Social Games

Tom Bissell is a prizewinning writer who published three widely acclaimed books before the age of 34. He is also an obsessive gamer who has spent untold hours in front of his various video game consoles, playing titles such as Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, BioShock, and Oblivion for, literally, days. If you are reading this copy, the same thing can probably be said of you, or of someone you know.

Become a master of Spades and dominate every game! Have you always been enthralled by the game of Spades? Do you wish you could find a resource to explain it in detail? Are you sick and tired of losing and prepared to take over every game like the boss you know you can be? This clear and concise guide will take you by the hand and show you the A to Z of Spades. It will demystify every concept and show you how to walk away from most tables holding your head high because you’ve won a game for the umpteenth time. In this book, you will: Discover the fascinating origins of the game of Spades....

For more than a decade, New York University president John Sexton has used baseball to illustrate the elements of a spiritual life in a wildly popular course at NYU. Using great works of baseball literature as well as the actual game’s fantastic moments, its legendary characters, and its routine rituals - from the long-sought triumph of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers to the heroic achievements of players like the saintly Christy Mathewson and the sinful Ty Cobb to the loving intimacy of a game of catch between a father and son - Sexton teaches that through the game we can touch the spiritual dimensions of life.

One Friday morning, Annabel's wish comes true when she wakes up and realizes she's turned into her mother! But after a major washing-machine mishap, losing Ape Face, and a terrible teacher conference, Annabel starts to suspect that being an adult is not as much fun as it seems. One thing's for certain: this is one freaky Friday she'll never forget!

With remembrances from J. K. Rowling's editors, agents, publicists, fans, and Rowling herself, Melissa Anelli takes us on a personal journey through every aspect of the Harry Potter phenomenon - from his very first spell to his lasting impact on the way we live and dream.

Lose weight. Act confident. Play hard to get. This approach to dating doesn't lead to love; it leads to insecurity and loneliness. In Deeper Dating, psychotherapist Ken Page offers a new path to finding meaningful and lasting relationships. Learn how to attract people who love you for who you really are, become more self-assured and emotionally available, and lose your taste for relationships that diminish your self-esteem.

Der liebenswürdige Schneemann Olaf aus Arendelle liebt es zu lesen. Eines Tages erhält Olaf eine unerwartete Nachricht und begibt sich mit seinen Freunden Anna, Kristoff und Sven auf eine Mission zum Haus Biblio–einem Ort, der als "Meer aus Geschichten" beschrieben wird. In diesem Audible Original begleiten wir die Freunde dabei, wie sie Berge überqueren, unter Brücken nach Monstern suchen und mit freundlichen Schafen plaudern. Unterwegs findet Olaf neue Freunde und hört jede Menge aufregende Geschichten.

One of Michiko Kakutani's (New York Times) top 10 books of 2016. A funny thing happened on the way to the digital utopia. We've begun to fall back in love with the very analog goods and ideas the tech gurus insisted that we no longer needed. Businesses that once looked outdated, from film photography to brick-and-mortar retail, are now springing with new life. Notebooks, records, and stationery have become cool again.

This book is a collection of stories revolving around language by a seasoned conference interpreter and former chief interpreter in the United Nations system. Ewandro Magalhaes shares actionable career insights and offers an insider’s look into practical and historical aspects of one of the most exciting and stressful professions known to man.

From a new coach's flagrant racism to a teammate's endless sabotage, best friends Andi Carillo and Jeff Michaels start basketball season mired in controversy. To make matters worse, the local media smells more than one juicy story. Will Andi and Jeff be able to help each other power through and find a way to put both their teams back on track?

In the topsy-turvy world of tax avoidance, you can get richer by buying a yacht, the world's biggest exporter of coffee is Switzerland, and the Duke of Westminster pays less tax than you do. Written with sharp wit and over-brimming with inside secrets, the anonymous authorxshows us that not only does the global tax system encourage dubious practice which favours the rich, but that it was specifically founded with that in mind.

More than just a simple journey through the history of Pokémon, Daniel Dockery offers an in-depth look at the franchise’s many branches of impact and influence. With dozens of firsthand interviews, Monster Kids covers its beginnings as a Japanese video game created to recapture one man's love of bug-collecting as a child before diving into the decisions and conditions that would ultimately lead to that game's global domination.

Here's the perfect book for every boy from eight to 80. Recapture Sunday afternoons and long summer days. This is a wonderful collection of all things that make being young, or young at heart, fun.

Is English an innately playful language? Are word games good for you? Do we divide into number and word players? And could Scrabble have been invented in any other language?

Set against the backdrop of the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s, this compelling audiobook provides the first comprehensive history of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, notorious for the abduction of Israeli Olympians by Palestinian terrorists and the hostages' tragic deaths after a botched rescue mission by the German police. Drawing on a wealth of newly available sources from the time, eminent historian David Clay Large explores the 1972 festival in all its ramifications.

Jude is determined to fly under the radar. He just wants to draw comics, host D&D night with his friends, work at his parents’ vinyl record store, and escape high school as unscathed as possible. That is, until the night he finds himself inexplicably gifted with a bout of supernatural good luck. Suddenly, everything Jude has ever wanted is within reach. His art is being published. He helps his friend’s song become a finalist in a songwriting competition. And he wins a pair of coveted concert tickets, which he can use to ask out the popular girl he’s been crushing on since elementary school.

Olaf, l'adorabile pupazzo di neve di Arendelle, ama leggere. Un giorno, un messaggio inatteso porta Olaf e i suoi amici, Anna, Kristoff e Sven ad affrontare un'impresa verso un luogo conosciuto come Haus Biblio, descritto come "un mare di storie". Questo Audible Original racconta il viaggio che il gruppo di amici compie alla volta della Haus Biblio, oltrepassando montagne, alla ricerca di mostri sotto ai ponti e chiacchierando con affabili pecore. Nel viaggio, Olaf stringe nuove amicizie e ascolta tante storie entusiasmanti.

From its unassuming beginnings as a casual home game between friends to the role-playing phenomenon it is today, Critical Role has become the stuff of legend. These pages chronicle how a circle of friends who all happen to be talented voice actors built the most-watched tabletop role-playing livestream of all time.

Sophomore high school student Lorali Mathews has one goal: win a scholarship to play volleyball at a Division One school. The only thing standing in her way? A losing streak. A toxic teammate. A murderous man. A distracting boy. Yucky kale chips .... oh yeah, and about four inches in height.And it doesn't help that her aunt-- who inspired her love for volleyball-- passed away in an unfortunate accident. What good will Lorali do to her aunt's legacy if she doesn't take her dreams all the way to college? But with a teammate harboring a dangerous secret, one that could endanger that teammate's...

Blocked. Deleted. Dead. In a futuristic society where, online popularity determines social status, talentless seventeen-year-old Alexa just can't hack her senior year of high school. She'll never live up to the expectations of her overbearing, image-obsessed mother, her classmates' perfectly curated social media feeds, or her world's strict rules surrounding likes and follows. Unfortunately, Alexa's government is a vicious algorithm that demands to be fed. There's no room for teenage outcasts in Kora High, where trolls, unfollows, and cancel culture bring on real-world punishments. So, ...