ISBN: 0307463907

 
Author: Frank Brady

Endgame is acclaimed biographer Frank Brady’s decades-in-the-making tracing of the meteoric ascent—and confounding descent—of enigmatic genius Bobby Fischer.  Only Brady, who met Fischer when the prodigy was only 10 and shared with him some of his most dramatic triumphs, could have written this book, which has much to say about the nature of American celebrity and the distorting effects of fame.  Drawing from Fischer family archives, recently released FBI files, and Bobby’s own emails, this account is unique in that it limns Fischer’s entire life—an odyssey that took the Brooklyn-raised chess champion from an impoverished childhood to the covers of Time, Life and Newsweek to recognition as “the most famous man in the world” to notorious recluse.
 
At first all one noticed was how gifted Fischer was.  Possessing a 181 I.Q. and remarkable powers of concentration, Bobby memorized hundreds of chess books in several languages, and he was only 13 when he became the youngest chess master in U.S. history.   But his strange behavior started early.  In 1972, at the historic Cold War showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he faced Soviet champion Boris Spassky, Fischer made headlines with hundreds of petty demands that nearly ended the competition.
 
It was merely a prelude to what was to come.
 
Arriving back in the United States to a hero’s welcome, Bobby was mobbed wherever he went—a figure as exotic and improbable as any American pop culture had yet produced.  No player of a mere “board game” had ever ascended to such heights.  Commercial sponsorship offers poured in, ultimately topping $10 million—but Bobby demurred.  Instead, he began tithing his limited money to an apocalyptic religion and devouring anti-Semitic literature. 
 
After years of poverty and a stint living on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, Bobby remerged in 1992 to play Spassky in a multi-million dollar rematch—but the experience only deepened a paranoia that had formed years earlier when he came to believe that the Soviets wanted him dead for taking away “their” title.  When the dust settled, Bobby was a wanted man—transformed into an international fugitive because of his decision to play in Montenegro despite U.S. sanctions.  Fearing for his life, traveling with bodyguards, and wearing a long leather coat to ward off knife attacks, Bobby lived the life of a celebrity fugitive – one drawn increasingly to the bizarre.  Mafiosi, Nazis, odd attempts to breed an heir who could perpetuate his chess-genius DNA—all are woven into his late-life tapestry.
 
And yet, as Brady shows, the most notable irony of Bobby Fischer’s strange descent – which had reached full plummet by 2005 when he turned down yet another multi-million dollar payday—is that despite his incomprehensible behavior, there were many who remained fiercely loyal to him.  Why that was so is at least partly the subject of this book—one that at last answers the question: “Who was Bobby Fischer?”

Pages: 416	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown	Year: 2011

ISBN: 031603620X

 
Author: James Patterson

In the seventh book in the bestselling series, evil scientists are still trying to convince Max that she needs to save the world, this time by providing the genetic link in speeding up the pace of evolution. Worse, they’re trying to convince her that her perfect mate is Dylan, the newest addition to the flock. The problem is that, despite herself, Max is starting to believe it.

Fang travels the country collecting his own gang of evolved humans, but the two separate flocks must unite to defeat a frightening doomsday cult whose motto is Save the Planet: Kill the Humans. And this time, the true heroine, for once, might just be little Angel.

Pages: 320	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0805093435

 
Author: Ben Ryder Howe

This warm and funny tale of an earnest preppy editor finding himself trapped behind the counter of a Brooklyn convenience store is about family, culture and identity in an age of discombobulation.

It starts with a gift, when Ben Ryder Howe’s wife, the daughter of Korean immigrants, decides to repay her parents’ self-sacrifice by buying them a store. Howe, an editor at the rarefied Paris Review, agrees to go along. Things soon become a lot more complicated. After the business struggles, Howe finds himself living in the basement of his in-laws’ Staten Island home, commuting to the Paris Review offices in George Plimpton’s Upper East Side townhouse by day, and heading to Brooklyn at night to slice cold cuts and peddle lottery tickets. My Korean Deli follows the store’s tumultuous life span, and along the way paints the portrait of an extremely unlikely partnership between characters with shoots across society, from the Brooklyn streets to Seoul to Puritan New England. Owning the deli becomes a transformative experience for everyone involved as they struggle to salvage the original gift—and the family—while sorting out issues of values, work, and identity.

ISBN: 006123883X

 
Author: Patricia Wells

Product Description
Culinary legend Patricia Wells is back with the definitive guide to creating delicious and hearty salads for any occasion—including more than 150 recipes and gorgeous color photographs.

It’s a simple yet compelling concept: enjoying a light and delicious main-course salad as a healthy, fresh alternative to more conventional and traditional fare. You can experience a whole world in a salad—with tender greens, savory meat, seafood, and vegetable accompaniments, and versatile dressings—and salad-friendly sides such as homemade bread and home-cured olives. In Salad As A Meal, Patricia Wells gives readers hundreds of delectable ideas, with concepts inspired by her Provencal garden and the interests of students in her high-demand cooking classes. Patricia knows how we want to eat today—and shows us with these exceptional recipes, including:

• Spring Salad: Asparagus, Peas, Beans, and Fennel
• Summer Salad: Green Beans, Toasted Nuts, and Cured Olives
• Provence on a Plate: Eggplant, Tomatoes, Goat Cheese, and Tapenade
• Zucchini Blossom Frittata with Goat Cheese and Mint
• Quinoa Salad with Spinach, Parsley, and Spring Onions
• Chicken and Soba Noodles with Ginger-Peanut Sauce
• Lobster Salad with Green Beans, Apple, and Avocado

Patricia also offers recipes for soup sides, from Cilantro-Flecked Heirloom Tomato Soup to Watercress Soup with Warm Oysters, as well as breads of all kinds, including Crispy Flatbread, Tortilla Chips, Ham and Cheese Bread, and Multigrain Sourdough Bread. Plus, a list of Patricia’s favorite pantry items and an entire chapter devoted to dressings and sauces will inspire readers to come up with their own unique salad creations with ingredients in season and on hand.

From Salad as a Meal: Cobb Salad
Robert H. Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, is said to have invented this salad in the 1930s as a late-night snack for himself. No wonder it has remained an American classic. With the crunch of the iceberg and onions, the soft richness of the avocado, the saltiness of the bacon, the sweetness of the tomato, and the bite of the blue cheese, this salad has it all! And it is beautiful to boot.

4 servings

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 ounces smoked bacon, rind removed, cut into matchsticks (3/4 cup)
• 1 head iceberg lettuce, chopped (4 cups)
• 2 ripe heirloom tomatoes, cored, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 1 large ripe avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, and cubed
• 4 ounces chilled blue cheese (preferably Roquefort), crumbled (1 cup)
• 4 small spring onions or scallions, white part only, trimmed, peeled, and cut into thin rounds
• Yogurt and Lemon Dressing (page 331)
• Coarse, freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a large, dry skillet, brown the bacon over moderate heat until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to several layers of paper towels to absorb the fat. Blot the top of the bacon with several layers of paper towels to absorb any additional fat. Set aside.

2. In a large, shallow bowl, combine the bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and spring onions. Toss with just enough dressing to lightly and evenly coat the ingredients. Season generously with pepper, and serve.

Wine Suggestion: This is a special salad, one that seems to hit the spot with all my guests, so let’s open a nice, special bottle of smoky- style Alsatian Riesling from the house of Léon Beyer, Trimbach, or Hugel. Neither you nor your guests will be disappointed.

From Salad as a Meal: Lobster Salad with Green Beans, Apple, and Avocado
I first sampled a version of this light and lively salad as a meal at chef Yves Camdeborde’s Le Comptoir in Paris’s 6th arrondissement. Yves and I participated in the New York marathon in 2006, and I am sure that the strength gained from this protein-rich salad helped me make it to the finish line! This dish has it all: color (the red bits are lobster roe), crunch, and a light touch imparted by a dressing of yogurt and mustard.

4 servings

Equipment

• A 5-quart pasta pot fitted with a colander
• 4 large chilled dinner plates

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons coarse sea salt
• 10 ounces slim haricots verts (green beans), trimmed at both ends and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 cups)
• 1 cup Greek-style yogurt
• 1 tablespoon imported French mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 cup minced fresh chives
• 1 Granny Smith apple, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch cubes (do not peel)
• 1 large ripe avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 1 pound (2 cups) cooked lobster meat, cut into bite-sized pieces

Directions

1. Prepare a large bowl of ice water.

2. Fill the pasta pot with 3 quarts of water and bring it to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the coarse salt and the beans, and blanch until crisp-tender, 3 to 4 minutes. (Cooking time will vary according to the size and tenderness of the beans.) Immediately remove the colander from the water, letting the water drain from the beans. Plunge the beans into the ice water so they cool down as quickly as possible. (The beans will cool in 1 to 2 minutes. If you leave them longer, they will become soggy and begin to lose flavor.) Drain the beans and wrap them in a thick kitchen towel to dry. (Store the cooked beans in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours.)

3. In a large, shallow bowl, combine the yogurt, mustard, and fine salt and whisk to blend. Taste for seasoning. Add the green beans, chives, apple, avocado, and lobster. Toss to coat. Arrange on the plates and serve.

Wine Suggestion: A fine Chardonnay is in order here, such as a dependable Burgundy, like the well-priced and well-made Viré Clessé from the Cave de Viré, particularly their Cuvée Les Acacias, with its hints of fresh apples and honey.

Pages: 368	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks	Year: 2010

ISBN: 1606994387

 
Author: Charles M. Schulz

It’s 1980, Charlie Brown… and Peppermint Patty is wearing corn-rows! Plus, a strange romance…

Charles Schulz enters his fourth decade as the greatest cartoonist of his generation, and Peanuts remains as fresh and lively as it ever was.

(How do we know it’s 1980? Well, for one thing Peppermint Patty gets herself those Bo-Derek-in-10 cornrows — Peanuts’ timelessness occasionally shows a crack!)

That said, The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980 includes a number of classic storylines, including the month-long sequence in which an ill Charlie Brown is hospitalized (including a particularly spooky moment when he wonders if he’s died and nobody’s told him yet), and an especially eventful trek with Snoopy, Woodstock, and the scout troop (now including a little girl bird, Harriet). And Snoopy is still trying on identities left and right, including the “world-famous surveyor,” the “world-famous census taker,” and Blackjack Snoopy, the riverboat gambler.

In other extended stories, Snoopy launches an ill-fated airline (with Lucy as the agent, Linus as the luggage handler, and Marcie as what it was still OK then to call the stewardess)… Peppermint Patty responds to being leaked upon by a ceiling by hiring a lawyer (unfortunately, she again picks Snoopy)… plus one of the great, forgotten romances of Peanuts that will startle even long-time Peanuts connoisseurs: Peppermint Patty and…“Pig-Pen”?! 731 black-and-white comic strips

Pages: 344	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books	Year: 2011

ISBN: 141699792X

 
Author: Brandon Mull

Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable–until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he’s ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcmoed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.

In his search for a way home, Jason meets Rachel, who was also mysteriously drawn to Lyrian from our world. With the help of a few scattered rebels, Jason and Rachel become entangled in a quest to piece together the word of power that can destroy the emperor, and learn that their best hope to find a way home will be to save this world without heroes.

Pages: 464	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Aladdin	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0071756159

 
Author: Stephen Key

Turn your one simple idea into millions—without lifting a finger!

“Mr. Key’s brilliance, wisdom, and insight will make you rich. Buy this book!”
—Mark Victor Hansen, bestselling author and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series

“Stephen Key has written a book overflowing with the all-important information that inventors need: a step-by-step guide through everything that goes into a successful product introduction.”
—Gary Dahl, Pet Rock® inventor

“A terrific guide for anyone who wants to be a successful entrepreneur.”
—John Osher, innovation guru who created SpinBrush®, Stretch Armstrong®, Spin Pop®, and Quattro® Titanium Trimmer Razor

“Tired of working for corporate America? Tired of living paycheck to paycheck? One Simple Idea can teach you how to add a few zeros to your income. Buy this book and live your dreams now!”
—Kevin Harrington, infomercial king and featured investor on Mark Burnett’s Shark Tank

“Stephen Key turns conventional inventing ‘wisdom’ on its head and clearly outlines how anyone can earn a meaningful income with One Simple Idea.”
—Tamara Monosoff, founder of Mom Invented® and author of The Mom Inventors Handbook and Your Million Dollar Dream

“Whether you are a creator or a connector, this book will help you turn your ideas into a fulfilling, profitable career. Read it and WIN!”
—Patrick Lonergan, former vice president and general manager, Johnson & Johnson, and president/partner of NUMARK Laboratories, Inc.

About the Book:

For as long as you can remember, you’ve had a dream. You’ve longed to see your product idea come to fruition so you never have to work for anyone else again.

Stephen Key has been living this dream for 30 years. The developer of such lucrative products as Michael Jordan’s WallBall®, the Spinformation® rotating label, and HotPicks® guitar picks, he knows better than anyone how to make a great living as an entrepreneur. Key develops ideas for new products, licenses them out, collects royalty checks, and doesn’t look back. You can do it, too. All you need is One Simple Idea.

In this book, Key reveals the secrets that helped him and thousands of his students— including bestselling author Tim Ferriss—turn their creativity into a passive income generator by “renting” an idea to a company, which takes care of R&D, production, marketing, sales, accounting, distribution, and everything else you don’t want to do.

You’ll be amazed at how simple the process of licensing an idea for profit actually is. Key explains how to:

• Keep your ideas safe—without spending time and money on a patent
• Be your own boss—without formally opening a business
• See your product go to market—without footing a dime in expenses
• Make potentially big money—without quitting your day job

The age-old business assumption that ideas must come from within organizations has been shattered. From global corporations to small businesses, companies have become so confident in outside entrepreneurs that licensing is now a $500 billion industry. Businesses need “freelancers” like Key—and you—to provide creative, marketable ideas for new offerings.

With One Simple Idea, there’s no prototyping, no patents, and, best of all, no risk. You can make the system work for you—rather than the other way around.

ISBN: 0307717720

 
Author: Frank Calabrese Jr.

Operation Family Secrets is the chilling true story of how the son of the most violent mobster in Chicago made the unprecedented decision to work with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to incriminate his own father and to help bring down the last great American crime syndicate—the one-hundred-year-old Chicago Outfit.

The Calabrese family of Chicago is a close-knit, middle-class, multi-generational Italian-Irish-American clan. They operate family businesses. They work day and night striving for the American Dream. All three sons forge a bond with their controlling father, Frank Sr., and their soft-spoken favorite uncle, Nick. As a boy, the oldest son, Frank Jr., realizes that his father and uncle are also “made” members of another close-knit family: the outfit.
     In Operation Family Secrets Frank Calabrese, Jr., tells the turbulent tale of a family dominated by a violent patriarch who breaks a longstanding unwritten outfit code and “brings the street into his home” by enlisting two of his sons into the outfit’s 26th Street/Chinatown crew. Frank Jr. reveals for the first time the outfit’s “made” ceremony and describes being put to work alongside his father and uncle in loan sharking, gambling, labor racketeering, and extortion, and plotting the slaying of a fellow gangster, while they commit the bombing murder of a trucking executive, the gangland execution of two mobsters whose burial in an Indiana cornfield was reenacted in Martin Scorsese’s blockbuster film Casino, and numerous other hits.
     The Calabrese Crew’s colossal earnings and extreme ruthlessness make them both a dreaded criminal gang and the object of an intense FBi inquiry. Eventually Frank Jr., his father, and Uncle Nick are convicted on racketeering violations, and “Junior” and “Senior” are sent to the same federal penitentiary in Michigan. Upon arrival, Frank Jr. makes a life-changing decision: to go straight rather than agree to his father’s plans to resume crew activities after serving his sentence. But he needs to keep his father behind bars in order to regain control of his life and save his family. Frank Jr. makes a secret deal with prosecutors, and for six months—unmonitored and unprotected—he wears a wire as his father recounts decades of hideous crimes. Frank Jr.’s cooperation with the FBi for virtually no monetary gain or special privileges helps create the government’s “operation Family Secrets” campaign against the Chicago outfit. The case reopens eighteen unsolved murders and also implicates twelve La Cosa Nostra soldiers and two outfit bosses. it becomes one of the largest organized crime cases in U.S. history.
     Operation Family Secrets intimately portrays how organized crime rots a family from the inside out while detailing Frank Jr.’s deadly prison-yard mission, the FBi’s landmark investigation, and the U.S. attorney’s office’s daring prosecution of america’s most dangerous criminal organization.

Pages: 336	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Broadway	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0061845256

 
Author: Gail Levin

Lee Krasner is best known as the artist-wife of Jackson Pollock, the renowned abstract expressionist painter. Yet in this riveting new biography, the first full-length account of her colorful life, distinguished art historian Gail Levin challenges previous portrayals of Krasner, and shows that she was an independent and resourceful woman of uncompromising talent and prodigious energy. Krasner emerges as a significant artist who deserves her place in the twentieth century’s cultural lexicon and artistic pantheon.

The daughter of Jewish immigrants newly arrived from Russia, Krasner grew up impoverished in Brooklyn. With no support or role model, she began to make her own way during the late 1920s and early 1930s as a talented, outspoken artist and political progressive. Krasner’s contemporaries, who took notice of her remarkable sex appeal, drive, and ambition, were either captivated or threatened, but they all found her memorable. During the Great Depression, she supported herself painting murals for the WPA, was called a Trotskyite for speaking out at the Artists Union, and got arrested for demonstrating on behalf of workers’ rights.

In 1936 Krasner first encountered an intoxicated Jackson Pollock at an Artists Union dance. They met again by chance when both were about to be featured in the same group show in 1942, and soon they were a couple, marrying three years later. To nurture Pollock and his talent, Krasner gave up her life in the city, where she had socialized easily with fellow artists such as Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, and Piet Mondrian. Once they moved to Long Island’s rural East End, Krasner and Pollock became the center of a new avant-garde community. In this captivating book, Gail Levin probes Krasner’s relationship with Pollock, examining how this strong woman struggled to meet the challenges of their poverty, as well as her husband’s alcoholism and extramarital affairs, all the while encouraging his art. Levin uncovers never-before-told stories of how Krasner managed so skillfully to market Pollock’s work and how this eventually raised prices for all the abstract expressionists.

Drawing on new sources and numerous personal interviews—including with Krasner, whom Levin knew and interviewed during the last years of the artist’s life—Levin has written a dynamic, compelling, and moving portrait of a brilliant woman that recovers Krasner’s voice and allows us to see that her life intersected with and informed her art.

ISBN: 0061993158

 
Author: Alan Paul

The inspiring story of a man, a family, a band, a foreign country, and a new beginning

When Alan Paul’s wife was offered the job as the Wall Street Journal‘s China bureau chief, he saw it as an amazing opportunity to shake up their increasingly staid suburban New Jersey life. Excited and not a little scared, they packed up their three children—ages two, four, and seven—and headed for adventure and uncertainty in Beijing, China.

Based on his award-winning Wall Street Journal Online column, “The Expat Life,” Big in China explores Paul’s unlikely three-and-a-half-year journey of reinvention in this rapidly developing metropolis. He reveals the challenges that he and his family faced while living in a foreign land, including reaching beyond the expat community, coming to terms with his new role as a stay-at-home dad, and learning to navigate and thrive in an unfamiliar culture. By viewing an intimidating challenge as a golden opportunity rather than as a burden, he saw his world open up around him.

At the heart of the memoir is his time fronting Woodie Alan, a blues band he formed with a Chinese partner. The cross-cultural collaboration became an unlikely success. The band embarked on a tour across China, earning the title “Best Band in Beijing” and recording an acclaimed CD of original music sung in both English and Mandarin, which prompted ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons to say, “This is the best Chinese blues band I ever heard. Who knew?” Woodie Alan was symbolic of Paul’s entire China experience and?proof of what transpires when one can suspend preconceived notions and plunge into a new reality.

A testament to the transformative power of a life lived beyond comfortable borders, Big in China reminds us of the importance of always keeping our horizons wide and our thoughts ambitious.

ISBN: 1603201777

 
Author: Kostya Kennedy

Seventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to leftfield. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Starting that day, the vaunted Yankee centerfielder kept on hitting-at least one hit in game after game after game. In the summer of 1941, as Nazi forces moved relentlessly across Europe and young American men were drafted by the millions, it seemed only a matter of time before the U.S. went to war. The nation was apprehensive. Yet for two months in that tense summer, America was captivated by DiMaggio’s astonishing hitting streak. In 56, Kostya Kennedy tells the remarkable story of how the streak found its way into countless lives, from the Italian kitchens of Newark to the playgrounds of Queens to the San Francisco streets of North Beach; from the Oval Office of FDR to the Upper West Side apartment where Joe’s first wife, Dorothy, the movie starlet, was expecting a child. In this crisp, evocative narrative Joe DiMaggio emerges in a previously unseen light, a 26-year-old on the cusp of becoming an icon. He comes alive-a driven ballplayer, a mercurial star and a conflicted husband-as the tension and the scrutiny upon him build with each passing day. DiMaggio’s achievement lives on as the greatest of sports records. Alongside the story of DiMaggio’s dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.

Pages: 368	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Sports Illustrated	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0553801473

 
Author: George R.R. Martin

Dubbed “the American Tolkien” by Time magazine, George R. R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental cycle of epic fantasy. Now the #1 New York Times bestselling author delivers the fifth book in his spellbinding landmark series–as both familiar faces and surprising new forces vie for a foothold in a fragmented empire.

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance once again–beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has three times three thousand enemies, and many have set out to find her. Yet, as they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

To the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone–a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge yet. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

And from all corners, bitter conflicts soon reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all. . . .

Pages: 1008	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Bantam	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0307588688

 
Author: Kevin Poulsen

Former hacker Kevin Poulsen has, over the past decade, built a reputation as one of the top investigative reporters on the cybercrime beat. In Kingpin, he pours his unmatched access and expertise into book form for the first time, delivering a gripping cat-and-mouse narrative—and an unprecedented view into the twenty-first century’s signature form of organized crime.
 
The word spread through the hacking underground like some unstoppable new virus: Someone—some brilliant, audacious crook—had just staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network that siphoned billions of dollars from the US economy.
 
The FBI rushed to launch an ambitious undercover operation aimed at tracking down this new kingpin; other agencies around the world deployed dozens of moles and double agents. Together, the cybercops lured numerous unsuspecting hackers into their clutches. . . . Yet at every turn, their main quarry displayed an uncanny ability to sniff out their snitches and see through their plots.
 
The culprit they sought was the most unlikely of criminals: a brilliant programmer with a hippie ethic and a supervillain’s double identity. As prominent “white-hat” hacker Max “Vision” Butler, he was a celebrity throughout the programming world, even serving as a consultant to the FBI. But as the black-hat “Iceman,” he found in the world of data theft an irresistible opportunity to test his outsized abilities. He infiltrated thousands of computers around the country, sucking down millions of credit card numbers at will. He effortlessly hacked his fellow hackers, stealing their ill-gotten gains from under their noses. Together with a smooth-talking con artist, he ran a massive real-world crime ring.
 
And for years, he did it all with seeming impunity, even as countless rivals ran afoul of police.
 
Yet as he watched the fraudsters around him squabble, their ranks riddled with infiltrators, their methods inefficient, he began to see in their dysfunction the ultimate challenge: He would stage his coup and fix what was broken, run things as they should be run—even if it meant painting a bull’s-eye on his forehead.
 
Through the story of this criminal’s remarkable rise, and of law enforcement’s quest to track him down, Kingpin lays bare the workings of a silent crime wave still affecting millions of Americans. In these pages, we are ushered into vast online-fraud supermarkets stocked with credit card numbers, counterfeit checks, hacked bank accounts, dead drops, and fake passports. We learn the workings of the numerous hacks—browser exploits, phishing attacks, Trojan horses, and much more—these fraudsters use to ply their trade, and trace the complex routes by which they turn stolen data into millions of dollars. And thanks to Poulsen’s remarkable access to both cops and criminals, we step inside the quiet, desperate arms race that law enforcement continues to fight with these scammers today. 
 
Ultimately, Kingpin is a journey into an underworld of startling scope and power, one in which ordinary American teenagers work hand in hand with murderous Russian mobsters and where a simple Wi-Fi connection can unleash a torrent of gold worth millions.

Pages: 288	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown	Year: 2011

ISBN: 1401927580

 
Author: Richard Moss

ISBN: 0195336674

 
Author: Dmitri Tymoczko

How is the Beatles’ “Help!” similar to Stravinsky’s “Dance of the Adolescents?” How does Radiohead’s “Just” relate to the improvisations of Bill Evans? And how do Chopin’s works exploit the non-Euclidean geometry of musical chords?
In this groundbreaking work, author Dmitri Tymoczko describes a new framework for thinking about music that emphasizes the commonalities among styles from medieval polyphony to contemporary rock. Tymoczko identifies five basic musical features that jointly contribute to the sense of tonality, and shows how these features recur throughout the history of Western music. In the process he sheds new light on an age-old question: what makes music sound good?
A Geometry of Music provides an accessible introduction to Tymoczko’s revolutionary geometrical approach to music theory. The book shows how to construct simple diagrams representing relationships among familiar chords and scales, giving readers the tools to translate between the musical and visual realms and revealing surprising degrees of structure in otherwise hard-to-understand pieces.
Tymoczko uses this theoretical foundation to retell the history of Western music from the eleventh century to the present day. Arguing that traditional histories focus too narrowly on the “common practice” period from 1680-1850, he proposes instead that Western music comprises an extended common practice stretching from the late middle ages to the present. He discusses a host of familiar pieces by a wide range of composers, from Bach to the Beatles, Mozart to Miles Davis, and many in between.
A Geometry of Music is accessible to a range of readers, from undergraduate music majors to scientists and mathematicians with an interest in music. Defining its terms along the way, it presupposes no special mathematical background and only a basic familiarity with Western music theory. The book also contains exercises designed to reinforce and extend readers’ understanding, along with a series of appendices that explore the technical details of this exciting new theory.

Pages: 480	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA	Year: 2011

ISBN: 1591843790

 
Author: Guy Kawasaki

Enchantment, as defined by bestselling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes the skeptics and cynics into the believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it’s more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques.

Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions. For instance, enchantment is what enabled . . .

* A Peace Corps volunteer to finesse a potentially violent confrontation with armed guerrillas.
* A small cable channel (E!) to win the TV broadcast rights to radio superstar Howard Stern.??
* A seemingly crazy new running shoe (Vibram Five Fingers) to methodically build a passionate customer base.??
* A Canadian crystal maker (Nova Scotian Crystal) to turn observers into buyers.

This book explains all the tactics you need to prepare and launch an enchantment campaign; to get the most from both push and pull technologies; and to enchant your customers, your employees, and even your boss. It shows how enchantment can turn difficult decisions your way, at times when intangibles mean more than hard facts. It will help you overcome other people’s entrenched habits and defy the not-always-wise “wisdom of the crowd.”

Kawasaki’s lessons are drawn from his tenure at one of the most enchanting organizations of all time, Apple, as well as his decades of experience as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. There are few people in the world more qualified to teach you how to enchant people.

As Kawasaki writes, “Want to change the world? Change caterpillars into butterflies? This takes more than run-of-the-mill relationships. You need to convince people to dream the same dream that you do.” That’s a big goal, but one that’s possible for all of us.

Pages: 240	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover	Year: 2011

ISBN: 1439101213

 
Author: Andrew Ferguson

The cutthroat competition to get into the perfect college can drive students to the brink of madness and push their parents over the edge—and bury them in an avalanche of books that claim to hold the secret of success. Don’t worry: Crazy U is not one of those books. It is instead a disarmingly candid and hilariously subversive chronicle of the journey that millions of parents and their children undertake each year—a journey through the surreal rituals of college admissions. It’s a rollicking ride from the man Christopher Buckley has called “my all-time favorite writer.”

Pummeled by peers, creeped out by counselors, and addled by advice books, Andrew Ferguson has come to believe that a single misstep could cost his son a shot at a happy and fulfilling future. He feels the pressure to get it right from the moment the first color brochures land in his mailbox, sent from colleges soliciting customers as though they were sailors come to port.

First is a visit with the most sought-after, most expensive—and surely most intimidating—private college consultant in the nation. Then come the steps familiar to parents and their college-bound children, seen through a gimlet eye: a session with a distracted high school counselor, preparations for the SAT and an immersion in its mysteries, unhelpful help from essay coaches and admissions directors, endless campus tours, and finally, as spring arrives, the waiting, waiting, waiting for the envelope that bears news of the future.

Meanwhile, Ferguson passes on the tips he’s picked up during their crash course. (Tip number 36: Don’t apply for financial aid after midnight.) He provides a pocket history of higher education in America, recounts the college ranking wars, and casts light on the obscure and not-terribly-seemly world of higher-education marketing. And he dares to raise the question that no one (until now) has been able to answer: Why on earth does it all cost so much? Along the way, something unexpected begins to happen: a new relationship grows between father and son, built from humor, loyalty, and (yes) more than a little shared anxiety. For all its tips and trials, Crazy U is also a story about family. It turns out that the quiet boy who pretends not to be worried about college has lots to teach his father—about what matters in life, about trusting your instincts, about finding your own way. In launching his son into the world,

Pages: 240	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0470550910

 
Author: Monona Rossol

How the chemicals in everyday products are killing us—and what the government is not doing about it

Did you know that “nontoxic” usually means “never tested”? Or that many green cleaners are good for the environment but terrible for you? Chemist and activist Monona Rossol goes from under your sink to the halls of the powerful, tracing America’s love affair with chemicals that kill, explaining how much worse the problem has gotten in the last decade. Shocking and appalling and completely reckless—that’s how she describes the current prevalence of harmful chemicals in our everyday lives. Scientists have started linking our increased rates of cancer, autism, obesity, and asthma (among others) to chemical exposure and Rossol points the finger directly at the companies and executives making millions of dollars by polluting our environment and introducing toxic chemicals into our bodies. She chronicles how everyday toxins get into our bodies and accumulate over time and provides us with inspiration to make changes at the checkout lines. She also explains that Americans are not nearly as well protected by our government as we might think we are. Unlike the European Union, the United States allows chemical companies to produce toxins for use in U.S. consumer products with little to no oversight. While her tone is wry and entertaining, she’s also well informed, and her fact-filled treatise makes for absolutely terrifying reading.

• Includes surprising explanations about the chemicals in furniture, detergents, paints, makeup, toys, spray cleaners, ionic air purifiers, art supplies, and more
• Reveals how many eco-friendly products are good for the environment but bad for your health
• Exposes the truth about government regulations, product testing, and labeling, including why terms such as “nontoxic” (which often means “never tested”), “hypoallergenic,” and “FDA-approved” can be misleading
• Offers practical ways to reduce your exposure and protect yourself and your family

If you’re alarmed by the health risks of the many hazardous chemicals we encounter at home, work, and school, don’t get frightened, get informed. Read Pick Your Poison to learn the facts and find out what you can do about the daily onslaught of toxins that are making lab rats of us all.

ISBN: 0345518063

 
Author: Meg Meeker M.D.

The pressure on women today has pushed many American mothers to the breaking point. It feels as if “doing your best” is never enough to please everyone, and the demands mothers place on themselves are both impossible and unrealistic. Now Meg Meeker, M.D., critically acclaimed author of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, puts her twenty-five years’ experience as a practicing pediatrician and counselor into a sound, sane approach to reshaping the frustrating, exhausting lives of so many moms.  

Mothers are expected to do it all: raise superstar kids, look great, make good salaries, volunteer for everything, run errands, keep a perfect house, be the perfect wife. Single mothers often have even more demands—and less support. In this rallying cry for change, Dr. Meeker incorporates clinical data and her own experience raising four children to show why mothers suffer from the rising pressure to excel and the toll it takes on their emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual health. Too many mothers are increasingly lonely, anxious, depressed, and unhappy with themselves, refusing to let themselves off the hook. Here, Dr. Meeker has identified the 10 most positive habits of mothers who are healthy, happy, and fulfilled. The key is to embrace a new perspective and create real joy and purpose by utilizing such core habits as
 
• making friends with those who know the meaning of friendship
• finding out what money can buy (and what it cannot)
• lightening the overload—and doing less more often
• discovering faith and learning how to trust it
• taking some alone time and reviving yourself
 
Mothers, it’s time to view the unconditional trust that you see in your children’s eyes when they take your hand or find your face in a crowd as a mirror of your own wonder and worth. You are the light that shines in their lives, the beacon that guides them. By implementing the key strategies in Dr. Meeker’s book, you can be happy, hopeful, and a wonderful role model. You can teach your children to be the very best they can be—and isn’t that still the most precious reward of motherhood?

Pages: 240	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Ballantine Books	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0071760393

 
Author: Steven Rosenbaum

Business Leaders Are Buzzing About Curation Nation

“An indispensible guide to the brave new media world.”
—Arianna Huffington, editor in chief, the Huffington Post

“Gives me hope for the future of the Information Age. Rosenbaum argues for the growing importance of people—creative, smart, hip—who can spot trends, find patterns, and make meaning out of the flood of data that threatens to overwhelm us.”
—Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of Drive

“A testament to the strategic mind of a genius and a road map for developing engaging consumer experiences by curating content around your brand.”
—Bonin Bough, Global Director, Digital and Social Media, PepsiCo

“Perfectly on-trend—an insightful guide to the future. So entertaining you won’t put it down.”
—Chris Meyer, author of Blur

“Read this book. Embrace curation, and you’ll be ready to ‘crush it’ with focus and passion in the noisy new world of massive data overload.”
—Gary Vaynerchuk, New York Times bestselling author of Crush It

“Provides a wealth of real-world examples of how businesses can use the Web to give their customers a valuable curated experience.”
—Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com, and New York Times bestselling author of Delivering Happiness

“Our best hope for sorting the good from the mediocre in our increasingly overwhelming media landscape.”
—Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus and Here Comes Everybody

About the Book:

Let’s face it, we’re drowning in data. Our inboxes are flooded with spam, we have too many “friends” on Facebook, and our Twitter accounts have become downright unmanageable. Creating content is easy; finding what matters is hard.

Fortunately, there is a new magic that makes the Web work. It’s called curation, and it enables people to sort through the digital excess and find what’s relevant.

In Curation Nation, Steven Rosenbaum reveals why brands, publishers, and content entrepreneurs must embrace aggregation and curation to grow an existing business or launch a new one. In fact, he asserts that curation is the only way to be competitive in the future.

Overwhelmed by too much content, people are hungry for an experience that both takes advantage of the Web’s breadth and depth and provides a measure of human sorting and filtering that search engines simply can’t achieve. In these shifting sands lies an extraordinary business opportunity: you can become a trusted source of value in an otherwise meaningless chaos of digital noise.

In Curation Nation, Rosenbaum “curates the curators” by gathering together priceless insight and advice from the top thinkers in media, advertising, publishing, commerce, and Web technologies. This groundbreaking book levels the playing field, giving your business equal access to the content abundance presently driving consumer adoption of the Web.

As the sheer volume of digital information in the world increases, the demand for quality and context becomes more urgent. Curation will soon be a part of your business and your digital world. Understand it now, join in early, and reap the many benefits Curation Nation has to offer.

Learn more at CurationNation.org.