You Get What You Get

Melvin learns how to deal with disappointment.

Sometimes you get what you want. Sometimes you don’t. This is a book about those times.

After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, a professor shares the lessons he's learned—about living in the present, building a legacy, and taking full advantage of the time you have—in this life-changing classic. "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." —Randy Pausch A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull over the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy? When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave—"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"—wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have . . . and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

Lorain has been a prisoner of her secrets for almost her entire life. At the age of thirteen, she managed to keep her pregnancy a secret, discarding the infant and leaving it for dead. Years later, Lorain’s mother finally met the love of her life, and Lorain couldn’t find the courage to tell her mother that her new beau was the man who molested Lorain and impregnated her. Now, to complicate matters, Lorain discovers that the baby she abandoned all those years ago survived, and God has placed Lorain in her now adult child’s life. It seems like the legacy of secrets has been passed on, too, as Lorain helps her daughter conceal the true details behind one of her own pregnancies. Lorain has managed to maneuver the secrets and lies like pieces in a strategic game of chess and is now living the lavish, fairy-tale life of a doctor’s wife. But even that is a lie. With the rug about to be pulled out from under Lorain by the woman who raised her abandoned child, all Lorain prays for is that everything will end well. In this cycle of lies, secrets, shame, and guilt, will Lorain get what she prays for?

Tony unearths a corruption scandal linking the mafia to the inner circle of the president himselfIn New York, some tenants will do anything to land a rent-controlled apartment. Tony Cassella is investigating one such tenant—a man who’s defrauding his building owner. The case is interesting, but something even better is about to drop in the private investigator’s lap. Cassella has just landed a real estate case that could bring down the right hand man of the president of the United States. Rumors are swirling that the freshly appointed US attorney general used mob muscle to evict tenants from apartments he owns in the Bronx. After one of the attorney general’s alleged mafia contacts dies in an ugly gangland hit, Cassella finally has the thread tying the South Bronx real estate scam to Washington. But his search for the truth will land him squarely in the mob’s cross hairs—a deadly reminder of the evil some men will do to squeeze money from choice property. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Larry Beinhart including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

Millions of people struggle with questions about how to pray, what to pray for, and even whether to pray at all. Nancy Jo Sullivan and Jane Kise help people get away from the magic formula mentality of prayer and recognize how God is at work in their lives. With explorative retellings of relevant Bible stories, true accounts of people's prayer experiences, and reflections by the authors, this book will lead people past the topic of prayer and straight to the God who is listening. Well, did you get what you prayed for? Or are you weary of waiting for answers? Wondering if God is even listening? You’re not alone. Millions of people grapple with knowing how to pray, asking: Have I used the right words? Do I even deserve an answer? Why would God listen to me? Yet the essence of prayer is not a formula, but a relationship with God. Renew your hope and refresh your prayer life through these inspiring, true stories. Meet people who discovered that God indeed hears, cares about the details, and gives you exactly what you need. Encouraging. Relevant. Uplifting!

TV's most popular pitchman reveals the secrets of pitching to get what you want in virtually any situation. Anthony "Sully" Sullivan went from selling car washers in rainy Welsh street markets to selling to audiences of millions around the world as the face of OxiClean. How did he do it? Convincing people to give you what you want is an art form that takes charisma and confidence. But no great pitchman achieves success based on those qualities alone. The good ones make themselves great with practice and discipline, mastering a series of skills that Sullivan dubs the ten "Pitch Powers." These are essential techniques he's learned in more than twenty-five years "on the joint" (that's pitchman-speak for the area where you're selling). For the first time ever, Sullivan reveals the secrets behind his seemingly superhuman ability to persuade others--even if they start out regarding you with suspicion or even hostility. Do it right and you'll change minds, open doors, get opportunities, turn adversaries into allies, make more money, and gain the kind of confidence that makes other people want to know you. From the first Pitch Power ("Know Your Acceptable Outcomes") to the last ("Finish with Confidence")--with invaluable strategies along the way on using your flubs to get a laugh, how to deal with push-back, and more--Sullivan reveals that pitching is all about engaging a person face-to-face and eye-to-eye so they feel like you're speaking directly to them, even if there are fifty other people in the room. It's turning a crowd of strangers with their arms folded into a legion of fans ready to say "yes" enthusiastically to whatever you propose, what Anthony Sullivan calls fierce agreement. It's the power to get the job, get the girl (or guy), get the part, make money, get better service, advance your career--do just about anything you want to do.

The award-winning author of Magical Negro traces the difficulty and beauty of existing as a Black woman through American history, from the foundational trauma of the slave trade all the way up to Serena Williams and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina “An engrossing journey through Parker’s expansive and gifted mind.”—Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed Dubbed a voice of her generation, poet and writer Morgan Parker has spent much of her adulthood in therapy, trying to square the resonance of her writing with the alienation she feels in nearly every aspect of life, from her lifelong singleness to a battle with depression. She traces this loneliness to an inability to feel truly safe with others and a historic hyperawareness stemming from the effects of slavery. In a collection of essays as intimate as being in the room with Parker and her therapist, Parker examines America’s cultural history and relationship to Black Americans through the ages. She touches on such topics as the ubiquity of beauty standards that exclude Black women, the implications of Bill Cosby’s fall from grace in a culture predicated on acceptance through respectability, and the pitfalls of visibility as seen through the mischaracterizations of Serena Williams as alternately iconic and too ambitious. With piercing wit and incisive observations, You Get What You Pay For is ultimately a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness and its effects on mental well-being in America today. Weaving unflinching criticism with intimate anecdotes, this devastating memoir-in-essays paints a portrait of one Black woman’s psyche—and of the writer’s search to both tell the truth and deconstruct it.