Me And Big Joe

Vehicle-obsessed boys and girls can follow Big Joe through a typical day’s work in his giant trailer truck. Detail-packed full-color illustrations will fascinate readers—especially the final two-page spread, which labels every working part of a tractor-trailer rig.

A Rolling Stone Best Music Book of 2019, this biography of blues-rock legend Mike Bloomfield “draws you in the way a novel does” (The Wall Street Journal). Named one of the world’s great blues-rock guitarists by Rolling Stone, Mike Bloomfield remains beloved by fans forty years after his untimely death. Taking readers backstage, onstage, and into the recording studio with this legendary virtuoso, David Dann tells the riveting stories behind Bloomfield’s work in the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the mesmerizing Electric Flag, as well as on the Super Session album with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and soundtrack work with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. Drawing from meticulous research, including more than seventy interviews with the musician’s friends, relatives, and band members, music historian David Dann brings to life Bloomfield’s worlds, from his struggles to fit in on Chicago’s wealthy North Shore with his Jewish family to the gritty taverns and raucous nightclubs where this self-taught guitarist helped transform the sound of contemporary blues and rock music. With scenes that are as electrifying as Bloomfield’s solos, this is the story of a life lived at full volume. “Feels like one of the last great untold classic-rock tales, right up through Bloomfield’s mysterious passing.” ―Rolling Stone “Reveals the depths of Bloomfield's musical passions, genius and personal despair . . . Guitar King establishes his pivotal role in American music history.” ―Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The amazing story of Irish boxer Joe Egan who, as a teenager, Joe was invited to train and live at Mike Tyson's training camp with the late Cus D'Amato. Mike and Joe have remained good friends to this day. Joe speaks candidly about his rocky love life, of his failed professional ventures and of his brushes with the law.

Build an iconic shopping experience that your customers love—and a work environment that your employees love being a part of—using this blueprint from Trader Joe’s visionary founder, Joe Coulombe. Infuse your organization with a distinct personality and culture that draws customers in a way that simply competing on price cannot. Joe Coulombe founded what would become Trader Joe’s in the late 1960s and helped shape it into the beloved, quirky food chain it is today. Realizing early on that he could not compete and win by playing the same game his bigger competitors were playing, he decided to build a store for educated people of somewhat modest means. He brought in unusual products from around the world and promoted them in the Fearless Flyer, providing customers with background on how they were sourced and their nutritional value. He also gave the stores a tiki theme to reinforce the exotic trader ship concept with employees wearing Hawaiian shirts. In this way, Joe laid down a blueprint for other business owners to follow to build their own unique shopping experience that customers love, and a work environment that employees love being a part of. In Becoming Trader Joe, Joe shares the lessons he learned by challenging the status quo and rethinking the way a business operates. He shows readers of all types: How moving from a pure analytical approach to a more creative, problem-solving approach can drive innovation. How finding an affluent niche of passionate customers can be a better strategy than competing on price and volume. How questioning all aspects of the way you do business leads to powerful results. How to build a business around your values and identity.

The year is 1936. Charles "Lucky" Luciano is the most powerful gangster in America. Thomas E. Dewey is an ambitious young prosecutor hired to bring him down, and Cokey Flo Brown--grifter, heroin addict, and sometimes prostitute--is the witness who claims she can do it. Only a wily defense attorney named George Morton Levy stands between Lucky and a life behind bars, between Dewey and the New York governor's mansion. As the Roaring Twenties give way to the austere reality of the Great Depression, four lives, each on its own incandescent trajectory, intersect in a New York courtroom, introducing America to the violent and darkly glamorous world of organized crime and leaving our culture, laws, and politics forever changed. Based on a trove of newly discovered documents, Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo) tells the true story of a singular trial in American history: an epic clash between a crime-busting district attorney and an all-powerful mob boss who, in the crucible of a Manhattan courtroom, battle for the heart and soul of a dispirited nation. Blending elements of political thriller, courtroom drama, and hard-boiled pulp, author C. Joseph Greaves introduces readers to the likes of Al Capone, Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel while taking readers behind the scenes of a corrupt criminal justice system in which sinners may be saints and heroes may prove to be the biggest villains of all.

Private Peaceful relives the life of Private Tommo Peaceful, a young First World War soldier awaiting the firing squad at dawn. During the night he looks back at his short but joyful past growing up in rural Devon: his exciting first days at school; the accident in the forest that killed his father; his adventures with Molly, the love of his life; and the battles and injustices of war that brought him to the front line. Winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year, Private Peaceful is by the third Children's Laureate, Michael Morpurgo, award-winning author of War Horse. His inspiration came from a visit to Ypres where he was shocked to discover how many young soldiers were court-martialled and shot for cowardice during the First World War. This edition also includes introductory essays by Michael Morpurgo, Associate Director of Private Peaceful production Mark Leipacher, as well as an essay from Simon Reade, adaptor & director of this stage adaptation of Private Peaceful.

Gordy and his family live in Detroit, Michigan, the heart of the United States automobile industry. Every night after coming home from work at one of the plants, Gordy's father teaches him how to box. Their hero is the famous American boxer Joe Louis, who grew up in Detroit. But the Great Depression has come down hard on the economy. Detroit's auto industry is affected and thousands of people lose their jobs, including Gordy's father. When his mother takes on work with a Jewish tailor, Gordy becomes friends with Ira, the tailor's son, bonding over their shared interest in boxing and Joe Louis. As the boys' friendship grows, Gordy feels protective of Ira, wanting to help the new boy fit in. At the same time, America is gearing up for the rematch between Joe Louis and the German boxer, Max Schmeling. For many Americans this fight is about good versus evil (US against Nazi Germany). Against the backdrop of the 1938 Fight of the Century, a young boy learns what it means to make a stand for a friend.