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The Hardy boys, undercover brothers

by Andre Norton, George Plimpton, Jeff Kinney, Fern Michaels, Frederick Barthelme
Minsik readers
0.0
0 ratings
Other platforms
4.5
120 ratings
2
BOOKS
157
PAGES
~2h 37min
READING TIME

About Author

Andre Norton

Andre Norton was born Alice Mary Norton in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of rug company owner and his wife. She began writing while she was in high school, and she was the editor of a literary page in the school's paper. She also wrote her first novel, Ralestone Luck, which was published in 1938. Her first published novel was The Prince Commands (1934). She graduated from high school in 1930 and began studying teaching at Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University. In 1932 she dropped out early due to economic conditions and began working for the Cleveland Library System. In 1934, she legally changed her name to Andre Alice Norton, the pen name she had adopted to increase her marketability since boys were the main audience for fantasy. In 1941, she bought a bookstore called the Mystery House in Mount Rainier, Maryland, but the business failed and she returned to the Cleveland Public Library. In 1950 she became a reader for the Gnome Press Co. In 1958 she became a full-time author. In 1966 she moved to Florida for health reasons, and then to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In 1977, she received the Gandalf Grand Master Award from the World Science Fiction Society, and in 1983 she received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She died in March of 2005 of congestive heart failure. She has been called the Grande Dame of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Over the course of her career, she published over 300 published titles read by four generations. Shortly after her death, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America created the Andre Norton Award for outstanding work of fantasy or science fiction for Young Adults.

Description

George Plimpton is embarrassed. The noted amateur of odd sporting experience has lost one horseshoe match to George Bush, a match that was as much a test of wills as of skills. Now Bush has invited him back for a rematch. How to avoid humiliation the second time? What is that quality - we'll call it the X Factor - that all winners, from famous athletes to successful CEOs, seem to possess? Plimpton sets out to find it. The quest for this elusive ingredient is both hilarious and informative, leading from the locker room to the boardroom, with several strange stops in between. Plimpton corners superstars like Bill Russell and Billie Jean King, famous coaches, the chairman of American Express, sports doctors, and M & A king Henry Kravis, and puts the same question to all of them: What is it that allows an individual, or a team, to outperform competitors who are no less gifted, mentally and physically? Their answers run the gamut from motivational rage to new-age meditation, and Plimpton slowly pieces together a definition of this mysterious winning quality.

How the series evolves

beginning
#1 The X-Factor
4.0· strong start
finale
#26 Double down
4.5· sticks the landing
overall
4.2· getting stronger with each book

Books in this Series

#1

The X-Factor

Andre Norton, George Plimpton
4.0 (1)
0

George Plimpton is embarrassed. The noted amateur of odd sporting experience has lost one horseshoe match to George Bush, a match that was as much a test of wills as of skills. Now Bush has invited him back for a rematch. How to avoid humiliation the second time? What is that quality - we'll call it the X Factor - that all winners, from famous athletes to successful CEOs, seem to possess? Plimpton sets out to find it. The quest for this elusive ingredient is both hilarious and informative, leading from the locker room to the boardroom, with several strange stops in between. Plimpton corners superstars like Bill Russell and Billie Jean King, famous coaches, the chairman of American Express, sports doctors, and M & A king Henry Kravis, and puts the same question to all of them: What is it that allows an individual, or a team, to outperform competitors who are no less gifted, mentally and physically? Their answers run the gamut from motivational rage to new-age meditation, and Plimpton slowly pieces together a definition of this mysterious winning quality.

#26

Double down

Jeff Kinney, Fern Michaels, Frederick Barthelme
4.5 (119)
4

"This first nonfiction book by Frederick Barthelme, author of Bob the Gambler, and his brother and colleague Steven is both a story of family feeling and a testimony to the risky allure of casinos."--BOOK JACKET. "Within a year and a half, the authors had lost both of their parents, less than a decade after their brother Donald died. What followed was a several-year escapade during which the two brothers lost close to a quarter million dollars in the gambling boats off the Mississippi coast. Then, in a bizarre twist, they were charged with violating state gambling laws, fingerprinted, and thrown into the surreal world of felony prosecution. For two years these widely publicized charges hung over their heads, shadowing their every step, until, in August of 1999, the charges were finally dismissed."--BOOK JACKET. "Double Down is the story of how Frederick and Steven Barthelme got into this predicament. It is also a reflection on the pull and power of illusions, the way they work on us when we are not vigilant."--BOOK JACKET.