Genius Biographies

Join Kenya Barris and Malcolm Gladwell as they bypass pleasantries and promotional banter to deliver raw, unfiltered conversations with some of today’s most influential figures. Featuring titans across a spectrum of professions (from Olympic gold medalists to trailblazing Fortune 500 CEOs and everything in between), The Unusual Suspects with Kenya Barris and Malcolm Gladwell pulls back the curtain to offer listeners unprecedented access to the minds of the world’s most extraordinary individuals and their distinct paths to success.

Chocolate Covered Money is for anyone who eats chocolate, has shopped for chocolate as a gift, or has wondered what really goes on at the chocolate store "in a mall near you." Chocolate is a big business, and makes a lot of money. This book "pulls the curtain back" for a behind-the-scenes look at the people who own chocolate companies, how they make chocolate, and their celebrity friends.

The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense. From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman to Lemony Snicket. Some even call him the Grandfather of Goth. An eccentric, a gregarious recluse, an enigmatic auteur of whimsically morbid masterpieces, yes - but who was the real Edward Gorey behind the Oscar Wildean pose?

This riveting biography from the American Bar Association visits the spectacular life of Edwin Land, breakthrough inventor. At the time of his death, he stood third on the list of our most prolific inventors, behind only Thomas Edison and one of Edison's colleagues. Land's most famous achievement was the creation of a revolutionary film-and-camera system that could produce a photographic print moments after the picture was taken.

Arguably the most influential force in Jamaican music, Lee Perry brought Bob Marley to international stardom and collaborated with artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, The Clash and The Beastie Boys. The book delves behind the myth of Perry to give a fuller examination of his life and work through extensive interviews with family members, fellow artists, friends, lovers, enemies, as well as the man himself to present a complex portrait of a unique soul driven by unseen spiritual forces.

Goethe was the inventor of the psychological novel, a pioneer scientist, great man of the theatre and a leading politician. As A. N. Wilson argues in this groundbreaking biography, it was his genius and insatiable curiosity that helped catapult the Western world into the modern era. A N. Wilson tackles the life of Goethe with characteristic wit and verve. From his youth as a wild literary prodigy to his later years as Germany’s most respected elder statesman, Wilson hones in on Goethe’s undying obsession with the work he would spend his entire life writing – Faust.

In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world's largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor - the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide - was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it to suit their trading portfolios.

Elon Musk is undeniably a business titan. He controls massive companies like Tesla and SpaceX, and has cemented himself in history forever - but how much do you really know about the man behind it all? Inside this detailed account of Elon Musk’s life and career, you’ll learn about his childhood and schooling in South Africa, his humble beginnings on the American continent, and his first endeavors into business.

The high-energy tale of how two socially awkward Ivy Leaguers, trying to increase their chances with the opposite sex, ended up creating Facebook. Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends - outsiders at a school filled with polished prep-school grads and long-time legacies. They shared both academic brilliance in math and a geeky awkwardness with women. The Accidental Billionaires is a compulsively listenable story of innocence lost - and of the unusual creation of a company that has revolutionized the way people relate to one another.

In 1913, an unschooled young Indian clerk wrote a letter to G. H. Hardy, begging that preeminent English mathematician's opinion on several ideas he had about numbers. Hardy, realizing the letter was the work of a genius, arranged for Srinivasa Ramanujan to come to England. Thus began one of the most remarkable collaborations ever chronicled.

In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment--from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton--had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on....

استمرَّ بيتهوفن ستة سنوات بأكملها في تأليف سيمفونيته التاسعة "الكورال" كانت الموسيقى هي إعلان انتصاره على الحياة؛ فقد عاش طفولةً تعيسة مع والدٍ قاسي يُجبره على التدريب على عزف البيانو لساعاتٍ طويلة ويضربه بلا رحمة السابعة بعد لكنّه لم يلعب كباقي الأطفال في الزقاق ولم يركض خلف كرةِ قدم في مباراةٍ

تُعدّ سلسلة العبقريّات من أشهر مؤلّفات العقّاد، وفي هذا الكتاب يُقدّم العقّاد سيرةَ الإمام عليّ، مُشيرًا إلى الجوانب الإنسانيّة في شخصيّته، كما يُسلّط الضّوء على بعض أفكاره الفريدة في التصوّف والشّريعة والأخلاق، وتحدّث العقّاد كذلك عن أخلاق الإمام عليّ، فذكر نقاء سريرته وعلوّ همّته، وغزارة علمه، وزهده وحكمته، وشجاعته، فضمّن هذا الكتاب سيرةً عظيمةً جاعلًا محورها جوانب النّفس الإنسانيّة.

One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs's life forever.... Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance? In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation.

The Lobotomist explores one of the darkest chapters of American medicine: the desperate attempt to treat the hundreds of thousands of psychiatric patients in need of help during the middle decades of the 20th century. Into this crisis stepped Walter Freeman, MD, who saw a solution in lobotomy, a brain operation intended to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. Drawing on Freeman's documents and interviews with Freeman's family, Jack El-Hai takes a penetrating look at the life and work of this complex scientific genius.

Esta biografia atual apresenta pela primeira vez uma visão completa dos anos de Cook na Apple—de sua contratação ainda jovem para o setor de operações até os desafios como CEO. Recheada de bastidores e entrevistas com nomes que ajudaram a moldar a empresa como é hoje, traz um vislumbre das mudanças e dos novos rumos traçados por Cook enquanto tenta alcançar seu ideal: fazer da Apple—e do mundo—um lugar melhor.

Globe and Mail golf columnist Lorne Rubenstein has authored multiple acclaimed books and had his work featured in major golf publications. Moe & Me is a riveting exploration of the life of Moe Norman, known for his unusual swing on the course - and his crippling insecurity and introverted nature off of it.

يدور على صفحات هذا الكتاب حديث عن الإمام علي بن أبي طالب، هذا الحديث له صلة بالنفس الإنسانية في كل مناصيها، وفي سيرته ملتقى بالعواطف الجياشة، والأحاسيس المتطلعة إلى الرحمة والإكبار، لأنه الشهيد أبو الشهداء... وملتقى بالخيال، حيث دار حول شجاعته منزع الحقيقة ومنزع التخيل... وملتقى بالفكر، فهو صاحب آراء لم تسبق في التصرف والشريعة والأخلاق.

Versace. The very name conjures up images of outrageous glamour and bold sexuality, opulence and daring. All of course true, but only half the story. Versace is also the legacy of a great creative genius from a poor, backward part of southern Italy who transformed the fashion world through his intuitive understanding of both women and how a changing culture influenced the way they wanted to dress. House of Versace shows how Gianni Versace, with his flamboyant sister Donatella at his side, combined his virtuosic talent and extraordinary ambition to help create celebrity culture.

Gerard Lee Bevan was the black sheep of one of London's most respectable banking families. A high-living womanizer and upper-class shyster of almost pantomime proportions, he exploited a glittering range of social connections. After a long run of success in City dealings he perpetrated a massive fraud which ruined both the City Equitable Fire Insurance Company and his stockbroking firm, Ellis & Co. He fled the country and was eventually arrested, tried, and jailed.