A dreamlike novel set in Pennsylvania in the 1990s, Here Is a Game We Could Play is the story of Claudia, an intelligent eccentric trapped in the rundown industrial town she grew up in--a place plagued with troubling memories and hidden threats. Seeking escape from tedium, loneliness, and her obsessive fear of poisoning, Claudia retreats into books. . . and into a fantasy life with her perfect lover, to whom she addresses letters about her life, all the while imagining outlandish sexual scenarios. In each fantasy, her lover takes a different form, ranging from a prison guard in a world where metaphor is forbidden, to a more-than-brotherly Hansel from the Grimms' fairy tale, to a tentacled mind-reading space alien. All share a desire for a deep intimacy that eludes Claudia, even as she forms new real-life relationships and reconsiders her sexual identity--building a rapport with an elderly volunteer at the library, striking up a friendship with a wily temp at her dead-end job, and embarking on a passionate affair with Rose, the town's new librarian. When paranoia threatens to ruin her relationship with Rose, Claudia is forced not only to combat her anxiety but to face the unresolved trauma in her past--the disappearance of her father on a night she has long repressed. Funny, dark, inventive, and moving, Here Is a Game We Could Play is an original debut novel recalling the work of Aimee Bender, Angela Carter, Rebecca Brown, and Margaret Atwood.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last, a bold framework for leadership in today’s ever-changing world. How do we win a game that has no end? Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified. Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite game are changeable while infinite games have no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers—only ahead and behind. The question is, how do we play to succeed in the game we’re in? In this revelatory new book, Simon Sinek offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset. On one hand, none of us can resist the fleeting thrills of a promotion earned or a tournament won, yet these rewards fade quickly. In pursuit of a Just Cause, we will commit to a vision of a future world so appealing that we will build it week after week, month after month, year after year. Although we do not know the exact form this world will take, working toward it gives our work and our life meaning. Leaders who embrace an infinite mindset build stronger, more innovative, more inspiring organizations. Ultimately, they are the ones who lead us into the future.
A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human.
A “hilarious” look back at the worst baseball team in history—the 1962 Mets—by the New York Times–bestselling author (Newark Star-Ledger). Five years after the Dodgers and Giants fled New York for California, the city’s National League fans were offered salvation in the shape of the New York Mets: an expansion team who, in the spring of 1962, attempted to play something resembling the sport of baseball. Helmed by the sagacious Casey Stengel and staffed by the league’s detritus, the new Mets played 162 games and lost 120 of them, making them statistically the worst team in the sport’s modern history. It’s possible they were even worse than that. Starring such legends as Marvin Throneberry—a first baseman so inept that his nickname had to be “Marvelous”—the Mets lost with swashbuckling panache. In an era when the fun seemed to have gone out of sports, the Mets came to life in a blaze of delightful, awe-inspiring ineptitude. They may have been losers, but a team this awful deserves to be remembered as legends. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.
"Here Come the Colts!" . . . .That was the slogan that was written on the side of the team buses, and this is the story of a decade of championship football, the Atlanta Colts of the 1970's, who won 17 of a possible 30 championships in the three age/weight classifications of the Georgia Youth Football Conference from 1970-1979, dominating that league in that decade. This book is about the players and coaches in the decade of the 1970's for this Atlanta Colt youth football program, the ACYA, based in north Atlanta, Georgia who participated in the three age and weight classifications of the varsity program. It also includes information and recounts about some of the opposing teams and their coaches and layers that made up metropolitan Atlanta's most competitive big league youth football organization of the era of the 1970's, the Georgia Youth Football Conference. It is the author's tribute to the ACYA founder and leader, the late Bob Johnson, who is mentioned frequently throughout the book. The Atlanta Colt Youth Association program, aka "ACYA" was often referred to as the number one "Pop Warner" sanctioned youth football program in the entire US in the 1970's. The book is written in narrative from the perspective of the author, who participated as one of the Varsity Colt head coaches in the last eight years of that decade (1972-1979) and observed the 1970 and 1971 seasons from an Interleague coaching position within that same famous Pop Warner program. The chapters detail the author's recollections and opinions and most of the detail centers mainly around his own players' and teams' experiences. The author provides season by season summaries of each of the varsity Colt teams, highlighting some of the most important games in which his own team participated, with capsules of many others. He also reveals some of the strategies employed in detail and the actual on the field rationale and logic behind many of the significant plays and events in some of those games. The author is Doug Bennett, who was a head coach for the "varsity" Colts for nine years, and participated in the ACYA program a total of 12 years from 1969-1980. In the subject decade of this book, the 1970's, Bennett was a varsity Colt Head Coach for the years 1972-1979. His teams won six consecutive GYFC championships from 1972 to 1977, finishing second in 1978 and third in 1979. Using a combination of research from written historical material, actual game films and the author's memory, as much detail as possible is written, including the author's recollection of specific game circumstances, situations and plays, with emphasis on individual player and team performances, etc. There are chapters describing the program's and author's philosophies and strategies on Offense, Defense, Special Teams, Practice and Game Preparation providing written description and analysis of how these championship teams were built from the first day of practice through the end of a season as it was learned from the legendary Coach Bob Johnson. The ACYA program was not only a football program for the children, it was almost a society within the society of the Dunwoody area and surrounding neighborhoods in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, particularly in the decade of the '70's. It was run totally by adult volunteers, whose dedication allowed the program to prosper and flourish from its inception in 1965. The ACYA program was the annual focal point in the lives of these families from the start of football tryouts in early August until the last bowl games in December, for all of the years they were involved. Lifelong friendships were formed there, among the children football players and the adult parents and volunteers in those families. The program still serves the community today and many of the volunteers who have been involved in recent years are former players from the era discussed in this book.
PG Forte's "three for the holidays" trilogy, the Games We Play series, is now available in a convenient e-boxed set! Truth or Dare Gwyn has her hands full these days trying to help save the family business--a quirky hotel on the Jersey Shore. She has no time for romance. But when the two men with whom she once spent a drunken ménage weekend show up with a sexy proposition, how can she resist? Berke and Cam might have broken her heart seven years ago, but Gwyn is older now and wiser. She’s not looking for forever. She just wants a good time. And, after all, it is Valentine’s Day. For Berke and Cam, the weekend isn’t just about fun, or adding some spice to their marriage; it’s about winning back the woman who got away, and convincing her to give a committed three-way relationship a shot. They each have skills that could help make the hotel a success—and they’re not above bartering to get what they want. but first they have to get past the walls Gwyn’s built to keep them out. But while Cam’s biggest concern is making sure Gwyn doesn’t break Berke’s heart a second time, Berke is worried about what Cam will think if he learns about Berke’s part in screwing things up the last time around. Never Have I Ever Kristy loves Luke but if anything was clear to her back when they were kids, it was that gawky, awkward, tomboys didn’t stand a chance with the king of the schoolyard. She watched her older brothers set their caps for Luke’s glamorous cousins, and get shot down. So she did what she had to in order to salvage her friendship with Luke. She hid her true feelings and her need for him to take control. Luke wants Kristy in the worst way--actually, in all the worst ways: tied up, held down, bitten, whipped. But he knows he has no chance of ever having her. They’d been childhood friends and sweethearts, until she friend-zoned him in the fifth grade. He knows he can either keep her as a friend, or take her to bed and lose her forever. His biggest mistake--so far--was in hiring her to work alongside him in the bar he and his cousins inherited from their grandmother. He knows Kristy needs the money and the job, but Luke’s self-control can’t take the constant contact with the girl he wants to dominate--both in and out of the bedroom. Something has to give--and soon! Two Truths and a Lie All work and no play has been the story of Brenda Donovan’s life for the past few months. Concerned about the future of her family’s inn, she’s been searching for a buyer for the business--without her cousins finding out what she’s up to. She has no time for relationships. But pretending to date sexy Max Murphy, the hotel scout who’s there to assess the property? That’s totally doable. Especially when games, role-playing, and light bondage are part of the package. Falling in love was never supposed to be part of the package, however, and now her heart’s in play. Max has no problem with hiding his true identity from Brenda’s cousins. But are they the only ones he’s deceiving? When all is finally revealed will the cousins lose the Wild Geese Inn? Or will they add another member to their growing family? Note: All of the stories in this set were previously released as single titles.
Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.
Some things stepsisters never forget. Now that Kate Allen knows about her family's unique connection to a fairy tale, she sets her sights on finding the magical glass slippers. The Kolodenkos claim Cinderella's shoes have been lost to the family, but Kate is convinced she knows where they are. Or at least, who might know where they are. With her dad still missing, Kate could use a pair of shoes with the power to reunite loved ones. But to find the famous glass slippers, she'll have to get around the tight-lipped Kolodenko family and travel to post WWII Poland. As official keeper of the wardrobe for Cinderella's heirlooms, she's learning that balancing alliances between Cinderella's heirs and the stepsister's descendants may cost her more than she's willing to give up. Can she stop a family feud that has lasted for centuries? Find out now in this exciting follow-up to the novel Cinderella's Dress.
