In the early nineties, a visionary special-effects guru named Marc Thorpe conjured a field of dreams different from any the world had seen before: It would be framed by unbreakable plastic instead of cornstalks; populated not by ghostly ballplayers but by remote-controlled robots, armed to the steely teeth, fighting in a booby-trapped ring. If you built it, they'd come all right....
In Gearheads, Newsweek technology correspondent Brad Stone examines the history of robotic sports, from their cultish early years at universities and sci-fi conventions to today's televised...

Amazon.com made its mark sending new books quickly in nice, smile-embossed boxes. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the world's store, where everything is available to everyone, usually in 24 hours. To do so, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and drive and revolutionized retail the way Ford revolutionized manufacturing.
Brad Stone has been given unprecedented access to Amazon employees, both current and former, to give readers the first fly-on-the-wall narrative account of the world's largest...