For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock 'n' roll all the way. Within the span of twenty-one days, Chuck had three...  more

For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock 'n' roll all the way. Within the span of twenty-one days, Chuck had three relationships end -- one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a half-mile through a bean field. A man in Dickinson, North Dakota, explained to him why we have fewer windmills than we used to. He listened to the KISS solo albums and the Rod Stewart box set. At one point, poisonous snakes became involved. The road is hard. From the Chelsea Hotel to the swampland where Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane went down to the site where Kurt Cobain blew his head off, Chuck explored every brand of rock star demise. He wanted to know why the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing...and what this means for the rest of us.

It was an impossible crime: knock off a huge plant payroll, all the banks, and all the stores in one entire city in one night. But there was one thief good enough to try-Parker. All he needed was the right men, the right plan, and the right kind of help from Lady Luck.The men and the plan were...  more

It was an impossible crime: knock off a huge plant payroll, all the banks, and all the stores in one entire city in one night. But there was one thief good enough to try-Parker. All he needed was the right men, the right plan, and the right kind of help from Lady Luck.The men and the plan were easy; Lady Luck was another story. She turned out to be a good-looking blonde with a taste for booze and eyes for Parker. And Parker knew this chilling caper could either be the perfect crime...or a set-up that would land him in jail-for life.

Science FictionLarge Print EditionStarship Troopers is a classic novel by one of science fictions greatest writers of all time and is now a Tri-Star movie. In one of Heinleins most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the universe and into...  more

Science FictionLarge Print EditionStarship Troopers is a classic novel by one of science fictions greatest writers of all time and is now a Tri-Star movie. In one of Heinleins most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankinds most frightening enemy.

Starting in the 1970s, a night watchman from Kansas forever changed the way that many people view baseball analysis and ultimately the game itself. Now Bill James is doing it again with The Bill James Gold Mine--a groundbreaking collection of original essays, statistical profiles, and hidden...  more

Starting in the 1970s, a night watchman from Kansas forever changed the way that many people view baseball analysis and ultimately the game itself. Now Bill James is doing it again with The Bill James Gold Mine--a groundbreaking collection of original essays, statistical profiles, and hidden "nuggets" of information worth their weight in gold. Always known for his piercing wit and cutting analysis, Bill James wrote 17 new essays for The Bill James Gold Mine, including: Clutching Hitter of the Year Measuring Consistency Closer Fatigue Strength Up the Middle Bullpens and Crunches Hall of Famers Among Us Of course, it wouldn't be from Bill James if it didn't come with innovative and intriguing profiles and nuggets of statistical information on players from all 30 teams, including: Impacting by Position in Inning Pitching Type Analysis Pitcher's Record of Opposing Batters Games Played by Opening Day Starters Pitching/Batting Records Against Quality of Opposition Team Record by Home Runs

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Richard Ben Cramer, here is the definitive story of Joe DiMaggio's life -- the story that DiMaggio never would tell. This groundbreaking biography of DiMaggio -- from his first game with the Yankees in the 1930's through his rise to national hero...  more

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Richard Ben Cramer, here is the definitive story of Joe DiMaggio's life -- the story that DiMaggio never would tell. This groundbreaking biography of DiMaggio -- from his first game with the Yankees in the 1930's through his rise to national hero status, and onto his lonely and mysterious death last year -- reveals startling information about his life, but becomes much more than one man's story. In Cramer's hands, DiMaggio's complicated life befomes, too, the story of America's media machine, the invention of a national celebrity in America, and the ways in which fame can both build and destroy.

Humans of New York began in the summer of 2010, when photographer Brandon Stanton set out to create a photographic census of New York City.  Armed with his camera, he began crisscrossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in an attempt to capture New Yorkers and their...  more

Humans of New York began in the summer of 2010, when photographer Brandon Stanton set out to create a photographic census of New York City.  Armed with his camera, he began crisscrossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in an attempt to capture New Yorkers and their stories.  The result of these efforts was a vibrant blog he called "Humans of New York," in which his photos were featured alongside quotes and anecdotes.  The blog has steadily grown, now boasting millions of devoted followers.  Humans of New York is the book inspired by the blog.  With four hundred color photos, including exclusive portraits and all-new stories, Humans of New York is a stunning collection of images that showcases the outsized personalities of New York. Surprising and moving, printed in a beautiful full-color, hardbound edition, Humans of New York is a celebration of individuality and a tribute to the spirit of the city. Four hundred color photos of New Yorkers.

Rachel Wallace is a woman who writes and speaks her mind. She has made a lot of enemies--enemies who threaten her life. Spenser is the tough guy with a macho code of honor, hired to protect a woman who thinks that code is obsolete. Privately, they will never see eye to eye. That's why...  more

Rachel Wallace is a woman who writes and speaks her mind. She has made a lot of enemies--enemies who threaten her life. Spenser is the tough guy with a macho code of honor, hired to protect a woman who thinks that code is obsolete. Privately, they will never see eye to eye. That's why she fires him. But when Rachel vanishes, Spenser rattles skeletons in blue-blooded family closets, tangles with the Klan and fights for her right to be exactly what she is. He is ready to lay his life on the line to find Rachel Wallace.

Decline and Fall (1928) was Evelyn Waugh's immensely successful first novel, and it displays not only all of its author's customary satiric genius and flair for unearthing the ridiculous in human nature, but also a youthful willingness to train those weapons on any and every thing in his path....  more

Decline and Fall (1928) was Evelyn Waugh's immensely successful first novel, and it displays not only all of its author's customary satiric genius and flair for unearthing the ridiculous in human nature, but also a youthful willingness to train those weapons on any and every thing in his path. In this fractured picaresque comedy of the hapless Paul Pennyfeather stumbling from one disaster to another, Waugh manages the delicious task of skewering every aspect of the society in which he lived.With an Introduction by Frank KermodeSir Frank Kermode, formerly Lord Northcliffe Professor at London University, is now Professor at Cambridge and Columbia Universities. His books include The Uses of and Continuities.

In this latest collection of essays following The Polysyllabic Spree, critic and author Nick Hornby continues the feverish survey of his swollen bookshelves, offering funny, intelligent, and unblinkered account of the stuff he's been reading. Ranging from the middlebrow to the highbrow (with...  more

In this latest collection of essays following The Polysyllabic Spree, critic and author Nick Hornby continues the feverish survey of his swollen bookshelves, offering funny, intelligent, and unblinkered account of the stuff he's been reading. Ranging from the middlebrow to the highbrow (with unrepenting dips into the lowbrow), Hornby's dispatches from his nightstand table serve as useful guides to the contemporary literary scene. Purchasing more books than he can read in the month allotted to him, Hornby nevertheless manages to speed through an impressive amount of material, and his choices often strike into deep, odd places. Hornby's book reviews are suffused with wit, ire, and loving insight. He can be trusted to point out which books are ridiculously unfunny, which books can be read incognito for their naughtiness, and most urgently, which books can bring themselves "all the way through the long march to your soul."

Like W. P. Kinsella's SHOELESS JOE and Michael Shaara's FOR THE LOVE OF A GAME, PROSPECT is a "gentle, big-hearted" (Kirkus Reviews) novel steeped in the lore and mythology of baseball. At its center stands Pete Estey, a lifelong baseball scout who finds himself divorced, retired, and...  more

Like W. P. Kinsella's SHOELESS JOE and Michael Shaara's FOR THE LOVE OF A GAME, PROSPECT is a "gentle, big-hearted" (Kirkus Reviews) novel steeped in the lore and mythology of baseball. At its center stands Pete Estey, a lifelong baseball scout who finds himself divorced, retired, and prematurely consigned to a retirement home, where his only diversions are the nightly ballgame on the radio, his memories, and his droll observations of his fellow pensioners. When an attendant at the home presents him with one last prospect for the major leagues, though, Pete discovers it to be the most important of his career. "Perceptive and engaging" (Los Angeles Times), PROSPECT tells the story of an unlikely kinship and an even more unlikely success and explores the boundless possibilities for rebirth both on and off the field.

Jarrod Hayes explores why democracies tend not to use military force against each other. He argues that democratic identity - the shared understanding within democracies of who "we" are and what "we" expect from each other - makes it difficult for political leaders to construct external...  more

Jarrod Hayes explores why democracies tend not to use military force against each other. He argues that democratic identity - the shared understanding within democracies of who "we" are and what "we" expect from each other - makes it difficult for political leaders to construct external democracies as threats. At the same time, he finds that democratic identity enables political actors to construct external non-democracies as threats. To explore his argument, he looks at U.S. relations with two rising powers: India and China. Through his argument and case studies, Professor Hayes addresses not just the democratic peace but also the larger processes of threat construction in international security, the role of domestic institutions in international relations, and the possibility for conflict between the United States and the world's two most populous countries.

Eddie Coyle works for Jimmy Scalisi, supplying him with guns for a couple of bank jobs. But a cop named Foley is on to Eddie and he's leaning on him to finger Scalisi, a gang leader with a lot to hide. And then there's Dillon -- a full-time bartender and part-time contract killer --...  more

Eddie Coyle works for Jimmy Scalisi, supplying him with guns for a couple of bank jobs. But a cop named Foley is on to Eddie and he's leaning on him to finger Scalisi, a gang leader with a lot to hide. And then there's Dillon -- a full-time bartender and part-time contract killer -- pretending to be Eddie's friend. Wheeling, dealing, chasing, and stealing -- that's Eddie, and he's got lots of friends.

A mile-long freight train steams through the heart of Idi Amin's mad, tortured, magical, and corrupt Uganda, loaded down with kahawa (Swahili for coffee). What Amin doesn't know, what his most beautiful spy has not been able to wring out of her latest victim, and what the world's coffee markets...  more

A mile-long freight train steams through the heart of Idi Amin's mad, tortured, magical, and corrupt Uganda, loaded down with kahawa (Swahili for coffee). What Amin doesn't know, what his most beautiful spy has not been able to wring out of her latest victim, and what the world's coffee markets may be unable to swallow, is that the train and six million dollars worth of coffee are about to disappear into the hands of a conflicted, colorful, swashbuckling band of mercenaries and moneymakers.

Phoebe Wycherly was missing two months before her wealthy father hired Archer to find her. That was plenty of time for a young girl who wanted to disappear to do so thoroughly--or for someone to make her disappear. Before he can find the Wycherly girl, Archer has to deal with the Wycherly woman,...  more

Phoebe Wycherly was missing two months before her wealthy father hired Archer to find her. That was plenty of time for a young girl who wanted to disappear to do so thoroughly--or for someone to make her disappear. Before he can find the Wycherly girl, Archer has to deal with the Wycherly woman, Phoebe's mother, an eerily unmaternal blonde who keeps too many residences, has too many secrets, and leaves too many corpses in her wake.

Although best known today for his singular, stunning ?anti-novels? dazzlingly conjured from anecdotes, quotes, and small thoughts, in his early days David Markson paid the rent by writing punchy, highly dramatic fictions. On the heels of a new double edition of his steamy noirs Epitaph for a...  more

Although best known today for his singular, stunning ?anti-novels? dazzlingly conjured from anecdotes, quotes, and small thoughts, in his early days David Markson paid the rent by writing punchy, highly dramatic fictions. On the heels of a new double edition of his steamy noirs Epitaph for a Tramp and Epitaph for a Deadbeat comes a new edition of his 1965 classic The Ballad of Dingus Magee, whose subtitle ? ?Immortal True Saga of the Most Notorious and Desperate Bad Man of the Olden Days, his Blood-Shedding, his Ruination of Poor Helpless Females, & Cetera? ? gives readers a hint of the raucous sensibility at work here. Brimming with blasphemy, bullets, and bordellos, this hilarious tale, which inspired the Frank Sinatra movie Dirty Dingus McGee, shows the early Markson at his outrageous best, taking down, as Playboy put it, ?the breeches of the Old West and blast[ing] what's exposed with buckshot.?

The most critically acclaimed, and first, of Denis Johnson's novels, Angels puts Jamie Mays -- a runaway wife toting along two kids -- and Bill Houston -- ex-Navy man, ex-husband, ex-con -- on a Greyhound Bus for a dark, wild ride cross country. Driven by restless souls, bad booze, and desperate...  more

The most critically acclaimed, and first, of Denis Johnson's novels, Angels puts Jamie Mays -- a runaway wife toting along two kids -- and Bill Houston -- ex-Navy man, ex-husband, ex-con -- on a Greyhound Bus for a dark, wild ride cross country. Driven by restless souls, bad booze, and desperate needs, Jamie and Bill bounce from bus stations to cheap hotels as they ply the strange, fascinating, and dangerous fringe of American life. Their tickets may say Phoenix, but their inescapable destination is a last stop marked by stunning violence and mind-shattering surprise. Denis Johnson, known for his portraits of America's dispossessed, sets off literary pyrotechnics on this highway odyssey, lighting the trek with wit and a personal metaphysics that defiantly takes on the world.

In an attempt to gain congressional approval for a top-secret weapons system, Washington lobbyist "Bird" McIntyre teams up with sexy, outspoken neocon Angel Templeton to pit the American public against the Chinese. When Bird fails to uncover an authentic reason to slander the nation, he and...  more

In an attempt to gain congressional approval for a top-secret weapons system, Washington lobbyist "Bird" McIntyre teams up with sexy, outspoken neocon Angel Templeton to pit the American public against the Chinese. When Bird fails to uncover an authentic reason to slander the nation, he and Angel put the Washington media machine to work, spreading a rumor that the Chinese secret service is working to assassinate the Dalai Lama. Meanwhile in China, mild-mannered President Fa Mengyao and his devoted aide Gang are maneuvering desperately against sinister party hard-liners Minister Lo and General Han. Now Fa and Gang must convince the world that the People's Republic is not out to kill the Dalai Lama, while maintaining Fa's small margin of power in the increasingly militaristic environment of the party. On the home front, Bird must contend with a high-strung wife who entertains Olympic equestrian ambition, and the qualifying competition happens to be taking place in China. As things unravel abroad, Bird and Angel's lie comes dangerously close to reality. And as their relationship rises to a new level, so do mounting tensions between the United States and China.

Here is Michael Crichton at his best with the bestselling classic of modern science battling an interstellar plague The Andromeda Strain sets forth the story of Project Wildfire - the crash mobilization of the nations highest scientific and medical resources when an unmanned research...  more

Here is Michael Crichton at his best with the bestselling classic of modern science battling an interstellar plague The Andromeda Strain sets forth the story of Project Wildfire - the crash mobilization of the nations highest scientific and medical resources when an unmanned research satellite returns to earth mysteriously and lethally contaminated.??Four American scientists are summoned under conditions of total news blackout and utmost urgency to Wildfire's secret laboratory five stories below the Nevada desert.??There - surrounded by the most sophisticated computer equipment, and sealed off from the outside world - they work against the threat of a worldwide epidemic.??Step by step they begin to unravel the puzzle of the Andromeda Strain until, terrifyingly, their microbacterial adversary ruptures the hypersterile seal of the lab and their already desperate search for a biomedical answer becomes a split second race against time.

Kinsey Millhone, P.I. is a 32-year-old, twice-divorced ex-cop with an irreverent, wise-cracking style reminiscent of Philip Marlowe -- and a great pair of legs -- who piles her trade in the small Southern Californian town of Santa Theresa. Make no mistake about it, Kinsey Millhone is one...  more

Kinsey Millhone, P.I. is a 32-year-old, twice-divorced ex-cop with an irreverent, wise-cracking style reminiscent of Philip Marlowe -- and a great pair of legs -- who piles her trade in the small Southern Californian town of Santa Theresa. Make no mistake about it, Kinsey Millhone is one tough cookie. When a routine insurance claim she's investigating turns into non-routine trouble -- someone has put $5,000 in her usually not-too-flush checking account and made it look like she's on the take -- Kinsey sets out to discover who has set her up and why. The trail of evidence leads to the wealthy Wood family, which includes the three quirky sisters Olive, Ash, and Ebony. But she's not counting on the involvement of her long-departed ex-husband #2, who's gorgeous, seductive and also a junkie. And she's certainly not counting on murder...

A Washington Post bestseller While the world has made encouraging strides in the fight against global poverty, there is a hidden crisis silently undermining our best efforts to help the poor. It is a plague of everyday violence. Beneath the surface of the world's poorest communities, common...  more

A Washington Post bestseller While the world has made encouraging strides in the fight against global poverty, there is a hidden crisis silently undermining our best efforts to help the poor. It is a plague of everyday violence. Beneath the surface of the world's poorest communities, common violence -- like rape, forced labor, illegal detention, land theft, police abuse and other brutality -- has become routine and relentless. And like a horde of locusts devouring everything in their path, the unchecked plague of violence ruins lives, blocks the road out of poverty, and undercuts development. How has this plague of violence grown so ferocious? The answer is terrifying, and startlingly simple: There's nothing shielding the poor from violent people. In one of the most remarkable -- and unremarked upon -- social disasters of the last half century, basic public justice systems in the developing world have descended into a state of utter collapse. Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros offer a searing account of how we got here -- and what it will take to end the plague. Filled with vivid real-life stories and startling new data, The Locust Effect is a gripping journey into the streets and slums where fear is a daily reality for billions of the world's poorest ,where safety is secured only for those with money, and where much of our well-intended aid is lost in the daily chaos of violence. While their call to action is urgent, Haugen and Boutros provide hope, a real solution and an ambitious way forward. The Locust Effect is a wake-up call: Its massive implications will forever change the way we understand global poverty - and will help secure a safe path to prosperity for the global poor in the 21st century.

Meet Matt Prior. He's about to lose his job, his wife, his house, maybe his mind. Unless . . . In the winning and utterly original novels Citizen Vince and The Zero, Jess Walter painted an America all his own: a land of real, flawed, and deeply human characters coping with the anxieties...  more

Meet Matt Prior. He's about to lose his job, his wife, his house, maybe his mind. Unless . . . In the winning and utterly original novels Citizen Vince and The Zero, Jess Walter painted an America all his own: a land of real, flawed, and deeply human characters coping with the anxieties of their times. Now, in his warmest, funniest, and best novel yet, Walter offers a story as real as our own lives: a tale of overstretched accounts, misbegotten schemes, and domestic dreams deferred. A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion: a Web site devoted to financial journalism in the form of blank verse. When his big idea -- and his wife's eBay resale business -- ends with a whimper (and a garage full of unwanted figurines), they borrow and borrow, whistling past the graveyard of their uncertain dreams. One morning Matt wakes up to find himself jobless, hobbled with debt, spying on his wife's online flirtation, and six days away from losing his home. Is this really how things were supposed to end up for me, he wonders: staying up all night worried, driving to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night to get milk for his boys, and falling in with two local degenerates after they offer him a hit of high-grade marijuana? Or, he thinks, could this be the solution to all my problems? Following Matt in his weeklong quest to save his marriage, his sanity, and his dreams, The Financial Lives of the Poets is a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach the edge of ruin -- and how we can begin to make our way back.

Now that Linda "Pidge" Lewellen is grown up, she tells Travis McGee, once her girlhood idol, that either she's going crazy or Howie, her affable ex-jock of a husband is trying to kill her. McGee checks things out, and gives Pidge the all clear. But when Pidge and Howie sail away to...  more

Now that Linda "Pidge" Lewellen is grown up, she tells Travis McGee, once her girlhood idol, that either she's going crazy or Howie, her affable ex-jock of a husband is trying to kill her. McGee checks things out, and gives Pidge the all clear. But when Pidge and Howie sail away to kiss and make up, McGee has second thoughts.  If only he can get to Pidge before he has time for any more thinking....

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, with the chance to serve on "Away Missions" alongside the starship’s famous senior officers. Life...  more

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, with the chance to serve on "Away Missions" alongside the starship’s famous senior officers. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to realize that 1) every Away Mission involves a lethal confrontation with alien forces, 2) the ship’s senior officers always survive these confrontations, and 3) sadly, at least one low-ranking crew member is invariably killed. Unsurprisingly, the savvier crew members belowdecks avoid Away Missions at all costs. Then Andrew stumbles on information that transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives. Redshirts is the winner of the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Over the last century, global poverty has largely been viewed as a technical problem that merely requires the right “expert? solutions. Yet all too often, experts recommend solutions that fix immediate problems without addressing the systemic political factors that created them in the first...  more

Over the last century, global poverty has largely been viewed as a technical problem that merely requires the right “expert? solutions. Yet all too often, experts recommend solutions that fix immediate problems without addressing the systemic political factors that created them in the first place. Further, they produce an accidental collusion with “benevolent autocrats,? leaving dictators with yet more power to violate the rights of the poor. In The Tyranny of Experts, economist William Easterly, bestselling author of The White Man?s Burden, traces the history of the fight against global poverty, showing not only how these tactics have trampled the individual freedom of the world?s poor, but how in doing so have suppressed a vital debate about an alternative approach to solving poverty: freedom. Presenting a wealth of cutting-edge economic research, Easterly argues that only a new model of development—one predicated on respect for the individual rights of people in developing countries, that understands that unchecked state power is the problem and not the solution —will be capable of ending global poverty once and for all.

Small-time stoolie Jake " The Spinner" Jablon made a lot of new enemies when he switched careers, from informer to blackmailer. And the more "clients", he figured, the more money---and more people eager to see him dead. So no one is surprised when the pigeon is found floating...  more

Small-time stoolie Jake " The Spinner" Jablon made a lot of new enemies when he switched careers, from informer to blackmailer. And the more "clients", he figured, the more money---and more people eager to see him dead. So no one is surprised when the pigeon is found floating in the East River with his skull bashed in. And what's worse, no one cares---except Matthew Scudder. The ex-cop-turned-private-eye is no conscientious avenging angel. But he's willing to risk his own life and limb to confront Spinner's most murderously aggressive marks. A job's a job after all---and Scudder's been paid to find a killer---by the victim...in advance.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this classic book is generally regarded as the finest novel ever written on american politics. It describes the career of Willie Stark, a back-country lawyer whose idealism is overcome by his lust for power. New Foreword by Joseph Blotner for this fiftieth...  more

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this classic book is generally regarded as the finest novel ever written on american politics. It describes the career of Willie Stark, a back-country lawyer whose idealism is overcome by his lust for power. New Foreword by Joseph Blotner for this fiftieth anniversary edition.