brand crown (539 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. Following nearly twenty-five years as a prominent voice at National Public Radio, after being shelled, rocketed, bombed and held captive in the desert as one of their top foreign correspondents, Neal Conan decided to pursue a lifelong dream-to become, of all things, a baseball announcer. And thats what he did, specifically with the Aberdeen Arsenal, a franchise of the independent Atlantic League. Not the majors, alas, but it afforded him a true opportunity to use the surge of conflicting emotions that we refer to as midlife crisis to rethink what hed done and what he was doing. It also allowed Neal to marry his two lifelong passions-radio and baseball-and gave him the chance to return to the grassroots of each. He decided to put the fun and challenge back into things he had become bored with.Play by Play is Conans diary of the 2000 season-Aberdeens and his. From his position in the announcers booth, on the team bus and in hotels and motels along the way, we meet the coaches, fans and, of course, the players. And in this league, most of the players are on the way out rather than up but are happy to still be getting paid to play ball. It is indeed a league of last chances, but for most everyone involved, its better to be spending time playing ball than not. Some are resigned to the fact that theyll never make the majors-or, in a few cases, get back there-while others hang on to a dream that everybody but them sees as foolhardy. Either way, they play for the love of the game, and very little else.Through the lens of the minor leagues, Conan captures the soul of a great sport and reveals the ways men face age, come to terms with their limitations and ambitions and look for new challenges when theyre no longer young phenoms. In the end, Conans experiences, the things hes learned, help him refocus his own life and reappreciate the things he has, giving him direction of where he needs to go. (But thats not to say he wouldnt take a call from George Steinbrenner to be the voice of the Yankees.).

Softcover. Condition: used. Help Your Child Discover the Joy of LearningDoes your child learn best in the morning, afternoon, or evening? Does his reading comprehension increase or decrease when music is played in the background? Does she prefer to study alone or with others? According to nationally respected educators Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson, our children process information in a multitude of unique ways. What works best for one child is often counterproductive for others. By trying to force all children into the same learning mode we unfairly short-circuit their education as well as their intellectual development.Discover Your Child's Learning Style shows you how to assess and nurture your child's individual learning potential based on his or her talents, interests, disposition, preferred environment, and more. Inside is a step-by-step program of self-awareness tests that guide you to a better understanding of your child's unique strengths and weaknesses, goals and interests, and inner peace. You'll discover how to create the right atmosphere for learning in the home. Most important, you'll help your child excel not only in school but in life as well."An excellent tool for discovering how a student learns best. Teaching children according to how they learn ensures optimum education for all; it's an approach that could help make remedial literacy programs obsolete!"-Patricia Flanigan, California State Library Literacy Task Force"Essential for any parent or teacher who works with children."-Suzanne Lopez, psychotherapist and author of Get Smart with Your Heart"A powerful tool for increasing your child's self-esteem. At last, there is a simple solution for every child to become a winner."-Nancy L. Chaconas, M.A., educator, author of HELP-Esteem"Parents who understand the principles in this book will be better parents!"-Richard and Linda Eyre, authors of Teaching Your Children Values.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Are you wondering how you can improve your relationships with your friends and family?Are you curious how to get or keep the job of your dreams?Do you want to become a more popular person?This book will show you how to do all that by raising your likeability factor-or how much other people like you.After all, life is a series of popularity contests. The choices other people make about you determine your health, wealth, and happiness. And decades of research prove that people choose who they like. They vote for them, they buy from them, they marry them, and they spend precious time with them.The good news is that you can arm yourself for the contest and win lifes battles for preference. How? By being likeable.The more you are liked-or the higher your likeability factor-the happier your life will be. This book will show you how to raise that likeability factor by teaching you how to boost four critical elements of your personality:Friendliness: your ability to communicate liking and openness to othersRelevance: your capacity to connect with others interests, wants, and needsEmpathy: your ability to recognize, acknowledge, and experience other peoples feelingsRealness: the integrity that stands behind your likeability and guarantees its authenticityWhat happens when you improve in these areas and boost your likeability factor?You bring out the best in othersYou survive lifes challengesYou have better health-and even improve others health, tooYou outperform in your daily rolesYou win the popularity contests that define your lifeJoin me for a few hours and Ill share the results of hundreds of thousands of pages of research, numerous seminars, and hundreds of interviews with people just like you! Together lets build our likeability factor and improve our lives!Also available as a Random House AudioBook.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Why are people around the world so very different? What makes us live, buy, even love as we do? The answers are in the codes.In The Culture Code, internationally revered cultural anthropologist and marketing expert Clotaire Rapaille reveals for the first time the techniques he has used to improve profitability and practices for dozens of Fortune 100 companies. His groundbreaking revelations shed light not just on business but on the way every human being acts and lives around the world.Rapailles breakthrough notion is that we acquire a silent system of Codes as we grow up within our culture. These Codes-the Culture Code-are what make us American, or German, or French, and they invisibly shape how we behave in our personal lives, even when we are completely unaware of our motives. Whats more, we can learn to crack the Codes that guide our actions and achieve new understanding of why we do the things we do.Rapaille has used the Culture Code to help Chrysler build the PT Cruiser-the most successful American car launch in recent memory. He has used it to help Procter & Gamble design its advertising campaign for Folgers coffee - one of the longest-lasting and most successful campaigns in the annals of advertising. He has used it to help companies as diverse as GE, AT&T, Boeing, Honda, Kellogg, and LOréal improve their bottom line at home and overseas. And now, in The Culture Code, he uses it to reveal why Americans act distinctly like Americans, and what makes us different from the world around us.In The Culture Code, Dr. Rapaille decodes two dozen of our most fundamental archetypes-ranging from sex to money to health to America itself-to give us a new set of glasses with which to view our actions and motivations. Why are we so often disillusioned by love? Why is fat a solution rather than a problem? Why do we reject the notion of perfection? Why is fast food in our lives to stay? The answers are in the Codes.Understanding the Codes gives us unprecedented freedom over our lives. It lets us do business in dramatically new ways. And it finally explains why people around the world really are different, and reveals the hidden clues to understanding us all.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. What Is love? Great minds have been grappling with this question throughout the ages, and in the modern era, they have come up with many different answers. According to Western philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield. Her paisan Frank Sinatra would add the corollary that love is a tender trap. Love hurts. Love stinks. Love bites, love bleeds, love is the drug. The troubadours of our times agree: They want to know what love is, and they want you to show them. But the answer is simple: Love is a mix tape.In the 1990s, when alternative was suddenly mainstream, bands like Pearl Jam and Pavement, Nirvana and R.E.M.-bands that a year before would have been too weird for MTV- were MTV. It was the decade of Kurt Cobain and Shania Twain and Taylor Dayne, a time that ended all too soon. The boundaries of American culture were exploding, and music was leading the way.It was also when a shy music geek named Rob Sheffield met a hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl named Renée, who was way too cool for him but fell in love with him anyway. He was tall. She was short. He was shy. She was a social butterfly. She was the only one who laughed at his jokes when they were so bad, and they were always bad. They had nothing in common except that they both loved music. Music brought them together and kept them together. And it was music that would help Rob through a sudden, unfathomable loss.In Love Is a Mix Tape, Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs on fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Renée. From Elvis to Missy Elliott, the Rolling Stones to Yo La Tengo, the songs on these tapes make up the soundtrack to their lives.Rob Sheffield isnt a musician, hes a writer, and Love Is a Mix Tape isnt a love song- but it might as well be. This is Robs tribute to music, to the decade that shaped him, but most of all to one unforgettable woman.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Guenevere .Last in a line of proud queens elected to rule the fertile lands of the West, true owner of the legendary Round Table, guardian of the Great Goddess herself . . . a woman whose story has never been told - until nowBrokenhearted at her parting from Lancelot and anguished over the loss of the sacred Hallows of the Goddess, Queen Guenevere reconciles with Arthur, although the fragile bond between them is threatened by a new presence at Camelot. Prince Mordred, Arthur's son by Morgan Le Fay, has come to stay and to be proclaimed heir to Guenevere and Arthur's kingdoms. Arthur has even designated for his son the Siege Perilous, the one unoccupied seat at the Round Table - the seat reserved for "the Son of the Most Peerless Knight in All the World."But at the knighting, when Mordred takes his seat, the great Round Table, owned by the Queens of the Summer Country since time immemorial, cracks down the center. A terrible darkness falls over Camelot and in the midst of the chaos appears a new knight, Sir Galahad. Barely fourteen, he may hold the key to the mystery of the stolen Hallows, which the Christians believe to be the Holy Grail. The scene sets into motion the final brilliant cycle of the Arthurian legend-the Quest for the Grail and the fall of Camelot-which brings Guenevere to the brink of the most dreaded tragedy of all . . . and may ultimately complete her destiny as the greatest and most powerful Queen of the Isles.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Nice guys, pushovers, soft-touches and suckers:Tired of being walked all over?When the waiter brings you something you didnt order, do you assume he knows best?Are you ready to demand the respect you deserve?Martin Kihn doesnt care what your answers are, because of course you need this book. Watch and learn as this one-time softy transforms himself into a lean, mean a-hole machine.

Softcover. Condition: Good. 2. As Robert Shillers new 2009 preface to his prescient classic on behavioral economics and market volatility asserts, the irrational exuberance of the stock and housing markets has been ended by an economic crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As we all, ordinary Americans and professional investors alike, crawl from the wreckage of our heedless bubble economy, the shrewd insights and sober warnings, and hard facts that Shiller marshals in this book are more invaluable than ever.The original and bestselling 2000 edition of Irrational Exuberance evoked Alan Greenspans infamous 1996 use of that phrase to explain the alternately soaring and declining stock market. It predicted the collapse of the tech stock bubble through an analysis of the structural, cultural, and psychological factors behind levels of price growth not reflected in any other sector of the economy. In the second edition (2005), Shiller folded real estate into his analysis of market volatility, marshalling evidence that housing prices were dangerously inflated as well, a bubble that could soon burst, leading to a string of bankruptcies and a worldwide recession. That indeed came to pass, with consequences that the 2009 preface to this edition deals with.Irrational Exuberance is more than ever a cogent, chilling, and astonishingly far-seeing analytical work that no one with any money in any market anywhere can afford not to read-and heed.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. On Friday, May 11, 2001, the world mourned the untimely passing of Douglas Adams, beloved creator of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, dead of a heart attack at age forty-nine. Thankfully, in addition to a magnificent literary legacy-which includes seven novels and three co-authored works of nonfiction-Douglas left us something more. The book you are about to enjoy was rescued from his four computers, culled from an archive of chapters from his long-awaited novel-in-progress, as well as his short stories, speeches, articles, interviews, and letters.In a way that none of his previous books could, The Salmon of Doubt provides the full, dazzling, laugh-out-loud experience of a journey through the galaxy as perceived by Douglas Adams. From a boys first love letter (to his favorite science fiction magazine) to the distinction of possessing a nose of heroic proportions; from climbing Kilimanjaro in a rhino costume to explaining why Americans cant make a decent cup of tea; from lyrical tributes to the sublime pleasures found in music by Procol Harum, the Beatles, and Bach to the follies of his hopeless infatuation with technology; from fantastic, fictional forays into the private life of Genghis Khan to extended visits with Dirk Gently and Zaphod Beeblebrox: this is the vista from the elevated perch of one of the tallest, funniest, most brilliant, and most penetrating social critics and thinkers of our time.Welcome to the wonderful mind of Douglas Adams.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. A practical guide to advice in a business setting discusses the fundamental principles of advising, covering such topics as how to keep advice objective, evaluate advice and advisors, and tailor advice to the needs of the client. 25,000 first printing.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. One of the greatest entrepreneurial success stories of the past twenty yearsWhen a friend told Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank that "you've just been hit in the ass by a golden horseshoe," they thought he was crazy. After all, both had just been fired. What the friend, Ken Langone, meant was that they now had the opportunity to create the kind of wide-open warehouse store that would help spark a consumer revolution through low prices, excellent customer service, and wide availability of products.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 twenty 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.Great Stories"Ming the Merciless": The inside account of the man who fired Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus"My people don't drive Cadillacs!" How Ross Perot almost got involved with The Home Depot"Take this job and shove it!" The banker who put his career on the line to get The Home Depot the loan that enabled it to survive"Folks, I tell ya, if these Atlanta stores were any bigger, we'd be paying Alabama sales tax." Home Depot's first good ol' southern advertising campaignA Company with a ConscienceWhen disasters like the Oklahoma City bombing or Hurricane Andrew happen, Home Depot associates don't ask for permission to respond. They react from their hearts--whether that means keeping their store open all night or being on the scene with volunteers and relief supplies.The Home Depot doesn't just contribute money to organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Christmas in April, but also provides its people to help lead and grow these community efforts.Great LessonsKnow your customer: In The Home Depot's case, customers don't pay for wider aisles and a pretty store, but for a wide assortment and low pricesWhy everyday low prices mean more sales overall: The marketing philosophy The Home Depot learned from talking with Sam WaltonMarket leadership: Why The Home Depot never goes to a major new market with plans to open just a few storesThe strategy for profitable growth: How The Home Depot redefined its U.S. market from its $135 billion traditional "do-it-yourself" base to a much larger pond of $365 billionHow to change the rules of the game: How The Home Depot bypassed almost all middlemen, allowing it to pass on huge savings to customersBuilt from Scratch is the firsthand account of how two regular guys created one of the greatest entrepreneurial successes of the last twenty years.Opening the First Store"What the hell happened? Who screwed up the store? . . . Whatever time remained before the doors were scheduled to open for the first time, we sped around in forklifts, stomping on the brakes, scuffing up the flooring so it would once more look like a warehouse."Customer Service"If ever I saw an associate point a customer toward what they needed three aisles over, I would threaten to bite their finger. I would say, 'Don't ever let me see you point. You take the customer by the hand, and you bring them right where they need to be and you help them.'"Giving Back"When The Home Depot went public we realized that we had the financial capacity and wherewithal to give back to the communities where we did business. There is a concept in Judaism called tzedaka, which means 'to give back.' It is considered a mitzvah, a good deed, to give to someone who doesn't have, and we believe strongly in giving back to the community."Selling the Vision"We had to be psychologists, lovers, romancers, and con artists to get vendors aboard. Our ability to paint a picture of how that would take place.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. In Boom and Bust in the American Century, James Grant tells why the financial prosperity of the 1990s is destined to collapse. This is a book about cycles of optimism and pessimism, of bull markets and bear markets, and of orthodoxy and heresy. Boom and Bust in the American Century is sophisticated financial writing by a gifted author and analyst at the top of his form.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Consider a world in which Marketers use brain scans to determine consumer interest in a product Politicians use brain-image-based profiles to target voters A test could determine your suitability for a job or to whom you will be romantically attractedFar from science fiction, this neurosociety-a society in which brain science influences every aspect of daily life-is already here.Innovative researchers and cutting-edge technology, like brain imaging and brain scanning devices, have revolutionized our understanding of how we process information, communicate, trust, sympathize, and love. However, scientists and doctors are not the only ones interested in the naked brain; advertisers, politicians, economists, and others are using the latest findings on the human brain to reshape our lives, from the bedroom to the boardroom.Despite the potential benefits, theres obvious peril in the promise. Richard Restak explores the troubling moral and legal dilemmas that arise from corporate and political applications of this new brain research. Someday we may live in a world where our choices, our professional and personal prospects, even our morals and ethics will be controlled by those armed with an elite understanding of the principles of neuroscience.Eye-opening and provocative, The Naked Brain is a startling look at the impact such unprecedented access to our most secret thoughts and tendencies will have on all of us.In The Naked Brain, bestselling author Richard Restak explores how the latest technology and research have exposed the brain and how we think, feel, remember, and socialize in unprecedented and often surprising ways. Now that knowledge is being used by doctors, advertisers, politicians, and others to influence and revolutionize nearly every aspect of our daily lives.Restak is our guide to this neurosociety, a brave new world in which brain science influences our present and will even more tangibly shape our future. Citing social trends, shifts in popular culture, the rise and fall of products in the public favor, even changes in the American vernacular, The Naked Brain is an illuminating and often troubling investigation of the impending opportunities and dangers being created by the neuroscience revolution, and a revelation for anyone who ever wondered why they prefer Coke over Pepsi or Kerry over Bush.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. Farewell, Godspeed is a remarkable collection of eulogies for some of the most notable figures of our time, delivered by the people who knew them best. In the words used to eulogize the great and celebrated men and women of the world-sometimes reverential, sometimes funny, always poignant-we come as close as perhaps we ever will to seeing the warm humanity beneath their public personas.Cyrus M. Copeland has gathered some of the greatest of these writings about artists, scientists, authors, public servants, entertainers, and others who have captured our attention by making the world a better, or at least a livelier, place. Here is Andy Warhols close friend describing Warhols hidden spirituality. Albert Einsteins assistant recounting his humanism. Edward Kennedy remembering with a brothers tenderness the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Larry McMurtrys lively and loving tribute to Irving Swifty Lazar. And Robert Bernstein, longtime publisher and friend of Dr. Seuss, memorializing him with special, never-before-published verse. Also included are the eulogies of the Challenger astronauts by President Ronald Reagan; Charles Schulz by Cathy Guisewite (creator of the comic strip Cathy); Bette Davis by James Woods; Bob Fosse by Neil Simon; Lucille Ball by Diane Sawyer; Martin Luther King Jr. by Benjamin E. Mays; David O. Selznick by Truman Capote; Karl Marx by Friedrich Engels; and Gianni Versace by Madonna.In these moving and personal tributes we see at last the vulnerabilities and nuances of character that are often hidden from the spotlight, and the true personalities behind the names we remember.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. Who formed the first modern nation?Who created the first literate society?Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism?The Scots.Mention of Scotland and the Scots usually conjures up images of kilts, bagpipes, Scotch whisky, and golf. But as historian and author Arthur Herman demonstrates, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland earned the respect of the rest of the world for its crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics-contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since.Arthur Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. He lucidly summarizes the ideas, discoveries, and achievements that made this small country facing on the North Atlantic an inspiration and driving force in world history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong.How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William Braveheart Wallace to James Bond.Victorian historian John Anthony Froude once proclaimed, No people so few in number have scored so deep a mark in the worlds history as the Scots have done. And no one who has taken this incredible historical trek, from the Highland glens and the factories and slums of Glasgow to the California Gold Rush and the search for the source of the Nile, will ever view Scotland and the Scots-or the modern West-in the same way again. For this is a story not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world and its consequences.The point of this book is that being Scottish turns out to be more than just a matter of nationality or place of origin or clan or even culture. It is also a state of mind, a way of viewing the world and our place in it. . . . This is the story of how the Scots created the basic idea of modernity. It will show how that idea transformed their own culture and society in the eighteenth century, and how they carried it with them wherever they went. Obviously, the Scots did not do everything by themselves: other nations-Germans, French, English, Italians, Russians, and many others-have their place in the making of the modern world. But it is the Scots more than anyone else who have created the lens through which we see the final product. When we gaze out on a contemporary world shaped by technology, capitalism, and modern democracy, and struggle to find our place as individuals in it, we are in effect viewing the world as the Scots did. . . . The story of Scotland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is one of hard-earned triumph and heart-rending tragedy, spilled blood and ruined lives, as well as of great achievement.-FROM THE PREFACE.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition, Third Printing. Why do well-educated antiwar activists call the president of the United States the new Hitler and argue that the U.S. government orchestrated the September 11 attacks?Why does Al Gore believe that cars pose a mortal threat to the security of every nation?Why does the Princeton professor known as the father of the animal rights movement object to humans eating animals but not to humans having sex with them-and why does PETA defend that position?In other words, why do smart people fall for stupid ideas?The answer, Daniel J. Flynn reveals in Intellectual Morons, is ideology. Flynn, the author of Why the Left Hates America, shows how people can be so blinded to reality by the causes they serve that they espouse bizarre, sometimes ridiculous, and often dangerous positions. The most influential social movements have spawned ideologues who do not care whether an idea is good or bad, true or false, but only whether it can serve their cause.It is startling how many Americans-and particularly how many media, academic, and political elites-fall for bad ideas. The trouble is, their lies become institutionalized as truth, and we all suffer as a result.In Intellectual Morons, Flynn reveals:How rabid anti-Americans simply parrot the delusional claims of a few gurusHow the environmental movement, spawned by a scientist whose doomsday predictions are almost always wrong, has bred fanaticism, stupidity, and dishonestyHow the hero of the animal rights crowd is a crank who promotes infanticide and euthanasiaHow a scientific fraud-and pervert-launched the sexual revolutionHow abortion rights activists ignore (or cover up) the fact that their matron saint advocated eugenics and concentration campsHow our universities have become hothouses of leftist ideologyHow historians and journalists have airbrushed history to turn a racial separatist into a civil rights iconFilled with jaw-dropping lapses in common sense from even our most celebrated opinion leaders, Intellectual Morons is a welcome reality check for the glaring excesses of todays political and cultural debates."This is a sophisticated pile driver of a book, guiding us through the wiles of great luminaries of the netherworld. And such liveliness in the writing, and such erudition. I was quite fascinated by Intellectual Morons."-William F. Buckley, Jr."Intellectual Morons is exceptionally aptly named. The thought of all that brainpower going down the intellectual drain is sad, but Daniel Flynn's description of it is hilariously on point. This is must reading."-G. Gordon Liddy"Intellectual Morons is a delight-a wonderful intellectual history of the past hundred years. Flynn ably describes the purveyors of the bad ideas that have undermined our free society."-Burton W. Folsom, Jr., professor of history, Hillsdale College"A famous bit of folk wisdom says, 'You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.' Some of the crackpot notions now fashionable in academic circles, as here documented by Daniel Flynn, suggest that saying is an understatement. If you want to know how crazy, and scairy, intellectual morons can get, you have to read this book."-M. Stanton Evans, author of The Theme Is Freedom, contributing editor to Human Events.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. "Oh, screw it, let's do it."That's the philosophy that has allowed Richard Branson, in slightly more than twenty-five years, to spawn so many successful ventures. From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), to music (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), to retail (Virgin Megastores), and nearly a hundred others, ranging from financial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track record second to none.Losing My Virginity is the unusual, frequently outrageous autobiography of one of the great business geniuses of our time. When Richard Branson started his first business, he and his friends decided that "since we're complete virgins at business, let's call it just that: Virgin." Since then, Branson has written his own "rules" for success, creating a group of companies with a global presence, but no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, and minimal bureaucracy.Many of Richard Branson's companies--airlines, retailing, and cola are good examples--were started in the face of entrenched competition. The experts said, "Don't do it." But Branson found golden opportunities in markets in which customers have been ripped off or underserved, where confusion reigns, and the competition is complacent.And in this stressed-out, overworked age, Richard Branson gives us a new model: a dynamic, hardworking, successful entrepreneur who lives life to the fullest. Family, friends, fun, and adventure are equally important as business in Branson's life. Losing My Virginity is a portrait of a productive, sane, balanced life, filled with rich and colorful stories:Crash-landing his hot-air balloon in the Algerian desert, yet remaining determined to have another go at being the first to circle the globeSigning the Sex Pistols, Janet Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Boy George, and Phil CollinsFighting back when British Airways took on Virgin Atlantic and successfully suing this pillar of the British business establishmentSwimming two miles to safety during a violent storm off the coast of MexicoSelling Virgin Records to save Virgin AtlanticStaging a rescue flight into Baghdad before the start of the Gulf War . . .And much more. Losing My Virginity is the ultimate tale of personal and business survival from a man who combines the business prowess of Bill Gates and the promotional instincts of P. T. Barnum.Also available in the UK from Virgin Publishing, and in Canada from General Publishing,

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition, Second Printing. . . . In Cold Blood, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The Armies of the Night . . .Starting in 1965 and spanning a ten-year period, a group of writers including Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion, John Sack, and Michael Herr emerged and joined a few of their pioneering elders, including Truman Capote and Norman Mailer, to remake American letters. The perfect chroniclers of an age of frenzied cultural change, they were blessed with the insight that traditional tools of reporting would prove inadequate to tell the story of a nation manically hopscotching from hope to doom and back again-from war to rock, assassination to drugs, hippies to Yippies, Kennedy to the dark lord Nixon. Traditional just-the-facts reporting simply couldnt provide a neat and symmetrical order to this chaos.Marc Weingarten has interviewed many of the major players to provide a startling behind-the-scenes account of the rise and fall of the most revolutionary literary outpouring of the postwar era, set against the backdrop of some of the most turbulent-and significant-years in contemporary American life. These are the stories behind those stories, from Tom Wolfes white-suited adventures in the counterculture to Hunter S. Thompsons drug-addled invention of gonzo to Michael Herrs redefinition of war reporting in the hell of Vietnam. Weingarten also tells the deeper backstory, recounting the rich and surprising history of the editors and the magazines who made the movement possible, notably the three greatest editors of the era-Harold Hayes at Esquire, Clay Felker at New York, and Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone. And finally Weingarten takes us through the demise of the New Journalists, a tragedy of hubris, miscalculation, and corporate menacing.This is the story of perhaps the last great good time in American journalism, a time when writers didnt just cover stories but immersed themselves in them, and when journalism didnt just report America but reshaped it.Within a seven-year period, a group of writers emerged, seemingly out of nowhere-Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion, John Sack, Michael Herr-to impose some order on all of this American mayhem, each in his or her own distinctive manner (a few old hands, like Truman Capote and Norman Mailer, chipped in, as well). They came to tell us stories about ourselves in ways that we couldnt, stories about the way life was being lived in the sixties and seventies and what it all meant to us. The stakes were high; deep fissures were rending the social fabric, the world was out of order. So they became our master explainers, our town criers, even our moral conscience-the New Journalists. -from the Introduction.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Wake up, America: Were raising a nation of wimps.Hara Marano, editor-at-large and the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, has been watching a disturbing trend: kids are growing up to be wimps. They cant make their own decisions, cope with anxiety, or handle difficult emotions without going off the deep end. Teens lack leadership skills. College students engage in deadly binge drinking. Graduates cant even negotiate their own salaries without bringing mom or dad in for a consult. Why? Because hothouse parents raise teacup children-brittle and breakable, instead of strong and resilient. This crisis threatens to destroy the fabric of our society, to undermine both our democracy and economy. Without future leaders or daring innovators, where will we go? So what can be done?kids would play in the street until their mothers hailed them for supper, and unless a child was called into the principals office, parents and teachers met only at organized conferences. Nowadays, parents are involved in every aspect of their childrens lives-even going so far as using technology to monitor what their kids eat for lunch at school and accompanying their grown children on job interviews. What is going on?Hothouse parenting has hit the mainstream-with disastrous effects. Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the lumps and bumps out of life for their children, but the net effect of parental hyperconcern and scrutiny is to make kids more fragile. When the real world isnt the discomfort-free zone kids are accustomed to, they break down in myriad ways. Why is it that those who want only the best for their kids wind up bringing out the worst in them? There is a mental health crisis on college campuses these days, with alarming numbers of students engaging in self-destructive behaviors like binge drinking and cutting or disconnecting through depression.A Nation of Wimps is the first book to connect the dots between overparenting and the social crisis of the young. Psychology expert Hara Marano reveals how parental overinvolvement hinders a childs development socially, emotionally, and neurologically. Children become overreactive to stress because they were never free to discover what makes them happy in the first place.Through countless hours of painstaking research and interviews, Hara Marano focuses on the whys and how of this crisis and then turns to what we can do about it in this thought-provoking and groundbreaking book.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. A top currency trader introduces the circle of elite global business moguls who control and manipulate the values of world currencies and, consequently, the worth of every country's goods and services. 17,500 first printing. Tour.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition, First Printing. An invaluable resource for any manager or professional, this book offers a collection of proven, practical methods for simplifying any problem and making faster, better decisions every time.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. If a picture speaks a thousand words, a love letter speaks a thousand more . . .Even in this age of e-mail, faxes, and instant messaging, nothing has ever replaced the power of a love letter. Much the way light displays every color when passed through a prism, love letters express the spectrum of our emotions, offering a colorful glimpse into the soul of the writer, and of the writers beloved. For passionate readers and lovers of words, a letter is irresistible.Internationally renowned collector David Lowenherz sifted through hundreds and hundreds of historical and contemporary epistles and selected the most ardent, witty, whimsical, sexy, clever, and touching letters for this inspiring collection. Unlike interviews or biographies, these letters give us marvelous insight into the lives of some of historys most famous lovers and provide intimate glimpses into the hearts of some whose fervent or amusing expressions of devotion will come as a great surprise.Zelda Fitzgerald to Scott FitzgeraldMichelangelo Buonarroti to Vittoria ColonnaWolfgang Amadeus Mozart toConstanze MozartHarry Truman to Bess WallaceKhalil Gibran to Mary HaskellBenjamin Franklin to Madame BrillonHoratio Nelson to Emma HamiltonGeorge Bush to Barbara PierceHenry VIII to Anne BoleynElizabeth Barrett Browning to George BarrettJack London to Anna StrunskyMarc Chagall to Bella ChagallErnest Hemingway to Mary WelshJack Kerouac to Sebastian SampasAlfred Dreyfus to Lucie DreyfusMarjorie Fossa to Elvis PresleyVita Sackville-West to Virginia WoolfVirginia Woolf to Vita Sackville-WestLudwig van Beethoven to the Immortal BelovedEmma Goldman to Ben ReitmanFrida Kahlo to Diego RiveraDylan Thomas to Caitlin ThomasFranz Kafka to Felice BauerNapoleon Bonaparte to Josephine BonaparteAbigail Smith to John AdamsJohn Ruskin to Euphemia RuskinGeorge Sand to Gustave FlaubertSimone de Beauvoir to Nelson AlgrenAnas Nin to Henry MillerVoltaire to Marie Louise DenisJames Thurber to Eva ProutGeorge Bernard Shaw to Stella CampbellSarah Bernhardt to Jean RichepinMarcel Proust to Daniel HalevyFrank Lloyd Wright to Maude Miriam NoelAnne Sexton to Philip LeglerElizabeth I to Thomas SeymourOscar Wilde to Constance LloydKatherine Mansfield to John Middleton MauryCharles Parnell to Katherine OSheaLewis Carroll to Clara Cunnyngham.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. A wide-ranging look at the allure and changing significance of work.With seductions, misunderstandings, and misinformation everywhere, this immensely readable book calls for a new contract--with ourselves.Drawing from history, mythology, literature, pop culture, and practical experience, Ciulla probes the many meanings of work or its meaninglessness and asks:Why are so many of us letting work take over our lives and trying to live in what little time is left?What has happened to the old, unspoken contract between worker and employer?Why are young people not being disloyal when they regularly consider job-changing?Employers can't promise as much to workers as before. Is that because they promise so much to stockholders?Why are there mass layoffs and "downsizing" in a time of unequaled corporate prosperity? And why are the most common lies in business about satisfactory employee performance?The traditional contract between employers and employees is over. This thoughtful and provocative study shows how to replace it by the one we make with ourselves.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. "The North Star -- Stella Polaris -- is a fixed point that can always be used to figure out which way you're headed. Explorers and mariners can depend on Polaris when there are no other landmarks in sight. The same relationship exists between you and your right life, the ultimate realization of your potential for happiness. I believe that a knowledge of that perfect life sits inside you just as the North Star sits in its unaltering spot. You may think you're utterly lost, but brush away the leaves, wait for the clouds to clear, and you'll see your destiny shining as brightly as ever; the fixed point in the constantly changing constellations of your life." -- Martha BeckAs the creator of Life Designs, Inc., Martha Beck has helped hundreds of clients find their own North Star and figure out how to fulfill their potential and create joyful lives through her lectures, seminars, and one-on-one counseling. In her new book, she shares her step-by-step program that will guide you to fulfill your own potential. You'll start by learning how to read the internal compasses already built into your brain and body -- and why you may have spent your life ignoring their signals. As you become reacquainted with your own deepest desires, you'll identify and repair any unconscious beliefs or unhealed emotional wounds that may be blocking your progress. This will change your life, but don't worry -- although every life is unique, major transformations have common elements, and Beck provides a map that will guide you through your own life changes. You'll learn how to navigate every stage, from the first flickering appearance of a new dream to the planning and implementation of your own ideal life.Based on Dr. Beck's work as a Harvard-trained sociologist, research associate at Harvard Business School, instructor at Thunderbird Business School, and especially on her experiences with her clients over the last six years, Finding Your Own North Star offers thoroughly tested case studies, questionnaires, and exercises to help you articulate your core desires and act on them to build a more satisfying life.It's exhilarating and frightening to change your life. Finding Your Own North Star is a trusted companion for the journey. Filled with inspiration, wisdom, and Martha Beck's trademark wit, this is the right book for anyone whose life ever took a wrong turn.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Finks landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina - and her suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice.In the tradition of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and maintain life amid chaos.After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several of those caregivers faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths.Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are for the impact of large-scale disasters-and how we can do better. A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms your understanding of human nature in crisis.One of The New York Times' Best Ten Books of the Year.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Mommy Mantras are phrases you can say in your head, or out loud if you need to, during those trying moments of mothering. They act to empower you, revive you, and remind you that there is always another way to see your situation. Buddhist-inspired and psychologically grounded, these snippets of wisdom come through entertaining and universal stories of unpredictable life with children.Here are a few examples of how a mantra can help you control your reactions to those mothering circumstances largely out of your control:When it seems like everyone else's children are better behaved (and doesnt it always feel that way?), you can remind yourself to narrow your focus, or stop comparing your children to others, which is only bound to make you miserable.When the monotony of caring for a toddler gets to you, remembering to surrender to the goat, as one mother did when her son insisted on feeding the same goat at the petting zoo every day, for hours,will help you recognize the importance of being in the moment, and will help you endure and even enjoy the sometimes tedious routines.When you begin to resent that you do more housework than your spouse, despite your best intentions and all the nagging in the world, you can learn to ignore the score, or let go of keeping track, which can become an unhealthy (and unhelpful) obsession.When your mantras seem to fail you, you can always remind yourself that I am not Buddha. Motherhood is not something we can master. We can only try to be more mindful. Even so, some days are harder than others. Mantras are the deceptively simple words we can use to diffuse stress and choose appropriate, constructive behavior so we can recognize ourselves, find our center and be more mindful and compassionate mothers.

Softcover. Condition: Good. 1. From the acclaimed Vanity Fair and GQ journalist-an unprecedented, in-depth portrait of the man whose return to Apple precipitated one of the biggest turnarounds in business history. With a new epilogue on Apples future survival in todays roller-coaster economy, here is the revealing biography that blew away the critics and stirred controversy within industry and media circles around the country.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1. A deeply moving account of the extraordinary strengths that ordinary people can display when tragedy confronts them. As emotionally powerful a book as you are likely ever to read.-David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the CrossIn August 1995, twenty-six passengers and a crew of three board a commuter plane in Atlanta headed for Gulfport, Mississippi. Shortly after takeoff they hear an explosion and, looking out the windows on the left side, see a mangled engine lodged against the wing. From that moment, nine minutes and twenty seconds elapse until the crippled plane crashes in a west Georgia hayfield-nine minutes and twenty seconds in which Gary Pomerantz takes readers deep into the hearts and minds of the people aboard, each of whom prepares in his or her own way for what may come.Ultimately, nineteen people survive both the crash and its devastating aftermath, all of them profoundly affected by what they have seen and, more important, what they have done to help themselves and others.This is not so much a book about a plane crash as it is a psychologically illuminating real-life drama about ordinary people and how they behave in extraordinary circumstances. Each of us has wondered what we would do to survive a life-threatening situation: Would I survive? How would I conduct myself-would I act to save others in need or only myself? Would others try to save me? How would I be affected by the experience? Judging by what is revealed in Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds, the answers are surprisingly optimistic.In telling the remarkable stories of these twenty-nine men and women, Gary Pomerantz has written one of the most compelling books in recent memory. Open to any page and youll immediately be drawn into the dramatic pull of the narrative. But on a deeper level, Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds speaks as powerfully about our capacity to care for others as it does about the strength of our will to live. This rich and rewarding book will linger in your mind long after you turn the last page.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Book Club Edition. Whether its Michael Moore or the New York Times, Hollywood or academia, a growing segment in America is waging a war on capitalism. We hear that greedy plutocrats exploit the American public; that capitalism harms consumers, the working class, and the environment; that the government needs to rein in capitalism; and on and on. Anticapitalist critiques have only grown more fevered in the wake of corporate scandals like Enron and WorldCom. Indeed, the 2004 presidential campaign has brought frequent calls to re-regulate the American economy.But the anticapitalist arguments are pure bunk, as Thomas J. DiLorenzo reveals in How Capitalism Saved America. DiLorenzo, a professor of economics, shows how capitalism has made America the most prosperous nation on earth-and how the sort of government regulation that politicians and pundits endorse has hindered economic growth, caused higher unemployment, raised prices, and created many other problems. He propels the reader along with a fresh and compelling look at critical events in American history-covering everything from the Pilgrims to Bill Gates.And just as he did in his last book, The Real Lincoln, DiLorenzo explodes numerous myths that have become conventional wisdom. How Capitalism Saved America reveals: How the introduction of a capitalist system saved the Pilgrims from starvation How the American Revolution was in large part a revolt against Britains stifling economic controls How the so-called robber barons actually improved the lives of millions of Americans by providing newer and better products at lower prices How the New Deal made the Great Depression worse How deregulation got this country out of the energy crisis of the 1970s-and was not the cause of recent blackouts in California and the Northeast And much moreHow Capitalism Saved America is popular history at its explosive best.

Softcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Book by Melvin H. Smith.