Wise Guys takes readers into the heart of Sopranos territory, with a collection featuring the work of best-selling writers from E. L. Doctorow (with an account of mobster Dutch Schultz that includes one of the great execution scenes in the literature of the Mob) to Nicholas Pileggi (on Henry Hill's first prison term, overflowing with good pasta and booze). Other pieces include Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain reconstruction of the vicious hit on "Big Paulie" Castellano outside of Spark's Steakhouse (which catapulted John Gotti to leadership of the Gambino family), Mario Puzo's riveting account of a don's ascent (a tale of deceit, murder and, above all, cunning), and Norman Lewis on where it all began: the Sicilian Mafia's battle against Mussolini and its return to greater strength than ever.

Climb focuses on the most exciting descriptions of climbing in the world, from the cliffs of Yosemite to the windswept towers of Patagonia to the high peaks of Alaska and the Himalayas. Stories include Jon Krakauer's first-person look at the risks of climbing Mt. McKinley's West Buttress route, which has killed scores of climbers in recent years; Chris Bonington's classic account of the Annapurna expedition, which introduced technical rock climbing at high altitude; Tom Patey's hilarious profile of the great climber and even greater misanthrope Don Whilans, describing an attempt the two made on the Eiger North Face; and Rob Taylor's experience breaking a leg high on Africa's Mount Kenya.

It's been a half century since Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing made the first ascent of Everest. Their success capped a thirty-year struggle that cost more than a dozen lives--and touched off a new era in the history of the mountain. The past fifty years have seen Everest become an even greater magnet for adventurers--both foolish and heroic. Some of the world's best climbers have carved out incredibly dangerous new routes on the peak, and many have died trying. Meanwhile, hundreds of nonclimbers have taken on Everest, with mixed results. This history has created an entire literature in itself--a story of triumph and tragedy of epic proportions. Whether it's Peter Boardman on being forced to leave a friend to die near the summit, Stephen Venables on spending a night out near the summit--an experience only a handful of men have survived--or Chris Bonington on the death of Boardman and Joe Tasker on the Northeast Ridge, almost every great climbing writer has tackled some aspect of the mountain, and Epics on Everest includes their best work.

New York has always inspired larger-than-life tales and great writing--but on the topic of cops and crime it provides more raw material than almost anywhere else. A long history of classic films, television hits, and of course, books, have turned the New York City Police Department into a symbol for the dark drama of urban police work. And the rich and colorful vein of literature which has grown up around this culture makes NYPD not only a gripping read but a literary tour de force. Adrenaline Books takes you inside this gritty, tough life of being a cop in New York City. In addition to works by best-selling authors such as Peter Maas and Tom Wolfe, the book will include selections that offer a broad and deep look at the department's many faces: Carsten Stroud tells what it's like to track down a killer; Richard Rosenthal offers a sense of the pressures and risks of going undercover; and Bill McCarthy and Mike Mallowe offer a guided tour of the city's dregs and the pressures of working with its hardest cases. Philip Gourevitch's account of a cop's dedicated efforts to resurrect a cold case; Marcus Laffey's already near-classic articles on life as a patrolman; and Peter Hellman's best-seller Chief, written with an NYPD chief of detectives help round out this fascinating view of the NYPD and the forces that have made it such a compelling subject for so many good writers. " ...Try Adrenaline Books...In three years, this 20-volume anthology series has earned a cult following."--ESPN the Magazine

Gang life is both the starting point and the dark side of the American dream. Ethnic groups and immigrants have long turned to gangs for protection and support when it was offered nowhere else. From the Five Points to South Central L.A., Bowery Boys to Bloods and Crips, the James gang to gangsta rap, gangs offer a largely urban version of the American frontier: an opportunity and a refuge for society's outlaws, outcasts, and outsiders. Featuring superb writing drawn from the best fiction, nonfiction, and journalism, Gangs takes the reader on a tour of this underground, from accounts of New York's violent past by Herbert Asbury (The Gangs of New York) and Mark Helprin (A Winter's Tale) to Hunter S. Thompson's unflinching report from within the Hell's Angels and T. J. English inside America's most notorious Vietnamese gang. Other selections bring readers into the Irish, Italian, and Jewish Mobs as well as the Triads of America's Chinatowns, and chart the role of the vicious drug trade in contemporary gang life. With photographs and its wild and turbulent tour through the American underworld, Gangs paints a visceral and fascinating picture of a part of the American experience that is more nightmare than dream.

Shark picks up where previous Adrenaline titles such as Rough Water and Deep Blue left off, with a collection focusing on man's terrifying interactions with one of the planet's most frightening beasts--an animal that arouses our most primal fears--fears that were recently brought to the surface by an outbreak of fatal attacks on this country's beaches. From novelists to sailors to oceanographers to divers, man's encounters with sharks have produced a diverse body of gripping, often inspired writing by great names in adventure literature. Along with 16 black-and-white photos, selections feature a wide range of work with an emphasis on thrills and chills, including Peter Matthiessen on the great white shark, Edward Marriott on hunting man-eaters off Nicaragua, Richard Fernicola's account of the 1916 shark attacks that inspired Peter Benchley's Jaws, and Jacques Cousteau's studies of the creatures.

Adrenaline Books' search for the world's best and most exciting stories has taken readers from the peaks of Everest to the jungles of Papua, New Guinea to the battlefields of World War II. Now, the editor of publishing's most successful adventure literature series takes readers into the heart of organized crime. Some of our culture's greatest literary talent has been drawn to this topic, which taps into our culture's deepest preoccupations -- greed, violence, desire. Mob features work from best-selling writers such as Peter Maas, William Kennedy, Martin Cruz Smith, and Mario Puzo; from acknowledged masters of the genre such as Nicolas Pileggi (Wiseguy, Casino) and Joseph Pistone (Donnie Brasco); and from law enforcement insiders and mobsters such as Sammy Giancana and Joseph O'Brien.

In 1970, Chris Bonington and his now-legendary team of mountaineers were the first climbers to tackle a big wall at extreme altitude. Their target was the south face of Nepal's Annapurna: 12,000 feet of steep rock and ice leading to a 26, 454-ft. summit. As serious armchair climbers will tell you, Annapurna South Face is better than all but a handful of equally gripping classics. One could also argue that all that has happened in the big mountains in the past 30 years has come out of this expedition and out of this book. Bonington and his team--most of whom subsequently died in the mountains--represented a kind of "greatest generation" of modern mountaineers. They pioneered a new, bolder approach to high altitude climbing, and this book is about how they hit the big time.

Stephen Venables and three companions made the first ascent of Panchu Chuli V--a remote Himalayan peak on the borders of India, Nepal and Tibet. A rappel anchor failed on the descent, pitching Venables into a 300-foot fall. Crashing through the black night, flung from rock to rock, he assumed that he was plunging to his death. Against all odds he survived, but was left stranded 19,000 feet above a labyrinth of glaciers and snow slopes with two broken legs, the threat of gangrene, and scant food or medical supplies. If he was to return to his wife and son waiting at home some 5000 miles away, Venables knew he had to draw on his reserve of courage and determination. The third Adrenaline Classic, A Slender Thread is a spellbinding account of Venables' survival--and his intense personal struggle to understand the risks he takes for the sake of his insatiable passion for climbing. He comes as close to anyone to answering the unanswerable question: Why do they do it?

Wild brings together the best writing about men and women fighting for their lives in the wilderness, from Jon Krakauer's article on which he based his bestseller Into the Wild, to Carl R. Raswan's account of surviving raids, droughts, and sandstorms in the desert with the Bedouins, to Joe Kane's description of terrifying adventures on the Amazon. Other accounts include: Philipe Descola telling of life with an isolated tribe of headhunters; Bill Bryson describing his life-threatening but hilarious adventures along the Appalachian Trail; and Eric Newby finding himself lost in some of the world's most daunting terrain, the unmapped Hindu Kush.

In this pioneering anthology, Clint Willis presents 75 years of great writing -- from Neil O'Dell to Jon Krakauer -- on the fabled peaks. Here are stories of two British expeditions to Everest in the 1920s; a piece on the 1939 K2 attempt that claimed four climbers' lives; a firsthand account by the Sherpa who reached the summit of Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary; the story of the first successful American assault on K2 in 1978; a British photographer's view of the calamitous 1996 storm on Everest; and many more -- a cornucopia of mountaineering thrills for adventurous readers.

Epic is a mountaineering term that evokes a sense of treacherous disaster -- the climb that went wrong; fighting blinding snowstorms and horrific avalanches; days spent tentbound, running low on food, water, and oxygen; surviving broken bones and shattered spirits. Editor Clint Willis has gathered the most exciting climbing literature of the modern age into one cliff-hanging volume with 15 memorable accounts of legend-making expeditions to the world's most famous peaks, often in the world's worst possible conditions. Authors include Jon Krakauer, Greg Child, David Roberts, Alfred Lansing, and others.

Firefighters have long been among the most admired men and women in our culture, and recent events have shown how well-placed that admiration is--adding fuel to our innate fascination with stories about fire and the people who risk their lives to fight it. Some of our best writers are drawn to the subject of firefighting, and over the years they have created a rich body of literature. Fire Fighters offers the most exciting and compelling stories from that body of work, including accounts of devastating fires from New York to Yellowstone, as well as smaller blazes that have turned particularly ugly or dangerous. Selections include Jimmy Breslin's eulogy for the men who died in the famous Chelsea fire, Norman McLean on the Great Gulch forest fire that killed nine young smokejumpers, John McPhee on fires in the Pine Barrens, Studs Terkel's interview with a fire fighter, and riveting accounts of the FDNY's role in the September 11 tragedy and its aftermath. 16 black-and-white photos are also featured.