Jonathan Hogan
21) An Open Book
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Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael Dirda, shares his love for all literature, novels, comic books, poetry, even erotica, in this humorous memoir of his childhood. Growing up in a blue-collar, Midwestern household of the 50s and 60s, Dirda appalled his father with his insatiable thirst for reading. His humorous remembrances of the works he loved will spark the interest of anyone who savors a good story.
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Imagine your shock at waking up one morning to a fleet of enormous, otherworldly craft looming over you. And when bizarre aliens begin to emerge-speaking strange gibberish-your heart races even faster. Similar fears may have gripped New World inhabitants when diverse civilizations-separated by a vast ocean-first met. American natives once knew nothing of towering ships, galloping horses, thundering guns, or smallpox. From 1492 onward, however, waves...
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Meet the inventors and innovators who defined American music history. A radio repairman named Leo Fender imagined a solid-body electric guitar. The inventor of 3-D glasses, Laurens Hammond, envisioned an electric organ in every home. And a German carpenter named Steinway immigrated to New York City with the dream of designing the greatest piano in the world. From Steinway's pianos, Bob Moog's synthesizers, and C.G. Conn's band instruments to Avedis...
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Wrongful intolerance has existed in American society for more than four centuries. Us and Them illuminates the shadowy corners of our national past and traces the country's continuing efforts to measure up to its lofty ideals. Through 14 dramatic narratives, listeners witness epic struggles that shaped our collective identity. These and eight other forgotten incidents of history come to life in clear and vibrant prose. - A Quaker woman in 1660 Massachusetts...
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In 1946, America had just exited the biggest war in modern history and was about to enter another of a kind no one had fought before. We think of this moment as the brilliant start of America Triumphant, in world politics and economics. But the reality is murkier: 1946 brought tension between industry and labor, political disunity, bad veteran morale, housing crises, inflation, a Soviet menace-all shadowed by an indecisiveness that would plague decision...
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When columnist Paul Downs was approached by the New York Times to write for their "You're the Boss" blog, he had been running his custom furniture business for 24 years strong-or, mostly strong. Now, he embarks on a book length essay that intends to show a portrait of a real business, with a real boss, a real set of employees, and the real challenges they face, in hopes of promoting a better understanding of the behaviors of small business owners....
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A sickly and awkward boy who turned into a country music legend, Hiram Williams had reinvented himself as Hank Williams and taken to alcohol by the age of 14. He was dead by the age of 29. Here, Paul Hemphill recounts the tortured life and whirlwind career of the hillbilly Shakespeare as only a fellow Southerner can. "
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Everybody knows that a strong dollar equals a strong economy, bonds are safer than stocks, stocks are more volatile now and stop-losses are a smart, money-saving tactic ... right? These are just a few widely believed but potentially dangerous market myths New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ken Fisher dismantles in this wise, informative, wholly entertaining new book. As a long-term Forbes columnist and CEO of a global money...
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A.C. Greene was an author, historian, and journalist for the Dallas Morning News. His engaging narrative reflects extensive research into a true crime. On December 23, 1927, three men follow Santa Claus into the First National Bank in Cisco, Texas. One man walks up to the teller and says, "Stick 'em up!" These simple words set off a violent chain of events, causing the deaths of six men and the largest manhunt in Texas history.
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No historian has been able to capture so elegantly the factors influencing the formation of the state of Texas. Three-time winner of the Jefferson Davis Award, William C. Davis precisely describes the spirit of the times during this momentous period. The conflicts between Anglo Texans, native Tejanos, and Mexican officials that led to war come to life with invigorating detail.
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In this journalistic tour de force, Dallas Morning News contributor W.K. Stratton follows the fates of the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies, two collegiate football programs steeped in tradition, as they prepare for their annual clash in 2001. One of the most storied rivalries in sports, Texas vs. Texas A&M represents a culture war of sorts within the Lone Star State, igniting the passions and prejudices of the players, coaches and fans alike....
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Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge has built a reputation for delivering children's stories that are both fun and educational. Here she chronicles the rise of America's transportation system, from the call for a National Road in 1805 to the present day. Many opposed innovations like the Model T and the U.S. highway system, but progress marched on. Wooldridge ends with a look at what the future may hold, and challenges kids to view change positively.
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What You Have Left is an unforgettable story of love, loss, and, most of all, longing.
In 1976, on the day of his wife's funeral, Wylie Greer drops off his five-year-old daughter, Holly, at his father-in-law's dairy farm on the outskirts of Columbia, South Carolina. Wylie tells her he just needs a little time to clear his head, but thirty years pass before Holly sees her father again -- "time I spent wondering what I'd done to make him leave," she...
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Robert E. Lee scholar H. W. Crocker III is an esteemed Civil War historian. Skillfully summarizing Lee's life, Crocker clearly extracts leadership lessons from the storied career of the South's beloved leader and applies them to today's business world. Under General Lee's management, a rag-tag army of poor farmers-vastly outnumbered, outgunned, under-supplied, and under-fed-consistently routed Union troops. Brilliantly seizing strategic opportunities,...