escaped from a forced labour camp and, with his brother, hid in underground holes on the grounds of an estate controlled by the Gestapo.

Lala has lived a dazzling life. Born in Poland just after the First World War and brought up to be a perfect example of her class and generation, Lala is an independent woman who has survived some of the most turbulent events of her times. As she senses the first signs of dementia, she battles to keep her memories alive through her stories, telling her grandson tales of a life filled with love, betrayal and extraordinary acts of courage. Sweeping from 19th-century Kiev to modern-day Poland, this enthralling family saga is a celebration of a beautiful life well lived.

The Icelandic Psychological Association has prepared a test. They call it a sensitivity assessment -- a way of measuring a person's empathy and identifying the potential for anti-social behaviour. In a few days' time, Iceland will vote on whether to make the test compulsory for every citizen. The nation is bitterly divided. Some believe the test makes society safer; others decry it as a violation. As the referendum draws closer, four people - Vetur, Eyja, Tristan and Ólafur - find themselves caught in the teeth of the debate.

József Debreczeni, a prolific Hungarian language journalist and poet, arrived in Auschwitz in 1944; had he been selected to go 'left', his life expectancy would have been approximately forty-five minutes. One of the 'lucky' ones, he was sent to the 'right', which led to twelve horrifying months of incarceration and slave labour in a series of camps, ending in the 'Cold Crematorium' - the so-called hospital of the forced labour camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work were left to die. Debreczeni beat the odds and survived.

When criminal justice lawyer Joanna Chylka is tasked with defending the son of Zelasny & McVay's biggest client, she is stumped for the first time. Assisted by average law graduate and the firm's newest mentee, Kordian Orynski, they find himself in a maze of tangled evidence. Piotr Langer Junior has been charged with Article 148: murder with exceptional brutality. He is alleged to have sat in his apartment for ten days with two rotting corpses, before calmly opening the door to the police dressed in a light blue dressing gown, as though nothing had ever happened.

Emerging triumphant from the firing line of war is no easy feat... In war-torn Warsaw, Anna joins the Polish resistance, risking everything for freedom with memories of her fanatical Nazi husband fueling her determination. As she grows close to the resistance, a kind doctor named Mateusz ignites dreams of a different life. But her happiness is shattered when her husband resurfaces. Now, Anna must masquerade as his wife once more to gather vital information.

Daan Heerma van Voss is not just anxious. According to tests on the cortisone levels in his hair, he is seventy-four times as anxious as the average person. And that makes him hard to live with. When another relationship is broken by his crippling fears, the only way to cope is to get to the roots of his condition. But he also wants to dig deeper and tackle the big questions. Why are 264 million people worldwide suffering from anxiety, and why is this number growing every day?