How does precise marching with captivating music change the lives of a "down and out" community? Knees Lifted High and Toes Pointed is the story of a small Kansas town being reborn amidst the Great Depression. It all happened through the sounds of a high school band, under the tutelage of Jake Dalke, a young professor of music. The band grew from zero members in 1934 to one hundred talented high school musicians in 1941. What was the secret of Jake's approach that was so compelling for fam...

Nerves make us bomb job interviews, first dates, and SATs. With a presentation looming at work, fear robs us of sleep for days. It paralyzes seasoned concert musicians and freezes rookie cops in tight situations. And yet not everyone cracks. Soldiers keep their heads in combat; firemen rush into burning buildings; unflappable trauma doctors juggle patient after patient. It's not that these people feel no fear; often, in fact, they're riddled with it.In Nerve, Taylor Clark d...

When former broadcast news reporter and motivational speaker Amelia Rose Earhart decided to honor her namesake, aviation pioneer Amelia Mary Earhart, she did it in the biggest way possible—by becoming the first pilot in command of a flight around the world in a single-engine Pilatus PC-12 NG. Her challenges, her obstacles, and her ultimate success taught her invaluable lessons about life. The most important one?Learn to love the turbulence.As Earhart chronicles her...

In the engaging tradition of Tuesdays with Morrie-a unique memoir of friendship, family, and irreplaceable memories.Throughout her life and career, Kristin Clark Taylor, the first woman of color appointed to Director of White House Media Relations, has gathered mementos to keep in her "forever box." From historical family documents to old love letters to a bit of antique lace, each item tells a story. Here, Taylor shares those stories in a heartwarming mem...

Seeds of Freedom is a remarkable case study of liberating education in the remote Guatemalan Maya indigenous village of Santa Maria Tzeja in the four decades since it was first settled in 1970. Clark Taylor's account begins at a time in which the majority of the village consisted of illiterate landless and land-poor peasant farmers working in conditions close to slavery. With the help of a Catholic priest, the village's founding pioneers were granted land, settled the village, established ...

Starbucked will be the first book to explore the incredible rise of the Starbucks Corporation and the caffeine-crazy culture that fueled its success. Part Fast Food Nation, part Bobos in Paradise, Starbucked combines investigative heft with witty cultural observation in telling the story of how the coffeehouse movement changed our everyday lives, from our evolving neighborhoods and workplaces to the ways we shop, socialize, and self-medicate.In

Popular author Taylor Clark draws on cutting-edge research in this enlightening exploration of stress-and how to tackle it constructively. Using such divergent examples as Russian sub commanders and game show contestants, Clark shows that most people experience stress the same way. Those who understand how to accept it without freezing can accomplish what needs to get done. "The author makes some shrewd observations [and] he really knows how to write, too: the book is informative, engaging...

Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently) analyzes the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in implausibly short time.How do some startups go from zero to billions in mere months? How did Alexander the Great, YouTube tycoon Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon climb to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a promotion? What do high-growth...

In the insightful narrative tradition of Oliver Sacks, Monkey Mind is an uplifting, smart, and very funny memoir of life with anxiety—America’s most common psychological complaint.We all think we know what being anxious feels like—it is the instinct that made us run from wolves in the prehistoric age and pushes us to perform in the modern one—but for forty million American adults, anxiety is an insidious condition that defines daily life. Yet no popular memoir has been wri...

Do you toss and turn at night with a knot in your stomach, worrying about your job, your family, work, your health, or relationships? Do you suffer from crippling shyness, obsessive doubts, or feelings of insecurity? Are you plagued by fears, phobias, or panic attacks?What you may not realize is that these fears are almost never based on reality. Anxiety is one of the world’s oldest cons. When you’re anxious, you’re actually fooling yourself. You are telling yourself things that si...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This fresh, uplifting book is filled with ideas for improving our organizations and our lives.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the podcast WorkLife“With his characteristic blend of academic rigor and twinkle in the eye, Shawn Achor will change your view of happiness, of reality—and of yourself.”—Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author...

Now in a third edition, Robert M. Sapolsky's acclaimed and successful Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers features new chapters on how stress affects sleep and addiction, as well as new insights into anxiety and personality disorder and the impact of spirituality on managing stress.As Sapolsky explains, most of us do not lie awake at night worrying about whether we have leprosy or malaria. Instead, the diseases we fear—and the ones that plague us now—are illnesses brought on by th...