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In the vein of Touching the Void and Between a Rock and a Hard Place, NOT WITHOUT HOPE (William Morrow; One Day Laydown March 2, 2010; Hardcover; $25.99; 246 pages; ISBN: 978-0-06-199399-2) by Nick Schuyler and Jere Longman is the true story of the headline-making tragedy that took the lives of three men (two of them promising NFL players) - a tale of survival and determination, friendship and loss, love and hope against unfathomable odds - told from the remarkable young man who alone survived.

What began as a relaxing fishing party became a harrowing tale of death and survival against almost impossible odds. On Saturday February 28, 2009, 24-year-old personal trainer, Nick Schuyler and three football friends - Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, 26, Detroit Lions defensive end Corey Smith, 29, and Will Bleakley, 25, a teammate from the University of South Florida - sailed away from Tampa Bay for a day of fun in the Gulf of Mexico.

But 35 miles off the coast of Florida, their 21-foot boat flipped, hurling the four athletes into the rough water. For more than 12 hours, the foursome gripped the boat as the temperature dropped to 60 degrees and the waves climbed to more than 10 feet. Donning the life jackets Bleakley bravely retrieved from inside the overturned craft, the friends passed the time swapping stories of loved ones and memories from the gridiron. Yet to Schuyler's horror, he watched as one by one, Marquis then Corey, and finally his best friend Will succumbed to hypothermia brought on by the choppy seas and cold temperatures. As the hours lengthened, Schuyler held two of the men in his arms as they passed, powerless to save them, and watched in horror another (delirious from the cruel effects of hypothermia) tear off his life jacket, and dive beneath the icy surface never to be seen again.

Left alone - cold, despondent, in pain, and exhausted - Schuyler remained at sea for more than forty hours (holding on to the sharp propeller, hoping against hope and clinging to the thought that he couldn't bear to have his mother attend his funeral) before the Coast Guard miraculously rescued him. NOT WITHOUT HOPE is much more than a story of survival. It is an inspiring story of friendship, resolve, and courage.

Nick Schuyler's ordeal made national headlines and the book's publication will coincide with the anniversary of the tragedy. Since the tragedy, Schuyler has formed the Nick Schuyler Foundation, which supports a number of charitable causes, including the U.S. Coast Guard, which helped save his life.

Nick Schuyler lives in Tampa, Florida, where he is still a personal trainer.

Jere Longman is a sportswriter for the New York Times, whose previous books include the New York Times bestseller Among the Heroes: United Flight 93 and the Passengers and Crew Who Fought Back; The Girls of Summer: The U.S. Women's Soccer Team and How It Changed the World; If Football's a Religion, Why Don't We Have a Prayer?: Philadelphia, Its Faithful, and the Eternal Quest for Sports Salvation; and The Hurricanes: One High School Team's Homecoming after Katrina.

SOURCE William Morrow/HarperCollinsPublishers

Historian Details Centuries of History on His Search for the Meaning of the Holy Grail in New Book

In his new nonfiction, "Finding the Holy Grail" debut author Sean Mac Aodhagain covers countless centuries of history surrounding the legend of the infamous Holy Grail and its major influences on the people of today's world.

Open to the first page and embark on a voyage on your own quest of discovery. Glimpse the mythical lives of some of the most renowned individuals who have helped weave the fabric of our cultural collective and ideas about heroes, salvation and even faith. To feel the symbolic, cultural and religious power of this divine relic and quickly become intoxicated with its historical relevance, one needs only read Mac Aodhagain's introduction, where he states:

        Throughout all the quests, the searching, surmising, and guessing
        that has gone on since Jesus at the last supper surrounded by the
        apostles took the chalice ... in his hands and said, 'This is my
        blood, the blood of the new covenant, which will be shed for all men
        so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me.' The same cup
        that caught the stream of blood and water that ran from the side of
        Jesus on the cross and from then on became just a shadow, an icon of
        the death of Christ and the saving of the world. It was carried in
        safe keeping to all corners of the world to proclaim and to imitate
        the last supper so that the entire world would know and revere its
        power of salvation until the end of time.

Here's your opportunity to realize how the myths, the magic, and the strength of previous generations, evolving from the Romans to Medieval church to major motion pictures, have undoubtedly shaped all modern people, in "Finding the Holy Grail," a journey of the mind, spirit and of self-discovery. The unending search for the cup of cups continues even today, and as such, Mac Aodhagain's book will continue to awaken the minds of modern knights for centuries more.

The author writes under the name of Sean Mac Aodhagain, the Irish translation of his name, which means "John Son of Fire," the fire in this case being his writing. In addition to "Finding the Holy Grail," his first book, Mac Aodhagain has eight books of poetry ready for publication, covering topics including Celtic poetry, life experiences, wit, humor, love and even lost love. He also has been working on a collection of short stories that he plans on publishing in the near future. Aodhagain has been crafting his poetry and prose since he was only 9 years old, and after 40 years of studying the Irish and European history of the Celtic people (eight years of which was an in-depth study of Celtic Irish history), he is finally able to share his knowledge with the world in his amazing book, "Finding the Holy Grail."

SOURCE AuthorHouse

George Cloutier's book of hard-hitting advice for small business owners, PROFITS AREN'T EVERYTHING, THEY'RE THE ONLY THING, has hit the major national bestseller lists, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today's bestseller lists. This follows upon its performance on Amazon.com, where it went straight to the top of the online retailer's business bestseller list and was the #1 book across all business categories upon its release in September.

Cloutier is the founder and CEO of American Management Services Inc., a firm that specializes in turning around small and mid-sized businesses. Tagged as the "The Turnaround Ace" by Business Week, Cloutier says the response to the book indicates a real need on the part of small business owners for help and guidance. "America's small businesses employ almost 40% of the workforce and generate 70% of new jobs," he remarks. "They are the key players in the financial recovery, yet they're getting virtually no help from the government. The response to PROFITS AREN'T EVERYTHING shows that they've decided they must be self-reliant and take decisive action on their own to save their businesses and survive this recession. My book provides some practical tools to do that."

The buzz around PROFITS AREN'T EVERYTHING, THEY'RE THE ONLY THING has been building, and the book has stirred some controversy, including Reuters describing it as a "literary slap in the face to small- and medium-sized business owners." Still Cloutier is regarded as one of the country's leading advocates for small business with Reuters going on to acknowledge "Cloutier's impressive track record. [He] has made a successful career out of digging hapless businesses out of debt and mismanagement by demanding his clients fire dead weight, own up to their laziness and stop making excuses. And it works." Case studies of these successful turnarounds can be found in Cloutier's new Business Week column.

Other major reviewers have been receptive to Cloutier's hard-knock lessons for small business owners. Publishers Weekly calls the book "a forceful debut" and says "Cloutier's book is loaded with valuable advice on how to get back on track and stay in the black in any economic environment." Booklist noted that "many of his regulations will amaze, shock, and awe small business owners. . . Harsh ways to work? Yes, yet all his principles are founded on a success that's hard to argue with." Fortune Small Business says the book is "invaluable reading for anyone in business. . . . The author's larger message -- that success in business requires relentless focus on the bottom line -- is worth hearing in these hard times."

PROFITS AREN'T EVERYTHING, THEY'RE THE ONLY THING: No-Nonsense Rules from the Ultimate Contrarian and Small-Business Guru, by George Cloutier is available in all major bookstores and online retailers. It is published by HarperCollins. See www.turnaroundace.com for more details.

SOURCE Planned Television Arts Ltd.

The mystery of the Black Plague -- its origin, its carrier, the speed of its dissemination -- continues to puzzle historians and epidemiologists today, summoning fearsome images of a disease that devastated Europe, killing off one-third of the population, and the possibility of its reoccurrence. In his new nonfiction book, "Plague, Weather, and Wool" (published by AuthorHouse), Todd Richardson draws upon his background in medicine and history, as well as his fascination with oriental rugs, to uncover an astonishing relationship between the wool trade, weather change and the advent of the bubonic plague in Europe.

Engrossing, thought-provoking and comprehensive, "Plague, Weather, and Wool" argues that the connection between the plague, the Little Ice Age and increasing wool trade with the East are not just coincidental, but vital to our understanding of this worldwide endemic plague. Richardson brings together myriad primary and secondary sources to form the foundation of his research, from firsthand accounts from the 14th century, statistical information and specialized knowledge about wool fibers, germs and bacteria.

Most importantly, Richardson illuminates for the first time the inherent link between the plague, wool fibers as an insulate against the cold and the icy spell of cold that struck Europe and sent the population clamoring for sheep's wool from the Great Steppe of Asia. He writes:

        Moving disease around had suddenly become an easy process in 1300,
        expressing itself in the delivery of primary plague pneumonia from
        Kaffa to Europe. Once it contaminated textiles, it could escape into
        the air and become aerosolized from dead animal tissue and textiles,
        including wool or silk. It did not need an enormous crowd once it
        became involved in cold weather. Freezing temperatures with high
        relative humidity favor transmission, since pulverized and frozen
        sputum and cough droplets retain infective and virulent bacilli for
        long periods of time. This is almost an exact description of the
        conditions present in Europe awaiting primary pneumonic plague.

Addressing current manifestations of the bubonic plague, as recently as 2002 in New York, Richardson accounts for the sporadic events through the presence or absence of the three key factors of plague, weather and wool. In a world where rapid, global climate change has become a frightening inevitability, "Plague, Weather, and Wool" serves as an ideal reference for historians, epidemiologists and climatologists.

Todd Richardson was born in Muscatine, Iowa, and currently lives in Louisville, Ky., after retiring from over 40 years of practicing medicine as a physician. He is married with two daughters and three stepsons.

SOURCE AuthorHouse

It Books, the pop culture imprint of HarperCollins, today announced the publication of Aaron Karo's latest book, "I'm Having More Fun Than You." Asking, "Why settle down when you can hook up?" the book is an outrageous account of one man's quest to party like a rock star, get laid with abandon, and silence his critics in relationships with the rebuke "I'm having more fun than you." Irreverent, insightful, and relentlessly funny, Karo offers a unique glimpse into the world of guys who defy convention, morality, and their moms in order to preserve their independence.

"I'm Having More Fun Than You" is a collection of anecdotes and observations about single life and dating that Karo documented as he neared his thirtieth birthday. As that milestone approached, Karo noticed that the women around him wanted to get married more, while he actually wanted to get married less. Each of the seven chapters addresses a different aspect of bachelorhood - from the nuances of flirting with girls via Facebook, to attending weddings where the singles table is full of couples.

Karo's first two books, "Ruminations on College Life" and "Ruminations on Twentysomething Life," were published by Simon & Schuster in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Just as the first focused on dorm life and the second tackled the transition from college to the real world, "I'm Having More Fun Than You" addresses the next seminal experience in the lives of many young adults: turning thirty and realizing that everyone is married except for you.

Karo is also a nationally headlining comedian whose latest stand-up album, "Just Go Talk To Her," was released by Comedy Central Records in December 2008. The publication of "I'm Having More Fun Than You" will be accompanied by a fifteen-city stand-up tour in October and November 2009. In addition to performing, Karo is the Chief Executive Officer of www.Ruminations.com, the user-generated humor site and social network he founded in August 2008. Karo is perhaps best known for "Ruminations," the email column he began from his freshman dorm twelve years ago that remains an international phenomenon.

For more information, www.imhavingmorefunthanyou.com.

"Losing a job can be a prime opportunity," says Tina Seelig, executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. "Most people's paths are riddled with disappointments, both large and small. The key is being able to recover from them." In her new book What I Wish I Knew When I Was Twenty (HarperOne; April 2009; $22.99), Seelig maintains that there are boundless possibilities around us--to find them, we simply need to break free from many of our assumptions and to throw out the old rules so that we might finally recognize the opportunities in our midst.

A major setback such as a job loss can be taken as a time to reevaluate one's goals and priorities, figuring out a way to propel forward toward even greater success. This has proven true for many successful entrepreneurs, including David Neeleman (founder of JetBlue) and Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple), both of whom conceived their most successful ventures only after being fired from prior jobs.

As corporations implement layoffs and unemployment numbers rise, Tina Seelig offers fresh advice on finding a satisfying, successful career no matter what the job market:

• Adjust your attitude - Your state of mind is the biggest determinant of what you can accomplish. Think as big as possible, aim for positions that seem beyond your reach or outside of your field. It is much more effective to have big goals than to have small goals.
• Bounce back from disappointment - For most successful people, the bottom is lined with rubber as opposed to concrete. When they hit bottom, they sink in for a bit and then bounce back, tapping into the energy of the impact to drive them into another opportunity.
• Change your career goals - People expect you to make decisions about your career and then stick with them. But most successful people change course many times before finding the best match for their skills and interests. A successful career is not a straight line but a wave with ups and downs, with the biggest gains often following the biggest dips.
  

For years Seelig has taught her students to turn their creativity into credibility and their ideas into business realities. And now that her lessons are available in the form of WHAT I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS TWENTY, readers of any age, and at any point in their career, can do the same.

Source: HarperOne

Published to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, Adams Media has released WOODSTOCK REVISITED: 50 Stories From Those Who Were There, edited by Susan Reynolds. This is the first and only book to focus on the kids on the ground, chronicling the audience experience at Woodstock 1969 in an up close and personal way. It has been lauded as a landmark collection of stories chronicling an important event.

By providing a mesmerizing portrait of America in 1969 -- as a tumultuous decade came to a dramatic close -- this nostalgic, historical, and fascinating book offers cross-generational appeal. The intimate views of those three historic days do more than evoke colorful memories -- they offer a personal and rare glimpse into a time that will never be recreated and may answer the question: Where have all the hippies gone?

Despite her conservative exterior, Susan Reynolds happily, and unwittingly, joined the throngs of young people congregating at Woodstock -- an event that shaped her life and her generation. She went on to become a professional writer and editor, authoring five nonfiction books and editing five others. Her deja vu Woodstock moment came 34 years later at a massive Anti-Iraq demonstration in Paris. Ms. Reynolds, who loves discussing the legacy of Woodstock, lives in Boston, MA, and is available for interviews. Contributors located throughout America are also available for interviews.

WOODSTOCK REVISITED has topped numerous "Best Woodstock Books" lists, including Good Morning America's "Top 8 Woodstock Books."

SOURCE Adams Media

Life is unfair, the economy is out of control and disaster can strike at any time. However true these statements might be, your ability to bounce back from your circumstances depends on your own control over yourself. In his refreshing new self-help book, "Controlling Your Future: Six Steps To A Better Life" (published by AuthorHouse), Richard Norgaard shows readers how to achieve total fitness -- mind, body and finances -- through self-discipline and self-control.

"Controlling Your Future: Six Steps To A Better Life" doesn't dance around the facts: the only one who can change your life is you. Norgaard offers six simple steps on how to uncover what is missing in your life and how to turn your lives around.

"The current consensus is that the coming generations won't live longer or better or healthier, because we have failed to recognize that life is not easy or comfortable," writes Norgaard. "It remains difficult, as it has been for eons. The problem lies in our brains, not so much our bodies. Our existence today requires ever more discipline, even as we are showing less and less discipline. The trouble is that discipline is not inherited, it is learned. The undisciplined mind does not respond well to the need for discipline."

"Controlling Your Future: Six Steps To A Better Life" presents the roadmap to disciplining the mind. There are six steps to Norgaard's plan:

    -- Get control over your body by beginning to exercise
    -- Get the proper amounts of nutrients to fuel your body
    -- Improve your brain's performance through continuous learning
    -- Learn to make the best of the challenges in your professional life
    -- Develop financial responsibility
    -- Learn how to control distractions

Using a uniquely historical approach to current issues of obesity, health and consumer culture, "Controlling Your Future: Six Steps To A Better Life" presents a plan for how to work towards a brighter future. Norgaard asks readers not to heed the siren call of their life's distractions, and focus instead on disciplining the mind by organizing time wisely in order to regain control of their lives.

Richard Norgaard has climbed mountains, completed four marathons, finished seven 100-mile bike rides, swam countless miles and trekked through much of the world. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and has been active in civic life. His interests include history, science, philosophy, economics and physical fitness. He is a Professor Emeritus with a Ph.D. in financial economics. He is the author of 70 articles and four books. He and his wife have lived for the last 37 years in Mansfield, Conn.

Source: AuthorHouse

In the new book titled 96 % Dark Universe - Lost and Found, available today from Lulu.com, scientist Dr. Henryk Frystacki is setting new directions in cosmic super-symmetry - proposing solutions for dark matter and dark energies, which account for 96% of our universe according to current models of cosmology.

Previously a neglected topic, these days the quest for the construction of our universe is experiencing newfound recognition. In 96 % Dark Universe - Lost and Found, Dr. Frystacki reveals complementary mathematical-physical links of space-time construction, including condensing matter. The results are astonishing, because the perception of dark matter and a composition of dark energy are becoming transparent as the background of established constants of nature, and the cosmic scaffolding of quantum foam.

The intention is to combine Einstein's theory of relativity with quantum mechanics, without contradiction. Additionally, 96 % Dark Universe - Lost and Found reveals revolutionary opportunities to design technical innovations on the base of complementary viewpoints.

The book explores:

• Dark matter and dark energies
• The scaffolding of the universe
• Secret of time-space development
• Relativity & quantum mechanics
• Restricted perception of space-time

"Truth is never triumphant, only its opponents die out," was once said by the founder of quantum theory and Nobel prizewinner Max Planck. 96% Dark Universe - Lost and Found is ready to face the scientific discussion, knowing that it will find friends and opponents - either because of scientific conviction, or because of long-held, traditional beliefs.

For more information or to purchase 96 % Dark Universe - Lost and Found, please visit http://www.lulu.com/content/6579539.

In a recent Washington Post piece, Deepak Chopra posed what may prove to be the essential, yet largely unexamined, question regarding the financial crisis: "What would it take to change a whole subculture that has escaped all ethical boundaries?" Fortune 500 executive coach, author, and radio personality Dave Durand answers this query head-on in his latest book, Win the World Without Losing Your Soul, published by The Crossroad Publishing Company (April 13, 2009). Durand, who runs three small businesses, all of which are experiencing double-digit growth for '09, notes, "The answer is that it takes morally trained leaders to change this culture. What we have seen unravel over the past several months is the result of a lack of understanding of what it takes to succeed without compromising basic honesty and integrity. Most of this cataclysmic collapse of institutional and governmental structures could have been prevented in a society led by principles over personalities."

Named one of the nation's top 100 Leadership Minds on Personal Excellence by Leadership Excellence Magazine, Durand's Win the World Without Losing Your Soul is not a religious tract, but a vital resource for men and women aspiring to long-term success over short-term gratification whether they be mortgage lenders or peanut manufacturers, US Congressmen or state Governors, students or teachers, lawyers or parents. Win the World Without Losing Your Soul is a book for people in every walk of life who are looking for someone to show them that they matter, that they have a specific purpose in life and that pursuing that purpose with resolve and integrity will lead to a lifetime of fulfillment.

To illustrate this, Americans need look no further than the headlines of the nation's newspapers. Pick a day. Any day.

Durand went back six months and picked October 10, 2008. The Dow was below 9,000. Newspaper headlines reflected the sentiment of its city residents. "Another losing day," said The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky. In Casper, Wyo., Tacoma, Wash., and Fort Worth, Texas, the word "panic" was on the front page. The Indianapolis Star analyzed the actions of the federal government: "Standard options have failed to shore up unstable markets." The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press and Hackensack's The Record offered no hope to its readers with respective headlines, "And it just gets worse" to "Running out of options," with the added zinger, "Finding a cure for financial crisis proves elusive."

Even before this particular mid-October day to the present day, people have been waiting to see how bad this is going to get, turning to the pages of their newspapers and websites for advice and direction. So far, they've received thousands of pages of diagnosis, but no cure.

For those tired of waiting, Durand's new book is an antidote, a practical roadmap for millions of Americans struggling to make sense of what has happened around them. "People have witnessed that those who pursue success at all costs don't succeed; they usually end up soulless -- some go broke, some go to prison, but others end up desperate, isolated and unhappy, and oftentimes hated. The good news is it doesn't have to be that way -- we can recover and rebuild -- we can win the world by seeking (and achieving) success through the avoidance of the common pitfalls that lead to self-destruction," says Durand.

Interestingly, amidst the gloom of newspaper headlines on October 10, The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., began a series on happiness ("How to Get Happy"), calling it "the most sought-after human emotion." "This was a step in the right direction though they missed a key aspect. True success is about individual transformation. A commitment to excellence and morality will lead to joy and happiness," observed Durand. "We need to show people that success without compromise is always possible."

Dave Durand is available for interviews. For more information on Win the World Without Losing Your Soul, or to schedule an interview, please contact Kari Beckman or Ashley Walker at 678-990-9032, both with The Maximus Group.

SOURCE Dave Durand