The true account of one boy’s lifelong search for his boarding-school bully. Equal parts childhood memoir and literary thriller, Whipping Boy chronicles prize-winning author Allen Kurzweil’s search for his twelve-year-old nemesis, a bully named Cesar Augustus. The obsessive inquiry, which spans some forty years, takes Kurzweil all over the world, from a Swiss boarding school (where he endures horrifying cruelty) to the slums of Manila, from the Park Avenue boardroom of the world’s largest law firm to a federal prison camp in Southern California. While hunting down his tormentor, Kurzweil encounters an improbable cast of characters that includes an elocution teacher with ill-fitting dentures, a gang of faux royal swindlers, a crime investigator “with paper in his blood,” and a onocled grand master of the Knights of Malta. Yet for all its global exoticism and comic exuberance, Kurzweil’s riveting account is, at its core, a heartfelt and suspenseful narrative about the “parallel lives” of a victim and his abuser. A scrupulously researched work of nonfiction that renders a childhood menace into an unlikely muse, Whipping Boy is much more than a tale of karmic retribution; it is a poignant meditation on loss, memory, and mourning, a surreal odyssey born out of suffering, nourished by rancor, tempered by wit, and resolved, unexpectedly, in a breathtaking act of personal courage. Whipping Boy features two 8-page black-and-white photo inserts and 83 images throughout.

Discover the story behind these and more in this delightful collection of the wild, the weird, and the wonderful, culled from The Wall Street Journal's popular and long-standing A-Hed column.One of the The Wall Street Journal's most popular features for more than seventy years, the daily A-Hed column named for a headline that looked like a letter A has diverted readers from the more glum news of war, economic woe, natural disasters, and man-made malfeasance. Covering a wide range of lunacy and the unusual from across the nation and the world, the A-Hed continues to enchant longtime readers.Now, the best A-Hed stories from recent years have been bundled into this entertaining volume. There are romantic tales, including the Japanese "infidelity phone" (it keeps trysts secret) and the story of "wingmen" and "wingwomen" who escort wallflowers to nightspots and maneuver them into the arms of prospective catches. Lovers of dogs, cats, and fish will learn how a Marine Corps bulldog got promoted to sergeant, how a grumpy cat acquired a Hollywood agent, and will be left wondering if a sixty-three-pound carp named Benson died of natural causes in England or was the victim of foul play. Funny, moving, and charming, these stories will make you laugh and keep you entertained.

He is an American treasure; a clear-eyed fantasist without peer; a literary icon who has created wonder for the better part of seven decades. He has a moon crater named after him and a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. He has been showered with accolades and honored with prizes galore, everything from an Emmy Award to the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, invent, believe, and fly. When Ray Bradbury speaks, it pays dividends in gold to everyone who listens.Collected between these covers are memories, ruminations, opinions, prophecies, and philosophies from one of the most influential and admired writers of our time: indelible boyhood experiences that molded the man, as well as his eye-opening, sometimes hilarious true adventures in the realm of the famous and adored; insightful, piquant, often biting, always fascinating reflections on humankind's past and future, and where we stand in the universe today; provocative and deeply affecting musings on the present state of art and the unparalleled glory of creation.As unique, unabashed, and irrepressible as the artist himself, here is an intimate portrait, painted with the master's own words, of the one and only Bradbury -- far more revealing than any mere memoir, for it opens windows not only into his life and work, but into his mind and heart as well.Ray Bradbury has something wonderful to say.

When industry giants such as GE, Toyota, and Sharp and investment firms such as Goldman Sachs are making multibillion-dollar investments in clean technology, the message is clear. Developing clean technologies is no longer a social issue championed by environmentalists; it's a moneymaking enterprise moving solidly into the business mainstream. In fact, as the economy faces unprecedented challenges from high energy prices, resource shortages, and global environmental and security threats, clean tech technologies designed to provide superior performance at a lower cost while creating significantly less waste than conventional offerings promises to be the next engine of economic growth.In The Clean Tech Revolution, authors Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder identify the major forces that have pushed clean tech from back-to-the-earth utopian dream to its current revolution among the inner circles of corporate boardrooms, on Wall Street trading floors, and in government offices around the globe. By highlighting eight major clean-tech sectors solar energy, wind power, biofuels and biomaterials, green buildings, personal transportation, the smart grid, mobile applications, and water filtration they uncover how investors, entrepreneurs, and individuals can profit from this next wave of technological innovation. Pernick and Wilder shine the spotlight on the winners among technologies, companies, and regions that are likely to reap the greatest benefits from clean tech and they show you why the time to act is now.Groundbreaking and authoritative, The Clean Tech Revolution is the must-read book to understand and profit from the clean technologies that are reshaping our fast-changing world.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House the sources for the films The Social Network and 21 comes the larger-than-life true tale of a group of American college buddies who brilliantly built a billion-dollar online poker colossus based out of the hedonistic paradise of Costa Rica. One problem: the U.S. Department of Justice was gunning for them. . . .Based on extensive insider interviews and participation, acclaimed author Ben Mezrich's Straight Flush tells the captivating rags-to-riches tale of a group of University of Montana frat brothers who turned a weekly poker game in the basement of a local dive bar into AbsolutePoker.com, one of the largest online companies in the world, on par with some of the behemoths of the Internet. At its height, Absolute Poker was an online empire earning more than a million dollars a day, following savvy business strategy and even better luck. Its founders set up their operations in the exotic jungle paradise of Costa Rica, embracing an outrageous lifestyle of girls, parties, and money.Meanwhile, the gray area of U.S. and international law in which the company operated was becoming a lot more risky, and soon the U.S. Department of Justice had placed a bull's-eye on Absolute Poker. Should they fold or double down and ride their hot handImpossible to put down, Straight Flush is an exclusive, never-before-seen look behind the headlines of one of the wildest business stories of the past decade.

Being an NFL coach is the ultimate high-pressure job. Every Sunday a coach makes split-second decisions that will not only decide the fate of a game, but also his team's season and, ultimately, his own job.Meet Mike Holmgren, Jon Gruden, John Fox, Andy Reid, and Mike Sherman -- top NFL head coaches whose careers rest on their ability to lead other men to win in the fiercely competitive world of professional football.In this extraordinary collaboration with their agent Bob LaMonte, each of these five coaches shares his leadership principles. LaMonte takes you behind the scenes, where you'll be a fly on the wall as these men reveal how to win beyond the X's and O's. You will see how these successful leaders communicate with different personalities, develop vision, build trust in their people, and win loyalty, as well as overcome adversity and adapt to change.Through their colorful and motivational anecdotes, you'll gain unprecedented insights into the minds of some of the best coaches today and valuable lessons on what it means to be a leader and a champion.

Addiction and Grace offers an inspiring and hope–filled vision for those who desire to explore the mystery of who and what they really are. May examines the "processes of attachment" that lead to addiction and describes the relationship between addiction and spiritual awareness. He also details the various addictions from which we can suffer, not only to substances like alcohol and drugs, but to work, sex, performance, responsibility, and intimacy. Drawing on his experience as a psychiatrist working with the chemically dependent, May emphasizes that addiction represents an attempt to assert complete control over our lives. Addiction and Grace is a compassionate and wise treatment of a topic of major concern in these most addictive of times, one that can provide a critical yet hopeful guide to a place of freedom based on contemplative spirituality.

Decorated US Navy SEAL lieutenant Jason Redman served his country courageously and with distinction in Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan, and Iraq, where he commanded mobility and assault forces. He conducted over forty capture/kill missions with his men in Iraq, locating more than 120 al-Qaida insurgents. But his journey was not without supreme challenges both emotional and physical. Redman is brutally honest about his struggles to learn how to be an effective leader, yet that effort pales beside the story of his critical wounding in 2007 while leading a mission against a key al-Qaida commander. On that mission his team was ambushed and he was struck by machine-gun fire at point-blank range.During the intense recovery period that followed, Redman gained national attention when he posted a sign on his door at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, warning all who entered not to feel sorry for [his] wounds. His sign became both a statement and a symbol for wounded warriors everywhere.From his grueling SEAL training to his search for a balance between arrogance and humility, Redman shares it all in this inspiring and unforgettable account. He speaks candidly of the grit that sustained him despite grievous wounds, and of the extraordinary love and devotion of his wife, Erica, and his family, without whom he would not have survived.Vivid and powerful, emotionally resonant and illuminating, The Trident traces the evolution of a modern warrior, husband, and father, a man who has come to embody the never-say-die spirit that defines the SEALs, one of America's elite fighting forces.

From the beloved teacher of spiritual wisdom and author of the phenomenal New York Times and international bestseller The Four Agreements comes a profound new spiritual masterwork. Don Miguel Ruiz has been lauded the world over for his deep integrity, insight, and wisdom. Now in The Toltec Art of Life and Death he takes readers on a mystical personal journey, introducing us to an even greater level of spiritual teaching and awareness.In 2002, Don Miguel Ruiz suffered a near-fatal heart attack that left him in a coma on the verge of death for nine weeks. The journey he undertook while suspended between this world and the next forms the heart of this autobiographical novel, a profound and mystical tale of spiritual struggle. As his body lies unconscious, Ruiz travels in his dreams and encounters the people, ideas, and events that have shaped him, illuminating the eternal struggle between life unending energy and truth and death matter and subjective knowledge in which we are all called to engage. The Toltec Art of Life and Death invites readers into the mind of a master seeker, offering an unparalleled and intimate glimpse into the development of a soul. In this culmination of a lifetime's learning, Ruiz shares with readers the innermost workings of his singular heart and mind, summoning us to grapple with timeless insights drawn from ancient Toltec wisdom that are the essence of transformation and freedom.

Beloved, profoundly moving account of the author's marriage, the couple's search for faith and friendship with C. S. Lewis, and a spiritual strength that sustained Vanauken after his wife's untimely death.

Universal and timeless, Delia Ephron's How to Eat Like a Child is a delightful revisiting of the joys -- and tricky ploys -- of childhood. Made into a children's television special and a musical theater revue performed across the country each year, How to Eat Like a Child offers advice beyond the artful etiquette of food consumption. Ephron also teaches us "How to Laugh Hysterically," "How to Have a Birthday Party," "How to Torture Your Sister," and much, much more. As the Washington Post Book World noted, `After the giggles of recognition have subsided, one thing will be very clear: all adults are kids in grown-ups' clothing."

In this boldest book since Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Bishop John Shelby Spong offers a compelling view of the Gospels as thoroughly Jewish tests.Spong powerfully argues that many of the key Gospel accounts of events in the life of Jesus from the stories of his birth to his physical resurrection are not literally true. He offers convincing evidence that the Gospels are a collection of Jewish midrashic stories written to convey the significance of Jesus. This remarkable discovery brings us closer to how Jesus was really understood in his day and should be in ours.

First student of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Sam Kashner tells with humor and grace his life with the Beats. But the best story is Kashner himself -- the coming-of-age of a young man in the chaotic world of the very idols he hoped to emulate.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Scambusters! is a working manual senior citizens can use to defend themselves against the most common scams aimed at the elderly. It provides readers with a comprehensive approach to identifying scams in the making, and shows them specific prevention tools and how to use them. Inside, you'll find step-by-step instructions, helpful anecdotes, and references to dozens of consumer organizationals and government agencies devoted to thwarting swindlers. Weather buying mutual funds, repairing a car, purchasing drugs from online pharmacies, or taking out loans on your home, Scambusters! will protect seniors when they need it.

Josh Altman, one of the stars of Bravos hit TV series Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, has achieved extraordinary success in a traditional industry and in the most competitive real estate market in the country all without being discovered or catching the proverbial big break. He worked for it. He figured it out. He failed. He learned. He wrote his own *.The key to his successConfidence informed, intelligent, calculated confidence. Calculated confidence means training yourself in your chosen field, knowing it so well that you can trust your gut instincts to guide you toward the best possible option. When key opportunities present themselves, you are ready to seize them.In It's Your Move, Altman shares his method for building calculated confidence and trusting your gut to outsmart the competition:You have to be READY. Life is short. To get what you want, you have to be prepared to make big choices.You have to FIRE. Life is about making decisions. When an opportunity presents itself, don't waste time make a move.You have to AIM. Life is about course correcting. If you trust your gut and something goes wrong, don't freeze up: learn from your mistakes and recalibrate your aim so you don't make the same mistakes again.Altman draws on his experiences negotiating multimillion dollar deals and offering impeccable service to celebrity and high-profile clients, and shares tips and street-smart strategies for turning this method into action.Grounded in a positive approach to life and relationships, It's Your Move will show you all the right moves to help you become better, stronger, and more effective whatever your profession or ambitions.

Ingrid Betancourt, a senator and a presidential candidate in Colombia, grew up among diplomats, literati, and artists who congregated at her parents' elegant home in Paris, France. Her father served as Colombia's ambassador to UNESCO and her mother, a political activist, continued her work on behalf of the country's countless children whose lives were being destroyed by extreme poverty and institutional neglect. Intellectually, Ingrid was influenced by Pablo Neruda and other Latin American writers like Gabriel García Márquez, who frequented her parents' social circle. She studied at ?cole de Sciences Politiques de Paris, a prestigious academy in France. From this charmed life, Ingrid Betancourt -- not yet thirty, happily married to a French diplomat, and a mother of two children -- returned to her native country in the late 1980s. On what was initially just a visit, she found her country under internal siege from the drug cartels and the corrupt government that had allowed them to flourish. After seeing what had become of Colombia's democracy, she didn't feel she could leave. Until Death Do Us Part is the deeply personal story of a woman who gave up a life of comfort and safety to become a political leader in a country being slowly demolished by terrorism, violence, fear, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness. It is a country where democracy has been sacrificed for the well-being of the few, where international criminals determine policy, and where political assassinations are a way of life. Now forty, Ingrid Betancourt has been elected and reelected as a representative and as a senator in Colombia's national legislature. She has founded a political party that has openly confronted Colombia's leaders and has earned the respect of a nation. And now she has become a target of the establishment and the drug cartels behind it. Forced to move her children out of Colombia for protection against death threats, Ingrid Betancourt remained and continued to fight the political structure that has crumbled under the destructive power of the paramilitary forces, the financial omnipotence of the drug cartels, and the passivity of governmentfor-sale. Here is a political cocktail that has destroyed countless lives in Colombia and has spread to countries beyond its borders. A memoir of a life in politics that reads like a fastpaced political thriller, Until Death Do Us Part -- already an international bestseller -- is a hair-raising account of one woman's fight against the establishment. It is a story of a woman whose love for her country and faith in democracy gave her the courage to stand up to the power that has subjugated, intimidated, or corrupted all those who opposed it. A chilling account of the dangerous, byzantine machine that runs Colombia, it is also an inspiring story of privilege, sacrifice, and true patriotism.

From the known to the unknown . . . With its spectacular temples, tombs, monuments, and mummies, as well as esoteric metaphysics, legendary historical characters, and connections to the Bible, ancient Egypt has enticed the human imagination for centuries. This search for understanding and drive to uncover a lost civilization has also been the life work of archaeologist Donald P. Ryan, Ph.D. In Beneath the Sands of Egypt, he offers an intriguing personal account of a career spent researching the remains of Egypt's past including his headline-making rediscovery of a lost tomb in the Valley of the Kings containing the mummy of the famous female pharaoh Hatshepsut.Since his early childhood, Ryan dreamed of exploration and adventure. Inspired by his plastic dinosaurs, his books including Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki and his father's National Geographic collection, Ryan was determined to become an archaeologist. It is a quest that has taken him from harsh desert digs to the modern comforts of Europe's finest museums to treacherous Alpine peaks and into the lives of his archaeological predecessors, gathering insight from obscure documents and, literally, digging in their wake.Beneath the Sands of Egypt interweaves Ryan's captivating tales from the field with reflections into the arcane world of Egyptology, from the writings of Herodotus to the tools of the trade, the intricacies of obtaining a digging permit to the thrall of popular myths. In addition, Ryan introduces a diverse cast of eccentric colleagues, helpful locals, wily entrepreneurs, and enlightened benefactors who have touched his life, including the legendary Thor Heyerdahl, Ryan's childhood hero who eventually became his friend, mentor, and boss. Throughout, Ryan adds his unique touch, reminding us how an artifact as seemingly insignificant as a piece of rope can unlock invaluable insights and offer its own wonderful tale.Infused with the irrepressible curiosity that has fueled Ryan's journey, Beneath the Sands of Egypt is the extraordinary story of a man who has spent a lifetime embracing adventure whenever and wherever he finds it.

Get revenge on all your annoying coworkers with this guide to 101 awesome office pranks Are your eyes beginning to glaze over from the fluorescent lights in your tiny cubicleHave you had one too many burnt cups of coffeeDoes the guy in the cube next to you insist on pencil-drumming while cranking "Hells Bells" and five-finger discounting your paper clipsIf your answer to any of these questions is yes, then you're in need of some Cubicle Warfare.With Cubicle Warfare, you'll never be bored at the office again. Make your coworkers jump, squeal, and run for cover with hilarious pranks such as the Paper Clip Chain, Bottomless Box, and the Sticky Note Office, as well as the more advanced Freezer Bomb, Chair Chaos, and Textless Keyboard. Even if you're not a prankster yourself, you can still use this riotous guide to recognize the warning signs and defend your desk from conniving coworkers. Bad days at the office will be a thing of the past.

Does a secure financial life seem to difficult to imagine let alone achieveDoes wealth strike you as an impossible dreamWhether you're living from paycheck to paycheck, or simply confused by the world of stocks, bonds, and brokers, it's never too late to change your situation. All you need is a little help.By spending just ten to fifteen minutes a day with this immensely helpful book, you'll discover that financial security is just steps away. Filled with the wisdom and advice of a seasoned expert, this year-old program for success shows you how to: change your attitude and change your life break out of debt and control your spending choose investments and make your money grow protect your gains and prepare for a comfortable retirement give your children or grandchildren a secure start in life and much more!

Pamela Haag has written the generational "big book" on modern marriage, a mesmerizing, sometimes salacious look at the semi-happy ambivalence lurking just below the surface of many marriages today. The spouses may rarely fight they may maintain a sincere affection for each other but one or both may harbor a melancholy sense that something important is missing. Remarkably, this side of the marriage story hasn't been told or analyzed until now.Meticulously researched and injected with insightful firsthand accounts and welcome doses of humor, Marriage Confidential articulates for a generation that grew up believing they would "have it all" why they have ended up disenchanted. Haag introduces us to contemporary marriages where spouses act more like life partners than lovers; children occupy an uncontested position at the center of the marital relationship; and even the romantic staples of sexual fidelity and passion are assailed from all sides so much so that spouses can end up having affairs online almost by accident.Blending tales from the front lines of matrimony with cultural history, surveys, and research covert-ops (such as joining an online affair-finding site and posting a personal ad in the New York Review of Books), Haag paints a detailed picture of the state of marriage today. And to show what's possible as well as what's melancholy in our post-romantic age, Haag seeks out marriages with a twist rebels who are quietly brainstorming and evolving the *s around career, money, social life, child rearing, and sex.Provocative but sympathetic, forward-thinking and bold, here, at last, is a manifesto for living large in marriage.

Do you believe it's possible for someone to read your mind?Lior Suchard can. He can read your innermost thoughts, and knows what you are going to say before you say it before you even know you're going to say it! As a six-year-old boy in Haifa, Israel, Lior first realized he had an extraordinary mental power. Now he is known throughout the world as a dazzling entertainer and peerless mentalist, astounding audiences everywhere with his singular talent for mind reading, thought influencing, and telekinesis. In Mind Reader, Lior takes us on an incredible journey through the wonders of the human mind, sharing his remarkable personal story while offering invaluable advice. Lior's secrets and lessons, illustrated throughout with interactive elements and brainteasers, will enable readers to achieve phenomenal success by unlocking their untapped mental powers and freely embracing their inner mentalist.