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"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

Questions for Randy Pausch

We were shy about barging in on Randy Pausch's valuable time to ask him a few questions about his expansion of his famous Last Lecture into the book by the same name, but he was gracious enough to take a moment to answer. (See Randy to the right with his kids, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe.) As anyone who has watched the lecture or read the book will understand, the really crucial question is the last one, and we weren't surprised to learn that the "secret" to winning giant stuffed animals on the midway, like most anything else, is sheer persistence.

Amazon.com: I apologize for asking a question you must get far more often than you'd like, but how are you feeling?

Pausch: The tumors are not yet large enough to affect my health, so all the problems are related to the chemotherapy. I have neuropathy (numbness in fingers and toes), and varying degrees of GI discomfort, mild nausea, and fatigue. Occasionally I have an unusually bad reaction to a chemo infusion (last week, I spiked a 103 fever), but all of this is a small price to pay for walkin' around.

Amazon.com: Your lecture at Carnegie Mellon has reached millions of people, but even with the short time you apparently have, you wanted to write a book. What did you want to say in a book that you weren't able to say in the lecture?

Pausch: Well, the lecture was written quickly--in under a week. And it was time-limited. I had a great six-hour lecture I could give, but I suspect it would have been less popular at that length ;-).

A book allows me to cover many, many more stories from my life and the attendant lessons I hope my kids can take from them. Also, much of my lecture at Carnegie Mellon focused on the professional side of my life--my students, colleagues and career. The book is a far more personal look at my childhood dreams and all the lessons I've learned. Putting words on paper, I've found, was a better way for me to share all the yearnings I have regarding my wife, children and other loved ones. I knew I couldn't have gone into those subjects on stage without getting emotional.

Amazon.com: You talk about the importance--and the possibility!--of following your childhood dreams, and of keeping that childlike sense of wonder. But are there things you didn't learn until you were a grownup that helped you do that?

Pausch: That's a great question. I think the most important thing I learned as I grew older was that you can't get anywhere without help. That means people have to want to help you, and that begs the question: What kind of person do other people seem to want to help? That strikes me as a pretty good operational answer to the existential question: "What kind of person should you try to be?"

Amazon.com: One of the things that struck me most about your talk was how many other people you talked about. You made me want to meet them and work with them--and believe me, I wouldn't make much of a computer scientist. Do you think the people you've brought together will be your legacy as well?

Pausch: Like any teacher, my students are my biggest professional legacy. I'd like to think that the people I've crossed paths with have learned something from me, and I know I learned a great deal from them, for which I am very grateful. Certainly, I've dedicated a lot of my teaching to helping young folks realize how they need to be able to work with other people--especially other people who are very different from themselves.

Amazon.com: And last, the most important question: What's the secret for knocking down those milk bottles on the midway?

Pausch: Two-part answer:
1) long arms
2) discretionary income / persistence

Actually, I was never good at the milk bottles. I'm more of a ring toss and softball-in-milk-can guy, myself. More seriously, though, most people try these games once, don't win immediately, and then give up. I've won *lots* of midway stuffed animals, but I don't ever recall winning one on the very first try. Nor did I expect to. That's why I think midway games are a great metaphor for life.

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She was television's most famous virgin--and, as Aaron Spelling's daughter, arguably its most famous case of nepotism Portraying Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210, Tori Spelling became one of the most recognizable young actresses of her generation, with a not-so-private personal life every bit as fascinating as her character's exploits. Yet years later the name Tori Spelling too often closed--and sometimes slammed--the same doors it had opened.

sTORI Telling is Tori's chance to finally tell her side of the tabloid-worthy life she's led, and she talks about it all: her decadent childhood birthday parties, her nose job, her fairy-tale wedding to the wrong man, her so-called feud with her mother. Tori has already revealed her flair for brilliant, self-effacing satire on her VH1 show So NoTORIous and Oxygen's Tori & Dean: Inn Love, but her memoir goes deeper, into the real life behind the rumors: her complicated relationship with her parents; her struggles as an actress after 90210; her accident-prone love life; and, ultimately, her quest to define herself on her own terms.

From her over-the-top first wedding to finding new love to her much-publicized--and misunderstood--"disinheritance," sTORI Telling is a juicy, eye-opening, enthralling look at what it really means to be Tori Spelling.

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Amazon.com Exclusive
A Bonus Story and Family Photo from Tori Spelling

The Manor
People are always asking about my parents' mansion, which they called the "Manor," but I don't really spend much time talking about it in sTORI Telling because I didn't grow up there. After demolishing Bing Crosby's former estate in Holmby Hills, a fancy neighborhood in west L.A., they spent six years building the Manor. It's about 46,000 square feet (slightly over an acre) and has 123 rooms. Not that I counted or measured. I got those figures from the press, just like everyone else.

Anyway, we moved in when I was seventeen and I only lived there for two years. In some ways the house is like a normal house, but everything is on a bigger scale. It has four floors: the basement (which we call the "Lower Level," probably because that's its designation on the elevator) and the first, second, and third floors. The first floor has a kitchen, a breakfast room, a dining room, an office, a family room, a living room, and a projection room. There's a grand foyer with sweeping staircases on each side. Oh, and there's also a guards' room and the staff dining room. Everyone except fancy guests comes through the service entrance into a hallway with the guards' room and the kitchen.

The kitchen is gigantic, and my fondest memory of it is from when I was twenty-one and had just moved back in after splitting up with a boyfriend. I came home drunk with some girlfriends, and we pillaged the two double-sized Sub-Zero refrigerators. There was always bulk food in there for the staff. We pulled out a big vat of chicken salad and a tub of peanut dressing, both of which looked like they'd been made for giants. Somewhere in the middle of our feast we decided to have a food fight, and the five of us started flinging food at each other. Soon we were covered in peanut dressing from head to toe and the pristine kitchen was a mess. Then we heard a ding, the elevator doors opened, and there was my mother.

She stared at us in silent disbelief. I said, "We're going to clean it up!" She just said, "Mmm hmm," and left the room. I felt a surge of love for her in that moment. It took us hours to clean the kitchen, but it was worth it. That moment made it feel, for once, like home. --Tori Spelling

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The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard

Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit..
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Amazon.com Exclusive Content

Click on the image below to download an exclusive essay by Eckhart Tolle, in .pdf format.

More From Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now	Practicing The Power of Now	Stillness Speaks
Living a Life of Inner Peace Unabridged Audio CD	Gateways to Now (Inner Life Series) Audio CD	Eckhart Tolle's Findhorn Retreat: Stillness Amidst the World Unabridged Audio CD

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The body is the most fascinating machine ever created, and nobody talks about it in ways that are as illuminating and compelling as Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Most people think of the aging of our bodies the same way we think of the aging of our cars: the older we get, the more inevitable it is that we're going to break down. Most of us believe that at age 40 or so, we begin the slow and steady decline of our minds, our eyes, our ears, our joints, our arteries, our libido, and every other system that affects the quality of life (and how long we live it). But according to Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz, that's a mistake.

Aging isn't a decline in our systems. It's actually very purposeful. The very systems and biological processes that age us are designed to help us when we're a little bit younger. So what's our role as part of the aging population? To learn how those systems work so we can reprogram them to work the way they did when we were younger. Your goal should be: die young at any age. That means you live a high quality of life (with everything from working joints to working genitals) until the day you die.

At the core of this landmark book are the Major Agers--14 biological processes that control your rate of aging. Some you've heard of, some you haven't, and some you never knew contributed to the aging process. Some speed decline, others inhibit your repair mechanisms. These Major Agers are everything from short telomeres and inefficient mitochondria to stem cells and wacky hormones. The doctors explain the principles of longevity and many of the causes of aging and how to fight the effects. The climax of the book is a 14-day plan to help you along your path to staying young. The doctors want you to be able to integrate important processes into your daily life in order to make staying young routine, but first you'll need to measure your real age and health right now. Staying young encompasses your emotions and mental health as well as your exercise habits, eating habits, personal hygiene, and genes, among other things.

Wouldn't you like to know how to prevent your body from aging badly? The original YOU book showed how bodies work in general, and YOU: On a Diet explained how bodies lose weight and stay fit. Now in YOU: Staying Young, Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz illuminate the mysterious mechanisms with a lively metaphor -- the modern city. What differentiates a vibrant and thriving city that ages gracefully from one that is worn down and rusted out? Despite genetic differences, which are like the geography upon which the city is built, cities age differently because of the way residents treat their education system (stem cells), power plants (mitochondria), electrical grids (brains), transportation routes (blood vessels), and landfills (fat). You -- as mayor, resident, and street cleaner -- have the power to balance your biological budget to ensure a life that's both long and strong. Thankfully, just as cities can invest in renewal and improving their repair processes, so can you.

YOU: Staying Young is filled with signature YOU Tools, including YOU Tests, YOU Tips, and visual and verbal metaphors to bring the science to life.

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A Letter from Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz

Dear Amazon Shoppers:

Our books, YOU: The Owner's Manual and YOU: On a Diet, have become #1 Amazon and New York Times bestsellers, and we thank you. Many people have asked us questions about aging. We want you to know that the science in the last very few years has challenged the very perceptions of aging.

Most of us tend to have the same view of the way people age: As we grow older, we start losing things. We lose some hair, lose our minds, lose our balance, lose our eyesight, lose a little of this and a lot of that until we eventually wither away into a hunched-over senior who takes 3-inch steps and eats dinner at 4:00 pm. But to think that a life of frailty is an inevitable outcome of aging is a mistake. And the fact that we don't take control of it is because we have excuses. We live in a society where making excuses is as easy as making a sandwich. Nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to your own health. The reason why we are frazzled with stress? Blame the boss. The reason why we are sick? Blame the sniffling kids. The reason why our society's waistbands are stretching and snapping at alarming rates? Blame Auntie's alfredo sauce. The top health excuse, however, revolves around the biggest four-letter word of them all, the GENE. We blame our genes for just about everything--for baldness, for fatness, for illness and for every other health-related problem we can think of. In our minds, that means that our mom, pop, and the rest of the family tree are all on the hook for the ultimate health question of them all--how long and how well we will live?

But that is exactly where more of us have it wrong. While we are certainly born with genes that help determine everything from our height to our risk of heart disease, we are making a monumental mistake by assuming that we can't control our genes--especially when it comes to aging.

Perhaps the best way to explain the dynamics of aging is to take a look at another complex system that is subjected to the same forces as your body: a city. Some cities remain beautiful and elegant in their old age, while younger ones may look worn down and beat-up. Now, every city has its own genetic code, just as you do. For a city, genes are geography; whether it's built on a river or whether it's located in a hot or cold climate, or whether it lies directly in a prevalent hurricane path. A city's geography can't change. But the city can adapt to the environment with earthquake-proof construction, with underground tunnels for walking in wintertime, or with strong levies. The adaptation the city makes to survive and to thrive is what is crucial to its vitality.

The same goes for you.

Just because you have been dealt a genetic hand that predisposes you to heart disease or diabetes or the wearing of pants as large as a parachute doesn't mean you can't mitigate the effects of those genes. One of the major things we will teach you is that while you can't change your genes, you can change whether they are turned on or off or how you express them. Just like a city, you can compensate elegantly if you understand your options.

For the first time in history, the medical world has uncovered many of the miraculous biologic processes that control how and why we age. Truth is, much of aging is actually in our control; with the power to nudge our biologic systems so that our unwanted genes can work in our favor--as long as you know what to do and how you are doing it. In YOU: Staying Young, we translate the latest science (much of which wasn't available even three years ago) to help slow your rate of aging. You will learn 14 Major Agers, and dozens of action steps so that you can take control of those agers and your aging processes.

We hope you enjoy the cartoons, analogies, and jokes. But ultimately we hope you soak in the message: Your health is largely in your control. We dedicate the book to all who desire longer life so they can serve more.

Thanks very much,

Mike and Mehmet

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A Look Inside You: Staying Young

Take a look inside You: Staying Young with these three excerpted charts, full of crucial, easy-to-digest information that you can start using today:

• Fuel Your Fighters: One of the best ways to pump up your immune system is by eating the foods and getting the nutrients that have been shown to improve your natural defenses.
• Your Vital Supplements: The doctors' recommendations of pills and supplements that will make your body and mind stronger, healthier, and younger. It's best to get them from your diet, so consider these an insurance policy for an imperfect diet.
• Move Your Body: Most of your body parts become stronger when you use them. Take a glimpse at what you can and should do to make sure you're doing enough to prime your pumps.

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Questions for the Doctors

Q: What is the single most important thing someone can do to combat aging?

A: To understand that you get to control your rate of aging if you want to. It isn't that hard and doesn't take that long. In fact, even if you have had burgers for breakfast or fried your brain cells with stress by noon, you're not necessarily destined to wear husky pants, forget birthdays, and spiral into a state of complete upheaval. That's right: You get a do-over in life if you want it. Repeat after us: not hard, not long.

Q: Is there one food, vitamin, mineral, exercise, or lifestyle change that does more to combat aging than any other?

A: Our top choices in terms of ease and impact:

• Walk 30 minutes a day and call someone after you do it. No excuses, walk every day. If you do it, you'll have the courage, health, and attitude to adopt other changes too.
• Take 2 grams of omega-3 fats every day in form of either walnuts, fish oil, or DHA supplements.

Q: What is one of the most surprising contributors to aging that we can easily remove from our lifestyles?

A: Inflammation of our teeth. Remove it with daily flossing and brushing and seeing a dental professional regularly. You won't just save your teeth; you'll also go a long way in saving your heart and arteries. Another? Our lack of turmeric--curry and mustard (mustard on stadium hot dogs does not qualify). Both of those ingredients make your memory better.

Q: What are some of the immediate benefits you will notice from following the tips in the book?

A: You will feel younger. You might get hit upon by strangers or be mistaken for someone 20 years younger. In addition to the waist size you'll lose, your new attitude and vitality for life may give your reading choice away.

Q: How early should most people start to focus on slowing the aging process?

A: The aging process starts in your teens or even before, but any time you start is better than later. (Repeat: not hard, not long.) Your cells basically have a memory of three years. So by changing your habits now, within three years, it's as if you have done your healthy habit all your life.

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Getting to Know YOU

YOU: Staying Young [Audio CD]

YOU: Staying Young Workout DVD

YOU: On a Diet

YOU: The Smart Patient

YOU: The Owner's Manual

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Price: $10.09 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Ekhart Tolle's message is simple: living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment And while this message may not seem stunningly original or fresh, Tolle's clear writing, supportive voice, and enthusiasm make this an excellent manual for anyone who's ever wondered what exactly "living in the now" means. Foremost, Tolle is a world-class teacher, able to explain complicated concepts in concrete language. More importantly, within a chapter of reading this book, readers are already holding the world in a different container--more conscious of how thoughts and emotions get in the way of their ability to live in genuine peace and happiness.

Tolle packs a lot of information and inspirational ideas into The Power of Now. (Topics include the source of Chi, enlightened relationships, creative use of the mind, impermanence, and the cycle of life.) Thankfully, he's added markers that symbolize "break time." This is when readers should close the book and mull over what they just read. As a result, The Power of Now reads like the highly acclaimed A Course in Miracles--a spiritual guidebook that has the potential to inspire just as many study groups and change just as many lives for the better. --Gail Hudson.
Price: $7.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Our culture is riddled with destructive myths about money and prosperity that are severely limiting the power, creativity, and financial potential of individuals. In Killing Sacred Cows, Garrett B. Gunderson boldly exposes ingrained fallacies and misguided traditions in the world of personal finance. He presents a revolutionary perspective that can create unprecedented opportunity and wealth for thoughtful, mission-driven individuals.

Our financial lives are intimately connected to our societal contributions, and we must be financially free in order to achieve our fullest potential. Sadly, however, most people are held captive in their financial lives by misinformation, propaganda, and limited knowledge. Through well-reasoned arguments, unflinching logic, and revelatory insight, Gunderson defeats common clichés and faulty retirement planning advice to plainly demonstrate the following and much more:

• 401(k)s and the stock market are the most risky investments for most people and the gambling mindset they induce creates disastrous consequences.
• Conventional retirement planning advice, products, strategies, and techniques expose you to significant danger of being unable to retire, or of running out of money prematurely if you do.
• Building net worth is a recipe for creating a life of fear and poverty and how to escape that common trap.
• Debt may not be what you think it is and why that matters to your prosperity.
• 'High risk equals high returns' is destructive dogma and how reducing risk can increase your returns.

Killing Sacred Cows is a must-read for brave individuals willing to question common assumptions and teachings, overcome the herd mentality, break through financial myths, and live a purposeful, passionate, and prosperous life..
Price: $11.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Fragments of a Great Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions and philosophies throughout the centuries For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it.

In this book, you'll learn how to use The Secret in every aspect of your life -- money, health, relationships, happiness, and in every interaction you have in the world. You'll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that's within you, and this revelation can bring joy to every aspect of your life.

The Secret contains wisdom from modern-day teachers -- men and women who have used it to achieve health, wealth, and happiness. By applying the knowledge of The Secret, they bring to light compelling stories of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles, and achieving what many would regard as impossible..
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DO YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO WHAT YOU DO BEST EVERY DAY?

Chances are, you don't. All too often, our natural talents go untapped From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths

To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book spent more than five years on the bestseller lists and ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions to discover their top five talents.

In its latest national bestseller, StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment, language of 34 themes, and much more (see below for details). While you can read this book in one sitting, you'll use it as a reference for decades.

Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new book and accompanying website will change the way you look at yourself -- and the world around you -- forever.

AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY IN THE NEW & UPGRADED EDITION OF STRENGTHSFINDER 2.0
(using the unique access code included with each book)

* A new and upgraded edition of the StrengthsFinder assessment

* A personalized Strengths Discovery and Action-Planning Guide for applying your strengths in the next week, month, and year

* A more customized version of your top five theme report

* 50 Ideas for Action (10 strategies for building on each of your top five themes)

* The more user-friendly StrengthsFinder 2.0 companion website, with a strengths community area, library of downloadable discussion guides and activities, a strengths screensaver, and a program for creating display cards of your top five themes.
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]