The team that refused to give up their manager in his final season A comeback that changed baseball After thirty-three seasons managing in Major League Baseball, Tony La Russa thought he had seen it all that is, until the 2011 Cardinals. Down ten and a half games with little more than a month to play, the Cardinals had long been ruled out as serious postseason contenders. Yet in the face of those steep odds, this team mounted one of the most dramatic and impressive comebacks in baseball history, making the playoffs on the night of the final game of the season and going on to win the World Series despite being down to their last strike twice.Now La Russa gives the inside story behind this astonishing comeback and his remarkable career, explaining how a team with so much against it was able to succeed on baseball's biggest stage. Opening up about the devastating injuries, the bullpen struggles, the crucial games, and the players who made it all possible, he reveals how the team's character shaped its accomplishments, demonstrating how this group came together in good times and in bad to become that rarest of things: a team that actually enjoyed it when the odds were against them. But this story is much more than that of a single season. As La Russa, the third-winningest manager in baseball history, explains, their season was the culmination of a lifetime spent studying the game. Laying bare his often scrutinized and frequently misunderstood approach to managing, he explains his counterintuitive belief in process over result, present moments over statistics, and team unity over individual talent. Along the way he shares the stories from throughout his career that shaped his outlook from his first days managing the Chicago White Sox to his championship years with the Oakland A's, to his triumphant tenure as St. Louis's longest-serving manager. Setting the record straight on his famously intense style, he explores the vital yet overlooked role that his personal relationships with his players have contributed to his victories, ultimately showing how, in a sport often governed by cold, hard numbers, the secret to his success has been surprisingly human. Speaking candidly about his decision to retire, La Russa discusses the changes that he'd observed both in the game and in himself that told him, despite his success, it was time to hang up his spikes. The end result is a passionate, insightful, and remarkable look at our national pastime that takes you behind the scenes of the comeback that no one thought possible and inside the mind of one of the game's greatest managers.

Every winter, 8,000 feet above sea level in the Utah snow, the hopes and dreams of young moviemakers are put on display at the Sundance Film Festival--the haven for independent films where you can show up a kid and go home a star. In barely twenty years of existence, the festival--now overseen by Robert Redford's Sundance Institute--has assumed tremendous importance for today's film culture: during the annual ten-day event, tiny Park City is so overrun by agents, publicists, studio executives, and other Hollywood types that in 1988 they blew out the town's cell-phone relay system.

Are you the type of person who stays up nights wondering how they get the paper tag into Hershey's KissesOr why portholes are roundEven if you don't lose sleep over such matters, you have to admit that such questions are, well, worthy of consideration. Here, from David Feldman, creator of the Imponderables series, are the latest questions on the minds of his devoted readers and fans. No question from his readers is too small or obscure for Feldman to tackle. From the return of red Ms (they are back, if you've missed it) to new-car smell, the answers to life's little mysteries are dissected in these pages. Although it's all done in great fun, there is also an educational edge to the answers, as Feldman ferrets out top experts in diverse fields to come up with his entertaining answers. And their answers may surprise you from the detailed physics involved in why cans of Diet Coke float but regular Coke doesn't, all the way to why they put crinkly paper into pairs of men's socks (but only one sock, not both).Complete with drawings by longtime Imponderables illustrator Kassie Schwan, and a special section updating answers to questions in previous books in the series, this eleventh book of Imponderables is sure to entertain the thousands of Feldman fans who have purchased over 2 million copies to date. Prepare to be delighted!

The workplace around the world is changing growing increasingly multicultural, female, and younger. Experts often tell CEOs and managers what not to do, and corporate diversity programs can often appear to be like defensive measures against lawsuits and harassment charges. While technology has connected all of us as a global workforce, it has not equipped us with the capability to interact genuinely with people. In order to be successful in this new global business environment, we need to rethink the way we lead others.Flex offers a new approach a proactive strategy for managers to understand and leverage difference effectively in this new global economy.Flex shows managers how to understand the power gap the social distance between you and those in the workplace of different cultures, ages, and gender; stretch your management style and bridge the gap with more effective communication and feedback tools; and multiply the effect by teaching these skills to others and closing the power gap with clients, customers, and partners to create innovative solutions. Creating flex in a company's management style will affect all aspects of developing existing leaders, attracting future talent, and building relationships with customers in this competitive marketplace. Flex shows you how.

The real stories, lives and dramas behind the smash hit BBC series Call the Midwife which premieres on PBS September 30, 2012.The official companion to seasons one and two, The Life and Times of Call the Midwife, gives fans a deeper insight into the period, the stories and the characters, and how Call the Midwife, based on the bestselling memoirs by Jennifer Worth, was brought to the screen. With never before seen photographs taken on set as well as unique sketches and exclusive interviews and anecdotes, this book truly takes you behind the scenes. Discover the hidden secrets of the nurses and nuns of Nonnatus House and delve deeper into the historical context of the series with chapters detailing birth, health, faith, fashion, beauty, street life and food. From the team who brought you The World of Downton Abbey, high production values and attention to detail will create the ultimate and beautifully packaged gift purchase this Christmas that no fan of the show could bare to be without.

Why do some workplace cultures inspire energy and innovation, while others fuel anxiety, boredom, or cynicismUntil now, such legendary cultures have seemed like magic beyond our control. However, behind every culture is a surprisingly elegant science. Primed to Perform proves that the highest-performing cultures are built on a simple truth: why people work affects how well they work. Great organizations inspire the three most powerful motives for work play, purpose, and potential and eliminate the three most destructive emotional pressure, economic pressure, and inertia. They create total motivation (or ToMo, for short). Total motivation cultures create the highest-performing employees and the most adaptive organizations.Authors Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor show that extraordinary performance at companies like Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Apple, and Whole Foods comes from cultures that inspire total motivation. They describe how investment professionals, salespeople, teachers, and CEOs perform better when driven by total motivation. And, most important, they share how you can build a culture that inspires total motivation in every moment of every day.Primed to Perform builds on over a century of academic thinking as well as the authors' original research into how ToMo drives performance at iconic companies. It introduces the authors' highly predictive new measurement tool, the total motivation factor, which allows leaders to measure the strength of their culture and understand how it changes over time. It gives leaders the tools to transform their own workplaces.High-performing cultures can't be left to chance; organizations must create systems that shape and maintain them. Whether you're a five-person team or a start-up, an elementary school or a university, a nonprofit or a mega-institution, Primed to Perform shows you how.

150 Best New Kitchen Ideas offers interior designers and homeowners the latest in modern and traditional kitchen design. Showcasing 150 profiles of the most exciting kitchen designs from around the world, this stunning compendium provides innovative solutions and practical advice for creating attractive, functional, and affordable kitchens, no matter the size of the space. Explore the diversity of current trends from concept design to beautiful finished kitchens—there is no shortage of ideas or wares to make cooking a much more pleasant experience. The newest addition to the 150 Best series, this indispensable guide, illustrated with hundreds of photographs, is an inspirational source of original ideas to create a beautiful new kitchen.

An essential reference and the latest in the popular 150 Best series, 150 Best New Bathroom Ideas offers an in-depth look at modern bathroom designs created by internationally renowned architects and designers.Inside, readers will discover harmonious approaches and practical materials to use when designing bathrooms, from light fixtures and color schemes to floor, wall, and window treatments. Along with numerous ideas for the shower, toilet, sink, and bathtub, this book is an indispensable guide to designing an attractive, functional, and cost-effective bathroom. Featuring hundreds of photographs, 150 Best New Bathroom Ideas explores the diversity of current trends and is an excellent source of ideas for homeowners, designers, interior decorators, and architects. From the glamorous and roomy bath-spa to the small but smart powder room, bathrooms can make a big statement with creative ideas that are as stylish as they are useful.

The official, full-color, illustrated, behind-the-scenes companion to the lavish hit ITV and PBS television series Mr. Selfridge that vividly brings into focus the remarkable man and his time. Set at the crossroads between the old and the new—when the Victorian and Edwardian eras gave way to the modern age—Mr. Selfridge illuminates the passions, drama, tensions, and promise of the early twentieth century, embodied in one charming, dynamic, self-made man: department store tycoon Harry Gordon Selfridge. Mr. Selfridge follows a colorful cast of characters whose lives and fortunes are entangled with the founder of the magnificent department store that bears his name: Selfridge’s. American retail visionary Harry Selfridge moves to London in 1906 with his family to establish the most ambitious department store the world had ever seen. While his dreams inspire many, they also challenge the staid conventions of British society. A saga bursting with love affairs, class divisions, cultural clashes, ambition, betrayals, and secrets, Mr. Selfridge is set in an era when women reveled in a new sense of freedom and modernity. A charming, dynamic, brilliant, and forceful man who enjoys and respects women, Harry opens the doors of his opulent department story on London's famed Oxford Street to indulge, empower and celebrate them, changing the way the British—and the world—shopped forever. Including a foreword by series producer Andrew Davies, this official illustrated companion to the series—the biggest ITV-produced drama of all time—takes fans on a journey through the world of the series, Selfridge’s, and the larger-than-life entrepreneur, husband, lover, and family man behind it. Rich with historical detail, The World of Mr. Selfridge examines the real man and the fictional character based on him, his relationship with his family, his genius for retail, and his flagship store, including its departments and changing fashions in the early twentieth century. Complete with hundreds of gorgeous photographs, The World of Mr. Selfridge takes a closer look at the cast and their characters over the first two seasons, and looks ahead to series three, which begins in 1919—when Harry’s life really begins to unravel.

A behind-the-scenes look at the hugely popular and often controversial world of women's tennis featuring such household names as Venus and Serena Williams and Anna Kournikova. At a time when attendance and TV ratings for women's tennis are at an all-time high, Sports Illustrated writer L.Jon Wertheim, draws on his investigative talents and knowledge of the game to infiltrate the heretofore closed locker rooms of the women's tour and chronicle this remarkable era in the sport's history. With a narrative sweep that rockets along like a Venus Williams serve, it takes the reader from the year's first Grand Slam tournament--where a top player ignited a firestorm of controversy when she decided to come out-- to Venus' epochal victory at Wimbledon to the U.S. Open where Serena Williams defends her title and all the whistle-stop tournaments in between where the Russian vixen Anna Kournikova sent hormonally challenged teenagers, not to mention male sportswriters, into a frenzy, Venus Envy offers the reader the equivalent of a center-court seat and an all-access locker room pass. The book will contain a wealth of previously unreported, inside-the-locker room anecdotes about the marquee names in women's tennis and should engender much off-the-book-page coverage. There are more identifiable stars than ever before and the rivalries are intense and often rancorous. The book will even appeal to those readers with only a passing interest in tennis since many of the players have transcended the sport, appearing on the covers of magazine like GQ, Rolling Stone and Vogue.

A fireplace on wheelsA chandelier light by XeroxA shrink-wrapped designer closetThese are just a few of the more than one hundred innovative projects in Living in a Nutshell, a DIY guide of decorating ideas that fool the eye into seeing and believing a little lair is larger and more glamorous than its four walls. Here are fresh ideas for enhancing every living area of a tiny space. All are simple, affordable, portable, and big on style. An illustrated survival tool kit as well as extensive listings of untapped, off-the-beaten-track design resources and a select buying guide round out this invaluable book.

A Spectacular Selection of More Than 150 Fantasy Art Shoes from the Stuart Weitzman CollectionWhen Stuart Weitzman opened its first boutique on Madison Avenue, its displays of specially commissioned fantasy shoes quickly became a destination, drawing crowds form all over the world to its magical windows. The best of this carefully curated collection is on display in book form for the first time in this unique gift volume, where these imaginative creations are presented in vivid detail. With its inventive and beautifully crafted footwear in a vast range of materials from watercolor paper to playing cards, from fresh flowers to frosting this stunning showcase where fashion and fantasy meet will thrill shoe and art lovers alike.

In between her fairy-tale wedding and her premature death, there lived the most beloved royal presence of our century, surely as multifaceted as any celebrity of our time. The radical twists and turns in her brief life drew the fascination of millions. Yet the most photographed woman in the world was also the least quoted--her actual words were seldom heard, and never gathered, until now. This unique book is the result of a scrupulous worldwide search for every one of Diana's significant quotes. Upon reading this collection, one will find that behind her shy veneer dwelled a woman of extraordinary resourcefulness, stamina, and, perhaps above all, vulnerability. In fact, her open frankness about the events and people around her is both disarming and startling. The reader will discover the sharp clarity, endless warmth, and ready wit that she brought to her legendary life in this intimate self-portrait. This is the closest we will ever get to an autobiography from the People's Princess.

From the author of the bestselling Dorothy Dandridge comes a dazzling look at one of America's brightest and most troubled theatrical stars. Almost no other star of the twentieth century reimagined herself with such audacity and durable talent as did Ethel Waters. In this enlightening and engaging biography, Donald Bogle resurrects this astonishing woman from the annals of history, shedding new light on the tumultuous twists and turns of her seven-decade career, which began in Black vaudeville and reached new heights in the steamy nightclubs of 1920s Harlem. Bogle traces Waters' life from her poverty-stricken childhood to her rise in show business; her career as one of the early blues and pop singers, with such hits as "Am I Blue?," "Stormy Weather," and "Heat Wave"; her success as an actress, appearing in such films and plays as The Member of the Wedding and Mamba's Daughters; and through her lonely, painful final years. He illuminates Waters' turbulent private life, including her complicated feelings toward her mother and various lovers; her heated and sometimes well-known feuds with such entertainers as Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, and Lena Horne; and her tangled relationships with such legends as Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Harold Clurman, Elia Kazan, Count Basie, Darryl F. Zanuck, Vincente Minnelli, Fred Zinnemann, Moss Hart, and John Ford.In addition, Bogle explores the ongoing racial battles, growing paranoia, and midlife religious conversion of this bold, brash, wildly talented woman while examining the significance of her highly publicized life to audiences unaccustomed to the travails of a larger-than-life African American woman.Wonderfully atmospheric, richly detailed, and drawn from an array of candid interviews, Heat Wave vividly brings to life a major cultural figure of the twentieth century a charismatic, complex, and compelling woman, both tragic and triumphant.

The author of The Back of Beyond continues the chronicle of his odyssey into some of the farthest corners of the world, from the Mountains of the Moon in Zaire, to wilderness Tasmania, to the unknown regions of New Guinea.

Both a great American adventure and a rare entry into asheltered world, Under the Big Top describes one man's pursuit of every child's fantasy: running away to join the circus. Bruce Feiler's unforgettable year as a clown will forever change your view of one of the world's oldest art forms and remind you of how dreams can go horribly wrong -- and then miraculously come true.

In Feeling Strong, noted psychoanalyst Ethel S. Person redefines the notion of power. Power is often narrowly understood as the force exerted by the politicians and business leaders who seem to be in charge and by the rich and famous who monopolize our headlines. The whiff of evil we often catch when the subject of power is in the air comes from this one conception of power-- the drive for dominance over other people, or, in its most extreme form, an overriding and often ruthless lust for total command. But this is far too limited a definition of power.Pointing to a more fulfilling sense of self-empowerment than is being touted in pop-psychology manuals of our time, Feeling Strong shows us that power is really our ability to produce an effect, to make something we want to happen actually take place. Power is a desire and a drive, and it central in our lives, dictating much of our behavior and consuming much of our interior lives.We all have a need to possess power, use it, understand it and negotiate it. This holds true not just in mediating our sex and love lives, our family lives and friendships, our work relationships but in seeking to realize our dreams, whether in pursuit of our ambitions, expression of our creative impulses, or in our need to identify with something larger than ourselves. These separate kinds of power are best described as interpersonal power and personal power, respectively, and they call on different parts of our psyche. Ideally, we acquire competence in both domains.Drawing from her expertise honed in clinical practice, as well as from examples in literature and true-life vignettes, Person shows how we can achieve authentic power, a fundamental and potentially benevolent part of human nature that allows us to experience ourselves as authentically strong. To find something that matters; to live life at a higher pitch; to feel inner certainty; to find a personality of your own and effectively plot our own life story -- these are the forms of power explored in the book. To achieve and maintain such empowerment always entails struggle and is a life-long journey. Feeling Strong will lead the way.

A seasoned television professional the host of the top-rated KEY News morning show Eliza Blake has reported on tragedies many times from behind the anchor's desk . . . and she has survived devastating crises of her own. But only now is she learning the true meaning of terror when her seven-year-old daughter, Janie, is kidnapped from summer camp. Forced to suffer through a mother's worst nightmare in the glare of the camera lights, Eliza finds herself trapped in a media circus as the police and FBI explore every avenue . . . and every lead winds up at a dead end.But Eliza isn't going to just sit around and wait for answers because every minute wasted in the desperate race to reveal the shocking motives of a ruthless abductor brings a frightened little girl one minute closer to her death.

To break a centuries-old curse, beautiful, headstrong Lady Kathleen MacDavid knows she must ignore every rule of propriety by seducing and marrying the Earl of Norcroft. So she sets off for London, braving scandal and ruin to achieve her goal . . . until a crazy bump on the head makes her forget nearly everything.The thrill of winning a bet that he'd be the last of his set to wed hasn't eased the earl's pain of losing his friends to marriage. Still, he'd be willing to settle down if he could meet someone worthy of his love and desire. But he has met no such woman, until Kathleen is brought to him. Suspicious of her motives, he's determined to resist her seductive ways. But sometimes even the most proper gentleman finds it expedient to act improperly . . .

A classic love story by New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky, back in print for the first time in years and guaranteed to delight her fans, old and new.Stephanie Wright was just 19 the first time she ran, heartbroken and angry, out of Douglas Weston's life. She and Douglas, a devastatingly handsome tennis camp instructor, shared a summer marked by a gentle love, capped by one night of sensuous passion -- followed by a terrible, unforgivable betrayal that sent her fleeing. Eight years later, upon her return to the camp, Stephanie must fight the feelings that first drew him to her And now there is Melissa, her beautiful seven-year-old daughter; who smiles up at her tennis teacher with gray eyes that mirror his own.

On the day she died, Constance Young was the undisputed star of morning television. But her plans to move herself and her loyal audience to another network were cancelled when she ended up at the bottom of her swimming pool. And the fabled unicorn amulet that Constance had been wearing during her final hours a gift from King Arthur to his beloved Guinevere and the centerpiece of the upcoming Camelot exhibit at New York's Cloisters museum is missing.A morning show veteran and now anchor of the KEY Evening Headlines, Eliza Blake is shocked by the death of her former colleague, and is determined to discover who wanted Constance out of the way . . . and why. To do so, she enlists the aid of three KEY News coworkers: "Jane-of-all-trades" Annabelle Murphy, who can switch from producing to sleuthing at a moment's notice; charming and fearless cameraman extraordinaire B.J. D'Elia to add brains, brawn, and a much-needed male perspective to the team; and Dr. Margo Gonzalez, on-air psychiatrist, who understands the complex puzzles of the human mind. Calling themselves "The Sunrise Suspense Society," they set out to get to the bottom of the heinous murder, in a case that will test their ingenuity and their courage to the very limits.The deeper they dig, the more twisted the trail to Constance's killer becomes as the list of suspects grows longer by the minute. Was it her spurned and enraged medievalist lover, or a muckraking author who blamed her for ruining her lifePerhaps money was the motive, and Constance's sister, jealous of her wealth and fame, was responsible. Or possibly someone at Key News was angry enough or frightened enough to commit cold-blooded murder. The one sure thing is that Constance Young made a lot of enemies and now one of them is Eliza's enemy as well. And the closer she and the Society get to unmasking the murderer, the closer they each get to dying, suddenly . . . and brutally.