Obsession Memoir

The Monopolists reveals the unknown story of how Monopoly came into existence, the reinvention of its history by Parker Brothers and multiple media outlets, the lost female originator of the game, and one man's lifelong obsession to tell the true story about the game's questionable origins.

A Family Obsession is the fascinating result of Harry and Jamie sitting round the kitchen table, where they discuss, debate, select and celebrate all aspects of the game that have inspired them. Who are the men who impacted their careers and fired that all-consuming passion for football? This is a deep dive into the matches, the players, the managers and the changes that have spanned their two generations.

A Hollywood starlet on a smash-hit sitcom enjoys rising fame, unaware that her greatest fan is hell-bent on meeting his crush. A gameshow winner turns to writing books. When one is given a scathing review, he tracks down the reviewer with bloody results. Men keep turning up at a newlywed's home convinced that she has placed a Craigslist ad for a rough fantasy roleplay. Stalkers takes you into the twisted world of cyberstalking, catfishing, rejected suitors, jealous exes, and celebrity stalkers, and the devastating impact their obsessions can have on their victims.

Mothers & Murderers: A True Story of Love, Lies, Obsession...and Second Chances takes listeners on a wild tragicomic ride from the criminal courtrooms of California’s Silicon Valley to the Himalayan mountains of Pakistan to the deserts of Ethiopia. In delightful, insightful prose, Ellison reflects on her mistakes and her triumphs as she weaves together the stories of how her Pulitzer Prize-winning career almost ended before it began, how she nearly missed marrying the love of her life, and how she unwittingly got drawn into a stranger-than-fiction murder case.

Crimes fueled by emotions. When it comes to the emotions, people can react in strange and unexpected ways. Whether it's a heart hurt by unrequited love, or a lover so passionate they'll stop at nothing to get their way - even the most mild-mannered soul can suddenly flip, becoming a vengeful spirit with dark intentions. From the ancient Greek myth of Jason and Medea to Shakespeare's Othello, themes dealing with deeply felt emotions have persisted. But unlike mythology or fiction, The Best New True Crime Stories contains stories from real life.

Across America and around the world, people wander through flea markets to search for lost treasures. For decades, no such market was more renowned than the legendary Chelsea flea market, which sprawled over several blocks and within an old garage on the west side of Manhattan. Visitors would trawl through booths crammed with vintage dresses, rare books, ancient swords, glass eyeballs, Afghan rugs, West African fetish dolls, Old Master paintings, and much more.

Toby Lester, author of the award-winning The Fourth Part of the World, masterfully crafts yet another century-spanning saga of people and ideas in this epic story of Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic drawing of a man inscribed in a circle and a square. Over time, the nearly 550-year-old ink-on-paper sketch has transformed into a collective symbol of the nature of genius, the beauty of the human form, and the universality of the human spirit.

When Daniel Duane became a father, this San Francisco surfer and climber found himself trapped at home with no clue how to contribute. Inept at so many domestic tasks, and less than eager to change diapers, he took on dinner duty. Duane had a few tricks: pasta, stir-fry...well, actually, those were his only two tricks. But he had a biographical anomaly: Chef Alice Waters had been his preschool teacher. So he cracked one of her Chez Panisse cookbooks and cooked his way through it.

On June 4, 2008, Travis Victor Alexander was murdered. Jodi Arias, whom Alexander had been dating on and off, was the main suspect. As friends had stated to police, Arias had been stalking him, accessing his Facebook account, and slashing his car tires. In Jodi Arias: A Lethal Obsession, acclaimed journalist Dylan Howard goes into all the gory details of what happened to Alexander and the reasons behind Arias’s heinous act.

After World War II, some 30 years later, when A. Venger lived in Israel, he returned to his native Germany on business. As an adult back in Germany, he serendipitously crossed paths with the policeman responsible for deporting his family to concentration camp Auschwitz, which resulted in their death. A. Venger's troubled past turned into an obsession, that led him on a path of revenge. Meticulously planned, he took justice into his own hands. He committed the perfect murder.

Terrifying things are happening to Kay Weden, a 40-something single mom and high school teacher in Salisbury, North Carolina. Despite having no known enemies, Kay's home, car, and peace of mind are under attack throughout 1993. Most chilling of all are the senseless attacks on her only son and the shot fired in the night through a wall of her house, which narrowly misses his head as he sleeps.

President Thug is a serious yet satirical comparison of Donald Trump's presidency and the depths of Dante's Inferno. The book leads Dante, Virgil, and Trump into each Circle of Hell, illustrating the sacrilege of Trump’s sins, shortcomings, and scandals. Given the moniker “President Thug”, Trump sees what he has done during his presidency, walking the imbalanced and nearly impossible terrain of damnation in the circles of Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery.

"This might be one of the month’s, if not the year’s, sweetest books — zaniest, too.” ―The Washington Post "A hilarious addition to the dogoir canon.” ―People "Perhaps the greatest love story ever told.” ―Refinery29 "The feel-good book the world needs." —PopSugar From one...

A gripping art history cold case: the previously untold story of Victorine Meurent, forgotten painter and famous muse to artists from Manet to Toulouse-Lautrec, and the modern search for her lost paintings. When former art student and journalist Summer Brennan learned that Édouard Manet’s favorite model from such iconic works as Olympia and Lunch on the Grass had been a painter in her own right, but that all of her paintings had been lost, she couldn’t resist the allure of the mystery.

In this mesmerizing memoir, Skidelsky ponders what it is about the Swiss star that transfixes him and countless others. Skidelsky dissects the wonders of Federer's forehand, reflects on his rivalry with Nadal, revels in his victories, and relives his most crushing defeats. But in charting his obsession, Skidelsky also weaves his own past into a captivating story that explores the evolution of modern tennis, the role of beauty in sports, and the psychology of fandom.

From well-known nature and adventure writer Dan Koeppel, whose work has appeared in Audubon and National Geographic Adventure, comes this true story of one bird watcher's incredible achievements.

Innocent Blood is the true story of Charles Hatcher and his life of crime - a powerful and blood-chilling glimpse into the darkness between sanity and madness. It also chronicles a justice system gone wrong. Throughout his criminal career, Hatcher was able to fool dozens of psychiatrists, who repeatedly failed to identify him as a multiple murderer. Hatcher's astonishing skill was not just in his ability to murder and escape imprisonment. He became an expert at manipulating the criminal justice system.

For nearly 80 years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed "overmined" and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling - particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air.

Late one night, while Rebecca Fogg was alone in her apartment, her hand was partially amputated in an explosion. Quick thinking saved her life, but the journey to recovery would be a slow one. As the doctors rebuilt her hand, Rebecca (who also survived 9/11) began rebuilding her sense of self by studying the physical and psychological process of recovery.

On October 12, 2005, a massive fire broke out in the Wines Central wine warehouse in Vallejo, California. Within hours, the flames had destroyed 4.5 million bottles of California's finest wine worth more than $250 million, making it the largest destruction of wine in history. The fire had been deliberately set by a passionate oenophile named Mark Anderson, a skilled con man and thief with storage space at the warehouse who needed to cover his tracks.