Other books that might interest you

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  Walter Isaacson: Einstein

  PBS NewsHour

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  In Einstein: His Life and Universe, biographer Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, rebellious, struggling patent clerk became the father of the Special Theory of Relativity and one of the most world renowned physicists. In this interview, Isaacson discusses why he decided to write about Einstein, the scientist's creativity and practicality, his personality, and more.

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  All for a Few Perfect Waves -...

  David Rensin

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  A Los Angeles Times bestseller, David Rensin’s biography reveals the audacious life and legend of rebel surfer Miki Dora. 
   
  “The most complete portrait of Dora ever painted, but also a solid recounting of surfing’s original boom years and a thin, peculiar slice of Americana in the late 1950s and early 60s . . . All for a Few Perfect Waves is much more than just another day at the beach.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review 
   
  For twenty years, Miki “Da Cat” Dora was the king of Malibu surfers—a dashing, enigmatic rebel who dominated the waves, ruled his peers’ imaginations, and who still inspires the fantasies of wannabes to this day. And yet, Dora railed against surfing’s sudden post-Gidget popularity and the overcrowding of his once empty waves, even after this avid sportsman, iconoclast, and scammer of wide repute ran afoul of the law and led the FBI on a remarkable seven-year chase around the globe in 1974. The New York Times named him “the most renegade spirit the sport has yet to produce” and Vanity Fair called him “a dark prince of the beach.”  
   
  To fully capture Dora’s never-before-told story, David Rensin spent four years interviewing hundreds of Dora’s friends, enemies, family members, lovers, and fellow surfers to uncover the untold truth about surfing’s most outrageous practitioner, charismatic antihero, committed loner, and enduring mystery. 
   
  “Miki took to his grave many stories that no one will ever know, but this book will also tell many and give new insight into his life.” —Kelly Slater, best-known surfer in the world

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  Trippin' Through the Oil Patch:...

  Gayle Raymond Lain

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  Each chapter of "Trippin' through the Oil Patch" is a story all by itself. But each story links with the next, as the book reveals the life of transient laborers in the Rocky Mountain oil fields during the 1940s and 50s. While war mounted and raged in Europe and the Pacific, oil field kids moved with their dads and moms to one oil patch and trailer camp after another, chasing black gold to fuel a nation at war. With each story, the narrator, Raymond, moves closer to the end of his oil field days, when, at the age of twelve, his dad is killed in an oil rig explosion. In Trippin', Gayle, whose childhood is the basis of this memoir, says, "I was afraid that I would forget my father. I would never speak with him again. I would never hear his voice. With these stories, I could keep talking with my dad. I could hold on to his presence until I could walk on alone. His stories saved me."

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  Sam Jonah And The Remaking of...

  A.A. Taylor

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  Sam Jonah and the remaking of Ashanti recounts the inspirational life of one of Africa's most prominent black businessmen. From working underground as a shovel boy to his appointment as the CEO of the trailblazing African gold mining company, Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, Sam Jonah's determination to surmount every obstacle in a career strewn with hurdles makes for compelling reading. 
  Frenzied deals, boardroom cliffhangers, political scandal and private battles punctuate this unique account of the challenges of conducting 'First World' business in the 'Third World'. Through Jonah's corporate leadership we explore the paradox that a continent so richly endowed with gold and other minerals should find itself in such dire poverty. It is a hopeful story about breaking the confines of one's circumstances, not just for Africans but for individuals the world over.

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  Dottir - My Journey to Becoming...

  Katrin Davidsdottir, Rory McKernan

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  This is a memoir written and read by two-time CrossFit Games champion, Katrin Davidsdottir. 
  Dottir is two-time consecutive CrossFit Games Champion Katrin Davidsdottir's inspiring and poignant memoir. As one of only two women in history to have won the title of "Fittest Woman on Earth" twice, Davidsdottir knows all about the importance of mental and physical strength. She won the title in 2015, backing it up with a second win in 2016, after starting CrossFit in just 2011. 
  A gymnast as a youth, Davidsdottir wanted to try new challenges and found a love of CrossFit. But it hasn't been a smooth rise to the top. In 2014, just one year before taking home the gold, she didn't qualify for the Games. She used that loss as motivation and fuel for training harder and smarter for the 2015 Games. She pushed herself and refocused her mental game. Her hard work and perseverance paid off with her return to the Games and subsequent victories in 2015 and 2016.  
  In Dottir, Davidsdottir shares her journey with listeners. She details her focus on training, goal setting, nutrition, and mental toughness.Foreword by Ben Bergeron.

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  The Draw - A Memoir

  Lee Siegel

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  A young boy's awakening to the conflict between innate gifts and social class is at the center of this searing memoir about the unforgiving sovereignty of money  
  Hoping to make a killing in New Jersey real estate, the author's father, Monroe Siegel, takes a draw from his employer against unearned commission. When the recession hits in the 1970s, Monroe finds himself owing a small fortune to his firm. He sinks toward divorce and bankruptcy, while Lola, Lee's mother, suffers a nervous breakdown that turns her into a different person. Shamed and enraged by his father's fate, Lee grows up wondering what society owes a person who has failed materially but preserved his humanity. "Other men got rewarded for their cold-heartedness, and often for their dishonesty, while he, Monroe Siegel, who had never hurt anyone, had to groan and stumble through life. Did not kindness deserve an income?"  
  As a teen, Lee tries to make a different life for himself. He goes to a private college in the Midwest, is forced to leave due to his father's bankruptcy, and returns to New Jersey to work a series of menial jobs. He enrolls at a state college and then drops out to seek a better existence abroad, only to return to the United States in debt and in despair. Suddenly, a promising new life opens to him. At a price. The Draw touches on fundamental questions: How do we balance our obligations to ourselves with our obligations to others? What do we owe society when its rules have a legal basis but not a moral one? Written with startling candor and psychological acuity, Lee Siegel's The Draw is for anyone who has ever struggled with money, or who has tried to break through the barriers of family and class.

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