Biography Work

Imagine a company where people love coming to work and are highly productive on a daily basis. Imagine a company whose top executives, in a quest to create the most "fun" workplace ever, obliterate labor-management divisions and push decision-making responsibility down to the plant floor. Could such a company compete in today's bottom-line corporate world? Could it even turn a profit?

Ethics is one of the most unique works in Western philosophy, an attempt to handle metaphysics, theology, anthropology, and ontology through the lens of geometric proofs. Spinoza felt that the path to happiness is through reason, in the use of the mind to demystify our existence and liberate us from passions and superstitions.

Six-year-old Ludwig was sitting at the table, reading his Bible and praying, when Swedish soldiers stormed through the castle door. Ludwig looked up at the soldiers and then returned to his prayer and reading. The soldiers stopped and stared--then left. They said they could not ransack a place that God watched over.

Runners' vocabulary is full of acronyms like DNS for "Did Not Start" and DNF for "Did Not Finish," but when Mirna Valerio stepped up to the starting line, she needed a new one: DNQ for "Did Not Quit."

Nathaniel Tilton was leading an ordinary existence in his early30s as a financial advisor in Boston. Then, without a destination in mind, he set out to experience life in more meaningful ways. His path was forged when he met famed MIT blackjack team member Semyon Dukach, who inspired Nathaniel to become a world-class blackjack player.

Rüdiger Safranski's Goethe: Life as a Work of Art is the first definitive biography in a generation to tell the larger-than-life story of the writer considered to be the Shakespeare of German literature. Drawing upon the trove of letters, diaries, and notebooks Goethe left behind, as well as correspondence and criticism from Goethe's contemporaries, Safranski weaves a rich tale of Europe in the throes of revolution and of the man whose ideas heralded a new era.

There are times in history when a truly remarkable person comes about. Eìmile Coueì was one such individual. The very definition of genius is to have the courage to believe and conceive in a manner which is at odds with every aspect of the world in which one grows and is educated.

Steve Saint was five years old when his father, missionary pilot Nate Saint, was speared to death by a primitive Ecuadorian tribe. In adulthood, Steve, having left Ecuador for a successful business career, never imagined making the jungle his home again. But when that same tribe asks him to help them, Steve, his wife, and their teenage children move back to the jungle. There, Steve learns long-buried secrets about his father's murder, confronts difficult choices, and finds himself caught between two worlds.

High-achieving women share their worst mistakes at work - and how learning from them paved the way to success. In Mistakes I Made at Work, Jessica Bacal interviews 25 successful women about their toughest on-the-job moments. These innovators across a variety of fields - from the arts to finance to tech - reveal that they’re more thoughtful, purposeful and assertive as leaders because they learned from their mistakes, not because they never made any.

Bertrand Russell is, without a doubt, one of the most prominent and influential figures in philosophy in the 20th century. His work was a significant influence on minds such as Albert Einstein, Isaac Asimov, and Noam Chomsky. With The Problems of Philosophy, he brings a complicated subject into easy reach. Russell uses this work to highlight the main philosophical subjects examined through the course of history.

For comedian and content creator Manon Mathews, comedy is life. But it took more than luck for her hilarious antics on Vine to open the door to her career. It took years of routinely embarrassing herself, improv classes, some stints as an amateur stand-up comic, unrelenting dedication, and one life-altering night out that forced her to change her ways. This set her on the path to manifesting her dream life.

The author of Predator traces the story of George Russell, Jr., a bright, young, popular black man whose thirty-year psychological unraveling led to a shocking killing spree.

Gerald D. Hines stands at the top of the international real estate investment and development world. A Purdue graduate with a degree in engineering, Hines may have arrived in Houston in 1948 for a nine-to-five job at a heating and air conditioning company, but before long he was making the deals that would transform Houston’s skyline. Later, with his revolutionary idea that great architecture was good business, he was reshaping the skylines of the world.

One of the first Methodist bishops in America, English-born Francis Asbury devoted his life to ministry, traveling on horseback to preach and teach to those living on the vastly isolated American frontier. Alone in a new country, with no home of his own, Asbury rode over 300,000 miles—across rivers and through rocky, overgrown roads—shining God’s light on the fledgling colonies.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Aesthetics, or Philosophy of Fine Art, is part of a rich German aesthetic tradition that stretches from the middle of the 18th century into the modern era. Hegel wrote this work early in the German exploration of aesthetics, and it served as a foundation piece for the philosophies of all who followed him.

In this gripping and remarkable memoir, Peter tells his extraordinary life story in fascinating detail. From removing protestors, including the infamous 'Swampy', from inside dangerous tunnels to the scenes of some of the UK’s most notorious crimes, he describes how he has developed into a highly regarded and highly skilled search specialist, whose job is to assist investigators and police as they search crime scenes and bring serial killers to justice.

Slowly the boat pushed us forward, away from certain shipwreck, and gained the upper hand in its struggle against the surging current. The victory did not spark spontaneous celebration; rather, we spent the next moments in a trembling recovery. Kent, an American, and Josephine, an Australian, journeyed to an unfamiliar continent and set out to live on a riverboat deep in the jungle. With their four young children and ministry team, they served on the Purus River in the Amazon, bringing education, health care, and the love of God to remote communities

In The Paper Garden, celebrated poet Molly Peacock explores the remarkable life of 18th-century British gentlewoman-turned-artist Mary Delany. In the 1770s, at the age of 72, the twice-widowed and nearly broke Delany turned her interest in botany into beautiful paper “mosaick” flowers still revered today.

For decades, Sherry Turkle has shown how we remake ourselves in the mirror of our machines. Here, she illuminates our present search for authentic connection in a time of uncharted challenges. Growing up in postwar Brooklyn, Turkle searched for clues to her identity in a house filled with mysteries. She mastered the codes that governed her mother's secretive life. She learned never to ask about her absent scientist father—and never to use his name, her name. Before empathy became a way to find connection, it was her strategy for survival.

Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers of all time. His melodies are known to many people who may never have heard his name. They crop up on mobile telephones, alarm clocks and answering machines as often as on records and concert programs. Like his music, the man himself was widely loved, but his inner life was fraught with sufferings, confusions and a deep vein of self-doubt. The drama of his emotional life is vividly reflected in his music, letters and diaries, all of which play a major part in this intimate portrait-in-sound.