The Big If

Johnny Owen, the Matchstick Man from Wales, and Lupe Pintor, El Indio from Mexico, met for less than 60 minutes on September 19, 1980. It was Owen's chance to become the world bantam-weight champion, but the Matchstick Man was knocked out in the 12th round, spending 46 days in a coma before he died. The parallel lives of Owen and Pintor form the heart of this incredible story. Extensive interviews with the Owen and Pintor families have resulted in a moving, visceral book that resonates well beyond the boxing ring. Bonded by a shared dream, this story charts the lives of two boxers and two families, and reveals how, 20 years later, Owen's grieving father was reunited with the man who killed his son. Despite its running theme of loss, the tale of these two fighters is ultimately an uplifting story of forgiveness, and how the human spirit can overcome the most terrible troubles.

The Big IF By: B. L. Buehler The Big IF pertains to a righteous relationship with God in the light of truth and reality. Having served the Lord for 30 years at his own expense, B. L. Buehler was anointed to write the book for the spiritual edification of others. The emphasis of The Big IF is upon God first and foremost, sincere and devotional faith, truth, discipline, and reverence for the Lord. Buehler’s experiences, failures, and devotion unto the Lord, and the truth of the spiritual relational reality, which is all about the Lord, are all depicted in the pages within.

Mark Costello's kaleidoscopic novel weaves together the stories of three people who multiply when their chief, Felker, realizes that he is better at planning attacks than foiling them, and disappears. While the team struggles to protect the V.P. and discover the whereabouts of their most dangerous threat, they must also contend with their unravelling personal lives. With Felker on the loose, the election just days away and family traumas abounding Costello seamlessly interlaces the team's burgeoning troubles. Big If juggles assassination threats with school runs and political victories with growing personal crises. It is a gripping, giddying, utterly original novel that will exhilarate and unnerve its readers in equal measure.

A scary, funny novel—a riff on recent history and the American obsession with assassination. It's winter in New Hampshire, the economy is booming, the vice president is running for president, and his Secret Service people are very, very tense. Meet Vi Asplund, a young Secret Service agent mourning her dead father. She goes home to New Hampshire to see her brother Jens, a computer genius who just might be going mad—and is poised to make a fortune on Big If, a viciously nihilistic computer game aimed at teenagers. Vi's America, as she sees it in the crowds, in her brother, and in her fellow agents, is affluent, anxious, and abuzz with vague fantasies of violence. Through a gallery of vivid characters—heroic, ignoble, or desperate—Mark Costello's hilarious novel limns the strategies, both sound and absurd, that we conjure to survive in daily life.

In an elegant, two-color format, punctuated with intriguing drawings, If . . . poses hundreds of questions ranging from practical to maddening, moral to hilarious. If you could spend one whole night alone with anyone in history, whom would you choose? If you could suddenly possess an extraordinary talent in one of the arts, which would you like it to be? If you could commit one crime without being caught, what crime would you commit? If your plane were about to crash and you had time to write one quick note, to whom would you write, and what would you say? If you could run any single company, institution, or organization in the world, which would you choose? These are but a few of the five hundred provocative queries from If . . . (Questions for the Game of Life). If . . . can be a wonderful after-dinner parlor game; it can serve as an icebreaker between new acquaintances; it can even help you better understand yourself, your dreams and aspirations, and the mysteries of life. After the hours of inquisitive thoughts and revelations inspired by If . . . (Questions for the Game of Life), you'll wonder, “If I had never picked up this book, what would have happened to me?”

A New York Times business journalist explains why it’s important for people to pursue big creative projects, and identifies both the obstacles and the productive habits that emerge on the path to completion—including her own experience writing this book. Whether it’s the Great American Novel or a groundbreaking new app, many people want to create a Big Thing, but finding the motivation to get started, let alone complete the work, can be daunting. In The Big Thing, New York Times business writer and editor Phyllis Korkki combines real-life stories, science, and insights from her own experience to illuminate the factors that drive people to complete big creative projects—and the obstacles that threaten to derail success. In the course of creating her own Big Thing—this book—Korkki explores the individual and collaborative projects of others: from memoirs, art installations, and musical works to theater productions, small businesses, and charities. She identifies the main aspects of a Big Thing, including meaningful goals, focus and effort, the difficulties posed by the demands of everyday life, and the high risk of failure and disappointment. Korkki also breaks down components of the creative process and the characteristics that define it, and offers her thoughts on avoiding procrastination, staying motivated, scheduling a routine, and overcoming self-doubt and the restrictions of a day job. Filled with inspiring stories, practical advice, and a refreshing dose of honesty, The Big Thing doesn’t minimize the negative side of such pursuits—including the fact that big projects are hard to complete and raise difficult questions about one’s self-worth. Inspiring, wise, humorous, and good-natured, The Big Thing is a meditation on the importance of self-expression and purpose.

EC reprint series kicks off with war-story masterpieces from the legendary Harvey Kurtzman. The creation of MAD would have been enough to cement Harvey Kurtzman’s reputation as one of the titans of American comics, but Kurtzman also created two other comics landmarks: the scrupulously-researched and superbly-crafted war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. Here were finally war comics without heroic, cigar-chomping sergeants, wisecracking privates from Brooklyn, or cartoon Nazis and “Japs” to be mowed down by the Yank heroes, but an unflinching look at the horror and madness of combat throughout history.