The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?

Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.

The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. T...

With its glistening beaches, laidback Southern charm, and enticing Gullah tradition, Folly Beach has long been one of South Carolina’s most historic and romantic spots. It is the land of Cate Cooper’s childhood, the place where all the ghosts of her past roam freely. Cate never thought she’d return to the beach house named for this lovely strip of coast. But circumstances have changed, thanks to her newly dead husband, whose financial—and emotional—perfidy has left Cate homeless and broke.

Yet Folly Beach holds more than just memories. Once upon a time another woman found unexpected comfort within its welcoming arms. An artist, writer, and sometime colleague of the revered George Gershwin, Dorothy Heyward enjoyed the greatest moments of her life at Folly with her beloved husband, DuBose. And though the Heywards are long gone, their passion and spirit linger in every sunset and ocean breeze.

And for Cate, Folly holds the promise of unexpected fulfillment . . . of the woman she’s always wanted—and is finally ready—to become.

Biographies & Memoirs | Memoirs
Biographies & Memoirs | Family & Childhood

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever. Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home. What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

Mystery & Thrillers | Thriller
Cryptographers; Freemasonry; Robert Langdon (fictitious character)

In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world’s most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol  is a masterstroke of storytelling--a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown’s most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol  accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.

The setting for Brown’s thriller is not some far-off exotic locale, but right here in our own backyard: Washington, D.C.  The story is steeped in Masonic history that, once revealed, points to a dark, ancient conspiracy that threatens not only America but the world itself. As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned by his old mentor, Peter Solomon--a prominent Mason and philanthropist--to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. But when Langdon arrives for his lecture, instead of an audience, he finds Peter's severed hand mounted on a wooden base, fingers pointing skyward to the Rotunda ceiling fresco of George Washington dressed in white robes, ascending to heaven. A villain known as Mal'akh, a steroid-swollen, tattooed, muscle-bodied madman, has kidnapped Peter--and promises to kill him--if Langdon doesn't agree to help find a secret portal through which he will discover the wisdom known as the Ancient Mysteries, or the lost wisdom of the ages. Mal'akh wants to locate the wisdom so he can rule the world. Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. As Langdon follows clues, he is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations--all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth. Peter's younger sister, Kathleen, joins Langdon in his search. There’s a deadly chase that ensues back and forth, across, above, and below the nation's capital, as Kathleen and Langdon dart from revelation to revelation, pausing only to explain some piece of wondrous, historical items. As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code  and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown’s novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn.  The Lost Symbol  is exactly what Brown’s fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet.

Seventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to leftfield. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Starting that day, the vaunted Yankee centerfielder kept on hitting-at least one hit in game after game after game. In the summer of 1941, as Nazi forces moved relentlessly across Europe and young American men were drafted by the millions, it seemed only a matter of time before the U.S. went to war. The nation was apprehensive. Yet for two months in that tense summer, America was captivated by DiMaggio's astonishing hitting streak. In 56, Kostya Kennedy tells the remarkable story of how the streak found its way into countless lives, from the Italian kitchens of Newark to the playgrounds of Queens to the San Francisco streets of North Beach; from the Oval Office of FDR to the Upper West Side apartment where Joe's first wife, Dorothy, the movie starlet, was expecting a child. In this crisp, evocative narrative Joe DiMaggio emerges in a previously unseen light, a 26-year-old on the cusp of becoming an icon. He comes alive-a driven ballplayer, a mercurial star and a conflicted husband-as the tension and the scrutiny upon him build with each passing day. DiMaggio's achievement lives on as the greatest of sports records. Alongside the story of DiMaggio's dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.

My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky."Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."

Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come.

The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.

Biographies & Memoirs | Memoirs
Health, Mind & Body | Relationships | Marriage

At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe--a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who had been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous bad divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government, when Felipe was unexpectedly detained at an American border crossing. The couple was given a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying with all her might to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. Told with Gilbert's trademark wit, intelligence and compassion, Committed attempts to turn on all the lights when it comes to matrimony, frankly examining questions of compatibility, infatuation, fidelity, family tradition, social expectations, divorce risks and humbling responsibilities. Gilbert's memoir is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.

Biographies & Memoirs | Memoirs | Personal Memoirs
Biographies & Memoirs | Humanitarians
Asia; Pakistan; Afghanistan; Girl's Schools; Humanitarian assistance from Americans

This is the astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard.

Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea  combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

Greg Mortenson was born Dec. 27, 1957 to Lutheran missionary parents in St. Cloud, Minnesota (USA).  Through the leadership of the Lutheran Church, Mortenson's father was a fundraiser for and development director of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Tanzania's first teaching hospital. Mortenson's mother was the founding principal of International School Moshi. Greg spent his early childhood and adolescence in Tanzania, East Africa, where he learned to speak Swahili fluently.  In the early 1970s, when Greg was 15 years old, the family left Tanzania and moved back to Minnesota. Greg attended high school in Roseville, Minnesota, and after high school served in the United States Army in Germany from 1975 to 1977 as a Medic and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Following his discharge, Greg attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota from 1977 to 1979 on an athletic (football) scholarship. Greg graduated from the Univ. of South Dakota in 1993 with a Bachelor’s Degree in liberal studies and an associate's degree in nursing. Greg is co-founder and executive director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute as well as the founder of the educational charity Pennies for Peace. He is co-author of  Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time  which remained on the New York Times non-fiction best seller list for four years.  He also is author of Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This is by far the best thing I've ever read about negotiation. It is equally relevant for the individual who would like to keep his friends, property, and income and the statesman who would like to keep the peace. --John Kenneth Galbraith.

Mystery & Thrillers | Mystery & Detective
Mystery & Thrillers | Police Procedurals
Eve Dallas (fictitious character); Policewomen; Women Sleuths

Yet another great book in the In Death Series from best-selling author J.D. Robb*.  This time, Eve Dallas tracks down those who break the law-including the ones sworn to uphold it.

Detective Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, are following up on a senseless crime-an elderly grocery owner killed by three stoned punks for nothing more than kicks and snacks. This is Peabody's first case as primary detective. Good thing she learned from the master. But Peabody soon stumbles upon a trickier situation. After a hard workout, she is all alone in the locker room when the gym door clatters open. She hides inside a shower stall, trying not to make a sound, and overhears two fellow officers, Garnet and Oberman, arguing. It doesn't take long to realize that both Garnet and Oberman are crooked, and guilty not just of corruption but murder. Now Peabody, Eve, and Eve's husband, Roarke, are trying to get the hard evidence they need to bring the dirty cops down, knowing all the while that the two are willing to kill to keep their secret. . .

* J. D. Robb is the pseudonym for a number-one New York Times-bestselling author of more than 170 novels. More than 300 million copies of her books are in print.

Health, Mind & Body | Women's Health
Parenting & Families | Pregnancy & Childbirth

This Mayo Clinic book on pregnancy provides you with practical information and reassurance on pregnancy and childbirth. Compiled by Mayo Clinic experts in obstetrics, it offers a clear, thorough and reliable reference for this exciting and sometimes unpredictable journey. This comprehensive book includes:

• A month-by-month look at mom and baby
• In-depth "Decision Guides" to help you make informed decisions on topics such as how to select a health care provider, prenatal testing options, pain relief for childbirth, and many others
• An easy-to-use reference guide that covers topics such as morning sickness, heartburn, back pain, headaches and yeast infections, among others
• Information on pregnancy health concerns, including preterm labor, gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, along with an overview on being pregnant when you have pre-existing health conditions such as asthma, diabetes or hyperthyroidism

CATEGORIES & SUBJECTS:

• Literature & Fiction | United States
• City and town life | United States
• Minnesota (midwest United States)
• Husbands and wives; domestic fiction; middle class families

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the ‘Whole Foods Generation’. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor; she could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter’s dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world. But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—an unconventional, eccentric and bizare rocker, and Walter’s college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become “a very different kind of neighbor,” an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street’s attentive eyes?  Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage.  Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen gives an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time. 

Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Weisel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in the substantive new preface, Elie Wiesel reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man capacity for inhumanity to man.

Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.