Norman Dietz

In 1948, a mysterious and charismatic man arrives in a small Virginia town carrying two suitcases; one contains his worldly possessions, the other is full of money. He soon inserts himself into the town's daily life, taking a job in the local butcher shop and befriending the owner and his wife and their son. But the passion that develops between the man and the wife of the town's wealthiest citizen sets in motion a series of events that not only upset...

Darkly fascinating short novel depicts the struggles of a doubting, supremely alienated protagonist in a world of relative values. Seminal work introduced moral, religious, political and social themes that dominated Dostoyevsky's later masterworks. Constance Garnett's authoritative translation is reprinted here, with a new introduction. A minor official brutally scrutinizes himself and decides to go "underground," away from society. This is a strange...

The driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, which marked the completion of the country's first transcontinental railroad, was only the beginning of the race for railroad dominance. In the aftermath of this feat, several railroads raced for the prize of a southern transcontinental route. While much has been written about the first railroad, the bulk of the history of railroad history has been largely ignored. Here, Walter Borneman picks up...

The warning signs for gold's decline are plenty: gold ETFs have made investing in gold available to the common investor and have tremendously increased the speculation involved; the global reliance on emerging markets such as China has fueled the commodity bubble led by gold; TV shows and newspaper headlines warn of intense media saturation and frenzy; We Buy Gold stores line busy streets and signal mass awareness; gold miners are no longer protecting...

Based on research conducted over several years with hundreds of high-performance teams, this book is the first to identify what it takes to create high-performance teams. Denning breaks these elements down into three categories. First, there are the hygiene elements of teams that make up the traditional management literature on teams. These elements are necessary but not sufficient to create great teams. Second, there are the three drivers of high-performance...

Barry McGee likes being the Hit-Away Kid, the star of the Peach Street Mudders neighborhood baseball team. In fact, he likes it so much that he's willing to cheat-just once in a while-to help his game. He tells the umpire that he touched a base when he didn't even come close. He even picks up balls that he's dropped in the outfield-and swears the ball never left his glove. So far, Barry has been able to get away with cheating. But when a pitcher from...