An Amazon Best Book of 2016 A celebration of the writing and editing life, as well as a look behind the scenes at some of the most influential magazines in America (and the writers who made them what they are). You might not know Terry McDonell, but you certainly know his work. Among the magazines he has top-edited: Outside, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Sports Illustrated. In this revealing memoir, McDonell talks about what really happens when editors and writers work with deadlines ticking (or drinks on the bar). His stories about the people and personalities he’s known are both heartbreaking and bitingly funny—playing “acid golf” with Hunter S. Thompson, practicing brinksmanship with David Carr and Steve Jobs, working the European fashion scene with Liz Tilberis, pitching TV pilots with Richard Price. Here, too, is an expert’s practical advice on how to recruit—and keep—high-profile talent; what makes a compelling lede; how to grow online traffic that translates into dollars; and how, in whatever format, on whatever platform, a good editor really works, and what it takes to write well. Taking us from the raucous days of New Journalism to today’s digital landscape, McDonell argues that the need for clear storytelling from trustworthy news sources has never been stronger. Says Jeffrey Eugenides: “Every time I run into Terry, I think how great it would be to have dinner with him. Hear about the writers he's known and edited over the years, what the magazine business was like back then, how it's changed and where it's going, inside info about Edward Abbey, Jim Harrison, Annie Proulx, old New York, and the Swimsuit issue. That dinner is this book.”

‘I haven’t laughed so much at a book for a long time.’ Whispering Stories Book Blog, 5 stars Sometimes one moment can change your life forever...

Accidental Lives is the story of a man who is in a car accident which leaves him awake in the hospital with no memory of the past six months. Partially paralyzed, he struggles with not having the life he had planned. Tomorrow finds him in a strange apartment in New York City with no memory of the past six months. He cannot remember graduating college or his best friend. Every other day he finds himself waking in the previous world convinced that the day before and its world were merely a dream. He finds himself attracted to a woman from the hospital that has a mystical belief system. He inadvertently discovers that what he is learning from her may actually work as he finds evidence in his New York world. One world offers his planned future and the other a love life. Torn between what appears to be two dream worlds, he finds himself tortured for one to end. Eventually his New York world provides its own love. By chance, she is the exact same image as his love interest in the other world. As he falls for both, torment turns into fear that one will indeed end and prove only a dream.

A New Orleans senior district attorney and his lawyer wife are caught up in a faith-testing courtroom battle involving the rights of infants born alive during abortions.

An Accidental Life is a portrait of a man who played a significant role in the history of education and health in the Caribbean. Harold Drayton's passionate and meticulous memoir offers, first, a precious account of colonial British Guiana. He maps the impacton him of his home, into which his birth was an accident, the influence of his working-class autodidact stepfather, of his schools, and of war and politics in the 1940s.

It’s hard to imagine a world without Coca-Cola, Post-its, or Velcro, but have you ever stopped to wonder how and when these items came to be? Accidental Inventions reveals the fascinating stories behind the toys, foods, gadgets, and tools we now consider indispensable. From peanut butter to penicillin, roller skates to radioactivity, dozens of essential inventions are spotlighted. Fully illustrated with over 240 photos, Accidental Inventions traces the path from inception to “ah ha!” for more than 60 products, and introduces the cast of clever, hardworking inventors behind them. Engaging narrative and colorful design make these stories accessible to readers of all ages, illuminating the happy collision of accident and inspiration that would profoundly change our lives.

This timely, emotionally-resonant story about a teen girl dealing with the aftermath of a tragic shooting is a must-read from an exciting new YA talent. Johanna has had more than enough trauma in her life. She lost her mom in a car accident, and her father went AWOL when Johanna was just a baby. At sixteen, life is steady, boring . . . maybe even stifling, since she's being raised by her grandparents who never talk about their daughter, her mother Mandy. Then he comes back: Robert Newsome, Johanna's father, bringing memories and pictures of Mandy. But that's not all he shares. A tragic car accident didn't kill Mandy--it was Johanna, who at two years old, accidentally shot her own mother with an unsecured gun. Now Johanna has to sort through it all--the return of her absentee father, her grandparents' lies, her part in her mother's death. But no one, neither her loyal best friends nor her sweet new boyfriend, can help her forgive them. Most of all, can she ever find a way to forgive herself? In a searing, ultimately uplifting story, debut author Alex Richards tackles a different side of the important issue that has galvanized teens across our country.