finance, personal

Michael Jackson, Inc. reveals the incredible rise, fall, and rise again of Michael Jackson?s fortune?driven by the unmatched perfectionism of the King of Pop. Forbes senior editor Zack O?Malley Greenburg uncovers never-before-told stories from interviews with more than 100 people, including music industry veterans Berry Gordy, John Branca, and Walter Yetnikoff; artists 50 Cent, Sheryl Crow, and Jon Bon Jovi; and members of the Jackson family. Other insights come from court documents and Jackson?s private notes, some of them previously unpublished. Through Greenburg?s novelistic telling, a clear picture emerges of Jackson?s early years, his rise to international superstardom, his decline?fueled by demons internal and external, as well as the dissolution of the team that helped him execute his best business moves?and, finally, his financial life after death.

"In this frank and witty memoir, Ken Ilgunas lays bare the existential terror of graduating from the University of Buffalo with $32,000 of student debt. Ilgunas set himself an ambitious mission: get out of debt as quickly as possible. Inspired by the frugality and philosophy of Henry David Thoreau, Ilgunas undertook a 3-year transcontinental journey, working in Alaska as a tour guide, garbage picker, and night cook to pay off his student loans before hitchhiking home to New York. Debt-free, Ilgunas then enrolled in a master's program at Duke University, determined not to borrow against his future again. He used the last of his savings to buy himself a used Econoline van and outfitted it as his new dorm. The van, stationed in a campus parking lot, would be more than an adventure--it would be his very own "Walden on Wheels." Freezing winters, near-discovery by campus police, and the constant challenge of living in a confined space would test Ilgunas's limits and resolve in the two years that followed. What had begun as a simple mission would become an enlightening and life-changing social experiment. Walden on Wheels offers a spirited and pointed perspective on the dilemma faced by those who seek an education but who also want to, as Thoreau wrote, "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.""--Provided by publisher.

Describes the 2,550-mile cross-country road trip taken by former president Harry Truman and first lady Bess Truman in 1953.