Books about Expensive from Amazon.com

It was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold.

In 1985, at a heated auction by Christie’s of London, a 1787 bottle of Château Lafite Bordeaux—one of a cache of bottles unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—went for $156,000 to a member of the Forbes family. The discoverer of the bottle was pop-band manager turned wine collector Hardy Rodenstock, who had a knack for finding extremely old and exquisite wines. But rumors about the bottle soon arose. Why wouldn’t Rodenstock reveal the exact location where it had been found? Was it part of a smuggled Nazi hoard? Or did his reticence conceal an even darker secret?

It would take more than two decades for those questions to be answered and involve a gallery of intriguing players—among them Michael Broadbent, the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women and staked his reputation on the record-setting sale; Serena Sutcliffe, Broadbent’s elegant archrival, whose palate is covered by a hefty insurance policy; and Bill Koch, the extravagant Florida tycoon bent on exposing the truth about Rodenstock.

Pursuing the story from Monticello to London to Zurich to Munich and beyond, Benjamin Wallace also offers a mesmerizing history of wine, complete with vivid accounts of subterranean European laboratories where old vintages are dated and of Jefferson’s colorful, wine-soaked days in France, where he literally drank up the culture.

Suspenseful, witty, and thrillingly strange, The Billionaire’s Vinegar is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries. It is also the debut of an exceptionally powerful new voice in narrative non-fiction..
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Meet Mirror Carter, a hood chick from Shady Grove Trailer Park who would die to forget her past, and bask in a more sophisticated lifestyle. Although Mirror gets a small taste of the glamorous life, her appetite for wealth continues to grow as she constantly searches for the next big moneymaker. That is until she meets, Brice Tower, the handsome, and filthy rich owner of the Houston Rockets, and her meal ticket to the millionaire s club. Soon, chaos erupts and Mirror s fairy-tale life turns into a nightmare when she finds out Brice s best kept secret. As Mirror vows to hold on to her spot at the top, Brice struggles to keep her away. When the game of fatal attraction turns hood, Mirror s past is exposed and all hell breaks lose..
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The Questions

Arrogant, self-centered, stubborn, and insecure -- words that most people associate with ego. But in this original, eye-opening work, authors David Marcum and Steven Smith argue that the upside of ego is as powerful as the downside and answer questions about ego that have been a mystery to most people.

In his landmark book, Good to Great, Jim Collins showed that one of two key traits defined leaders who transformed organizations from good to great: humility. But if humility is so powerful, why don't more of us have it? Why does ego allow us to reach good results but never great ones, unless balanced by humility? Why do we need ego to personally succeed, while having it often interferes with the success we pursue?

The Answers

Using five years of exhaustive research, Marcum and Smith provide compelling evidence and matter-of-fact answers on striking the balance between ego and humility to reach the next level of leadership. The authors include case studies to illustrate how ego subtly interferes with success but also how ego sparks the drive to achieve, the nerve to try something new, and the tenacity to conquer adversity.

The Early Warning Signs

We all have moments when ego costs us everything from an honest conversation to a job or promotion. Through cross-disciplinary research, egonomics reveals how to detect four early warning signs that ego is becoming a liability, including how:

• being too competitive makes you less competitive

• defending ideas turns into defending yourself

• winning ideas can be halted by the creator's own intelligence and talent

• desiring respect and recognition can interfere with success

The Keys to Egonomic Health

Three key principles keep ego healthy:

• humility: striking the crucial balance between too much ego and not enough

• curiosity: blending free thinking and discipline without bias

• veracity: removing fear of giving or getting feedback to produce water-cooler honesty

With a clear focus on elevating the way you do business, egonomics is a liberating approach to becoming a rare and respected leader..
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People are the most valuable asset in today's fiercely competitive workplace In Hiring Smart, now available in paperback for the first time, psychiatrist Dr. Pierre Mornell delineates 45 simple strategies for 'people reading' - observing a candidate's behaviour and predicting what they'll be like in the workplace - that virtually guarantee hiring the best possible candidate for any job..
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When Judith Summers first met George, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who would change her life, she and her young son, Joshua, were mourning the deaths of her husband and her father, who had died barely two weeks apart.

It was love at first sight. George was the ultimate upper-class pooch, and seemingly the perfect puppy, brimming with love and joy and complete with "the kind of film-star looks that made strangers stop in the street and coo over him."

But, as Judith soon discovered, George was as time-consuming as a full-time job and as expensive to run as a Ferrari. Willful, possessive and badly behaved, he refused to eat anything other than organic roast chicken, destroyed her work, and suffered from every allergy and illness under the sun. On top of that, George was horribly accident-prone. Stuff happened to him. His vet bills alone have run to $25,000–and George is still only nine years old!

It wasn’t long before King George ruled the roost in Judith’s home. But even after he drove away one of her suitors, she couldn’t fathom giving him up. Just as his naughtiness was boundless, so was his devotion to her and her son. A foot-warmer on cold nights, a good listener, and a fierce (okay, not so fierce) protector, George was always by their side--and much of the time underfoot.

For anyone who has ever loved an incorrigible pet or known what it was like to lose a loved one, My Life with George is the hilarious and moving account of the impossible but adorable George, and of the wonderful way in which he helped to fill a huge void in the lives of both Judith and her son while driving them absolutely barking mad along the way..
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The Fourteen Million-Dollar Poodle - Nancy Warren Labour dispute negotiator Vince Grange has a reputation for being a tough guy. Tough guys hammer out deals, drink beer, and keep their well-muscled, six-foot-four physiques in shape. What they do not do is inherit frou-frou toy poodles named Mimi who only understand French. Good thing Vince was a softy for his late eccentric aunt, and really good thing she left him fourteen million dollars so he can hire a French dog nanny. The World is Too Darned Big - Mary Janice Davidson The name's Dyson. Benjamin Dyson. Genius engineering geek by day and unfortunately, genius engineering geek by night. Ben may work for the CIA, but he's the mild-mannered brainy type who wouldn't know a gun from a gear shift. Enter Tara Marx. She's six feet of big, bad, booty-kicking fearlessness, and she needs Ben on her mission ASAP. Guilty Pleasures - Karen Kelley Computer entrepreneur Alex Cannedy loves women - the way they move, talk, smell...and other things. He'd love to get to show Kagen Yates a good time, but his sister has declared the wealthy designer off-limits. She even makes him pinkie-swear not to so much as wink at the hot babe who's had her heart broken by men just like Alex. But Alex has no idea how his resolve, will be tested. Kagen has plans of her own.
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This book picks up right where Bailey's first book left off and succinctly guides one through all the steps necessary to nurture and train a finished gun dog of any breed. By spending 10 minutes a day with your dog you will learn: How to force retrieve train with little or no pain; how to control your dog at all times; how steady to wing & shot are made easier..
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Master Shots gives filmmakers the techniques they need to execute complex, original shots on any budget. By using powerful master shots and well-executed moves, directors can develop a strong style and stand out from the crowd. Most low-budget movies look low-budget because the director is forced to compromise at the last minute. Master Shots gives you so many powerful techniques that youll be able to respond, even under pressure, and create knock-out shots. Even when the clock is ticking and the light is fading, the techniques in this book can rescue your film and make every shot look like it cost a fortune. Each technique is illustrated with samples from great feature films and computer-generated diagrams for absolute clarity..
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Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. In Expensive People, Oates takes a provocative and suspenseful look at the roiling secrets of America’s affluent suburbs. Set in the late 1960s, this first-person confession is narrated by Richard Everett, a precocious and obese boy who sees himself as a minor character in the alarming drama unfolding around him.

Fascinated by yet alienated from his attractive, self-absorbed parents and the privileged world they inhabit, Richard incisively analyzes his own mismanaged childhood, his pretentious private schooling, his “successful-executive” father, and his elusive mother. In an act of defiance and desperation, eleven-year-old Richard strikes out in a way that presages the violence of ever-younger Americans in the turbulent decades to come.

A National Book Award finalist, Expensive People is a stunning combination of social satire and gothic horror. “You cannot put this novel away after you have opened it,” said The Detroit News. “This is that kind of book–hypnotic, fascinating, and electrifying.”

Expensive People is the second novel in the Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, A Garden of Earthly Delights, them, and Wonderland, are also available from the Modern Library..
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