Academic English

With compassion and candor, leading neurosurgeon Henry Marsh reveals the fierce joy of operating, the profoundly moving triumphs, the harrowing disasters, the haunting regrets, and the moments of black humor that characterize a brain surgeon's life. If you believe that brain surgery is a precise and exquisite craft, practiced by calm and detached surgeons, this gripping, brutally honest account will make you think again.

In Walking through Fire, Nawal El Saadawi, author of Woman at Point Zero and one of the Arab world’s greatest writers, tells the story of the later years of a life which shaped an iconic voice in global feminism. Covering her life in Nasser’s then Sadat’s and Mubarak’s Egypt, we learn about Saadawi’s experience of marriage and motherhood, and we travel with her into exile after her life was threatened by religious extremists. Filled with warmth as well as critical reflection, this book reveals the later years of a remarkable life dedicated to the fight for justice and equality.

On a hot summer night in Houston, two teenage girls-bright, beautiful, success-bound friends took a shortcut home from a friend's apartment to make their curfew. They never reached their homes. The next morning, the families of the two girls began a frantic search, organizing friends and neighbors and posting thousands of fliers across the sprawling city. But not until an anonymous 911 call four days later were the bodies of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena finally recovered.

“Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name,” writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science—Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre, and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally memorable outside it.

My career as a firefighter/paramedic stretched from 1974 to 2000 when were inventing EMS as we went along. These are stories from those years on the street. That place I named so long ago, the other reality that exists just outside most people’s everyday lives. It is a place that seems to exist parallel to the normal workaday existence: yet it is only a car accident or cardiac away for any of us. It manifested itself in brushfires, house fires, shootings, stabbings, hangings, accidents with injuries, cardiacs, codes, drownings, and a thousand other emergencies.

Written by Nikola Tesla at the age of 63, this autobiography is a fascinating glimpse into the interior life of a man who may have contributed more to the fields of electricity, radio, and television than any other person living or dead, a man certainly possessed of genius, and one who some consider the most important man of the 20th century.

Read by the author. Monica Swanson helps you navigate your real-world concerns about school, culture, and what it takes to create an amazing homeschool experience that you and your kids will never regret! If you've ever wondered whether you have what it takes to homeschool your children, look no...

For listeners touched by Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and anyone with a life-threatening illness seeking healing of body, mind, and spirit, a fellow patient shares her journey of choosing to have the best day of her life by working as though she will live and living every moment as though she might die. Waking to the stunning realization she had cancer, Jocelyn Rasmussen’s first thought was that she needed a miracle. Her second thought was that she didn’t want to die with any unspent love or grace inside her.

“This beautiful book is rich with wit and humanness and honesty and loving detail….I cannot overstate how liberating and transforming I have found Leaving Church to be.” —Frederick Buechner, author of Beyond Words “This is an astonishing book. . . . Taylor is a better writer than...

Read by the author. Read the Bible with Fresh Eyes as You See Scripture's Promise-Shaped Patterns When you read the Bible, have you ever noticed parallels between certain people, events, and institutions? Should we understand Noah as a kind of new Adam, and if so, does that somehow point us to...

For more than 25 years, surgeon David Nott has volunteered in some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones. From Sarajevo under siege in 1993 to clandestine hospitals in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, he has carried out life-saving operations in the most challenging conditions, and with none of the resources of a major metropolitan hospital. War Doctor is his extraordinary story, encompassing his surgeries in nearly every major conflict zone since the end of the Cold War, as well as his struggles to return to a “normal” life and routine after each trip.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to save a life? In his book Life Changing Paramedic Stories, Dion talks about 12 life-changing experiences while working as a Canadian paramedic.

Buffett’s Early Investments investigates ten investments that legendary investor Warren Buffett made in the 1950s and 1960s—earning him his first millions—and uncovers unique insights in the process.

When John Campbell was hired in 1996, Michael Dell’s company was already a hyper-efficient technology upstart. By the time he left Dell in 2017, Michael’s little Texas-based catalog computer company had grown from 5,000 to 138,000 employees and evolved into one of the largest technology providers on the planet!

Since its inception, however, America’s public land system has been embroiled in controversy - caught in the push and pull between the desire to develop the valuable resources the land holds or conserve them. Alarmed by rising tensions over the use of these lands, hunter, angler, and outdoor enthusiast Mark Kenyon set out to explore the spaces involved in this heated debate, and learn firsthand how they came to be and what their future might hold.

Your years in seminary are meant to prepare you for ministry, but it can also be a very challenging time. Many students struggle with the rigorous study and the challenges to their personal and spiritual lives. Surviving and Thriving in Seminary is designed to prepare current and future seminary students for what's ahead.

A perfect blend of medical drama and spiritual insight, Gray Matter is a fascinating account of Dr. David Levy's decision to begin asking his patients if he could pray for them before surgery. Some are thrilled. Some are skeptical. Some are hostile, and some are quite literally transformed by the request.

A rags-to-$9-billion-riches story. A crash course in Burger King history and fast food in America, The Burger King is McLamore's candid and conversational memoir. Written before his death in 1996, he talks of his life, the birth of the Whopper, and the rise of Burger King. McLamore's account of Burger King offers an instructive and inspiring tale to young entrepreneurs. Here's a story of entrepreneurship development from one of the top entrepreneurs of fast food chains.

How did the trailblazers of Indian business turn their dreams into reality? The Pilani Pioneers profiles twenty-five accomplished BITS Pilani graduates, including startup founders, entrepreneurs and CEOs, who have made an indelible mark on the Indian and global business landscape while deftly navigating the twists and turns of their professional and personal lives.

Built from Scratch is the story of how two incredibly determined and creative people - and their associates - built a business from nothing to 761 stores and $30 billion in sales in a mere 20 years. Built from Scratch tells many colorful stories associated with The Home Depot's founding and meteoric rise; shows that a company can be a tough, growth-oriented competitor, and still maintain a high sense of responsibility to the community; and provides great lessons useful to people in any business, from start-ups to the Fortune 500.