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: 1400052181

 
Author: Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? 
          
Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

Pages: 400	Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Broadway	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0199753784

 
Author: Barry Eichengreen

For more than half a century, the U.S. dollar has been not just America’s currency but the world’s. It is used globally by importers, exporters, investors, governments and central banks alike. Nearly three-quarters of all $100 bills circulate outside the United States. The dollar holdings of the Chinese government alone come to more than $1,000 per Chinese resident.

This dependence on dollars, by banks, corporations and governments around the world, is a source of strength for the United States. It is, as a critic of U.S. policies once put it, America’s “exorbitant privilege.” However, recent events have raised concerns that this soon may be a privilege lost. Among these have been the effects of the financial crisis and the Great Recession: high unemployment, record federal deficits, and financial distress. In addition there is the rise of challengers like the euro and China’s renminbi. Some say that the dollar may soon cease to be the world’s standard currency–which would depress American living standards and weaken the country’s international influence.

In Exorbitant Privilege, one of our foremost economists, Barry Eichengreen, traces the rise of the dollar to international prominence over the course of the 20th century. He shows how the greenback dominated internationally in the second half of the century for the same reasons–and in the same way–that the United States dominated the global economy. But now, with the rise of China, India, Brazil and other emerging economies, America no longer towers over the global economy. It follows, Eichengreen argues, that the dollar will not be as dominant. But this does not mean that the coming changes will necessarily be sudden and dire–or that the dollar is doomed to lose its international status. Challenging the presumption that there is room for only one true global currency–either the dollar or something else–Eichengreen shows that several currencies have shared this international role over long periods. What was true in the distant past will be true, once again, in the not-too-distant future.

The dollar will lose its international currency status, Eichengreen warns, only if the United States repeats the mistakes that led to the financial crisis and only if it fails to put its fiscal and financial house in order. The greenback’s fate hinges, in other words, not on the actions of the Chinese government but on economic policy decisions here in the United States.

Incisive, challenging and iconoclastic, Exorbitant Privilege is a fascinating analysis of the changes that lie ahead. It is a challenge, equally, to those who warn that the dollar is doomed and to those who regard its continuing dominance as inevitable.

Pages: 224	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA	Year: 2011

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: 476	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0762761350

 
Author: Woodall’s Publications Corp.

ISBN: 0385343736

 
Author: Kurt Vonnegut

Foreword by Dave Eggers

Smart, whimsical, and often scathing, the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut influenced a generation of American writers—including Dave Eggers, author of this volume’s Foreword. In these previously unpublished gems, Vonnegut’s originality infuses a unique landscape of factories, trailers, and bars—and characters who pit their dreams and fears against a cruel and sometimes comically indifferent world.

Here are stories of men and machines, art and artifice, and how ideals of fortune, fame, and love take curious twists in ordinary lives. An ambitious builder of roads, commanding an army of bulldozers, graders, and asphalt spreaders, fritters away his free time with miniature trains—until the women in his life crash his fantasy land. Trapped in a stenography pool, a young dreamer receives a call from a robber on the run, who presents her with a strange proposition. A crusty newspaperman is forced onto a committee to judge Christmas displays—a job that leads him to a suspiciously ostentatious ex-con and then a miracle. A hog farmer’s widow receives cryptic, unsolicited letters from a man in Schenectady about “the indefinable sweet aches of the spirit.” But what will she find when she goes to meet him in the flesh?

These beautifully rendered works are a testament to Vonnegut’s unique blend of observation and imagination. Like a present left behind by a departed loved one, While Mortals Sleep bestows upon us a shimmering Kurt Vonnegut gift: a poignant reflection of our world as it is and as it could be.

Pages: 272	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Delacorte Press	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0061711527

 
Author: Peggy Orenstein

The acclaimed author of the groundbreaking bestseller Schoolgirls reveals the dark side of pink and pretty: the rise of the girlie-girl, she warns, is not that innocent.

Pink and pretty or predatory and hardened, sexualized girlhood influences our daughters from infancy onward, telling them that how a girl looks matters more than who she is. Somewhere between the exhilarating rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and today, the pursuit of physical perfection has been recast as a source—the source—of female empowerment. And commercialization has spread the message faster and farther, reaching girls at ever-younger ages.

But, realistically, how many times can you say no when your daughter begs for a pint-size wedding gown or the latest Hannah Montana CD? And how dangerous is pink and pretty anyway—especially given girls’ successes in the classroom and on the playing field? Being a princess is just make-believe, after all; eventually they grow out of it. Or do they? Does playing Cinderella shield girls from early sexualization—or prime them for it? Could today’s little princess become tomorrow’s sexting teen? And what if she does? Would that make her in charge of her sexuality—or an unwitting captive to it?

Those questions hit home with Peggy Orenstein, so she went sleuthing. She visited Disneyland and the international toy fair, trolled American Girl Place and Pottery Barn Kids, and met beauty pageant parents with preschoolers tricked out like Vegas showgirls. She dissected the science, created an online avatar, and parsed the original fairy tales. The stakes turn out to be higher than she—or we—ever imagined: nothing less than the health, development, and futures of our girls. From premature sexualization to the risk of depression to rising rates of narcissism, the potential negative impact of this new girlie-girl culture is undeniable—yet armed with awareness and recognition, parents can effectively counterbalance its influence in their daughters’ lives.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter is a must-read for anyone who cares about girls, and for parents helping their daughters navigate the rocky road to adulthood.

ISBN: 0470930225

 
Author: Andrew Liveris

America used to define itself by the things it built. We designed and produced the world’s most important innovations, and in doing so, created a vibrant manufacturing sector that built the middle class. We manufactured our way to the top and became the undisputed economic leader among all nations. But over the last several decades, and especially in the last ten years, the sector that was America’s great pride has eroded, costing millions of jobs and putting our long-term prosperity at risk. Now, as we struggle to recover from the worst recession in generations, our only chance to turn things around is to revive the American manufacturing sector—and to revolutionize it. In MAKE IT IN AMERICA: The Case for Reinventing the Economy, Andrew Liveris — Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company—offers a thoughtful and passionate argument that America’s future economic growth and prosperity depends on the strength of its manufacturing sector. The book

• Explains how a manufacturing sector creates economic value at a scale unmatched by any other, and how central the sector is to creating jobs both inside and outside the factory.
• Explores how other nations are building their manufacturing sectors to stay competitive in the global economy, and describes how America has failed to keep up.
• Provides an aggressive, practical and comprehensive agenda that will put the U.S. back on track to lead the world.

It’s time to stop accepting as inevitable the shuttering of factories and staggering job losses that have come to define manufacturing. It’s time to acknowledge the cost of inaction. There is no better company to make the case for reviving U.S. manufacturing than the Michigan-based The Dow Chemical Company, one of the world’s largest manufacturers and one of its most global corporations. And there’s no better book to show why it needs to be done and how to do it than MAKE IT IN AMERICA.

Andrew Liveris is Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, one of the largest multinational corporations in the world and a leader in science and technology.

Q&A with Author Andrew Liveris

What is the biggest factor to explain the dramatic loss of U.S. manufacturing sector jobs that began in the 1970s?

Author Michael Burchell

There are a lot of reasons that the U.S. manufacturing sector has lost jobs over the last four decades, but they boil down to this. The world changed, and our policy approach did not change with it.

Think back to the years right after World War II. When it came to economic competitiveness, the United States was the only game in town. But after that, the European economies and Japan, with our help, came back robustly ? both with a strong orientation to manufacturing and quality. Next came the Asian Tigers, followed by Brazil, China, India, and Russia ? the so-called ?BRIC? countries. Other, smaller economies emerged as well.

All of these nations were, and still are, are asking themselves the same thing. ?How can we create jobs? How can we grow our manufacturing base?? And they?re doing everything they can to compete ? tax holidays, low-cost loans, you name it.

Meanwhile, the United States has stood still. We?re still the world?s largest economy, but every day, we are losing ground. Unless American policymakers improve the business climate by addressing everything from taxes to R&D to education reform, the decline of American manufacturing is inevitable and irreversible.

I believe the world is entering a golden age of manufacturing, based in no small part on American innovation and technology. Jobs will be created. Value will be created. The question is, will they be created here or someplace else?

Are there pros to the American economy shifting from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy?
Frankly, no. Manufacturing creates jobs in a way that the service sector simply cannot. A new manufacturing facility supports an entire value chain ? demand for raw materials, construction, energy, supplies and services.

For too many Americans, the word ?manufacturing? has an old-fashioned ring to it. They think of it as a thing of the past. To them, manufacturing means lost jobs, closed factories, and a struggling middle class.

But here?s the truth about manufacturing in the United States. The workforce in this country contains 150 million people, and they can?t all be employed in the service sector. Manufacturing ? and only manufacturing ? can create the multiplier effect that is necessary if we?re going to have anything approaching full employment.

We have to stop pretending that a ?service-based? economy is a viable option. The consequences would be massive unemployment, even greater income inequality, and the gradual obsolescence of our entire economy. I?m not saying that there isn?t a place for service industries, because there absolutely is. But we need to have balance in the economy, and right now, our balance is dangerously off.

Where can the U.S. manufacturing industry look for inspiration right now?
All across the world. I have been in manufacturing for 35 years, and this is absolutely the most exciting time I have ever seen for manufacturing globally. That is why I call this a ?golden age.? The manufacturing sector is rapidly evolving, advancing, before our eyes. It is stunning to watch it unfold.

Look at any of the world?s great challenges, and manufacturing is central to the solution. The world needs semiconductors and microprocessors; wind turbines and solar cells; advanced batteries and state-of-the-art medical devices. Manufacturers make these things, and these things, in turn, will remake our future.

But unless we act, these innovations will be built somewhere else. Other countries are already out-competing the U.S. Take Germany–an excellent example of a high-wage country that has revived its advanced-manufacturing sector. In 1998, Germany had a trade deficit of $5.9 billion. By 2008 it had a trade surplus of $267.1 billion. That?s no accident. The German government invested in advanced manufacturing, and those investments are paying off.

Germany is investing in industries of the future, such as renewable energy, and that puts them in a great position to stay competitive into the future. So the German success story should be both an inspiration and a call to action. U.S. policymakers ignore it at their–and our–peril.

Is your sense that the U.S. government could be doing more to help stimulate the manufacturing sector in the U.S.?
Absolutely. As a businessman, I have great faith in the wisdom of markets. But I recognize that markets cannot replace the long-term strategic framework that only governments can build.

Other countries are out there competing for the same jobs, the same dollars, the same economic growth that we are. Our nation?and especially our government ?must get serious about rising to that challenge. It?s not often that you hear a CEO call for more government action, but my belief is anchored in a basic premise: in order to stay competitive, we need to reinvent the manufacturing sector in the U.S. And for that we need government as a partner.

Make It in America proposes a number of steps the federal government can take to restore American manufacturing?a comprehensive advanced manufacturing policy that would address everything from high corporate tax rates to contradictory regulations to failing schools. Neither the business community nor the government can do these things alone?we need to work together in the best interests of our nation?s economy.

We need to act more boldly than in the past. Take the example of education. Advanced manufacturing jobs require much more education than traditional manufacturing jobs, especially in science, technology, engineering and math. In those fields, the U.S. lags behind our competitors?and it costs us badly. According to McKinsey, the achievement gap between the U.S. and its high-performing competitors cost us $1 to $2 trillion in 2008 alone. If we want to keep our economy growing, we need to reform our education system.

A lot of people see the government as an adversary to business, but when we think about areas like education or R&D investment, it?s clear that is not the case. I see government as an essential partner. I believe the way of the future in this country is in public private partnerships so that we can build the new U.S. economy in a deliberate manner. We need the framework for investors and entrepreneurs to become more certain instead of suffering from the volatility and unpredictability of policies that operate on two-, four- and six-year cycles.

What do you hope will change by your writing this book?
The goal of Make It in America is to change the conversation about the manufacturing sector, to change how the citizen on the street sees and perceives the sector; that manufacturing is not a dinosaur, but a vital part of the U.S. economy. One might say to enable the U.S. economy. We need to change the perception, and make people aware of this when they vote for policies and politicians.

The world has changed, and unless our economic policies change with it, this country will experience a massive long-term economic crisis. High unemployment will become the rule, rather than the exception. The middle class will be, for all intents and purpose, obsolete. And time is running out, because our competitor nations aren?t waiting around to see which direction we?re going to choose. We have to make the right choices, and we have to make them before it?s too late.

That sounds pretty bleak, but to be honest, if I thought decline was inevitable, the book would never have been written. At the end of the day, I am an optimist. Americans have always adapted to the new and often unpredictable challenges of their time, and I believe we will adapt to this one as well.

So I think our leaders?in business and in government?will make the decisions they need to make. They will help usher in a golden age of American manufacturing and we will see the rebirth of a vital American sector. It is not hard to imagine a day when the world?s great inventions aren?t just created here, but are produced here as well. And put people to work here again.

My hope is that Make It in America will bring that day a little bit closer.

ISBN: 1400202078

 
Author: John MacArthur

Best-selling author and pastor Dr. John MacArthur reveals one crucial word that revolutionizes what it means to follow Jesus.

Throughout the Bible, followers of Jesus are commanded to submit to Him as their King. They are told to obey and follow, faithfully and without hesitation. Every time Christians utter the word Lord, they make a subtle yet profound declaration-that God is their Master and that they belong to Him. In fact, the Bible describes believers as His slaves. They have been bought with a price and now live for Christ as a people for His own possession.

But go into most churches today, even flip through most Bible translations, and you won’t see or hear the word slave anywhere. That’s because it has been lost in translation. In this gripping book, Dr. John MacArthur uses deep Bible teaching and historical evaluation to expertly uncover the one forgotten word that restores the Bible’s definition of true Christian freedom.

What does it mean to be a Christian the way Jesus defined it? MacArthur says it all boils down to one word: Slave. “We have been bought with a price. We belong to Christ. We are His own possession.”

Endorsements:

“Dr. John MacArthur is never afraid to tell the truth and in this book he does just that. The Christian’s great privilege is to be the slave of Christ. Dr. MacArthur makes it clear that this is one of the Bible’s most succinct ways of describing our discipleship. This is a powerful exposition of Scripture, a convincing corrective to shallow Christianity, a masterful work of pastoral encouragement…a devotional classic.”  - Dr. R. Albert Mohler, President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“John MacArthur expertly and lucidly explains that Jesus frees us from bondage into a royal slavery that we might be His possession. Those who would be His children must, paradoxically, be willing to be His slaves.”  - Dr. R.C. Sproul

“Dr. John MacArthur’s teaching on ‘slavery’ resonates in the deepest recesses of my ‘inner-man.’ As an African-American pastor, I have been there. That is why the thought of someone writing about slavery as being a ‘God-send’ was the most ludicrous, unconscionable thing that I could have ever imagined…until I read this book. Now I see that becoming a slave is a biblical command, completely redefining the idea of freedom in Christ. I don’t want to simply be a ‘follower’ or even just a ‘servant’…but a ‘slave’.”  - The Rev. Dr. Dallas H. Wilson,  Jr., Vicar, St. John’s Episcopal Chapel, Charleston, SC

ISBN: 0762761350

 
Author: Woodall’s Publications Corp.

ISBN: 1451625510

 
Author: Glenn Beck

Radio and television host Glenn Beck has experienced the rollercoaster of life like few others.  From the suicide of his mother when he was just thirteen, to his eventual alcoholism, depression, divorce, unemployment, and health scares—Glenn has weathered life’s darkest storms.

Any one of those struggles could’ve ruined him, yet Glenn was able to keep moving forward.  He saw past the darkness into the light; past his grief and addictions and into what his life could be.

YOU CAN DO IT TOO

The process of finding happiness through personal redemption was not easy, but it left Glenn with a blueprint for how to confront future adversity.  Glenn is living proof that these steps—he calls them wonders—don’t just work on paper.  They helped transform his life and can they can help to transform yours as well.  

THE 7 WONDERS

Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow—two of the most popular and influential personalities in American media today—have joined forces to present a powerful guide to personal transformation and fulfillment that is as unique as their own unlikely partnership.  They are called the “7 Wonders” and they can be used by anyone who has made the decision that they are ready to change their life.

After the television talk show host and the bestselling psychiatrist struck up a fast friendship they realized that their experiences with life’s struggles were complementary.  What Keith had studied, Glenn had lived.  What Keith had counseled patients on for years, Glenn had suffered through for decades.

The deeply personal insights they shared brought them to realize that their life stories had seven key principles in common; seven wonders that seemed to be essential ingredients for anyone attempting to transform their life. 

Where does the courage to persevere come from when everything seems hopeless? Why is it nearly impossible to succeed with faith?  How much do family and friendships matter in our journey? How do we break down our walls and reveal our inner truths? What does having compassion really mean? How do you tell real friends apart from those who are holding you back? If there’s no one to blame for my past, what do you do with your anger and resentment?

These kinds of questions are the starting point toward fundamentally changing how you view past damaging relationships, toward breaking the debilitating grip of addiction and depression, toward injecting life with new meaning and purpose and toward helping you embark on a new journey based on hope, strength, and personal empowerment.

As you unwrap each of the seven wonders for yourself, you’ll discover exactly what Glenn Beck found as he transformed his own life from darkness to light, from dead ends to endless possibilities, from addiction to freedom: it doesn’t take a superhero to find the strength to change—it just takes the courage to take the first step. 

This book, which was only possible by combining together decades of personal struggle with world-class professional experience, can be that first step for you.

The 7 Wonders grows out of a unique friendship that we’ve developed over the last five-years. It is unique because it brought together a psychiatrist who naturally burrows toward the truth, and a recovering addict who spent decades running from it.

As we spent more time together we began to let our guards down.  Over time we reached a level of honesty with each other that is rare.  As a result, we learned that the principles that have guided the well-honed healing techniques of one of us are precisely the same principles that instinctively guided the other to replace nearly unbearable pain with genuine happiness.

We believe that it was God’s plan for us to meet; that it was God’s plan for us to speak so openly with one another; and it was God’s plan that we share with you the seven wonders we discovered together.

We also firmly believe that it was God’s plan that this book now finds you at this exact moment in your life.

 —Glenn Beck & Dr. Keith Ablow

Pages: 304	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Threshold Editions	Year: 2011

ISBN: 1439177783

 
Author: Portia de Rossi

?I didn?t decide to become anorexic. It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Being as thin as possible was a way to make the job of being an actress easier . . .?

Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role. This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work?first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying.

In this searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and body image take priority over every other human impulse or action. She recounts the elaborate rituals around eating that came to dominate hours of every day, from keeping her daily calorie intake below 300 to eating precisely measured amounts of food out of specific bowls and only with certain utensils. When this wasn?t enough, she resorted to purging and compulsive physical exercise, driving her body and spirit to the breaking point.

Even as she rose to fame as a cast member of the hit television shows Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, Portia alternately starved herself and binged, all the while terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. She reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, a sense of isolation that was only magnified by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner. With the storytelling skills of a great novelist and the eye for detail of a poet, Portia makes transparent as never before the behaviors and emotions of someone living with an eating disorder.

From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to a life of health and honesty, falling in love with and eventually marrying Ellen DeGeneres, and emerging as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and women?s health issues.

In this remarkable and beautifully written work, Portia shines a bright light on a dark subject. A crucial book for all those who might sometimes feel at war with themselves or their bodies, Unbearable Lightness is a story that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit.

ISBN: 0684868547

 
Author: Pauline Maier

When the delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, the new Constitution they had written was no more than a proposal. Elected conventions in at least nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify it before it could take effect. There was reason to doubt whether that would happen. The document we revere today as the foundation of our country?s laws, the cornerstone of our legal system, was hotly disputed at the time. Some Americans denounced the Constitution for threatening the liberty that Americans had won at great cost in the Revolutionary War. One group of fiercely patriotic opponents even burned the document in a raucous public demonstration on the Fourth of July.

In this splendid new history, Pauline Maier tells the dramatic story of the yearlong battle over ratification that brought such famous founders as Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and Henry together with less well-known Americans who sometimes eloquently and always passionately expressed their hopes and fears for their new country. Men argued in taverns and coffeehouses; women joined the debate in their parlors; broadsides and newspaper stories advocated various points of view and excoriated others. In small towns and counties across the country people read the document carefully and knew it well. Americans seized the opportunity to play a role in shaping the new nation. Then the ratifying conventions chosen by “We the People” scrutinized and debated the Constitution clause by clause.

Although many books have been written about the Constitutional Convention, this is the first major history of ratification. It draws on a vast new collection of documents and tells the story with masterful attention to detail in a dynamic narrative. Each state?s experience was different, and Maier gives each its due even as she focuses on the four critical states of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York, whose approval of the Constitution was crucial to its success.

The New Yorker Gilbert Livingston called his participation in the ratification convention the greatest transaction of his life. The hundreds of delegates to the ratifying conventions took their responsibility seriously, and their careful inspection of the Constitution can tell us much today about a document whose meaning continues to be subject to interpretation. Ratification is the story of the founding drama of our nation, superbly told in a history that transports readers back more than two centuries to reveal the convictions and aspirations on which our country was built.

ISBN: 1439176701

 
Author: Tamar Geller

Long known as a dog coach to the stars?her clients include Oprah Winfrey, Ben Affleck, Courteney Cox-Arquette, Owen Wilson, Natalie Portman, and Larry King?Tamar Geller changed the way Americans relate to their dogs with her bestselling book The Loved Dog. Her approach is simple and down-to-earth. Instead of utilizing the negative and often painful feedback of physical dominance, choke chains, and prong collars, Tamar recommends love, play, and mutual respect as the keys to a happy home for dog and human alike.

Now, Tamar makes her Loved Dog? Method accessible for everyone with this day-by-day guide that will lead you through the first thirty days with your new dog?or help you make a fresh start with your current dog. Drawing on her studies of wolves in the wild and basing her method on the principles of child development, Tamar uses an “instincts versus choice” approach that satisfies a dog?s Seven Basic Needs and will result in a pet with good manners.

30 Days to a Well-Mannered Dog covers every question commonly asked by people embarking on the momentous journey of dog ownership: why it?s important to choose the appropriate dog for you and your lifestyle, what you can expect from a puppy versus an adult dog, how to introduce your new dog to your home, and how to respond when things don?t go according to plan. Tamar guides you every step of the way, from addressing undesired behaviors in your dog to crate and paper training him to introducing him to other dogs and helping him become relaxed with strangers. Included are important but often overlooked tips about the use of words and body language to communicate, the power of play, and the amazing value of teaching your dog some lighthearted pet tricks.

Along the way, Tamar debunks myths in need of debunking: that dogs are frequently “alpha” by nature and need to be dominated; that discipline is the key to dog training, and that “success” only means getting your dog to do what you want. Instead, she shows how to align your dog’s wishes with your own to create a rich and enduring relationship that works wonderfully for you both.

Gentle, firm, and effective, 30 Days to a Well-Mannered Dog will build your relationship with your dog to make every new day together a day of love, joy, and discovery.?

ISBN: 0385529953

 
Author: Matt Taibbi

The dramatic story behind the most audacious power grab in American history
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The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn?t past but prologue. The stunning rise, fall, and rescue of Wall Street in the bubble-and-bailout era was the coming-out party for the network of looters who sit at the nexus of American political and economic power. The grifter class?made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding?has been growing in power for a generation, transferring wealth upward through increasingly complex financial mechanisms and political maneuvers. The crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they?ve hijacked America?s political and economic life.

Rolling Stone?s Matt Taibbi here unravels the whole fiendish story, digging beyond the headlines to get into the deeper roots and wider implications of the rise of the grifters. He traces the movement?s origins to the cult of Ayn Rand and her most influential?and possibly weirdest?acolyte, Alan Greenspan, and offers fresh reporting on the backroom deals that decided the winners and losers in the government bailouts. He uncovers the hidden commodities bubble that transferred billions of dollars to Wall Street while creating food shortages around the world, and he shows how finance dominates politics, from the story of investment bankers auctioning off America?s infrastructure to an inside account of the high-stakes battle for health-care reform?a battle the true reformers lost. Finally, he tells the story of Goldman Sachs, the ?vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.?

Taibbi has combined deep sources, trailblazing reportage, and provocative analysis to create the most lucid, emotionally galvanizing, and scathingly funny account yet written of the ongoing political and financial crisis in America. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the labyrinthine inner workings of politics and finance in this country, and the profound consequences for us all.

ISBN: 0470592702

 
Author: Julie MacIntosh

The amazing true story behind the siege of America’s favorite beer company

How did InBev, a Belgian company controlled by Brazilians, take over one of America’s most beloved brands after barely a whimper of a fight? Timing, and some unexpected help from powerful members of the Busch dynasty, the very family that had run the company for more than a century.

In Dethroning the King, the award-winning financial journalist who led coverage of the takeover for the Financial Times details how the drama that unfolded at Anheuser-Busch in 2008 went largely unreported as the world tumbled into a global economic crisis second only to the Great Depression. Today, as the dust settles, questions are being asked about how the “King of Beers” was so easily captured by a foreign corporation, and whether the company’s fall mirrors America’s dwindling financial and political dominance.

• Discusses how the takeover of Anheuser-Busch will be seen as a defining moment in U.S. business history
• Reveals the critical missteps taken by the Busch family and the Anheuser-Busch board
• Argues that Anheuser-Busch had a chance to save itself from InBev’s clutches, but strong forces behind the scenes forced it to capitulate

From the very heart of America’s heartland to the European continent to Brazil, Dethroning the King is the ultimate corporate caper and a fascinating case study that’s both wide-reaching and profound.

Amazon.com Exclusive: Q & A with Author Julie MacIntosh

Author Julie MacIntosh

What was the most startling piece of information you came across during your interviews and research for Dethroning the King?
Two things shocked me, actually. I had heard about the rough relationship between August Busch III and his son, August Busch IV, but the rumors hadn?t prepared me for the reality of the situation on the ground in St. Louis. They had a huge blowup over whether to buy a top-of-the-line private jet not long after August IV became CEO, when they should have been figuring out how to save Budweiser. The company?s board of directors got stuck trying to mediate their arguments, and I doubt that had been in their job descriptions. I was also surprised at how close Anheuser-Busch came to merging with Modelo to try to save itself, and at how that all ultimately fell apart. I had covered this deal as a journalist and had known the whole time that the two companies were talking, but I hadn?t known they were just inches from the finish line.

Did you run into any hurdles as you worked to uncover everything that happened behind the scenes?
I wasn?t worried about getting access to key people on Wall Street who were involved in the takeover. I?d known many of them for years. But I was nervous about the reception I?d get from insiders at Anheuser-Busch. I figured the relationship between August III and August IV would be the toughest thing to explore because people had been so closed-mouthed about it in the past, but that was one of the angles my sources were the most eager to talk about. Those two guys are fascinating characters, and I think the people who had witnessed some of their more outrageous moments felt they deserved to be brought to light as part of the story. I got the sense, in general, that this book was a chance for catharsis for some people. The way it all went down is just too fascinating to sweep under the rug with the rest of the mess from the economic crash.

Is this the story of The Busch family dynasty imploding? If so, in what way?
It depends on how you look at it. Adolphus Busch might roll over in his grave if he knew Budweiser was being brewed by Brazilians. But the Busch family hadn?t actually controlled Anheuser-Busch for years ? many people just thought they still did. Some family members made hundreds of millions of dollars on this deal. They?re so rich now that it?s almost incomprehensible. That?s not a bad consolation prize.

Was the takeover inevitable? And what are the implications now that such a beloved American icon is being run by a foreign company?
If Anheuser-Busch hadn?t arrogantly ignored what was going on in the rest of the world, it wouldn?t have been inevitable. But the company focused far too heavily on America, as if this is the only place where people drink beer. Now, thousands of workers have lost their jobs, beer prices are higher, and you have a bunch of Brazilians running around in Missouri. The company has even started charging for Clydesdale appearances. That Bud Light you drank last weekend was brewed by a Brazilian number-cruncher. The big question is whether that actually matters in a globalized world.

ISBN: 0307717860

 
Author: Greg Farrell

The intimate, fly-on-the wall tale of the decline and fall of an America icon
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With one notable exception, the firms that make up what we know as Wall Street have always been part of an inbred, insular culture that most people only vaguely understand. The exception was Merrill Lynch, a firm that revolutionized the stock market by bringing Wall Street to Main Street, setting up offices in far-flung cities and towns long ignored by the giants of finance. With its ?thundering herd? of financial advisers, perhaps no other business, whether in financial services or elsewhere, so epitomized the American spirit. Merrill Lynch was not only ?bullish on America,? it was a big reason why so many average Americans were able to grow wealthy by investing in the stock market.?

Merrill Lynch was an icon. Its sudden decline, collapse, and sale to Bank of America was a shock. How did it happen? Why did it happen? And what does this story of greed, hubris, and incompetence tell us about the culture of Wall Street that continues to this day even though it came close to destroying the American economy? A culture in which the CEO of a firm losing $28 billion pushes hard to be paid a $25 million bonus. A culture in which two Merrill Lynch executives are guaranteed bonuses of $30 million and $40 million for four months? work, even while the firm is struggling to reduce its losses by firing thousands of employees.

Based on unparalleled sources at both Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, Greg Farrell?s Crash of the Titans is a Shakespearean saga of three flawed masters of the universe. E. Stanley O?Neal, whose inspiring rise from the segregated South to the corner office of Merrill Lynch?where he engineered a successful turnaround?was undone by his belief that a smooth-talking salesman could handle one of the most difficult jobs on Wall Street. Because he enjoyed O?Neal?s support, this executive was allowed to build up an astonishing $30 billion position in CDOs on the firm?s balance sheet, at a time when all other Wall Street firms were desperately trying to exit the business. After O?Neal comes John Thain, the cerebral, MIT-educated technocrat whose rescue of the New York Stock Exchange earned him the nickname ?Super Thain.? He was hired to save Merrill Lynch in late 2007, but his belief that the markets would rebound led him to underestimate the depth of Merrill?s problems. Finally, we meet Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, a street fighter raised barely above the poverty line in rural Georgia, whose ?my way or the highway? management style suffers fools more easily than potential rivals, and who made a $50 billion commitment over a September weekend to buy a business he really didn?t understand, thus jeopardizing his own institution.?

The merger itself turns out to be a bizarre combination of cultures that blend like oil and water, where slick Wall Street bankers suddenly find themselves reporting to a cast of characters straight out of the Beverly Hillbillies. BofA?s inbred culture, which perceived New York banks its enemies, was based on loyalty and a good-ol?-boy network in which competence played second fiddle to blind obedience.

Crash of the Titans is a financial thriller that puts you in the theater as the historic events of the financial crisis unfold and people responsible for billion of dollars of other people?s money gamble recklessly to enhance their power and their paychecks or to save their own skins. Its wealth of never-before-revealed information and focus on two icons of corporate America make it the book that puts together all the pieces of the Wall Street disaster.

ISBN: 0375504877

 
Author: Edmund Morris

Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. When he toured Europe in 1910 as plain ?Colonel Roosevelt,? he was hailed as the most famous man in the world. Crowned heads vied to put him up in their palaces. ?If I see another king,? he joked, ?I think I shall bite him.?

Had TR won his historic ?Bull Moose? campaign in 1912 (when he outpolled the sitting president, William Howard Taft), he might have averted World War I, so great was his international influence. Had he not died in 1919, at the early age of sixty, he would unquestionably have been reelected to a third term in the White House and completed the work he began in 1901 of establishing the United States as a model democracy, militarily strong and socially just.

This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award?winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, is itself the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive. Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, it recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin?s bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?

Colonel Roosevelt begins with a prologue recounting what TR called his ?journey into the Pleistocene??a yearlong safari through East Africa, collecting specimens for the Smithsonian. Some readers will be repulsed by TR?s bloodlust, which this book does not prettify, yet there can be no denying that the Colonel passionately loved and understood every living thing that came his way: The text is rich in quotations from his marvelous nature writing.

Although TR intended to remain out of politics when he returned home in 1910, a fateful decision that spring drew him back into public life. By the end of the summer, in his famous ?New Nationalism? speech, he was the guiding spirit of the Progressive movement, which inspired much of the social agenda of the future New Deal. (TR?s fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt acknowledged that debt, adding that the Colonel ?was the greatest man I ever knew.?)

Then follows a detailed account of TR?s reluctant yet almost successful campaign for the White House in 1912. But unlike other biographers, Edmund Morris does not treat TR mainly as a politician. This volume gives as much consideration to TR?s literary achievements and epic expedition to Brazil in 1913?1914 as to his fatherhood of six astonishingly different children, his spiritual and aesthetic beliefs, and his eager embrace of other cultures?from Arab and Magyar to German and American Indian. It is impossible to read Colonel Roosevelt and not be awed by the man?s universality. The Colonel himself remarked, ?I have enjoyed life as much as any nine men I know.?

Morris does not hesitate, however, to show how pathologically TR turned upon those who inherited the power he craved?the hapless Taft, the adroit Woodrow Wilson. When Wilson declined to bring the United States into World War I in 1915 and 1916, the Colonel blasted him with some of the worst abuse ever uttered by a former chief executive. Yet even Wilson had to admit that behind the Rooseveltian will to rule lay a winning idealism and decency. ?He is just like a big boy?there is a sweetness about him that you can?t resist.? That makes the story of TR?s last year, when the ?boy? in him died, all the sadder in the telling: the conclusion of a life of Aristotelian grandeur.