In The Revolution Was Televised, celebrated TV critic Alan Sepinwall chronicles the remarkable transformation of the small screen over the past fifteen years. Focusing on twelve innovative television dramas that changed the medium and the culture at large forever, including The Sopranos, Oz, The Wire, Deadwood, The Shield, Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 24, Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad, Sepinwall weaves his trademark incisive criticism with highly entertaining reporting about the real-life characters and conflicts behind the scenes. Drawing on interviews with writers David Chase, David Simon, David Milch, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and Vince Gilligan, among others, along with the network executives responsible for green-lighting these fresh shows, The Revolution Was Televised is the story of how a new golden age was born, one that's as rich with drama and thrills as the very shows themselves.

The classic book that shaped two generations’ view of the movie business and introduced the archetypal Hollywood player Sammy Glick. He’s got a machete mouth and a genius for double-cross. As Budd Shulberg—author of the screenplay On the Waterfront —follows Sammy’s relentless upward progress, he creates a virtuoso study in character that manages to be hilariously appalling yet deeply compassionate. “Sammy Glick remains at the top of the Hollywood sleaze heap, a hustler nonpareil…. What Makes Sammy Run? Is still the quintessential novel about “the all-American heel.’” – Moredcai Richler, GQ

"Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over thirty years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence: at work, at home, in politics, and in love, we find ways around conversation, tempted by the possibilities of a text or an email in which we don't have to look, listen, or reveal ourselves. We develop a taste for what mere connection offers. The dinner table falls silent as children compete with phones for their parents' attention. Friends learn strategies to keep conversations going when only a few people are looking up from their phones. At work, we retreat to our screens although it is conversation at the water cooler that increases not only productivity but commitment to work. Online, we only want to share opinions that our followers will agree with - a politics that shies away from the real conflicts and solutions of the public square. The case for conversation begins with the necessary conversations of solitude and self-reflection. They are endangered: these days, always connected, we see loneliness as a problem that technology should solve. Afraid of being alone, we rely on other people to give us a sense of ourselves, and our capacity for empathy and relationship suffers. We see the costs of the flight from conversation everywhere: conversation is the cornerstone for democracy and in business it is good for the bottom line. In the private sphere, it builds empathy, friendship, love, learning, and productivity. But there is good news: we are resilient. Conversation cures. Based on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools, and the workplace, Turkle argues that we have come to a better understanding of where our technology can and cannot take us and that the time is right to reclaim conversation. The most human--and humanizing--thing that we do. The virtues of person-to-person conversation are timeless, and our most basic technology, talk, responds to our modern challenges. We have everything we need to start, we have each other"--Publisher's website

In his follow-up to Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff writes about a presidency under fire from almost every side. At the outset of Trump's second year as president, his situation is profoundly different. No longer tempered by experienced advisers, he is more impulsive and volatile than ever. But the wheels of justice are inexorably turning: Robert Mueller's 'witch hunt' haunts Trump every day, and other federal prosecutors are taking a deep dive into his business affairs. Many in the political establishment -- even some members of his own administration -- have turned on him and are dedicated to bringing him down. The Democrats see victory at the polls, and perhaps impeachment, in front of them. Trump, meanwhile, is certain he is invincible, making him all the more exposed and vulnerable. Week by week, as Trump becomes increasingly erratic, the question that lies at the heart of his tenure becomes ever more urgent : Will this most abnormal of presidencies at last reach the breaking point and implode?

Now a major motion picture starring Melissa McCarthy—Lee Israel’s hilarious and shocking memoir of the astonishing caper she carried on for almost two years when she forged and sold more than three hundred letters by such literary notables as Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, Noel Coward, and many others. Before turning to her life of crime—running a one-woman forgery business out of a phone booth in a Greenwich Village bar and even dodging the FBI—Lee Israel had a legitimate career as an author of biographies. Her first book on Tallulah Bankhead was a New York Times bestseller, and her second, on the late journalist and reporter Dorothy Kilgallen, made a splash in the headlines. But by 1990, almost broke and desperate to hang onto her Upper West Side studio, Lee made a bold and irreversible career change: inspired by a letter she’d received once from Katharine Hepburn, and armed with her considerable skills as a researcher and celebrity biographer, she began to forge letters in the voices of literary greats. Between 1990 and 1991, she wrote more than three hundred letters in the voices of, among others, Dorothy Parker, Louise Brooks, Edna Ferber, Lillian Hellman, and Noel Coward—and sold the forgeries to memorabilia and autograph dealers. “Lee Israel is deft, funny, and eminently entertaining…[in her] gentle parable about the modern culture of fame, about those who worship it, those who strive for it, and those who trade in its relics” (The Associated Press). Exquisitely written, with reproductions of her marvelous forgeries, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is “a slender, sordid, and pretty damned fabulous book about her misadventures” ( The New York Times Book Review ).

Renowned sociologist and author Eric Klinenberg explores the dramatic rise of solo living and examines the seismic impact it's having on our culture, business, and politics.

"A look at how government and corporations control how we think and act, Propaganda outlines Edward Bernays's vision for regimenting the collective mind. Originally published in 1928, this manual of mass manipulation provides a detailed examination of how public discourse and opinion are shaped and controlled in politics, business, art, education and science. In a world dominated by political spin and media manipulation, Propaganda is an essential read for all who wish to understand how power is used by the ruling elite of our society."--BOOK JACKET

A lot has changed since Kitchen Confidential. For the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business as a whole—and for Anthony Bourdain. Medium Raw explores those changes, taking the reader back and forth—from the author’s bad old days—to the present. Tracking his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe travelling professional eater and drinker, Bourdain compares and contrasts what he’s seen and what he’s seeing, pausing along the way for a series of confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the more controversial figures in food. Always returning to the question: “Why cook? “ Or the harder to answer: “Why cook well?” Beginning with a secret and highly illegal after-hours gathering of powerful chefs he compares to a Mafia summit, the story follows the twists and eddies through subjects ranging from: “The Friends of David Chang” an incredibly undiplomatic discussion with (and peek into the mind of) the hottest, most influential chef in America. “Don’t Ask Alice”: Alice Waters. Good . . . or Evil? The Big Shake Out: The restaurant business in post economic meltdown America. How it’s changing. How it might change even more. And, Heroes and Villains. (With a few returning favorites.)

"In 1983, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of Long Island, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse for wear, and the family begins the hard work of trying to move on with their lives and resume their prized places in the saga of the American dream, coming to understand that though their money may have been what put them in danger, it is also what guaranteed them their safety in the end. But forty years later, when Carl's mother dies and the family comes home to mourn her, it becomes clear that nobody ever really got over anything. Carl's wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband's emotional health. Their three grown children are each a mess: Nathan cannot seem to advance at his law firm and may have made a terrible investment with his trust fund; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything-substance, foodstuff, women-in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she is not a product of the family's pathology that she comes to define it. Then there's Carl himself, the prickly, still-terrified father, who has been secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping for years, and the unthinkable act he commits that will alter the family's path forever"--

“The most interesting book ever written about Google” ( The Washington Post ) delivers the inside story behind the most successful and admired technology company of our time, now updated with a new Afterword. Google is arguably the most important company in the world today, with such pervasive influence that its name is a verb. The company founded by two Stanford graduate students—Larry Page and Sergey Brin—has become a tech giant known the world over. Since starting with its search engine, Google has moved into mobile phones, computer operating systems, power utilities, self-driving cars, all while remaining the most powerful company in the advertising business. Granted unprecedented access to the company, Levy disclosed that the key to Google’s success in all these businesses lay in its engineering mindset and adoption of certain internet values such as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk-taking. Levy discloses details behind Google’s relationship with China, including how Brin disagreed with his colleagues on the China strategy—and why its social networking initiative failed; the first time Google tried chasing a successful competitor. He examines Google’s rocky relationship with government regulators, particularly in the EU, and how it has responded when employees left the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups. In the Plex is the “most authoritative…and in many ways the most entertaining” (James Gleick, The New York Book Review ) account of Google to date and offers “an instructive primer on how the minds behind the world’s most influential internet company function” (Richard Waters, The Wall Street Journal ).

From the author who's inspired millions worldwide with books like Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes his most imaginative novel yet, The Time Keeper --a compelling fable about the first man on Earth to count the hours. The man who became Father Time. In Mitch Albom's exceptional work of fiction, the inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time. He returns to our world--now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began--and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so. Told in Albom's signature spare, evocative prose, this remarkably original tale will inspire readers everywhere to reconsider their own notions of time, how they spend it, and how precious it truly is.

'My favourite literary hero at the moment is Anthony Horowitz' - SHARI LAPENA, author of The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House _________________________ Death, deception, and a detective with quite a lot to hide: the second novel in the bestselling series starring Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne. _________________________ 'You shouldn't be here. It's too late... ' These were Richard Pryce's last words, overheard moments before the celeb divorce lawyer was bludgeoned to death with a £3,000 bottle of wine. Strange circumstances pile up. Pryce was teetotal, so why this bottle? Why those words? Why did the killer paint a number on his wall? And, most importantly, which of the man's many, many enemies did the deed? Baffled, the police are forced to bring in Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, the author Anthony , who's really getting rather good at this murder investigation business. But as Hawthorne takes on the case with characteristic relish, it becomes clear that he, too, has secrets to hide. Anthony knows they must be exposed - even at the risk of death... _________________________ 'It's great fun and often hilarious to watch Anthony, as Hawthorne's biographer try to solve crimes while hopelessly out of his depth. This is meta-fiction I can get behind.' - SHARI LAPENA 'Anthony Horowitz gets away with murder in all sorts of ways and emerges triumphant ' - THE TIMES , Books of the Year 'Pure pleasure for readers ... A must-read delight. ' - WALL STREET JOURNAL 'This is crime fiction as dazzling entertainment , sustained by writing as skilfully light-footed as Fred Astaire' - SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB (STAR PICK) 'A crime story that keeps you up into the small hours... a page-turning mystery ' - METRO ' Sheer genius ... The narrative is hilarious and full of Holmesian clues and deliberate errors which will leave the eagle-eyed reader feeling just a bit smug. A joy from start to finish ' - INDEPENDENT 'With its teasing mix of real and fictional characters, Horowitz's fast-paced novel remains tantalising to the final page ' - DAILY MAIL 'Fans of traditional puzzle mysteries will be enthralled ' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'One of the most creative writers in the country today' - JEREMY VINE ' Huge fun ... It's hard to know why anyone who loves a good mystery wouldn't thoroughly enjoy the ride ' - IRISH INDEPENDENT 'A new Anthony Horowitz novel is always something to look forward to . Anyone who likes a good Midsomer -style murder mystery will love The Sentence is Death' - CULTUREFLY 'Succeeds on all levels ... Horowitz has the Midas touch ' - BOOKLIST 'This mystery is a worthy and witty follow-up to last year's best-seller The Word Is Murder ... brilliant and enigmatic ' - AARP 'No one currently working the field has anywhere near this much ingenuity to burn' - KIRKUS

The 39th Alex Delaware novel from the No. 1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense, perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and David Baldacci. Some secrets are worth killing for. In an upscale Bel Air property, two lovers are found dead in a swimming pool. The man is the playboy heir to a business empire, and the woman is his even wealthier married neighbour. An illicit affair is the perfect[Bokinfo]

"An engaging read that will engross any would-be entrepreneur" ( Wall Street Journal ), now updated with a new afterword by the author: In the tradition of Phil Knight's Shoe Dog comes the incredible untold story of how Netflix went from concept to company -- all revealed by co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph. Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, video-streaming unheard was of, and widespread DVD adoption seemed about as imminent as flying cars. Indeed, these were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997, when Marc Randolph had an idea. It was a simple thought--leveraging the internet to rent movies--and was just one of many more and far worse proposals, like personalized baseball bats and a shampoo delivery service, that Randolph would pitch to his business partner, Reed Hastings, on their commute to work each morning. But Hastings was intrigued, and the pair--with Hastings as the primary investor and Randolph as the CEO--founded a company. Now with over 150 million subscribers, Netflix's triumph feels inevitable, but the twenty first century's most disruptive start up began with few believers and calamity at every turn. From having to pitch his own mother on being an early investor, to the motel conference room that served as a first office, to server crashes on launch day, to the now-infamous meeting when Netflix brass pitched Blockbuster to acquire them, Marc Randolph's transformational journey exemplifies how anyone with grit, gut instincts, and determination can change the world--even with an idea that many think will never work. What emerges, though, isn't just the inside story of one of the world's most iconic companies. Full of counter-intuitive concepts and written in binge-worthy prose, it answers some of our most fundamental questions about taking that leap of faith in business or in life: How do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? How do you deal with success? What even is success? From idea generation to team building to knowing when it's time to let go, That Will Never Work is not only the ultimate follow-your-dreams parable, but also one of the most dramatic and insightful entrepreneurial stories of our time.

Widely acknowledged as the greatest marketer/salesman of the television era, Ron Popeil literally invented direct-response TV sales which, over the last 20 years, has earned him $300 million. The Salesman of the Century presents his rags-to-riches story.

The Harvard Business Review Paperback Series is designed to bring managers and professionals the fundamental information they need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world.

Tastemaker, n. Anyone with the power to make you eat quinoa. Kale. Spicy sriracha sauce. Honeycrisp apples. Cupcakes. These days, it seems we are constantly discovering a new food that will make us healthier, happier, or even somehow cooler. Chia seeds, after a brief life as a novelty houseplant and I Love the '80s punchline, are suddenly a superfood. Not long ago, that same distinction was held by pomegranate seeds, açai berries, and the fermented drink known as kombucha. So what happened? Did these foods suddenly cease to be healthy a few years ago? And by the way, what exactly is a "superfood" again? In this eye-opening, witty work of reportage, David Sax uncovers the world of food trends: Where they come from, how they grow, and where they end up. Traveling from the South Carolina rice plot of America's premier grain guru to Chicago's gluttonous Baconfest, Sax reveals a world of influence, money, and activism that helps decide what goes on your plate. On his journey, he meets entrepreneurs, chefs, and even data analysts who have made food trends a mission and a business. The Tastemakers is full of entertaining stories and surprising truths about what we eat, how we eat it, and why.

Mutual funds offer investors some of the most diverse and effective ways of investing in the market. Whether you're a Wall Street newcomer or veteran, mutual funds allow you to participate in the full range of offerings while at the same time protecting you from the volatility of individual stocks. With the straight talk and savvy that have made her a trusted source of financial advise, Suze Orman ... explains the numerous options and investment strategies of stock and bond funds. In this same volume, Suze Orman clarifies a widely available but frequently misunderstood investment vehicle, the annuity. No matter where you are in your financial life, no matter what your goals, you will find sound, practical, enlightening advice in Ask Suze ... About Mutual Funds and Annuities. -- back cover.

"When it was first published in 1974, Studs Terkel's oral history about "what people do all day and how they feel about it" became a best seller, was hailed as an instant classic, and eventually inspired a Broadway musical. Today, in this new edition with a foreword by the New York Times' Adam Cohen, it remains as relevant as ever: a masterpiece that reveals how "ordinary" Americans - that is, all of us - ceaselessly search for, but only sometimes find, satisfaction in our work."--Dust jacket back cover.

The "American Idol" judge the public loves to be shocked by now gives the low-down on the musical fame game in this witty, wicked look at what it takes to become a rock star.