How the ordering of the sensible world continues to suggest a reality that no notes or letters can fully transcribe. An ancient tradition holds that Pythagoras discovered the secrets of harmony within a forge when he came across five men hammering with five hammers, producing a wondrous sound. Four of the five hammers stood in a marvelous set of proportions, harmonizing; but there was also a fifth hammer. Pythagoras saw and heard it, but he could not measure it; nor could he understand its discordant sound. Pythagoras therefore discarded it. What was this hammer, such that Pythagoras chose so decidedly to reject it? Since antiquity, "harmony" has been a name for more than a theory of musical sounds; it has offered a paradigm for the scientific understanding of the natural world. Nature, through harmony, has been transcribed in the ideal signs of mathematics. But, time and again, the transcription has run up against one fundamental limit: something in nature resists being written down, transcribed in a stable set of ideal elements. A fifth hammer, obstinately, continues to sound. In eight chapters, linked together as are the tones of a single scale, The Fifth Hammer explores the sounds and echoes of that troubling percussion as they make themselves felt on the most varied of attempts to understand and represent the natural world. From music to metaphysics, aesthetics to astronomy, and from Plato and Boethius to Kepler, Leibniz, and Kant, this book explores the ways in which the ordering of the sensible world has continued to suggest a reality that no notes or letters can fully transcribe.

A groundbreaking contribution to the history of the "long Civil Rights movement," Hammer and Hoe tells the story of how, during the 1930s and 40s, Communists took on Alabama's repressive, racist police state to fight for economic justice, civil and political rights, and racial equality. The Alabama Communist Party was made up of working people without a Euro-American radical political tradition: devoutly religious and semiliterate black laborers and sharecroppers, and a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, housewives, youth, and renegade liberals. In this book, Robin D. G. Kelley reveals how the experiences and identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the Party's tactics and unique political culture. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals. After discussing the book's origins and impact in a new preface written for this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, Kelley reflects on what a militantly antiracist, radical movement in the heart of Dixie might teach contemporary social movements confronting rampant inequality, police violence, mass incarceration, and neoliberalism.

From the bestselling author of First Blood comes a spectacular thriller, in which a former Navy SEAL and a Japanese samurai master are bound together in a terrifying past that never happened.

From the bestselling author of Linchpin, Tribes, and The Dip comes an elegant little book that will inspire artists, writers, and entrepreneurs to stretch and commit to putting their best work out into the world. Creative work doesn't come with a guarantee. But there is a pattern to who succeeds and who doesn't. And engaging in the consistent practice of its pursuit is the best way forward. Based on the breakthrough Akimbo workshop pioneered by legendary author Seth Godin, The Practice will help you get unstuck and find the courage to make and share creative work. Godin insists that writer's block is a myth, that consistency is far more important than authenticity, and that experiencing the imposter syndrome is a sign that you're a well-adjusted human. Most of all, he shows you what it takes to turn your passion from a private distraction to a productive contribution, the one you've been seeking to share all along. With this book as your guide, you'll learn to dance with your fear. To take the risks worth taking. And to embrace the empathy required to make work that contributes with authenticity and joy.

In this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller, after taking on a foreclosure case, defense attorney Mickey Haller fights to prove his client’s innocence—but first he must follow a trail of black market evidence to its sinister end. Mickey Haller has fallen on tough times. He expands his business into foreclosure defense, only to see one of his clients accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home. Mickey puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, even though the evidence and his own suspicions tell him his client is guilty. Soon after he learns that the victim had black market dealings of his own, Haller is assaulted, too -- and he's certain he's on the right trail. Despite the danger and uncertainty, Haller mounts the best defense of his career in a trial where the last surprise comes after the verdict is in. Connelly proves again why he "may very well be the best novelist working in the United States today" (San Francisco Chronicle).

You think Mike Hammer is tough? Just wait until you see the punishment he delivers when he sets out to find the killer of a guy trying to go straight. A guy who parked his kid in Mike Hammer’s arms—and left him there an orphan. Luscious, eager dames, dynamite-packed action that starts in cheap bars and goes right to the D.A.’s office, and a guided tour of the seamiest—as well as the swankiest—spots in New York, make this one of Mike Hammer’s most thrilling adventures to date.

I dream the future. Immediately after she blurted it out, she was embarrassed. It sounded stupid, she was convinced. She felt her face flush and her eyes fill with tears. Ms. Rodgers would probably think she was crazy, or making it up, or both. She quickly amended her statement. Well, I think I dream the future. Sometimes I have dreams and they come true later. Its happened a lot and is happening more and more. But, no one really knows except my family who doesnt believe me. The string of words just kept tumbling from her mouth. Sherry could not figure out how she and Jasmine got off on the wrong foot. She believed it all started on the bus ride to school. After staring Sherry down for weeks, Sherry had finally had enough. What is your FREAKING problem? Sherry shouted across the bus aisle. You! Jasmine countered. Apparently that was all that needed to be said to create the rift that would ultimately push Sherry to her limit. Trying to be cool, Sherry stood at the top of the slide and attempted to run down it. She made it to the bottom, but her old sneakers had no tread and her right foot slipped from underneath her. She went flying into the air. Time stood still for a moment as she was airborne. Hoping her head wouldnt hit the metal slide; she looked at all the stars and knew she had made a huge mistake when she allowed Kara to come over. Her life flashed in front of her. God please help me she thought just before she landed. Her butt hit the ground and the base of her skull hit the edge of the slide. Sherry lay there for what seemed like an eternity, listening to the two stoners laugh. They thought she was playing. Help me, whimpered Sherry. She stared at the stars and wasnt quite sure what hurt, or if she could feel anything at all. Vincent came into her line of sight and kneeled down next to her.