Books about Survived from Amazon.com

In this autobiography, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson says one of his prime business criteria is "fun." Fun made Branson a billionaire, and few business memoirs are one-billionth as fun as Branson's, nor as niftily written. Not only does it relate his side of near-death corporate experiences, it tells how the chairman literally cheated death by gun, shipwreck, and balloon crash.

Branson's empire--now encompassing interests in an airline, pop music, soda pop, e-commerce, and financial services--began when the dyslexic 16-year-old dropped out of school in 1968 to found the British magazine Student. His headmaster said, "I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire." Briefly imprisoned for dodging customs selling records, Branson got his first million by releasing Tubular Bells, a maverick recording all the stuffy executives rejected. (1998's Tubular Bells III puts the series' sales over 20 million.)

Despite wild tales of Branson's wife-swapping and Keith Richards fleeing naked from Branson's studio at gunpoint with another man's woman, the most shocking parts of the memoir concern British Airways' James Bond-like "dirty tricks" campaign against Virgin Atlantic, resulting in the biggest award for damages in English history.

Though it's filled with famous names, witty quotes, and pulse-pounding accounts of lunatic balloon adventures, it is as a business thriller that the book really scores. His instinctive bet-the-ranch tactics could cost him all, or earn another billion. Either way, Branson will likely remain the most entertaining entrepreneur in Europe. --Tim Appelo.
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Hank’s dad has decided to enter a crossword-puzzle tournament, and he wants to make a family road trip of it! So the family piles into the car—along with Frankie and Katherine the iguana (Hank and Emily each get to bring a “friend”). When they reach their destination, they’ll get to spend the day at a roller-coaster park during Hank’s dad’s tournament! The only caveat is that Hank has a homework packet to finish before they get there . . . which he somehow manages to lose at a stop along the way. Suddenly, Hank doesn’t feel so good . . . Can Hank and Frankie rescue the lost packet and get Hank on a roller coaster?.
Price: $1.88 [Notify me when price goes down.]

More than 100 cancer survivors share their personal stories in this touching new collection of Chicken Soup. These heartwarming accounts of courageous people who found the power to battle cancer in their endless hope, unwavering faith and steadfast determination will inspire you to adopt a positive attitude, discover your faith and cherish every moment. Just what the doctor ordered for healing your body, mind and soul.

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Price: $4.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Riveting Story of the Federal City and the Men Who Built It

In 1814, British troops invaded Washington, consuming President Madison’s hastily abandoned dinner before setting his home and the rest of the city ablaze. The White House still bears scorch and soot marks on its foundation stones. It was only after this British lesson in “hard war,” designed to terrorize, that Americans overcame their resistance to the idea of Washington as the nation’s capital and embraced it as a symbol of American might and unity.

The dramatic story of how the capital rose from a wilderness is a vital chapter in American history, filled with intrigue and outsized characters–from George Washington to Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the eccentric, passionate, difficult architect who fell in love with his adopted country. This Frenchman–both inspired by the American cause of liberty and wounded while defending it–first endeared himself to then General Washington with a sketch drawn at Valley Forge. Designing buildings, parades, medals, and coins, L’Enfant became the creator of a new American aesthetic, but the early tastemaker had ambition and pride to match his talent. Self-serving and incapable of compromise, he was consumed with his artistic dream of the Federal City, eventually alienating even the president, his onetime champion.

Washington struggled to balance L’Enfant’s enthusiasm for his brilliant design with the strident opposition of fiscal conservatives such as Thomas Jefferson, whose counsel eventually led to L’Enfant’s dismissal. The friendships, rivalries, and conflicting ideologies of the principals in this drama–as revealed in their deceptively genteel correspondence and other historical sources–mirror the struggles of a fledgling nation to form a kind of government the world had not yet known.

In these pages, as in Last Train to Paradise and Meet You in Hell, master storyteller Les Standiford once again tells a compelling, uniquely American story of hubris and achievement, with a man of epic ambition at its center. Utterly absorbing and scrupulously researched, Washington Burning offers a fresh perspective on the birth of not just a city, but a nation..
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The practical followup to the acclaimed bestseller

In 2001, the groundbreaking book Quarterlife Crisis(r) addressed the unique and unsettling trials of entering modern adulthood. For the first time, it identified how twentysomethings were lost and confused, and lamented the absence of a guide-a roadmap with solutions for how to emerge from the crisis successful, happy, and sane.

Now, the author of Quarterlife Crisis(r) delivers that roadmap. Alexandra Robbins goes beyond defining the problem of the quarterlife crisis and puts readers on the path to conquering it. She asks-and answers-the tough, soul-searching questions that keep young adults awake at night:

- How do I weigh doing what I love versus making money?
- Will I ever find my "soul mate"?
- Why is it so hard to make friends?
- Why are my twenties so different from what I expected?

With new voices as well as follow-up interviews with some of the original Quarterlife Crisis(r) twentysomethings, Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis(r) is the new go-to guide for people who want it all...but just aren't sure what that is yet..
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Can you keep a secret? Are you the go-to girl when your friends have a secret to share? Can you be trusted to keep the info under wraps, or are you known for your loose lips?

The debut of the Madame X gossip column has turned Joyce Kilmer Middle School upside down. Whoever Madame X is, she's got her finger on the pulse of the school . . . and the power to turn friends against one another by spreading rumors. Now that Madame X is dishing about things only Jenny and her friends could have known, Jenny is sure of one thing . . . Madame X must be one of her friends!.
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Dear Diary, You will never in a million years guess where I’m going....Italy! In Europe!! Across the ocean!!! I even have a passport It’s really cool, except I’m squinting my eyes in the photo, so I look like a dork. At least that’s what my brother said. I call him Matt the Brat. You would too. Trust me....

When Melanie Martin heads to Italy on a family vacation with her art-obsessed mom, her grumpy dad, and her little brother, she has no idea what she’s in for. As she discovers Michelangelo, Italian ice cream, and poetry, she also realizes how much her family means to her. Maybe she won’t trade them in after all..
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Hailed by feminists as one of the most important contributions to women's studies in the last decade, this gripping, beautifully written account describes the daily struggles of women under the Marxist regime in the former republic of Yugoslavia..
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After spending the night studying the Joyce Kilmer Middle School Handbook, Jenny McAfee feels totally prepared to start sixth grade. But Jenny has another reason to feel confident. She'll have her best friend, Addie Wilson, right there by her side.

When Jenny and Addie meet at their lockers the next morning, Jenny finds out that Addie has other plans--and they don't include her. Could Addie really be ditching her for The Pops--the coolest seventh graders in the school?.
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