Beginning with the development of the compass, Ruling the Waves examines a series of technological revolutions that promised, in their time, to transform the world's politics and business. With Debora Spar's gifted storytelling, each chapter reads like an adventure tale as she recounts the histories of the printing press and maps; of the telegraph, radio, and satellite television; of software, encryption, and the advent of digital music. At each of these junctures Spar suggests that invention led to both a wave of commerce and of chaos. Entrepreneurs such as Samuel Morse and Rupert Murdoch carved new markets from the emerging technology and proclaimed that the old rules no longer applied. And for a while, they were right. But eventually--and inevitably--even cowboys need rules: rules of property, rules of coordination, rules of competition. The erstwhile pioneers thus turn to government, lobbying for order and setting the stage for the next wave of discovery. A fascinating history of business, Ruling the Waves is also an original, thought-provoking analysis of the parallels between past innovations and inventions and our own tumultuous times.

From David Baddiel, the brightest new star of children's books and winner of the LOLLIES award, comes a laugh-out-loud adventure for every child who ever wondered what it might be like to be a bit of an animal... Malcolm doesn't like animals. Which is a problem because his family love them. Their house is full of pets. What the house is NOT full of is stuff Malcolm likes. Such as the laptop he wanted for his birthday. The only bright spot on the horizon is the Year Six school trip, which Malcolm never thought his parents would pay for. And yet there he is, on the bus, heading to... oh no. A farm. Over the next days, Malcolm changes. He learns a lot about animals. More, in many ways, than he would like. He learns what it's really like to be an animal. A whole series of animals, in fact... It does make him think differently. And speak differently. And eat differently. And, um, smell differently. But will he end up the same as before? Because sometimes the hardest thing to become is... yourself.

'Taking taxis in New York is usually an adventure and occasionally a risk,' says Christina Oxenberg. The hundred or so taxi stories she's collected from both sides of the partition window make that an understatement. 'All the drivers are crazy' seems nearer the mark, like the intellectual who drives in order to subsidize his search for the 'Negative' Scienza Nuova of Giamattista Vico or the immigrant who takes to the wheel because 'it requires no prior experience, no knowledge of English and no familiarity with the geography of New York'. Ms Oxenberg describes another driver as 'the living embodiment of urban paranoia', but judging by some of the celebrities' reactions to her request for stories the tag applies equally well to many passengers. Some of these will be interested to find the exact wording of their refusals here. Fairbanks Junior, Diana Vreeland, Quentin Crisp, Any Warhol and Catherine Oxenberg, whose driver, in a bid to pick her up, promised to get her a spot on Dynasty. This fully illustrated book is as redolent of New York City as the yellow taxi describes. The back of the cab serves as an arena for metaphysical discussion, copulation, homicide, drug abuse and literary quotation. Celebrities apart, the passengers include an incontinent lion cub and Franco Rossilini's puppy Gramophone, who gets slung into a shop window by a demented driver. More often it's your tip that gets slung in your face. As Ms Oxenberg dryly remarks, 'Taxi Driving is not a passive sport.' Sharp observation and a diligent disregard for contributors' requests for anonymity ensure that the place for this book is your bookshelf.

One of the most challenging writers of '70s Marvel, Steve Gerber's Defenders ranks as a high-water mark of the era. Taking Marvel's famous non-team and mixing in his own unique brand of sharp social commentary, Gerber brought forth stories both action-packed and insightful! We begin with a classic four-part saga featuring the bigoted Sons of the Serpent that brings members past and present together to defend the defenseless. Then, the Guardians of the Galaxy hit the scene and take the Defenders to the year 3015 A.D.! It's an amazing adventure including the debut of Starhawk - and the Guardians of the Galaxy's first appearance too! COLLECTING: Defenders (1972) 22-30, Giant-Size Defenders 5, Marvel Super-Heroes (1967) 18

The final whip-cracking adventure in the P.K. Pinkerton series from bestselling Roman Mysteries author Caroline Lawrence. When P.K's father, Robert Pinkerton, suddenly appears in Virginia City, P.K.'s life turns upside down. Suddenly she's having to learn how to be a 'girly-girl' in a cunning plot to outwit silver thieves. But it seems the thieves are one step ahead! Has P.K. finally met her match or can she use her detective skills to turn the situation on its head and impress her private-eye Pa? A gripping rollercoaster ride of a tale packed with Wild West authenticity and atmosphere from this million-selling author.

The second thrilling adventure in a new historical series from million-copy-selling Caroline Lawrence, set in Roman Britain during the reign of the evil Emperor Domitian. Britannia AD 94. On the run from the Emperor Domitian, fifteen-year-old Fronto has joined the Roman army in order to find the security and structure he craves. But when his younger sister Ursula is captured by a terrifying Druid called Snakebeard, he must make an impossible decision. Can he leave the army, when desertion is punishable by death? His desire: To become a good soldier His quest: To rescue his sister His destiny: To find his place in Roman Britain.

One Sunday afternoon, an ordinary couple named Edmund and Rosemary decide to go for a walk in their Brooklyn neighborhood. Within moments, they are plunged into a wonderful, nerve-racking, hilarious, unique adventure that begins with a cell phone and ends in a jungle halfway around the world. In Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell , famed New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan uses his trademark incisive wit to explore what it is that prevents us from seeing all that we have. By turns wickedly funny and oddly touching, this provocative and ultimately hopeful picture book for adults will appeal to anyone who has ever been stuck in traffic or, more to the point, stuck inside themselves.

A New York Times Bestselling AuthorRiding a bicycle across the United States is one of those bucket-list goals that many dream about but few fulfill. In 2011 at the age of fifty-seven, New York Times obituary writer Bruce Weber made the trip alone and wrote about it as it unfolded mile by mile. Now, expanding upon the articles and blog posts that quickly became a must-read adventure story, Weber gives us a witty, inspiring, and reflective diary of his journey.

Captures seven hit-making decades during the American recording industry's glittering, freewheeling years. Tommy LiPuma was one of America's most successful record producers whose work with seminal artists like Miles Davis, Diana Krall, Barbra Streisand, Rickie Lee Jones, George Benson, and Willie Nelson went on to sell over seventy-five million records. It is also a picaresque journey that opens with the murder of a man on a dirt path in Sicily and concludes with five trips up the Grammy red carpet. The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma is real-life Horatio Alger adventure storied with bootleggers, gangsters, artists, hipsters, set in a revolutionary time in music history that changed popular culture around the world. Finally, it's a deeply personal account of how music saved one man's life, and how he went on to affect the lives of millions of others. "Tommy was my best friend, my creative partner, my mentor, my confidant, and my producer for twenty-four years. As time goes on, I realize just how special he was."--Diana Krall "Tommy was a fantastic producer. He always had a great sense of humour . . . he would sit in the studio with us musicians and make every session a complete joy."--Paul McCartney "Tommy was always looking for ways to bring authentic jazz and blues to a larger audience."--Donald Fagen "He leaves a great legacy of great music that's going to stand the test of time . . . . I miss him every day."--Al Schmitt "Tommy was a great producer and a real friend."--Willie Nelson I don't think that it's been noticed enough what he's done. He's been the most successfulperson, commercially, in the history of jazz."--Randy Newman

Young audience Characters: 3 male 3 female With help from Uncle Pirate and his faithful talking penguin maybe just maybe Wilson can survive the fourth grade. Wilson is just your average kid. Then one day he finds out his uncle is a pirate... like a REAL pirate! Grab yer eye patches and pirate hats mateys! The adventure begins now! "At heart Uncle Pirate proves more of a Boy Scout than a buccaneer but that won't distress theatergoers under 12 this diverting and often fun

Bike Lust roars straight into the world of women bikers and offers us a ride. In this adventure story that is also an insider’s study of an American subculture, Barbara Joans enters as a passenger on the back of a bike, but soon learns to ride her own. As an anthropologist she untangles the rules, rituals, and rites of passage of the biker culture. As a new member of that culture, she struggles to overcome fear, physical weakness, and a tendency to shoot her mouth off—a tendency that very nearly gets her killed. Bike Lust travels a landscape of contradictions. Outlaws still chase freedom on the highway, but so do thousands of riders of all classes, races, and colors. Joans introduces us to the women who ride the rear—the biker chick, the calendar slut straddling the hot engine, the back-seat Betty at the latest rally, or the underage groupie at the local run. But she also gives us the first close look at women who ride in their own right, on their own bikes, as well as a new understanding of changing world of male bikers. These are ordinary women’s lives made extraordinary, adding a dimension of courage to the sport not experienced by males, risking life and limb for a glimpse of the very edge of existence. This community of riders exists as a primal tribute to humanity's lust for freedom.

Ayya Khema (1923-1997) was the first Western woman to become a Theravadan Buddhist nun. As such, she has served as a model and inspiration for women from all the Buddhist traditions who have sought to revive the practice of women's monasticism in modern times. Though her renown as a teacher is widespread, few know the truly amazing details of her life before her monastic ordination at the age of fifty-eight. And what a life it was. Born Ilse Kussel in Berlin, Germany, she grew up in a prosperous Jewish family that was broken up by Nazi terror in 1938. The story of her escape alone to Scotland, and her journey to rejoin her family in China, would be enough for a thrilling adventure novel in itself—but it is only the beginning of the story. Her later adventures included—but were not limited to—surviving the Japanese invasion of China; living the life of a suburban housewife in Los Angeles, California; journeying up the Amazon; studying in a Bolivian university; building a power plant in Pakistan; and establishing the first organic farm in Australia. Her Buddhist practice was a result of a pursuit of the spiritual life that began in her forties when she encountered spiritual teachers in India. She eventually founded a monastery in Sri Lanka, from where, through her books and her teaching travels, she became one of the most widely respected of contemporary teachers, particularly skilled in interpreting the Buddhist teachings for her fellow Westerners.

Oliver Parker is a ten-year-old American boy miserably trapped in Paris, where his father is stationed as a journalist. Intimidated by his French school and its prickly teachers, oppressed by gray and wintry Paris, and feeling curiously remote from his father-who spends more and more time staring dully into his computer screen--Oliver longs to return to America. But if he has to stay in Paris, Oliver sure wouldn't mind if the elegant and very French little girl down the street, Neige, deigned to notice him. During dinner with his parents one cold January evening, Oliver feels silly wearing the paper crown of an Epiphany-festival French king. That night, looking in the mirror, he sees a boy in an ancient French doublet gazing back at him. The boy, Francois, tells Oliver that he himself is kingly, and that he has a special mission--rescuing souls. Only days later, on a trip to Versailles, Oliver is transported to the French spirit kingdom, ruled over by the fatuous King Louis the Nth. There, the famous playwright Moliere tells Oliver he must deliver France from the forces of the great Egg, who sucks up the spirits of men, women, and children when they look into a mirror of glass or of water. Oliver reluctantly rises to the challenge. Fortunately, he has help--from the can-do American Charlie, who arrives for a visit; from Neige, a Parisian diva in training; and from Mrs. Pearson, a British author and personage who leads a foray straight through Lewis Carroll's looking-glass. Ultimately, Oliver pursues Egg into the underworld-located directly underneath Paris--and realizes he must save not just the world, but all of its souls as well. In a marvelous denouement in which Oliver musttransform Eiffel Tower itself to fight the soulless wraiths, the boy proves himself a true king. The King in the Window is a beautifully written, suspenseful adventure tale in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien--an instant classic.

In September 1925, Sidney Reilly journeyed across the Russian frontier on a mission to overthrow the Bolsheviks and restore the Czar. He vanished without a trace. The circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery. This classic autobiography reveals the intriguing adventures and exploits of the man widely credited as being the original twentieth-century super-spy, inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond. Sidney Reilly , the so-called Ace of Spies, was a womanizing British secret agent who claimed to be Irish but was in fact Russian. Awarded the Military Cross for his daring operations, he met his death in Russia in 1925 after a sting operation by the Soviet Secret Service.

I feel like I'm one of those people that you talk about whose lives have been adventures in Marxism. I'm fifty years old, and since I spent my life as a construction worker raising a family, I'm at this stage still in college ... Your book was inspiring to me because it reminded me why I made the sacrifices I did to get an education ... the sheer joy of learning about ideas and the hope that education can make some kind of difference. He great thing about your approach to Marx is that you show that theory and the world of ideas can be exciting and intellectually rich, but also relevant to all workers, blue collar or otherwise. —Personal letter to the Author from Scott Smith, construction worker and student (Pittsburgh)

"Although the wombat is real and the dragon is not, nobody knows what a wombat looks like and everyone knows what a dragon looks like."Not a novel, not a book of short stories, Adventures in Unhistory is a book of the fantastic-a compendium of magisterial examinations of Mermaids, Mandrakes, and Mammoths; Dragons, Werewolves, and Unicorns; the Phoenix and the Roc; about places such as Sicily, Siberia, and the Moon; about heroic, sinister, and legendary persons such as Sindbad, and Aleister Crowley, and Prester John; and-revealed at last-the Secret of Hyperborea.

"Mottel may have been a young demon to manage, but he is a pleasure to read about. Nothing daunts him. His spirit soars above the cruelties, the world has not grown any gentler since this book was written. Sholom Aleichem's wit and humanity enrich any age and any language."--"New York Times."

Part memoir, part journalism, part history, part downright strange and hilarious, American Parent takes readers on a unique tour of the world of new mothers and fathers. As Sam Apple embarks on his own journey into parenthood, he decides to put his background in journalism to good use by talking to a wide range of experts. Along the way, Apple visits with the mohel who circumcised him, enters a trance with a childbirth hypnotist, goes on a stakeout with a nanny spy, and attends a lecture on Botox for new mothers. Apple is full of questions, and none is left unexplored: Is the Lamaze method a Stalinist plot? (Yes.) Are newborns really fetuses that are born too soon? (Sort of.) Is there a universal theory that can explain the origins of circumcision in many diverse cultures? (Maybe.) Does it sting when you pour baby shampoo into your own eyes? (Big-time!) And yet for all the unusual twists in this story-at one point Apple fantasizes about a father losing his mind and refusing to remove his BabyBjorn-the strangest twist of all might be that at its core American Parent is a deeply serious and personal book about the way emotionally vulnerable and confused new parents can get lost in the increasingly complex labyrinth of baby products, classes, and fads. Parenthood is the oldest subject of all. In American Parent, Sam Apple makes it feel entirely new.

When Mickie Siebert arrived in New York in the mid-1950s, she had $500 in her wallet and drove a used Studebaker. Almost fifty years later she is known as the "First Woman of Finance," the only woman to head a publicly traded national brokerage firm. Pithy, vastly entertaining, and full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, Changing the Rules reveals how Siebert forged her phenomenal success in the chaotic and cutthroat world of Wall Street. Three four-letter words are behind Siebert's career success: One is work -- she learned everything there was to know about a company before recommending its stock. The second is luck -- as an analyst in training, she had the good fortune to follow a fledgling industry that nobody else wanted. (The "dog" industry was airlines.) The third word is risk -- she knew how to assess liability and make a decision. Siebert recounts the resistance of the good gray Stock Exchange when she dared to infiltrate the boys' club, threatening to have a Port-O-San delivered to the NYSE luncheon club if they didn't add a women's bathroom. She reveals the backstage stories about saving Lockheed and selling Conrail (at the time, the largest stock offering in Wall Street history), as well as the changes on the Street that led to May Day, 1975, when she was first in line as a discount broker (and considered a pariah by industry standards). She tells of her memorable encounters with such legendary figures as Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the World War I flying ace who ran Eastern Airlines, and Robert Brimberg, the iconoclastic "Scarsdale Fats" whose investing acumen was the envy of the Street. Writing with equal candor about the politics of finance and the finance of politics, Siebert recalls her five years as Superintendent of Banking for New York State -- when she helped to prevent a national fiscal crisis during the Iran hostage situation -- and her experiences as a pro-choice Republican senatorial candidate. Siebert's reputation for rocking the boat is legendary, and Changing the Rules is both a fascinating biography of a true pioneer, and a valuable strategic and informational tool for anyone who deals with or dabbles in the money game.

Presents a history of the Jewish people throughout the ages.