Emerging from the New Wave music scene of the late ‘70s, The Cars catapulted to success with the very first single—“Just What I Needed”—off of their debut album. Led by Ric Ocasek, the lead vocalist (along with Benjamin Orr), rhythm guitarist, and songwriter, The Cars became one of the most successful bands of the ‘80s—and their songs are just as beloved by fans today. Ocasek himself has had an illustrious career beyond The Cars, from writing and performing solo work, publishing poetry in Granta and elsewhere, and producing albums by musical artists like Weezer, Hole, Guided By Voices, and Jonathan Richman. In Lyrics & Prose, Ocasek collects his lyrics together for the first time—and included throughout are Ocasek’s early handwritten notes and set lists, doodles and all. His work spans from The Cars’ self titled debut album in 1978 to Move Like This, released in 2011, as well as Ocasek’s six solo albums. This is not merely a songbook for fans of The Cars, however: Ocasek is a versatile and affecting poet as well as songwriter, and his original verses—interspersed with album artwork and more than twenty-five beautiful black and white photographs—round out this beguiling book.

The Explosive National Bestseller A memoir by the highest-ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars that America has fought since the Vietnam Era. Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. Black Ops is the story of Ric’s legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism. Operating in the shadows, Ric and his fellow CIA officers fought a little-seen and virtually unknown war to keep USA safe from those who would do it harm. After duty stations in Central, South America, and the Philippines, Black Ops follows Ric into the highest echelons of the CIA’s headquarters at Langley, Virginia. In late 1995, he became Deputy Chief of Station and co-founding member of the Bin Laden Task Force. Three years later, after serving as head of Korean Operations, Ric took on one of the most dangerous missions of his career: to re-establish a once-abandoned CIA station inside a hostile nation long since considered a front line of the fight against Islamic terrorism. He and his team carried out covert operations and developed assets that proved pivotal in the coming War on Terror. A harrowing memoir of life in the shadowy world of assassins, terrorists, spies and revolutionaries, Black Ops is a testament to the courage, creativity and dedication of the Agency’s Special Activities Group and its elite shadow warriors.

"A different version of this title was originally published in 2009 by Free Press" -- Title page verso.

Manage all your social media marketing efforts with repeatable, improvable processes Winner of a 2013 Small Business Book Award for Social Media “In studying social media we must also embrace social sciences. Sociology, psychology, neuroscience, statistical analysis, ethnography, as well as marketing are at the source of Social Marketology, and Dragon explains how and why it matters to business.” —Brian Solis, author of Then End of Business as Usual “There is no longer any doubt that social media is one of the key digital trends that are reshaping today’s industries, brands, and customer networks. Ric Dragon’s immensely practical guide will help you get the most out of your own social media investment by identifying the processes and best practices that build real and valuable business relationships. Read it, and use it, today!” —David Rogers, bestselling author of The Network is Your Customer “If you think Facebook, Twitter, and the like are simply trends or fads, you’re missing the bigger picture. Consumers are more connected than ever before, and they are highly untethered (thanks to smartphones and tablets). Now that we’re past the whole ‘Do I really need social media for my business?’ Ric is here with Social Marketology, a smart look at how to get social media organized for your business.” —Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image and author, blogger, and podcaster at Six Pixels of Separation About the Book: Covering subjects ranging from the best-tasting breakfast cereal to the latest developments in cancer treatment, personal interactions are occurring with increased frequency on social media. And if you want to connect with customers, you have no choice but to join their conversations. This much has been established by the mountains of social media marketing literature produced in recent years. What has not been established are the best practices for creating the most ideal social media strategy for your particular needs—and that’s where this book comes in. In Social Marketology, cofounder Ric Dragon of the renowned search engine marketing firm DragonSearch, takes social media marketing to the next step—showing how to choose the best tools for your needs and develop a strategy tailored to your goals. Drawing from such process methodologies as LEAN and the Capability Maturity Model, Dragon helps you develop a social media process that is quantifiable, repeatable—and improvable. His process is based on these basic steps: Focus on desirable outcomes: Vision, Goals, Objectives, and Metrics Pinpoint the very smallest segments of your customers Determine the communities to which these microsegments belong Identify the influencers of those communities Create an action plan for your project Measure and constantly improve your efforts The beauty of Dragon’s method is its core flexibility. New social media platforms are guaranteed to pop up in the near future. Any strategy based on the methods in this book can be adapted to take full advantage of them. The age of blind trial and error for social media marketers is over. Social Marketology provides the means to implement an effective campaign that is testable, controllable, and fully integrated within broader campaigns and goals.

Throughout the years, there may have been equally charismatic performers, comparable athletes, and even better interviews, but none were blessed with the same combination of talents to manage to stay on top for over three decades. To wrestling fans, the Nature Boy is a platinum-blond deity, a sixteen-time world champion who accurately boasted that he could have a five-star match with a broom. No matter how limited the opponent, Flair had the skill and determination to bounce all over the mat, transforming his rival into a star. When the camera light went on, "Slick Ric" could convince viewers that, if they missed an upcoming match, a momentous life experience would pass them by. Flair's opponents were challenged with this simple taunt: "To be the man, you have to beat the man." Away from the arena, Richard Morgan Fliehr spent years struggling with his own concept of what it meant to be a man. He suffered periods of crushing self-doubt, marital strife and—in a profession where there was room for only one Ric Flair—broken friendships. Ric Flair: To Be the Man, cowritten with Keith Elliot Greenberg, chronicles the anguish and exhilaration of Flair's life and career—in painfully honest detail. In addition to his own words, Flair's story is enriched by anecdotes from ring greats like Superstar Billy Graham, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Harley Race, Sgt. Slaughter, David Crockett, Arn Anderson, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, "Mean" Gene Okerlund, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Undertaker and Brock Lesnar. To Be the Man traces the rise of one of wrestling's most enduring superstars to the pinnacle of the sports entertainment universe, and is a must-read for every wrestling fan.

In 1619, a group of thirty-two African men, women and children arrived on the shores of Virginia. They had been kidnapped in the royal city of Kabasa, Angola, and forced aboard the Spanish slave ship San Juan Bautista. The ship was attacked by privateers, and the captives were taken by the English to their New World colony. This group has been shrouded in controversy ever since. Historian Ric Murphy documents a fascinating story of colonialism, treason, piracy, kidnapping, enslavement and British law.