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A Changed Man: A Novel
by Francine Prose“Francine Prose has a knack for getting to the heart of human nature. . . . We are allowed to enter the moral dilemmas of fascinating characters whose emotional lives are strung out by the same human frailties, secrets and insecurities we all share.” —USA Today One spring afternoon, Vincent Nolan, a young neo-Nazi walks into the office of a human rights foundation headed by Meyer Maslow, a charismatic Holocaust survivor. Vincent announces that he wants to make a radical change. But what is Maslow to make of this rough-looking stranger with Waffen SS tattoos who says that his mission is to save guys like him from becoming guys like him? As Vincent gradually turns into the sort of person who might actually be able to do that, he also begins to transform everyone around him, including Maslow himself. Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man poses essential questions about human nature, morality, and the capacity for change, illuminating the everyday transactions, both political and personal, in our lives.
The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More Business
by Richard Maxwell Robert Dickman"Every great leader is a great storyteller," says Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner. According to master storytellers Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman, storytelling is a lot like running. Everyone knows how to do it, but few of us ever break the four-minute mile. What separates the great runners from the rest? The greats know not only how to hit every stride, but how every muscle fits together in that stride so that no effort is wasted and their goals are achieved. World-class runners know how to run from the inside out. World-class leaders know how to tell a story from the inside out. In The Elements of Persuasion, Maxwell and Dickman teach you how to tell stories too. They show you how storytelling relates to every industry and how anyone can benefit from its power. Maxwell and Dickman use their experiences—both in the entertainment industry and as corporate consultants—to deliver a formula for winning stories. All successful stories have five basic components: the passion with which the story is told, a hero who leads us through the story and allows us to see it through his or her eyes, an antagonist or obstacle that the hero must overcome, a moment of awareness that allows the hero to prevail, and the transformation in the hero and in the world that naturally results.Let's face it: leading is a lot more fun than following. Even if you never want to be a CEO or to change the world, you do want to have control over your own work and your own ideas. Ultimately, that is what the power of storytelling can give you.
Oh the Hell of It All: A Memoir
by Pat MontandonThrust into the media spotlight with her son Sean Wilsey's searing portrayal of her in his New York Times bestseller Oh the Glory of It All, the former queen of San Francisco society shares her own candid take on the fascinating events of her life.Once dubbed San Francisco's "Golden Girl," Montandon socialized with the cream of San Francisco society, including Danielle Steel, Alex Haley, and the Gettys. Immortalized as a character in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, she lived a seemingly perfect life in a penthouse above the San Francisco Bay, complete with her marriage to multimillionaire Al Wilsey and the birth of her son, Sean. From her lavish parties to her legendary Roundtable lunches, Montandon was always the talk of the town.Then, less than a decade later, Wilsey announced he was divorcing her, and Sean abandoned her as well—both for the affections of her once-close friend, Dede Traina. Left penniless and virtually suicidal, Montandon once again had to reinvent herself, this time as a humanitarian for peace. From Berlin to Beslan, she made it her life's mission to give a voice to the world's children and spread a message of hope in times of crisis. Oh the Hell of It All is a rich feast of a story: that of a poor girl turned rich turned poor again, in and out of love and betrayed by those closest to her, who has achieved peace in her life through devotion to something outside herself.
Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships (Lecture Notes In Computer Science Ser. #10237)
by David LevyLove, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner!A leading expert in artificial intelligence, David Levy argues that the entities we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship and human desire. He shows how automata have evolved and how human interactions with technology have changed over the years. Levy explores many aspects of human relationships—the reasons we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals and virtual pets, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots. Levy also examines how society's ideas about what constitutes normal sex have changed—and will continue to change—as sexual technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. Shocking, eye-opening, provocative, and utterly convincing, Love and Sex with Robots is compelling reading for anyone with an open mind.
Mind Set!: Eleven Ways to Change the Way You See—and Create—the Future
by John NaisbittIn his seminal works Megatrends and Megatrends 2000, John Naisbitt proved himself one of the most far-sighted and accurate observers of our fast-changing world. Mind Set! goes beyond that by disclosing the secret of forecasting. Naisbitt gives away the keys to the kingdom, opening the door to the insights that let him understand today's world and see the opportunities of tomorrow. He selects his most effective tools, 11 Mindsets, and applies them by guiding the reader through the five forces that will dominate the next decades of the twenty-first century. Illustrated by stories about Galileo and Einstein to today's icons and rebels in business, science, and sports, Mind Set! opens your eyes to see beyond media headlines, political slogans, and personal opinions to select and judge what will form the pictures of the future.
Feeling Strong: How Power Issues Affect Our Ability to Direct Our Own Lives
by Ethel S. PersonIn Feeling Strong, noted psychoanalyst Ethel S. Person redefines the notion of power. Power is often narrowly understood as the force exerted by the politicians and business leaders who seem to be in charge and by the rich and famous who monopolize our headlines. The whiff of evil we often catch when the subject of power is in the air comes from this one conception of power-- the drive for dominance over other people, or, in its most extreme form, an overriding and often ruthless lust for total command. But this is far too limited a definition of power.Pointing to a more fulfilling sense of self-empowerment than is being touted in pop-psychology manuals of our time, Feeling Strong shows us that power is really our ability to produce an effect, to make something we want to happen actually take place. Power is a desire and a drive, and it central in our lives, dictating much of our behavior and consuming much of our interior lives.We all have a need to possess power, use it, understand it and negotiate it. This holds true not just in mediating our sex and love lives, our family lives and friendships, our work relationships but in seeking to realize our dreams, whether in pursuit of our ambitions, expression of our creative impulses, or in our need to identify with something larger than ourselves. These separate kinds of power are best described as interpersonal power and personal power, respectively, and they call on different parts of our psyche. Ideally, we acquire competence in both domains.Drawing from her expertise honed in clinical practice, as well as from examples in literature and true-life vignettes, Person shows how we can achieve authentic power, a fundamental and potentially benevolent part of human nature that allows us to experience ourselves as authentically strong. To find something that matters; to live life at a higher pitch; to feel inner certainty; to find a personality of your own and effectively plot our own life story -- these are the forms of power explored in the book. To achieve and maintain such empowerment always entails struggle and is a life-long journey. Feeling Strong will lead the way.
We Disappear: A Novel
by Scott Heim“We Disappear is a mystery concerning the identity of a teenage boy and the people he draws into his web of half-truths. . . . It’s not hyperbole to suggest that We Disappear is the eeriest Kansas-set story since Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood." — Chicago Sun-TimesA dark and compelling novel of addiction, obsession, love, and family from the acclaimed author of Mysterious SkinThe body of a teenage boy is discovered in a Kansas field. The murder haunts Donna—a recent widow battling cancer—calling forth troubling details from long-suppressed memories of her past. Hoping to discover more about "disappeared" people, she turns to her son, Scott, who is fighting demons of his own. Addicted to methamphetamines and sleeping pills, Scott is barely holding on—though the chance to help his mother in her strange and desperate search holds out a slim promise of some small salvation.But what he finds is a boy named Otis handcuffed in a secret basement room, and the questions that arise seem too disturbing even to contemplate. With his mother's health rapidly deteriorating, Scott must surrender to his own obsession, and unravel Otis's unsettling connections to other missing teens . . . and, ultimately, to himself.
Double or Nothing: How Two Friends Risked It All to Buy One of Las Vegas' Legendary Casinos
by Cal Fussman Tom BreitlingIf Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn had come of age at the end of the 20th century looking for an all-American adventure, they probably would've headed for Vegas. They'd have been hard-pressed to go on a wilder ride than the one taken by Tom Breitling and Tim Poster to the top of the famed Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino.Call them the Odds Couple. Breitling is the kid who lives next door if you grow up in Burnsville, Minnesota. He never saw a hundred dollar bill or The Godfather until he went to college.Poster comes from a family of oddsmakers who reach for the Doritos on football Sundays and scream for the point spread. He was whistling Sinatra and booking games at his Las Vegas high school.Their unlikely friendship began in college over an $8 veal parmigiana sandwich that led to a partnership in a hotel reservation business. Starting with a desk, a chair, a pillow, and a telephone, Tim and Tom grew a company that they sold during the dot.com boom for $105 million. This allows Tim to pursue his childhood dream of owning a casino and bringing back the glory days of Vegas.When Tim ups the odds and raises the limits to give gamblers the best game in town, a craps player nicknamed "Mr. Royalty," who's on one of the hottest winning streaks in history, heads for The Nugget. When he begins to take Tom and Tim for millions, the partnership is put to the test. But Tim refuses to back off on the odds or the high limits, telling his partner, "It's a ballsy proposition here. It's gonna be a roller coaster ride. But we don't have a public company to answer to. It's just you and me."When Mr. Royalty rolls twenty-two consecutive passes and rakes in a mountain of chips, he takes Tim and Tom to the brink. They must figure out a way to hold up The House.Just as they do, the roller coaster ride really gets rolling—and the ride becomes crazier than they'd ever imagined.
Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad
by Bob MorrisWhat would you do if your eighty-year-old father dragged you into his hell-bent hunt for new love? Bob Morris, a seriously single son, tells you all about it in this warm, witty, and wacky chronicle of a year of dating dangerously.A few months after the death of his wife, Joe Morris, an affable, eccentric, bridge-obsessed octogenarian, starts flapping about for a replacement. If he can get a new hip, he figures, why not a new wife? At first, his son Bob is appalled, but suspicion quickly turns to enthusiasm as he finds himself trolling the personals, screening prospects, and offering etiquette tips, chaperoning services, and post-date assessments to his needy father.Bob hopes that Joe will find a well-heeled lady—or at least one who is very patient—to get him out of his hair. But soon they discover that finding a new mate will not be as easy as they think: one date is too morose, another too liberal; one's a three-timer, another just needs an escort until Mr. Right comes along. Dad persists and son assists. Am I pimping for my father? he begins to wonder. Meanwhile, Bob suffers similar frustrations; trying to find love isn't easy in a big-city market that has little use for a middle-aged gay man with an attitude and a paunch. But with the encouragement of his father (his biggest fan and the world's "most democratic Republican") he prevails. In the end, this memoir becomes a twin love story and a soulful lesson about giving and receiving affection with an open heart.With wicked humor and a dollop of compassion, Bob Morris gleefully explores the impact of senior parents on their boomer kids and the perils of dating at any age.
Golf My Own Damn Way: A Real Guy's Guide to Chopping Ten Strokes Off Your Score
by Glen Waggoner John DalyIf you know anything at all about John Daly—and if you don't, what in the hell are you doing with this book in your hands?—you know he approaches the game of golf from an, uh, slightly different perspective than your average two-time major winner. How different? Well, for starters, Long John thinks the PGA Tour ought to permit Bermuda shorts, make carts mandatory, let him wear his hair down to his butt if he wants to, and strip-search tournament patrons at the entrance gate to keep cameras and cell phones off the course.In Golf My Own Damn Way, you'll take a virtual ride on Big John's magic bus as he tells you the best way to grip it so you can rip it. Looking for a sure cure to bunkerphobia? It's here. A one-hour golf lesson that's 100 percent guaranteed to make you a better golfer? Ditto. Want to know why you should occasionally leave your big dog in your trunk, how to watch your weight, and what golf and sex have in common? You came to the right book. And while he's busy explaining all these and many other things, Daly also tells you why you should keep your head out of the game, let your belly lead your hands, listen to your right foot, check your ball position—and buy a hybrid (the club, not the car).Following in the spike prints of his 2006 bestselling autobiography, My Life In and Out of the Rough, Golf My Own Damn Way is an off-the-wall and intensely personal yet imminently practical and accessible tip sheet on how to cut ten strokes off your score—now. Two things are certain: you've never seen a golf instructional book quite like this one, and you'll never need another one. Fairways and greens, Pard!
Working Stiff: The Misadventures of an Accidental Sexpert
by Grant StoddardA twenty-two-year-old perennial virgin, Englishman Grant Stoddard didn't know what to do with his life in America—until he won an X-rated online contest, the prize being intercourse with an infamous married sex columnist. He consequently wound up delivering mail at Nerve.com but accidentally found his calling as a gonzo sex reporter who would try any and every lurid activity his crafty coworkers devised—from offering himself up as man-bait at a hard-core gay bar to attending an elite orgy, to being a hapless participant in a sexual home invasion—all the while wishing he could be safely tucked in bed.Working Stiff is the humble, hilarious, and delightfully salacious fish-into-water story of a young man who followed his heart—and other organs—into places where few would dare to venture.
First Comes Love, Then Comes Money: A Couple's Guide to Financial Communication
by Bethany Palmer Scott PalmerHappy Couples Know How to Talk About MoneyThe number one cause for divorce is financial infidelity. Now "The Money Couple" reveals the missing ingredient needed before any financial program or plan can work: healthy financial communication. This book tells you how to:Diagnose your level of financial infidelityIdentify your individual Money PersonalityMaster the Money Huddle and the Money DumpAchieve financial goals once and for all
The Wheat-Free Cook: Gluten-Free Recipes for Everyone
by Jacqueline MallorcaThe Wheat-Free Cook: Gluten-Free Recipes for Everyone is the ultimate cookbook for those with celiac disease and everyone else who has found that they simply feel better when they avoid wheat. Veteran cookbook author Jacqueline Mallorca takes gluten-free cooking into the mainstream by creating delectable recipes that appeal to everyone at the table.Inspired by her travels in Europe as well as the wine country cuisine of northern California, Mallorca presents approachable recipes for everything from breakfast and quick weeknight suppers to elegant dinner-party fare. Boneless trout with crispy crumbs takes just five minutes to broil; chicken meat loaf wrapped in prosciutto doubles as a tasty pâté; rustic seed bread looks and tastes as though it comes from an artisanal bakery; and chestnut and sausage dressing upstages the holiday bird. In addition, Mallorca presents a nutritionally sound, lighter style of baking that results in fabulous cakes and cookies. If you like to eat but without the wheat, The Wheat-Free Cook should be at the top of your shopping list.
Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy
by Leslie H. Gelb“Fluent, well-timed, provocative. . . . Filled with gritty, shrewd, specific advice on foreign policy ends and means. . . . Gelb’s plea for greater strategic thinking is absolutely right and necessary.” — The New York Times Book Review “Few Americans know the inner world of American foreign policy—its feuds, follies, and fashions—as well as Leslie H. Gelb. . . . Power Rules builds on that lifetime of experience with power and is a witty and acerbic primer.” — The New York TimesPower Rules is the provocative account of how to think about and use America’s power in the world, from Pulitzer Prize winner Leslie H. Gelb, one of the nation’s leading foreign policy minds and practitioners.
Curious?: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life
by Todd Kashdan“Curious? is one of those rare books that can make you rethink how you see the world.”—Arianna Huffington“This is the perfect book to read when you are having second thoughts about challenging yourself to explore that next step in life!”—Stephen Post, Ph.D., coauthor of Why Good Things Happen to Good PeopleDiscover the missing ingredient to a fulfilling life with Curious? In this fascinating, enlightening volume, renowned psychology professor Todd Kashdan reveals how cultivating curiosity is the road to happy, healthy, and meaningful living and the true key to falling in love with life.
House Rules: A Memoir
by Rachel SontagA memoir of a father obsessed with control and the daughter who fights his suffocating grasp, House Rules explores the complexities of their compelling and destructive relationship as Rachel fights to escape, and, later, to make sense of what remains of her family.
Blue Angel: A Novel
by Francine ProseThe National Book Award Finalist from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Francine Prose—now the major motion picture Submission “Screamingly funny … Blue Angel culminates in a sexual harassment hearing that rivals the Salem witch trials.” —USA TodayIt's been years since Swenson, a professor in a New England creative writing program, has published a novel. It's been even longer since any of his students have shown promise. Enter Angela Argo, a pierced, tattooed student with a rare talent for writing. Angela is just the thing Swenson needs. And, better yet, she wants his help. But, as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.Deliciously risque, Blue Angel is a withering take on today's academic mores and a scathing tale that vividly shows what can happen when academic politics collides with political correctness.
Why the Best Man for the Job Is a Woman: The Unique Female Qualities of Leadership
by Esther Wachs BookPlaying With The Big Boys -- And Beating Them At Their Own Game!From Meg Whitman of eBay to Marcy Carsey of Carsey-Warner and Oxygen Media, today's leading businesswomen show how to make it in the notorious boys' club of corporate America.Gone are the days when men called the shots. More and more women have replaced men or excelled over rivals in male-dominated industries because they possess the qualities of leadership that top firms are seeking today. Esther Wachs Book introduces the new Female Leader and reveals the seven key, and uniquely female, qualities of leadership that are turning the world around -- and allowing more women to achieve success.Filled with compelling insights gleaned from the country's highest-ranking businesswomen, Why the Best Man for the Job Is a Woman reveals how these exceptional women have soared to the top and captures their strategies for success.
Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland
by Mark KreidlerSomewhere beyond the circle of money, glitz, drugs, and controversy that characterizes professional sports in America, remnants of an ideal exist. In Iowa, that ideal survives in the form of high school wrestling. Each a three-time state champion, Jay Borschel and Dan LeClere have a chance in their senior year to join the sport's most elite group: the "four-timers," wrestlers who win four consecutive state titles. For Jay, a ferocious competitor who feeds off criticism and doubt, a victory would mean vindication over the great mass of skeptics waiting for him to fail. For Dan, who carries on his back the burdens of his tiny farming community, the dreams of his hard-driving coach and father, and his own personal demons, another title is the only acceptable outcome. Four Days to Glory is the story of America as told through its small towns and their connection to sport the way it was once routinely perceived: as a means of mattering to the folks next door.
Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era
by Carl Sferrazza AnthonyOn the morning of William Howard Taft's inauguration, Nellie Taft publicly expressed that theirs would be a joint presidency by shattering precedent and demanding that she ride alongside her husband down Pennsylvania Avenue, a tradition previously held for the outgoing president. In an era before Eleanor Roosevelt, this progressive First Lady was an advocate for higher education and partial suffrage for women, and initiated legislation to improve working conditions for federal employees. She smoked, drank, and gambled without regard to societal judgment, and she freely broke racial and class boundaries.Drawing from previously unpublished diaries, a lifetime of love letters between Will and Nellie, and detailed family correspondence and recollections, critically acclaimed presidential family historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony develops a riveting portrait of Nellie Taft as one of the strongest links in the series of women -- from Abigail Adams to Hillary Rodham Clinton -- often critically declared "copresidents."
What You Don't Know Can Kill You: A Physician's Radical Guide to Conquering the Obstacles to Excellent Medical Care
by Laura NathansonIn 2003, Dr. Laura Nathanson was widowed after the misdiagnosis of her beloved husband. After this tragedy, she was determined to help others protect themselves and their loved ones from similarly preventable health care disasters—and help them benefit from health care miracles.In What You Don't Know Can Kill You, Dr. Nathanson provides a guide to getting the best medical care and navigating our frustrating and often impenetrable health care system. In clear, non-medical language, she shows how to:Flag any signs of misdiagnosis and misleading analysis of symptomsPrevent miscommunication among specialists from having dire consequencesStay safe in the hospital and bypass its dangers· Choose a health care plan without falling into the "uncovered services" trapFull of empathy for each individual patient and caregiver, What You Don't Know Can Kill You will empower patients to be their own best advocates.
Damage Control: Women on the Therapists, Beauticians, and Trainers Who Navigate Their Bodies
by Emma ForrestTraditionally, women share their secrets with their hairdressers. But what about their manicurists, masseurs, chi gong teachers, and tattoo artists? In Damage Control, women wax poetic about the experts and gurus who help them love themselves, sharing stories of everything from friendships born in the make-up chair to the utter dismay of a truly horrible haircut. Minnie Driver finally meets a Frenchman who understands her hair . . . and tries to teach her not to hate it.Marian Keyes remembers the blow-dry that pushed her over the edge.Francesca Lia Block tells the ugly story of the plastic surgeon who promised to make her beautiful.Rose McGowan explains why it's harder to be depressed when you're glamorous . . . and shows how it takes a village to transform from mere mortal to movie star.Witty and wise, Damage Control is an intimate, sometimes dark, look at our experiences with the professionals who pluck, prod, and pamper every inch of our bodies—and a reminder why we surrender ourselves to their (hopefully) very capable hands.
Rules of Thumb: 52 Principles for Winning at Business without Losing Your Self
by Alan M. Webber“Alan Webber’s wise words give guidance and hope in a world gone upside down. Incisive and practical, timely and timeless, he is a mentor of the highest order.”—Jim Collins, New York Times bestselling author of Good to GreatIn Rules of Thumb, Alan Webber—co-founder of Fast Company and one of the most important thought leaders of the last two decades—provides 52 rules of thumb, one for each week of the year, to help leaders stay productive and inspired even in the most turbulent times.
Living Well with Anxiety: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You . . . That You Need to Know (Living Well)
by Carolyn Chambers ClarkA complete guide to the side-effects and treatments for anxiety disordersHigh anxiety is an unfortunate byproduct of this world, and for approximately 20 million American adults a year, anxiety becomes a debilitating part of their lives. The psychological can become physical, causing dizziness, stammering, heart palpitations, trembling, shaking, and other symptoms. Unlike other books on anxiety disorders, Living Well with Anxiety offers a holistic approach to minimizing anxiety, presenting both conventional psychiatric and psychological approaches to anxiety conditions, as well as patient anecdotes, and nutrition, herbal, environmental, exercise and other healing measures to combat this disorder. Living Well with Anxiety contains helpful advice for a wide range of anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and various phobias that cause anxiety. With a comprehensive resource section that contains websites, doctors, and helpful articles, this book, like all of the titles in the successful Living Well series, offers positive and far-reaching solutions to building a healthier life, both emotionally and physically.
Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions
by Barry Edelstein“Browse the delightful Bardisms to find a fitting quote for any mood, moment, or occasion. But read it through to learn how to enjoy Shakespeare and bring more of his language into your daily life.” — Jacob Weisberg, Editor of Slate magazine and author of Bushisms“A fantastic reference for anyone who loves Shakespeare!” — Steve Martin From renowned Shakespearean director Barry Edelstein comes Bardisms: a straightforward, accessible guide to using Shakespeare’s wit and wisdom at special occasions of every type. Over the course of his career, Edelstein has directed more than half of Shakespeare’s plays, and he brings all his passion, insight, and years of study to Bardisms. In the words of Adam Gopnik (Through the Children's Gate), “Barry Edelstein knows more about Shakespeare, and in a less pedantic manner, than nearly anyone I know.”