Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Now reading...

"A Life Well Played: My Stories" by Arnold Palmer


From BarnesandNoble.com:

This book is Palmer’s parting gift to the world — a treasure trove of entertaining anecdotes and timeless wisdom that readers, golfers and non-golfers alike, will celebrate and cherish. No one has won more fans around the world and no player has had a bigger impact on the sport of golf than Arnold Palmer. In fact, Palmer is considered by many to be the most important professional golfer in history, an American icon.

In A Life Well Played, Palmer takes stock of the many experiences of his life, bringing new details and insights to some familiar stories and sharing new ones. This book is for Arnie's Army and all golf fans but it is more than just a golf book; Palmer had tremendous success off the course as well and is most notable for his exemplary sportsmanship and business success, while always giving back to the fans who made it all possible. Gracious, fair, and a true gentleman, "Arnie" was the gold standard of how to conduct yourself in your career, life, and relationships. Perfect for men and women of all ages, his final book offers advice and guidance, sharing personal stories of his career on the course, success in business, and the great relationships that gave meaning to his life.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Now reading...

"The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective" by Carl Sagan


From BarnesandNoble.com:

In 1973, Carl Sagan published The Cosmic Connection, a daring view of the universe, which rapidly became a classic work of popular science and inspired a generation of scientists and enthusiasts. In Sagan's typically lucid and lyrical style, he discusses many topics from astrophysics and solar system science, to colonization, terraforming and the search for extraterrestrials. Sagan conveys his own excitement and wonder, and relates the revelations of astronomy to the most profound human problems and concerns: issues that are just as valid today as they were thirty years ago. New to this edition are Freeman Dyson's comments on Sagan's vision and the importance of the work, Ann Druyan's assessment of Sagan's cultural significance as a champion of science, and David Morrison's discussion of the advances made since 1973 and what became of Sagan's predictions. Who knows what wonders this third millennium will reveal, but one thing is certain: Carl Sagan played a unique role in preparing us for them.

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Now reading...

"Soldier of Light" by John de Lancie and Tom Cool


From BarnesandNoble.com:

It is the day after tomorrow, early in the next millenia, and all over the world people begin experiencing bizarre mental transformations. The majority of men and woman find their minds shutting down, but a handful develop astounding new psychic abilities. They are the adepts.

An ordinary family man. An autistic child. A beautiful Guatemalan revolutionary. A mysterious European traveler with vast ambitions and a secret agenda. As society breaks apart and new alliances form, these strangers become locked in a crucial battle to determine the future of a brave new world.

But more than human minds are at war here, for deep beneath the earth, an alien intelligence, dormant for thirty million years, is stirring once again, and sending its psychic tendrils into the minds of a vulnerable multitude. This inhuman entity has its own plans for the Earth, and they do not include Homo sapiens. Fighting amongst themselves, the adepts can scarcely imagine the awesome and ancient intelligence that will ultimately test a new breed of humanity.

Soldier Of Light is a profound and mind-warping exploration of the outer limits of the mind's potential — written by innovative and always surprising personalities.

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Now reading...

"Confidential Source Ninety-Six: The Making of America's Preeminent Confidential Informant" by Roman Caribe and Robert Cea


From BarnesandNoble.com:

A HARROWING JOURNEY INSIDE THE HIDDEN WORLD OF DRUG CARTELS BY ONE OF THE TOP CRIMINAL INFORMANTS IN U.S. LAW ENFORCEMENT HISTORY.

The men he put behind bars know him as Roman Caribe or one of the dozens of other aliases he has used undercover. His handlers in the DEA, ICE, and FBI know him as Confidential Source Ninety-Six, or C.S. 96, named for the year he confronted the sins of his life atop a massive drug distribution ring and flipped, becoming law enforcement's secret weapon.

In Confidential Source Ninety-Six, Caribe tells the extraordinary story of his transformation into America's most successful informant in terms of total narcotics seized--from the years of trafficking cocaine and marijuana across the U.S. for a terrifying drug lord, eventually becoming that man's number two, to his decision to defect and trade sides. In his first mission, Caribe set his sights on his onetime boss's brutal operation. In his next, he broke all protocol and made a daring foray into the notorious Fuentes Cartel, where he took down a family that was smuggling tons of drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border.

As Caribe launched his career as a confidential source, finding his faith and seeking to finally do right by his stoic wife, Inez, and his four children, his marriage became stressed in new ways, the risks to his family unimaginable if he made a single mistake on the job. He found himself looking over his shoulder every day, knowing that with each drug ring or kingpin he destroyed, he made another dangerous enemy. For as long as he continued the high stakes work, he would survive on the cunning of his tradecraft and his ability to improvise in the most terrifying circumstances.

Unfolding in Southern California mansions, makeshift DEA trailers deep in the redwood forest, drug fronts in Spanish Harlem, fast-food parking lots where kilograms of cocaine and heroin change hands, and around the dinner table where Caribe began mentoring at-risk youth to help them avoid the mistakes he made, Confidential Source Ninety-Six is the epic saga of one man's quest to redeem himself and a thrilling look at the law enforcement battle that rages in the shadows of our nation.

Monday, January 1, 2024

Now reading...

"Yes, My Accent Is Real: And Some Other Things I Haven't Told You" by Kunal Nayyar


From BarnesandNoble.com:

Of all the charming misfits on television, there’s no doubt Raj from The Big Bang Theory—the sincere yet incurably geeky Indian astrophysicist—ranks among the misfittingest. Now, we meet the actor who is every bit as loveable as the character he plays on TV. In this revealing collection of essays written in his irreverent, hilarious, and self-deprecating voice, Kunal Nayyar traces his journey from a little boy in New Delhi who mistakes an awkward first kiss for a sacred commitment, gets nosebleeds chugging Coca-Cola to impress other students, and excels in the sport of badminton, to the confident, successful actor on the set of TV’s most-watched sitcom since Friends.

Going behind the scenes of The Big Bang Theory and into his personal experiences, Kunal introduces readers to the people who helped him grow, such as his James Bond-loving, mustachioed father. Kunal also walks us through his college years in Portland, where he takes his first sips of alcohol and learns to let loose with his French, 6’8” gentle-giant roommate, works his first-ever job for the university’s housekeeping department cleaning toilets for minimum wage, and begins a series of romantic exploits that go just about as well as they would for Raj. (That is, until he meets and marries a former Miss India in an elaborate seven-day event that we get to experience in a chapter titled “My Big Fat Indian Wedding.”)

Full of heart, but never taking itself too seriously, this witty collection of underdog tales follows a young man as he traverses two continents in search of a dream, along the way transcending culture and language (and many, many embarrassing incidents) to somehow miraculously land the role of a lifetime.