Displaying the top 100 results that match your query. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/rssapi.jsp?browse=true&Ne=6670&N=3+8036 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=553533 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1730911 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1739186 Recounts the story of a young mother who underwent an intense near-death experience after she became unresponsive during a medical emergency, as she discusses the hardships of her past and the impact of the experience on her life. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1752618 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1679523 Its a chilling reality that homicide investigators know all too well: the last face most murder victims see is not that of a stranger, but of someone familiar. These doomed relationships are the focus of Ann Rules sixteenth all-new Crime Files collection. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1519608 The astonishing autobiography of SEAL Chief Chris Kyle, whose record 150 confirmed kills make him the most deadly sniper in U.S. military history. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1532779 A groundbreaking investigation into the origins of morality, which turns out to be the basis for religion and politics. The book explains the American culture wars and refutes the New Atheists. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1616026 Recounts the story of the six double agents--Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle, Garbo, and a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is revealed here for the first time--who would weave a web of deception so intricate that it ensnared Hitlers army and helped to carry thousands of troops across the Channel in safety on 6 June 1944, D-Day. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1566717 Twenty-six years ago, Shin Dong-hyuk was born inside Camp 14, one of five sprawling political prisons in the mountains of North Korea. This is the gripping, terrifying story of his escape from this no-exit prison-- to freedom in South Korea. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1568542 The man behind the Real Housewives writes about his lifelong love affair with pop culture that brought him from the suburbs of St. Louis to his own television show. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1568396 A counterterrorism spy describes his leadership of the campaign that routed al Qaeda and the Taliban in the weeks after the September 11 attacks, offering insight into the ways in which the Afghanistan campaign changed American warfare. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1522514 At some point in nearly every marriage, a wife finds herself asking, What the ... is wrong with my husband?! In the authors case, this turns out to be an apt question. Five years after he married Kristen, the love of his life, they learn that he has Asperger syndrome. The diagnosis explains his ever-growing list of quirks and compulsions, his lifelong propensity to quack and otherwise melt down in social exchanges, and his clinical-strength inflexibility. But it doesnt make him any easier to live with. Determined to change, he sets out to understand Asperger syndrome and learn to be a better husband, no easy task for a guy whose inability to express himself rivals his two-year-old daughters, who thinks his responsibility for laundry extends no further than throwing things in (or at) the hamper, and whose autism-spectrum condition makes seeing his wifes point of view a near impossibility. Nevertheless, he devotes himself to improving his marriage with an endearing yet hilarious zeal that involves excessive note-taking, performance reviews, and most of all, this book: a collection of hundreds of maxims and hard-won epiphanies that result from self-reflection both comic and painful. They include Dont change the radio station when shes singing along, Apologies do not count when you shout them, and Be her friend, first and always. Guided by the journal, he transforms himself over the course of two years from the worlds most trying husband to the husband who tries the hardest, the husband hed always meant to be. Filled with humor and surprising wisdom, this book is a candid story of ruthless self-improvement, a unique window into living with an autism-spectrum condition, and proof that a true heart can conquer all. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1568552 Krugman pursues the questions of how bad the Great Recession really is, how we got stuck in what can now be called a depression and, above all, how we can free ourselves. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1567094 In an illustrated memoir, the creator of the Bloggess blog shares humorous stories from her life, including her awkward upbringing in Texas and her relationship with her husband. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1566722 Maddow shows how deeply militarized our culture has become--how the role of the national security sector has shape-shifted and grown over the past century to the point of being financially unsustainable and confused in mission. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1544342 Traces the authors upbringing in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, describing the strict rules that governed her life, arranged marriage at the age of seventeen, and the birth of her son, which led to her plan to leave and forge her own path in life. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1522519 Now a major motion picture starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, The Vow tells the true story of a couple that defied the odds and fell in love with each other again after Krickitt suffered brain damage and memory loss following a car accident. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1563039 In this irresistible memoir, the #1 New York Times bestselling author writes about her life and the lives of women today, looking back and ahead--and celebrating it all--as she considers marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, faith, loss, all that stuff in our closets, and more. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1649536 Explores the life and career of Thomas Alexandre Dumas, a man almost unknown today, but whose swashbuckling exploits appear in The three musketeers and whose trials and triumphs inspired The count of Monte Cristo. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1545405 Examines presidential power within the context of U.S. history and the ongoing relationships presidents and ex-presidents formed with one another. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1510625 At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who invent and create but prefer not to pitch their own ideas; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled quiet, it is to introverts we owe many of the great contributions to society--from Van Goghs sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer. Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with the indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Susan Cain charts the rise of the extrovert ideal over the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects--how it helps to determine everything from how parishioners worship to who excels at Harvard Business School. And she draws on cutting-edge research on the biology and psychology of temperament to reveal how introverts can modulate their personalities according to circumstance, how to empower an introverted child, and how companies can harness the natural talents of introverts. This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1485005 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1669115 Thousands of people have had near-death experiences, but scientists have argued that they are impossible. Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander knew that NDEs feel real, but are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress. Then, Dr. Alexanders own bran was attacked by a rare illness. The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion--and in essence makes us human--shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexanders eyes popped open. He had come back. Alexanders recovery is a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself. Alexanders story is not a fantasy. Before he underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. Today Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition. -- Cover, p. [4] http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1522487 Here, Anne Lamott enters a new and unexpected chapter of her own life: grandmotherhood. Stunned to learn that her son, Sam, is about to become a father at nineteen, Lamott begins a journal about the first year of her grandson Jaxs life. In careful and often hilarious detail, Lamott and Sam--about whom she first wrote so movingly in Operating Instructions--struggle to balance their changing roles with the demands of college and work, as they both forge new relationships with Jaxs mother, who has her own ideas about how to raise a child. Lamott writes about the complex feelings that Jax fosters in her, recalling her own experiences with Sam when she was a single mother. Over the course of the year, the rhythms of life, death, family, and friends unfold in surprising and joyful ways. This is the true story of how the birth of a baby changes a family.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1649881 This is a true story of secret identities and international intrigue; it is the gripping account of the history making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage. It relates the true account of the 1979 rescue of six American hostages from Iran. On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and captured dozens of American hostages, sparking a 444-day ordeal. But there is a little-known footnote to the crisis: six Americans escaped. A midlevel agent named Antonio Mendez devised an ingenious yet incredibly risky plan to rescue them. Armed with foreign film visas, Mendez and an unlikely team of CIA agents and Hollywood insiders, directors, producers, and actors, traveled to Tehran under the guise of scouting locations for a fake film called Argo. While pretending to find the ideal backdrops, the team succeeded in contacting the escapees and smuggling them out of Iran without a single shot being fired. Here the author finally details the extraordinarily complex and dangerous operation he led more than three decades ago. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1512099 Tackling the issues at the forefront of the American mind--healthcare, education, capitalism, and more America the Beautiful is indispensable reading. From four-time bestselling author, internationally renowned neurosurgeon, and humanitarian Dr. Ben Carson, here is a sobering and inspiring manifesto of Americas greatness, her failings, and the values and changes it will take to carry our country into a brilliant and prosperous future. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1642024 Though they have the vote and the Pill and havent been burned as witches since 1727, life isnt exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them? Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on womens lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from the riot of adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother. With rapier wit, Moran slices right to the truth--whether its about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or childred--to jump-start a new conversation about feminism. With humor, insight, and verve, How To Be a Woman lays bare the reasons why female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1566538 A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1621934 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1562761 From former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright comes a moving and thoughtful memoir of her formative years in Czechoslovakia during the tumult of Nazi occupation, World War II, fascism, and the onset of the Cold War. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1585590 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1277471 Presents the history of sports channel ESPN based on interviews with nearly five hundred current and former employees, featuring announcers and analysts as well as sports stars including LeBron James, Peyton Manning, and Jeff Gordon. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1542971 A narrative account of the twentieth presidents political career offers insight into his background as a scholar and Civil War hero, his battles against the corrupt establishment, and Alexander Graham Bells failed attempt to save him from an assassins bullet. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1262729 Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoff unleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War II rescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S. military personnel into the jungle-clad land of New Guinea http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1272194 The bestselling author of Devil in the White City turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitlers rise to power. The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes Americas first ambassador to Hitlers Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1275018 Tuesday has a personality that shines. I am not kidding when I say it is common for people to pull out their cell phones and take pictures of and with him. Tuesday is that kind of dog. And then, in passing, they notice me, the big man with the tight haircut. There is nothing about me--even the straight, stiff way I carry myself--that signals disabled. Until people notice the cane in my left hand, that is, and the way I lean on it every few steps. Then they realize my stiff walk and straight posture arent just pride, and that Tuesday isnt just an ordinary dog. He walks directly beside me, for instance, so that my right leg always bisects his body. He nuzzles me when my breathing changes, and he moves immediately between me and the object--a cat, an overeager child, a suspiciously closed door--any time I feel apprehensive. Because beautiful, happy-go-lucky, favorite-of-the-neighborhood Tuesday isnt my pet; hes my service dog. Captain Luis Montalvan returned home from his second tour of duty in Iraq, having survived stab wounds, a traumatic brain injury, and three broken vertebrae. But the pressures of civilian life and his injuries proved too much to bear. Physical disabilities, agoraphobia, and crippling PTSD drove him to the edge of suicide. Thats when he met Tuesday - his best friend forever. Tuesday came with his own history of challenges: from the Puppies Behind Bars program, to a home for troubled boys, to the streets of Manhattan, Tuesday blessed many lives on his way to Luis. Until Tuesday unforgettably twines the story of man and dog-- http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1251165 Having achieved the seemingly unachievable-- becoming a U.S. Memory Champion-- Foer shows how anyone with enough training and determination can achieve mastery of their memory. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1645220 In this book the author transports readers to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion. In this work he has crafted both a work of history and a story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it. Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius, a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions. The copying and translation of this ancient book, the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age, fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1299051 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1476895 Rule chronicles fateful encounters with the hidden predators among us in this riveting collection. Uncover cases of unfortunate victims who made one tragic mistake: trusting the wrong person-- even someone theyd know intimately, or thought they knew. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1277483 For the first time ever, a Navy SEAL Team Six sniper chronicles how he became an elite warrior and the ferocious battle that nearly cost him his life. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1393517 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1272210 McCullough mixes famous and obscure names and delivers capsule biographies of everyone to produce a colorful parade of educated, Victorian-era American travelers and their life-changing experiences in Paris. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1306964 Beck reworks the Federalist Papers into modern English and provides his own illuminating commentary and annotations. For a number of the essays, he includes the viewpoints of both liberal and conservative historians and scholars, making this a fair and insightful perspective on the historical works that remain the primary source for interpreting Constitutional law and the rights of American citizens. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1305406 Traces the authors recreation of Hiram Bingham IIIs discovery of the ancient citadel, Machu Picchu, in the Andes Mountains of Peru, describing his struggles with rudimentary survival tools and his experiences at the sides of local guides. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1249352 The incredible true account of Kamila Sidiqi who, when her father and brother were forced to flee Kabul, became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. Armed only with grit and determination, she picked up a needle and thread and created a thriving business of her own and held her family together. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1264554 The friends, family, and co-workers of the late-night talk show host on the E! network describe how they have all been tricked by her into believing tales of utter nonsense and behaving like total fools. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1366370 Presents a collection of stories about animals who have forged unlikely, abiding bonds with other animals of different species, from Koko the gorilla and All Ball the kitten to Owen the hippo and the tortoise Mzee. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1425907 Based on interviews with some of his closest associates, a portrait of the thirty-fifth president discusses his privileged childhood, military service, struggles with a life-threatening disease, and career in politics. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1251171 From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon, comedian Tina Fey reveals all, and proves that youre no one until someone calls you bossy. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1279608 This book will shine light on some of the hard-to-reach places in the brain, showing the ways in which we are not the ones driving the boat. Why does the conscious mind know so little? What do visual illusions unmask about the machinery running under the hood? How much of our lives are determined by choices and behaviors that are hard-wired, unconscious, and beyond our control? Do we have any management over who we find gorgeous or repugnant? How is it possible to get angry at yourself: who exactly, is mad at whom? If the drunk Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite and the sober Mel Gibson is authentically apologetic, is there a real Mel Gibson? Why did Supreme Court Justice William Douglas claim that he was able to play football and go hiking, when everyone could see that he was paralyzed after his stroke? Why do people willingly give up their money to banks for Christmas accounts (and why dont monkeys do this)? Why do patients on Parkinsons medications become compulsive gamblers? Why do athletes follow routines, like bouncing the ball three times before taking a free throw? Why did Charles Whitman suddenly kill his family and shoot forty six others from the UT Austin tower, and what did this have to do with his brain? How much of who we are is in the genes, and how much in the environment? Does free will exist or not, and how does that affect our view of blameworthiness and credit? The emerging understanding of the brain drastically changes our view of ourselves, shifting us from an intuitive sense that we are at the center of the operations, to a more sophisticated, illuminating, and wondrous view of the situation--Provided by publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1426772 As Pogo once said, We have met the enemy and he is us. In this book the author offers a scathing assessment of fiscal blunders in foreign lands, and details how economic repercussions are sure to be felt on American soil. Financial bubbles grew and burst, not only in the U.S. but in countries as diverse as Iceland, Germany, and Greece. Mixing humor with prescient insight, he depicts a precarious situation that demands attention. The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge. Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish. This investigation of bubbles beyond our shores is so sadly hilarious that it leads the American reader to a comfortable complacency: oh, those foolish foreigners. But when he turns a merciless eye on California and Washington, D.C., we see that the narrative is a trap baited with humor, and we understand the reckoning that awaits the greatest and greediest of debtor nations. - Publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1402308 Kaling shares her observations, fears, and opinions about a wide-ranging list of the topics she thinks about the most. From her favorite types of guys to life in the The Office writers room, her book is full of personal stories and laugh-out-loud philosophies. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1336306 The memoir of Jaycee Dugard who was kidnapped on June 10, 1991, when she was 11 years old, and was missing for over 18 years before her reappearance in 2009. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1362273 In this sequel to Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, the author returns to Africa and the story of her unforgettable family. In this book she braids a multilayered narrative around the perfectly lit, Happy Valley era Africa of her mothers childhood; the boiled cabbage grimness of her fathers English childhood; and the darker, civil war torn Africa of her own childhood. At its heart, this is the story of Fullers mother, Nicola. Born on the Scottish Isle of Skye and raised in Kenya, Nicola holds dear the kinds of values most likely to get you hurt or killed in Africa: loyalty to blood, passion for land, and a holy belief in the restorative power of all animals. The author interviewed her mother at length and has captured her inimitable voice with remarkable precision. We see Nicola and Tim Fuller in their lavender colored honeymoon period, when east Africa lies before them with all the promise of its liquid equatorial light, even as the British empire in which they both believe wanes. But in short order, an accumulation of mishaps and tragedies bump up against history until the couple finds themselves in a world they hardly recognize. We follow the Fullers as they hopscotch the continent, running from war and unspeakable heartbreak, from Kenya to Rhodesia to Zambia, even returning to England briefly. But just when it seems that Nicola has been broken entirely by Africa, it is the African earth itself that revives her. A story of survival and madness, love and war, loyalty and forgiveness, this book is an intimate exploration of the authors family. In the end we find Nicola and Tim at a coffee table under their Tree of Forgetfulness on the banana and fish farm where they plan to spend their final days. In local custom, the Tree of Forgetfulness is where villagers meet to resolve disputes and it is here that the Fullers at last find an African kind of peace. -- From publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1390704 An illuminating reconsideration of a key period in the life of Ernest Hemingway that will change the way he is perceived and understood. Focusing on the years 1934 to 1961--from his pinnacle until his suicide--Paul Hendrickson traces the writers exultations and despair around the one constant in his life during this time: his beloved boat, Pilar. We follow him from Key West to Paris, to New York, Africa, Cuba, and finally Idaho, as he wrestles with his angels and demons. Whenever he could, he returned to his beloved fishing cruiser, to exult in the sea, to fish, to drink, to entertain friends and seduce women, to be with his children. But as he began to succumb to fame, we see that Pilar was also where he cursed his critics, saw marriages and friendships dissolve, and tried, in vain, to escape his increasingly diminished capacities. Generally thought of as a great writer and an unappealing human being, Hemingway emerges here in a far more benevolent light. Drawing on previously unpublished material, including interviews with Hemingways sons, Hendrickson shows that for all the writers boorishness, depression, and alcoholism, and despite his anger, he was capable of remarkable generosity.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1426655 Presents a reconstruction of the eighteenth-century empresss life that covers her efforts to engage Russia in the cultural life of Europe, her creation of the Hermitage, and her numerous scandal-free romantic affairs. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1377195 The stand-up comedian, television host, best-selling author and actress candidly discusses her personal life, her professional career and describes what it was like to become a judge on American Idol. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1259481 A teen idol at fifteen, an international icon and founder of the Brat Pack at twenty, and one of Hollywoods top stars to this day, Rob Lowe chronicles his experiences as a painfully misunderstood child actor in Ohio uprooted to the wild counterculture of mid-seventies Malibu, where he embarked on his unrelenting pursuit of a career in Hollywood. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1285021 A captivating book about Dorothy Wickendens grandmother, who left her affluent East Coast life to rough it as a teacher in Colorado in 1916-- Provided by publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1251550 The chef of New Yorks East Village Prune restaurant presents an account of her search for meaning and purpose in the central rural New Jersey home of her youth, marked by a first chicken kill, an international backpacking tour, and the opening of a first restaurant. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1279819 In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them. The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronsons exploration of a potential hoax being played on the worlds top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the corridors of power. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud in Coxsackie, New York; a legendary CEO whose psychopathy has been speculated about in the press; and a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane who insists hes sane and certainly not a psychopath. Ronson not only solves the mystery of the hoax but also discovers, disturbingly, that sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their maddest edges-- http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1468717 The award-winning actress documents her rise from an everyday girl to an acclaimed performer while exploring her defining relationship with her mother and how their shared and separate dreams influenced their experiences. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1258569 As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, historian Adam Goodheart presents an original account of how the Civil War began. 1861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal. It set Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom. Goodheart takes us from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the mouth of the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island, vividly evoking the Union at this moment of ultimate crisis and decision.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1444378 He asked for spare change; she kept walking. But something made her turn around and go back. They met nearly every week for years, and built an unexpected, life-changing friendship that has today spanned almost three decades. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1277627 The late-night show host and former cast member of Saturday Night Live addresses more than subjects in need of his undying gratitude, including the Taco Bell chihuahua, Pez dispensers, and fake drawers. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1363774 From the author of 1491--the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas--a deeply engaging new history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed totally different suites of plants and animals. Columbuss voyages brought them back together--and marked the beginning of an extraordinary exchange of flora and fauna between Eurasia and the Americas. As Charles Mann shows, this global ecological tumult--the Columbian Exchange--underlies much of subsequent human history. Presenting the latest generation of research by scientists, Mann shows how the creation of this worldwide network of exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Manila and Mexico City-- where Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interacted--the center of the world. In 1493, Charles Mann gives us an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination-- http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1486646 Tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration and setting for Julian Fellowess Emmy Award-winning PBS show, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1334408 The author examines the causes of the U.S. stock market crash of 2008 and its relation to overpriced real estate, bad mortgages, shareholder demand for excessive profits, and the growth of toxic derivatives. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1425322 Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate in Economics for his seminal work in psychology that challenged the rational model of judgment and decision making, is one of our most important thinkers. His ideas have had a profound impact on many fields, but he has never brought them together in one book. Here, he explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the capabilities--and also the faults and biases--of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. Then he reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives--and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1369142 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1203690 Traces the rewards and pitfalls of a Chinese mothers exercise in extreme parenting, describing the exacting standards applied to grades, music lessons, and avoidance of Western cultural practices. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1298206 Bryson takes readers on a tour of his house, a rural English parsonage, showing how each room has figured in the evolution of private life. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1166297 In Washington : a Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation, dashing forever the stereotype of a stolid, unemotional man, and revealing an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1048842 Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first immortal human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her immortality until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1148120 Two kids with the same name were born blocks apart in the same decaying city within a few years of each other. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, army officer, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1059231 The internationally bestselling true story of the remarkable 10-year-old Yemeni girl who dared to defy her countrys most archaic traditions by fighting for a divorce. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1222734 Presents the life of the Australian speech therapist who helped the English king, George VI, overcome a lifelong speech disorder and become an eloquent leader of his people during the difficult days of World War II. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1149817 In this gorgeous, moving memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caldwell reflects on her own coming-of-age in midlife, as she learns to open herself to the power and healing of sharing her life with a best friend. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1267866 The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer brings to life the most intriguing woman in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. Though her life spanned fewer than 40 years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1166248 Along with Caltech physicist Mlodinow (The Drunkards Walk), University of Cambridge cosmologist Hawking (A Brief History of Time) deftly mixes cutting-edge physics to answer three key questions-- Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why this particular set of laws and not some other?-- and explains that scientists are approaching what is called M-theory, a collection of overlapping theories (including string theory) that fill in many (but not all) the blank spots in quantum physics. This collection is known as the Grand Unified Field Theories. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1037117 From two of the best political reporters in the country comes the gripping inside story of the historic 2008 presidential election. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1048844 Reveals the surprising power of the ordinary checklist now being used in medicine, aviation, the armed services, homeland security, investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1100577 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1113279 Bonhoeffer presents a profoundly orthodox Christian theologian whose faith led him to boldly confront the greatest evil of the 20th century, and uncovers never-before-revealed facts, including the story of his passionate romance. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1031441 Picking up where her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love left off, Gilbert details the extraordinary circumstances that surround her love with Felipe, the man she swore never to marry. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1053596 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1170600 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1235574 Traces the parallel stories of nineteenth-century art patron Charles Ephrussi and his unique collection of 360 miniature netsuke Japanese ivory carvings, documenting Ephrussis relationship with Marcel Proust and the impact of the Holocaust on his cosmopolitan family. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1189571 A humorous collection of personal essays discusses the authors career in journalism, divorce, a long-anticipated inheritance with unanticipated results, and the evolution of her relationship with her e-mail in-box. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1048389 Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced and reveals that our current crisis is not simply the result of too much of the wrong kind of economics but rather the larger failure of a democratically bankrupt political system. The solution he offers: discover democratic ways in which people, and not simply governments, can play a crucial role in deciding how we might share our world and its resources in common. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1117187 Examines the role of the unexpected, discussing why improbable events are not anticipated or understood properly, and how humans rationalize the black swan phenomenon to make it appear less random. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1117689 The life story of one of the most admired and controversial public intellectuals of our time--Provided by publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1100590 The bestselling author of Mayflower sheds new light on one of the iconic stories of the American West, reminding readers that the Battle of the Little Bighorn was also, even in victory, the last stand for the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1189058 A magnificently written biography of cancer--from its origins to the epic battle to cure, control, and conquer it. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1059803 In this sequel to her New York Times bestsellers Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany, the celebrated bard of Tuscany (New York Times) Frances Mayes lyrically chronicles her continuing, two decades-long love affair with Tuscanys people, art, cuisine, and lifestyle. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1110992 Junger, author of The Perfect Storm, turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat in this on-the-ground account that follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistans Korengal Valley. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1201513 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1113918 Okrent explores the origins, implementation, and failure of that great American delusion known as Prohibition. Last Call explains how Prohibition happened, what life under it was like, and what it did to the country. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1111336