The phenomenal growth of gaming has inspired plenty of hand-wringing since its inception--from the press, politicians, parents, and everyone else concerned with its effect on our brains, bodies, and hearts. But what if games could be good, not only for individuals but for the world? In Power Play, Asi Burak and Laura Parker explore how video games are now pioneering innovative social change around the world. As the former executive director and now chairman of Games for Change, Asi Burak has spent the last ten years supporting and promoting the use of video games for social good, in collaboration with leading organizations like the White House, NASA, World Bank, and The United Nations. The games for change movement has introduced millions of players to meaningful experiences around everything from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the US Constitution. Power Play looks to the future of games as a global movement. Asi Burak and Laura Parker profile the luminaries behind some of the movement's most iconic games, including former Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O’Connor and Pulitzer-Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. They also explore the promise of virtual reality to address social and political issues with unprecedented immersion, and see what the next generation of game makers have in store for the future.

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BUSINESS BESTSELLER • The riveting inside story of Elon Musk and Tesla's bid to build the world's greatest car—from award-winning Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins. “A deeply reported and business-savvy chronicle of Tesla's wild ride.” —Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review Tesla is the envy of the automotive world. Born at the start of the millennium, it was the first car company to be valued at $1 trillion. Its CEO, the mercurial, charismatic Elon Musk has become not just a celebrity but the richest man in the world. But Tesla’s success was far from guaranteed. Founded in the 2000s, the company was built on an audacious vision. Musk and a small band of Silicon Valley engineers set out to make a car that was quicker, sexier, smoother, and cleaner than any gas-guzzler on the road. Tesla would undergo a hellish fifteen years, beset by rivals—pressured by investors, hobbled by whistleblowers. Musk often found himself in the public’s crosshairs, threatening to bring down the company he had helped build. Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins had a front-row seat for the drama: the pileups, breakdowns, and the unlikeliest outcome of all, success. A story of impossible wagers and unlikely triumphs, Power Play is an exhilarating look at how a team of innovators beat the odds—and changed the future.

This innovative collection argues that modern sport can be characterized by problematic power relations linked to violence, harm, deviance, and punishment. On the one hand, sport is a mainstay of community building, an expression of solidarity, and a means to mental and social health. On the other, there is the star player who commits sexual violence, the trans athlete whose achievements are dismissed as fraudulent, or the racist nationalism of the impassioned sports fan. Power Played illuminates how criminal/judicial discourses and practices reinforce social inequalities and blows the whistle on the harm, violence, and exploitation embedded in sport.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In Northern California two successful CEOs are both indispensable to their growing companies’ futures. Both are brilliant at the power game. But the difference between them is huge. One is a man, the other a woman. In this riveting novel, Danielle Steel explores what that means as she takes readers into the rarefied world of those at the pinnacle of international business and reveals the irrevocable choices they make, what drives them, and how others perceive them. The heady drug of power impacts everything they do. POWER PLAY Even though Harvard-educated Fiona Carson has proven herself under fire as CEO of National Technology Advancement, a multibillion-dollar high-tech company based in Palo Alto, California, she still has to meet the challenges of her world every day. Devoted single mother, world-class strategist, and tough negotiator, Fiona weighs every move she makes, and reserves any personal time for her children. Isolation and constant pressure are givens for her as a woman in a man’s world. Miles away in Marin County, Marshall Weston basks in the fruits of his achievements. At his side is his wife, Liz, the perfect corporate spouse, who has gladly sacrificed her own law career to raise their three children and support Marshall at every step. Smooth, shrewd, and irreproachable, Marshall is a model chief executive, and the power he wields only enhances his charisma and is his drug of choice. And to maintain his position, he harbors secrets that could destroy his life at any moment. His world is one of high risks. Like many women in her position, Fiona has sacrificed her personal life for her career, while Marshall dances dangerously close to the edge and flirts with scandal every day. Both must face their own demons, and fight off those who are jealous of their success. Their lives as CEOs of major companies come at a high price. And just how high a price are they willing to pay? Who are they willing to sacrifice to stay on top? Those they love, or themselves? Danielle Steel’s gripping, emotionally layered novel explores the seductive and damaging nature of power. Success and greed, trust and deception, love and loss—all come to a head in this compelling drama of family, careers, infidelity, and the sacrifices some people make to hold on to power . . . or to let it go. Praise for Power Play “In peak form, Steel examines the effects of power on the lives of male and female CEOs in this insightful, all-too realistic novel . . . to dramatize just how differently men and women handle corporate power and personal responsibility.”—Booklist “Connecting two powerful CEOs through their children’s romantic involvement, the author uses her signature low-key . . . style to examine personal and professional morality. . . . Appealing fare from Steel.”—Kirkus Reviews

“You’re going to spend some time on the power play, on penalty kill, and start right off as the second line centre,” he told me. I didn’t question why he was putting me on the second line. I’d show him the first line was the place I belonged. “The important thing is that you’ve been drafted,” he said. “You’ve going to play Junior A, and you’re going to be on my team. You’re my player.” This gripping new novel by bestselling children’s/YA author Eric Walters explores the complex and disturbing relationship between a talented young hockey star and his predatory coach as it descends into sexual abuse. In one of his most moving and provocative stories to date, Walters combines a vivid portrayal of rink culture with a powerful and unflinching cautionary tale.

Bust the Kingdom's scariest crime boss? There has to be an easier way for a Fool to win love! A year after the events of Fool's Proof, Malfred Murd is no longer a Fool, royal or otherwise. He’s a newly minted nobleman— who can’t help plunging back into his own special brew of trouble. This time he’s taken on a task that’s outrageous even for him: becoming an undercover officer, out to bust the biggest crime boss in a vast and decadent city. Will it win him the attention of a certain maddeningly inaccessible Lady... or get him packed at the bottom of a barrel? Follow Fred, Corvinalias, the other characters we met in “Fool’s Proof”— and a dazzling collection of new ones— on a journey through a world blending equal parts comedy, crime novel and adventure: heroic, horrific and hilarious. "★★★★★" "The ending is surprisingly deep and leaves the reader wanting even more." -Reedsy Discovery A character-driven romp through a world of magic, fantastic creatures, and subterfuge....Sandor's prose shines brightest when portraying story and character through dialogue, and crafting a beautiful, rich world while effortlessly switching between tense conversations rife with undertone and subtlety and more lighthearted, comical scenes that build character and entertain. - The BookLife Prize Offers many surprises to delight literary fantasy readers looking for far more than an adventure tale....There's simply not enough literary humor in the fantasy genre; but Eva Sandor fills this gap with another adventure story that should be read closely, so as not to miss any of the tongue-in-cheek humor (both overt and subtle) that graces its characters and lines.-Diane Donovan, Bookwatch Read the book and loved it. Though much darker than the first novel, I actually enjoyed it more...There is still the wit and charm in bucket loads, with added emotion, mystery and intrigue. -John Derek, Netgalley It does point firmly into the next book... which I'm now looking forward to :-) -Jim Webster, author of the Tallis Steelyard series The writing is intelligent, but not out of reach. - Advance reader Mike Z. A wonderful collection of characters and the use of language is brilliant. -Advance reader Namoi L. Love, action, drama and best of all...you get lost in Eva's world! This is number 2 in the series and it lives up to all the reviews so far. I loved it so much I couldn't put it down! -Advance reader Rikki M. Comical, magical, witty, and even dark...a fast paced journey leaving you yearning for more each chapter and then the next in the series. Great development of characters with an intense strong female protagonist. -Advance reader Robert A. You don't realize how four different stories turn into one entwined story until you do notice it! The transitions are seamless. -Advance reader Gabriella B.

The game of chess reached western Europe by the year 1000, and within several generations it had become one of the most popular pastimes ever. Both men and women, and even priests played the game despite the Catholic Church's repeated prohibitions. Characters in countless romances, chansons de geste, and moral tales of the eleventh through twelfth centuries also played chess, which often symbolized romantic attraction or sexual consummation. In Power Play, Jenny Adams looks to medieval literary representations to ask what they can tell us both about the ways the game changed as it was naturalized in the West and about the society these changes reflected. In its Western form, chess featured a queen rather than a counselor, a judge or bishop rather than an elephant, a knight rather than a horse; in some manifestations, even the pawns were differentiated into artisans, farmers, and tradespeople with discrete identities. Power Play is the first book to ask why chess became so popular so quickly, why its pieces were altered, and what the consequences of these changes were. More than pleasure was at stake, Adams contends. As allegorists and political theorists connected the moves of the pieces to their real-life counterparts, chess took on important symbolic power. For these writers and others, the game provided a means to figure both human interactions and institutions, to envision a civic order not necessarily dominated by a king, and to imagine a society whose members acted in concert, bound together by contractual and economic ties. The pieces on the chessboard were more than subjects; they were individuals, playing by the rules.