Going Against the Grain is a memoir of childhood abuse and redemption – of the ways individuals and institutions can help us transform ourselves. In my case, I credit my grandmother’s teachings, friends at school who showed me how families could and should behave, and the United States Marine Corps, which gave me a means of escape. Going Against the Grain is also a memoir of learning from the past and overcoming it – of being an involved father to my sons, the kind of father I wish I’d had...

Tom Brokaw, known and beloved for his landmark work in American journalism and for the New York Times bestsellers The Greatest Generation and Boom!, now turns his attention to the challenges that face America in the new millennium, to offer reflections on how we can restore America’s greatness.“What happened to the America I thought I knew?” Brokaw writes. “Have we simply wandered off course, but only temporarily? Or have we allowed ourselves to be so div...

Secretly, if not overtly, almost everyone in America desires to become rich: to make it big, to enjoy the fruits of the most successful life imaginable. But unfortunately, most of us don't have a clue how to reach these all too elusive goals. Quite simply, there's no definitive road map for getting there, no proven plan, and certainly very little access to those who have become "the richest man in town."But now W. Randall Jones, the founder of Worth magazine, is about to c...

Robert Louis Stevenson said, "Everyone lives by selling something." It is the principal force driving all commercial transactions and activities, from the executive suite of suits and ties to the trenches of open collar and rolled-up sleeves. Given the relative importance of selling in our quest for achievement and success, it is critical to develop selling skills, to hone and perfect them to the best of our abilities. Lots of books have been written about this subject, giving us tips, rules,...

Zappos in Las Vegas led by Tony Hsieh has begun to welcome tech industries to the city. University students study the Zappos Business Model. Startups are taking notice as Internet firms plan to leave Silicon Valley for Vegas. Computer leaders arrive for the International CES in January and stay in Las Vegas bringing their business to the city. Zappos is setting the standards for online marketing, international e-commerce, Internet advertising, relationship marketing set along with search e...

The book takes a lighthearted look back at the authors journey and experiences with the Enron Dinosaurs. Tucker, an ex-Enron pipeline engineer, brings to the reader a lighter side of the events that led up to Enrons collaspe. The term "Dinosaur" was coined by upper management to describe employees who designed, maintained, and operated Enrons gas pipeline systems. It was a derogatory term which expressed old-fashioned, boring, and un-innovative for the new "non-asset" age of Enron. Ultimat...

Things That Make No Sense deals with everyday occurrences experienced by everyone as they go about their daily lives. Some things just dont make any sense at all! Many of the stories included here deal with common events such as unresponsive or poor customer service, which is becoming all too frequent these days. Some of these instances can probably be characterized as funny, some as unbelievable, and others as simply irrational. Sometimes the only appropriate reaction to one of t...

The 2012 presidential campaign will, above all else, be a referendum on the Obama administration's handling of the financial crisis, recalling the period when Obama's "audacity of hope" met the austerity of reality. Central to this is the ''American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009'' -- the largest economic recovery plan in American history. Senator Mitch McConnell gave a taste of the enormity of the money committed: if you had spent 1 million a day since Jesus was born, it still woul...

Today, many Americans regard globalization as a significant threat to our work force, and to our very way of life. As unemployment soars, the American automotive and manufacturing industries crumble, countless jobs continue to ship overseas, and the retail sector faces the worst slump in decades, cries of “Buy American” have grown louder and louder - in our communities, in the headlines, and in the halls of Washington. But at a time when an Italian company has bailed out one of our oldest ...

All across America, ordinary people are going out of their way to help one another and make our country a better place. Unheralded, unrecognized, and often taken for granted, these citizens continue their good deeds, happy just to make a difference.Hometown Heroes tells the stories of fifty such people from all over America, including Moody, Alabama, Ellisville, Illinois, and Lander, Wyoming. Spanning ages fourteen to ninety-three, the heroes inside this book show that it'...

Making cornbreadsome buttermilk, about a full drinking glass of it, four handfuls white cornmeal, salt, plenty of red or black pepper, baking powder, about a spoonful, maybe less. Put all this into a quart Mason jar. Add an egg if you like but be careful breaking. Bits of shell add texture but alarm females. And it continues like that, which illustrates the beauty of cornbread: You can make it a dozen different ways, using the ingredients youve got on hand, and its pretty hard to mess it u...

This memoir starts with humorous but honest glimpses of this mostly middle class and mostly African American North Carolina family. It contains revealing stories about the authors life at Yale from 1948 to 1952 and his unusual experiences in the military. The setting then shifts to Detroit and descriptions of involvement in the numbers racket, fighting off rivals for the hand of his wife of now 52 years and becoming the 65th African American CPA in the nation. The sections that recount his...