Once you open the pages of my journal, you will step into the most exciting summer--I will never forget it, and I doubt you will either. Never in my wildest dreams did I think things would turn out the way they did, but wow, what a great summer. If you are an inventor like me, it helps to be smart, but it really helps to have a genius for a grandfather. Most kids our age only dream of flying over their neighborhood five hundred feet in the air, but I did it. My first landing was not so good, but my last one made me the hometown hero. I also learned that summer the value of standing up for yourself and being a loyal friend. To say I had a couple of near death experiences would be an understatement, but in the end I lived to see the sixth grade. Did I mention that my best friend was a girl?. Ages 7+

John Ford's classic films—such as Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man, and The Searchers—have earned him worldwide admiration as America's foremost filmmaker, a director whose rich visual imagination conjures up indelible, deeply moving images of our collective past. Joseph McBride's Searching for John Ford, described as definitive by both the New York Times and the Irish Times, surpasses all other biographies of the filmmaker in its depth, originality, and insight. Encompassing and illuminating Ford's myriad complexities and contradictions, McBride traces the trajectory of Ford's life from his beginnings as “Bull” Feeney, the nearsighted, football-playing son of Irish immigrants in Portland, Maine, to his recognition, after a long, controversial, and much-honored career, as America's national mythmaker. Blending lively and penetrating analyses of Ford's films with an impeccably documented narrative of the historical and psychological contexts in which those films were created, McBride has at long last given John Ford the biography his stature demands.

Every significant Marvel Comics character, location, weapon, gadget, and vehicle: one ultimate encyclopedia. Packed full of incredible facts and stunning images, this authoritative encyclopedia contains more than 650 entries and features a foreword by the legendary comic book writer Roy Thomas. All of Marvel's iconic superheroes and villains are here, from Captain Marvel to Corvus Glaive and Iron Man to Gwenpool. Amazing vehicles are examined, such as the Avengers' Quinjets and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarriers. Magical artifacts, including Thor's hammer Mjolnir, are analyzed and extraordinary locations, such as Wakanda and Asgard, are explored. Advanced technology is explained, including Iron Man's incredible armor, and key events in the Marvel Comics universe are richly unpacked. Ultimate Marvel is an ideal go-to resource for enthusiasts who wish to brush up on their Marvel knowledge, and for a new generation of fans eager to start delving into the world of Marvel comics. © 2017 MARVEL

Outsider musicians can be the product of damaged DNA, alien abduction, drug fry, demonic possession, or simply sheer obliviousness. This book profiles dozens of outsider musicians, both prominent and obscure—figures such as The Shaggs, Syd Barrett, Tiny Tim, Jandek, Captain Beefheart, Daniel Johnston, Harry Partch, and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy—and presents their strange life stories along with photographs, interviews, cartoons, and discographies. About the only things these self-taught artists have in common are an utter lack of conventional tunefulness and an overabundance of earnestness and passion. But, believe it or not, they're worth listening to, often outmatching all contenders for inventiveness and originality. A CD featuring songs by artists profiled in the book is also available.

THE MISSING YEARS FROM THE GREATEST CRIME SAGA OF ALL TIME Thirty-five years ago, Mario Puzo’s great American tale, The Godfather, was published, and popular culture was indelibly changed. Now, in The Godfather Returns, acclaimed novelist Mark Winegardner continues the story–the years not covered in Puzo’s bestselling book or in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic films. It is 1955. Michael Corleone has won a bloody victory in the war among New York’s crime families. Now he wants to consolidate his power, save his marriage, and take his family into legitimate businesses. To do so, he must confront his most dangerous adversary yet, Nick Geraci, a former boxer who worked his way through law school as a Corleone street enforcer, and who is every bit as deadly and cunning as Michael. Their personal cold war will run from 1955 to 1962, exerting immense influence on the lives of America’s most powerful criminals and their loved ones, including Tom Hagen, the Corleone Family’s lawyer and consigliere, who embarks on a political career in Nevada while trying to protect his brother; Francesca Corleone, daughter of Michael’s late brother Sonny, who is suddenly learning her family’s true history and faces a difficult choice; Don Louie Russo, head of the Chicago mob, who plays dumb but has wily ambitions for muscling in on the Corleones’ territory; Peter Clemenza, the stalwart Corleone underboss, who knows more Family secrets than almost anyone; Ambassador M. Corbett Shea, a former Prohibition-era bootlegger and business ally of the Corleones’, who wants to get his son elected to the presidency–and needs some help from his old friends; Johnny Fontane, the world’s greatest saloon singer, who ascends to new heights as a recording artist, cozying up to Washington’s power elite and maintaining a precarious relationship with notorious underworld figures; Kay Adams Corleone, who finally discovers the truth about her husband, Michael–and must decide what it means for their marriage and their children and Fredo Corleone, whose death has never been fully explained until now, and whose betrayal of the Family was part of a larger and more sinister chain of events. Sweeping from New York and Washington to Las Vegas and Cuba, The Godfather Returns is the spellbinding story of America’s criminal underworld at mid-century and its intersection with the political, legal, and entertainment empires. Mark Winegardner brings an original voice and vision to Mario Puzo’s mythic characters while creating several equally unforgettable characters of his own. The Godfather Returns stands on its own as a triumph–in a tale about what we love, yearn for, and sometimes have reason to fear . . . family.

This book presents a new model, the competency framework, for students, innovators, entrepreneurs, managers, and anyone who wants to better understand the dynamic world of innovation and entrepreneurship. Focused on both the individual and strategic organizational level, this book is about people and the competencies each person needs to learn to be successful in creating a more dynamic future. Matthews and Brueggemann’s framework for innovation and entrepreneurship competencies empowers individuals to excel at innovation and new venture creation. It provides a practical guide and clear and concise understanding of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experiences that are needed to increase imagination, creativity, innovation and new venture creation capability. Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be attractive for students of entrepreneurship, innovation, management and cross-disciplinary classes, such as design thinking. Presented in a modular format, Innovation & Entrepreneurship informs the future direction of people and technology, as well as the educational systems producing the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. Based on extensive academic research, this book is organized into two sections: Twelve innovation elements and twelve competency categories. The elements are the foundation and the competency categories are the building blocks that inform our path toward a more precise understanding of how innovation and entrepreneurship plays an important role in economic development and our daily lives.

Adding some 20 percent to the original content, this is a completely updated edition of Steven Weisenburger's indispensable guide to Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Weisenburger takes the reader page by page, often line by line, through the welter of historical references, scientific data, cultural fragments, anthropological research, jokes, and puns around which Pynchon wove his story. Weisenburger fully annotates Pynchon's use of languages ranging from Russian and Hebrew to such subdialects of English as 1940s street talk, drug lingo, and military slang as well as the more obscure terminology of black magic, Rosicrucianism, and Pavlovian psychology. The Companion also reveals the underlying organization of Gravity's Rainbow--how the book's myriad references form patterns of meaning and structure that have eluded both admirers and critics of the novel. The Companion is keyed to the pages of the principal American editions of Gravity's Rainbow: Viking/Penguin (1973), Bantam (1974), and the special, repaginated Penguin paperback (2000) honoring the novel as one of twenty "Great Books of the Twentieth Century."

Lighthearted, quirky, and upbeat, this book explores the portrayal of science and technology on both the big and little screen -- and how Hollywood is actually doing a better job of getting it right than ever before. Grounded in the real-word, and often cutting-edge, science and technology that inspires fictional science, the authors survey Hollywood depictions of topics such as quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and alien worlds. Including material from interviews with over two dozen writers, producers, and directors of acclaimed science-themed productions -- as well as scientists, science fiction authors, and science advisors -- Hollyweird Science examines screen science fiction from the sometimes-conflicting vantage points of storytellers, researchers, and viewers. Including a foreword by Eureka co-creator and executive producer Jaime Paglia, and an afterword by astronomer and science fiction author Michael Brotherton, Ph.D., this book is accessible to all readers from the layperson to the armchair expert to the professional scientist, and will delight all of them equally.

Venture into the treacherous Canadian wilderness alongside the legendary Doc Savage and his captivating cousin Pat Savage, as they embark on a perilous quest. In the wake of their uncle Alex's tragic demise, they are determined to unearth the truth behind his murder. Their path intertwines with a cryptic ivory cube, a haunting werewolf symbol that signifies impending doom, and the elusive treasure of the notorious pirate Henry Morgan. As the stakes rise, Doc Savage's ingenuity and Pat Savage's unwavering spirit combine in a high-stakes adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.