Jeffrey Kluger

The untold story of the historic voyage to the moon that closed out one of our darkest years with a nearly unimaginable triumph In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind’s first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken. But when Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were summoned to a secret meeting and told of the dangerous mission, they instantly signed on. Written with all the color and verve of the best narrative non-fiction, Apollo 8 takes us from Mission Control to the astronaut’s homes, from the test labs to the launch pad. The race to prepare an untested rocket for an unprecedented journey paves the way for the hair-raising trip to the moon. Then, on Christmas Day, a nation that has suffered a horrendous year of assassinations and war is heartened by an inspiring message from the trio of astronauts in lunar orbit. And when the mission is over—after the first view of the far side of the moon, the first earth-rise, and the first re-entry through the earth’s atmosphere following a flight to deep space—the impossible dream of walking on the moon suddenly seems within reach. The full story of Apollo 8 has never been told, and only Jeffrey Kluger—Jim Lovell’s co-author on their bestselling book about Apollo 13—can do it justice. Here is the tale of a mission that was both a calculated risk and a wild crapshoot, a stirring account of how three American heroes forever changed our view of the home planet.

The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon

Apollo 8

When evil forces are going unchecked on Earth, a principled astronaut makes a spilt-second decision to try to seek justice in the only place she knows how--the International Space Station. Walli Beckwith is a model astronaut. She graduated at the top of her class from the Naval Academy, had a successful career flying fighter jets, and has spent more than three hundred days in space. So when she refuses to leave her post aboard the International Space Station following an accident that forces her fellow astronauts to evacuate, her American and Russian colleagues are mystified. For Walli, the matter at hand feels all too clear and terrifying for her to be worried about ruining her career. She is stuck in a race against time to save a part of the world that seems to have been forgotten, and also the life of the person she loves the most. She will go to any length necessary, using the only tool she has, to accomplish what she knows is right.

A Novel

Holdout

James Lovell

The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13

Lost Moon

"Using real world examples, such as traffic flow, politics and baby linguistics, the author makes the theories of 'simplexity' accessible to the layperson...Kluger makes complex science seem simple." --Kirkus "Kluger makes the modern world comprehensible...his astonishing discoveries require no exaggeration..[his] findings are likely to incite controversy, confirming his contention that explaining simplicity and complexity is never as straightforward as it seems." --Publishers Weekly "Simplexity...is a study of human behavior, and the way we perceive things and events, and how our perception frequently causes us to make wrong assumptions and to perceive simplicity (or complexity) where it does not exist, The book is sure to be a deserved hit among the ever-growing Freakonomics crowd." -Booklist Why are the instruction manuals for cell phones incomprehensible Why is a truck driver's job as hard as a CEO's How can 10 percent of every medical dollar cure 90 percent of the world's disease Why do bad teams win so many games Complexity, as any scientist will tell you, is a slippery idea. Things that seem complicated can be astoundingly simple; things that seem simple can be dizzyingly complex. A houseplant may be more intricate than a manufacturing plant. A colony of garden ants may be more complicated than a community of people. A sentence may be richer than a book, a couplet more complicated than a song. These and other paradoxes are driving a whole new science--simplexity--that is redefining how we look at the world and using that new view to improve our lives in fields as diverse as economics, biology, cosmology, chemistry, psychology, politics, child development, the arts, and more. Seen through the lens of this surprising new science, the world becomes a delicate place filled with predictable patterns--patterns we often fail to see as we're time and again fooled by our instincts, by our fear, by the size of things, and even by their beauty. In Simplexity, Time senior writer Jeffrey Kluger shows how a drinking straw can save thousands of lives; how a million cars can be on the streets but just a few hundred of them can lead to gridlock; how investors behave like atoms; how arithmetic governs abstract art and physics drives jazz; why swatting a TV indeed makes it work better. As simplexity moves from the research lab into popular consciousness it will challenge our models for modern living. Jeffrey Kluger adeptly translates newly evolving theory into a delightful theory of everything that will have you rethinking the rules of business, family, art--your world.

Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple)

Simplexity

Jim Lovell

Captain James A Lovell

The untold story of the American moon shot that almost ended in a fatal catastrophe, told by the flight's commander, offers a chronicle of courage, heroism, and adventure.

April 13, 1970. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert are hurtling towards the moon in the Apollo 13 spacecraft, when an explosion rocks the ship. The cockpit grows dim, the air grows thin, and the instrument lights wink out. Moments later, the astronauts are forced to abandon the main ship for the tiny lunar module, designed to keep two men alive for just two days. But there are three men aboard and they are four days from home. As the action shifts from the disabled ship to the frantic engineers at Mission Control to Lovell's anxious family, APOLLO 13 brilliantly recreates the harrowing, heroic mission in all its drama and glory. This gripping story of human endurance is the basis for Ron Howard's classic film starring Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon.

Apollo 13

With the help of a magical stone from Africa, a thirteen-year-old slave travels to the battle of Vicksburg to clear her father's name and free her family from bondage.

Freedom Stone

Explores the profound influence of sibling relationships through emerging research in the areas of birth order, twin studies, and genetic encoding to consider the role of sibling relationships in emotional disorders and behavioral traits.

What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal about Us

The Sibling Effect

"From an award-winning senior writer at Time, an eye-opening exploration of narcissism, how to recognize it, and how to handle it. The odds are good that you know a narcissist-probably a lot of them. The odds are also good that they are intelligent, confident, and articulate-the center of attention. They make you laugh and they make you think. The odds are also that this spell didn't last. Narcissists are everywhere. There are millions of them in the United States alone: entertainers, politicians, business people, your neighbors. Recognizing and understanding them is crucial to your not being overtaken by them, says Jeffrey Kluger, in his provocative new book about this insidious disorder. With insight and wit, Kluger frames the surprising new research on narcissism and explains the complex, exasperating personality disorder. He reveals how narcissism and narcissists affect our lives at work and at home, on the road, and in the halls of government; what to do when we encounter narcissism; and how to neutralize its effects before it's too late. As a Time writer and science editor, Kluger knows how to take science's new ideas and transform them into smart, accessible insights. Highly readable and deeply engaging, this book helps us understand narcissism and narcissists more fully."--

"A lively and perceptive exploration of narcissism that examines its causes, the science and psychology at its core, and the opportunities and challenges it presents to those who suffer from it (and those who contend with it in others)"--

understanding the monster in your family, in your office, in your bed--in your world

The narcissist next door

Anniversary Edition

Ruby Shamir

To The Moon

This book about the exciting and inspiring true story of Apollo 8, the first crewed spaceship to break free of Earth's orbit and each the moon, tells the story of these three brave men, the frantic rush to get their rocket ready, and the journey that gave the American people -- and the world -- a new look at the planet we live on and the corner of space we inhabit.

To the Moon!

The story of the polio vaccine and its creator discusses Salk's childhood during one of polio's worst epidemics and his education during the presidency of an afflicted FDR, describing how politics nearly prevented the vaccine's development.

Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio

Splendid Solution

En los últimos años, los estudios más avanzados en campos como la economía, la genética, el análisis de mercados financieros y el desarrollo infantil han hallado una nueva y asombrosa teoría: la simplejidad, palabra que fusiona simplicidad y complejidad. Simplejidad indaga en por qué las cosas simples pueden ser más complicadas de lo que parecen, y las complejas, resultar en realidad más simples. La evidencia se encuentra ante nuestros ojos: la compleja instalación doméstica de cañerías funciona, de hecho, a partir de un mecanismo básico, mientras que el pisapapeles de cristal que tenemos sobre el escritorio resulta sorprendente en su complejidad. Un libro apasionante que te hará repensar las reglas de los negocios y del placer. Nunca volverás a golpear sin sentido la televisión y entenderás lo mucho que significa sonreír a tus hijos. Desde lo micro a lo macro, Simplejidad propone un fascinante replanteamiento de cómofuncionan realmente las cosas. ¿Por qué los manuales de instrucciones de los electrodomésticos resultan incomprensibles? ¿Cómo el contacto con un único virus puede desencadenar una epidemia con millones de víctimas? ¿Por qué los equipos malos ganan tantos partidos? ¿Cómo es posible que el 10% del dinero invertido en medicina cure el 90% de las enfermedades mundiales? ¿Cómo puede un puñado de microcréditos revitalizar una comunidad entera?

Simplejidad : por qué las cosas simples acaban siendo complejas y cómo las cosas complejas pueden ser simples

"Sure to be a deserved hit among the ever-growing Freakonomics crowd." --Booklist "Kluger makes the modern world comprehensible." --Publishers Weekly "A fascinating journey." --Library Journal Sometimes a complex problem has an easy solution. And sometimes there's more to a simple thing than first appears. In Simplexity, Time senior writer Jeffrey Kluger shows how a drinking straw can save thousands of lives, how a million cars can be on the streets but just a few hundred of them can lead to gridlock, how investors behave like atoms; how arithmetic governs abstract art and physics drives jazz, and why swatting a TV indeed makes it work better. Kluger adeptly translates newly evolving science into a delightful theory of everything that will have you rethinking the rules of business, family, art--your world.

In this book, the author tells the story of some of the most remarkable heavenly bodies known - the solar system's sixty-five moons - and the extraordinary people who have explored them. -- Description from back cover.

NASA's Remarkable Expeditions to the Ends of the Solar System

Moon Hunters

Twelve thrilling and terrifying space-mission failures, told by the bestselling author of Apollo 13! There are so many amazing, daring, and exciting missions to outer space that have succeeded. But for every success, there are mistakes, surprises, and flat-out failures that happen along the way. In this collection, bestselling author and award-winning journalist Jeffrey Kluger recounts twelve such disasters, telling the stories of the astronauts and the cosmonauts, the trials and the errors, the missions and the misses. With stories of missions run by both Americans and Russians during the height of the space race, complete with photos of the people and machines behind them, this book delves into the mishaps and the tragedies, small and large, that led humankind to the moon and beyond. Praise for Disaster Strikes!: * "A thrill ride punctuated with spectacular failures--but also spectacular successes." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review * "The [is] text versatile, efficiently functioning as a collection of short reads or a balanced, book-length narrative . . . Always fascinating, at times unsettling, and highly recommended for elementary and middle school collections." --SLJ, starred review "Each compelling episode is crafted as a self-standing adventure, with an opening hook and a satisfying close, making this an excellent source for readalouds for middle-school classes as well as a pleasure for independent readers." --BCCB "Kluger manages to combine suspenseful storytelling with scientific writing, showcasing the successes of the programs alongside the failures that ended in death or near misses for astronauts. Even students who claim that they don’t like to read will find these 'you-are-there' moments totally engaging." --SLC

The Most Dangerous Space Missions of All Time

Disaster Strikes!

A provocative and surprising exploration of the longest sustained relationships we have in life—those we have with our siblings. Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters. Our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away. Our siblings are the only people we know who truly qualify as partners for life. In this perceptive and groundbreaking book, Jeffrey Kluger explores the complex world of siblings in equal parts science, psychology, sociology, and memoir. Based on cutting-edge research, he examines birth order, twins, genetic encoding of behavioral traits, emotional disorders and their effects on sibling relationships, and much more. With his signature insight and humor, Kluger takes science’s provocative new ideas about the subject and transforms them into smart, accessible insights that will help everyone understand the importance of siblings in our lives.

What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us

Editors of Time Magazine

The greatest computer ever built is less than 7 in. long and weighs less than 3 lb. It has no moving parts and makes not a sound. And yet it is the home of dreams, of songs, of wisdom, of philosophy, of love, of awareness itself. The greatest computer ever built is, of course, the human brain. For almost as long as we've been thinking creatures, we've wondered about the galaxy of experiences, emotions and insights that lives within every one of us. You have your heart; you have your limbs. You are your brain. The editors and writers of TIME invite you to explore that wondrous place that is the seat of your being. What does science tell us about how we learn, how we mature, why our minds grow old? How does memory work--and why does it so often fail to work? How can babies learn multiple languages before they're 5 years old, while adults must struggle for years to master a single new one? What does it mean to be a genius? What does it mean merely to be conscious? These and other questions are being explored by investigators across the sciences, and TIME has gone out in search of them. At labs and universities around the world, researchers are gaining new understanding of the differences between the brains of men and women, the neurochemical magic behind feelings of romance, the mystery of good and evil. They are learning new things about addictions and disorders and the myriad ways minds can break down. And they are learning how to fix them too. The Brain: A User's Guide will give you a whole new view of how your brain works and ways you can use that understanding to help yourself become wiser, happier, even healthier. You will never think of the world inside your head the same way again.

Jeffrey Kluger

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