The FBI Career Guide: Inside Information on Getting Chosen for and Succeeding in One of the Toughest, Most Prestigious Jobs in the World


Joseph W. Koletar - 2006
    However, there were more than 150,000 applicants, and you can be sure the successful candidates had not only relevant backgrounds, but also determination and a genuine desire to embark on one of the most coveted, rewarding, and challenging careers in the world.Joe Koletar, whose own blue-ribbon career at the Bureau is second to none, shows how to get the job-and how to thrive once you've got it.In The FBI Career Guide, Koletar’s inside look at the real FBI reveals:Smart educational and career decisions to improve your odds of being hiredHow to meet and network with current FBI agentsWhat Special Agents do, day-to-day, in different roles and environmentsHow undercover investigations, SWAT team operations, and specialty assignmentsWhat agents earn, and what benefits they receiveThe prospects for advancement, and some typical (and not so typical) career pathsHow the job may affect your personal and family lifeThis book also reveals the common mistakes applicants make, and shows how to avoid them while also giving you detailed information on excelling in the Agent Training Program.Finally, Koletar offers profiles of real agents who have gone on to successful post-FBI careers, and will help you lay the groundwork for a rewarding life after the Bureau. Above all, The FBI Career Guide will help you find out if you've got what it takes to succeed -- and if you do, how to show it.

The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art


Don Thompson - 2008
    5, 1948 sell for $140 million?            Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored.            This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on  interviews with both past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced  auction purchasers do not know.

La Doctora: An American Doctor In The Amazon


Linnea Smith - 1998
    Linnea Smith went to Peru on an ecotourism vacation. She was so moved that she abandoned her thriving medical practice in Wisconsin to serve the Yagua Indians in the deepest part of the Amazon rainforest of Peru-alone.Taken straight from the pages of Dr. Smith’s journal, La Doctora offers readers a rare glimpse into the suspense and drama of practicing medicine in a culture far removed from the sophisticated supplies and supports of 20th-century medicine.Learn how Dr. Smith evolved from a “strange white woman” to an adopted member of the indigenous community. Her story of adventure, self-discovery and service creates inspiring testimony to one person’s power to make a lasting difference.

If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home


Lucy Worsley - 2011
    Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove.

Companions of the Prophet - Book 1


Abdulwahid Hamid - 1995
    Here the trials and triumphs of the early Muslims as individuals are well-portrayed. Their various paths to Islam - sometimes direct, sometimes long and tortuous, their devotion to the noble Prophet, their endeavours in peace time and their exploits in war - all serve to cast them in a heroic mould. This is the first of two (formerly published as a series of three) books based on original Arabic sources and written in a style that is lively and often gripping. The lives of the Sahabah or Companions of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, is a rich storehouse of knowledge, guidance and inspiration. The men and women whose stories are told here helped to lay the foundations of a new world order, and it is only fitting that they should be more widely known.

Zombie Simpsons: How the Best Show Ever Became the Broadcasting Undead


Charlie Sweatpants - 2012
    It has been translated into every major language on Earth and dozens of minor ones; it has spawned entire genres of animation, and had more books written about it than all but a handful of American Presidents. Even its minor characters have become iconic, and the titular family is recognizable in almost every corner of the planet. It is a definitive and truly global cultural phenomenon, perhaps the biggest of the television age. As of this writing, if you flip on FOX at 8pm on Sundays, you will see a program that bills itself as "The Simpsons". It is not "The Simpsons". That show, the landmark piece of American culture that debuted on 17 December 1989, went off the air more than a decade ago. The replacement is a hopelessly mediocre imitation that bears only a superficial resemblance to the original. It is the unwanted sequel, the stale spinoff, the creative dry hole that is kept pumping in the endless search for more money. It is Zombie Simpsons.

A Lesser Photographer: Escape the Gear Trap and Focus on What Matters


C.J. Chilvers - 2018
    Less gear. Less anxiety. Less stress. Less fear. A Lesser Photographer is the missing guide you've always wanted to the only gear that really matters: the gear between your ears. In under an hour, you’ll be able to identify the myths you’ve been taught about photography and embrace useful creative habits that will set you apart. Praise for previous editions: “For something beautiful and well-said, check out A Lesser Photographer.” — David duChemin “Amazing read…I really recommend everyone get a copy.” — Chris Marquardt “CJ Chilvers reevaluates what it means to be a photographer in this manifesto. Most of the points apply to virtually any creative endeavor or obsession. ‘The real show is outside the viewfinder.’” — Jim Coudal “I have to say, CJ has a great attitude. If you care at all about photography, he’s a must read.” — Patrick Rhone “Every photographer should follow CJ Chilvers.” — Eric Kim

Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History


Tony Rettman - 2017
    Straight edge created its own sound and visual style, went on to embrace vegetarianism, and later saw the rise of a militant fringe. As the 'don't drink, don't smoke' message spread from Washington, D.C., to Boston, California, New York City, and, eventually, the world, adherents struggled to define the fundamental ideals and limits of what may be the ultimate youth movement.

Acadian Driftwood: One Family and the Great Expulsion


Tyler LeBlanc - 2020
    LeBlanc's discovery that he could trace his family all the way to the time of the Acadian Expulsion and beyond forms the basis of this compelling account of Le Grand D?rangement.Piecing together his family history through archival documents, Tyler LeBlanc tells the story of Joseph LeBlanc (his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather), Joseph's ten siblings, and their families. With descendants scattered across modern-day Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the LeBlancs provide a window into the diverse fates that awaited the Acadians when they were expelled from their homeland. Some escaped the deportation and were able to retreat into the wilderness. Others found their way back to Acadie. But many were exiled to Britain, France, or the future United States, where they faced suspicion and prejudice and struggled to settle into new lives.A unique biographical approach to the history of the Expulsion, Acadian Driftwood is a vivid insight into one family's experience of this traumatic event.

December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died


Keith Elliot Greenberg - 2010
    In a breathtaking, minute-by-minute format, December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died follows the events leading to the horrible moment when Mark David Chapman calmly fired his Charter Arms .38 Special into the rock icon, realizing his perverse fantasy of attaining perennial notoriety. New York Times bestselling author Keith Elliot Greenberg takes us back to New York City and the world John Lennon woke up to. The day begins with a Rolling Stone photo session that takes on an uncomfortable tone when photographer Annie Leibowitz tries to maneuver Yoko Ono out of the shot. Later Lennon gives the last interview of his life, declaring, "I consider that my work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time." We follow the other Beatles, Lennon's family, the shooter, fans, and New York City officials through the day, and as the hours progress, the pace becomes more breathless. Once the fatal shots are fired, the clock continues to tick as Dr. Stephan Lynn walks from the emergency room after declaring the former Beatle dead, Howard Cosell announces the singer's passing on Monday Night Football, and Paul McCartney is lambasted for muttering "Drag, isn't it?" - his bereavement confused with indifference. The epilogue examines the aftermath of the killing: the considerable moment when 100,000 New Yorkers stood in silence in Central Park, the posthumous reunion of the Beatles in the studio with George, Paul, and Ringo accompanying the recordings of their old friend the unveiling of a bronze John Lennon statue in Fidel Castro's Cuba, and the durable legacy that persists today.

The Future Starts Here: Adventures in the Twenty-First Century


John Higgs - 2019
    The idea that our civilisation is doomed is not established fact. It is a story we tell ourselves.' In the 1980s, we gave up on the future. When we look ahead now, we imagine economic collapse, environmental disaster and the zombie apocalypse. But what if we are wrong? What if this bleak outlook is a generational quirk that afflicted those raised in twentieth century, but which is already beginning to pass? What if we do have a future after all?John Higgs takes us on a journey past the technological hype and headlines to discover why we shouldn't trust the predictions of science fiction, why nature is not as helpless as we assume and why purpose can never be automated. In the process, we will come to a better understanding of what lies ahead and how, despite everything - despite all the horrors and instability we face - we can build a better future.

The New Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football


Paul Zimmerman - 1984
    Now, critics, sports writers and fans across America are cheering The NEW Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football as the worthy heir to Zimmerman's 1971 classic The Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football, which Howard Cosell called "the best book of its kind I've ever read." Far more than a revision, The NEW Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football is virtually a brand-new book (in 1984) prompted by, as Zimmerman writes in his introduction, "a whole new generation of players and coaches (who have) given rise to a new set of reflections about a world that is ever changing." Zimmerman examines positions, tactics, the great players and moments of peak performance, football scouting, broadcasting, minor leagues, the rule changes of the pst decade and how they have inspired new playing stategies (crisply illustrated with diagrams). And with characteristic verve, insight and no-nonsense prose, Zimmerman pays close attention to the effect of football''s pounding nose-to-nose competition on the everyday player's personality.

Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective


Gary P. Ferraro - 2007
    This contemporary and student-relevant text gives you all the key material you need for your introductory course, plus it will show you that anthropology is for you! With real world applications of the principles and practices of anthropology, this book will help you learn to appreciate other cultures as well as your own. Apply what you learn in this course to those situations that you are likely to encounter in your personal and professional life. What can you do with anthropology today? Check out the real-life examples of cross-cultural misunderstandings and issues (in our popular "Cross-Cultural Miscues" features) to view 'culture at work.' Also, the book takes a look at specialized vocabularies as illustrated by "chickspeak" (the language of single, urban, upwardly mobile women), the war in Iraq, environmental degradation, and other contemporary topics.

Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh


Gerald Grant - 2009
    Supreme Court handed down a 5–4 verdict in Milliken v. Bradley, thereby blocking the state of Michigan from merging the Detroit public school system with those of the surrounding suburbs. This decision effectively walled off underprivileged students in many American cities, condemning them to a system of racial and class segregation and destroying their chances of obtaining a decent education.In Hope and Despair in the American City, Gerald Grant compares two cities—his hometown of Syracuse, New York, and Raleigh, North Carolina—in order to examine the consequences of the nation’s ongoing educational inequities. The school system in Syracuse is a slough of despair, the one in Raleigh a beacon of hope. Grant argues that the chief reason for Raleigh’s educational success is the integration by social class that occurred when the city voluntarily merged with the surrounding suburbs in 1976 to create the Wake County Public School System. By contrast, the primary cause of Syracuse’s decline has been the growing class and racial segregation of its metropolitan schools, which has left the city mired in poverty.Hope and Despair in the American City is a compelling study of urban social policy that combines field research and historical narrative in lucid and engaging prose. The result is an ambitious portrait—sometimes disturbing, often inspiring—of two cities that exemplify our nation’s greatest educational challenges, as well as a passionate exploration of the potential for school reform that exists for our urban schools today.

National Park Mysteries & Disappearances: The Great Smoky Mountains National Park


Steve Stockton - 2021