Everything All at Once: How to Unleash Your Inner Nerd, Tap Into Radical Curiosity, and Solve Any Problem


Bill Nye - 2017
    In Everything All At Once, the New York Times bestselling author issues a call to arms meant to rouse everyone to become the change they want to see in the world. Whether addressing global warming, social change, or personal success, there are certain strategies that always get results: looking at the world with radical curiosity, being driven by a desire for a better future, and being willing to take the actions needed to make change a reality.With his signature humor and storytelling, Bill shares how he has developed specific techniques for what he calls the "everything all at once" lifestyle, from his childhood scouting adventures and his career at aerospace companies to the development of his famous Science Guy television show. This approach requires the nerd mindset: a way of thinking that leaves no stone unturned. It's about learning to solve problems through exploration, trial and error, and sheer creativity. Problem solving is a skill that anyone can harness to create change, and Bill Nye is here to show us how to sort out problems, recognize solutions, and join him in changing the world.

Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All


Ernö Rubik - 2020
    Erno Rubik inspires us with what he’s learned in a lifetime of creating, curiosity, and discovery.Erno Rubik was a child when he first became obsessed with puzzles of all kinds. “Puzzles,” he writes, “bring out important qualities in each of us: concentration, curiosity, a sense of play, the eagerness to discover a solution.” To Rubik puzzles aren’t just games—they’re creativity machines. He encourages us to embrace our inner curiosity and find the puzzles that surround us in our everyday lives. “If you are determined, you will solve them,” he writes. Rubik’s own puzzle, the Cube, went on to be solved by millions worldwide for over forty years, become one of the bestselling toys of all time, and to be featured as a global symbol of intelligence and ingenuity.In Cubed, Rubik covers more than just his journey to inventing his eponymous cube. He makes a case for always being an amateur—something he has always considered himself to be. He discusses the inevitability of problems during any act of invention. He reveals what it was like to experience the astonishing worldwide success of an object he made purely for his own play. And he offers what he thinks it means to be a true creator (hint: anyone can do it). Steeped in the wisdom and also the humility of a born inventor, Cubed offers a unique look at the imperfect science of creation.

100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask: 4th Edition


Ilyce R. Glink - 2018
    It will be the place where you plant your roots, come home after a long day, raise a family, or make a successful investment. But how, with everything from student loans and an uncertain marketplace stacked against you, do you get to that idyllic future? In 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask, Ilyce Glink, one of the most trusted names in real estate, answers all of your questions about home buying--and some you didn't know you had--and takes you on a personal journey from open houses to moving day. Weaving together advice from top brokers around the country with illustrative stories and her own unparalleled expertise, 100 Questions is a one-stop shop to getting the home of your dreams.

Venom Doc: The Edgiest, Darkest, Strangest Natural History Memoir Ever


Bryan Grieg Fry - 2015
    He’s been bitten by twenty-six venomous snakes, been stung by three stingrays, and survived a near-fatal scorpion sting while deep in the Amazon jungle. He’s received more than four hundred stitches and broken twenty-three bones, including breaking his back in three places, and had to learn how to walk again. But when you research only the venom you yourself have collected, the adventures—and danger—never stop.Imagine a three-week-long first date in Siberia catching venomous water shrews with the daughter of a Russian war hero; a wedding attended by Eastern European prime ministers and their machine-gun-wielding bodyguards and snakes; or leading a team to Antarctica that results in the discovery of four new species of venomous octopi. Bryan’s discoveries have radically reshaped views on venom evolution and contributed to the creation of venom-based life-saving medications. In pursuit of venom, he has traveled the world collecting samples from Indonesia to Mexico, Germany, and Brazil. He’s encountered venomous creatures of all kinds, including the Malaysian king cobra, the Komodo dragon, and the brush-footed trapdoor spider. Bryan recounts his lifelong passion for studying the world’s most venomous creatures in this outlandish, captivating memoir, where he and danger are never far apart.

The Sky Below


Scott Parazynski - 2017
    From dramatic, high-risk spacewalks to author Scott Parazynski’s death-defying quest to summit Mount Everest—his body ravaged by a career in space—readers will experience the life of an elite athlete, physician, and explorer.This intimate, compelling account offers a rare portrait of space exploration from the inside. A global nomad raised in the shadow of NASA’s Apollo missions, Parazynski never lost sight of his childhood dream to one day don a spacesuit and float outside the airlock. With deep passion, unbridled creativity, resilience, humility, and self-deprecation, Parazynski chases his dream of the ultimate adventure experience, again and again and again. In an era that transitioned from moon shots to the Space Shuttle, space station, and Mars research, Parazynski flies with John Glenn, tests jet packs, trains in Russia to become a cosmonaut, and flies five missions to outer space (including seven spacewalks) in his seventeen-year NASA career.An unparalleled, visceral opportunity to understand what it’s like to train for—and deploy to—a home in zero gravity, The Sky Below also portrays an astronaut’s engagement with the challenges of his life on Earth, including raising a beautiful autistic daughter and finding true love.

21 Songs in 6 Days: Learn to Play Ukulele the Easy Way: Book + Online Video (Beginning Ukulele Songs 1)


Rebecca Bogart - 2013
    This ukulele primer book is the simplest, easiest, and most efficient way for absolute beginners to master a whole set-list worth of songs. Here's why: Step-by-step instruction AND videos are provided free with your purchase of this music book. You get 45 separate lessons: over 100 minutes of powerful video instruction! No matter your learning style, you can read, listen, or watch as you play along with your ukulele. Learn and master one easy skill at a time. With this innovative way to learn ukulele you'll steadily improve without getting frustrated or developing bad habits. You're learning from a Grammy Award nominated educator and former Harvard Master Class piano teacher. All songs are well-known, easy-to-learn folk songs so you can build your confidence and learn to play with ease. AND all songs (from Row Row Row Your Boat to Jingle Bells to This Land is Your Land) include: strum patterns, chord diagrams, sheet music, and lyrics — everything you need to make your 1st—and 21st—song sound perfect. So whether you read music already or are just searching for your personal Ukulele For Dummies, look no further! The 21 Songs in 6 Days ukulele songbook allows you to sing along, go back to review, and learn at your own pace with the FREE bonus online video instruction! It has all the essential elements you need to learn ukulele now. Make it easy to master the ukulele...grab your copy of this Amazon #1 Best Seller today! Complete Songlist: Are You Sleeping?Row, Row, Row Your BoatThree Blind MiceHave You Seen the Ghost of John?Hey, Ho, Nobody HomeAh, Poor BirdFrere JacquesChatter With the AngelsA Ram Sam SamShoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me (in F)Hush, Little Baby (in F)Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow (in F)C, then G7 EtudeShoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me (in C)Hush, Little Baby (in C)Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow (in C)He’s Got the Whole World in His HandsPolly Wolly DoodleJingle BellsThis Land Is Your LandFor He's a Jolly Good FellowOh, When the SaintsI've Been Working on the RailroadRed River Valley

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes


Thomas Cathcart - 2006
    Its Philosophy 101 for everyone who knows not to take all this heavy stuff too seriously. Some of the Big Ideas are Existentialism (what do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?), Philosophy of Language (how to express what its like being stranded on a desert island with Halle Berry), Feminist Philosophy (why, in the end, a man is always a man), and much more. Finally it all makes sense!

How To Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication


Stanley Coren - 2000
    Parlez-vous Doggish? At long last, dogs will know just how smart their owners can be. By unlocking the secrets of the hidden language of dogs, psychologist Stanley Coren allows us into the doggy dialogue, or “Doggish,” and makes effective communication a reality. Drawing on substantial research in animal behavior, evolutionary biology, and years of personal experience, Coren demonstrates that the average house dog can understand language at about the level of a two-year-old human. While actual conversation of the sort Lassie seemed capable of in Hollywood mythmaking remains forever out of reach, Coren shows us that a great deal of real communication is possible beyond the giving and obeying of commands. How to Speak Dog not only provides the sounds, words, actions, and movements with which we can effectively communicate with our dogs, but also deciphers the signs that our dogs give to us. With easy-to-follow tips on how humans can mimic the language dogs use to talk with one another, original drawings illustrating the subtleties of their body language, and a handy visual glossary and “Doggish” phrasebook, How to Speak Dog gives dog lovers the skills they need to improve their relationships with their pets.

I Thought My Father Was God and Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project


Paul Auster - 2001
    One hundred and eighty voices - male and female, young and old, from all walks of life and all over the country - talk intimately to the reader. Combining great humor and pathos this remarkable selection of stories from the thousands submitted to NPR's Weekend All Things Considered National Story Project gives the reader a glimpse of America's soul in all its diversity.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD HUGHES: Confessions of an Unhappy Billionaire


Clifford Irving - 1982
    This is a hypnotizing narrative, a brilliant study of money's power to corrupt absolutely. It's a crime not to publish it." -- Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times Immense wealth. Corrupt political power. Scientific genius. Sexual kinkiness. Howard Hughes, the legendary Texas billionaire, exemplified all these qualities. Oil tycoon, record-breaking aviator, Oscar-winning moviemaker, and the shy lover of dozens of Hollywood movie stars, he bought the favors of U.S. presidents and even tried to buy Las Vegas. In his twilight years he became a recluse, hiding in shadowed hotel suites. Many believed that he had died and his business associates had stolen his billions. Enter author and adventurer Clifford Irving. "Howard Hughes is alive and he's alive, and wants me to help him write the story of his life. He's going to tell a more shocking story than anyone could have foreseen." The book was called "a stunning hoax," but many believe that Richard Nixon's fear of the truths in the manuscript caused him to order the burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate. For what he had done, Clifford Irving was sentenced to 2 ½ years in federal prison. Except for a small private 1998 edition, this is the Hughes Autobiography's first publication in the United States. "Until now, the most famous unpublished book of the 20th century." -- International Herald Tribune.

Feel Better In 5: Your Daily Plan to Feel Great for Life


Rangan Chatterjee - 2019
    For good.Feel Better in 5 is the first daily 5-minute plan that is easy to maintain, easy-to-follow and requires only the smallest amount of willpower.Top tips include:· A strength workout that you can do anywhere· Gut-boosting snacks you can eat on the go · Yoga moves to relax and stay supple · Breathing exercises to calm the mindDrawing on Dr Rangan Chatterjee's twenty years of experience and real-life case studies from his GP practice, Feel Better in 5 is your daily plan for a happier, healthier you at no extra cost.

A Zoo in My Luggage


Gerald Durrell - 1960
    A Zoo in My Luggage begins with an account of Durrell’s third trip to the British Cameroons in West Africa, during which he and his wife capture animals to start their own zoo. Returning to England with a few additions to their family—Cholmondeley the chimpanzee, Bug-eye the bush baby, and others—they have nowhere to put them as they haven’t yet secured a place for their zoo. Durrell’s account of how he manages his menagerie in all sorts of places throughout England while finding a permanent home for the animals provides as much adventure as capturing them. For animal lovers of all ages, A Zoo in My Luggage is the romping true story of the boy who grew up to make a Noah’s Ark of his own.

Nala's World: One Man, His Rescue Cat, and a Bike Ride around the Globe


Dean Nicholson - 2020
    When 30-year-old Dean Nicholson set off from Scotland to cycle around the world, his aim was to learn as much as he could about our troubled planet. But he hadn't bargained on the lessons he'd learn from his unlikely companion. Three months after leaving home, on a remote road in the mountains between Montenegro and Bosnia, he came across an abandoned kitten. Something about the piercing eyes and plaintive meowing of the bedraggled little cat proved irresistible. He couldn't leave her to her fate, so he put her on his bike and then, with the help of local vets, nursed her back to health. Soon on his travels with the cat he named Nala, they forged an unbreakable bond -- both curious, independent, resilient and adventurous. The video of how they met has had 20 million views and their Instagram has grown to almost 750k followers -- and still counting! Experiencing the kindness of strangers, visiting refugee camps, rescuing animals through Europe and Asia, Dean and Nala have already learned that the unexpected can be pretty amazing. Together with Garry Jenkins, writer with James Bowen of the bestselling A Street Cat Named Bob, Dean shares the extraordinary tale of his and Nala's inspiring and heart-warming adventure together.

BAD KARMA: The True Story of a Mexico Trip from Hell


Paul Wilson - 2019
    Having no earthly idea of where he’ll get the money to pay his share, and determined to prove his mettle, he does the only thing he can think of: He robs a supermarket. And, if karma didn’t already have enough reason to doom the trip, he soon learns one of his companions is a convicted killer on the run, and the other an unscrupulous cad. Mishap and misfortune rule the days, and mere survival takes precedence over surfing. Original photographs (including pre-kingpin El Chapo), and Wilson’s strong narrative style, combine to make this true story personal—in the tradition of Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, and Barbarian Days, A Surfing Life by William Finnegan—except this tale had to wait for the statute of limitations to expire before it could be told.

When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain: History's Unknown Chapters


Giles Milton - 2016
    There's the man who survived the atomic bomb in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And there's many, many more.Covering everything from adventure, war, murder and slavery to espionage, including the stories of the female Robinson Crusoe, Hitler's final hours, Japan's deadly balloon bomb and the emperor of the United States, these tales deserve to be told.