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100 Endgames You Must Know: Vital Lessons for Every Chess Player


Jesús de la Villa - 2008
    Jesus de la Villa, an international grandmaster and former champion of Spain, presents the endgames that show up most frequently in practice, are easy to learn and contain ideas and concepts that are useful in more difficult positions. He brings you simple rules, guiding ideas at the beginning of each chapter, detailed and lively explanations, many diagrams, clear summaries of the most important themes, recommended exercises that will help you understand the material, and tests, divided in two parts: basic and final. The main thing De la Villa asks of you is to always understand WHY you play a move.

How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom


Garry Kasparov - 2001
    In How Life Imitates Chess Kasparov distills the lessons he learned over a lifetime as a Grandmaster to offer a primer on successful decision-making: how to evaluate opportunities, anticipate the future, devise winning strategies. He relates in a lively, original way all the fundamentals, from the nuts and bolts of strategy, evaluation, and preparation to the subtler, more human arts of developing a personal style and using memory, intuition, imagination and even fantasy. Kasparov takes us through the great matches of his career, including legendary duels against both man (Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov) and machine (IBM chess supercomputer Deep Blue), enhancing the lessons of his many experiences with examples from politics, literature, sports and military history.With candor, wisdom, and humor, Kasparov recounts his victories and his blunders, both from his years as a world-class competitor as well as his new life as a political leader in Russia. An inspiring book that combines unique strategic insight with personal memoir, How Life Imitates Chess is a glimpse inside the mind of one of today's greatest and most innovative thinkers.

That's My Son: How Moms Can Influence Boys to Become Men of Character


Rick Johnson - 2005
    They want to help their sons grow up to become men of honor and integrity, but that's a tremendous challenge. With refreshing honesty and a man's insight, author Rick Johnson offers the advice, understanding, and support every mom is looking for when it comes to raising godly sons. Using extensive research and humorous personal experiences, he addresses tough issues, such as communication, discipline, sexuality, and respect. Mothers, including single moms as well as grandmothers and teachers, will find wise counsel and reassurance in this practical and helpful book.

Thurber's Dogs: A Collection of the Master's Dogs, Written and Drawn, Real and Imaginary, Legends All


James Thurber - 1955
    A collection of the master's dogs, written and drawn, real and imaginary, living and long ago

Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games


László Polgár - 1994
    Organized by problem type, each combination, or game is keyed to an easy-to-follow solution at the back of the book.. More than 6,000 illustrations make it easy to see the possibilities regardless of where your pieces are on the board. The book also includes the basic rules of the game and an international bibliography. Chess is the ultimate book on winning the game.

A Tapestry of Magics


Brian Daley - 1980
    One day it might be Bill, who had been a god. The next it might be Little John and his band of not so merry men. And there were monsters and armies bent on conquest to be met and overcome by the unfortunate knights who patrolled those changing, flux haunted lands of the Beyond.But those dangers were expected. The real problem Sir Crassmor had to face lay in the very heart of the Singularity, and no one would listen to him or trust him

Think: Why You Should Question Everything


Guy P. Harrison - 2013
    With a mix of wit and wisdom, it challenges everyone to think like a scientist, embrace the skeptical life, and improve their critical thinking skills.Think shows you how to better navigate through the maze of biases and traps that are standard features of every human brain. These innate pitfalls threaten to trick us into seeing, hearing, thinking, remembering, and believing things that are not real or true. Guy Harrison's straightforward text will help you trim away the nonsense, deflect bad ideas, and keep both feet firmly planted in reality.  With an upbeat and friendly tone, Harrison shows how it's in everyone's best interest to question everything. He brands skepticism as a constructive and optimistic attitude--a way of life that anyone can embrace. An antidote to nonsense and delusion, this accessible guide to critical thinking is the perfect book for anyone seeking a jolt of inspiration.

Kubla Khan: A Pop-Up Version of Coleridge's Classic


Nick Bantock - 1816
    Readers of all ages have been intrigued and delighted by Nick Bantock's gift books. Now Bantock's legendary artwork attains new lyrical expression as he translates Coleridge's classic, opium-inspired poem into exquisite and phantasmagoric pop-up constructions. 6 pop-ups.

Broken Heart Club


Cathy Cassidy - 2016
    They've promised to stay best friends forever and nothing can tear them apart. But sometimes things happen that you couldn't ever have expected and forever might not be as long as you think. Now, two years later, Eden and Ryan are haunted by memories of the past. Can they find a way to bring the club back together or is it too late to mend a broken heart?A gorgeous new story from the bestselling author of the Chocolate Box Girls series.

Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power


James McGrath Morris - 2010
    Gracefully written and thoroughly researched, his biography is easily the best we have on this remarkable man who so profoundly influenced the worlds of politics and publishing.” — David Nasaw, author of Andrew CarnegiePulitzer is James McGrath Morris’s definitive biography of the Jewish Hungarian immigrant who created the modern American mass media—the first comprehensive biography of this remarkable historical icon in more than 40 years.

The Weight of All Things


Sandra Benítez - 2000
    Watching while her body is dragged away with other victims, Nicols believes that his mother is still alive and vows to find her again. Thus begins the young boys harrowing journey through his war-ravaged country.

Ghost Flight


Bear Grylls - 2015
    WILD and THE ISLAND, Bear Grylls delivers his action-packed debut novel - the start of a major new adventure series.Haunted by his wife and son's brutal abduction and murder, ex-soldier Will Jaeger runs to the ends of the earth to recover and to hide. But even there he is found, and compelled to undertake one last mission, and to confront a savage past he can barely even remember.Jaeger agrees to lead an expedition into the Mountains of the Gods in the remote Amazon jungle. At the dark heart of this real life Lost World lies a mystery WWII warplane, one that harbours a secret so explosive its very discovery may tear the world asunder. Terrifying forces are hell-bent on keeping the warplane forever hidden. Unwittingly, Will Jaeger is going in against them.But as Jaeger joins a team of former elite warriors - including ice-cool Russian operator Irina Narov - he senses that the air wreck also harbours the answer he so longs to uncover: the identity of his wife and son's murderers.Hair-raising adventure, an extreme survival quest and a shocking mystery reaching back into the horrors of Nazi Germany.

Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow


Ray BradburyJohn Steinbeck - 1952
    Contributor John Cheever; Shirley Jackson; Henry Kuttner

Ideas That Matter: A Personal Guide For The 21st Century


A.C. Grayling - 2008
    And, in turn, ideas evolve. This is Grayling's personal and heartfelt guide to the ideas, past and present, that shape our world. It covers religion, philosophy, scientific theory and political movements.

All the Wrong Moves: A Memoir about Chess, Love, and Ruining Everything


Sasha Chapin - 2019
    Like countless amateurs before him--Albert Einstein, Humphrey Bogart, Marcel Duchamp--the game has consumed his life and his mind. First captivated by it as a member of his high school chess club, his passion was rekindled during an accidental encounter with chess hustlers on the streets of Kathmandu. In its aftermath, he forgot how to care about anything else. He played at all hours, for weeks at a time. Like a spurned lover, he tried to move on, but he found the game more seductive the more he resisted it.And so, he thought, if he can't defeat his obsession, he had to succumb to it. All the Wrong Moves traces Chapin's rollicking two-year journey around the globe in search of glory. He travels to tournaments in Bangkok and Hyderabad. He seeks out a mentor in St. Louis, a grandmaster whose personality is half rabbi and half monk, and who offers cryptic wisdom and caustic insults ("you're the best player in your chair"). His story builds toward the Los Angeles Open, where Chapin is clearly outmatched and yet no less determined not to lose.Along the way, he chronicles the highs and lows of his fixation, driven on this quest by lust, terror, and the elusive possibility of victory. Stylish, inventive, and laugh-out-loud funny, All the Wrong Moves is more than a work of history or autobiography. It's a celebration of the purity, violence, and beauty of the game.