{"title":"Neal Thompson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"driving-with-the-devil-book-neal-thompson-9781400082261","title":"Driving with the Devil","description":"The true story behind NASCAR’s hardscrabble, moonshine-fueled origins, “fascinating and fast-moving . . . even if you don’t know a master cylinder from a head gasket” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).   “[Neal] Thompson exhumes the sport’s Prohibition-era roots in this colorful, meticulously detailed history.”—Time   Today’s NASCAR—equal parts Disney, Vegas, and Barnum \u0026amp; Bailey—is a multibillion-dollar conglomeration with 80 million fans, half of them women, that grows bigger and more mainstream by the day. Long before the sport’s rampant commercialism lurks a distant history of dark secrets that have been carefully hidden from view—until now.    In the Depression-wracked South, with few options beyond the factory or farm, a Ford V-8 became the ticket to a better life. Bootlegging offered speed, adventure, and wads of cash. Driving with the Devil reveals how the skills needed to outrun federal agents with a load of corn liquor transferred perfectly to the red-dirt racetracks of Dixie. In this dynamic era (the 1930s and ’40s), three men with a passion for Ford V-8s—convicted felon Raymond Parks, foul-mouthed mechanic Red Vogt, and war veteran Red Byron, NASCAR’s first champ—emerged as the first stock car “team.” Theirs is the violent, poignant story of how moonshine and fast cars merged to create a sport for the South to call its own.    In the tradition of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, this tale captures a bygone era of a beloved sport and the character of the country at a moment in time.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49533441704209,"sku":"GOR004055154","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49654819291409,"sku":"GOR013274501","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49727064539409,"sku":"CIN1400082269G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50406778175761,"sku":"CIN1400082269VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50488102060305,"sku":"CIN1400082269A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53390226227473,"sku":"GOR005750114","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1400082269.jpg?v=1750712427"},{"product_id":"first-kennedys-book-neal-thompson-9780063268593","title":"The First Kennedys","description":"Her rise from housemaid to shop owner in the face of rampant poverty and discrimination kept her family intact, allowing her only son P.J. went on to become the first American Kennedy elected to public officethe first of many.Written by the grandson of an Irish immigrant couple and based on first-ever access to P.J.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49541475205393,"sku":"GOR013455440","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50924284248337,"sku":"GOR014125964","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50940483731729,"sku":"CIN0063268590G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999228236049,"sku":"NIN9780063268593","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51322405912849,"sku":"CIN0063268590VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0063268590.jpg?v=1751441697"},{"product_id":"light-this-candle-book-neal-thompson-9780609610015","title":"Light This Candle","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book reports on cutting-edge research and best practices in the broad fiel of biomedical engineering. Based on the XLVI Mexican Congress on Biomedical Engineering, CNIB 2023, held on November 2-4, 2023 in Villahermosa Tabasco, Mexico, this second volume of the proceedings covers research topics in biomechanics, materials and engineering design and manufacturing, with applications in prostheses design and development, tissue engineering, medical device assessment and healthcare management. All in all, this book provides a timely snapshot on state-of-the-art achievements in biomedical engineering and current challenges in the field. It addresses both researchers and professionals, and it is expect to foster future collaborations between the two groups, as well as international collaborations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49555037487377,"sku":"GOR004807596","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49632650330385,"sku":"GOR011623935","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50284019450129,"sku":"CIN0609610015VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50353370923281,"sku":"CIN0609610015A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51692213928209,"sku":"CIN0609610015G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0609610015.jpg?v=1751073509"},{"product_id":"first-kennedys-book-neal-thompson-9780358437697","title":"The First Kennedys","description":"Her rise from housemaid to shop owner in the face of rampant poverty and discrimination kept her family intact, allowing her only son P.J. went on to become the first American Kennedy elected to public officethe first of many.Written by the grandson of an Irish immigrant couple and based on first-ever access to P.J.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49568358727953,"sku":"GOR013379718","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50211594371345,"sku":"CIN0358437695VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50292188872977,"sku":"GOR012792615","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50350179385617,"sku":"CIN0358437695A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50350183514385,"sku":"CIN0358437695G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0358437695.jpg?v=1750844826"},{"product_id":"curious-man-book-neal-thompson-9781847947208","title":"A Curious Man","description":"Bucktoothed and hampered by shyness, Robert Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation of the weird and wonderful. Ripley delighted in making preposterous declarations that somehow turned out to be true - such as that Charles Lindburgh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49586344624401,"sku":"GOR005225939","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49801579102481,"sku":"CIN1847947204G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1847947204.jpg?v=1751346186"},{"product_id":"curious-man-book-neal-thompson-9780770436223","title":"A Curious Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Curious Man\u003c\/i\u003e is the marvelously compelling biography of Robert Believe It or Not Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist turned globetrotting millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world's strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs portrayed by acclaimed biographer Neal Thompson, Ripley's life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Buck-toothed and cursed by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation for the strangeness of the world. After selling his first cartoon to \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003emagazine at age eighteen, more cartooning triumphs followed, but it was his Believe It or Not conceit and the wildly popular radio shows it birthed that would make him one of the most successful entertainment figures of his time and spur him to search the globe's farthest corners for bizarre facts, exotic human curiosities, and shocking phenomena. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRipley delighted in making outrageous declarations that somehow always turned out to be true--such as that Charles Lindbergh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic or that The Star Spangled Banner was \u003ci\u003enot \u003c\/i\u003ethe national anthem. Assisted by an exotic harem of female admirers and by ex-banker Norbert Pearlroth, a devoted researcher who spoke eleven languages, Ripley simultaneously embodied the spirit of Peter Pan, the fearlessness of Marco Polo and the marketing savvy of P. T. Barnum. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a very real sense, Ripley sought to remake the world's aesthetic. He demanded respect for those who were labeled eccentrics or freaks--whether it be E. L. Blystone, who wrote 1,615 alphabet letters on a grain of rice, or the man who could swallow his own nose. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy the 1930s Ripley possessed a vast fortune, a private yacht, and a twenty-eight room mansion stocked with such oddities as shrunken heads and medieval torture devices, and his pioneering firsts in print, radio, and television were tapping into something deep in the American consciousness--a taste for the titillating and exotic, and a fascination with the fastest, biggest, dumbest and most weird. Today, that legacy continues and can be seen in reality TV, YouTube, \u003ci\u003eAmerica's Funniest Home Videos, Jackass, MythBusters\u003c\/i\u003e and a host of other pop-culture phenomena. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the end Robert L. Ripley changed \u003ci\u003eeverything. \u003c\/i\u003eThe supreme irony of his life, which was dedicated to exalting the strange and unusual, is that he may have been the most amazing oddity of all. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49635141878033,"sku":"GOR008001140","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50406731972881,"sku":"CIN0770436226VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52105034563857,"sku":"CIN0770436226G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52740016341265,"sku":"NIN9780770436223","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0770436226.jpg?v=1750946074"},{"product_id":"kickflip-boys-book-neal-thompson-9780062394347","title":"Kickflip Boys","description":"“Thompson captures the ache, fizz, yearning and frustration of being the father of adolescent boys.” —Michael Chabon  “What a riveting, touching, and painful read!” —Maria Semple  “Fun, moving, raw, and relatable.” —Tony Hawk    What makes a good father, and what makes one a failure? Does less-is-more parenting inspire independence and strength, or does it encourage defiance and  trouble? Kickflip Boys is the story of a father’s struggle to understand his willful skateboarder sons, challengers of authority and convention, to accept his role as a vulnerable “skate dad,” and to confront his fears that the boys are destined for an unconventional and potentially fraught future.  With searing honesty, Neal Thompson traces his sons’ progression through all the stages of skateboarding: splurging on skate shoes and boards, having run-ins with security guards, skipping classes and defying teachers, painting graffiti, drinking and smoking, and more. As the story veers from funny to treacherous and back, from skateparks to the streets, Thompson must confront his complicity and fallibility. He also reflects on his upbringing in rural New Jersey, and his own adventures with skateboards, drugs, danger, and defiance.   A story of thrill-seeking teens, of hope and love, freedom and failure, Kickflip Boys reveals a sport and a community that have become a refuge for adolescent boys who don’t fit in. Ultimately, it’s the survival story of a loving modern American family, of acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49659378368785,"sku":"GOR010355100","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343170900241,"sku":"CIN0062394347G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062394347.jpg?v=1751257929"},{"product_id":"light-this-candle-book-neal-thompson-9781400081226","title":"Light This Candle","description":"lan Shepard was the brashest, cockiest, and most flamboyant of America's original Mercury Seven, but he was also regarded as the best. Intense, colorful, and dramatic--the man who hit a golf ball on the moon--he was among the most private of America's public figures and, until his death in 1998, he guarded the story of his life zealously. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eLight This Candle\u003c\/b\u003e, based on Neal Thompson's exclusive access to private papers and interviews with Shepard's family and closest friends--including John Glenn, Wally Schirra, and Gordon Cooper--offers a riveting, action-packed account of Shepard's life. Among the first men to fly off aircraft carriers, he was one of the most fearless test pilots. He endured long separations from his devoted wife and three daughters to fly dangerous missions, working his way up the ranks despite clashes with authority over his brazen flying maneuvers and penchant for risky pranks. Hugely competitive, he beat out John Glenn for the first Mercury spaceflight and then overcame a rare illness to return to space again on Apollo 14. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHe took every challenge head-on and seemed to win every time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLong overdue, \u003cb\u003eLight This Candle\u003c\/b\u003e is a candid and inspiring account of a bold American life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49660590784785,"sku":"GOR006028084","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49724576563473,"sku":"CIN140008122XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50137043730705,"sku":"GOR002144945","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50958206894353,"sku":"CIN140008122XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51024405102865,"sku":"NIN9781400081226","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53497938182417,"sku":"CIN140008122XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/140008122X.jpg?v=1751177888"},{"product_id":"driving-with-the-devil-book-neal-thompson-9781400082254","title":"Driving with the Devil","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49902182301969,"sku":"CIN1400082250G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50275702243601,"sku":"CIN1400082250VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52413071261969,"sku":"CIN1400082250A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53176966578449,"sku":"GOR007449552","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1400082250.jpg?v=1751018181"},{"product_id":"a-curious-man-the-strange-brilliant-life-of-robert-believe-it-or-not-ripley-cd-9780385366373","title":"A Curious Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Curious Man\u003c\/i\u003e is the marvelously compelling biography of Robert Believe It or Not Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist turned globetrotting millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world's strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs portrayed by acclaimed biographer Neal Thompson, Ripley's life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Buck-toothed and cursed by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation for the strangeness of the world. After selling his first cartoon to \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003emagazine at age eighteen, more cartooning triumphs followed, but it was his Believe It or Not conceit and the wildly popular radio shows it birthed that would make him one of the most successful entertainment figures of his time and spur him to search the globe's farthest corners for bizarre facts, exotic human curiosities, and shocking phenomena. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRipley delighted in making outrageous declarations that somehow always turned out to be true--such as that Charles Lindbergh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic or that The Star Spangled Banner was \u003ci\u003enot \u003c\/i\u003ethe national anthem. Assisted by an exotic harem of female admirers and by ex-banker Norbert Pearlroth, a devoted researcher who spoke eleven languages, Ripley simultaneously embodied the spirit of Peter Pan, the fearlessness of Marco Polo and the marketing savvy of P. T. Barnum. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a very real sense, Ripley sought to remake the world's aesthetic. He demanded respect for those who were labeled eccentrics or freaks--whether it be E. L. Blystone, who wrote 1,615 alphabet letters on a grain of rice, or the man who could swallow his own nose. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy the 1930s Ripley possessed a vast fortune, a private yacht, and a twenty-eight room mansion stocked with such oddities as shrunken heads and medieval torture devices, and his pioneering firsts in print, radio, and television were tapping into something deep in the American consciousness--a taste for the titillating and exotic, and a fascination with the fastest, biggest, dumbest and most weird. Today, that legacy continues and can be seen in reality TV, YouTube, \u003ci\u003eAmerica's Funniest Home Videos, Jackass, MythBusters\u003c\/i\u003e and a host of other pop-culture phenomena. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the end Robert L. Ripley changed \u003ci\u003eeverything. \u003c\/i\u003eThe supreme irony of his life, which was dedicated to exalting the strange and unusual, is that he may have been the most amazing oddity of all. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50335269060881,"sku":"CIN038536637XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50352615489809,"sku":"CIN038536637XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/038536637X.jpg?v=1751038479"},{"product_id":"kickflip-boys-a-memoir-of-freedom-rebellion-and-the-chaos-of-fatherhood-book-neal-thompson-9780062394361","title":"Kickflip Boys: A Memoir of Freedom, Rebellion, and the Chaos of Fatherhood","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Thompson captures the ache, fizz, yearning and frustration of being the father of adolescent boys.\" --Michael Chabon\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"What a riveting, touching, and painful read!\" --Maria Semple\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Fun, moving, raw, and relatable.\" --Tony Hawk\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhat makes a good father, and what makes one a failure? Does less-is-more parenting inspire independence and strength, or does it encourage defiance and  trouble? Kickflip Boys is the story of a father's struggle to understand his willful skateboarder sons, challengers of authority and convention, to accept his role as a vulnerable \"skate dad,\" and to confront his fears that the boys are destined for an unconventional and potentially fraught future.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith searing honesty, Neal Thompson traces his sons' progression through all the stages of skateboarding: splurging on skate shoes and boards, having run-ins with security guards, skipping classes and defying teachers, painting graffiti, drinking and smoking, and more. As the story veers from funny to treacherous and back, from skateparks to the streets, Thompson must confront his complicity and fallibility. He also reflects on his upbringing in rural New Jersey, and his own adventures with skateboards, drugs, danger, and defiance. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA story of thrill-seeking teens, of hope and love, freedom and failure, Kickflip Boys reveals a sport and a community that have become a refuge for adolescent boys who don't fit in. Ultimately, it's the survival story of a loving modern American family, of acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343455064337,"sku":"CIN0062394363G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52538821542161,"sku":"NLS9780062394361","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52734394138897,"sku":"NIN9780062394361","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062394363.jpg?v=1751226352"},{"product_id":"hurricane-season-book-neal-thompson-9781416540700","title":"Hurricane Season","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50373586813201,"sku":"CIN1416540709G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50649786417425,"sku":"CIN1416540709VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1416540709.jpg?v=1750921970"},{"product_id":"curious-man-book-neal-thompson-9780770436209","title":"A Curious Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Curious Man\u003c\/i\u003e is the marvelously compelling biography of Robert Believe It or Not Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist turned globetrotting millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world's strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs portrayed by acclaimed biographer Neal Thompson, Ripley's life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Buck-toothed and cursed by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation for the strangeness of the world. After selling his first cartoon to \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003emagazine at age eighteen, more cartooning triumphs followed, but it was his Believe It or Not conceit and the wildly popular radio shows it birthed that would make him one of the most successful entertainment figures of his time and spur him to search the globe's farthest corners for bizarre facts, exotic human curiosities, and shocking phenomena. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRipley delighted in making outrageous declarations that somehow always turned out to be true--such as that Charles Lindbergh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic or that The Star Spangled Banner was \u003ci\u003enot \u003c\/i\u003ethe national anthem. Assisted by an exotic harem of female admirers and by ex-banker Norbert Pearlroth, a devoted researcher who spoke eleven languages, Ripley simultaneously embodied the spirit of Peter Pan, the fearlessness of Marco Polo and the marketing savvy of P. T. Barnum. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a very real sense, Ripley sought to remake the world's aesthetic. He demanded respect for those who were labeled eccentrics or freaks--whether it be E. L. Blystone, who wrote 1,615 alphabet letters on a grain of rice, or the man who could swallow his own nose. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy the 1930s Ripley possessed a vast fortune, a private yacht, and a twenty-eight room mansion stocked with such oddities as shrunken heads and medieval torture devices, and his pioneering firsts in print, radio, and television were tapping into something deep in the American consciousness--a taste for the titillating and exotic, and a fascination with the fastest, biggest, dumbest and most weird. Today, that legacy continues and can be seen in reality TV, YouTube, \u003ci\u003eAmerica's Funniest Home Videos, Jackass, MythBusters\u003c\/i\u003e and a host of other pop-culture phenomena. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the end Robert L. Ripley changed \u003ci\u003eeverything. \u003c\/i\u003eThe supreme irony of his life, which was dedicated to exalting the strange and unusual, is that he may have been the most amazing oddity of all. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50491813888273,"sku":"CIN077043620XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51148069699857,"sku":"CIN077043620XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52703343018257,"sku":"GOR008807338","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/077043620X.jpg?v=1751232174"},{"product_id":"winter-faith-book-neal-thompson-9781728345413","title":"Winter Faith","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51108518986001,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51108521148689,"sku":"NIN9781728345413","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52481047068945,"sku":"NLS9781728345413","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1728345413.jpg?v=1751090715"},{"product_id":"crazy-loves-crazy-book-neal-thompson-9781496933775","title":"Crazy Loves Crazy","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a true story about love and two friends trying to stop a gross miscarriage of justice- and losing. It has been nine-years since Mary disappeared and my life changed forever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52122153779473,"sku":"NLS9781496933775","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781496933775.jpg?v=1757438306"},{"product_id":"hurricane-season-book-neal-thompson-9781416540717","title":"Hurricane Season","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"There's always a point in the season when you're faced with a challenge and you see what you're capable of.\u003c\/b\u003e And you grow up.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e -- J.T. Curtis, head coach, John Curtis Christian School Patriots\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e On Saturday, August 27, 2005, the John Curtis Patriots met for a grueling practice in the late summer New Orleans sun, the air a visible fog of humidity. They had pulled off a 19-0 shutout in their pre-season game the night before, but it was a game full of dumb mistakes. Head coach J.T. Curtis was determined to drill those mistakes out of them before their highly anticipated next game, which sportswriters had dubbed \"the Battle of the Bayou\" against a big team coming in all the way from Utah. As fate played out, that afternoon was the last time the Patriots would see one another for weeks; some teammates they'd never see again. Hurricane Katrina was about to tear their lives apart.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Patriots are a most unlikely football dynasty. There is a small, nondescript, family-run school, the buildings constructed by hand by the school's founding patriarch, John Curtis Sr. In this era of high school football as big business with 20,000 seat stadiums, John Curtis has no stadium of its own. The team plays an old-school offense, and Coach Curtis insists on a no-cut policy, giving every kid who wants to play a chance. As of 2005, they'd won nineteen state championships in Curtis's thirty-five years of coaching, making him the second most winning high school coach ever. Curtis has honed to a fine art the skill of teaching players how to transcend their natural talents. No screamer, he strives to teach kids about playing with purpose, the power of respect, dignity, poise, patience, trust in teamwork, and the payoff of perseverance, showing them how to be winners not only on the gridiron, but in life, and making boys into men. Hurricane Katrina would put those lessons to the test of a lifetime.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eHurricane Season\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a great coach, his team, his family, and their school -- and a remarkable fight back from shocking tragedy. It is a story of football and faith, and of the transformative power of a team that rises above adversity, and above its own abilities, to come together again and prove what they're made of. It is the gripping story of how, as one player put it, \"football became my place of peace.\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52748869992721,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52748870254865,"sku":"NIN9781416540717","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781416540717.jpg?v=1767097403"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/de-de\/collections\/autor-buecher-von-neal-thompson.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}