Book picks similar to
Spock vs. Q by Cecilia Fannon


star-trek
science-fiction
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audiobooks

Plant Science: An Introduction to Botany


Catherine Kleier - 2018
    Catherine Kleier invites us to open our eyes to the phenomenal world of plant life and to the process she calls “Natura Revelata”, the joy of celebrating and learning from the secrets of nature.As Dr. Kleier shares her knowledge with contagious excitement for her subject, she emphasizes the middle ground: Instead of focusing on cell microbiology or the study of ecosystems and habitats, she stresses the basic biology, function, and the amazing adaptations of the plants we see all around us. Dr. Kleier proposes and establishes that there is pleasure to be found in being able to identify and understand the workings of that tree outside the window.With almost 400,000 known species and thousands more identified every year, the variety of plant life is almost overwhelming - from the microscopic to the largest organism on Earth. In this course, you will learn about the fascinating adaptations that have allowed plants to thrive in almost every corner of the world and the unique plants that have evolved as a result.You’ll learn about the latest discoveries regarding plant communication, the myriad ways they manage and shape their own environments, and why botanists are still debating what it really means to be a unique species.

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius


Jorge Luis Borges - 1940
    It's an important story in the Borges' canon, incorporating most of the author's philosophical and esthetic preoccupations in a typically brief compass. With great solemnity and a convincing array of scholarly detail (including annotated references to imaginary books and articles), Borges contocts a fable of an alternate world and its infiltration of our own. The reality of Tlon is idealist: material objects have no existence; language has no nouns; its principal discipline is psychology, since its inhabitants see the universe as nothing but a series of mental processes. A series of 24 illustrations accompanies the text. Their disturbing resemblances to our reality make them appropriate reflections of Borges's imaginative constructs.' -- The Kingston "Whig-Standard"

Palm Sunday/Welcome to the Monkeyhouse


Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 1981
    A diabolical government asserts control by eliminating orgasms from sex in the title story of Welcome to the Monkey House - setting the tone for a collection shot through with Vonnegut's acrid wit, and his bewilderment at the corruption of humanity.From riffs on country music, George Bush, and his mother's midnight mania, to a bittersweet tribute to a dead friend, Palm Sunday demonstrates why Kurt Vonnegut is equally well known as an essayist and commentator as he is a novelist.This caustic, funny and poignant collection resonates with Vonnegut's singular voice.

Donovan's Brain


Curt Siodmak - 1942
    Donovan's life after a plane crash, keeps his brain alive thru an illegal experiment. The story provides an examination of evil impossible to forget. Donovan is more than one of the world's richest men. He's a megalomaniac even before Cory keeps his brain alive in the tank. Once freed of the distractions of flesh, the will to power is all that drives him. It communicates with Cory thru telepathy, but that's only the beginning. It begins to take over the scientist. Possessed by Donovan's mind, Cory finds himself helpless to fight the tycoon's plans. Cory remains aware as he follows orders, becoming more & more like Donovan. His wife is helpless, his assistant is helpless, to stop Donovan's Brain!

Jeeves and the Impending Doom


P.G. Wodehouse - 2005
    Penguin first published Wodehouse in 1936, a year after Penguin was founded, and this volume offers two of the comic master's most-loved stories. In these two stories Bertie Wooster finds himself on a losing streak and lands himself at the mercy of his aunts, Dahlia and Agatha, and only Jeeves is capable of extricating him from disaster.- Jeeves and the Impending Doom- Jeeves and the Song of Songs

Always You


Lizzie Morton
    Unfortunately fate has other ideas, entangling our lives and making it virtually impossible.My wild friends and crazy family agree I should steer clear of him, but everything becomes irrelevant when we’re together. It’s heart-stopping, gut-wrenching, and my mind is plagued with 'what if'.I’m left questioning if what I thought was the end of our journey was only the beginning.The heart wants it wants, and mine wants Jake, always.But sometimes in life happily ever afters don’t come easily, and ours might prove impossible.**Always You is Book 1 in the Always Series. This book is part one of a trilogy and is not a standalone.**

Milton: A Poem (The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Vol 5)


William Blake - 1810
    Made possible by recent advances in printing and reproduction technology, the publication of new editions of Jerusalem and Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1991 was a major publishing event. Now these two volumes are followed by The Early Illuminated Books and Milton, A Poem. The books in both volumes are reproduced from the best available copies of Blake's originals and in faithfulness and accuracy match the acclaimed standards set by Jerusalem and Songs. These two volumes are uniform in format and binding with the first two volumes.The Early Illuminated Books comprises All Religions Are One and There Is No Natural Religion; Thel; Marriage of Heaven and Hell; and Visions of the Daughters of Albion. Milton, A Poem, second only to Jerusalem in extent and ambition, is accompanied by Laocon, The Ghost of Abel, and On Homer's Poetry.

Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet


Jess Stearn - 1971
    The Edgar Cayce story is one of the most compelling in inspirational literature. For more than forty years, the Sleeping Prophet closed his eyes, entered into an altered state of consciousness, and spoke to the very heart and spirit of humankind on subjects such as health, healing, dreams, prophecy, meditation, and reincarnation. His more than 14,000 readings are preserved at the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc., in Virginia Beach, Virginia.A native of Kentucky with a ninth-grade education, Edgar Cayce accurately predicted two world wars, including the years they began and ended, racial strife in America, the death of John F. Kennedy, and hundreds of other recorded events. He could apparently travel in time and space to treat the ill, and dispensed information that led to innumerable cures where traditional medicine was helpless. The first to introduce many Americans to the concept of reincarnation, Cayce drew on a subconscious Universal Mind for startling information about past and future. In The Sleeping Prophet, Jess Stearn presents the extraordinary story of his life, his healing, his prophecies, and his powerful legacy.

One Autumn Night


Maxim Gorky - 1895
    Gorky's reputation grew as a unique literary voice from the bottom strata of society and as a fervent advocate of Russia's social, political, and cultural transformation. By 1899, he was openly associating with the emerging Marxist social-democratic movement, which helped make him a celebrity among both the intelligentsia and the growing numbers of "conscious" workers. At the heart of all his work was a belief in the inherent worth and potential of the human person. In his writing, he counterposed individuals, aware of their natural dignity, and inspired by energy and will, with people who succumb to the degrading conditions of life around them. Both his writings and his letters reveal a "restless man" (a frequent self-description) struggling to resolve contradictory feelings of faith and skepticism, love of life and disgust at the vulgarity and pettiness of the human world. He publicly opposed the Tsarist regime and was arrested many times. Gorky befriended many revolutionaries and became a personal friend of Vladimir Lenin after they met in 1902. He exposed governmental control of the press (see Matvei Golovinski affair). In 1902, Gorky was elected an honorary Academician of Literature, but Tsar Nicholas II ordered this annulled. In protest, Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Korolenko left the Academy. Leo Tolstoy with Gorky in Yasnaya Polyana, 1900. From 1900 to 1905, Gorky's writings became more optimistic. He became more involved in the opposition movement, for which he was again briefly imprisoned in 1901. In 1904, having severed his relationship with the Moscow Art Theatre in the wake of conflict with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Gorky returned to Nizhny Novgorod to establish a theatre of his own. Both Constantin Stanislavski and Savva Morozov provided financial support for the venture. Stanislavski believed that Gorky's theatre was an opportunity to develop the network of provincial theatres which he hoped would reform the art of the stage in Russia, a dream of his since the 1890s. He sent some pupils from the Art Theatre School-as well as Ioasaf Tikhomirov, who ran the school-to work there. By the autumn, however, after the censor had banned every play that the theatre proposed to stage, Gorky abandoned the project.

The Physics of God


Joseph Selbie - 2017
    The explanations of transcendent phenomena given by saints, sages, and near-death experiencers—miracles, immortality, heaven, God, and transcendent awareness—are fully congruent with scientific ?discoveries in the fields of relativity, quantum physics, medicine, M-theory, neuroscience, and quantum biology.The Physics of God describes the intersections of science and religion with colorful, easy-to-understand metaphors, making abstruse subjects within both science and religion easily accessible to the layman—no math, no dogma. This intriguing book: Pulls back the curtain on the light-show illusion we call matter. Connects string theory’s hidden brane worlds to religion’s transcendent heavens. Reveals the scientific secret of life and immortality: quantum biology’s ?startling discovery that the human body is continuously entangled. Demonstrates the miracle-making power of our minds to effect instantaneous physiological changes. Explains how the intelligent observer effect confirms our high spiritual ?potential.Compelling and concise, The Physics of God will make you believe in the unity of science and religion and eager to experience the personal transcendence that is the promise of both.

A Hanging


George Orwell - 1931
    Orwell recounts a hanging at a Burmese prison.

The Zax


Dr. Seuss - 1961
    

The Last Sketch


Gosia Nealon - 2021
    When they cross paths in war-torn Europe, will their destinies lead to ruin… or victory over evil? Poland, 1944. Wanda Odwaga will never stop resisting. As the Nazis occupy her beloved homeland, the twenty-three-year-old artist vows to do whatever it takes to help the underground movement mobilize against Hitler’s forces. But she’s devastated when the Gestapo storms her house in search of rebel leaders, killing her heroic father and leaving the face of his murderer forever etched in her mind. New York. Finn Keller longs to balance the scales. Having escaped Germany with his mother as a teen, he’s disgusted his estranged twin brother has become a ruthless Nazi henchman with a vicious reputation. So when a covert government agency approaches him with a dangerous undercover mission, Finn willingly risks his life to play his part in turning the tide of war. Still grieving her unforgivable loss, Wanda’s thirst for revenge takes an unexpected leap forward when she once again encounters her father’s killer. And as Finn dives deeply into the role of impersonating his cold-hearted sibling, he’s captivated by the beautiful Polish woman frozen in front of him… her eyes blazing with the promise of murder. Can these two players in a deadly game survive the ravages of a sadistic conflict?

Tiger's Claw


Dale Brown - 2012
    Tiger's Claw proves once again that every rave has been well deserved. Set in the near future, Tiger's Claw imagines a scenario in which tensions escalate between an economically powerful China and a United States weakened by a massive economic downfall, bringing the two superpowers to the brink of total destruction. Brown's popular protagonist, retired Air Force lieutenant-general Patrick McLanahan (of A Time for Patriots, Rogue Forces, and other Brown bestsellers), is back and preparing for the impending apocalyptic clash of men and military technology. The incomparable Dale Brown scores again with a frighteningly possible story of war and global politics that's ideal for fans of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor.When China launches the first successful test of its anti-ship ballistic missile, the future looks bleak for America. Fearing the U.S. will lose its naval supremacy in the Pacific, President Kenneth Phoenix finds himself in a compromised position. New technology requires money, but the country is recovering from a massive recession. Without the funds to compete with China's advancing technology, are the country's days of naval preeminence in the Pacific running out?Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Patrick McLanahan refuses to accept this fate. McLanahan reasons that the United States can afford to refurbish old but potent long-range B-1B Lancer bombers to promote the AirSea Battle strategy that will push back against Chinese aggression. Soon America stands ready to deploy an AirSea Battle task force in the South China Sea.The People's Liberation Army aggressively deploys advanced fighters, land-based antimissiles, three aircraft carriers, and exotic, top secret directed energy weapons against their neighbors. But Patrick McLanahan is finally given the green light to lead his force westward to challenge the Chinese threat head-on.

Sidelights on Relativity


Albert Einstein - 1983
    The clerk was Albert Einstein. The paper outlined his Special Theory of Relativity, a revolutionary physical theory which discarded the concept of absolute motion in favor of relative motion in the context of a four-dimensional continuum of space-time. It proved to be the most profound revolution in physics since Newton.About ten years later, building on his earlier work, Einstein formulated the General Theory of Relativity in which he offered a new solution to the great problem of gravitation, postulating the non-Euclidean character of the space-time continuum. Together, the two theories constituted a radically reoriented way of looking at the physical universe, an approach that solved many of the unresolved difficulties of classical mechanics and paved the way for great advances in 20th-century physics. This concise volume contains two addresses by Dr. Einstein outlining aspects of the theories. Ether and Relativity (1920), delivered at the University of Leyden, discusses the properties demanded of the ether of space by the theory of relativity. Geometry and Experience (1921), given at the Prussian Academy of Sciences, describes the limits within which the Euclidean or any other practical geometric system can be held to be approximately true in connection with the concept of a finite universe.Both lectures are reprinted here complete and unabridged; both express elegant ideas in simple prose devoid of complicated equations or abstruse terminology; both offer scientists and laypeople unparalleled insight into the seminal thinking of the 20th century's greatest physicist.