Displaying the top 100 results that match your query. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/rssapi.jsp?browse=true&Ne=6670&N=3+8036&No=100 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1170899 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1111336 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=1201513 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=1186474 In this tough, tender memoir, singer-songwriter Patti Smith transports readers to what seemed like halcyon days for art and artists in New York as she shares tales of the denizens of Maxs Kansas City, the Hotel Chelsea, Scribners, Brentanos and Strand bookstores and her new life in Brooklyn with a young man named Robert Mapplthorpe--the man who changed her life with his love, friendship, and genius. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1009606 During a fight at home, young Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicated when Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay co-written with Spike Jonze. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=994827 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=885583 An adaptation of the bestselling book about the American Greg Mortensons building of over 60 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=999266 A wise and involving book about feminine thresholds, spiritual growth, and renewal, Traveling with Pomegranates is a revealing self-portrait by the beloved author of The Secret Life of Bees and her daughter, a writer in the making. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1003371 In the tradition of Black Hawk Down, The Good Soldiers takes an unforgettable look at the heroes and the ruined soldiers fighting in the Iraq War. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1031439 Pink argues that the secret to high performance and satisfaction in todays world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1030270 Explores cases of people killed by trusted spouses, lovers, family members, or helpful strangers who turned on them, including the murder of Chuck Leonard, a middle school counselor who was an odd mix of family man and wild man. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=991245 McDougall reveals the secrets of the worlds greatest distance runners--the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico--and how he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of super-athletic Americans. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=994173 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1009295 Whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically, Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling to show how people respond to incentives. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=982756 Isabel Allende reconstructs the painful reality of her own life in the wake of the tragic death of her daughter, Paula. Narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor, and wisdom, this remarkable memoir is as exuberant and full of life as its creator. Allende bares her soul as she shares her thoughts on love, marriage, motherhood, spirituality and religion, infidelity, addiction, and memory--and recounts stories of the wildly eccentric, strong-minded, and eclectic tribe she gathers around her and lovingly embraces as a new kind of family--P. [4] of cover. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1001491 A pet rescue volunteer and literacy outreach coordinator describes her relationship with a three-pound blind cat whose daredevil character and affectionate personality saw the author through six moves, a burglary, and the healing of her broken heart. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1002633 Documents the authors discovery that his new family home in Florence had been the scene of a double murder, his relationship with the investigative journalist co-author, and how they both became targets of the police investigation into the murders. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1003924 When an eighty-two-year-old rabbi from Alboms old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy, Albom goes back to his nonfiction roots and becomes involved with a Detroit pastor--a reformed drug dealer and convict--who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof. A timely, moving, and inspiring look at faith: not just who believes, but why. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=989382 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=989320 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1003304 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1005863 In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In the days after the storm, Abdulrahman traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared-- arrested and accused of being an agent of al Qaeda. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1293249 Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. These simple words go to the heart of food journalist Pollans thesis. Humans used to know how to eat well, he argues, but the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not real. Indeed, plain old eating is being replaced by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Pollans advice is: Dont eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food. Looking at what science does and does not know about diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about what to eat, informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the nutrient-by-nutrient approach. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1004085 Two Pulitzer Prize winners issue a call to arms against our eras most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women in the developing world. They show that a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad and that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing womens potential. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1012270 Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits--from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth--and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=941454 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1009536 Presents a moment-by-moment account of the recent financial collapse that documents state efforts to prevent an economic disaster, offering insight into the pivotal consequences of decisions made throughout the past decade. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1005561 Relates how an enterprising teenager in Malawi builds a windmill from scraps he finds around his village and brings electricity, and a future, to his family. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1147669 Brings together, for the first time, the best of Gladwells writing from The New Yorker in the past decade, including: the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill; the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz; spotlighting Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen; and the secrets of Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer. Gladwell also explores intelligence tests, ethnic profiling and hindsight bias, and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=783891 In his first book in five years, the man loved by liberals and denounced by conservatives presents the definitive guide to the 2008 election. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=879863 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=721395 When Chelsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power--vodka. Welcome to Chelseas world--a place where absurdity reigns supreme and a quick wit is the best line of defense. In this collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Whether shes convincing her third-grade class that she has been tapped to play Goldie Hawns daughter in the sequel to Private Benjamin, deciding to be more egalitarian by dating a redhead, or looking out for a foulmouthed, rum-swilling little person who looks just like her, only smaller, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations. --From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=953865 Lady Georgiana Spencer was the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, and was nearly as famous in her day. In 1774 Georgiana achieved immediate celebrity by marrying William Cavendish, fifth duke of Devonshire, one of Englands richest and most influential aristocrats. She became the queen of fashionable society and founder of the most important political salon of her time. But Georgianas public success concealed an unhappy marriage, a gambling addiction, drinking, drug-taking, and rampant love affairs with the leading politicians of the day. With penetrating insight, Amanda Foreman reveals a fascinating woman whose struggle against her own weaknesses, whose great beauty and flamboyance, and whose determination to play a part in the affairs of the world make her a vibrant, astonishingly contemporary figure.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=992478 Excerpted from the runaway bestseller 90 minutes in heaven, this ... edition focuses on the reality of Pipers heavenly experience--Cover. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=804946 Presidential candidate Barack Obama offers bold and specific ideas about how to fix our ailing economy and strengthen the middle class, make health care affordable for all, achieve energy independence, and keep America safe in a dangerous world. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=767652 A physician discusses the thought patterns and actions that lead to misdiagnosis on the part of healthcare providers, and suggests methods that patients can use to help doctors assess conditions more accurately. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=753747 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=966813 The true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who becomes schizophrenic and homeless, and his friendship with Steve Lopez, the Los Angeles columnist who discovers and writes about him in the newspaper. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=930556 Nechama Tec, herself a Holocaust survivor, offers a riveting history of a European Jewish group in western Belorussia led by Tuvia Bielski that would number more than 1,200 by 1944 and become the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=783878 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=824589 Discusses what Obama would have to do as president to restore Americas economic future, arguing that transformative leadership is needed to rescue the country from its current financial crisis. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=784120 The best-selling author of Blink identifies the qualities of successful people, posing theories about the cultural, family, and idiosyncratic factors that shape high achievers, in a resource that covers such topics as the secrets of software billionaires, why certain cultures are associated with better academic performance, and why the Beatles earned their fame. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1244657 The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriets disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness--assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism--and a surprising connection between themselves.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=808695 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=933293 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1327411 Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. Will it be fast food tonight, or something organic? Or perhaps something we grew ourselves? The question of what to have for dinner has confronted us since man discovered fire. But as Michael Pollan explains in this revolutionary book, how we answer it now, at the dawn of the twenty-first century may determine our survival as a species.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=753199 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=715379 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1058595 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=686249 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=964147 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=712008 Presents a call to action on behalf of the genocide victims of Sudans Darfur, describing the brutalities taking place there and outlining six strategies for making key differences. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=760325 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=742042 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=944493 Explores the efforts of physicians to close the gap between best intentions and best performance in the face of insurmountable obstacles, discussing such topics as the ethical considerations of lethal injections, malpractice, and surgical errors. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=754093 The top undercover journalist in America and the funniest (Randi Rhodes, Air America), hangs out the dirty underpants of the armed and dangerous clowns that rule us. Feared from corporate suites to Osamas cave, Palasts old-style gumshoe detective work to dig out the info on the War on Terror, greed-dripping schemes to seize little nations with lots of oil, the hidden program to steal the 2008 election, and the media biases that keep it unreported are the meat and bones of this BBC television reporters new book, is illustrated with dozens of documents marked secret and confidential that have walked out of file cabinets and fallen into Palasts hands.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=692395 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=762221 Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldnt you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older mans life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final class: lessons in how to live. Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morries lasting gift with the world. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=688941 In the more than fifty violent conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. In a Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a story: at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, hed been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and finally, to heal.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1114472 Presents a collection of eighty essays exploring the personal beliefs of a diverse assortment of contributors, both famous and unknown, who reflect on their faith, the evolution of their beliefs, and how they express them. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=722700 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=730854 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=710430 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=880279 Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture thats better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1347369 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=722772 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=615912 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1381306 Mann shows how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques have come to previously unheard-of conclusions about the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans: In 1491 there were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe. Certain cities--such as Tenochtitln, the Aztec capital--were greater in population than any European city. Tenochtitln, unlike any capital in Europe at that time, had running water, beautiful botanical gardens, and immaculately clean streets. The earliest cities in the Western Hemisphere were thriving before the Egyptians built the great pyramids. Native Americans transformed their land so completely that Europeans arrived in a hemisphere already massively landscaped by human beings. Pre-Columbian Indians in Mexico developed corn by a breeding process that the journal Science recently described as mans first, and perhaps the greatest, feat of genetic engineering.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=879865 In this book, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself. The woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally ..., Sleepless in Seattle, Youve Got Mail, and Bewitched, and the author of best sellers Heartburn, Scribble Scribble, and Crazy Salad, discusses everything - from how much she hates her purse to how much time she spends attempting to stop the clock: the hair dye, the treadmill, the lotions and creams that promise to slow the aging process but never do. Oh, and she cant stand the way her neck looks. But her dermatologist tells her theres no quick fix for that. Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. She recounts her anything-but-glamorous days as a White House intern during the JFK years (I am probably the only young woman who ever worked in the Kennedy White House that the President did not make a pass at) and shares how she fell in and out of love with Bill Clinton - from a distance, of course. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=613559 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=993852 The co-author relates how he was held under plantation-style slavery until he fled in the 1960s and suffered homelessness for an additional eighteen years before the wife of the other co-author, an art dealer accustomed to privilege, intervened. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=655875 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=666068 Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask--but Levitt is not a typical economist. He studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life--from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing--and his conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. The authors show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives--how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In this book, they set out to explore the hidden side of everything. If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=623297 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=689175 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=966806 The junior senator from Illinois discusses how to transform U.S. politics, calling for a return to Americas original ideals and revealing how they can address such issues as globalization and the function of religion in public life. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=654426 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=626000 One mans campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia: in 1993 Greg Mortenson was an American mountain-climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistans Karakoram. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of a Pakistani village, he promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time--Mortensons one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban. In a region where Americans are often feared and hated, he has survived kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself--at last count, his Central Asia Institute had built fifty-five schools.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=651910 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1040976 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=967574 At the age of twenty, African American Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. However, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry level position at a prestigious firm, Gardner found himself caught in a web of challenging circumstances that left him part of the citys working homeless with his toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year in shelters, HO-tels, and soup-lines. Never giving in to despair, Gardner went from being part of the citys invisible to being a powerful player in its financial district.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=981615 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=585887 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=569883 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=552373 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=549628 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=581395 A study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbuss landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago; existed mainly in small, nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas was, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last thirty years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong. In a book that startles and persuades, Mann reveals how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques came to previously unheard-of conclusions.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=537099 How do we think without thinking, seem to make choices in an instant--in the blink of an eye--that actually arent as simple as they seem? Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, the author reveals that great decision makers arent those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=607269 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=603989 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=650435 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=574785 Steven D. Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives - how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of...well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=589814 J.R. Moehringer grew up captivated by a voice. It was the voice of his father, a New York City disc jockey who vanished before J.R. spoke his first word. Sitting on the stoop, pressing an ear to the radio, J.R. would strain to hear in that plummy baritone the secrets of masculinity and identity. Though J.R.s mother was his world, his rock, he craved something more, something faintly and hauntingly audible only in The Voice. At eight years old, suddenly unable to find The Voice on the radio, J.R. turned in desperation to the bar on the corner, where he found a rousing chorus of new voices. Cops and poets, bookies and soldiers, movie stars and stumblebums, all sorts of men gathered in the bar to tell their stories and forget their cares. The alphas along the bar - including J.R.s Uncle Charlie, a Humphrey Bogart look-alike; Colt, a Yogi-Bear sound-alike; and Joey D, a softhearted brawler - took J.R. to the beach, to ballgames, and ultimately into their circle. They taught J.R., tended him, and provided a kind of fatherhood-by-committee. Torn between the stirring example of his mother and the lurid romance of the bar, J.R. tried to forge a self somewhere in the center. But when it was time for J.R. to leave home, the bar became an increasingly seductive sanctuary, a place to return and regroup during his picaresque journeys - from his grandfathers tumbledown house to the hallowed towers and spires of Yale; from his absurd stint selling housewares at Lord & Taylor to his dream job at the New York Times, which became a nightmare when he found himself a faulty cog in a vast machine. Time and again the bar offered shelter from failure, rejection, heartbreak - and eventually from reality.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=560560 Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichls account of her experience undercover in her position as food critic for The New York Times. She throws back the curtain on the sumptuously appointed stages of the epicurean world to reveal the comic absurdity, artifice and excellence there, giving us (along with some of her favorite recipes and reviews) her remarkable reflections on role playing and identity.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=613131 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=538782 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=585585 Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincolns political genius in this original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president. On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires. It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war. This multiple biography is centered on Lincolns mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nations history.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=500273