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Endgame: Bobby Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall

Posted by admin | Posted in Entertainment-New, New Releases | Posted on 11-12-2011-05-2008

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0307463907 : Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness
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.  Read the rest of this entry »

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The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle

Posted by admin | Posted in New Releases, Outdoors & Nature-New, Sports-New, Travel-New | Posted on 04-03-2011-05-2008

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0374200130 : The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle
ISBN: 0374200130

 
Author: Sara Wheeler

More than a decade ago, Sara Wheeler traveled to Antarctica to understand a continent nearly lost to myth and lore. In the widely acclaimed, bestselling Terra Incognita, she chronicled her quest to find a hidden history buried in Antarctica’s extreme surroundings. Now, Wheeler journeys to the opposite pole to create a definitive picture of life on the fringes. In The Magnetic North, she takes full measure of the Arctic: at once the most pristine place on earth and the locus of global warming.

Inspired by the spiraling shape of a reindeer-horn bangle, she travels counterclockwise around the North Pole through the territories belonging to Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, marking the transformations of what once seemed an unchangeable landscape. As she witnesses the mounting pollution concentrated at the pole, Wheeler reckons with the illness of the whole organism of the earth.

Smashing through the Arctic Ocean with the crew of a Russian icebreaker, shadowing the endless Trans-Alaska Pipeline with a tough Idaho-born outdoorswoman, herding reindeer with the Lapps, and visiting the haunting, deceptively peaceful lands of the Gulag, Wheeler brings the Arctic’s many contradictions to life. The Magnetic North is an urgent, beautiful book, rich in dramatic description and vivid reporting. It is a singular, deeply personal portrait of a region growing daily in global importance.

Pages: 336
 
Binding: Hardcover
 
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Year: 2011

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Endgame: Bobby Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall

Posted by admin | Posted in Biographies & Memoirs-New, New Releases | Posted on 22-02-2011-05-2008

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0307463907 : Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness
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. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Memory Palace

Posted by admin | Posted in Biographies & Memoirs-New, New Releases | Posted on 29-01-2011-05-2008

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1439183317 : The Memory Palace
ISBN: 1439183317

 
Author: Mira Bartok

“ People have abandoned their loved ones for much less than you’ve been through,” Mira Bartók is told at her mother’s memorial service. It is a poignant observation about the relationship between Mira, her sister, and their mentally ill mother. Before she was struck with schizophrenia at the age of nineteen, beautiful piano protégé Norma Herr had been the most vibrant personality in the room. She loved her daughters and did her best to raise them well, but as her mental state deteriorated, Norma spoke less about Chopin and more about Nazis and her fear that her daughters would be kidnapped, murdered, or raped.

When the girls left for college, the harassment escalated—Norma called them obsessively, appeared at their apartments or jobs, threatened to kill herself if they did not return home. After a traumatic encounter, Mira and her sister were left with no choice but to change their names and sever all contact with Norma in order to stay safe. But while Mira pursued her career as an artist—exploring the ancient romance of Florence, the eerie mysticism of northern Norway, and the raw desert of Israel—the haunting memories of her mother were never far away.

Then one day, Mira’s life changed forever after a debilitating car accident. As she struggled to recover from a traumatic brain injury, she was confronted with a need to recontextualize her life—she had to relearn how to paint, read, and interact with the outside world. In her search for a way back to her lost self, Mira reached out to the homeless shelter where she believed her mother was living and discovered that Norma was dying. Read the rest of this entry »

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Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World

Posted by admin | Posted in Business & Investing-New, Health, Mind & Body-New, New Releases, Professional & Technical-New | Posted on 15-01-2011-05-2008

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0307716899 : Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World
ISBN: 0307716899

 
Author: Stuart Diamond

Negotiation is part of every human encounter, and most of us do it badly. Whether dealing with family, a business or diplomacy, people often fail to meet their goals in every country and context. They focus on power and “win-win” instead of relationships and perceptions. They don’t find enough things to trade. They think others should be rational when they should be dealing with emotions. They get distracted from their goals.
 
In this revolutionary book, leading negotiation practitioner and professor Stuart Diamond draws on the research and practice of 30,000 people he has taught and advised in 45 countries over two decades to outline specific, practical and better ways to deal with others. Read the rest of this entry »

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An Awesome Book of Thanks!

Posted by admin | Posted in Children's Books | Posted on 27-11-2010-05-2008

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193559737X : An Awesome Book of Thanks!
ISBN: 193559737X

 
Author: Dallas Clayton

Book Description: Inspired by the idea of being thankful for all that you have, An Awesome Book of Thanks! is a beautifully written, fantastically illustrated walk through a world of magical unicorns, robotic dinosaurs, and all of life’s simple moments, great and small. Crafted for children ages 0-1000, this timeless story is sure to be an instant classic, at home in the hands of anyone looking for the perfect reminder of just how beautiful life can be.


A Q&A with Dallas Clayton

Question: How did you start writing?

Dallas Clayton: I grew up writing zines, poems, journals, short stories–printing them myself and selling them to people on the street. That’s where I came from. I started doing that when I was 12 or 13, and like most things you start doing at that age, I didn’t really have any scope of how big of a part of my life it would become; it was just something I did because it was fun. I moved to Los Angeles when I was 18 and after a few months of going to shows, art galleries, markets, and performance spaces, people started offering me writing jobs. It was never something I’d planned on–it was just something that happened that way.

Question: How did you make the transition into children?s literature?

Dallas Clayton: I had never written a kids’ book before. Honestly, I’d never written any sort of book before An Awesome Book! But after my son was born I knew I wanted to write something for him while he was still young enough to appreciate it. So I started to write a kids? book a day and the first one I wrote was An Awesome Book! After I put it down on paper I stopped and thought, “Okay–what now?”

Question: People took to it?

Dallas Clayton: Well, the first pressing sold out in a week, then the second pressing sold out between when I ordered it and when it arrived, and then it just kept going. Pretty soon people were ordering so many copies that I basically had to change everything I was doing. I became a kids’ author overnight. I was shipping orders out of my house to people all over the world and every day something even crazier than the day before would happen. Getting letters from people all over the world, requests to come speak, people wanting me to collaborate with them–just tons of unexpected magic.

Question: What is the Awesome World Foundation?

Dallas Clayton: I started the Awesome World Foundation as a way for me to go on tour and read to kids and give back to all of the people who had supported me. Basically, whenever an author would read at my son?s school he would come home with this order form asking for a check to be sent in so he could buy the book. I always just pictured myself as the kid in the class who wouldn’t have had the money to buy the book, so I just thought “I made the book, I can give them away.” So I set up the Foundation to do just that: donate a book for every book sold. So now I travel around, reading to kids all over, giving away books. It’s really the best thing I could ever wish to do with my life. Pretty amazing.

Question: With all of the success of An Awesome Book!, What was your approach to following it up?

Dallas Clayton: Well, I just wanted to make something Awesome. People were so happy with the first one and that made me so happy, I knew making another book could only double that happiness. And after reading to so many kids and talking to them about their hopes and their dreams, I knew I wanted to talk about the idea of being thankful, like all of your aspirations are important but remember to be thankful for all of the small things we tend to take for granted. That’s the idea behind An Awesome Book of Thanks!–dream big, but be thankful for what you have.

Question: What are you hoping people take away from your books?

Dallas Clayton: I guess the same things I would hope people would take away from anything worth appreciating. To offer them a little break in their day to contemplate all the amazing possibilities that life has to offer. For me, kids’ books are just the same as any other art form–your goal shouldn’t be to tell a story, your goal should be to communicate an idea to try and share a theme, to give someone a bigger experience. All the authors that I grew up reading, all the classics I think did that. All the major forces in the modern kids’ world did that: Dr. Seuss, Walt Disney, Jim Henson–those are people whose ideas inspire me.


A Look Inside An Awesome Book of Thanks!
Click on the images below to see a few of our editors’ favorite pages from An Awesome Book of Thanks!


Pages: 84
 
Binding: Hardcover
 
Publisher: AmazonEncore Year: 2010

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