In the 1950s, Confidential magazine, America's first celebrity scandal magazine, revealed Hollywood stars' secrets, misdeeds, and transgressions in gritty, unvarnished detail. Deploying a vast network of tipsters to root out scandalous facts about the stars, including sexual affairs, drug use, and sexual orientation, publisher Robert Harrison destroyed celebrities' carefully constructed images and built a media empire. Confidential became the bestselling magazine on American newsstands in the 1950s, surpassing Time, Life, and the Saturday Evening Post. Eventually the stars fought back, filing multimillion-dollar libel suits against the magazine. The state of California, prodded by the film studios, prosecuted Harrison for obscenity and criminal libel, culminating in a famous, star-studded Los Angeles trial. This is Confidential's story, detailing how the magazine revolutionized celebrity culture and American society in the 1950s and beyond. With its bold red-yellow-and-blue covers, screaming headlines, and tawdry stories, Confidential exploded the candy-coated image of movie stars that Hollywood and the press had sold to the public. It transformed Americas from innocents to more sophisticated, worldly people, wise to the phony and constructed nature of celebrity. It shifted reporting on celebrities from an enterprise of concealment and make-believe to one that was more frank, bawdy, and true. Confidential's success marked the end of an era of hush-hush—of secrets, closets, and sexual taboos—and the beginning of our age of tell-all exposure.

Describes the life of the Hollywood personality who led a double life as a spy for Israel involved in secret negotiations for that country's nuclear arsenal while he was working as a Hollywood producer for high-profile movies.

From America’s number one Cuba reporter, PEN award–winning investigative journalist Ann Louise Bardach, comes the big book on Cuba we’ve all been waiting for. An incisive and spirited portrait of the twentieth century’s wiliest political survivor and his fiefdom, Cuba Confidential is the gripping story of the shattered families and warring personalities that lie at the heart of the forty-three-year standoff between Miami and Havana. Famous to many Americans for her cover stories and media appearances, Ann Louise Bardach has been covering Cuba for a decade. She’s talked to the crooks, spooks and politicians who have made history, and to their hired assassins and confidants. Based on exclusive interviews with Fidel Castro, his sister Juanita, his former brother-in-law Rafael Díaz-Balart, the family of Elián González, the friends and family of the legendary American fugitive Robert Vesco, the intrepid terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and the inner circles of Jeb Bush and the late exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa, Cuba Confidential exposes the hardball take-no-prisoners tactics of the Cuban exile leadership, and its manipulation and exploitation by ten American presidents. Bardach homes in on Fidel Castro and his cronies, taking us closer than we’ve ever been—and on the militant exiles who have devoted their lives, with CIA connivance, to trying to eliminate him. From Calle Ocho to Juan Miguel González’s kitchen table in Cárdenas, from Guantánamo Bay to Union City to Washington, D.C., Ann Louise Bardach serves up an unforgettable portrait of Cuba and its exiles.

For twelve years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it. In this graphic and yet surprisingly funny account of her and others’ extraordinary careers, Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed while holding that thin green line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other. Ranger Confidential is the story behind the scenery of the nation’s crown jewels—Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smokies, Denali. In these iconic landscapes, where nature and humanity constantly collide, scenery can be as cruel as it is redemptive.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A fascinating fear of flying book from a commercial airline pilot and author of the popular website askthepilot.com. For millions of people, travel by air is a confounding, uncomfortable, and even frightening experience. When you go behind the scenes, however, you can see that the grand theater of air travel is actually fascinating. From the intricate design of airport architecture to the logistics of inflight service, here is everything you need to know about flying. Commercial airlines like to hide the truth from customers and do nothing to comfort nervous fliers. And what's scarier than the unknown? In this aviation book, pilot Patrick Smith breaks down that barrier and tells you everything you need to know about flying, including: How planes fly, and a revealing look at the men and women who fly them Straight talk on turbulence, pilot training, and safety The real story on delays, congestion, and the dysfunction of the modern airport The myths and misconceptions of cabin air and cockpit automation Terrorism in perspective, and a provocative look at security Airfare, seating woes, and the pitfalls of airline customer service The true colors and cultures of the airlines we love to hate Cockpit Confidential is a thoughtful, funny, and at times deeply personal look into the strange and misunderstood world of commercial flying. If you liked other books about airplanes for adults, including Soar by Tom Bunn or Skyfaring, you'll find reassurance, humor, and guidance in Cockpit Confidential. "Anyone remotely afraid of flying should read this book, as should anyone who appreciates good writing and great information." —The New York Times, on ASK THE PILOT "Patrick Smith is extraordinarily knowledgeable about modern aviation...the ideal seatmate, a companion, writer and explorer." —Boston Globe

A 1950s matinee screen idol speaks about the scandals, successes, and sacrifices he experienced as the pin-up boy for millions of teenage girls and how he dealt with the reality of hiding his homosexuality. Reprint.

A tenured prof. breaks ranks to reveal what's wrong with American higher education and how it affects you. Professors can be underpaid. Marginalized. Over-reviewed. But one fact remains: The success of your education depends on them. Part industry expose and part call for a return to engaged teaching, Campus Confidential shows how the noble project of higher education fell so far and how we can redeem it. A must-read for parents thinking about their kids' futures: This book answers the questions most other college resources don't: Who exactly is teaching my kid? What questions to ask on the campus visit? How to get the most out of your tuition dollars? Jacques Berlinerblau is a tenured professor at one of the best schools in the country, and he has seen it all. He started his career at a community college, and on his way to the top he has been everything from a abused adjunct to an assistant professor to a coddled administrator. He has the inside scoop on the real world of Higher Ed. today.

A Korean-American girl travels to Seoul in hopes of debuting in a girl group at the same K-pop company behind the most popular boy band on the planet, in this romantic coming-of-age novel perfect for K-pop fans everywhere! Candace Park knows a lot about playing a role. For most of her life, she's been playing the role of the quiet Korean-American girl who takes advanced classes and plays a classical instrument, keeping her love of K-pop to herself. But she has a secret that she's been keeping from the world: she can sing. Like, really sing. So when Candace enters a global audition held by the biggest K-pop label in the world, she doesn't expect to actually win. And convincing her parents to go against everything they believe in is nothing compared to what's next. Under the strict supervision of her instructors at the label's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Candace must hone her performance skills to within an inch of her life, learn to fluently speak Korean, and navigate the complex hierarchies of her teammates. And the number-one rule? NO DATING - which proves almost impossible after she meets superstar idol One.J and fellow Korean-American trainee YoungBae. And when Candace finds herself in the middle of an international K-pop scandal, she must decide whether a spot in the most hyped K-pop girl group of all time is really worth risking everything ...

Cynthia Shapiro is a former Human Resources executive who's pulling back the curtain on the way that companies really work. In Corporate Confidential, she unmasks startling truths and what you can do about them, including: * There's no right to free speech in the workplace. *Age discrimination exists. * Why being too smart is not too smart. * Human Resources is not there to help you, but to protect the company from you. * And forty-five more! Cynthia Shapiro pulls no punches, giving readers an inside look at a secret world of hidden agendas they would never normally see. A world of insider information and insights that can save a career!

A comprehensive collection of lifestyle information, including tips on eating, exercising, and fashion.