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Steve Jobs Oct 24, 2011

$16.99

Walter Isaacson’s “enthralling” (The New Yorker) worldwide bestselling biography of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.

Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in 21st century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with the author, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

Steve Jobs is the inspiration for the movie of the same name starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

Leonardo da Vinci Oct 17, 2017

by Walter Isaacson

( 5,881 )

$14.99

The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker).

Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.

In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post).

Einstein: His Life and Universe Apr 10, 2007

by Walter Isaacson

( 3,298 )

$14.99

By the author of the acclaimed bestsellers Benjamin Franklin and Steve Jobs, this is the definitive biography of Albert Einstein.

How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson’s biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.

Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein, this book explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk—a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn’t get a teaching job or a doctorate—became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom, and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals.

These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution Oct 7, 2014

by Walter Isaacson

( 2,303 )

$13.99

Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed The Innovators is a “riveting, propulsive, and at times deeply moving” (The Atlantic) story of the people who created the computer and the internet.

What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?

The Innovators is a masterly saga of collaborative genius destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution—and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. Isaacson begins the adventure with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, and Larry Page.

This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so inventive. It’s also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative. For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity, and teamwork, The Innovators is “a sweeping and surprisingly tenderhearted history of the digital age” (The New York Times).

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson Nov 17, 2020

by Walter Isaacson, Jeff Bezos

( 1,921 )

$3.70

Upon release, Invent and Wander will be available on Kindle Unlimited.

In Jeff Bezos's own words, the core principles and philosophy that have guided him in creating, building, and leading Amazon and Blue Origin.

In this collection of Jeff Bezos's writings—his unique and strikingly original annual shareholder letters, plus numerous speeches and interviews that provide insight into his background, his work, and the evolution of his ideas—you'll gain an insider's view of the why and how of his success. Spanning a range of topics across business and public policy, from innovation and customer obsession to climate change and outer space, this book provides a rare glimpse into how Bezos thinks about the world and where the future might take us.

Written in a direct, down-to-earth style, Invent and Wander offers readers a master class in business values, strategy, and execution:

The importance of a Day 1 mindset
Why "it's all about the long term"
What it really means to be customer obsessed
How to start new businesses and create significant organic growth in an already successful company
Why culture is an imperative
How a willingness to fail is closely connected to innovation
What the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us

Each insight offers new ways of thinking through today's challenges—and more importantly, tomorrow's—and the never-ending urgency of striving ahead, never resting on one's laurels. Everyone from CEOs of the Fortune 100 to entrepreneurs just setting up shop to the millions who use Amazon's products and services in their homes or businesses will come to understand the principles that have driven the success of one of the most important innovators of our time.

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos is co-published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, and Harvard Business Review Press.

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made Feb 28, 2012

by Walter Isaacson, Evan Thomas

( 449 )

$12.99

With a new introduction by the authors, this is the classic account of the American statesmen who rebuilt the world after the catastrophe of World War II.

A captivating blend of personal biography and public drama, The Wise Men introduces six close friends who shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II.

They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic actions would bring order to the postwar chaos and leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day.

The Wise Men shares the stories of Averell Harriman, the freewheeling diplomat and Roosevelt’s special envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Dean Acheson, the secretary of state who was more responsible for the Truman Doctrine than Truman and for the Marshall Plan than General Marshall; George Kennan, self-cast outsider and intellectual darling of the Washington elite; Robert Lovett, assistant secretary of war, undersecretary of state, and secretary of defense throughout the formative years of the Cold War; John McCloy, one of the nation’s most influential private citizens; and Charles Bohlen, adroit diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Kissinger: A Biography May 21, 2013

by Walter Isaacson

( 262 )

$17.99

The definitive biography of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and how his ideas still resonate in the world today from the bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs.

By the time Henry Kissinger was made secretary of state in 1973, he had become, according to the Gallup Poll, the most admired person in America and one of the most unlikely celebrities ever to capture the world's imagination. Yet Kissinger was also reviled by large segments of the American public, ranging from liberal intellectuals to conservative activists. Kissinger explores the relationship between this complex man’s personality and the foreign policy he pursued. Drawing on extensive interviews with Kissinger as well as 150 other sources, including US presidents and his business clients, this first full-length biography makes use of many of Kissinger’s private papers and classified memos to tell his uniquely American story. The result is an intimate narrative, filled with surprising revelations, that takes this grandly colorful statesman from his childhood as a persecuted Jew in Nazi Germany, through his tortured relationship with Richard Nixon, to his later years as a globe-trotting business consultant.

Leonardo da Vinci: La biografía (Spanish Edition) Apr 5, 2018

by Walter Isaacson

( 479 )

$10.99

El aclamado autor de los best sellers Steve Jobs y Einstein nos vuelve a cautivar con la vida del genio más creativo de la historia en esta fascinante biografía.

Basándose en las miles de páginas de los cuadernos manuscritos de Leonardo y nuevos descubrimientos sobre su vida y su obra, Walter Isaacson teje una narración que conecta el arte de Da Vinci con sus investigaciones científicas, y nos muestra cómo el genio del hombre más visionario de la historia nació de habilidades que todos poseemos y podemos estimular, tales como la curiosidad incansable, la observación cuidadosa y la imaginación juguetona. Su creatividad, como la de todo gran innovador, resultó de la intersección entre la tecnología y las humanidades. Despellejó y estudió el rostro de numerosos cadáveres, dibujó los músculos que configuran el movimiento de los labios y pintó la sonrisa más enigmática de la historia, la de la Mona Lisa. Exploró las leyes de la óptica, demostró como la luz incidía en la córnea y logró producir esa ilusión de profundidad en la Última cena.

La habilidad de Leonardo da Vinci para combinar arte y ciencia -esplendorosamente representada en el Hombre de Vitruvio- continúa siendo la regla de oro de la innovación. La apasionante vida de este gran hombre debe recordarnos la importancia de inculcar el conocimiento, pero sobre todo la voluntad contagiosa de cuestionarlo: ser imaginativos y pensar de manera diferente.

American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane Nov 14, 2009

by Walter Isaacson

( 104 )

$12.99

One of America's most versatile writers, author of bestselling biographies such as Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin, has assembled a gallery of portraits of (mostly) Americans that celebreate genius, talent, and versatility, and traces his own education as a writer and biographer.

In this collection of essays, the brilliant, acclaimed biographer Walter Isaacson reflects on lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and other interesting characters he has chronicled both as biographer and journalist. The people he writes about have an awesome intelligence, but that is not the secret to their success. They had qualities that were even more rare, such as imagination and true curiousity.

Isaacson also reflects on how he became a writer, the lessons he learned from various people he met, and the challenges for journalism in the digital age.

He also offers loving tributes to his hometown of New Orleans, which offers many of the ingredients for a creative culture, and to the Louisiana novelist Walker Percy, who was an early mentor. In an anecdotal and personal way, Isaacson describes the joys of writing and the way that tales about the lives of fascinating people can enlighten our own lives.

Einstein: Su vida y su universo (Spanish Edition) Feb 4, 2016

by Walter Isaacson, Francisco José Ramos Mena

( 293 )

$9.99

La biografía definitiva de Albert Einstein, uno de los iconos del siglo XX y su mayor genio.

Albert Einstein es uno de los científicos más importantes de la historia y un icono del siglo XX. ¿Cómo funcionaba su mente? ¿Qué le hizo un genio? ¿Cómo era el hombre detrás de la celebridad?

Walter Isaacson, que tuvo acceso a los archivos de Einstein, ofrece un extraordinario retrato del personaje y de su época, así como un fascinante relato de su vida. A partir de su correspondencia privada, cuenta cómo un funcionario de patentes imaginativo e impertinente (un mal padre con un matrimonio complicado, incapaz de conseguir un empleo en la universidad ni un doctorado) logró desvelar los secretos del cosmos y comprender los misterios del átomo y del universo. Su creatividad estaba ligada a su rebeldía. Su éxito se basó en cuestionar las verdades aceptadas y en asombrarse ante cuestiones que otros consideraban mundanas.

Reseñas:
«Espléndida, un gran trabajo de investigación con mucho material inédito. Una obra fundamental y definitiva.»
Amir D. Aczel, The Boston Globe

«Walter Isaacson ha logrado un retrato completo de Einstein. Con un estilo ágil que disimula su atención al detalle y a la precisión científica, nos lleva a un maravilloso viaje por la vida, la mente y la ciencia de un hombre que cambió nuestra visión del universo.»
Brian Greene, autor de El tejido del cosmos

«Una biografía extraordinaria de un gran hombre. Walter Isaacson ha conseguido reflejar a Einstein como ser humano y al tiempo explicar profundos conceptos físicos. Su biografía se lee con placer y logra que el gran científico vuelva a la vida.»
Murray Gell-Mann, Premio Nobel y autor de El quark y el jaguar

«Magnífica. La biografía más completa de Einstein para el gran público. Una narración excelente.»
Sharon Begley, Newsweek

El código de la vida: Jennifer Doudna, la edición genética y el futuro de la especie humana (Spanish Edition) May 13, 2021

by Walter Isaacson, Luis Jesús Negro García, Inga Pellisa Díaz

( 127 )

$12.99

Walter Isaacson vuelve a fascinarnos, esta vez con la historia de Jennifer Doudna, Premio Nobel de Química 2020, y el avance científico más importante del último siglo.

Hay una revolución en marcha, una tecnología prodigiosa que nos va a permitir curar enfermedades, derrotar virus y tener hijos más sanos. A su cabeza está la reciente premio Nobel Jennifer Doudna y sus colegas, protagonistas del nuevo libro de Walter Isaacson.

Aunque su profesor de instituto le advirtió que las niñas no podían ser científicas, su búsqueda apasionada de los mecanismos ocultos de la vida y su voluntad por convertir descubrimientos en inventos llevaron a Jennifer Doudna a participar en el avance más importante en el ámbito de la biología desde el descubrimiento de la doble hélice del ADN. Con su equipo, transformó una curiosidad de la naturaleza en una herramienta que cambiará el rumbo del ser humano. El CRISPR, una técnica fácil de usar que permite modificar el ADN, lo que abre un mundo nuevo de milagros médicos pero también de cuestiones morales.

El desarrollo del CRISPR (y la carrera por encontrar la vacuna del coronavirus) acelerarán nuestra transición a la siguiente gran revolución. Los últimos cincuenta años han sido una era digital basada en el microchip, el ordenador e internet. Ahora comienza la revolución de las ciencias de la vida. A los estudiantes de código digital se les unirán los que estudian el código genético.

¿Deberíamos usar nuestras nuevas capacidades para hacernos menos vulnerables a los virus? ¿Y para prevenir la depresión? ¿Deberíamos aceptar que las familias que se lo puedan permitir mejoren la constitución física o la inteligencia de sus hijos? Tras dirigir el equipo que descubrió la tecnología CRISPR, Doudna ha liderado los debates en torno a estas cuestiones morales.

Obtuvo, junto con su colaboradora Emmanuelle Charpentier, el Premio Nobel de Química en 2020. Su historia es una apasionante aventura que atraviesa las maravillas más profundas de la naturaleza, de los orígenes de la vida al futuro de nuestra especie.

La crítica ha dicho...
«El premio de este año tiene que ver con la idea de reescribir el código de la vida. Estas tijeras genéticas han llevado a la ciencia a una nueva era.»
Anuncio del Premio Nobel de Química 2020

«Un libro extraordinario que profundiza en una de las tecnologías biológicas más innovadoras de nuestro tiempo y las personas que la crearon. Brillante es una lectura absolutamente necesaria para nuestra era.»
Siddhartha Mukherjee

«Un libro vital sobre la última gran innovación científica, y otra biografía de primer nivel de Isaacson.»
Kirkus Weekly

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: UNABRIDGED AND ILLUSTRATION ORIGINAL CLASSIC Oct 16, 2015

by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELMER BOYD SMITH, BRYAN A. HUNT, A.J. ALEXANDER

( 11 )

$1.99

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Key features of this book:

* Includes an autobiographical sketch of the author

* This book includes original artwork

* Unabridged with 100% of it’s original content

* Available in multiple formats: eBook, original paperback and large print paperback

* Easy-to-read 12 pt. font size

* Proper paragraph formatting with Indented first lines, 1.25 Line Spacing and Justified Paragraphs

* Properly formatted for aesthetics and ease of reading.

* Custom Table of Contents and Design elements for each chapter

* The Copyright page has been placed at the end of the book, as to not impede the content and flow of the book.

Original publication: 1793

The life of Benjamin Franklin should be of importance to every American, primarily because of the part he played in securing the independence of the United States and in establishing it as a nation. Franklin shares with Washington the honors of the Revolution, and of the events leading to the birth of the new nation. While Washington was the animating spirit of the struggle in the colonies, Franklin was its ablest champion abroad. To Franklin's cogent reasoning and keen satire, we owe the clear and forcible presentation of the American case in England and France; while to his personality and diplomacy as well as to his facile pen, we are indebted for the foreign alliance and the funds without which Washington's work must have failed. His patience, fortitude, and practical wisdom, coupled with self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of his country, are hardly less noticeable than similar qualities displayed by Washington. In fact, Franklin as a public man was much like Washington, especially in the entire disinterestedness of his public service.
Franklin is also interesting to us because by his life and teachings he has done more than any other American to advance the material prosperity of his countrymen. It is said that his widely and faithfully read maxims made Philadelphia and Pennsylvania wealthy, while Poor Richard's pithy sayings, translated into many languages, have had a world-wide influence.
Franklin is a good type of our American manhood. Although not the wealthiest or the most powerful, he is undoubtedly, in the versatility of his genius and achievements, the greatest of our self-made men. The simple yet graphic story in the Autobiography of his steady rise from humble boyhood in a tallow-chandler shop, by industry, economy, and perseverance in self-improvement, to eminence, is the most remarkable of all the remarkable histories of our self-made men. It is in itself a wonderful illustration of the results possible to be attained in a land of unequaled opportunity by following Franklin's maxims.

Other Formats: Hardcover , Paperback

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