Books about Geniuses from Amazon.com

A giant of the music industry grants an all-access pass to the world of rock and roll, with mesmerizing stories of thirty-five years spent working with legends from Led Zeppelin, to Stevie Nicks, to Nirvana

Danny Goldberg has been a hugely influential figure in the world of rock and roll. He did PR for Led Zeppelin; he managed the career of Nirvana; he ran Atlantic Records, Mercury Records, and Warner Bros. Records; he launched Stevie NicksÂ’s solo career. In Bumping into Geniuses, Goldberg shares his stories about performers who represent a broad and powerful portion of the psychic real estate of the rock and roll kingdom: Patti Smith, Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen, KISS, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Hole, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Earle, Led Zeppelin, and more.

But there’s more to this story than just Goldberg’s varied career. It’s also a look at the industry itself: a business that was neither the romantic vehicle for self-expression that its most naive fans imagined, nor the purely crass money machine depicted by its most cynical critics. It was complex and chaotic—a mixture of art and commerce, idealism and selfishness—and sometimes, rock’s most gifted and influential musicians were able to transcend it all.

For anyone interested in the rock and roll industry, or simply the mores and temperaments of the musicians themselves, Bumping into Geniuses is an incredible insiderÂ’s tale that only Goldberg could tell..
Price: $17.16 [Notify me when price goes down.]

How many times have you arrived at work, exchanged greetings with your colleagues, attended a meeting or two, and then sat down at your desk overcome by the incredible feeling that you were surrounded by geniuses? And how many times have you headed home from work, looked around, and been struck with an awesome sense that you were surrounded by a world of geniuses and brilliant ideas?

If you're like most people, caught up in the stress of work and everyday life, the answer is a resounding "never!" But that's all about to change.

In Surrounded by Geniuses Alan Gregerman presents a revolutionary guide to personal, professional and organizational success based on two powerfully simple ideas:

First, that there is genius hidden in all of us. And second, that we are surrounded by a world filled with genius that can be used to transform any company or organization in order to deliver compelling customer value.

He then shows us in clear and practical ways how to unlock the genius in ourselves and our organizations by discovering and applying insight from the worlds of business, history, popular culture, nature, science and even science fiction. He does this by taking us on ten remarkable journeys to learn essential lessons from a world-class shock trauma unit, eight-year-old "salespeople," rocket scientists, aerobics instructors, cheetahs, Seinfeld re-runs, and more. By the end, you will be astounded to find yourself surrounded by so many brilliant people and ideas.

So grab your curiosity and your most comfortable shoes. It's time for a remarkable trip to your future success!
.
Price: $6.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When in their lives do great artists produce their greatest art? Do they strive for creative perfection throughout decades of painstaking and frustrating experimentation, or do they achieve it confidently and decisively, through meticulous planning that yields masterpieces early in their lives?

By examining the careers not only of great painters but also of important sculptors, poets, novelists, and movie directors, Old Masters and Young Geniuses offers a profound new understanding of artistic creativity. Using a wide range of evidence, David Galenson demonstrates that there are two fundamentally different approaches to innovation, and that each is associated with a distinct pattern of discovery over a lifetime.

Experimental innovators work by trial and error, and arrive at their major contributions gradually, late in life. In contrast, conceptual innovators make sudden breakthroughs by formulating new ideas, usually at an early age. Galenson shows why such artists as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Jackson Pollock, Virginia Woolf, Robert Frost, and Alfred Hitchcock were experimental old masters, and why Vermeer, van Gogh, Picasso, Herman Melville, James Joyce, Sylvia Plath, and Orson Welles were conceptual young geniuses. He also explains how this changes our understanding of art and its past.

Experimental innovators seek, and conceptual innovators find. By illuminating the differences between them, this pioneering book provides vivid new insights into the mysterious processes of human creativity.

.
Price: $10.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A hands-on, user-friendly, somewhat irreverant guide to the management technique known as performance measurement for federal, state and local government public managers .
Price: $19.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A year with the boy geniuses of the nationÂ’s top high school chess team, now in paperback with a new afterword

Edward R. Murrow High School has long been one of New YorkÂ’s public-education success stories, a school where there are no varsity sports, and the closest thing to jocks is found on the powerhouse chess team.

Award-winning sportswriter Michael Weinreb follows the members of the Murrow chess team through an entire season. Weinreb delves into the history of chess in America, following the stories of greats such as Bobby Fischer, for whom the world within the chessboard is as easy to comprehend as the world beyond it is difficult..
Price: $6.04 [Notify me when price goes down.]

David doesn't know how he ends up in such situations. At the time, it just seems like a great idea. His teacher, Mrs. Gorski, has had aout enough; he can tell by the way her voice changes when she speaks to him. This time, he believes that he has come up with the best idea yet. The perfect plan to make everything better..
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $1.48 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $11.83 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The story of modern magic through the lives of recent history's most gifted magicians

While the art of magic may be as old as human beings, its golden age arrived in the mid-1800s when Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin performed onstage in a tailored evening suit and tidy haircut The image of magicians was forever transformed.

Houdin was famous for his thrilling act of Second Sight, where his blindfolded son would identify articles held up by the audience. Other artists had their own specialties:

• Adelaide Herrmann, first woman to run her own magic show, brought the fun and flash of show business
• Chung Ling Soo, an American who led a double life as a dazzling Chinese conjuror
• The Great Lafayette, a flamboyant quick-change artist
• P.C. Sorcar revived the ancient traditions of his native India
• Harry Blackstone performed small magic -- simple tricks by sleight of hand
• Doug Henning revived the popularity of modern magic
• Siegfried and Roy combined special-effects technology with natural magic
• David Copperfield uses cutting-edge technology to create powerful stage illusions.

After each magician's story, kids will find great tricks they can learn, and they'll love the full-color reproductions of theatrical posters and photographs that capture all the excitement.

.
Price: $3.21 [Notify me when price goes down.]

“Geniocracy,” the 1st English edition of Rael's classic work, allows a new generation to consider an ingenious worldwide solution to man’s biggest problems: war, hunger, poverty and the exploitation of genius under “mediocracies” backed by military might. The solution, says the author, is geniocracy: collegial government by geniuses elected under a selective democracy. Such a system – revolutionary but truly just – would work for the good of all rather than just a privileged few, Rael explains. After illustrating how geniocracy would work on various levels, he asks us to consider how scientific advances under collegial government by geniuses – geniocracy – would create a better world: one in which every person would be entitled not only to basic necessities of life but to an existence in which “the right to work would be replaced by the right to self-fulfillment.” Can geniocracy work? Rael asks only that you read this book and decide for yourself!.
Price: $10.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]