As a cultural and political commentator, Stanley Crouch in unapologetically contentious and delightfully iconoclastic. Whether he is writing on the uniqueness of the American South, the death of Tupak Shakur, the O.J. Simpson verdict, or the damage done by the Oklahoma City bombing, Crouch's high-velocity exchange with American culture is conducted with scrupulous allegiance to the truth, even when it hurts—and it usually does. And on the subject of jazz—from Sidney Bechet to Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington to Miles Davis—there is no one more articulate, impassioned, and encyclopedic in his knowledge than Stanley Crouch. Crouch approaches everything in his path with head-on energy, restless intelligence, and a refreshing faith in the collective experiment that is America—and he does so in a virtuosic prose style that is never less than thrilling.

“Perry is the best suspense writer in the business. . . . Pursuit is relentless, filled with twists and turns, that rare page-turner that keeps one reading late into the night to finish.” –The Boston Globe Thirteen bodies are found in a Louisville restaurant. When the police can find no suspect or motive, a victim’s family seeks the services of the enigmatic and solitary specialist Roy Prescott, known for his ability to find people who don’t want to be found. Working outside the law and willing to do what the police can’t, Prescott hunts the killer, an elusive adversary who is as smart, as methodical, as deadly as he is. The only way to conduct this pursuit is to goad the killer into believing that he must kill Roy Prescott. It is a contest fought from one end of the country to the other, and both men understand that when it’s over, only one of them will be alive.

"e;Publish and be damned"e;, Wellington's famous adage, runs like a leitmotiv through John Calder's memoirs. He has been damned by a censorious press, by politicians, by other publishers and by organs of the state for publishing books on sensitive issues. Damned also for publishing such authors as Henry Miller, William Burroughs, Alexander Trocchi and Hubert Selby Jr, as well as for bringing to public notice the abuses of the armies and security forces of colonial countries. He took on American authors who could not be published in the United States during the McCarthy witch-hunt. He exposed the atrocities of the Algerian and other African wars, and produced many books on British political, social and moral issues, which only a totally independent publisher could have done.Born into the most conservative of establishment families, John Calder has always gone his own way - seeking out literary genius and creating a greater awareness of the world we inhabit. His publishing programme contained a large proportion of the leading writers of the twentieth century, including Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Luigi Pirandello, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marguerite Duras, Heinrich Boell and such British authors as Howard Barker, Edward Bond, Steven Berkoff and Ann Quin. Anecdotes abound in these memoirs about Bertrand Russell, Alger Hiss, Graham Greene, J.B. Priestley, Jo Grimond and dozens of others whom the author encountered in his activities, both within and outside of publishing. This book is too outspoken to make many friends, but it will open eyes and upset apple carts. Never a saint, Calder is as frank about his own failings as of those of others.

The 1936 Yankees, the 1963 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds, the 2010 Giants—why do some baseball teams win while others don’t? General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. In Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past hundred-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams. Whether through scouting, integration, instruction, expansion, free agency, or modernizing their management structure, each winning team and each era had its own version of Moneyball, where front office decisions often made the difference. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt show how these teams succeeded and how they relied on talent both on the field and in the front office. While there is no recipe for guaranteed success in a competitive, ever-changing environment, these teams demonstrate how creatively thinking about one’s circumstances can often lead to a competitive advantage. Purchase the audio edition.

In the tradition of the New York Times-bestselling work Manhunt, by James Swanson, comes a compelling nonfiction narrative about the pursuit and capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis at the end of the Civil War.

In l967, when Georgene Dreishpoon and her husband Irving read a National Geographic article about the Bahamas, a mental seed was planted that would sprout seven years later when they embarked on an unforgettable and magical ferry ride to the island of Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas. In her fascinating memoir, Pursuit of Paradise, Dreishpoon shares her experiences as a member of an American family who sought a fishing retreat in the Bahamas and, in the process, discovered lifelong friendships and ultimately faced the fact that even in paradise, the realities of life lurk in the background. For sixty days a year, the Dreishpoons left their life in America and lived on an island that captured their imaginations and their souls. Through entertaining anecdotes, Dreishpoon provides a glimpse into how her family immersed themselves in a new culture, learned to communicate with local inhabitants, and acquired a taste for new food—all while cherishing their time together as they experienced a new adventure. Pursuit of Paradise chronicles nearly twenty-five years of amazing stories of one family’s extraordinary experiences on a beautiful Bahamian island that affected their philosophy of living and loving forever.

The unforgettable Margaret of Ashbury returns in the second book of the trilogy that began with A Vision of Light. Margaret, a resourceful midwife, is living with the insufferable relatives of her third husband, Gilbert de Vilers, known as Gregory. She is carving out a life for herself and her daughters despite the hostility and greed of her in-laws. But when Gregory is captured in France and held for ransom, Margaret knows she must take action—her in-laws are too tight with money to be of any use—so she teams up with her old friends Mother Hilde, the herbalist, and Brother Malachi, an alchemist on a quest for the secret of changing base metals into gold. Together, the trio plan to rescue Gregory and bring him back to London, where he and Margaret can start a new life away from his meddling family. And thus begins a wild romp across fourteenth-century Europe. Murderous noblemen, scheming ladies, truculent ghosts, and a steady stream of challenges plague the journey. Margaret will need not only her special gift of healing, her quick mind, and her independent spirit but the loyalty of her friends and the love of her new husband to carry them all safely home.