Imagine you're a middle-aged man who just discovered that the "golden years" you've heard about aren't necessarily that "golden" after all-and, worse yet, aren't guaranteed. The sudden loss of both parents provided the author proof positive that life IS unfair. His personal countdown clock began ticking all the louder with both of his parents gone. The author suddenly understood the importance and the urgency of enjoying life all along the way. So what did he do with his new perspective on life? Buy a Ferrari? Run with the bulls? Start doing sit ups and wearing tight shirts in an attempt to look young again? No, he didn't. Your humble author re-prioritized his Bucket List by putting a decades long dream at the top-- riding a bicycle from one side of America to the other. Armed with a burning desire to ride a really long way on a bicycle, he mounted up and pedaled onward across the United States as a newly minted orphan. Along the way he met new people, saw new places, and discovered a hidden strength masked by his grief. He also discovered a nearly endless parade of characters that together underscored how terrific it is to be above ground and riding a bike. There is fun and adventure to be had when you're cruising across the country, and the daily dose of random was just what the doctor ordered. "Take two wheels and call me in the morning." Since the whole thing-the bike trip, life-is all just a tad absurd in the first place, why not name your bike The Fun Mover and write a book about the stars of the show--the people met along the way? Middle-aged guy gets off couch and rides bike in the face of pending death. Adventure and hilarity ensues. Bike travel can be grueling, physically and mentally. The loss of your parents can be devastating. And getting older ain't no picnic. But obstacles can be overcome and goals can be reached if you keep trying and just keep pedaling.

Imagine you're a middle-aged man who just discovered that the "golden years" you've heard about aren't necessarily that "golden" after all-and, worse yet, aren't guaranteed. The sudden loss of both parents provided the author proof positive that life IS unfair. His personal countdown clock began ticking all the louder with both of his parents gone. The author suddenly understood the importance and the urgency of enjoying life all along the way. So what did he do with his new perspective on life? Buy a Ferrari? Run with the bulls? Start doing sit ups and wearing tight shirts in an attempt to look young again? No, he didn't. Your humble author re-prioritized his Bucket List by putting a decades long dream at the top-- riding a bicycle from one side of America to the other. Armed with a burning desire to ride a really long way on a bicycle, he mounted up and pedaled onward across the United States as a newly minted orphan. Along the way he met new people, saw new places, and discovered a hidden strength masked by his grief. He also discovered a nearly endless parade of characters that together underscored how terrific it is to be above ground and riding a bike. There is fun and adventure to be had when you're cruising across the country, and the daily dose of random was just what the doctor ordered. "Take two wheels and call me in the morning." Since the whole thing-the bike trip, life-is all just a tad absurd in the first place, why not name your bike The Fun Mover and write a book about the stars of the show--the people met along the way? Middle-aged guy gets off couch and rides bike in the face of pending death. Adventure and hilarity ensues. Bike travel can be grueling, physically and mentally. The loss of your parents can be devastating. And getting older ain't no picnic. But obstacles can be overcome and goals can be reached if you keep trying and just keep pedaling.

“There’s nothing semi about Finn Murphy’s trucking tales of The Long Haul.”—Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair More than thirty years ago, Finn Murphy dropped out of college to become a long-haul trucker. Since then he’s covered more than a million miles as a mover, packing, loading, hauling people’s belongings all over America. In The Long Haul, Murphy recounts with wit, candor, and charm the America he has seen change over the decades and the poignant, funny, and often haunting stories of the people he encounters on the job.

Follow the adventures of Jacob Ashton as he sets off to travel the world by bicycle even though he'd never really cycle toured or even traveled much beforehand. As if just cycling around the world wasn't enough, he kicks off his journey by riding the Pan-American Highway southbound from his parents' house in Idaho, USA, in the dead of winter! Not only tackling severe weather, Jacob has to battle through language barriers, the loss of a finger, and his own general ignorance along the way. How far will he make it? Will he quit in the first few days? Well, he wrote a book so he must have done okay.Book One of a world tour by bicycle covering about 19,837 miles (31,925 km) in 21 countries.

How hard is it to move 5 legless pianos 39 times? Beethoven owned five legless pianos and composed great works on the floor. His first apartment was in the center of Vienna's theater district... but he forgot to pay rent, so he had to move. (And it's very hard to move a piano. Even harder to move five). Beethoven's next apartment was in a dangerous part of town... so he moved, and the pianos followed on a series of pulleys. Then came an apartment with a view of the Danube (but he made too much noise and the neighbors complained), followed by an attic apartment (where he made even MORE of a rukus), and so Beethoven moved again and again. Each time, pianos were bought, left behind, transported on pulleys, slides, and by movers, all so that gifted Beethoven could compose great works of music for the world.

CIRCUMSTANCES OFTENTIMES PREVENT US FROM LAUGHING IN THE MIDST OF THEM. THIS BOOK OF FICTION ALLOWS JUST THAT WITH THE HELP OF A CERTAIN CLAIMS DEPARTMENT AND THOSE WORKING IN IT.

In this extraordinary fantasy epic, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files leads readers into a world where the fate of the realm rests on the shoulders of a boy with no power to call his own... For a thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive and threatening races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the furies—elementals of earth, air, fire, water, wood, and metal. But in the remote Calderon Valley, the boy Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. Yet as the Alerans’ most savage enemy—the Marat horde—return to the Valley, Tavi’s courage and resourcefulness will be a power greater than any fury, one that could turn the tides of war...

Set in modern-day Quebec city, the story follows the fortunes of a certain James Wolfe, an 'actor' so dedicated to the portrayal of the last moments of his famous military and antecedent of the famous 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham, that he is willing to incorporate into his shaky personality several of the General's better and lesser known faults and foibles, not excluding severe hypochondria and more than a touch of paranoia. His work is assisted by his fabulously patient and loyal wife Helene, as well as by the wildly innovative, opera-loving psychiatrist Dr. Gunnar Boll, who was actually the actor's esteemed dentist before losing certain indispensible digits in a tragic goose-hunting accident caused by his dog, Walid Jumblatt. The Wolfe Chronicles is part history and part humor with a sharp salute to the philosophy of the absurd; and while set in Quebec, its themes are easily recognizable as universal.

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl's half-time show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That's how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humour, and originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as "The Big Bang": seeing Elvis Presley's debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candour, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song "Born to Run" reveals more than we previously realized.

NAMED ONE OF THE TOP 10 ROCK MEMOIRS OF ALL TIME BY ROLLING STONE From Chic to Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers is the creative force behind some of the biggest hits ever recorded. Here is the story of how global pop’s greatest genius transformed his own dramatic life into the brilliantly joyful playlist of a generation. You will hear a Nile Rodgers song today. It will make you happy. In the 1970s and 1980s, Nile Rodgers wrote and produced the songs that defined the era and everything that came after: “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” “We Are Family,” “Like a Virgin,” “Let’s Dance,” “I’m Coming Out,” “Rapper’s Delight”—and worked with every influential pop star to create a string of enduring hits, from Diana Ross and Madonna to Duran Duran and David Bowie. Even today, he is still musically relevant: writing and performing record-breaking hits like “Get Lucky” with Daft Punk and Pharrell. But before he reinvented pop music, Nile Rodgers invented himself. From jamming with Jimi Hendrix in a Greenwich Village haze to the decadence of the disco era to witnessing the birth of Madonna on the Danceteria dance floor, Le Freak traces one of the greatest musical journeys of our time. Praise for Le Freak “[An] amazing memoir . . . steeped in the incestuous energy of the times: Punk, funk and art rock mixed it up in the downtown clubs, where musicians partied together and shared ideas. . . . Le Freak has plenty of sex and drugs. But it’s the music that makes it essential. . . . Rodgers gave those dreams a beat—and helped invent pop as we know it today.”—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone “This book is an absolute knockout: exhilarating, warm, and courageous, deeply moving and deeply funny. Le Freak is as much about the greatness of life as it is about Nile Rodgers’s extraordinary musical journey. As Rodgers well knows, the best music is the stuff we feel, the stuff that speaks to us and won’t let go. Le Freak does all that and much more. This is truly one of the best books ever written about art, music, life, and the way we grow to be exactly who we are. Actually, one of the best books period.”—Cameron Crowe “A coming-of-age tale every bit as impressive as the musical insights and star-time chronicles that follow.”—The New York Times Book Review “Consistently entertaining . . . His legacy as a funk-rock visionary is assured, and his autobiography serves as further proof that disco does not suck.”—San Francisco Chronicle “An unforgettable, gripping book.”—The Sunday Times (UK) “Name a star and you can bet they’re in this book, playing or partying with Rodgers. But far from being a succession of name-dropping anecdotes, this autobiography is a wonderfully funny, moving and wise reflection upon the important things in life: the people you love and the things you create.”—The Sunday Telegraph (UK) “Rodgers’s page-turning memoir is packed with emotionally charged vignettes of a tumultuous childhood and equally dramatic adulthood that found him awash in cash, cars, and celebrities. . . . His storytelling skills propel the reader through the book, making the ending all the more jarring. Remarkable for its candor, this rags-to-riches story is on the year’s shortlist of celebrity memoirs.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)