darthvids non-fiction library
Explore DarthVids' Non-Fiction Library featuring a curated list of insightful books. Discover must-read titles for knowledge seekers and avid readers.
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Comic Wars
by Dan Raviv
From the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Every Spy a Prince comes the colorful true story of the business superheroes who rescued Marvel Comics from bankruptcy. In the mid-1990s, Marvel Entertainment became embroiled in a crisis as strange as one of its comic book stories. Locked in a battle for control of the half-century-old company were two Goliath-style corporate raiders and two virtually unknown Davids: Israeli immigrants with a passion for the toy business. This was a test of wills that led to a unique Wall Street showdown. Combining hard-hitting journalism with entertaining storytelling, Comic Wars takes readers behind the scenes of America's most bitter bankruptcy and captures the high-stakes, often hilarious twists and turns of this financial fiasco. The unforgettable cast of characters ranges from tycoon Ron Perelman (who bankrupted Marvel through overexpansion) and Carl Icahn (who then launched a hostile takeover of Marvel) to Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad, scrappy owners of Toy Biz and the duo who ingeniously outmaneuvered the moguls. Culminating with Ike and Avi's triumphant launch of the blockbuster movie X-Men, and published just in time for the Spider-Man live-action movie, this is a marvelous must-read for the business world and all admirers of true grit.
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The Smartest Guys in the Room
by Bethany McLean
An account of the rise and fall of Enron, written by award-winning Fortune investigative reporters, draws on a wide range of sources while revealing the contributions of lesser-known participants in the scandal. Reprint.
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The Search
by John Battelle
Explains how Google became one of the world's leading IPOs and reveals how it contributed to changes in information searching and viral marketing.
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Fingerprints of the Gods
by Graham Hancock
Could the story of mankind be far older than we have previously believed? Using tools as varied as archaeo-astronomy, geology, and computer analysis of ancient myths, Graham Hancock presents a compelling case to suggest that it is. Graham Hancock is featured in Ancient Apocalypse, a Netflix original docuseries. “A fancy piece of historical sleuthing . . . intriguing and entertaining and sturdy enough to give a long pause for thought.”—Kirkus Reviews In Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock embarks on a worldwide quest to put together all the pieces of the vast and fascinating jigsaw of mankind’s hidden past. In ancient monuments as far apart as Egypt’s Great Sphinx, the strange Andean ruins of Tihuanaco, and Mexico’s awe-inspiring Temples of the Sun and Moon, he reveals not only the clear fingerprints of an as-yet-unidentified civilization of remote antiquity, but also startling evidence of its vast sophistication, technological advancement, and evolved scientific knowledge. A record-breaking number one bestseller in Britain, Fingerprints of the Gods contains the makings of an intellectual revolution, a dramatic and irreversible change in the way that we understand our past—and so our future. And Fingerprints of God tells us something more. As we recover the truth about prehistory, and discover the real meaning of ancient myths and monuments, it becomes apparent that a warning has been handed down to us, a warning of terrible cataclysm that afflicts the Earth in great cycles at irregular intervals of time—a cataclysm that may be about to recur. “Readers will hugely enjoy their quest in these pages of inspired storytelling.”—The Times (UK)
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Guns Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond
"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers.
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All In
by Jonathan Grotenstein
In this exciting history of the 2005 world series of poker, the authors introduce colorful--and seemingly fearless--characters and chronicle some of the most gut-wrenching moments to be found in any event of its kind.
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Aces and Kings
by Michael Kaplan
Poker is hotter than ever and Aces and Kings takes readers behind the phenomenon, providing the first and only comprehensive look at the game's top players, how they win, and what you can learn from them oker has emerged from America's backrooms to evolve into one of the country's most popular mainstream games. On-line poker sites are exploding with new players, casinos across the country are adding floor space to accommodate tournaments, celebrities like Tobey Maguire and Ben Affleck jockey to be seen at the big tables, and World Poker Tour ranks as the Travel Channel's top-rated show.
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Disney War
by James B. Stewart
Draws on extensive research and hundreds of interviews to document the fierce executive battle for control of the foremost entertainment company.
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The Xbox 360 Uncloaked
by Dean Takahashi
"The Xbox 360 Uncloaked" is the result of more than a hundred interviews, many at the highest levels of Microsoft, as well as countless months of independent investigative reporting. With unprecedented access, San Jose Mercury News Technology and Gaming Writer Dean Takahashi goes beyond the official story to reveal a true insider's look at the creation of the XBox 360 and Microsoft's multi-billion dollar gamble to become a leading force in the global video game industry. Sony, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, the entire Microsoft Xbox 360 team, and the industry's most celebrated game developers -- all of the major players are included in this captivating book.
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Fortune's Formula
by William Poundstone
In 1961, MIT mathematics professor Ed Thorp made a small Vegas fortune by "counting cards"; his 1962 bestseller, "Beat the Dealer," made the phrase a household word. With Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, Thorp next conquered the roulette tables. In this prosaic but fascinating cultural history, the author tells not only what they did but how they did it.
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Theory of Fun for Game Design
by Raph Koster
Discusses the essential elements in creating a successful game, how playing games and learning are connected, and what makes a game boring or fun.
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Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids
by David Kushner
If you think a gang of real-life geeks can’t take on the world and win big . . . think again. And whatever you do, don’t sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true story: the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards–and turned it into a fortune. The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called Magic: The Gathering. Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultracool world champion. Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel’s squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Then they took on the town’s biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million. Thrilling, edgy, and ferociously feel-good, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. And David Kushner, acclaimed author of Masters of Doom, masterfully deals out the outrageous details while bringing to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves . . . and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every player has his day, you’re right. Here’s the proof.
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Shakespeare: Invention of the Human
by Harold Bloom
"The indispensable critic on the indispensable writer." -Geoffrey O'Brien, New York Review of Books A landmark achievement as expansive, erudite, and passionate as its renowned author, this book is the culmination of a lifetime of reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. Preeminent literary critic-and ultimate authority on the western literary tradition, Harold Bloom leads us through a comprehensive reading of every one of the dramatist's plays, brilliantly illuminating each work with unrivaled warmth, wit and insight. At the same time, Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships: that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.
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Playing to Win
by David Sirlin
Winning at competitive games requires a results-oriented mindset that many players are simply not willing to adopt. This book walks players through the entire process: how to choose a game and learn basic proficiency, how to break through the mental barriers that hold most players back, and how to handle the issues that top players face. It also includes a complete analysis of Sun Tzu's book The Art of War and its applications to games of today. These foundational concepts apply to virtually all competitive games, and even have some application to "real life." Trade paperback. 142 pages.
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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
by Edwin Lefèvre
Based on interviews with trader Jesse Livermore, called Larry Livingston in the book.
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Barbarians at the Gate
by Bryan Burrough
"Barbarians at the Gate" is the classic account of the defining takeover in Wall Street merger history. The authors' gripping record of the frenzy that overtook Wall Street, in fall of 1988, gives a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era.
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Flags of Our Fathers
by James Bradley
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The perfect gift for Father’s Day, this is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima—and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled to the island’s highest peak. And after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerful account of six very different young men who came together in a moment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. But after his death at age seventy, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of Easy Company. Following these men’s paths to Iwo Jima, James Bradley has written a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific’s most crucial island—an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what happened after the victory. The men in the photo—three were killed during the battle—were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only James Bradley’s father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only: “The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn’t come back.” Few books ever have captured the complexity and furor of war and its aftermath as well as Flags of Our Fathers. A penetrating, epic look at a generation at war, this is history told with keen insight, enormous honesty, and the passion of a son paying homage to his father. It is the story of the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war.
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Against the Gods
by Peter L. Bernstein
A Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller "Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism." —The New York Times "An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book." —The Wall Street Journal "A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it." —Business Week "Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read." —The Economist "[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world." —Worth "No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement." —Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers "With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it." —John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today. "An extremely readable history of risk." —Barron's "Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face." —Money "A singular achievement." —Times Literary Supplement "There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly-witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)-and Bernstein would mingle well in their company." —The Australian
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Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser
Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning. Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from California's subdivisions, where the business was born, to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike, where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths -- from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate.
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Anthony Bourdain Omnibus
by Anthony Bourdain
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly After twenty-five years of 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine', chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain has decided to tell all. From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny. A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal Bourdain sets off to eat his way around the world. But this was never going to be a conventional culinary tour. He heads to Saigon where he eats the still-beating heart of a live cobra, and travels into Khmer Rouge territory to find the rumoured Wild West of Cambodia. He also dines with gangsters in Russia, finds a medieval pig slaughter and feast in Portugal, and returns to the fishing village where he first ate oysters as a child. Written with his inimitable machismo and humour, this is an adventure story sure to give you indigestion.
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The Dilbert Principle
by Scott Adams
The creator of Dilbert, the fastest-growing comic strip in the nation (syndicated in nearly 1000 newspapers), takes a look at corporate America in all its glorious lunacy. Lavishly illustrated with Dilbert strips, these hilarious essays on incompetent bosses, management fads, bewildering technological changes and so much more, will make anyone who has ever worked in an office laugh out loud in recognition. The Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers will be systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage — management. Since 1989, Scott Adams has been illustrating this principle each day, lampooning the corporate world through Dilbert, his enormously popular comic strip. In Dilbert, the potato-shaped, abuse-absorbing hero of the strip, Adams has given voice to the millions of Americans buffeted by the many adversities of the workplace. Now he takes the next step, attacking corporate culture head-on in this lighthearted series of essays. Packed with more than 100 hilarious cartoons, these 25 chapters explore the zeitgeist of ever-changing management trends, overbearing egos, management incompetence, bottomless bureaucracies, petrifying performance reviews, three-hour meetings, the confusion of the information superhighway and more. With sharp eyes, and an even sharper wit, Adams exposes -- and skewers -- the bizarre absurdities of everyday corporate life. Readers will be convinced that he must be spying on their bosses, The Dilbert Principle rings so true!
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The Elegant Universe
by Brian Greene
Superstring theory is the key to the Unified Field Theory that eluded Einstein for more than 30 years. Through the masterful use of metaphor and analogy, The Elegant Universe makes some of the most sophisticated concepts accessible and entertaining.
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"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
by Richard Phillips Feynman
In this phenomenal bestseller, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman recounts his adventures trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador, accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums--and much else of an eyebrow-raising and hilarious nature. Photos.
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How to Choose a Chess Move
by Andrew Soltis
There are more than 30 moves you can choose from a typical chess position, yet Masters regularly manage to select the best moves – and they do it faster, more confidently and with less calculation than other players. This is because Masters have shortcuts that enable them to think more efficiently. This instructive and practical guide explains these techniques, including: Using specific cues to identify good moves Streamlining analysis of the consequences of moves Using both objective and highly subjective criteria to find the right move – from any position
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Artificial Intelligence
by George F. Luger
In this accessible, comprehensive text, George Luger captures the essence of artificial intelligence--solving the complex problems that arise wherever computer technology is applied. Ideal for an undergraduate course in AI, the 6th Edition first presents the fundamental concepts of the discipline then goes into detail with the practical information necessary to implement the algorithms and strategies discussed. Students learn how to use a number of different software tools and techniques to address the many challenges faced by today's computer scientists. Artificial Intelligence: Structures and Strategies for Complex Problem Solving is ideal for a one- or two-semester undergraduate course on AI.
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The Complete Book of Scriptwriting
by J Michael Straczynski
An experienced scriptwriter and producer explains how to write and sell plays for television, radio, motion pictures, animated features, and the stage and surveys the characteristics and requirements of each medium.