Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

New York

A Professional Card Counter's Chronicle of the Blackjack Wars

A deliciously wry, edge-of-your-seat memoir about making a fortune from counting cards.

Filled with actual bad guys, chase scenes, and high stakes, Repeat Until Rich is an intoxicating, unprecedented view of the dangerous allure of living off the cards and by one's wits. At twenty-four, Josh Axelrad held down a respectable but dull job on Wall Street. Then one night, a stranger at a cocktail party persuaded him to leave the nine- to-five behind and pursue an unlikely dream: the jackpot. Taut, atmospheric, and written with clarity and wit, Repeat Until Rich presents a darkly hilarious account of ditching the mundane and entering the alternative universe of professional blackjack-with all its intrigue, adventure, and cash.

Repeat until Rich

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Stories

With a distinctive and original voice, Mark Richard's stories capture characters on the fringe of society, and illuminate the goodness at the heart of their Southern, down-and-out lies. Full of startling images and harrowing epiphanies, The Ice at the Bottom of the World is a collection by a true master of his craft. In these ten stories, Mark Richard, winner of the 1990 PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award, emerges as the heir apparent to Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, and William Faulkner.

The Ice at the Bottom of the World

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Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood

In the bestselling tradition of "Running with Scissors" and "A Girl Named Zippy," Jennifer Traig tells an unforgettable story of youthful obsession.

Devil in the Details

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One year as a professional poker player 

BIG DEAL is the mesmerising story of a year spent by bestselling biographer Anthony Holden in the tough world of the professional poker player. He spent days and nights in the poker paradise of Las Vegas, in Malta and Morocco, even shipboard, mingling with the legendary greats, sharpening his game, perfecting his repartee, and learning a great deal about himself in the process.

Poker, Holden would insist, is not gambling. Like chess it is a paradigm of life at its most intense, a gladiatorial contest that brings out the best as well as the worst in people. Its heroes, its eccentrics and is comedians stalk the pages of this remarkable book, along with all the hair-raising, nail-biting excitement of the games themselves.

A classic of the genre, BIG DEAL is here reissued with a new introduction by the author.

Big Deal

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Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

My Life on the Streets

A moving, funny, and unforgettable memoir of homeless life in New York

For the past sixteen years, Cadillac Man has lived on the streets of New York City. Over those years, he has recorded the facts of his daily life, writing hundreds of thousands of words in a series of spiral-bound notebooks. Cadillac Man: My Life on the Streets distills those journals into a memoir of homeless life, full of indelible characters and packed with gripping stories. In a gritty, poignant, and funny voice, Cadillac narrates his descent into homelessness, the struggles and unexpected freedoms of his life, and the story of his love affair with a young runaway, whom he eventually (and tragically) reunites with her family. The United States has seven hundred thousand homeless people; ultimately, Cadillac's story is their story.

Land of the Lost Souls

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#paperback #nonfiction #davidsedaris #humor #comedian #essays #funny #sedaris 

Stories and Essays

With a skewed sense of wit uniquely his own, satirist and popular NPR storyteller David Sedaris presents a collection of short stories and essays, wherein home surgery and an elf-abusing Santa prevail

Barrel Fever

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My Life with Asperger's

The author describes life growing up different in an odd family, his unusual talents, his struggle to live a "normal" life, his diagnosis at the age of forty with Asperger's syndrome, and the dramatic changes that have occurred since that diagnosis.

Look Me in the Eye

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A Grotesque Romance

A gripping and entertaining tale of terror and suspense as well as a potent Faustian allegory of hubris and science run amok, The Invisible Man endures as one of the signature stories in the literature of science fiction. A brilliant scientist uncovers the secret to invisibility, but his grandiose dreams and the power he unleashes cause him to spiral into intrigue, madness, and murder. The inspiration for countless imitations and film adaptations, The Invisible Man is as remarkable and relevant today as it was a hundred years ago. As Arthur C. Clarke points out in his Introduction, “The interest of the story . . . lies not in its scientific concepts, but in the brilliantly worked out development of the theme of invisibility. If one could be invisible, then what?”

The Invisible Man

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The new novel from one of American literature's brightest stars, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Robert Olen Butler's uproarious new novel is set in the underworld. Its main character, Hatcher McCord, is an evening news presenter who has found himself in Hell and is struggling to explain his bad fortune. He's not the only one to suffer this fate--in fact, he's surrounded by an outrageous cast of characters, including Humphrey Bogart, William Shakespeare, and almost all of the popes and most of the U.S. presidents. The question may be not who is in Hell but who isn't. McCord is living with Anne Boleyn in the afterlife but their happiness is, of course, constantly derailed by her obsession with Henry VIII (and the removal of her head at rather inopportune moments).

Butler's Hell isn't as much a boiling lake of fire--although there is that--as it is a Sisyphean trial tailored to each inhabitant, whether it's the average Joes who die and are reconstituted many times a day to do it all again, or the legendary newspaperman William Randolph Hearst, doomed to obscurity as a blogger mocked by his fellows because he can't figure out CAPS LOCK. One day McCord meets Dante's Beatrice, who believes there is a way out of Hell, and the next morning, during an exclusive on-camera interview with Satan, McCord realizes that Satan's omniscience, which he has always credited for the perfection of Hell's torments, may be a mirage--and Butler is off on a madcap romp about good, evil, free will, and the possibility of escape. Butler's depiction of Hell is original, intelligent, and fiercely comic, a book Dante might have celebrated.

Hell

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A collection of personal tales features the author's wry observations about such topics as eBay addiction, gay personal ads, and Santa Claus.

Possible Side Effects

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Based on the author's authoritative Clarendon edition, which uses Dickens' revised text of 1846, this new edition includes his Preface of 1841 and includes all 24 original illustrations by George Cruikshank.

Oliver Twist

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The Stupid History of the Human Race

Offering a compilation of the stupid things that people do, this three-part study of humankind descibes human idiocy within such areas as politics, history, science, and sports, and offers advice on how to avoid doing stupid things.

Duh!

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A Treasury of Stories and Suggestions for Creating Meaningful Celebrations

According to the Trends Research Institute, simplicity will be the social movement of the next ten years. Sure to benefit from this is the holiday season, which is more stressful than satisfying for many people. In her fourth Simple Pleasures book, author Susannah Seton shows how to find true satisfaction in the holidays by making them less expensive, less frantic, and more meaningful. Simple Pleasures for the Holidays takes an expansive approach, covering Halloween, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, Hanukkah, the Mexican Day of the Dead, and Irish and Islamic holidays. The premise is that shared experience is what people value most, and the book itself a collage of inspirational stories from people around the world along with recipes, crafts, and suggestions for communal fun embodies this.

Simple Pleasures for the Holidays

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A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country

"Poker Nation is a travelogue to the quirky world of competitive poker, an exploration of poker obsession and addiction (not necessarily the same thing) and a primer on mathematics, poker lingo and technique. Entertaining and accessible." --USA Today

Journalist and poker fanatic Andy Bellin takes readers on a raucous journey into the shut-up-and-deal world of professional poker. From basement games to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, you'll look over his shoulder as he learns to count cards, read a legendary player's body language, hang in there when the chips are down, and take his beatings like a man. Even if you don't know the difference between a flop and a river card, Bellin keeps you in the game with his portraits of the colorful players, dreamers, hustlers, and eccentrics who populate this strange subculture. Along with learning what goes on behind the scenes in illegal poker clubs, you'll get great advice on how to play Texas Hold'em, today's game of choice for big-money players.

Poker Nation

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How to Make Your Next 30 Days the Best Ever

Top sales reps, weight loss champs, blue chip firms, Warren Buffett, Navy SEALs, Olympians, and other winners all understand the power of 1%. Packed with actionable ideas, The 1% Solution shows you how to power up your next 30 days and then keep on going at a permanently higher level. Because it's based not upon opinion, but upon solid research that's backed up with real-life examples, this book is for those who want to be better right now. Connellan notes, for example, that while it's virtually impossible to be 100% better than your competition, it's very possible to be 1% better in hundreds of things.Connellan draws on three sources for the practical solutions he offers:1. His background as a Research Associate and Program Director at the Michigan Business School where he was responsible for the design and implementation of 72 management development programs a year.2. His street experience as an entrepreneur who started a company in the health promotion field and built it into a network of 1200 instructors serving 300 hospitals and most of the Fortune 500 companies. More than 1,000,000 people went through its programs and two different Surgeon General reports cited the firms program quality.3. His current work as a keynote speaker and consultant whose clients include such diverse organizations as FedEx, TD Canada Trust, Marriott, Sobeys, Sony, Acura, BMW, Rogers Communications, Canadian Tire, Neiman Marcus, Home Depot, Target, and the military.As part of his research, he looked at individuals who worked to improve their personal and work lives. While most everyone put in a lot of effort, he found one key difference between those who won that battle and those who lost that battle.The winners had a structure a structure that gave them a disciplined focus and the losers didn't.If you're interested in a proven structure for work and personal success, this book belongs in your library right now because as one reviewer said The 1% Solution really does give you the magic formula for 'How to Make Your Next 30 Days the Best Ever.'

The 1% Solution for Work and Life

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Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

The Lincoln Lawyer 

Narrated by Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600 as they await their turn on camera, a novel about the role of pornography in contemporary life follows porn queen Cassie Wright, who plans to break the record for serial fornication with six hundred men on camera.

Snuff

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The People Behind More Than 400 Words and Expressions

Marvelous Monikers

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Con Men, Hustlers, Gamblers, and Scam Artists

Once I hear the clatter of chips I almost go into convulsions," said Dostoyevsky, while Anatole France wrote, "The gambler is driven by the fascination of danger at the bottom of all great passions." The characters the reader meets in Players -- chess grand masters, poolroom hustlers, or street-hardened practitioners of the short con -- are all alike propelled by the ecstasy of risk. "The stake is money," France wrote, "in other words, immediate, infinite possibilities." In fact, as the reader hooks up with David Mamet in the poker room and meets Damon Runyon's Bookie Bob, Saul Bellow's immortal Yellow Kid, and learns from Herbert Asbury about the antics of Izzy and Moe, and from David Maurer about the discreet charm of the confidence man, Walter Tevis on Fast Eddie Felson and Minnesota Fats on the seductions of nineteenth-century gambling dens, high lives and low will merge and the world of gambler and con-artist will blur. Selected writings by Jorge Luis Borges, Hunter S. Thompson, Nick Tosches, and many others are featured.

Players

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In the depths of the Nevada desert, FBI agent Rachel Walling and former LAPD Detective Harry Bosch must confront The Poet, a terrifying serial killer who leads them down a dark and twisted path.


FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years, the one that tells her the Poet has surfaced. She has never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous crimes -- and apparently he has not forgotten her.

Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too -- from the widow of an old friend. Her husband's death seems natural, but his ties to the hunt for the Poet make Bosch dig deep. Arriving at a derelict spot in the California desert where the feds are unearthing bodies, Bosch joins forces with Rachel. Now the two are at odds with the FBI . . . and squarely in the path of the Poet, who will lead them on a wicked ride out of the heat, through the narrows of evil, and into a darkness all his own . . .

The Narrows

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An Imponderables Book

Why don't lizards get sunburned? Why is Oktoberfest in September? Why did pirates wear earrings? Why is ?X? used as the symbol of the unknown in algebra?David Feldman has made a career-and a bestselling series of books-out of asking such questions and looking for the elusive answers. In this newest offering, he lives up to his reputation for provoking curiosity-and providing a delightful array of facts, clues and theories in the quest to ponder the Imponderables.

How Do Astronauts Scratch an Itch?

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One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.

33,000 PAGES
44 MILLION WORDS
10 BILLION YEARS OF HISTORY
1 OBSESSED MAN

To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it's a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but unconvinced.

With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs's life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs's project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy!, and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and the paralyzing fear that attends his first real-life responsibility -- the impending birth of his first child.

The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man's intellect, neuroses, and obsessions, and a struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom.

The Know-It-All

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The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from yeshiva to Harvard, he has only a senior thesis essay on Bugs Bunny to show for his effort. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, he remains stuck at a crossroads, unable to meet the lofty expectations of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. And his romantic existence as a freelance obituary writer just isn't cutting it. Seeking direction--and dental insurance--Steinberg takes a job as a librarian in a tough Boston prison.
 
The prison library counter, his new post, attracts con men, minor prophets, ghosts, and an assortment of quirky regulars searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. There's an anxious pimp who solicits Steinberg's help in writing a memoir. A passionate gangster who dreams of hosting a cooking show titled Thug Sizzle. A disgruntled officer who instigates a major feud over a Post-it note. A doomed ex-stripper who asks Steinberg to orchestrate a reunion with her estranged son, himself an inmate. Over time, Steinberg is drawn into the accidental community of outcasts that has formed among his bookshelves -- a drama he recounts with heartbreak and humor. But when the struggles of the prison library -- between life and death, love and loyalty -- become personal, Steinberg is forced to take sides.

Running the Books is a trenchant exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man's earnest attempt to find his place in the world while trying not to get fired in the process. 

Running the Books

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History

On February 15, 2003, a group of thieves broke into an allegedly airtight vault in the international diamond capital of Antwerp, Belgium and made off with over $108 million dollars worth of diamonds and other valuables. They did so without tripping an alarm or injuring a single guard in the process.

Although the crime was perfect, the getaway was not. The police zeroed in on a band of professional thieves fronted by Leonardo Notarbartolo, a dapper Italian who had rented an office in the Diamond Center and clandestinely cased its vault for over two years.  The "who” of the crime had been answered, but the "how” remained largely a mystery.

Enter Scott Andrew Selby, a Harvard Law grad and diamond expert, and Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, who undertook a global goose chase to uncover the true story behind the daring heist. Tracking the threads of the story throughout Europe--from Belgium to Italy, in seedy caf#65533;s and sleek diamond offices--the authors sorted through an array of conflicting details, divergent opinions and incongruous theories to put together the puzzle of what actually happened that Valentine’s Day weekend.

This real-life Ocean’s Eleven--a combination of diamond history, journalistic reportage, and riveting true-crime story--provides a thrilling in-depth study detailing the better-than-fiction heist of the century.

Browse by categories

Josh Axelrad

Repeat until Rich

Mark Richard

The Ice at the Bottom of the World

Jennifer Traig

Devil in the Details

Anthony Holden

Big Deal

Cadillac Man

Land of the Lost Souls

David Sedaris

Barrel Fever

John Elder Robison

Look Me in the Eye

H. G. Wells; Arthur C. Clarke (Introduction by)

The Invisible Man

Robert Olen Butler

Hell

Augusten Burroughs

Possible Side Effects

Charles Dickens; Kathleen Tillotson (Editor); Stephen Gill (Introduction by)

Oliver Twist

Bob Fenster

Duh!

Susannah Seton

Simple Pleasures for the Holidays

Andy Bellin

Poker Nation

Tom Connellan

The 1% Solution for Work and Life

Michael Connelly

The Lincoln Lawyer

Chuck Palahniuk

Snuff

Tad Tuleja

Marvelous Monikers

Geno Zanetti (Editor); Stephen Hyde (Editor)

Players

Michael Connelly

The Narrows

David Feldman

How Do Astronauts Scratch an Itch?

A. J. Jacobs

The Know-It-All

Avi Steinberg

Running the Books

Scott Andrew Selby; Greg Campbell

Flawless

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