The financial crisis shows that the banking industry requires a transformation, as its business model and practices are no longer sustainable. Even so, such transformation cannot be made without Clearing the Bull moving beyond old and tired orthodoxies in order to properly diagnose the problem. Drawing on more than twenty years of experience in banking, author Jonathan Ledwidge shows how the financial crisis exposed the industry's poor system of values, leaving it mired in conflict with its human environment. Specifically, this includes how poor leadership, virtually unmanageable organizations, dysfunctional suppliers, infuriated customers, alienated employees, and dissatisfied communities all arise from the inability of banks to understand that values are more important than valuations. As a result there is now a total disconnect between banks and their human environment. That disconnect cannot be fully addressed by conventional solutions involving more regulations, more governance, and more controls. Banks have a very human problem, and thus by definition what they require is a human transformation. Clearing the Bull provides both a clear diagnosis as well as a detailed and comprehensive roadmap for the banking industry's human transformation and while doing so it remains totally engaging and accessible to bankers and non-bankers alike.

Pete and Jeff continue their friendship and love of baseball as they progress from ninth grade through high school in their small Wisconsin town.

The former FDIC Chairwoman, and one of the first people to acknowledge the full risk of subprime loans, offers a unique perspective on the greatest crisis the U.S. has faced since the Great Depression.

Dave Hitz likes to solve fun problems. He didn’t set out to be a Silicon Valley icon, a business visionary, or even a billionaire. But he became all three. It turns out that business is a mosaic of interesting puzzles like managing risk, developing and reversing strategies, and looking into the future by deconstructing the past. As a founder of NetApp, a data storage firm that began as an idea scribbled on a placemat and now takes in $4 billion a year, Hitz has seen his company go through every major cycle in business—from the Jack-of-All-Trades mentality of a start-up, through the tumultuous period of the IPO and the dot-com bust, and finally to a mature enterprise company. NetApp is one of the fastest-growing computer companies ever, and for six years in a row it has been on Fortune magazine’s list of Best Companies to Work For. Not bad for a high school dropout who began his business career selling his blood for money and typing the names of diseases onto index cards. With colorful examples and anecdotes, How to Castrate a Bull is a story for everyone interested in understanding business, the reasons why companies succeed and fail, and how powerful lessons often come from strange and unexpected places. Dave Hitz co-founded NetApp in 1992 with James Lau and Michael Malcolm. He served as a programmer, marketing evangelist, technical architect, and vice president of engineering. Presently, he is responsible for future strategy and direction for the company. Before his career in Silicon Valley, Dave worked as a cowboy, where he got valuable management experience by herding, branding, and castrating cattle.

An epic tale of ancient Crete that depicts the curse of the Minotaur from its inception to conclusion, as told from the point of view of Ariadne, daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae. Stepping back into this visceral telling of an ancient myth, Crete and the palace of Knossos become vivid with color and life. The royal family, the gods, and Ariadne and the Minotaur are born fully formed, as the goddess Athena from Zeus’ head. It begins when she’s thirteen, on the day she is given by her parents to the shrine of Dionysus, the god of wine, to become his high priestess. Dionysus hears her Call, after generations of neglect, and he comes to her on the altar, promising to bless the island’s vines and grapes, and ignites desperate emotions in powerful people, jealousy, envy, fear—along with her family’s greed, that turn a god’s wrath against them. Thus, the curse of the Minotaur is born, a deformed babe, a monster, and Ariadne’s half-brother. She is the only person who feels the slightest compassion and tenderness towards the poor creature, caring for it when no one else will. He grows into a huge beast with the mind of a child, and the temper of a god, who will only obey Ariadne. Learning the ways of her god Dionysus, and through him the ancient gods of Olympus, Ariadne becomes a powerful force, capable of controlling her beautiful and kind, yet jealous and wrathful god.

LA TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning screenwriter and director of cult classic Bull Durham, the extremely entertaining behind-the-scenes story of the making of the film, and an insightful primer on the art and business of moviemaking. "This book tells you how to make a movie—the whole nine innings of it—out of nothing but sheer will.” —Tony Gilroy, writer/director of Michael Clayton and The Bourne Legacy "The only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball."—Annie in Bull Durham Bull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball—especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading-man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. There were doubts. But something miraculous happened, and The Church of Baseball attempts to capture why. From organizing a baseball camp for the actors and rewriting key scenes while on set, to dealing with a short production schedule and overcoming the challenge of filming the sport, Shelton brings to life the making of this beloved American movie. Shelton explains the rarely revealed ins and outs of moviemaking, from a film’s inception and financing, screenwriting, casting, the nuts and bolts of directing, the postproduction process, and even through its release. But this is also a book about baseball and its singular romance in the world of sports. Shelton spent six years in the minor leagues before making this film, and his experiences resonate throughout this book. Full of wry humor and insight, The Church of Baseball tells the remarkable story behind an iconic film.

How much would you sacrifice to get what you most wanted in the world? Your friends? Everything you have? Could a dream be worth all that?