Ready Player One

Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2011-08-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307887456

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. “Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready? In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself. Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club “Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost “An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN “A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe “Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR “[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9

Glory Days

Glory Days
Author: Jim Wangers
Publisher:
Total Pages: 366
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

"Any car maker's greatest asset is their perceived image in the marketplace." Wangers knows what he is talking about, for he was part of the most successful brand marketing campaign to ever come out of Detroit. At a time when such automotive legends as "Bunkie" Knudsen, Pete Estes, and John DeLorean held sway in the Motor City, Jim Wangers created and defined the American musclecar image, devising savvy brand marketing strategies to promote the car that started it all and became a cultural icon: the Pontiac GTO.

The World We Used to Live In

The World We Used to Live In
Author: Vine Deloria Jr.
Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2016-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1555918476

In his final work, the great and beloved Native American scholar Vine Deloria Jr. takes us into the realm of the spiritual and reveals through eyewitness accounts the immense power of medicine men. The World We Used To Live In, a fascinating collection of anecdotes from tribes across the country, explores everything from healing miracles and scared rituals to Navajos who could move the sun. In this compelling work, which draws upon a lifetime of scholarship, Deloria shows us how ancient powers fit into our modern understanding of science and the cosmos, and how future generations may draw strength from the old ways.

Lost Hot Rods II

Lost Hot Rods II
Author: Pat Ganahl
Publisher: CarTech Inc
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2012
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 193470993X

The history of hot rodding is filled with stories of cars that were lost for a wide variety of reasons. Some were crashed, others lost in accidents, and others simply faded away. Its the third group that Lost Hot Rods II focuses on. Many great hot rods that were once famous were simply hidden away. Some of them have been tracked down and are now found once again. As a solid follow-up to the success of the original Lost Hot Rods, this book continues the fun of discovering whatever happened to many of the great rods and customs built in the early days of the sport. Lost Hot Rods II shares the full story of each car, including how it was originally built, when it dropped off the radar, and how it was ultimately found. Photos from the past and present are included to showcase the story behind each and every one of these great cars. Industry veteran and celebrated historian Pat Ganahl once again opens the archives and pounds the pavement in order to bring you the stories on some of the coolest cars ever to appear in shows or grace the pages of automotive magazines. A perfect companion to the best-selling Lost Hot Rods: Remarkable Stories of How They Were Found.

White Lines

White Lines
Author: Jennifer Banash
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2013-04-04
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1101607882

I don’t want to be this person anymore, but I’ve been running for so long, I don’t know how to stop, how to stand still, how to begin again. Seventeen-year-old Cat is club kid royalty, with the power to decide who gets past the velvet rope at some of the hottest clubs in the city. She lives for the night with its high-inducing energy, pulsing music and those seductive white lines that can ease all pain. Her days are something else entirely. Having spent years enduring her mother’s emotional and physical abuse, and abandoned by her father, Cat is terrified and alone. But when someone comes along who makes her want to truly live, she’ll need to summon the courage to confront her demons. Both poignant and raw, White Lines is a gripping, coming-of-age tale for readers of Willow.

Engines of Change

Engines of Change
Author: Paul Ingrassia
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 145164065X

A narrative like no other: a cultural history that explores how cars have both propelled and reflected the American experience— from the Model T to the Prius. From the assembly lines of Henry Ford to the open roads of Route 66, from the lore of Jack Kerouac to the sex appeal of the Hot Rod, America’s history is a vehicular history—an idea brought brilliantly to life in this major work by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Paul Ingrassia. Ingrassia offers a wondrous epic in fifteen automobiles, including the Corvette, the Beetle, and the Chevy Corvair, as well as the personalities and tales behind them: Robert McNamara’s unlikely role in Lee Iacocca’s Mustang, John Z. DeLorean’s Pontiac GTO , Henry Ford’s Model T, as well as Honda’s Accord, the BMW 3 Series, and the Jeep, among others. Through these cars and these characters, Ingrassia shows how the car has expressed the particularly American tension between the lure of freedom and the obligations of utility. He also takes us through the rise of American manufacturing, the suburbanization of the country, the birth of the hippie and the yuppie, the emancipation of women, and many more fateful episodes and eras, including the car’s unintended consequences: trial lawyers, energy crises, and urban sprawl. Narrative history of the highest caliber, Engines of Change is an entirely edifying new way to look at the American story.

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes
Author: Rob Wilkins
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2022-09-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1473568943

WINNER OF THE 2023 LOCUS AWARD FOR NON-FICTION WINNER OF THE BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST NON-FICTION 'Always readable, illuminating and honest. It made me miss the real Terry.' - Neil Gaiman 'Sometimes joyfully, sometimes painfully, intimate . . . it is wonderful to have this closeup picture of the writer's working life.' - Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Observer -------- At the time of his death in 2015, award-winning and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett was working on his finest story yet - his own. The creator of the phenomenally bestselling Discworld series, Terry Pratchett was known and loved around the world for his hugely popular books, his smart satirical humour and the humanity of his campaign work. But that's only part of the picture. Before his untimely death, Terry was writing a memoir: the story of a boy who aged six was told by his teacher that he would never amount to anything and spent the rest of his life proving him wrong. For Terry lived a life full of astonishing achievements: becoming one of the UK's bestselling and most beloved writers, winning the prestigious Carnegie Medal and being awarded a knighthood. Now, the book Terry sadly couldn't finish has been written by Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the Pratchett literary estate. Drawing on his own extensive memories, along with those of the author's family, friends and colleagues, Rob unveils the full picture of Terry's life - from childhood to his astonishing writing career, and how he met and coped with what he called the 'Embuggerance' of Alzheimer's disease. A deeply moving and personal portrait of the extraordinary life of Sir Terry Pratchett, written with unparalleled insight and filled with funny anecdotes, this is the only official biography of one of our finest authors. -------- 'Spins magic from mundanity in precisely the way Pratchett himself did.' - Telegraph 'As frank, funny and unsentimental as anything its subject might have produced himself.' - Mail on Sunday

Lead with a Story

Lead with a Story
Author: Paul Smith
Publisher: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0814420303

Storytelling has come of age in the business world. Today, many of the most successful companies use storytelling as a leadership tool. At Nike, all senior executives are designated "corporate storytellers." 3M banned bullet points years ago and replaced them with a process of writing "strategic narratives." Procter Gamble hired Hollywood directors to teach its executives storytelling techniques. Some forward-thinking business schools have even added storytelling courses to their management curriculum. The reason for this is simple: Stories have the ability to engage an audience the way logic and bullet points alone never could. Whether you are trying to communicate a vision, sell an idea, or inspire commitment, storytelling is a powerful business tool that can mean the difference between mediocre results and phenomenal success. Lead with a Story contains both ready-to-use stories and how-to guidance for readers looking to craft their own. Designed for a wide variety of business challenges, the book shows how narrative can help: * Define culture and values * Engender creativity and innovation * Foster collaboration and build relationships * Provide coaching and feedback * Lead change * And more Whether in a speech or a memo, communicated to one person or a thousand, storytelling is an essential skill for success. Complete with examples from companies like Kellogg's, Merrill-Lynch, Procter Gamble, National Car Rental, Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut, and more, this practical resource gives readers the guidance they need to deliver stories to stunning effect.