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The Bookshop That Floated Away
by Sarah HenshawIn early 2009 a strange sort of business plan landed on the desk of a pinstriped bank manager. It had pictures of rats and moles in rowing boats and archaic quotes about Cleopatra's barge. It asked for a ?30,000 loan to buy a black-and-cream narrowboat and a small hoard of books. The manager said no. Nevertheless The Book Barge opened six months later and enjoyed the happy patronage of local readers, a growing number of eccentrics and the odd moorhen.Business wasn't always easy, so one May morning owner Sarah Henshaw set off for six months chugging the length and breadth of the country. Books were bartered for food, accommodation, bathroom facilities and cake. During the journey, the barge suffered a flooded engine, went out to sea, got banned from Bristol and, on several occasions, floated away altogether. This account follows the ebbs and flows of Sarah's journey as she sought to make her vision of a floating bookshop a reality.
The Bookshop That Floated Away
by Sarah HenshawIn early 2009 a strange sort of business plan landed on the desk of a pinstriped bank manager. It had pictures of rats and moles in rowing boats and archaic quotes about Cleopatra's barge. It asked for a £30,000 loan to buy a black-and-cream narrowboat and a small hoard of books. The manager said no. Nevertheless The Book Barge opened six months later and enjoyed the happy patronage of local readers, a growing number of eccentrics and the odd moorhen.Business wasn't always easy, so one May morning owner Sarah Henshaw set off for six months chugging the length and breadth of the country. Books were bartered for food, accommodation, bathroom facilities and cake. During the journey, the barge suffered a flooded engine, went out to sea, got banned from Bristol and, on several occasions, floated away altogether. This account follows the ebbs and flows of Sarah's journey as she sought to make her vision of a floating bookshop a reality.
The Bookshop Woman
by Nanako HanadaTHE BOOKSHOP WOMAN IS A LOVE STORY, A LOVE STORY ABOUT BOOKSNanako Hanada's life has not just flatlined, it's hit rock bottom... Recently separated from her husband, she is living between 4-hour capsule hostels, pokey internet cafes and bookshop floors. Her work is going no better - sales at the eccentric Village Vanguard bookstore in Tokyo, which Nanako manages, are dwindling. As Nanako's life falls apart, reading books is the only thing keeping her alive.That's until Nanako joins an online meet-up site which offers 30 minutes with someone you'll never see again. Describing herself as a sexy bookseller she offers strangers 'the book that will change their life' in exchange for a meeting. In the year that follows, Nanako meets hundreds of people, some of whom want more than just a book...Acerbic and self-knowing, The Bookshop Woman is a soul-soothing story of a bookseller's self-discovery and an ode to the joy of reading. Offering a glimpse into bookselling in Japan and the quirky side of Tokyo and its people, this is a story of how books can help us forge connection with others and lead us to ourselves.This is a story about the beauty of climbing into a book, free diving into its pages, and then resurfacing on the last page, ready to breathe a different kind of air...
The Bookshop Woman
by Nanako HanadaTHE BOOKSHOP WOMAN IS A LOVE STORY, A LOVE STORY ABOUT BOOKSNanako Hanada's life has not just flatlined, it's hit rock bottom... Recently separated from her husband, she is living between 4-hour capsule hostels, pokey internet cafes and bookshop floors. Her work is going no better - sales at the eccentric Village Vanguard bookstore in Tokyo, which Nanako manages, are dwindling. As Nanako's life falls apart, reading books is the only thing keeping her alive.That's until Nanako joins an online meet-up site which offers 30 minutes with someone you'll never see again. Describing herself as a sexy bookseller she offers strangers 'the book that will change their life' in exchange for a meeting. In the year that follows, Nanako meets hundreds of people, some of whom want more than just a book...Acerbic and self-knowing, The Bookshop Woman is a soul-soothing story of a bookseller's self-discovery and an ode to the joy of reading. Offering a glimpse into bookselling in Japan and the quirky side of Tokyo and its people, this is a story of how books can help us forge connection with others and lead us to ourselves.This is a story about the beauty of climbing into a book, free diving into its pages, and then resurfacing on the last page, ready to breathe a different kind of air...
The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952–73
by John Saumarez SmithCollected mid-twentieth–century correspondence between the author of The Pursuit of Love and her former employer, the celebrated London bookseller.Nancy Mitford was a brilliant personality, a remarkable novelist and a legendary letter writer. It is not widely known that she was also a bookseller. From 1942 to 1946 she worked in Heywood Hill’s famous shop in Curzon Street, and effectively ran it when the male staff were called up for war service. After the war she left to live in France, but she maintained an abiding interest in the shop, its stock, and the many and varied customers who themselves form a cavalcade of the literary stars of post-war Britain. Her letters to Heywood Hill advise on recent French titles that might appeal to him and his customers, gossip engagingly about life in Paris, and enquire anxiously about the reception of her own books, while seeking advice about new titles to read. In return Heywood kept her up to date with customers and their foibles, and with aspects of literary and bookish life in London. Charming, witty, utterly irresistible, the correspondence gives brilliant insights into a world that has almost disappeared.Praise for The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street“This volume of letters between [Nancy Mitford], then living in Paris, and G. Heywood Hill (1907–1986) is like a glass of champagne, from a good year, at a quiet garden party. It’s a beautiful day, one is among friends—but not too many—and laughter reigns.” —The New Criterion
The Border Trumpet
by Ernest HaycoxLOVE AND ADVENTURE ON THE FRONTIERThis is a story of some of the soldiers who won the West through bitter battles against the Indians, paying for the expansion of a continent with their blood, the story of their life in battle and between battles. It is the story, too, of Eleanor Warren, to whom the frontier post, with all its hardships, had always been home. When she rejoined her father’s regiment at its newest frontier in Arizona, she found Phil Castleton, whom she had loved for three years, waiting for her. And she found, too, a new member of the regiment, Tom Benteen, who strangely attracted her. It was when the rigors of battle revealed the difference between Phil and Tom that she was faced with the difficult decision that was to determine her life.
The Borgias
by Jean PlaidyFor the first time in one volume, Jean Plaidy's duet of Borgia novels brings to life the infamous, reckless, and passionate family in an unforgettable historical saga.Madonna of the Seven Hills: Fifteenth-century Rome: the Borgia family is on the rise. Lucrezia's father is named Pope Alexander VI, and he places his daughter and her brothers Cesare, Giovanni, and Goffredo in the jeweled splendor--and scandal--of his court. From the Pope's affairs with adolescent girls, to Cesare's dangerous jealousy of anyone who inspires Lucrezia's affections, to the ominous birth of a child conceived in secret, no Borgia can elude infamy.Light on Lucrezia: Some said she was an elegant seductress. Others swore she was an incestuous murderess. She was the most dangerous and sought after woman in all of Rome. Lucrezia Borgia's young life has been colored by violence and betrayal. Now, married for the second time at just eighteen she hopes for happiness with her handsome husband Alfonso. But faced with brutal murder, she's soon torn between her love for her husband and her devotion to her brother Cesare... And in the days when the Borgias ruled Italy, no one was safe from the long arm of their power. Not even Lucrezia.
The Borgias And Their Enemies: 1431-1519
by Christopher HibbertThis colorful history of a powerful family brings the world they lived in??—??the glittering Rome of the Italian Renaissance??—??to life and is "simply unputdownable" (New York Times Book Review).The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame??—??Lucrezia Borgia, his daughter, whose husband was famously murdered by her brother, and that brother, Cesare, who served as the model for Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince. Notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder, the dynasty's dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to its occupation of the highest position in Renaissance society forms a gripping tale. Erudite, witty, and always insightful, Hibbert removes the layers of myth around the Borgia family and creates a portrait alive with his superb sense of character and place.
The Borgias: The Hidden History
by G. J. MeyerThe startling truth behind one of the most notorious dynasties in history is revealed in a remarkable new account by the acclaimed author of The Tudors and A World Undone. Sweeping aside the gossip, slander, and distortion that have shrouded the Borgias for centuries, G. J. Meyer offers an unprecedented portrait of the infamous Renaissance family and their storied milieu. THE BORGIAS They burst out of obscurity in Spain not only to capture the great prize of the papacy, but to do so twice. Throughout a tumultuous half-century--as popes, statesmen, warriors, lovers, and breathtakingly ambitious political adventurers--they held center stage in the glorious and blood-drenched pageant known to us as the Italian Renaissance, standing at the epicenter of the power games in which Europe's kings and Italy's warlords gambled for life-and-death stakes. Five centuries after their fall--a fall even more sudden than their rise to the heights of power--they remain immutable symbols of the depths to which humanity can descend: Rodrigo Borgia, who bought the papal crown and prostituted the Roman Church; Cesare Borgia, who became first a teenage cardinal and then the most treacherous cutthroat of a violent time; Lucrezia Borgia, who was as shockingly immoral as she was beautiful. These have long been stock figures in the dark chronicle of European villainy, their name synonymous with unspeakable evil. But did these Borgias of legend actually exist? Grounding his narrative in exhaustive research and drawing from rarely examined key sources, Meyer brings fascinating new insight to the real people within the age-encrusted myth. Equally illuminating is the light he shines on the brilliant circles in which the Borgias moved and the thrilling era they helped to shape, a time of wars and political convulsions that reverberate to the present day, when Western civilization simultaneously wallowed in appalling brutality and soared to extraordinary heights. Stunning in scope, rich in telling detail, G. J. Meyer's The Borgias is an indelible work sure to become the new standard on a family and a world that continue to enthrall. Praise for G. J. Meyer's The Tudors "Energetic and comprehensive . . . [a] sweeping history of the gloriously infamous Tudor era . . . Unlike the somewhat ponderous British biographies of the Henrys, Elizabeths and Boleyns that seem to pop up perennially, The Borgias displays some flashy, fresh irreverence [and cuts] to the quick of the action."--Kirkus Reviews "[A] cheeky, nuanced, and authoritative perspective . . . brims with enriching background discussions."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Both serious students of sixteenth-century England and those with a passing interest in the period will find The Tudors by G. J. Meyer a comprehensive look at that momentous span of history. . . . The book is also a refreshing reality-check grounded in fact after the entertaining fictions of the recent past."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer"A thoroughly readable and often compelling narrative."--Associated Press "A rich and vibrant tapestry."--The Star-LedgerFrom the Hardcover edition.
The Bosnia List
by Kenan TrebincevicA young survivor of the Bosnian War returns to his homeland to confront the people who betrayed his family At age eleven, Kenan Trebincevic was a happy, karate-loving kid living with his family in the quiet Eastern European town of Brcko. Then, in the spring of 1992, war broke out and his friends, neighbors and teammates all turned on him. Pero - Kenan's beloved karate coach - showed up at his door with an AK-47 - screaming: "You have one hour to leave or be killed!" Kenan’s only crime: he was Muslim. This poignant, searing memoir chronicles Kenan’s miraculous escape from the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign that swept the former Yugoslavia. After two decades in the United States, Kenan honors his father’s wish to visit their homeland, making a list of what he wants to do there. Kenan decides to confront the former next door neighbor who stole from his mother, see the concentration camp where his Dad and brother were imprisoned and stand on the grave of his first betrayer to make sure he’s really dead. Back in the land of his birth, Kenan finds something more powerful-and shocking-than revenge. .
The Boss of Bosses: The Life of the Infamous Toto Riina Dreaded Head of the Sicilian Mafia
by Giuseppe D'Avanzo Attilio BolzoniThis is the true story of Totò Riina, the Cosa Nostra boss who rose from nothing to become the most powerful man in Sicily. The picture emerges of a bloodthirsty, power-hungry monster who, despite his lowly beginnings, is able to outmanoeuvre the other Mafia chiefs and take control of the organisation. However, the story is not just that of Riina, but also of Sicily itself. D'Avanzo and Bolzoni have transformed a complex series of events spanning several decades into a gripping narrative.In prison for 18 years now, Totò Riina still remains the dictator of the Cosa Nostra. This book tells the haunting and disturbing tale, with thorough investigation and testimony of the Sicilian Corleone.
The Boss of Bosses: The Life of the Infamous Toto Riina Dreaded Head of the Sicilian Mafia
by Shaun Whiteside Giuseppe D'Avanzo Attilio BolzoniIn the fields of a forgotten post-war Sicily, an obsession with power was growing; Salvatore 'Totò' Riina, the shrewd peasant Corleone, became the boss of bosses and Palermo was conquered, one crime at a time. With his small army of assassins, he seized control of the most formidable mafia in the world and began an attack on the state: bombs, massacres and bloody conflicts initiated by a man who thought he was invincible. Until 1992 and the murders of Falcone and Borsellino. Then Riina was captured after nearly a quarter of a century on the run, an event still shrouded in controversy. Now in prison for over twenty years, Totò Riina remains the dictator of the Cosa Nostra from behind bars. Through the genuine testimony of the Sicilian Corleone, this a tale of desperate poverty, power and bloodshed - and one man's fight to rule supreme.
The Boss: The Life and Times of Horseracing Legend Gordon W. Richards
by John BuddenThe sudden death of Gordon W. Richards in late September 1998 brought a premature end to a legendary training career which had seen him rise from obscurity to national fame as master of his profession. Consigned to racing's scrap-heap with a broken back at the age of 29, he scraped a living as a livery stable proprietor and horse-dealer in a remote part of Northumberland until, five years later, he `discovered' Playlord and a new dawn broke. Rugged, demanding, often outspoken, sometimes ruthless but never lacking in humour, Gordon made relentless progress through the training ranks. `The Boss', as he was widely known, liked to run his stable his own way. Horses, not humans, headed the pecking order, as many famous riders and owners discovered to their cost. Few escaped unscathed, but in over 30 years he employed only six stable jockeys, and two of these, Ron Barry and Jonjo O'Neill, gained championship honours. The Boss charts the successes of the man who twice saddled more than a hundred winners in a single season and who scooped the pool in the Aintree Grand National on two occasions. This enthralling biography, written with full co-operation of Richards himself, provides a compelling insight into the forces that drove him to become one of the most respected trainers in the world.
The Boston Raphael: A Mysterious Painting, an Embattled Museum in an Era of Change and a Daughter's Search for the Truth
by Belinda RathboneThe discovery of a previously unknown painting by an Italian Renaissance master, and how it went from media sensation to career-ending scandal. On the eve of its centennial celebrations in December 1969, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts announced the acquisition of an unknown and uncatalogued painting attributed to Raphael. Boston&’s coup made headlines around the world. Soon afterward, an Italian art sleuth began investigating the details of the painting&’s export from Italy, challenged the museum&’s right to ownership. Simultaneously, experts on both sides of the Atlantic lined up to debate the artwork&’s very authenticity. While these contests played themselves out on the international stage, the crisis deepened within the museum as its charismatic director, Perry T. Rathbone, faced the most challenging crossroads of his thirty-year career. The facts about the forces that converged on the museum, and how they led to Rathbone&’s resignation as director, is only now fully revealed in this compelling, behind-the-scenes story that reveals how the art world, media, and museums work. This is for anyone who relishes stories of the business of art.Praise for The Boston Raphael &“Perhaps the most exciting book on the art world since Jonathan Harr&’s The Lost Painting.&” ―The Boston Globe &“In the compelling story of her father, Perry Rathbone, and the years when he was the elegant and revolutionary director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Belinda Rathbone evokes our country&’s most glamorous years . . . The Boston Raphael is a combination of personal memoir and rich, deliciously detailed history that will keep you turning the pages.&” ―Susan Cheever
The Boston Strangler
by Gerold FrankThe New York Times–bestselling account of the serial killer&’s rampage and the ensuing manhunt. Now a Hulu true crime thriller starring Keira Knightley. On June 14, 1962, twenty-five-year-old Juris Slesers arrived at his mother&’s apartment to drive her to church. But there was no answer at the door. When he pushed his way inside, Juris found Anna Slesers dead on the kitchen floor, the cord of her housecoat knotted tightly around her neck. Over the next two years, twelve more bodies were discovered in and around Boston: all women, all sexually assaulted, and all strangled. None of the victims exhibited any signs of struggle, nothing was stolen from their homes, and there were no signs of forcible entry. The police could find no discernable motive or clues. Who was this madman? How was he entering women&’s homes? And what insanity was driving him? Drawn from hundreds of hours of personal interviews, as well as police, medical, and court documentation, this is a grisly, horrifying, and meticulously researched account of Albert DeSalvo—an American serial killer on par with Jack the Ripper.
The Bosun Chair
by Jennifer Bowering DelislePart family memoir, part poetry, part love letter to Newfoundland and its people, The Bosun Chair is a lyrical exploration of how we are fortified by the places of our foremothers and forefathers and by how they endured.Like 'ballycater,' the ice that gathers in harbours along the coast, Jennifer Bowering Delisle gathers fragments of history, family lore, and poetry—both her own and that of her great-grandparents—to tell stories of shipwrecks, war, resettlement, and men and women's labour in early twentieth-century Newfoundland. With deftness and haunting imagery, The Bosun Chair reveals the inherent gaps in ancestral history and the drive to understand a story that can never fully be told.
The Boswell Legacy
by Kyla Titus David McCain Chica Boswell MinnerlyThe Boswell Sisters rose to stardom during the Great Depression and established an enormously successful career in a very short time as pioneers of early mass entertainment, through the new media of electrical recordings, radio networks, and movies. Along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, they led an American jazz "invasion" of Europe in 1933. They were admired by their frequent singing partner Bing Crosby, idolized by a struggling trio from Minneapolis who later gained fame as the Andrews Sisters, and praised as "the best act I ever followed" by a trouper named Bob Hope. Ella Fitzgerald consistently credited Connie Boswell as her main influence and Irving Berlin singled her out as his favorite interpreter of his songs. The beautiful and talented Boswells sold out stage shows from New York to London and the number of records they sold is estimated to be over 75 million. Then suddenly, it was over. The time has finally come to tell their story. THE BOSWELL LEGACY is the first full-scale biography of these icons of American music, written by Kyla Titus, the granddaughter of Vet Boswell and caretaker of the voluminous Boswell family archives, as only she can tell it. Within these pages, readers may discover the answers to questions left unanswered for decades. Why did the Boswell Sisters disband? What was the cause of Connie’s paralysis? Why are the Boswell Sisters not household names today? And so many more. Most importantly, readers will learn about the development of a unique musical style that is timeless--a legacy--that is still heralded almost a century later.
The Bounty Mutiny
by William Bligh R. D. Madison Edward ChristianThe names William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the Bounty have excited the popular imagination for more than two hundred years. The story of this famous mutiny has many beginnings and many endings but they all intersect on an April morning in 1789 near the island known today as Tonga. That morning, William Bligh and eighteen surly seamen were expelled from the Bounty and began what would be the greatest open-boat voyage in history, sailing some 4,000 miles to safety in Timor. The mutineers led by Fletcher Christian sailed off into a mystery that has never been entirely resolved.While the full story of what drove the men to revolt or what really transpired during the struggle may never be known, Penguin Classics has brought together-for the first time in one volume-all the relevant texts and documents related to a drama that has fascinated generations. Here is the full text of Bligh's Narrative of the Mutiny, the minutes of the court proceedings gathered by Edward Christian in an effort to clear his brother's name, and the highly polemic correspondence between Bligh and Christian-all amplified by Robert Madison's illuminating Introduction and rich selection of subsequent Bounty narratives
The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition's Evil Genius
by Bob BatchelorThe rise and fall of the man who cracked Prohibition to become one of the world&’s richest criminal masterminds—and helped inspire The Great Gatsby. Love, murder, political intrigue, mountains of cash, and rivers of bourbon…The tale of George Remus is a grand spectacle and a lens into the dark heart of Prohibition. Yes, Congress gave teeth to Prohibition in October, 1919, but the law didn&’t stop George Remus from amassing a fortune that would be worth billions of dollars today. As one Jazz Age journalist put it, &“Remus was to bootlegging what Rockefeller was to oil.&” Author Bob Batchelor breathes life into the largest bootlegging operation in America—greater than that of Al Capone—and a man considered the best criminal defense lawyer of his era. Remus bought an empire of distilleries on Kentucky&’s &“Bourbon Trail&” and used his other profession, as a pharmacist, to profit off legal loopholes. He spent millions bribing officials in the Harding Administration, and he created a roaring lifestyle that epitomized the Jazz Age over which he ruled. That is, before he came crashing down in one of the most sensational murder cases in American history: a cheating wife, the G-man who seduced her and put Remus in jail, and the plunder of a Bourbon Empire. Remus murdered his wife in cold-blood and then shocked a nation winning his freedom based on a condition he invented—temporary maniacal insanity.&“The fantastic story of George Remus makes the rest of the &“Roaring Twenties&” look like the &“Boring Twenties&” in comparison.&” ―David Pietrusza, author of 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents
The Bower Atmosphere: A Biography of B. M. Bower
by Victoria LamontB. M. (Bertha Muzzy) Bower was the first author to make a living writing popular westerns, creating more than sixty novels and hundreds of short stories that were read by millions of Americans. Bower&’s were among the first westerns adapted to film, and the exploits of her cowboys at the fictional Flying U ranch established a tradition that flourishes to this day. A Montana mother of three, she began writing short stories in 1900, desperate for money that would allow her to leave her unhappy marriage to a cowboy employed by the McNamara ranch. Discouraged by her editors from publicizing her identity as a woman, Bower&’s important contribution to American mass culture faded from cultural memory after her death in 1940. Based on extensive research in Bower&’s personal archives and publishers&’ records, as well as interviews with some of her descendants, The Bower Atmosphere recounts the remarkable twists and turns of Bower&’s life, from her beginnings on a Montana cattle ranch to her success as a writer of serial westerns, all the while contending with the conflicting pressures of editors, husbands, children, and her own creative aspirations.
The Box Closet
by Mary MeigsThe box closet was a real closet in the attic of the family house in Washington, D.C. in which Mary Meigs grew up. Bags and boxes of letters and diaries were found there after her mother's death in 1958, and when Meigs read them she decided that they were the material for a book. In the course of reading her family's letters and her mother's early diaries, she no longer saw her parents as Mother and Father but as Margaret and Edward, young and vulnerable: Margaret who flirted, Edward who waited ten years to propose marriage. Meigs saw aspects of them that made them and their parents more fully real to her than they had been in life. She has woven the diaries and letters together with a narrative that integrates her discoveries with her memories as a daughter and granddaughter. The result is a moving portrait of a family that was protected by another kind of box closet--that of privilege and of moral certitude--with opaque walls that shut out most of the world. It was, in her father's words, "the easy sheltered life," which is so hard for "good" people to escape from.
The Boxer and the Goalkeeper: Sartre vs. Camus
by Andy MartinJean-Paul Sartre is the author of possibly the most notorious one-liner of twentieth-century philosophy: 'Hell is other people'. Albert Camus was The Outsider. The two men first came together in Occupied Paris in the middle of the Second World War, and quickly became friends, comrades, and mutual admirers.
The Boxer's Heart: A Woman Fighting
by Kate Sekules&“Brave and ballsy . . . the internal chaos that prompts Sekules&’ rage and desire to retaliate is a more original, fascinating place to visit than any gym.&” —Salon.com The Boxer&’s Heart is a brilliantly candid memoir of the world of women&’s boxing, now updated and with a new afterword. Written in raw and vivid style, it tells the story of how a young everywoman moves to New York City to write and, through struggles and disappointments in her personal life, rises through the ranks at the famed Gleason&’s Gym to box professionally. Sekules&’s account unfolds with the pace and depth of a great novel, crammed with larger-than-life characters and piercing observations. Any woman who has grappled with anger and trust in her relationships, been nagged by insecurity at the gym, or wondered what it feels like to throw a punch will identify with this witty and honest account of &“ the sweet science of bruising.&” &“It&’s a knockout, folks . . . The Boxer&’s Heart is a winner, on all cards.&” —Newsweek &“What is most captivating about Sekules&’ love letter to boxing is how she reconciles the feminine proclivity for tenderness and nurturing with their simultaneous ability to knock one another out, to unleash fury in a controlled and respectful way.&” —Oprah.com &“Sekules . . . is appealingly self-aware . . . [and] gives us a sense of women&’s boxing as a thriving movement.&” —The New York Times Book Review &“This is a story of self-discovery, about finding out what you love, and then doing it—with passion, with a boxer&’s heart.&” —Kirkus Reviews
The Boy Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg In His Own Words
by George BeahmMark Zuckerberg, the youngest Person of the Year named by Time magazine since Charles Lindbergh in 1927, has grown in prominence as rapidly as the company he founded in a Harvard dorm room in 2004. The public's appetite for insight into Facebook and its founder seems nearly insatiable. Curiosity abounds regarding Zuckerberg's personality and management style, since fictional Hollywood portrayals and Wall Street whispers have painted a broad-strokes portrait of the young CEO that is at best only a fraction of the truth.Given Facebook's current $58 billion market capitalization and 845 million worldwide users, there is clearly more to Zuckerberg than any over-simplified caricature could convey. The Boy Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg In His Own Words is the first and only book to detail the visionary thoughts and opinions of Facebook's founder entirely through direct quotations from Zuckerberg himself. It is the most intimate and most authoritative look at the man behind Facebook's once-a-generation success, the tech heir-apparent to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.Like those two pioneering entrepreneurs, Zuckerberg has proven to be a calculating and sometimes ruthless strategist with a steadfast commitment to his vision. Facebook exists somewhere between a social utility and a model of 21st century business, leading next-gen tech companies through an economic climate still scarred by the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s, but increasingly driven by the inevitability of a global marketplace built on social media technology.Facebook's potential is unknown, but the key to its success depends on Zuckerberg's own ideas and vision. This book serves up his most thought-provoking insights, as researched and chosen by George Beahm, the New York Times bestselling editor of I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words. The Boy Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg In His Own Words provides crucial illumination of Zuckerberg and the company he's created, emphasizing insights, business strategies, and lessons learned. It is essential reading for people who seek innovative solutions applicable to their business, regardless of size, and makes an ideal gift or reference item for anyone interested in this newest of American business icon.
The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood
by Roger RosenblattThe Washington Post hailed Roger Rosenblatt's Making Toast as "a textbook on what constitutes perfect writing," and People lauded Kayak Morning as "intimate, expansive and profoundly moving." Classic tales of love and grief, the New York Times bestselling memoirs are also original literary works that carve out new territory at the intersection of poetry and prose. Now comes The Boy Detective, a story of the author's childhood in New York City, suffused with the same mixture of acute observation and bracing humor, lyricism and wit.Resisting the deadening silence of his family home in the elegant yet stiflingly safe neighborhood of Gramercy Park, nine-year-old Roger imagines himself a private eye in pursuit of criminals. With the dreamlike mystery of the city before him, he sets off alone, out into the streets of Manhattan, thrilling to a life of unsolved cases.Six decades later, Rosenblatt finds himself again patrolling the territory of his youth: The writing class he teaches has just wrapped up, releasing him into the winter night and the very neighborhood in which he grew up. A grown man now, he investigates his own life and the life of the city as he walks, exploring the New York of the 1950s; the lives of the writers who walked these streets before him, such as Poe and Melville; the great detectives of fiction and the essence of detective work; and the monuments of his childhood, such as the New York Public Library, once the site of an immense reservoir that nourished the city with water before it nourished it with books, and the Empire State Building, which, in Rosenblatt's imagination, vibrates sympathetically with the oversize loneliness of King Kong: "If you must fall, fall from me."As he walks, he is returned to himself, the boy detective on the case. Just as Rosenblatt invented a world for himself as a child, he creates one on this night--the writer a detective still, the chief suspect in the case of his own life, a case that discloses the shared mysteries of all our lives. A masterly evocation of the city and a meditation on memory as an act of faith, The Boy Detective treads the line between a novel and a poem, displaying a world at once dangerous and beautiful.