biography & autobiography / business

An autobiography of Richard Williams, father and trainer of professional tennis players Serena and Venus Williams, with emphasis on his dealing with racism in America.

Bob Benmosche, former CEO of AIG, reflects on his version of the American dream, from his struggles as a young child in the Catskills to becoming an influential leader in the financial industry.

Chronicles the lives and careers of the four Koch brothers, Frederick, Charles, and fraternal twins David and Bill, discussing their business enterprises, political aspirations, the law suits between the brothers and more.

"The gripping story of Richard Williams, the father who raised and trained two of the greatest women in sports, Venus and Serena. He achieved greatness in spite of hardship and disadvantages to become a successful businessman, family man and tennis coach"--.

Donna Karan was born into the fashion business---her father was a tailor and her mother was a showroom model and Seventh Avenue saleswoman. But Donna dreamed of becoming a dancer like Martha Graham or a singer like Barbra Streisand. But fashion proved to be her destiny. She became an intern at Anne Klein, created Seven Easy Pieces (which forever changed the way working women dressed), and began her own company which soon took off in a meteoric fashion. Donna has channeled her creativity not only into fashion designs but also into philanthropic work. And in a strange twist of fate, she and Barbra Streisand became close friends.

"In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company's early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world's most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike's annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business--a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream--along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything"--.

"Reveals the unknown story of how Monopoly came into existence, the reinvention of its history by Parker Brothers and multiple media outlets, the lost female originator of the game, and one man's lifelong obsession to tell the true story about the game's questionable origins"--Provided by publisher.

"In 1986, Ed Catmull co-founded Pixar, a modest start-up with an immodest goal: to make the first-ever computer animated movie. Nine years later, Pixar released Toy Story, which went on to revolutionize the industry, gross $360 million, and establish Pixar as one of the most successful, innovative, and emulated companies on earth. This book details how Catmull built an enduring creative culture -- one that doesn't just pay lip service to the importance of things like honesty, communication, and originality, but committed to them, no matter how difficult that often proved to be. As he discovered, pursuing excellence isn't a one-off assignment. It's an ongoing, day-in, day-out, full-time job. And one he was born to do"--.

If you want to find something on the World Wide Web, you "Google" it. With its one million servers located around the world, the company handles over a billion search requests daily. But when the Internet first came online, people struggled to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information. Some kind of search engine was needed. Enter two computer science graduate students from Stanford, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and the $229 billion behemoth we now know as Google was born. They are highly respected, established figures in the tech industry, but Page and Brin, unlike industry icons such as Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, have spent as little time as possible in front of the media. As a result, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin give time to speak, people listen. Carefully.