57 Results for : bungling

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    Pardon My French: How a Grumpy American Fell in Love with France , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 528min
    To make a friend is a joy. To make a friend in another country is a wonderment - a small miracle. Pardon My French follows an American author who has embraced a daunting mission: not to be a spectator in France but an enthusiastic participant - fully engaged, fully alive. In France, Johnson is like an alien from another planet. Everything is strange to him. His goal is to speak French without going to prison, drive without being squashed like a bug, dance the tango without losing his marriage, and belt out a tune with a world-class jazz combo without being booed off the stage. Repeatedly, the author fearlessly steps into harm's way. He joins a summer acting troop and witnesses the French version of sexual liberation. He pits his rather staid and conventional driving skills against the French speed demons of Languedoc. He tries to be cool in a painting class while sputtering nervously in front of the nude model with the long legs and silky voice. And then, after it all - after the splendor of Christmas on the Mediterranean, the bicycle tours along the French canals, the mountain treks amply supplied with French bread, cheese, and wine - the miracle happens. The often self-deprecating and bungling American meets and falls in love with a beautiful mistress: La belle France. And when he does, an entire village adopts him into a new family - one with a gracious heart and a beautiful French accent. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: David de Vries. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/brll/009126/bk_brll_009126_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    The Great Anglo-Boer War , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 1404min
    The Great Boer War (1899-1902) - more properly the Great Anglo-Boer War - was one of the last romantic wars, pitting a sturdy, stubborn pioneer people fighting to establish the independence of their tiny nation against the British Empire at its peak of power and self-confidence. It was fought in the barren vastness of the South African veldt, and it produced in almost equal measure extraordinary feats of personal heroism, unbelievable examples of folly and stupidity, and many incidents of humor and tragedy. Byron Farwell traces the war's origins, the slow mounting of the British efforts to overthrow the Afrikaners, the bungling and bickering of the British command, the remarkable series of bloody battles that almost consistently ended in victory for the Boers over the much more numerous British forces, political developments in London and Pretoria, the sieges of Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley, the concentration camps into which Boer families were herded and the exhausting guerrilla warfare of the last few years when the Boer armies were finally driven from the field.  This audiobook is a definitive history of a dramatic conflict by a master story teller and historian. Byron Farwell served as an officer in the North African and Italian campaigns in World War II and also in the Korean War. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1964, and is the author of Queen Victoria's Little Wars. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Nigel Patterson. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/tant/014144/bk_tant_014144_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    Bleak House, Volume 1 , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 1977min
    First published in monthly parts from March 1852 to September 1853, this novel follows the fortunes of three pedestrian characters- Esther Summerson, Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. The story they tell embondies Dickens' merciless indictment of the Court of Chancery and its bungling, morally corrupt handling of the endless case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, giving the novel its scope and meaning. Starting with Esther's account of her lonely, unhappy childhood, her role as protégée of the worthy John Jarndyce, Richard and Ada's guardian, the tale develops the relations between the three young people in the Jarndyce household. Numerous other characters contribute to the complex portrait of society which emerges from the novel. They include the romantic, effusive and unworldly Harold Skimpole (based on Leigh Hunt, poet, journalist, and critic, who published The Examiner in which he introduced the public to Keats and Shelley); the boisterous, short-tempered Boythorn (based on Walter Savage Landor, poet and essayist, mentor to Robert Browning); Krook, the rag-and-bottle shopkeeper who dies a hideous death by 'spontaneous combustion'; Gridley and the crazed Miss Flite, both ruined by Chancery; Mrs. Jellyby, neglectful of domestic responsibilities in favor of 'telescope philanthropy'; the greasy Mr. Chadband, a parson 'of no particular denomination'; and Conversation Kenge and Mr. Vholes, lawyers both. Of particular importance to the moral design of the novel is Jo, the crossing-sweeper whose brutish life and death are the instruments for one of Dickens' most savage judgments on an indifferent society. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Simon Vance. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/blak/000506/bk_blak_000506_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    Hurricane Katrina: The Mississippi Story , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 809min
    This book presents the fullest account yet written of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rooted in a wealth of oral histories, it tells the dramatic but underreported story of a people who confronted the unprecedented devastation of sixty five thousand homes when the eye wall and powerful northeast quadrant of the hurricane swept a record thirty-foot storm surge across a seventy-five-mile stretch of unprotected Mississippi towns and cities. James Patterson Smith takes us through life and death accounts of storm day, August 29, 2005, and the precarious days of food and water shortages that followed. Along the way the narrative treats us to inspiring episodes of neighborly compassion and creative responses to the greatest natural disaster in American history.The heroes of this saga are the local people and local officials. In often moving accounts, the book addresses the Mississippi Gulf Coast's long struggle to remove a record-setting volume of debris and get on with the rebuilding of homes, schools, jobs, and public infrastructure. Along the way readers are offered insights into the politics of recovery funding and the bureaucratic bungling and hubris that afflicted the storm response and complicated and delayed the work of recovery. Still, there are ample accounts of things done well, and a moving chapter gives us a feel for the psychological, spiritual, and material impact of the eight hundred thousand people from across the nation who gave of themselves as volunteers in the Mississippi recovery effort.The book is published by University Press of Mississippi ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Claton Butcher. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/007509/bk_acx0_007509_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    Finders Keepers: The Story of a Man Who Found $1 Million , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 265min
    Who hasn't dreamed of finding a million dollars? Joey Coyle was down and out - the affable, boyish South Philadelphian hadn't found dock work in months, he was living with his ailing mother, and he was fighting a drug habit and what seemed like a lifetime of bouncing into and out of bad luck. One morning, while cruising the streets just blocks from his home, fate took a turn worthy of Hollywood when he spotted a curious yellow tub he thought might make a good toolbox. It contained $1.2 million in unmarked bills - casino money that had just fallen off the back of an armored truck. Detective Pat Laurenzi, with the help of the FBI, was working around the clock to track it down. Joey Coyle, meanwhile, was off on a bungling, swashbuckling misadventure, sharing his windfall with everyone from his girlfriend to total strangers to the two neighborhood kids who drove him past it. To hide the money, Joey turned to the local mob boss - a shadowy, fearsome man who may or may not have helped launder it. But as adrenaline-filled nights began taking their toll, Joey Coyle's dream-come-true evolved into a nightmare: Whom could he trust? By one of our most evocative and versatile chroniclers of American life, Finders Keepers is not only a gripping true-life thriller; it is the remarkable tale of an ordinary man faced with an extraordinary dilemma, and the fascinating reactions - from complicity to concern to betrayal - of the friends, family, and neighbors to whom he turns. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Mark Bowden. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/sans/000388/bk_sans_000388_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    The Science of Discworld IV , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 735min
    The fourth book in the Science of Discworld series, and this time around dealing with the really big questions, Terry Pratchett’s brilliant new Discworld story Judgement Day is annotated with very big footnotes (the interleaving chapters) by mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen, to bring you a mind-mangling combination of fiction, cutting-edge science and philosophy. Marjorie Daw is a librarian, and takes her job – and indeed the truth of words – very seriously. She doesn’t know it, but her world and ours – Roundworld – is in big trouble. On Discworld, a colossal row is brewing…The Wizards of Unseen University feel responsible for Roundworld (as one would for a pet gerbil). After all, they brought it into existence by bungling an experiment in Quantum ThaumoDynamics. But legal action is being brought against them by Omnians, who say that the Wizards’ god-like actions make a mockery of their noble religion. As the finest legal brains in Discworld (a zombie and a priest) gird their loins to do battle – and when the Great Big Thing in the High Energy Magic Laboratory is switched on – Marjorie Daw finds herself thrown across the multiverse and right in the middle of the whole explosive affair. As God, the Universe and, frankly, Everything Else is investigated by the trio, you can expect world-bearing elephants, quantum gravity in the Escher-verse, evolutionary design, eternal inflation, dark matter, disbelief systems – and an in-depth study of how to invent a better mousetrap. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Michael Fenton. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/rhuk/001518/bk_rhuk_001518_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    Fair Game , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 500min
    The case that inspired The Frozen Ground starring Nicholas Cage and John Cusack"As 'true' stories go, the writers and directors did an excellent job…. However, you don’t see the back story…. On that note, I strongly suggest reading Fair Game by Bernard DuClos whose research for his book was astonishingly rich and thorough. (IMDb dixie dragon, http://www.imdb.com/user/ur35449188/) This edition includes a "2013 Afterword".First published nine years after Robert Hansen’s sentencing, Fair Game exposed law enforcement and judicial bungling that allowed the 12-year murder spree of Alaska’s most prolific serial killer. With an Anchorage police officer risking his career, and FBI profiling assistance, Alaska State Troopers finally brought Hansen to justice.Robert Hansen was never someone you'd call normal. A teenager bullied for having acne and a stutter, he became a loner with emotional problems. After prison time for arson in his native Iowa, and arrests for shoplifting in the Minnesota Twin Cities, he and his bride moved to Anchorage, Alaska. Becoming the father of two, a successful bakery owner, crack bush pilot, and world-record holding big-game hunter, he seemed the solid "normal guy next door." But no one really knew Robert Hansen…or what he was capable of! From 1971 to 1983, he went on a rampage. Usually stalking his prey in the seedier corners of Anchorage, he kidnapped and raped dozens of women, murdering at least 20. Fair Game reconstructs Hansen’s 12-year reign of violence, a victim's harrowing escape that led to his arrest and chilling confession, and reveals why the Hansen case didn't go to trial. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Sonny Dufault. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/195381/bk_acx0_195381_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    Shadow Warriors: Ambush: Shadow Warriors, Book 2 , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 670min
    Cal, Letty, Tony, Opi, and Sasha were thrust together when they were kidnapped by the alien Molethan civilization and forced to become a fighting unit against The Horde, the most vicious, predatory enemy in the galaxy. At first, only Letty could get along with her fellow trainees, and largely due to her efforts, they became not only the top fighting crew in the Shadow Warriors, but also a close unit bound together with love and support. Thanks to Opi’s amazing strategic thinking, Letty’s organizational skills, Sasha’s unparalleled weapons ability, Tony’s crack talent as a navigator, and Cal’s icy nerve as a battle leader, they found a way to defeat a huge Horde invasion force. But since Molethians don’t fight their own battles, the High Command put no credence in the story of a small Shadow Warrior force destroying an enemy fleet 50 times their size. A bungling investigating committee wrongly and vastly underestimated the enemy casualty total, and since the commanding officer T’Kell suffered many losses, she has been returned to the home world of Molethan and put on trial for incompetence. The Shadow Warriors are called to testify in their commander’s defense. Can they save her career? They’ll need to do it quickly, because The Horde has sent out a huge new invasion force. If our heroes can’t save their commander, the Molethan civilization will surely be destroyed. Even with Commander T’Kell back in command, can Opi and her crew pull off another miracle? Meanwhile, the incompetent High Command threatens to take over the defensive plans, and Molethan’s top navy commanders may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Tom Bishop. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/232901/bk_acx0_232901_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    Bored of the Rings , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 337min
    Sometimes childish, sometimes rude, always clever and always very, very funny, this book has delighted most, and outraged a few, Tolkien fans in the US for more than 40 years. Pulling in references to popular culture and fantasy literature as a whole, this is a killingly effective parody of The Lord of the Rings. From the dreary Goddamn (Gollum) to the feckless Arrowroot (Aragorn), the bungling Goodgulf (Gandalf) to the timid, mean-minded boggies Frito (Frodo) and Dildo (Bilbo), no character is safe. Fleeing the Nozdrul, bored by acid-casualty Tim Benzedrine and harassed throughout by the minions of Sorhed, the fellowship move through a Middle Earth like no other. Short, sharp and very much to the point, even Tolkien would be hard-pressed to suppress a giggle at Bored of the Rings. Read by Rupert Degas. Rupert Degas has narrated over 100 audiobooks. He has recorded a diverse range of authors, from Andy McNab, James Patterson, Wilbur Smith, and Chris Ryan to children's authors such as Derek Landy, Darren Shan, Jamie Rix, and Philip Pullman. He has narrated books by Patrick Rothfuss, Haruki Murakami, Mervyn Peake, Rose Tremain, and Cormac McCarthy as well as recording classics from Kafka, Conan Doyle, Lovecraft, and Wilde. Rupert has lent his voice to numerous cartoons, including Mr Bean, Robotboy, Gumball, Thomas & Friends,and Bob the Builder and has performed in over 50 radio productions for BBC Radio 4, including The Brightonomicon and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He spent 18 months in the West End performing in Stones in his Pockets and was in the original London cast of the smash-hit comedy The 39 Steps. Produced by Peter Rinne. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Rupert Degas. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/orio/000590/bk_orio_000590_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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    Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War, Hörbuch, Digital, 375min
    Curveball answers the crucial question of the Iraq war: How and why was America's intelligence so catastrophically wrong? In this dramatic and explosive audiobook, award-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Bob Drogin delivers a narrative that takes us to Europe, the Middle East, and deep inside the CIA to find the truth - the truth about the lies and self-deception that led us into a military and political nightmare.  In 1999 a mysterious Iraqi applies for political asylum in Munich. The young chemical engineer offers compelling testimony of Saddam Hussein's secret program to build weapons of mass destruction. He claims that the dictator has constructed germ factories on trucks, creating a deadly hell on wheels. His grateful German hosts pass his account to their CIA counterparts but deny the Americans access to their superstar informant. The Americans nevertheless give the defector his unforgettable code name: Curveball.The case lies dormant until after 9/11, when the Bush administration turns its attention to Iraq. Determined to invade, Bush’s people seize on Curveball’s story about mobile germ labs - even though it has begun to unravel. Ignoring a flood of warnings about the informant’s credibility, the CIA allows President Bush to cite Curveball’s unconfirmed claims in a State of the Union speech. Finally, Secretary of State Colin Powell highlights the Iraqi’s “eyewitness” account during his historic address to the UN Security Council. Yet the entire case is based on a fraud. America’s vast intelligence apparatus conjured up demons that did not exist. And the proof was clear before the war.Most of the events and conversations presented here have not been reported before. The portrayals - from an obdurate president to a bamboozled secretary of state to a bungling CIA director to case handlers conned by their snitch - are vivid and exciting. Curveball comes across like an investigative spy thriller. Fast-paced a Language: English. Narrator: Erik Singer. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/rand/001268/bk_rand_001268_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.
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