Some Books about Audacious - Happy Audacious Reading!

Based on unprecedented access he received to the highly secretive "Googleplex," acclaimed New York Times columnist Randall Stross takes readers deep inside Google, the most important, most innovative, and most ambitious company of the Internet Age. His revelations demystify the strategy behind the company's recent flurry of bold moves, all driven by the pursuit of a business plan unlike any other: to become the indispensable gatekeeper of all the world's information, the one-stop destination for all our information needs. Will Google succeed? And what are the implications of a single company commanding so much information and knowing so much about us?

As ambitious as Google's goal is, with 68 percent of all Web searches (and growing), profits that are the envy of the business world, and a surplus of talent, the company is, Stross shows, well along the way to fulfilling its ambition, becoming as dominant a force on the Web as Microsoft became on the PC. Google isn't just a superior search service anymore. In recent years it has launched a dizzying array of new services and advanced into whole new businesses, from the introductions of its controversial Book Search and the irresistible Google Earth, to bidding for a slice of the wireless-phone spectrum and nonchalantly purchasing YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Google has also taken direct aim at Microsoft's core business, offering free e-mail and software from word processing to spreadsheets and calendars, pushing a transformative -- and highly disruptive -- concept known as "cloud computing." According to this plan, users will increasingly store all of their data on Google's massive servers -- a network of a million computers that amounts to the world's largest supercomputer, with unlimited capacity to house all the information Google seeks.

The more offerings Google adds, and the more ubiquitous a presence it becomes, the more dependent its users become on its services and the more information they contribute to its uniquely comprehensive collection of data. Will Google stay true to its famous "Don't Be Evil" mantra, using its power in its customers' best interests?

Stross's access to those who have spearheaded so many of Google's new initiatives, his penetrating research into the company's strategy, and his gift for lively storytelling produce an entertaining, deeply informed, and provocative examination of the company's audacious vision for the future and the consequences not only for the business world, but for our culture at large..
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There will never be another surfer like Miki 'Da Cat' Dora. No one. Not even close. Dora was surfing's most outspoken practitioner, charismatic prince, chief antihero, committed loner, and enduring mystery. From the early 1950s through the early 1970s, this enigmatic rebel with movie star looks and a restless intelligence dominated the Malibu waves and his peers' imaginations -- both on and off the beach -- blazing a singular trail that would inspire generations to come.

But when, post-Gidget, the sport exploded into the mainstream in 1959-60, and surfing changed forever -- many say for the worse -- Dora's paradise was lost.

Outraged at gridlocked swells and a scene that had grown ever more commodified, as well as what he perceived as society's inevitable corruption and compromise, Dora eventually fled Malibu, seeking empty waves - and anonymity - beyond America. He'd also run afoul of the law, and he led the authorities on a seven-year chase around the globe. After his arrest in 1981, and some jail time, he left America, returning once in a while to visit, but never again to live -- and in the end (2001) only to die.

Dora would never give up searching for the spirit of the Malibu he'd lost, or for the freedom to live as he chose. Wherever he made his home - New Zealand, South Africa, France - he personified the rebel heart of surfing and, unlike other wavemasters, became a legend in his own time.

This brilliant oral/narrative biography is based on interviews with more than three hundred people who knew Dora, as well as the author's own encounters with him. It uncovers more truth than thought possible about surfing's most seductive and complicated icon. It is the story of one man's insistence on personal freedom, and the rewards and the costs that brings. It is also a story of innocence lost, of the growth and commercialization of the post WWII California lifestyle.

Loner. Rebel. Outlaw. Wanderer. Legend. The life of Miki Dora is the greatest surf story never told. It's all about surfing, and not about surfing at all..
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Eleven-year-old Cornelia is the daughter of two world-famous pianists—a legacy that should feel fabulous, but instead feels just plain lonely. She surrounds herself with dictionaries and other books to isolate herself from the outside world. But when a glamorous neighbor named Virginia Somerset moves next door with her servant Patel and a mischievous French bulldog named Mister Kinyatta, Cornelia discovers that the world is a much more exciting place than she had originally thought.

An unforgettable story of friendship and adventure that takes readers around the world and back again, Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters is a dazzling first novel by Lesley M. M. Blume.


From the Hardcover edition..
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A book that challenges Christians to take bold moves in connecting with God and to move beyond trendy Christianity to a meaningful relationship. Through forty-one days of spiritual practice, Bruce Epperly guides the reader by using both traditional and creative, adventurous experiences. Theological reflections, spiritual affirmations, imaginative prayers, and adventurous actions are all part of this day-by-day guide to spiritual adventure..
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Denys Finch Hatton was adored by women and idolized by men. A champion of Africa, legendary for his good looks, his charm, and his prowess as a soldier, lover, and hunter, Finch Hatton inspired Karen Blixen to write the unforgettable stories in Out of Africa. Now esteemed British biographer Sara Wheeler tells the truth about this extraordinarily charismatic adventurer.

Born to an old aristocratic family that had gambled away most of its fortune, Finch Hatton grew up in a world of effortless elegance and boundless power. Tall and graceful, with the soul of a poet and an athlete’s relaxed masculinity, he became a hero without trying at Eton and Oxford. In 1910, searching for novelty and danger, Finch Hatton arrived in British East Africa and fell in love–with a continent, with a landscape, with a way of life that was about to change forever.

Wheeler brilliantly conjures the mystical beauty of Kenya at a time when teeming herds of wild animals roamed unmolested across pristine savannah. No one was more deeply attuned to this beauty than Finch Hatton–and no one more bitterly mourned its passing when the outbreak of World War I engulfed the region in a protracted, bloody guerrilla conflict. Finch Hatton was serving as a captain in the Allied forces when he met Karen Blixen in Nairobi and embarked on one of the great love affairs of the twentieth century.

With delicacy and grace, Wheeler teases out truth from fiction in the liaison that Blixen herself immortalized in Out of Africa. Intellectual equals, bound by their love for the continent and their inimitable sense of style, Finch Hatton and Blixen were genuine pioneers in a land that was quickly being transformed by violence, greed, and bigotry.
Ever restless, Finch Hatton wandered into a career as a big-game hunter and became an expert bush pilot; his passion that led to his affair with the notoriously unconventional aviatrix Beryl Markham. But Markham was no more able to hold him than Blixen had been. Mesmerized all his life by the allure of freedom and danger, Finch Hatton was, writes Wheeler, “the open road made flesh.”

In painting a portrait of an irresistible man, Sara Wheeler has beautifully captured the heady glamour of the vanished paradise of colonial East Africa. In Too Close to the Sun she has crafted a book that is as ravishing as its subject..
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You can't keep a good woman down-Kris Longknife returns

Once again Kris finds herself caught in the crosshairs of unknown enemies who want her dead. Factions, both legitimate and underground, vie for control of the planet New Eden. And someone is taking advantage of the chaos to unleash a personal vendetta against Kris..
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Listen ... think ... and LAUGH! Our audiopuzzles offer wholesome, educational fun for your entire family. This set includes brainteasers, logic puzzles, and lateral thinking puzzles Keep score to see who can solve the most audiopuzzles, or collaborate to solve the audiopuzzles together. Set of 2 audio CDs; a total of 40 audiopuzzles..
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Audacious (noun): 1. intrepidly daring, adventurous, bold, 2. marked by originality and verve. It’s the way to be. Your success in life depends on how creative you are and on how willing you are to act boldly on your creative ideas. Meet 30 notable professionals (including bestselling authors, well-known speakers, career and life coaches, spiritual teachers, business leaders, healers, therapists, musicians, actors, and artists) whose audacious creativity has touched the lives of millions of people. From them, you’ll learn how to make better decisions, design a vision for a fulfilling future, overcome the fear of self-expression, access your inner genius, get into the flow of universal energy, manifest wealth, raise good kids, enjoy optimal health, and lead an energized lifestyle. As you read their stories, sometimes you’ll be moved to tears, other times to laughter. At the end, you’ll be ready to shine your bright light in the world—audaciously..
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The story of how a criminal Shangri-La almost happened

In 1981, a small but heavily armed force of misfits from the United States and Canada set off on an unlikely mission: to invade the impoverished Caribbean island of Dominica, overthrow its government in a coup d'etat, and install a new bought-off prime minister. For two years, the gangleaders recruited manpower, wooed investors, forged links with the mob, stockpiled weapons, and planned their assault. They called it Operation Red Dog. They were going to make millions. All that stood in their way were two federal agents from Louisiana on the biggest case of their lives. Bayou of Pigs tells a remarkable story of foreign military intervention, revolutionary politics, greed, treachery, stupidity, deceit, and one of the most outlandish crimes ever attempted: the theft of a nation.

Stewart Bell (Toronto, ON) is the author of Cold Terror (978-0-470-84056-6)..
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GOD'S HEALTH PLAN - THE AUDACIOUS JOURNEY TO A BETTER LIFE A Principle Approach® Study to Food, Health Care & Environmental Issues By Ricki Pepin A desperate Mom is willing to do a lot for a chronically ill child. After 12 years of disabling, undiagnosed sickness for her son, the author had all but lost hope. She began her own research to find relief for her child, unaware of the vast scope of the journey before her. Sickness carries not only physical, but spiritual roots. Health encompasses not just diet, but lifestyle choices, medical decisions and environmental issues. The solution to her son's dilemma came through prayer, study and application of seven biblical principles. God's health plan is about wholeness and restoration; adding life to your years, not just years to your life. It's not what you have to do. It's what you can do. God's health plan is not a destination. It's a daily journey - a sometimes audacious journey. Are you ready to begin yours? ".This book would be a valuable reference to anyone who wants to understand God's principles of health." - Bill Gothard, President - Institute in Basic Life Principles ".you will learn to better understand your God-designed body and how to care for it." - Dr. Bill Sears, widely known as "America's Pediatrician" Ricki Pepin is a wife, mother and grandmother. A former homeschool teacher to her children, she was introduced to the Principle Approach® to education in 1991 and developed an enthusiastic vision for entire families to learn and apply the seven principles to every area of their lives. She does not set herself up as an expert on health, but rather equips the reader with the tools necessary to search out their own answers, as she did. Her excitement and hope are contagious as she spreads the message of personal and corporate stewardship practices that can change individual's lives and make this earth a healthier place for our great-great-grandchildren..
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