Financial Times, Best Business Books of 2022 Forbes, Best Business Books of 2022 The Next Big Idea Club, Best Leadership Books of 2022 The Globe & Mail, Best Management Books of 2022 The paradigm-busting theory for doing strategy. What passes for strategy in too many businesses, government agencies, and military operations is a toxic mix of wishful thinking and a jumble of incoherent policies. Richard P. Rumelt’s breakthrough concept is that leaders become effective strategists when they focus on challenges rather than goals, pinpointing the crux of their pivotal challenge—the aspect that is both surmountable and promises the greatest progress—and taking decisive, coherent action to overcome it. Rumelt defines the essence of the strategist’s skill with vivid storytelling, from how Elon Musk found the crux that propelled the success of SpaceX to how the American military came to grips with the weaknesses of its battle strategy. Musk’s core challenge, for example, was rocket reusability. His intense focus on the soft landing of SpaceX’s rockets enabled them to be used again—radically reducing the cost of putting a pound in orbit. Musk’s strategy was not based on how value is created or how to position SpaceX in its industry. It was a design foraction, the mental maneuver that focuses energy on what really made a difference through understanding the crux and creating an effective response that led to breakthrough.

A daughter’s quest to understand her charismatic and troubled father, an immigrant who crosses borders both real and illusory—between sanity and madness, science and spirituality, life and death PEN America Literary Award Winner • “The kind of memoir that seems to redefine the genre.”—Los Angeles Review of Books Throughout Jean Guerrero’s childhood, her father, Marco Antonio, was an erratic and elusive presence. A self-taught genius at fixing, creating, and conjuring things—and capable of transforming himself into a shaman, dreamcaster, or animal whisperer in his enchanted daughter’s eyes—he gradually began to lose himself in his peculiar obsessions, careening wildly between reality and hallucination. In time, he fled his family and responsibilities—to Asia, Europe, and eventually back to Mexico. He succumbed to drug- and alcohol-fueled manias, while suffering the effects of what he said were CIA mind-control experiments. As soon as she was old enough, Jean set out after him. Now a journalist, she used the tools of her trade, hoping to find answers to the questions he left behind. In this lyrical, haunting memoir, Jean Guerrero tries to locate the border between truth and fantasy as she searches for explanations for her father’s behavior. Refusing to accept an alleged schizophrenia diagnosis at face value, she takes Marco Antonio’s dark paranoia seriously and investigates all his wildest claims. She crisscrosses the Mexican-American border to unearth the stories of cousins and grandparents and discovers a chain of fabulists and mystics in her lineage, going back to her great-great-grandmother, a clairvoyant curandera who was paid to summon spirits from the afterlife. As she delves deeper and deeper into her family’s shadowy past, Jean begins mirroring her father’s self-destructive behavior. She risks death on her adventures, imperiling everything in her journey to redeem her father from the underworld of his delusions. In the tradition of engrossing family memoirs like The Liar’s Club and The Glass Castle, Crux is both a riveting adventure story and a profoundly original exploration of the human psyche, the mysteries of our most intimate relationships—and ourselves. “[Guerrero] writes poetically about borders as a metaphor for the boundary of identity between father and daughter and the porous connective tissues that bind them.”—The National Book Review

The stunning sequel to NEXUS Six months have passed since the release of Nexus 5. The world is a different, more dangerous place. In the United States, the terrorists - or freedom fighters - of the Post-Human Liberation Front use Nexus to turn men and women into human time bombs aimed at the President and his allies. In Washington DC, a government scientist, secretly addicted to Nexus, uncovers more than he wants to know about the forces behind the assassinations, and finds himself in a maze with no way out. In Thailand, Samantha Cataranes has found peace and contentment with a group of children born with Nexus in their brains. But when forces threaten to tear her new family apart, Sam will stop at absolutely nothing to protect the ones she holds dear. In Vietnam, Kade and Feng are on the run from bounty hunters seeking the price on Kade's head, from the CIA, and from forces that want to use the back door Kade has built into Nexus 5. Kade knows he must stop the terrorists misusing Nexus before they ignite a global war between human and posthuman. But to do so, he'll need to stay alive and ahead of his pursuers. And in Shanghai, a posthuman child named Ling Shu will go to dangerous and explosive lengths to free her uploaded mother from the grip of Chinese authorities. The first blows in the war between human and posthuman have been struck. The world will never be the same. File Under: Science Fiction [ Upgraded | Closer Than You Think | Upload | Civil War ] Praise for Book 1: NEXUS:"The only serious successor to Michael Crichton." - Scott Harrison, author of Archangel "Good. Scary Good." - Wired "One of the Best Books of 2013"- NPR "Provocative. A double-edged vision of the post-human." - The Wall Street Journal "Starred Review. Naam turns in a stellar performance in his debut SF novel. What matters here is the remarkable scope and narrative power of the story." - Booklist "A gripping piece of near future speculation... all the grit and pace of the Bourne films." - Alastair Reynolds, author of Revelation Space "A lightning bolt of a novel, with a sense of awe missing from a lot of current fiction." -Ars Technica "A rich cast of characters...the action scenes are crisp, the glimpses of future tech and culture are mesmerizing." - Publishers Weekly "Read it before everyone's talking about it." - John Barnes Praise for Book 2: CRUX: "A blisteringly paced technothriller that dives deeper and even better into the chunky questions raised by Nexus. This is a fabulous book, and it ends in a way that promises at least one more. Count me in." - Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother "Nexus and Crux are a devastating look into the political consequences of transhumanism; a sharp, chilling look at our likely future." - Charles Stross "Smart, thoughtful, and hard to drop, this richly nuanced sequel outshines its predecessor." - Publishers Weekly "A heady cocktail of ideas and page-turning prose. It left my brain buzzing for days afterwards." - Hannu Rajaniemi, author of The Quantum Thief "Highly recommended for preparation of the future revolution." - Harper Reed, Former CTO, Obama for America

Reproduction of the original: The Crux by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Crux Grey had no desire to leave the remote mountain valley and the life he loved. However, when Abel Grey forced his son's hand by insisting his eldest son go to college, the teenager, in a gesture of rebellion, signed his name on a thin black line in the local recruitment office, committing to serve his country in the military. The angry young man boarded the first bus out of town, fleeing Grey's Ranch and the only life he'd ever known. Not even in the darkest, most foreign parts of the world could The Cowboy escape his desire to become a rancher. It wasn't until tragedy struck, two times over, that the duty-bound heir returned to Colorado and his family's ranch to assume his father's position as Grey's Ranch patriarch. The tragedies were his fault. Could Crux survive the nightmares that refused to go away as he battled unbearable guilt? Could the life The Cowboy once knew ever be the same? Remi couldn't escape the constraints of small-town life and the watchful eye of her pious father soon enough. She focused on her dream of becoming a nurse and her desire to explore other parts of the world. But when her life took an unexpected turn and she found out she was pregnant, Remington Jacobs was forced to make a choice. Unable to endure the whispers and judgmental comments directed her way, the young mother accepted orders from the Navy and fled to Germany with her baby. She vowed to make a good life for a child who didn't have a father. The stars aligned, calling Crux and Remi to return to the peaceful mountain valley where their childhood dreams were made, unbeknownst to one another. The young mother and nurse sought safety and stability for her son. The Cowboy was anchored by a dream to fulfill his destiny. Neither expected to be met with unexplained danger.

"What a treat to have another Gilman novel--until now largely ignored--available. We are indebted to Duke University Press for publishing it as a separate piece and to Dana Seitler for her provocative and stimulating introduction. "The Crux" is in many ways a period piece embodying what today seems outmoded and sometimes outrageous views. Oddly, these same views are also startlingly and wickedly relevant today."--Ann J. Lane, author of "To Herland and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman "

Financial Times, Best Business Books of 2022 Forbes, Best Business Books of 2022 The Next Big Idea Club, Best Leadership Books of 2022 The Globe & Mail, Best Management Books of 2022 The paradigm-busting theory for doing strategy. What passes for strategy in too many businesses, government agencies, and military operations is a toxic mix of wishful thinking and a jumble of incoherent policies. Richard P. Rumelt’s breakthrough concept is that leaders become effective strategists when they focus on challenges rather than goals, pinpointing the crux of their pivotal challenge—the aspect that is both surmountable and promises the greatest progress—and taking decisive, coherent action to overcome it. Rumelt defines the essence of the strategist’s skill with vivid storytelling, from how Elon Musk found the crux that propelled the success of SpaceX to how the American military came to grips with the weaknesses of its battle strategy. Musk’s core challenge, for example, was rocket reusability. His intense focus on the soft landing of SpaceX’s rockets enabled them to be used again—radically reducing the cost of putting a pound in orbit. Musk’s strategy was not based on how value is created or how to position SpaceX in its industry. It was a design foraction, the mental maneuver that focuses energy on what really made a difference through understanding the crux and creating an effective response that led to breakthrough.