Gulliver's Travels

The Catcher in the Rye

Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt’s Shadow and Remade the World - David L. Roll

Revolution 1989 is the first in-depth, authoritative account of a few months that changed the world.

At  the start of 1989, six European nations were Soviet vassal states. By  year's end, they had all declared national independence and embarked on  the road to democracy. How did it happen so quickly? Victor Sebestyen,  who was on the scene as a reporter, draws on his firsthand knowledge of  the events, on scores of interviews with witnesses and participants, and  on newly uncovered archival material. He tells the story through the  eyes of ordinary men and women as well as through the strategic moves of  world leaders. He shows how the KGB helped bring down former allies;  how the United States tried to slow the process; and why the collapse of  the Iron Curtain was the catalyst for the fall of the entire Soviet  empire.

Poker champion turned business  consultant Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with  uncertainty and make better decisions as a result.

In Super  Bowl XLIX, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made one of the most  controversial calls in football history: With 26 seconds remaining, and  trailing by four at the Patriots' one-yard line, he called for a pass  instead of a handing off to his star running back. The pass was  intercepted, and the Seahawks lost. Critics called it the dumbest play  in history. But was the call really that bad? Or did Carroll actually  make a great move that was ruined by bad luck?

Even the best  decision doesn't yield the best outcome every time. There's always an  element of luck that you can't control, and there is always information  that is hidden from view. So the key to long-term success (and avoiding  worrying yourself to death) is to think in bets: How sure am I? What are  the possible ways things could turn out? What decision has the highest  odds of success? Did I land in the unlucky 10% on the strategy that  works 90% of the time? Or is my success attributable to dumb luck rather  than great decision making?

Annie Duke, a former World Series  of Poker champion turned business consultant, draws on examples from  business, sports, politics, and (of course) poker to share tools anyone  can use to embrace uncertainty and make better decisions. For most  people, it's difficult to say "I'm not sure" in a world that values, and  even rewards, the appearance of certainty. But professional poker  players are comfortable with the fact that great decisions don't always  lead to great outcomes and bad decisions don't always lead to bad  outcomes.

By shifting your thinking from a need for certainty to  a goal of accurately assessing what you know and what you don't, you'll  be less vulnerable to reactive emotions, knee-jerk biases, and  destructive habits in your decision making. You'll become more  confident, calm, compassionate, and successful in the long run.

Includes a bonus PDF of charts and graphs.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

”This book takes an impossibly broad area of computer science and  communicates what working developers need to understand in a clear and  thorough way.” - David Jacobs, Product Advance Local

Key Features
Master the core algorithms of deep learning and AI
Build an intuitive understanding of AI problems and solutions
Written in simple language, with lots of illustrations and hands-on examples
Creative coding exercises, including building a maze puzzle game and exploring drone optimization

About The Book

“Artificial  intelligence” requires teaching a computer how to approach different  types of problems in a systematic way. The core of AI is the algorithms  that the system uses to do things like identifying objects in an image,  interpreting the meaning of text, or looking for patterns in data to  spot fraud and other anomalies.  Mastering the core algorithms for  search, image recognition, and other common tasks is essential to  building good AI applications

Grokking Artificial Intelligence  Algorithms uses illustrations, exercises, and jargon-free explanations  to teach fundamental AI concepts.You’ll explore coding challenges like  detect­ing bank fraud, creating artistic masterpieces, and setting a  self-driving car in motion. All you need is the algebra you remember  from high school math class and beginning programming skills. 

What You Will Learn

Use cases for different AI algorithms
Intelligent search for decision making
Biologically inspired algorithms
Machine learning and neural networks
Reinforcement learning to build a better robot

This Book Is Written For
For software developers with high school–level math skills.

About the Author
Rishal Hurbans is a technologist, startup and AI group founder, and international speaker.

Table of Contents

1 Intuition of artificial intelligence
2 Search fundamentals
3 Intelligent search
4 Evolutionary algorithms
5 Advanced evolutionary approaches
6 Swarm intelligence: Ants
7 Swarm intelligence: Particles
8 Machine learning
9 Artificial neural networks
10 Reinforcement learning with Q-learning

Newly adapted for audiobook listeners.

Today,  software engineers need to know not only how to program effectively but  also how to develop proper engineering practices to make their codebase  sustainable and healthy. This book emphasizes this difference between  programming and software engineering.

How can software engineers  manage a living codebase that evolves and responds to changing  requirements and demands over the length of its life? Based on their  experience at Google, software engineers Titus Winters and Hyrum Wright,  along with technical writer Tom Manshreck, present a candid and  insightful look at how some of the world’s leading practitioners  construct and maintain software. This book covers Google’s unique  engineering culture, processes, and tools and how these aspects  contribute to the effectiveness of an engineering organization.

You’ll  explore three fundamental principles that software organizations should  keep in mind when designing, architecting, writing, and maintaining  code:

• How time affects the sustainability of software and how to make your code resilient over time
• How scale affects the viability of software practices within an engineering organization
• What trade-offs a typical engineer needs to make when evaluating design and development decisions

Whatever has happened to you, it is not who you are.

The  world may know Chris Duffin as the "mad scientist of strength", but you  wouldn't have ever guessed that if you saw the scrawny kid skinning  rattlesnakes and chasing dragonflies in the early '80s. The story of his  unconventional life will take you from gripping tales of murder,  trauma, heartbreak, and survival deep in the Pacific Northwest  wilderness all the way to an idealization of the self-made man - still  flawed, but never broken.

In The Eagle and the Dragon,  you'll follow one man's journey into the darkness of his own heart and  witness the transformation of alcoholism, pain, and defeat into vision,  character, and victory. Through Chris's powerful self-realization,  you'll see how the human spirit can be either shackled by circumstance  or freed from it.

Are you ready to walk through the fire and make your vision a reality?  This audiobook will show you how.

This fascinating history tells the story of the people of Japan, from  ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation  that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two  centuries in self-imposed seclusion.

First revealed to  Westerners in the chronicles of Marco Polo, Japan was a legendary  faraway land defended by a fearsome Kamikaze storm and ruled by a divine  sovereign. It was the terminus of the Silk Road, the furthest end of  the known world, a fertile source of inspiration for European artists,  and an enduring symbol of the mysterious East. In recent times, it has  become a powerhouse of global industry, a nexus of popular culture, and a  harbinger of post-industrial decline.

With intelligence and  wit, author Jonathan Clements blends documentary and storytelling styles  to connect the past, present and future of Japan, and in broad yet  detailed strokes reveals a country of paradoxes: a modern nation steeped  in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a  famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes resting on the world's most  active earthquake zone; a fast-paced urban and technologically advanced  country whose land consists predominantly of mountains and forests.

From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full  histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai  emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful  influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500  years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in  the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in  the advent of the mechanized world.

The Romanovs were the most  successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's  surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined  principality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it  all?

This is the intimate story of 20 tsars and tsarinas,  some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy  autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping  chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless  empire building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries,  sexual decadence, and wild extravagance, with a global cast of  adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries, and poets, from Ivan the  Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin to Bismarck, Lincoln, Queen Victoria,  and Lenin.

To rule Russia was both imperial-sacred mission and  poisoned chalice: Six of the last 12 tsars were murdered. Peter the  Great tortured his own son to death while making Russia an empire and  dominated his court with a dining club notable for compulsory  drunkenness, naked dwarfs, and fancy dress. Catherine the Great  overthrew her own husband (who was murdered soon afterward), enjoyed  affairs with a series of young male favorites, conquered Ukraine, and  fascinated Europe. Paul I was strangled by courtiers backed by his own  son, Alexander I, who in turn faced Napoleon's invasion and the burning  of Moscow, then went on to take Paris. Alexander II liberated the serfs,  survived five assassination attempts, and wrote perhaps the most  explicit love letters ever composed by a ruler. The Romanovs  climaxes with a fresh, unforgettable portrayal of Nicholas II and  Alexandra, the rise and murder of Rasputin, war, and revolution - and  the harrowing massacre of the entire family.

Dazzlingly entertaining and beautifully written from start to finish, The Romanovs brings these monarchs - male and female, great and flawed, their  families and courts - blazingly to life. Drawing on new archival  research, Montefiore delivers an enthralling epic of triumph and  tragedy, love and murder, encompassing the seminal years 1812, 1914, and  1917, that is both a universal study of power and a portrait of an  empire that helps define Russia today.

In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.

Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.”

Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world.

But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers.

Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.

A dazzling new history of the world told through the ten major empires of human civilization.

Eminent historian Paul Strathern opens the story of Empire with the Akkadian civilization, which ruled over a vast expanse of the region of ancient Mesopotamia, then turns to the immense Roman Empire, where we trace back our Western and Eastern roots.

Next the narrative describes how a great deal of Western Classical culture was developed in the Abbasid and Umayyad Caliphates. Then, while Europe was beginning to emerge from a period of cultural stagnation, it almost fell to a whirlwind invasion from the East, at which point we meet the Emperors of the Mongol Empire . . .

Combining breathtaking scope with masterful narrative control, Paul Strathern traces these connections across four millennia and sheds new light on these major civilizations—from the Mongol Empire and the Yuan Dynasty to the Aztec and Ottoman, through to the most recent and biggest empires: the British, Russo-Soviet, and American.

Charting five thousand years of global history in ten lucid chapters, Empire makes comprehensive and inspiring reading to anyone fascinated by the history of the world.

David McCullough - Truman

Jason L. Riley - Maverick; A Biography of Thomas Sowell

Companies small and large are initiating AI projects, investing vast sums of money on software, developers, and data scientists. Too often, these AI projects focus on technology at the expense of actionable or tangible business results, resulting in scattershot results and wasted investment. Succeeding with AI sets out a blueprint for AI projects to ensure they are predictable, successful, and profitable. It’s filled with practical techniques for running data science programs that are cost effective and focused on the right business goals.

About the technology

Succeeding with AI requires talent, tools, and money. So why do many well-funded, state-of-the-art projects fail to deliver meaningful business value? Because talent, tools, and money aren’t enough: You also need to know how to ask the right questions. In this unique book, AI consultant Veljko Krunic reveals a tested process to start AI projects right, so you’ll get the results you want.

About the book

It sets out a framework for planning and running cost-effective, reliable AI projects that produce real business results. This practical guide reveals secrets forged during the author’s experience with dozens of startups, established businesses, and Fortune 500 giants that will help you establish meaningful, achievable goals. In it, you’ll master a repeatable process to maximize the return on data-scientist hours and learn to implement effectiveness metrics for keeping projects on track and resistant to calcification.

What's inside

• Where to invest for maximum payoff
• How AI projects are different from other software projects
• Catching early warnings in time to correct course
• Exercises and examples based on real-world business dilemmas

About the listener

For project and business leadership, result-focused data scientists, and engineering teams. No AI knowledge required.

about the author

Veljko Krunic is a data science consultant, has a computer science PhD, and is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

"Jonah Berger is one of those rare thinkers who blends research-based insights with immensely practical guidance. I am grateful to be one of the many who have learned from this master teacher." (Jim Collins, author Good to Great, coauthor Built to Last)

From the author of New York Times best sellers Contagious and Invisible Influence comes a revolutionary approach to changing anyone's mind.

Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers' minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way?

This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it's not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it's about being a catalyst. Catalysts remove roadblocks and reduce the barriers to change. Instead of asking, "How could I change someone's mind?" they ask a different question: "Why haven’t they changed already? What’s stopping them?"

The Catalyst identifies the key barriers to change and how to mitigate them. You'll learn how catalysts change minds in the toughest of situations: how hostage negotiators get people to come out with their hands up and how marketers get new products to catch on, how leaders transform organizational culture and how activists ignite social movements, how substance abuse counselors get addicts to realize they have a problem, and how political canvassers change deeply rooted political beliefs.

This book is designed for anyone who wants to catalyze change. It provides a powerful way of thinking and a range of techniques that can lead to extraordinary results. Whether you're trying to change one person, transform an organization, or shift the way an entire industry does business, this book will teach you how to become a catalyst.

Hook Point: How to Stand Out in a 3-Second World by out-of-the-box thinker Brendan Kane breaks down the most effective strategies to generate new opportunities, innovate and scale your business, and create a compelling brand - both online and off - so you can thrive in the new micro-attention world in which we live.

A lot of people know who they are, what they do, and a few even know why they do it - but even when brands or individuals have clarity in these areas, they often struggle to grab a potential audience’s attention for long enough to get them to learn about their attributes. Others have amazing products or services that fail to achieve great success because they don’t know how to talk about what they do effectively. This is because digital and social media have reshaped our world into one of micro-attention.

There are more than 60 billion messages shared on digital platforms each day, and the average person is exposed to between 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day. This bombardment of stimuli has changed the way we communicate and market content both online and off. In fact, research shows that you have less than three seconds to capture a person’s attention. With such a short window of time, we need to hook audiences quickly, efficiently, and consistently if we want to successfully fuel brand awareness and growth.

Luckily, Brendan Kane, a thinker and strategist who’s built platforms for celebrities like Taylor Swift and Rhianna and worked with Fortune 500 companies like Paramount, Viacom, and MTV, has mastered the art of standing out. In Hook Point: How to Stand Out in a 3-Second World, he reveals the power of hook points - a communication tool that helps marketers package their messages in a succinct, attention-grabbing way that leads to better opportunities both online and off. Whether you’re promoting a brand, product, or service, this book is the essential guide for making it in our three-second world.

The final revision of this classic bestseller, the 7th edition defines the common thread linking the world's greatest economic thinkers and explores the philosophies that motivate them. Hailed by Galbraith as a "brilliant achievement", "The Worldly Philosophers" with over 2 million copies sold worldwide, not only enables us to see more deeply into our history, but helps us to better understand our own times. Heilbroner provides the new theme that connects thinkers as different as Adam Smith and Karl Marx: the desire to understand how a capitalist society works. A new chapter conveys a concern that today's increasingly "scientific" economics may overlook fundamental social and political issues that are central to economics.

This century has seen the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history―but who bears the brunt of these monster storms?

Consider  this: Five of the most expensive hurricanes in history have made  landfall since 2005: Katrina ($160 billion), Ike ($40 billion), Sandy  ($72 billion), Harvey ($125 billion), and Maria ($90 billion). With more  property than ever in harm’s way, and the planet and oceans warming  dangerously, it won’t be long before we see a $250 billion hurricane.  Why? Because Americans have built $3 trillion worth of property in some  of the riskiest places on earth: barrier islands and coastal  floodplains. And they have been encouraged to do so by what Gilbert M.  Gaul reveals in The Geography of Risk to be a confounding array  of federal subsidies, tax breaks, low-interest loans, grants, and  government flood insurance that shift the risk of life at the beach from  private investors to public taxpayers, radically distorting common  notions of risk.

These federal incentives, Gaul argues, have  resulted in one of the worst planning failures in American history, and  the costs to taxpayers are reaching unsustainable levels. We have become  responsible for a shocking array of coastal amenities: new roads,  bridges, buildings, streetlights, tennis courts, marinas, gazebos, and  even spoiled food after hurricanes. The Geography of Risk  will forever change the way you think about the coasts, from the clash  between economic interests and nature, to the heated politics of  regulators and developers.

In the tradition of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, an extraordinary investigation into the human lives at the heart of the American grocery store.

The  American supermarket is an everyday miracle. But what does it take to  run one? What are the inner workings of product delivery and  distribution? Who sets the price? And who suffers for the convenience  and efficiency we’ve come to expect? In this rollicking exposé, author  Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on this highly secretive industry.  Combining deep sourcing, immersive reporting, and compulsively  listenable prose, Lorr leads a wild investigation to:

• Learn the secrets of Trader Joe’s success from Trader Joe himself
• Drive with truckers caught in a job they call “sharecropping on wheels”;
• Break  into industrial farms with activists to learn what it takes for a  product to earn certification labels like “rain forest friendly” and  “fair trade”;
• Follow entrepreneurs as they fight for shelf space, learning essential tips, tricks, and traps for any new food business;
• Journey with migrants to examine shocking forced labor practices through their eyes.

The  result is a compelling portrait of an industry in flux, filled with the  passion, ingenuity, and inequity required to make this piece of the  American dream run. The product of five years of research and hundreds  of interviews across every level of the industry, The Secret Life of Groceries is  essential listening for those who want to understand our food system -  delivering powerful social commentary on the inherently American quest  for more and compassionate insight into the lives that provide it.

Zac Bissonnette - The Great Beanie Baby Bubble

'Fascinating and entertaining. If you read one book on human origins, this should be it' Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules - For Now

'The who, what, where, when and how of human evolution, from one of the world's experts on the dating of prehistoric fossils' Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

50,000 years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter's ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham. In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements - in radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA, for example - that allowed each of these discoveries to be made, enabling us to be more accurate in our predictions about not just how long ago these other humans lived, but how they lived, interacted and live on in our genes today. This is the story of us, told for the first time with its full cast of characters.

'The application of new genetic science to pre-history is analogous to how the telescope transformed astronomy. Tom Higham brings us to the frontier of recent discoveries with a book that is both gripping and fun' Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion

'This exciting book shows that we now have a revolutionary new tool for reconstructing the human past: DNA from minute pieces of tooth and bone, and even from the dirt on the floor of caves' David Abulafia, author of The Boundless Sea

'The remarkable new science of palaeoanthropology, from lab bench to trench' Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred

'Higham's thrilling account makes readers feel as if they were participating themselves in the extraordinary series of events that in the last few years has revealed our long-lost cousins' David Reich, author of Who We Are and How We Got Here

'A brilliant distillation of the ideas and discoveries revolutionising our understanding of human evolution' Chris Gosden, author of The History of Magic

Small changes can make a big difference in your powers of persuasion.

Every day we face the challenge of persuading others to do what we want. But what makes people say yes to our requests? Persuasion is not only an art, it is also a science, and researchers who study it have uncovered a series of hidden rules for moving people in your direction.

Based on more than 60 years of research into the psychology of persuasion, Yes! reveals 50 simple but remarkably effective strategies that will make you much more persuasive at work and in your personal life, too.

Cowritten by the world's most quoted expert on influence, Professor Robert Cialdini, Yes! presents dozens of surprising discoveries from the science of persuasion in short, enjoyable, and insightful chapters that you can apply immediately to become a more effective persuader.

Why did a sign pointing out the problem of vandalism in the Petrified Forest National Park actually increase the theft of pieces of petrified wood? Why did sales of jam multiply tenfold when consumers were offered many fewer flavors? Why did people prefer a Mercedes immediately after giving reasons why they prefer a BMW? What simple message on cards left in hotel rooms greatly increased the number of people who behaved in environmentally friendly ways?

Often counterintuitive, the findings presented in Yes! will steer you away from common pitfalls while empowering you with little known but proven wisdom.

Whether you are in advertising, marketing, management, on sales, or just curious about how to be more influential in everyday life, Yes! shows how making small, scientifically proven changes to your approach can have a dramatic effect on your persuasive powers.

The Watchdog How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War Two

The foundational and wildly popular go-to resource for influence and persuasion - a renowned international best seller, with over five million copies sold - now revised adding: new research, new insights, new examples, and online applications.

In the new edition of this highly acclaimed best seller, Robert Cialdini - New York Times best-selling author of Pre-Suasion and the seminal expert in the fields of influence and persuasion - explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings. Using memorable stories and relatable examples, Cialdini makes this crucially important subject surprisingly easy. With Cialdini as a guide, you don’t have to be a scientist to learn how to use this science.

You’ll learn Cialdini’s Universal Principles of Influence, including new research and new uses so you can become an even more skilled persuader - and just as importantly, you’ll learn how to defend yourself against unethical influence attempts. You may think you know these principles, but without understanding their intricacies, you may be ceding their power to someone else.

Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion:

• Reciprocation
• Commitment and Consistency
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority
• Scarcity
• Unity, the newest principle for this edition

Understanding and applying the principles ethically is cost-free and deceptively easy. Backed by Dr. Cialdini’s 35 years of evidence-based, peer-reviewed scientific research - including a three-year field study on what leads people to change - Influence is a comprehensive guide to using these principles to move others in your direction.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

If you had the opportunity to work where, when, and with whom you wanted - all while getting paid very well - would you take it? Self-made multimillionaire and best-selling author Michael Masterson did, and with Ready, Fire, Aim he'll show you how to do the same.

Whether you're thinking about starting a new business or growing an existing one, Ready, Fire, Aim has what you need to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavors. In it, Masterson shares the knowledge he has gained from creating and expanding numerous businesses and outlines a focused strategy for guiding a small business through the four stages of entrepreneurial growth. Along the way, you'll learn the skills needed to succeed in this dynamic environment. Discover how to:

• Start a business from scratch and make it profitable quickly
• Keep a growing business growing
• Get other people to do almost all the hard work for you, so you are free to do the fun stuff
• Position yourself as an indispensable business builder, so you can enjoy a big share of the profits - even if you are only working part time
• Over the course of his remarkably successful career, Masterson has developed dozens of businesses, including one still growing at $300 million. Now he shows you how to outsell your competitors by implementing innovative operational procedures to reduce costs and using the power of the Internet to reduce customer complaints and increase profits.Duplicate your winning strategy in several businesses so you never have to worry about "needing" any one of them.
  
  

In an exclusive, private seminar that Eben Pagan and his mentor Wyatt Woodsmall created, learn how to learn faster, teach better, and train like a professional.

Professor Campbell explores questions such as: Have we lost our mythic heritage? Is our future contained in ur past? Where are our heroes? In this interview he reveals how myth can enrich our lives. Whole set is available from this seller. Two cassettes, two sides each.

Woven from Joseph Campbell’s previously unpublished work, this volume explores Judeo-Christian symbols and metaphors — and their misinterpretations — with the famed mythologist’s characteristic conversational warmth and accessible scholarship. Campbell’s insights highlight centuries of confusion between literal and metaphorical interpretations of Western religious symbols that are, he argues, perennially relevant keys to spiritual understanding and mystical revelation.

The first collection of Joseph Campbell’s writings and lectures on the Arthurian romances of the Middle Ages, a central focus of his celebrated scholarship, edited and introduced by Arthurian scholar Evans Lansing Smith, PhD, the chair of Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Throughout his life, Joseph Campbell was deeply engaged in the study of the Grail Quests and Arthurian legends of the European Middle Ages. In this new volume of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, editor Evans Lansing Smith collects Campbell’s writings and lectures on Arthurian legends, including his never-before-published master’s thesis on Arthurian myth, “A Study of the Dolorous Stroke.” Campbell’s writing captures the incredible stories of such figures as Merlin, Gawain, and Guinevere as well as the larger patterns and meanings revealed in these myths. Merlin’s death and Arthur receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, for example, are not just vibrant stories but also central to the mythologist’s thinking.

The Arthurian myths opened the world of comparative mythology to Campbell, turning his attention to the Near and Far Eastern roots of myth. Calling the Arthurian romances the world’s first “secular mythology,” Campbell found metaphors in them for human stages of growth, development, and psychology. The myths exemplify the kind of love Campbell called amor, in which individuals become more fully themselves through connection. Campbell’s infectious delight in his discoveries makes this volume essential for anyone intrigued by the stories we tell—and the stories behind them.

In 1927, as a twenty-three-year-old postgraduate scholar in Paris, Joseph Campbell first encountered James Joyce’s Ulysses. Known for being praised and for kicking up controversy (including an obscenity trial in the United States in 1920), the novel left Campbell both intrigued and confused, as it had many others. Because he was in Paris, he was able to visit the Shakespeare & Company bookstore—the outpost of the original publisher of Ulysses, Sylvia Beach. She gave him “clues” for reading Ulysses, and that, Campbell attested, changed his career. For the next sixty years, Campbell moved through the labyrinths of Joyce’s creations—writing and lecturing on Joyce using depth psychology, comparative religion, anthropology, and art history as tools of analysis.

Arranged by Joyce scholar Edmund L. Epstein, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words presents a wide range of Campbell’s writing and lectures on Joyce, which together form an illuminating running commentary on Joyce’s masterworks. Campbell’s visceral appreciation for all that was new in Joyce will delight the previously uninitiated, and perhaps intimidated, as well as longtime lovers of both Joyce and Campbell.

Joseph Campbell brought mythology to a mass audience. His bestselling books, including The Power of Myth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces, are the rare blockbusters that are also scholarly classics.

While Campbell’s work reached wide and deep as he covered the world’s great mythological traditions, he never wrote a book on goddesses in world mythology. He did, however, have much to say on the subject. Between 1972 and 1986 he gave over twenty lectures and workshops on goddesses, exploring the figures, functions, symbols, and themes of the feminine divine, following them through their transformations across cultures and epochs.

In this provocative volume, editor Safron Rossi—a goddess studies scholar, professor of mythology, and curator of collections at Opus Archives, which holds the Joseph Campbell archival manuscript collection and personal library—collects these lectures for the first time. In them, Campbell traces the evolution of the feminine divine from one Great Goddess to many, from Neolithic Old Europe to the Renaissance. He sheds new light on classical motifs and reveals how the feminine divine symbolizes the archetypal energies of transformation, initiation, and inspiration.

Galahad is  a word from the Old Testament that means Mountain of Testimony; [Sir  Galahad] is a mountain of testimony to Christ. The whole tradition of  the virgin knight as the Grail knight belongs to a Cistercian monastic  line.

Whereas the line of Wolfram is the secular line of a secular  knight [Parcival] who is married. And as we’re going to see it’s because  of his loyalty to his marriage under all circumstances and his courage  and resolution in combat, fearlessness and also integrity in love that  he becomes finally the Grail King. —Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell explores the historical roots of the Grail legend. He  discusses the development of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dark  Ages, and shows how new conceptions of love, marriage, and worship gave  rise to a secular “religion,” that of courtly romance. He then examines  the quest for the Holy Grail, both as an expression of these new ideas  of love and as a reaction against the dogmatic practices of the medieval  Church. Finally, in his own inimitable style, he recounts the Grail  Legend.

Joseph Campbell’s collected writings on dance and art, edited  and introduced by Nancy Allison, CMA, the founder of Jean Erdman Dance,  and including Campbell’s unpublished manuscript “Mythology and Form in  the Performing and Visual Arts,” the book he was working on when he  died.

Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s  wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in  modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in  her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and  Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye, where for nearly fifteen  years they presented a wide array of dance and theater productions,  lectures, and performance pieces.

The Ecstasy of Being brings  together seven of Campbell’s previously uncollected articles on dance,  along with “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the  treatise that he was working on when he died, published here for the  first time.

In this new collection Campbell explores the rise  of modern art and dance in the twentieth century; delves into the work  and philosophy of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and others; and, as  always, probes the idea of art as “the funnel through which spirit is  poured into life.” This book offers the reader an accessible, yet  profound and provocative, insight into Campbell’s lifelong fascination  with the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and human psychology.

The Watchdog How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War Two

At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting  fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of  Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast  body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit  the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical  from his teaching position and embarked on a yearlong voyage through  India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan. Asian Journals combines the two hardcover editions of Campbell’s journals, Baksheesh & Brahman and Sake & Satori,  into one paperback volume, an edited day-to-day travel diary of the  people he met and the historical places he visited on his trek through  Asia. Along the way, he enlivens the narrative with his musings on  culture, religion, myth, and politics, describing both the trivial and  the sublime. As always, Campbell’s keen intellect and boundless  curiosity shine through in his lucid prose. From these pages, Campbell  enthusiasts will come away with a deeper understanding of the man, his  work, and his enduring legacy.

Joseph Campbell - A Joseph Campbell Companion Reflections on the Art of Living

A prize-winning historian reveals how Stalin—not Hitler—was the animating force of World War II in this major new history.

World  War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between  good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was  not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia—and he was certainly  dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his  empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any  of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The  Second World War was not Hitler’s war; it was Stalin’s war.

Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes  our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to  the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash  Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in  September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the  Pacific war of 1941–1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a  devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon”  capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary.

McMeekin  also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US  and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease  aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to  every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was  substantially reliant on American materiél from warplanes, tanks,  trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to  industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed  the Red Army.

This unreciprocated American generosity gave  Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia,  from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.

A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin’s War is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the current world order.

The national bestseller, now available in a non-illustrated, standard format paperback edition

The Power of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people--including Star Wars creator George Lucas. To Campbell, mythology was the “song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” With Bill Moyers, one of America’s most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power of Myth touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit.

This extraordinary book reveals how the themes and symbols of ancient narratives continue to bring meaning to birth, death, love, and war. From stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome to traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, a broad array of themes are considered that together identify the universality of human experience across time and culture. An impeccable match of interviewer and subject, a timeless distillation of Campbell’s work, The Power of Myth continues to exert a profound influence on our culture.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell, in which the author discusses his theory of the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myths.

William Shakespeare may have been  the greatest playwright in the English language, but how does he measure  up as a historian? In this brilliant comparison between the events and  characters in Shakespeare's history plays and the actual events that  inspired them, acclaimed historian John Julius Norwich examines the nine  works that together amount to an epic masterpiece on England's most  fascinating period.

Beginning with the newly authenticated  "Edward III," and proceeding through "Richard II; Henry IV Parts I" and  "II; " and "Henry V; Henry VI Parts I, II," and "III; " and finally  "Richard III," Norwich holds the plays up to the light of history,  answering questions such as: Who was the real Falstaff? How realistic is  Shakespeare's depiction of Joan of Arc? At the same time, he provides a  vibrant narrative of medieval life from 1337 to 1485, the era of the  100 Years War and the Wars of the Roses. It was a time of uncertainty  and incessant warfare, a time during which the crown was constantly  contested, alliances were made and broken, peasants and townsmen alike  arose in revolt. Here was the raw material that Shakespeare used to  explore the role of the monarch and the meaning of statehood.

But  where does history stop and drama begin? Norwich concludes that  Shakespeare was a reliable enough historian. He was, however, always  willing to take liberties with the facts for the sake of his drama. As  Norwich explains, "In the vast majority of instances when Shakespeare  departed from the historic truth he did so for the best of all reasons:  to make a better play." Beyond assessing Shakespeare's accuracy, Norwich  provides the crucial knowledge that will enhance everyone's  appreciation and understanding of these glorious plays.

No one  but John Julius Norwich, praised for his three-part history of  Byanztium, could weave drama and history together into such a lucid and  absorbing account of a distant yet vitally important era. Illuminating  and accessible, Shakespeare's Kings is an indispensable companion  to Shakespeare's rich imagination -- an imagination that continues to  inform the way we view the past today.

“This is an essential book for those who wish to understand a city that remains a nexus of world affairs.” —Booklist (starred)

Jerusalem is the epic history of three thousand years of faith, fanaticism,  bloodshed, and coexistence, from King David to the 21st century, from  the birth of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the Israel-Palestine  conflict.

How did this small, remote town become the Holy  City, the “center of the world” and now the key to peace in the Middle  East? In a gripping narrative, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals this  ever-changing city in its many incarnations, bringing every epoch and  character blazingly to life. Jerusalem’s biography is told through the  wars, love affairs, and revelations of the men and women who created,  destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem. As well as the many  ordinary Jerusalemites who have left their mark on the city, its cast  varies from Solomon, Saladin and Suleiman the Magnificent to Cleopatra,  Caligula and Churchill; from Abraham to Jesus and Muhammad; from the  ancient world of Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod and Nero to the modern  times of the Kaiser, Disraeli, Mark Twain, Lincoln, Rasputin, Lawrence  of Arabia and Moshe Dayan.

In this masterful narrative, Simon  Sebag Montefiore brings the holy city to life and draws on the latest  scholarship, his own family history, and a lifetime of study to show  that the story of Jerusalem is truly the story of the world.

An absorbing and original narrative history of American capitalism

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2017 BY THE ECONOMIST

From  the days of the Mayflower and the Virginia Company, America has been a  place for people to dream, invent, build, tinker, and bet the farm in  pursuit of a better life. Americana takes us on a  four-hundred-year journey of this spirit of innovation and ambition  through a series of Next Big Things -- the inventions, techniques, and  industries that drove American history forward: from the telegraph, the  railroad, guns, radio, and banking to flight, suburbia, and sneakers,  culminating with the Internet and mobile technology at the turn of the  twenty-first century. The result is a thrilling alternative history of  modern America that reframes events, trends, and people we thought we  knew through the prism of the value that, for better or for worse, this  nation holds dearest: capitalism. 

In a winning, accessible  style, Bhu Srinivasan boldly takes on four centuries of American  enterprise, revealing the unexpected connections that link them. We  learn how Andrew Carnegie's early job as a telegraph messenger boy paved  the way for his leadership of the steel empire that would make him one  of the nation's richest men; how the gunmaker Remington reinvented  itself in the postwar years to sell typewriters; how the inner workings  of the Mafia mirrored the trend of consolidation and regulation in more  traditional business; and how a 1950s infrastructure bill triggered a  series of events that produced one of America's most enduring brands:  KFC. Reliving the heady early days of Silicon Valley, we are reminded  that the start-up is an idea as old as America itself.

Entertaining, eye-opening, and sweeping in its reach, Americana is an exhilarating new work of narrative history.

In the last two decades, free markets have swept the globe. But  traditional capitalism has been unable to solve problems like inequality  and poverty. In Muhammad Yunus' groundbreaking sequel to Banker to the Poor,  he outlines the concept of social business -- business where the  creative vision of the entrepreneur is applied to today's most serious  problems: feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick, and  protecting the planet. Creating a World Without Poverty reveals the next phase in a hopeful economic and social revolution that is already underway.

Dark Psychology

Alien Oceans The Search for Life in the Depths of Space

Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most  respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor  has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice  Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with  those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies,  and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete  biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.”

Although  the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full  life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards.  Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far  as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of  paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the  years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and  championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and  speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from  the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of  this fits the term “simple.”

When Alice Schroeder met Warren  Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known  for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance  impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much  had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved  beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a  complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his  decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself that he would  never write.

Never before has Buffett spent countless hours  responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to  his wife, children, friends, and business associates—opening his files,  recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, as The Snowball makes  immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a  mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be,  Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it  will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people’s lives. This  book tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American  success story of our time.

John Julius Norwich―called a “true master of narrative history” by Simon  Sebag Montefiore―returns with the book he has spent his distinguished  career wanting to write, A History of France: a portrait of the past two centuries of the country he loves best.

Beginning  with Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the first century BC, this  study of French history comprises a cast of legendary  characters―Charlemagne, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Joan of Arc and Marie  Antionette, to name a few―as Norwich chronicles France’s often violent,  always fascinating history. From the French Revolution―after which  neither France, nor the world, would be the same again―to the storming  of the Bastille, from the Vichy regime and the Resistance to the end of  the Second World War, A History of France is packed with heroes  and villains, battles and rebellion, stories so enthralling that Norwich  declared, “I can honestly say that I have never enjoyed writing a book  more.”

With his celebrated stylistic panache and expert command  of detail, Norwich writes in an inviting, intimate tone, and with a  palpable affection for France. One of our greatest contemporary  historians has deftly crafted a comprehensive yet concise portrait of  the country's historical sweep.

Robert Cialdini-Instant Influence