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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Author and environmental studies professor Orr (The Nature of Design) presents an alarming look at climate change, predicting a best-case scenario (a sharp reduction in our carbon footprint) that belies the hopes of the green movement at large: "Climate change... is not so much a problem to be fixed, but rather a steadily worsening condition with which we must contend for a long time." Even this, however, depends on a political realignment sufficient to meet the severe challenges of the coming decades and centuries, including famine, drought and population displacement. Rather than a matter of reprioritizing, Orr contends that we must reshape our deepest held values; citing the case against abortion, he suggests that "the same kind of arguments apply to the right to life of future generations... as our present use of coal, oil, and natural gas will kill into the far future." Finding hope in "the connections that bind us to each other, to all life and to all life to come," Orr maintains a guarded optimism that never forgoes the possibility that "we are irreversibly en route to extinction"; for his expertise and crystal clear vision, Orr's disturbing message is hard to ignore. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Orr acknowledges [the] dire circumstances, but does not wallow in despair or defeatism. His book is a clear-sighted view of what we need to change now...Orr's book will do much to help achieve the required cultural transformation, hopefully just in time."--_Nature_</p><p>"If you want to read the latest, and one of the most streamlined yet comprehensive accounts of our predicament, I'd recommend <em>Down to the Wire</em> by David Orr, an Oberlin College professor who has long been one of the country's leading environmental thinkers. He lays out the dangers, and he lays out the plans that would be needed to counteract those dangers; it's all there in simple and unavoidable prose." --Bill McKibben, <em>New York Review of Books</em></p><p>"If climate change were not an issue, what you would have to say would be undiminished in its urgency....I thank you for not giving up, for staking out the ground of 'authentic hope,' and for reinvigorating that indispensable term, 'maybe.'"--Wendell Berry, from a letter to the author</p><p>"Although his research findings are well referenced, Orr's integration and interpretation take the book beyond the typical academic treatise...Refreshingly candid regarding heroes, villains, and difficult decisions, Orr writes with exceptional elegance and passion...Highly recommended."--_CHOICE_</p><p>"Powerful and prophetic."--Thomas Berry</p><p>"A dazzling intellectual sweep across the causes and solutions to our mounting 'long emergency.' Orr shows convincingly that leadership and good governance, not just technological solutions, will all have to be part of the mix if we are to save the planet in time."--Stephen H. Schneider, Stanford University</p><p>"A sweeping synthesis of science, politics, history, and public policy--shaped by extraordinary wisdom, reason, and conviction--this very important book envisions a roadmap to a livable future."--Ray Anderson, Founder and Chair, Interface Inc., and author of <em>Confessions of a Radical</em> <em>Industrialist</em></p><p>"David couples realism with optimism to create an honest look at how we consider the environment, povery, and equality. If he believes that humans can rise to the occasion of our global climate crisis, so can you. Thanks, David!"--Majore Carter, Economic Development Consultant, MacArthur "Genius" Fellow</p><p>"Lucid, richly documented, and powerful."--George M. Woodwell, Director Emeritus, The Woods Hole Research Center</p><p>"It is rare to find so many fresh insights between the convers of one book. We are all indebted to David Orr for his incisive thinking."--Lester R. Brown, President, Earth Policy Institute, and author of <em>Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization</em></p><p>"_Down to the Wire_ takes the reader beyond the viewpoints which are standard fare in the climate literature: technological optimism and sustainability on the one hand, or techo-criticism, lament and despair on the other. Orr foresees a pathway to solving our dilemma, one marked by political leadership and respect for human dignity."--Michael Oppenheimer, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs, Princeton University   </p><p>"Deeply informed by wide reading, practical experience, and many years of passionate teaching and activism, David Orr's cogent arguments provide leadership both to meet the climate disruption that our foresight has been insufficient to avoid, and to help avoid worse. Highly recommended!"--Herman Daly, Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland   </p><p>"One of the great scholars in the climate change and clean energy debate, Orr's new book sets out a challenging and hopeful agenda for real change in how we reshape our nation, our energy policies, and ultimately our personal lives, for the long haul battle against climate destabilization." --Jeff Biggers, <em>Huffington Post</em></p><p>"Orr adroitly weaves environmental science and policy together with perspectives from history, philosophy, political science, legal studies, and communications to contextualize climate change as a symptom of other problems that, if confronted, can be addressed. The result is a touchstone for anyone interested in engaging constructively in social change." --_ClimateEdu Newsletter_, National Wildlife Federation   </p><p>Orr's book is gracefully written, with a lucid and comprehensive vision it is important that everyone reads it, because it is about our future, which is likely to be very different from the present. --_North Coast Journal_</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. In this tsunami of terrifying revelations, juxtaposed truths, and demonstrated facts, Hedges (War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning) argues that the traditional beacons of the liberal class—the universities, media, church, labor unions, and arts–have sacrificed themselves completely to the dominance of corporate greed and unbounded capitalism. We are all to blame and everything moral about our democracy stands to be lost—is indeed already vanishing, in Hedges's view—and those who draw attention to it are banished and booed. While every page erupts with calamities of the human spirit worthy of their own irate broadcasts and bull-horned fury, Hedges is at his best when he unpacks the density of his polemic and embraces the power of his narrative. Regardless of form, however, his most interesting theses include the parallel between the current domestic climate and the fall of Weimar Germany and the conclusion that "Everything formed by violence is senseless and useless. It exists without a future. It leaves behind nothing but death, grief, and destruction." These insights come not just as warning, but as witness. (Nov.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>The real danger to progressive social ideals is not President Obama’s failure to push through a more liberal agenda or the threat presented by the Tea Party and others pushing the Republicans more to the Right. Hedges argues that the true threat to liberalism is the long and gradual weakening of its ideals. Drawing on analysis and interviews from his long career as a journalist, including 15 years with the New York Times, Hedges chronicles the corruption of such bastions of liberalism as the Democratic Party, academia, and labor unions. He cites the NAFTA agreement and welfare reform during the Clinton administration and union coziness with corporations as recent examples of the merging of government and corporate interests to the detriment of the interests of the poor or even the middle class. He also reviews the long history of assassination and co-optation of radical voices in the U.S. and the singular career of Ralph Nader as a consistent voice against capitalist excess. This is a thoughtful analysis of why and how liberals have compromised principles due to the allure of power and wealth. --Vanessa Bush </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Stimulating and prescient. . ."</p><p>—_Times Literary Supplement_</p><p>"Succinct, hard-hitting attacks on what the author perceives as America's ruinous imperial follies..."</p><p>—_Publishers Weekly_, starred review</p><p>"Concise, clear, hard-hitting. . . <em>Dismantling the Empire </em>is a must read for anyone looking for meaningful information concerning the future of the American Empire."</p><p>—_Foreign Policy Journal_</p><p>Praise for Chalmers Johnson</p><p>“Johnson wants the scales to fall from American eyes so that the nation can see the truth about its role in the world. His is a patriot’s passion: his motive is to save the American republic he loves.”<br />—Jonathan Freedland, <em>The New York Review of Books</em>  </p><p>“The role of the prophet is an honorable one. In Chalmers Johnson the American empire has found its Jeremiah. He deserves to be heard.”<br />—Andrew J. Bacevich, <em>The Washington Post Book World</em></p><p>“Chalmers Johnson’s important new book is something with which everyone who aspires to a worthwhile opinion about this country’s future must contend.”<br />—_The Los Angeles Times_ (on <em>Nemesis</em>)</p><p>“Trenchantly argued, comprehensively documented, grimly eloquent. . . Worthy of the republic it seeks to defend.”<br />—_The Boston Globe_ (on <em>The Sorrows of Empire</em>)  </p><p>“Stunning and shocking. . . <em>Blowback</em> is a wake-up call for America.”<br />—John Dower, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <em>Embracing Defeat</em>  </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong><em></em></strong>From the author of the bestselling Blowback Trilogy, an urgent call to confront America's waning power<em></em></p><p>In his prophetic book <em>Blowback</em>, published before 9/11, Chalmers Johnson warned that our secret operations in Iraq and elsewhere around the globe would exact a price at home. Now, in a brilliant series of essays written over the last three years, Johnson measures that price and the resulting dangers America faces. Our reliance on Pentagon economics, a global empire of bases, and war without end is, he declares, nothing short of "a suicide option."</p><p><em>Dismantling the Empire</em> explores the subjects for which Johnson is now famous, from the origins of blowback to Barack Obama's Afghanistan conundrum, including our inept spies, bad behavior in other countries, ill-fought wars, and capitulation to a military that has taken ever more control of the federal budget. There is, he proposes, only one way out: President Obama must begin to dismantle America's empire of bases before the Pentagon dismantles the American dream. If we do not learn from the fates of past empires, he suggests, our decline and fall are foreordained. This is Johnson at his best: delivering both a warning and a crucial prescription for a remedy. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Ehrenreich (_Nickel and Dimed_) delivers a trenchant look into the burgeoning business of positive thinking. A bout with breast cancer puts the author face to face with this new breed of frenetic positive thinking promoted by everyone from scientists to gurus and activists. Chided for her anger and distress by doctors and fellow cancer patients and survivors, Ehrenreich explores the insistence upon optimism as a cultural and national trait, discovering its symbiotic relationship with American capitalism and how poverty, obesity, unemployment and relationship problems are being marketed as obstacles that can be overcome with the right (read: positive) mindset. Building on Max Weber's insights into the relationship between Calvinism and capitalism, Ehrenreich sees the dark roots of positive thinking emerging from 19th-century religious movements. Mary Baker Eddy, William James and Norman Vincent Peale paved the path for today's secular $9.6 billion self-improvement industry and positive psychology institutes. The author concludes by suggesting that the bungled invasion of Iraq and current economic mess may be intricately tied to this reckless national penchant for self-delusion and a lack of anxious vigilance, necessary to societal survival. <em>(Oct.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>No critic completely dismissed Ehrenreich's critique of America's "happiness" culture. But reviewers' enthusiasm for her critique seemed to depend on their assessment of the book's moral urgency. Several critics felt that the message of <em>Bright-Sided</em> was essential to readers in the aftermath of last year's economic meltdown. But others felt that Ehrenreich's ideas, while relevant, had been better expressed by others. They also criticized the author for "cheap shots" and outdated research. For example, she criticizes the book <em>Who Moved My Cheese?</em>, which has long been superseded by other, even sillier titles. But many readers may react like Hanna Rosin, who wrote in the <em>New York Times Book Review</em> that even when she did not agree with Ehrenreich's arguments, she felt less guilty about not sharing in our smiley :-) culture. </p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>After taking on the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole in her previous book, </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Bainbridge, whose The Birthday Boys was an unforgettable rendition of Scott's fatal Antarctic expedition, has turned to another Edwardian tragedy for her new novel: the sinking of the Titanic. As Bainbridge admirers might expect, it is not the kind of version that would make a spectacular movie; rather, it is a meticulously observed account that almost offhandedly convinces the reader that this is exactly what it must have been like aboard the doomed liner. The story is told by a wealthy young American man-about-town, an adopted nephew of J. Pierpont Morgan, who in search of something to do has had a slight hand in the ship's design ("the specifications of bathtubs"). Once aboard, he drinks too much with his layabout friends; sees people like the Astors and Strauses; becomes infatuated with a girl who in turn falls for a mysterious and cynical stranger; and gets to know a young Jewish dress designer who is hoping to become a hit in New York. In a few deft strokes Bainbridge shows the gulf between the steerage passengers and the "nobs" while communicating the alternating servility and resentment of the crew. The book is nearly over before disaster strikes, but once again, the unnerving details seem just right: the careless self-confidence at the beginning, the gallantry quickly eroding to panic. Bainbridge's swift, economical novels tell us more about an era and the ways in which its people inhabit it than volumes of social history. <br>Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>A Booker Prize nominee, Bainbridge's latest novel is a compelling read, again demonstrating her acuity of observation and darkly comic view of life. In Stella Bradshaw, a teenage aspiring actress from the slums of Liverpool, Bainbridge limns a tough but beguiling character. She also deftly conveys the atmosphere of 1950s England, still grimly bomb-cratered, coping with food rationing and the visible casualties of maimed veterans. Her portrait of a seedy repertory troupe, whose members histrionically indulge in love affairs and unrequited passions, is classic. Into this company, directed by elegant Meredith Potter, comes Stella, inveigled into their midst by her uncle/guardian, who feels that the stage is Stella's only alternative to working in Woolworth's. Added to her knowledge of her illigitimacy and lower-class origins (the Bradshaws bathe once a fortnight, and share "the family towel"), Stella has the normal self-consciousness and naivete of adolescence overlaid by a strong will, guilelessness and lack of tact. Her innocent but dangerous impulses and her crush on Meredith, whose homosexuality eludes her, makes Stella a sort of Typhoid Mary of psychological injury; one after another, members of the troupe suffer from her impetuous behavior. Bainbridge's prose brims with pithy insights tinged with sardonic humor, and her plot moves swiftly to a chilling conclusion. <br>Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>*'Vintage bittersweet Bainbridge' MAIL ON SUNDAY <em>'Imagine Priestley's THE GOOD COMPANIONS as written by Gogol and you will have some idea of the mixture of waggish humour and sordid pathos in Bainbridge's novel' SUNDAY TIMES </em>'A subtle schizophrenic insight into adult relationships . Bainbridge's understated prose and obsessive eye for the smallest and most telling of details have never been better employed' TIME OUT </p>

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<div><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> Here, for writers itching to get started (but not quite sure how), is one of the most useful recent guides to crafting words into stories. The author, whose mystery fiction has won a handful of awards, customizes her guide for writers of detective fiction and suspense (although her discussions of plotting and character creation will be valuable to all would-be scribblers, regardless of their chosen genre). Wheat begins with an insightful discussion of the distinction between mystery and suspense--each plays to a different part of the reader's imagination and expectations--and then devotes a section to each genre. She offers up plenty of useful tips, such as how to dispense vital information in subtle ways and how to plant clues without being too obvious about it. Where the book really scores, however, is in Wheat's demonstration of how to construct a novel as a series of arcs, each designed to take the reader gracefully to a certain point in the story. While covering similar territory, the sections on mystery and suspense approach the material from slightly different angles. The final section, on the writing process, provides a nuts-and-bolts discussion of such fundamentals as outlining, revising, and finding the right voice for your story. There are almost as many writer's guides on the market as there are struggling writers, but this one is indispensable. <em>David Pitt</em><br><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Writing is all about creating an experience for the reader. Whether you're giving them a brain-teasing puzzle or an adrenaline-soaked emotional roller coaster-ride, this book helps you shape your fiction to create maximum enjoyment for your readers.Now you can learn the craft directly from one of the most respected contemporary writers in the field, Carolyn What, winner of multitudinous awards and nominations. What knows what editors want, and shows you how to achieve your writing an publishing goals. How To Write Killer Fiction is a handbook that no writer of mystery or suspense can afford to be without. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>Carl Spadoni's edition of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a delight to peruse... -- <em>Michael Peterman, Trent University</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Affectionately combining both the idyllic and ironic, <em>Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town</em> is Stephen Leacock’s most beloved book. Set in fictional Mariposa, an Ontario town on the shore of Lake Wissanotti, these sketches present a remarkable range of characters: some irritating, some exasperating, some foolhardy, but all endearing. Painted with the skilful brushstrokes of a great comic artist, the delightful inhabitants of Mariposa represent the people of small towns everywhere.  </p><p>As fresh, funny, and insightful today as when it was first published in 1912, <em>Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town</em> is Stephen Leacock at his best – colourful, imaginative, and thoroughly entertaining. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"John Meaney is a spectacular writer. He makes SF seem all fresh and new again."<br>- Robert J Sawyer, author of_ Flash Forward_ and <em>Frameshift</em>  </p><p>"Cumberland leaps off the page, a trained killer whose anger and grief at his daughter's condition is brilliantly portrayed; the depiction of his simmering rage, barely held in check, and how he channels it, provides a masterclass in characterisation." - <em>The Guardian</em>  </p><p>"The characters themselves are wonderfully fleshed out and their interaction is quite mesmerising... an intelligent, slick and brilliantly executed novel with a quite unexpected but superbly scripted ending." - _ScienceFictionandFantasy.co.uk  </p><p>_<em></em>Praise for Thomas Blackthorne (John Meaney):  </p><p><em></em>"John Meaney is a spectacular writer. He makes SF seem all fresh and new again." - Robert J Sawyer   </p><p>"John Meaney has rewired SF. Everything is different now." - Stephen Baxter   </p><p>"Meaney is one of the best authors of hard SF in the world!" - <em>SFX</em>   </p><p>"One of British science fiction's most original and exciting practitioners." - Barnes &amp; Noble   </p><p>"_Dark Blood_ is highly entertaining, more action driven and seasoned with splatters of the titular liquid." - Andrew Osbourne, <em>SFX </em>(reviewing <em>Dark Blood)</em>  </p><p>"Is it good? Of course it is. Meaney is one of the best authors of hard SF in the world at the moment, and he doesn't put a foot wrong here." - <em>SFX</em> (reviewing <em>Resolution</em>) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>You thought Big Brother and Survivor were tough?  </p><p><strong>WELCOME, SENSATION SEEKERS, TO KNIFE EDGE - the reality TV show where wannabe knife fighters are the celebrities in a nation going to hell.</strong> In a Britain on the edge of collapse, The ultimate response to knife crime has been instituted by a bankrupt government: duelling with knives has now been legalized.   </p><p>On Saturday nights, the nation sits down to watch the country's best amateur fighters slash it out on prime time. The streets are red with blood. The skies are black with polluted horror. High walls have been built around Britain and endless winter is coming.  </p><p>When a young boy with hoplophobia (the fear of weaponry) runs away from home, his father hires ex-Special Forces agent Josh Cumberland to find him. With the help of the boy's psychiatrist, Cumberland delves into the dark underbelly of the knife culture that has infected his country, but what he finds will shock him to his soul.  </p><p>File Under: Science Fiction [ Devastated Britain | Legalised Duelling | Corporate Atrocity | Save the Children ] </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> British bestseller Faulks's latest (after <em>Human Traces</em>) comprises the dark confessional of Mike Engleby, an intelligent but strange university student suspected in a woman's disappearance. His journal-like account of his life, which begins in the turbulent 1970s and extends to 2006, includes day-to-day accounts of college life, pontifications on time, politics and the nature of thought, and flashbacks to his childhood—particularly the years he spent as a scholarship student at the exclusive Chatfield, where he was taunted and abused by his classmates (they, among other things, called him Toilet). As the journal progresses, his obsession with university student Jennifer Arkland deepens: he reads her mail, sits in on her classes, joins her political society and becomes involved in her student film. When Jennifer disappears after a party and is presumed dead, Mike finds himself under police investigation. The case remains open for over a decade, and Mike continues on with his life, but Jen is never far from his thoughts, and as he continues to return in his mind to Jen's disappearance, he reveals more about that night and about himself. Though sometimes heavy with the tropes of self-deception and misdirection, this is a compelling psychological portrait of a man who is at once profoundly disturbed and wryly funny. <em>(Sept.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>"I don't find life unbearably grave. I find it almost intolerably frivolous," says Brit Mike Engleby, the smart social misfit who narrates Faulks' new novel. The story follows Engleby through adolescence in the 1970s, when he's frequent fodder for bullies (the kind that put their victim's head in the toilet, then repeatedly flush). He fares a bit better at university, particularly after he makes the acquaintance of a lovely coed named Jennifer. Alas, romantic interest soon turns to obsession, and when Jennifer goes missing, Engleby becomes a suspect. The case remains unsolved for more than a dozen years, during which time Engleby finds a girlfriend and establishes himself as a journalist. When Jennifer's remains are finally discovered, memories begin to surface that make Engleby question whether he might have been responsible for the poor girl's demise. Faulks, the author of numerous well-received literary novels (including On Green Dolphin Street, 2002), renders luminous prose, but this time it gets lost amid a rambling tale told by a narcissist with little of consequence to say. A disappointment from a talented writer, but still of interest to Faulks' followers. Block, Allison </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>You've got to hand it to Bobby Flay. He opened his first restaurant, the inventive "new southwestern" Mesa Grill, in 1991--and he's still celebrating the sweet, hot and spicy at that Manhattan outpost, not to mention on his TV shows and in other cookbooks like <em>Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook</em> offers 140-plus recipes for a wide range of new "signature dishes," such as BBQ Duck Filled Blue Corn Pancakes with Habañero Sauce; Chile Rubbed Short Ribs with Creamy Polenta and Cotija Cheese; and Grilled Red Snapper with Tomato-New Mexico Red Chile Sauce. He also includes idiosyncratic takes on old favorites, like Whipped Potatoes with Cilantro Pesto, and desserts including Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter Crème Brûlée, and Caramel Apple Shortcakes. Even drinks get the Flay treatment. </p><p>His food (at least in moderation) is difficult not to like. Cooks will find the recipes eminently doable if they're willing to cull the necessary ingredients--there's a fine ingredients glossary--and put aside a bit of time. This is great "occasion cooking" and should appeal to dyed-in-the-grill Flay fans, as well as those whose curiosity has been tickled by his winning culinary hegemony. <em>--Arthur Boehm</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Flay is everywhere: overseeing six restaurants, appearing on four TV shows plus his own Web site and now assembling his seventh cookbook in 13 years. Flay preps the reader for culinary adventure with a tequila guide followed by four different margarita recipes, and then sets off on a whirlwind tour of flavorful dishes inspired by the American Southwest. Flay's trademark is flavoring a perfectly grilled or roasted hunk of protein with smoke or chili or fruit, exemplified by Pan-Roasted Venison with Tangerine–Roasted Jalapeño Sauce and the slightly tamer Coffee-Rubbed Filets Mignons with Ancho-Mushroom Sauce. Shrimp, snapper and tuna dominate the seafood section, though there is also the quintessentially Flayvian Grilled Swordfish with Pineapple-Mustard Glaze and Cilantro-Mint Chimichurri. A chapter on brunches turns up the heat with dishes like Egg and Aged Sirloin Tortillas with Three-Pepper Relish. Coming full circle by drawing upon recipes from Mesa Grill, his first eatery, Flay also slyly opens the door for a series of cookbooks based on his other properties. 100 color photos not seen by <em>PW</em>. <em>(Oct.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Taibbi eviscerates Wall Street for what he considers frauds perpetrated on the American people over the last ten years. Deftly delving deeply into complicated financial history and lingo, Taibbi deftly lays the subject bare, rendering heretofore-dense subject matter simple without being simplistic. Blame for the recent mortgage collapse, commodities bubble, and tech bubble are laid at the feet of a relatively small number of bankers and traders who, in the author's opinion, act without fear of reciprocity from a U.S. government no longer representative of the American people. He begins by awarding the title "Biggest Asshole In The Universe" to former-Fed Chief Alan Greenspan, taking him to task for willfully or stupidly disemboweling what little regulation the financial markets may have had before his tenure. This theme resounds throughout, and Taibbi asserts that the collusion between Wall Street and the White House has effectively turned the United States into a massive casino, in which working Americans are regularly bilked out of their savings and homes while the wealthy are repeatedly rewarded for their graft. It's an important and worthy read, but not for the Randian disciple or Goldman-Sachs alum. (Nov.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> Rolling Stone contributing editor Taibbi delivers a blistering examination of the upheaval that has roiled the American economic system over the past several years. At the heart of the upheaval, he says, is a vein of greed running up and down the real-estate industry, from mortgage brokers who falsified customer loan applications to banks that parceled out mortgages to second and third parties to rating agencies that signed off on highly suspect loans. Taibbi saves a good deal of venom for former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, arguing that Greenspan’s philosophy of easy cash, limited government oversight of markets, and bailing out “too big to fail” financial institutions all fueled the recent economic meltdown. And Taibbi profiles a recently passed health-care bill severely compromised by an all-powerful insurance lobby. As critical as he is of the process—a process not likely to get fixed any time soon—he doesn’t seem to carry an agenda; instead, like any good investigative reporter, he mostly follows his nose. --Alan Moores </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>More than a million ships have gone lost or missing in the seas, and going down in "the museum of the deep" to find famous shipwrecks is a risky yet profitable business, sometimes challenging the limits of human endurance. Delgado, a marine archeologist and a member of the Sea Hunter TV retrieval team, presents a chronicle of distinguished wreckage, addressing the wrecks’ histories, the scope of the undersea explorations to locate them, the joy of discovery and the thrill of bringing artifacts to the surface. There are some very significant finds here: the supply ship Isabella, lost in 1830; the Pearl Harbor wreckage of USS Arizona and USS Utah; the flotilla of ships destroyed by an atomic bomb at the Bikini atoll; the massive ruin of the "unsinkable" Titanic; the Russian ship carrying Catherine the Great’s jewels, which sank off Finland in 1771; and others. Fans of the National Geographic International TV series will attest to Delgado’s expert care of the ship artifacts as they’re studied, mapped, tagged, photographed and raised to the surface, where they are treated to stop the ravages of time. This sea adventurer’s inside look will excite thrill seekers, inform novices and educate all readers about the importance of preserving the sea’s historic past against poachers and souvenir hunters. Photos. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Leading archaeologist and consummate storyteller James Delgado takes readers on a rollicking deep-sea dive into his highly unusual life's work: locating and exploring the world's most famous shipwrecks. Colorful characters, near misses, and the thrill of standing — or floating — in history's footprints make for a highly entertaining look at the fascinating history and glittering bounty beneath the waves. Included are accounts of Pearl Harbor, the Titanic, and Bikini Atoll, site of the world's first nuclear tests. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The ghost hovering over this assured and astonishingly mature first novel is that of Joseph Roth, the great interwar Austrian novelist. Perhaps this reflects Wray's own double origin, as the son of an Austrian father and an American mother. Oskar Voxlauer, Wray's Austrian protagonist, was a teenage deserter from the Austro-Hungarian army in WWI. As the novel begins, he is returning to his native village, Niessen bei Villach, in 1938, after a 19-year stay in the Ukraine. His Russian lover's death has released him, and he is coming back in the middle of Hitler's Anschluss to see his lonely mother. To escape the tensions in Niessen, Oskar goes to work as a gamekeeper on a stretch of forest his Jewish tavernkeeper friend Ryslavy owns outside town. There he meets the old gamekeeper's daughter, Else Bauer, who lives under a vague cloud, having borne a daughter out of wedlock. The two are briefly happy together, but then Else's cousin, Kurt, returns to Austria from exile in Germany, as the head of the Nazis in Niessen. Kurt is also, Oskar quickly discovers, more to Else than a cousin. Oskar publicly opposes the Nazis; Kurt ambiguously patronizes him. Soon the triangle between Else, Oskar and Kurt becomes fraught with menace. The gloom of the dark days of late '30s Austria is heightened by Oskar's recollections of personal trauma: his wartime experiences; the suicide of his father, a famous opera composer; and the brutal collectivization of the Ukrainian countryside. Wray's first novel displays psychological acuity, a mastery of dialogue and an unfailing historical empathy, and should garner deserved raves. </p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>A disillusioned Austrian soldier returns home from World War I after 20 years only to face a new moral and social dilemma. Oskar Voxlauer, son of a well-regarded family in his town, deserts his unit soon after arriving at the Italian front in 1917. He makes his way to the Ukraine in the days following the Russian Revolution, taking up with Anna, a Ukrainian widow. After her death, he returns home, finding work as a gamekeeper. History, in the form of the German annexation of Austria in 1938, soon intrudes on his solitude, however. Complicating matters, he becomes involved with Else, whose cousin is the local Nazi commander. The delicate d tente among the threesome disintegrates after hooligans vandalize a bar owned by Paul, a Jewish friend of Oskar, forcing him, in his own way, to take a stand. More a character study than a moral tale, this is a quietly memorable first novel. For most libraries.DLawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA <br />Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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Since Barbie's introduction in 1959, her impact on baby boomers has been revolutionary. Far from being a toy designed by men to enslave women, she was a toy invented by women to teach women what-- for better or worse-- was expected of them. In telling Barbie's fascinating story, cultural critic and investigative journalist M. G. Lord, herself a first-generation Barbie owner, has written a provocative, zany, occasionally shocking book that will change how you look at the doll and the world.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This conspiracy thriller from the pseudonymous Carter opens in 1937 with a rousing Siberian prison camp escape, but the present-day action soon turns predictable. After the murder of Katya Orlova, the grandmother of San Francisco lawyer Zoe Dmitroff, a letter written by Katya reaches Zoe informing her that she's now the "Keeper" of an ancient secret involving a Siberian cave known as the Altar of Bones. Many people try to wrest the secret from Zoe, including her own mother, a mysterious business tycoon, and the Russian mob. Ry O'Malley, a hunky tough guy, signs on to protect Zoe, and soon they're on the run. Zoe and Ry prove to be amazingly lucky, to the point that by the time the unsurprising ending rolls around, all suspense has been drained from the action. Readers should be prepared for prose typical of erotic romance fiction (e.g., "He tried to gentle his kiss, but then she tangled her fingers in his hair and sucked on his tongue, pulling it deeper into her mouth, making love with their mouths, sucking, tonguing, and he was lost"). (Mar.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Will blow your mind! Dan Brown meets Robert Ludlum in this gripping, incredibly fast-paced thriller.”--_New York Times_ bestseller Greg Iles  </p><p>"You won't put it down until you get up to walk around and catch your breath."—_New York Times_ bestseller Ted Bell  </p><p>“_Altar of Bones_ is one of the most stunning novels I've ever read. From superbly etched characters to a plot rich with twists and heart-stopping action . . . an incredible reading experience you can't miss.” -- <em>New York Times </em>bestselling author Catherine Coulter  </p><p>“[An] action-filled story . . . lots of sex, lots of violence, and lots of plot twists.” -- <em>Kirkus</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Genre veteran Matheson (I Am Legend) frames this bittersweet blend of fantasy and romantic suspense as the "true" reminiscences of 82-year-old Alex White, the author of such novels as Midnight Blood Thirst and Midnight Flesh Hunger under the name Alex Black. In the spring of 1918, the then 18-year-old Alex, a wounded soldier who's been discharged from the American Army, settles in the isolated English town of Gatford, where he soon finds himself caught between two supernaturally empowered women: Magda, an alluring witch, and Ruthana, a charming faerie. Alex, himself powerless, is willing to make great sacrifices to be with his one true love, whichever one she might be, but their different natures and disapproving relatives may doom the relationship. Which of the two women Alex will choose is never really in doubt; the loser is clearly unsuitable and conveniently malicious in defeat. The self-pitying Alex may ramble in telling his straightforward tale, but Matheson remains as ever a competent craftsman. (Mar.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“Perhaps no other author living is as responsible for chilling a generation with tantalizing nightmare visions.”<br /><em>—The New York Times</em></p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>#1 <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author J.R. Ward's thrilling new novel in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. </strong>   </p><p>Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, seductive cloth as her brother. Imprisoned for eons by their mother, the Scribe Virgin, she finally frees herself-only to face a devastating injury. Manuel Manello, M.D., is drafted by the Brotherhood to save her as only he can-but when the human surgeon and the vampire warrior meet, their two worlds collide in the face of their undeniable passion. With so much working against them, can love prove stronger than the birthright and the biology that separates them? </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>J.R. Ward</strong> is the #1 <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of numerous novels, including the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. She lives in the South with her husband. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Thirty thousand years in the making and 31 years in the writing, Auel's overlong and underplotted sixth and final volume in the Earth's Children series (The Clan of the Cave Bear; etc.) finds Cro-Magnon Ayla; her mate, Jondalar; and their infant daughter, Jonayla, settling in with the clan of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonaii. Animal whisperer and medicine woman Ayla is an acolyte in training to become a full-fledged Zelandoni (shaman) of the clan, but all is not rosy in this Ice Age setting; there are wild animals to face and earthquakes to survive, as well as a hunter named Balderan, who has targeted Ayla for death, and a potential cave-wrecker named Marona. While gazing on an elaborate cave painting (presumably, the Lascaux caverns in France), Ayla has an epiphany and invents the concept of art appreciation, and after she overdoses on a hallucinogenic root, Ayla and Jondalar come to understand how much they mean to one another, thus giving birth to another concept—monogamy. Otherwise, not much of dramatic interest happens, and Ayla, for all her superwomanish ways, remains unfortunately flat. Nevertheless, readers who enjoyed the previous volumes will relish the opportunity to re-enter pre-history one last time. (Mar.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>What began 30 years ago with Auel�s best-seller The Clan of the Cave Bear (1980), namely the phenomenally popular Ice Age�era Earth�s Children series, comes to an end in the sixth installment. Now a wife and mother, Ayla lives among the Zelandoni, the people of her mate, Jondalar, but she hasn�t forgotten the ways of the people who raised her. Ayla is training to become a spiritual leader, and her devotion to this calling takes its toll on her union with Jondalar. On their journeys, Ayla and her friends contend with earthquakes, a band of marauding rapists, and even an outbreak of prehistoric chicken pox. When Ayla and Jondalar get wistful for the days when they were alone with their animals, readers might find themselves feeling similarly. As was the case with The Shelters of Stone (2002), there�s not a lot of urgency in this final volume, but the millions of readers who have been with Ayla from the start will want to once again lose themselves in the rich prehistoric world Auel conjures and see how this internationally beloved series concludes. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Auel�s novels have been record-breaking mega-best-sellers, with 45 million copies worldwide, ensuring that readers will clamor for the series finale. --Kristine Huntley </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>When Lt. Milo Sturgis of LAPD homicide asks psychologist Alex Delaware to view the faceless corpse of a young woman in Kellerman's enjoyable if only average 26th Alex Delaware novel (after Deception), Alex is shocked to recognize the gunshot victim as someone he and wife, Robin, saw the night before in a restaurant bar. A link turns out to exist between the dead woman and a sinister-looking man Alex and Robin observed outside the bar that night. An anonymous tip leads to an online service that matches "sugar daddies" with "star-quality sweeties." The victim, who called herself "Mystery," had a "daddy," Markham McReynolds, whose wealthy, anything-goes family offers plenty of suspects, including McReynolds's wife, two sons, and two daughters-in-law. Kellerman's bantering detectives make it look almost too easy as they put together the clues and possible scenarios, despite the unusual solution to the crime. (Apr.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Alex Delaware, the L.A. psychologist and crime-solver, returns to tackle another tricky case. A woman has been murdered, her body mutilated. Homicide detective Milo Sturgis, Delaware’s frequent partner, brings Alex into the case, hoping for some insight into the psychology of the killer. Alex is surprised to discover that the victim is familiar to him; Alex and his girlfriend saw her at a restaurant only hours before her death. But how can Alex and Milo expect to find any usable clues when the restaurant is now out of business? The Delaware series has been going since 1985, and it’s long since settled into a comfortable formula, which is just fine as far as fans are concerned. The books star a pair of engaging protagonists and, for the most part, are well plotted. In addition, Kellerman usually tosses in a couple of twists to keep readers on their toes. This installment is nothing out of the ordinary for the series, but it’s a solid entry that will please the established audience. --David Pitt </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Nothing on earth can make this vampire fall in love . . .   After 499 years of existence, Connor Buchanan has arrived at an inescapable conclusion: he is a cold-hearted SOB. He's been watching his friends—those poor romantic fools—plummet off the cliff into love like a dazed herd of sheep. But not Connor. He knows that love leads to nothing but heartache.   Until Marielle . . .   She is an angel cast down from heaven for disobedience. Trapped in mortal form, she finds a protector in Connor, a Scottish vampire haunted by a dark past. Marielle hopes to heal his broken heart and earn her way back home, but suddenly she has these . . . feelings. This strange yet pleasant physical yearning—for a vampire! Is this the work of a demon luring her into hell, or has this angel found heavenly bliss?</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>It's not a global terror ring, but the desire for a personal life that threatens the Sisters in Michaels's subdued 20th—and last—Sisterhood installment (after 2010's Déja Vu). Sisters leader Myra Rutledge Martin, her husband, Sir Charles, and Annie de Silva all remain dedicated to fighting crime, but the other ladies aren't so sure and the group is showing signs of breaking up. When U.S. president Martine Connor asks them to join a new super-secret agency she's created, with the promise of clean slates for all, however, everyone agrees. Their mission: to find out who's stealing millions in secret U.S. funds. Though the ever feisty Myra is determined to assist Lady Justice, vigilantes Maggie Spritzer, who falls head over (high) heels for Master Sgt. Gus Sullivan over Thanksgiving dinner at Camp David; Nikki Quinn Emery; and Isabelle Flanders all want to focus on their personal lives. Michaels brings her popular series to a lackluster close with a tired financial corruption plot and tidy domestic ribbons tied too tightly around every girl in the group. (Apr.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>New Beginnings For The Sisterhood - United by a desire to overcome their personal misfortunes, seven very different women formed an indelible bond and vowed to right wrongs wherever they found them. They've succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. After years known as the Vigilantes, Myra, Annie, Kathryn, Alexis, Yoko, Nikki, and Isabelle are enjoying their hard-won freedom and the chance at a normal life. As it turns out, once you're a part of the Sisterhood, normal is a relative term. President Martine Connor, their long-time ally, has announced the formation of a top-secret organization. Officially, the CIC won't exist. Unofficially, they'll report directly to the president and tackle the jobs no one else can handle. For the Sisterhood, it's the end of an era - and the beginning of a whole new adventure... </p>

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<p>"It's like gadgets in shops.You buy a gadget and you develop an affection for it... but all of a sudden there are newer and better gadgets in the shops.More up-to-date models."William Trevor has been acclaimed as the greatest contemporary writer of short stories in the English language, likened to Chekhov for his insights into human nature. These three tales of obsession, heartbreak, silent sorrow and the small tragedies of ordinary lives are profound, immaculate and beautiful.This book includes The Mark-2 Wife, The Time of Year and Cheating at Canasta.</p>


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<p>William Trevor is one of the renowned figures in contemporary literature, described as 'the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language' by the New Yorker and acclaimed for his haunting and profound insights into the human heart. Here is the ultimate collection of his short fiction, with dozens of tales spanning his career and ranging from the moving to the macabre, the humorous to the haunting. From the penetrating 'Memories of Youghal' to the bittersweet 'Bodily Secrets' and the elegiac 'Two More Gallants', here are masterpieces of insight, depth, drama and humanity, acutely rendered by a modern master.</p>


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<div><p>Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.</p><p>William Trevor's The Children of Dynmouth was first published in 1976. In it we follow awkward, lonely, curious teenager Timothy Gedge as he wanders around the bland south-coast seaside town of Dynmouth. Timothy takes a prurient interest in the lives of the adults there, who only realize the sinister purpose to which he seeks to put his knowledge too late. This brilliant novel is eerily prescient as it shows a young person's obsession with fame and his capacity for evil.</p></div>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Shapiro's debut, an imaginative, sensual rendering of a Parisian woman's life, is told through the voice of Trevor Stratton, a young American scholar and translator working at a university in Paris. Stratton finds a box filled with objects dating back to WWI that once belonged to Louise Brunet, and his fascination with the box's contents—postcards, handkerchiefs, love letters, and other vintage keepsakes—leads him to imagine what Brunet's life in Paris might have been. What Stratton isn't aware of at first is that the box was left for him by Josianne, a secretary at the university, who is using the box and its contents to measure Stratton's romantic worthiness. As Stratton unfolds Brunet's story against the background of WWI battlefields and several inventions—a lover, Camille Victor, who dies in battle; a resulting unhappy marriage to husband Henri; and a passionate affair with a married neighbor, Xavier Langlais—he gradually comes to realize that Josianne is the source of his archival inspiration. The book is illustrated with photos of the actual objects owned by Shapiro, cleverly used as the novel's framing device. (Feb.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>This ambitious first novel from Paris-born Shapiro centers on a box of WWI-era artifacts, depicted in color throughout the book, found by American academic in Paris Trevor Stratton (it was purposefully left for him by his mysterious new secretary). From photographs and miscellaneous objects, Stratton pieces together “a record” of the life of their owner, Madame Louise Brunet—a real person, incidentally, who lived in the Paris apartment above Shapiro’s, and whose mysterious, unclaimed belongings Shapiro really owns. At turns truly exciting and overflowing with imagination, the novel is full of intriguing characters: Louise’s boring husband, Henri; her talented young piano student, Garance; and her new neighbor, Xavier, to whom she is magnetically drawn. This gimmicky tale unravels somewhat when Stratton, apparently in a fever-dream, begins to confuse his life with Louise’s and implicates himself in the history in which he’s become so involved. Puzzle-lovers will be curious to check out the book’s online counterpart, in which they can view 3-D versions of the book’s images. --Annie Bostrom </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Showalter's seventh Lords of the Underworld novel (after 2010's The Darkest Lie) focuses on Amun, one of the dozen immortal warriors who absorbed evil demons from Pandora's box. The demon of Defeat captures Haidee, a part-demon Hunter whose relatives were slain by the Lords in ancient Greece, and takes her to the warriors' fortress, where Amun is recovering from a journey to hell. Everyone is surprised when Haidee and her icy touch soothe the tormenting demons that burn within Amun. Their roles as Lord and Hunter create obstacles to their growing attraction, as does Haidee's plan to find closure with her boyfriend before committing herself to a relationship with Amun, and another quest in hell tests their skills and commitment. A complicated backstory, dozens of recurring characters, throwaway references to rape, and graphic sex and violence may limit the book's appeal to new readers. <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Keeper of the demon of Secrets, Amun can manipulate the darkest thoughts of anyone nearby. But when the immortal warrior is chained and isolated to protect those he loves, death is his only hope of release—until he meets Haidee, a fellow prisoner whose beauty and hidden vulnerability draw him into a reckless test of his loyalty….</p><p>Haidee is a demon-assassin, raised to despise Amun's kind. Yet how can she hate the man whose touch sets her aflame? But to save him, she must give herself body and soul…and face the wrath of a powerful adversary sworn to destroy her. </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>If you think your family relationships are complicated, think again: you haven't seen anything like the ones in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie Stackhouse is dealing with a whole host of family problems, ranging from her own kin (a non-human fairy and a telepathic second cousin) demanding a place in her life, to her lover Eric's vampire sire, an ancient being who arrives with Eric's 'brother' in tow at a most inopportune moment. And Sookie's tracking down a distant relation of her ailing neighbour (and ex), Vampire Bill Compton. In addition to the multitude of family issues complicating her life, the werewolf pack of Shreveport has asked Sookie for a special favour, and since Sookie is an obliging young woman, she agrees. But this favour for the wolves has dire results for Sookie, who is still recovering from the trauma of her abduction during the Fairy War.</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Single mom Heather Donovan's dreams of home and family are tantalizingly within reach when she settles in Chesapeake Shores. The welcoming arms of the boisterous, loving O'Brien clan embrace her and her son. But accepting their support seems to further alienate her son's father, Connor O'Brien. His parents' divorce and his career as a high-powered divorce attorney have left him jaded about marriage.</p><p>Then everything changes. Will the possibility of a future without Heather make Connor look at love and his career differently? Heather's just about given up on her old dreams—of love, of family and especially of Driftwood Cottage, the home she secretly wishes were hers. It's going to take a lot of persuasion—and some help from the O'Brien family—to make Heather believe that some dreams are worth fighting for. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>With her roots firmly planted in the South, Sherryl Woods has written many of her more than 100 books in that distinctive setting, whether her home state of Virginia, her adopted state, Florida, or her much-adored South Carolina. She's also especially partial to small towns, wherever they may be. A member of Novelists Inc., Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America, Sherryl divides her time between her childhood summer home overlooking the Potomac River in Colonial Beach, Virginia, and her oceanfront home, with its lighthouse view, in Key Biscayne, Florida. </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>They are here. They ride. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.His name is Ares, and the fate of mankind rests on his powerful shoulders. If he falls to the forces of evil, the world falls too. As one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he is far stronger than any mortal, but even he cannot fight his destiny forever. Not when his own brother plots against him. Yet there is one last hope. Gifted in a way other humans can't-or won't-understand, Cara Thornhart is the key to both this Horseman's safety and his doom. But involving Cara will prove treacherous, even beyond the maddening, dangerous desire that seizes them the moment they meet. For staving off eternal darkness could have a staggering cost: Cara's life.</p>


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<div><h3><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 11px; ">Eva Forge is the last paladin of a dead God. Morgan, God of battle and champion of the Fraterdom, was assassinated by his jealous brother, Amon. Over time, the Cult of Morgan has been surpassed by other gods, his blessings ignored in favor of brighter technologies and more mechanical miracles. Eva was the last child dedicated to the Cult of Morgan, forsaken by her parents and forgotten by her family. Now she watches as her new family, her Cult, crumbles all around her.</span></h3><p>When a series of kidnappings and murders makes it clear that someone is trying to hasten the death of the Cult of Morgan, Eva must seek out unexpected allies and unwelcome answers in the city of Ash. But will she be able to save the city from a growing conspiracy, one that reaches back to her childhood, even back to the murder of her god? </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>From the bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Dry—the hilarious, moving, and no less bizarre account of what happened next.You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had to drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls, and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten landed in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by the grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life—and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power.  Augusten Burroughs is the author of Running with Scissors and Sellevision. He lives in New York City.  You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls, and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten landed in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by the grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life—and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power.  "Beneath the quick-flowing, funny-sad surface of Burroughs's prose lurks considerable complexity: wherever he goes, whatever he's doing, you can feel how badly he wants to drink—as well as the sadness from which that desire comes and courage it takes to make the sadness so funny, all at the same time. If anything, Dry is even more compelling than Burroughs's first outing."—Time"More than a heartbreaking tale; it's a heroic one. As with its predecessor, we finish the book amazed not only that Burroughs can write so brilliantly, but that he's even alive."—People"[A] wrenching, edifying journey . . . with the added benefit of being really entertaining."—The New York Times Book Review "A deeper book than Scissors, revealing Burroughs to be a more accomplished writer, creating scenes of real power."—USA Today "Augusten Burroughs is a wickedly good writer . . . Dry is a great read. Grade A."—Chicago Sun-Times "What makes Dry juicy enough to hold us rapt is not sordid debauchery but the clarity with which Burroughs etches the perilously thin line between control and oblivion. Burroughs draws the cliff so eloquently that we're right there with him when he starts flirting with the brink . . . One day at a time, Burroughs builds a deliberate but compelling story, lining up the shots for us until we have no choice but to knock each one back and then turn the page for the next."—San Francisco Chronicle "Augusten Burroughs's Dry: A Memoir, a brilliant, insightful, and fabulously funny book that charts his road to sobriety . . . Dry catches the reader off guard on every page, challenging what we've come to expect from rehab literature."—Paper magazine "When you are as self-deprecatingly funny and write as vividly and unpretentiously as Burroughs, well, I guess that's free rein to write 100 memoirs—and bring them on immediately."—The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)"Like the alcohol he so enjoys, Burroughs's story of getting dry will go straight into your bloodstream and leave you buzzing, exhilarated, and wiped out. Burroughs is a malcontented, successful advertising copywriter in his twenties, gay, living in Manhattan, and owner of a childhood that the word "nightmare" doesn't even begin to cover (as described in Running with Scissors, 2002). Burroughs is an alcoholic . . . he is funny and dark . . . in his own half-mad way, he's an original, a step aslant of the cutting edge, and wonderfully capable of expressing the miseries and sublimities of detox."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Burroughs has a knack for ending up in depraved situations and a vibrant talent for writing about them . . . Readers accustomed to his heady cocktail of fizzy humor and epiphanic poignancy won't be disappointed."—Publishers Weekly</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In contrast to the utopian official literature of Communist China, the stories in this wide-ranging collection marshal wry humor, entangled sex, urban alienation, nasty village politics and frequent violence. Translated ably enough to keep up with the colloquial tone, most tales are told with straightforward familiarity, drawing readers into small communities and personal histories that are anything but heroic. "The Brothers Shu," by Su Tong (Raise the Red Lantern), is an urban tale of young lust and sibling rivalry in a sordid neighborhood around the ironically named Fragrant Cedar Street. That story's earthiness is matched by Wang Xiangfu's folksy "Fritter Hollow Chronicles," about peasants' vendettas and local politics, and by "The Cure," by Mo Yan (Red Sorghum; The Garlic Ballads), which details the fringe benefits of an execution. Personal alienation and disaffection are as likely to appear in stories with rural settings (Li Rui's "Sham Marriage") as they are to poison the lives of urban characters (Chen Cun's "Footsteps on the Roof"). Comedy takes an elegant and elaborate form in "A String of Choices," Wang Meng's tale of a toothache cure, and it assumes the burlesque of small-town propaganda fodder in Li Xiao's "Grass on the Rooftop." Editor Goldblatt has chosen not to expand the contributors' biographies or elaborate on the collection's post-Tiananmen context. He lets the stories speak for themselves, which, fortunately, they do, quietly and effectively. <br />Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The 20 authors represented here range from Wang Meng, the former minister of culture, to Su Tong, whose Raise the Red Lantern has been immortalized on screen.<br />Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Though tremendous improvements in health and education have helped slow the epidemic of global hunger in recent decades, more needs to be done to help lift people out of poverty, says Beckmann, president of the antihunger advocacy group Bread for the World. Beckmann strongly supports new international efforts such as the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, rock star Bono's ONE campaign, and programs funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But he also shows how no country has made gains in staunching hunger without government antipoverty programs. Beckmann offers a multifaceted solution to domestic poverty, including citizen activism, community soup kitchens, good jobs, and government policies and programs. This book will be appreciated by church groups eager to bolster their charitable outreach, especially since it includes several inspiring vignettes of ordinary Christians doing extraordinary things to help stop hunger. The book's weakness is that it covers too much ground without offering a structured or easily applicable way forward. (Oct.) (c) <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>It is within America's technical and financial power to help end world hunger in our lifetime, if we set our hearts and minds to the task.</p><p>Contrary to what many people believe, the world has made measurable advancements against hunger and poverty over the last several decades. But too often the binding constraint on further progress is a simple lack of political will. As a result, one of the most powerful ways to affect change is often the most neglected--political activism.</p><p>In this powerful and hopeful book, David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World and a leading anti-hunger activist, looks at the causes of hunger, presents case studies of countries that have made great strides against it, and puts a human face on the problem by sharing stories of people who are, quite simply, hungry every day. The problems can seem overwhelming but Beckmann lays out a clear and workable plan for effectively using political channels to make great progress. He not only challenges us to get involved, he shows us how.</p><p>It is no less than our call to do so.</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Product Description</strong>  </p><p><em>A powerful, provocative novel about marriage and motherhood, love and forgiveness</em>.__</p><p>Tessa Russo is a stay-at-home mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie—a boy who has never known his father. Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, they are strangers to one another and have little in common, aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.</p><p>This is the moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most. </p><hr /><p><strong> Amazon Exclusive: A Conversation Between Kristin Hannah and Emily Giffin</strong>  </p><p><strong> <em>New York Times</em> bestselling novels, including </strong></p><p><strong><em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of eighteen novels, including </strong></p><p><strong>Kristin Hannah:</strong> Well, first, I have to say, Emily, that I am just the tiniest bit irritated with you. When I got the call to do this interview, I was thrilled, to say the least. It came at a really busy time for me--right after the holidays and we all know how crazy that is--and my work in progress was giving me fits. Then I picked up <em>Heart of the Matter</em>, and lost myself. No more writing, no more cooking, no getting my hair done or reading my email. Once I started the story I literally couldn't put it down. Brava, girlfriend, I say. Your characters are so real and compelling, and they always say exactly the right thing. With so much honest emotion, I just have to ask how much of your work comes from your own life? </p><p><strong>Emily Giffin:</strong> It never fails to thrill me when someone responds to one of my novels--especially when it's another writer. Writers understand the alchemy involved in making up something from nothing. And I just finished your book, <em>Night Road</em>, and I found it so emotional, so moving, and so terrifying—especially since I have three young children who will someday be teenagers. In terms of how much does my work come from my own life, I would say that I'm absolutely inspired by people, places, conversations, relationships, and issues that I observe, and that the "what if" part of my novel is very much inspired by these things in my life. But the details of my plots and the specifics of my characters come from my own head. How about you, Kristin? I'll ask you the million-dollar question that every author gets asked: where do you get your ideas? </p><p><strong>Kristin:</strong> Ah, the idea question. I don't want to sound coy, but the truth is, I don't quite know. It's the most magical part of the process for me. I'm a pretty analytical gal, and I approach writing in the same just-the-facts-ma'am way I approach most things. I need to find an issue that engages me on an intellectual level, and then I need to marry that curiosity with a kind of passion. I need to feel genuinely passionate about each story before I ever write a word, and I have to actually have something to say. It takes me at least a year to research and write a novel, and so I have to really adore each part of it—the characters, setting, story. Most of all, it has to make me feel something genuine. That's really the most important component. Usually it begins with a single "what if" question—what if you discovered your mother had a whole secret life about which you knew nothing (_Winter Garden_) or what if your husband were accused of a crime you believed he hadn't committed (_True Colors_)—and then I write and re-write until the characters seem as real to me as old friends.</p><p><strong>Kristin:</strong> I'm amazed by how much we have in common. We're both moms, both lawyers, both lived in London for a time. You're like a younger, cooler version of me. How did you make the transition from lawyer to writer, and do you think you'll ever practice law again? </p><p><strong>Emily:</strong> I would hardly say I'm cooler than you, Kristin! I hear you live in Hawaii part time! What is cooler than that? I made the transition from lawyer to writer because I was so miserable being a lawyer that I needed some escape from the day-to-day of it. And inventing stories was that escape. I can say, without hesitation, that I will never practice law again. Would you? What kind of law did you practice, and for how long? What did you find appealing (or discouraging) about law? Did you find that it gave you fodder for any of your novels? </p><p><strong>Kristin:</strong> Honestly, I have met very few lawyers who don't say that what they really want to do is write. Like you, I can say with certainty that I will never practice law again. Not that anyone would want me to. But I still keep my Bar membership up…just in case this whole writing thing doesn't work out. And yes, in the past few years, I have finally begun to put some of that law school education to work for me. I find that I'm really enjoying adding legal issues to my work. Of course, I have to talk to <em>real</em> lawyers to make sure I'm getting it right... </p><hr /><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In the popular Giffin's latest, Nick Russo is a pediatric plastic surgeon; his wife, Tessa (sister of Dex, from <em>Something Borrowed</em>), is a professor turned stay-at-home mom living a cushy life in Boston. Nick is called in to care for a six-year-old burn victim, and Nick's devotion to his work is soon tangled up in his attraction to the boy's mother, Valerie, a single attorney. Narrated in turn by Tessa and Valerie, the action centers around—will they or won't they, and, if they do, will Tessa forgive him? While unclear what Nick finds so unsatisfying in his marriage, adultery is always tempting and Tessa and Valerie both have their charms. Longtime fans will enjoy the cameos, but for the best of Giffin, don't miss her earlier works. <em>(May)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><hr /><h2>Product Details</h2><ul> <li>     <strong>Hardcover:</strong> 384 pages </li> <li>     <strong>Publisher:</strong> St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (May 11, 2010) </li> <li>     <strong>Language:</strong> English </li> <li>     <strong>ISBN-10:</strong> 9780312554163 </li> <li>     <strong>ISBN-13:</strong> 978-0312554163 </li> <li>     <strong>ASIN:</strong> 0312554168 </li> <li>     <strong> Product Dimensions: </strong> 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches  </li> <li>     <strong>Shipping Weight:</strong> 1.2 pounds ( </li> <li>     <strong>Average Customer Review:</strong> ( </li></ul><p><strong>289 Reviews</strong></p><p> (114)</p><p> (87)</p><p> (55)</p><p> (29)</p><p> (4)</p><p>› </p><ul> <li>     <strong>Amazon Bestsellers Rank:</strong> #25,924 in Books ( </li></ul><p> Would you like to <strong></strong>, *<strong><em>, or *</em></strong>?</p><hr /><h2>Customer Reviews</h2><p><strong>289 Reviews</strong></p><p> (114)</p><p> (87)</p><p> (55)</p><p> (29)</p><p> (4)</p><p><strong>Average Customer Review</strong></p><p>4.0 out of 5 stars (</p><p>Share your thoughts with other customers: </p><p><strong>Most Helpful Customer Reviews</strong>  </p><p>70 of 78 people found the following review helpful: </p><p>5.0 out of 5 stars <strong>Both sides of the story.</strong>, May 11, 2010</p><p>By </p><p><strong>This review is from: Heart of the Matter (Hardcover)</strong></p><p>I like Emily Giffin's newest book HEART OF THE MATTER because it explores something fundamental, basic and easy to understand about human nature, that we rarely if ever see ourselves as the villain when we tell the story of our lives. For every mistake we make, we can justify it by telling ourselves the reasons we did it. For every choice that we decide that affects other people, we know what led us to them. And when every small choice we make suddenly puts us square in the middle of some disaster and we're the "bad guy" in the situation, it's not like we didn't have good intentions at the start. And it's that sort of disaster that leads HEART OF THE MATTER's two narrators, Tessa and Valerie, to find themselves at odds with one another. And because each of them gets to tell their version of events to us, there's not really a villain in this story of injured children, gossipy private school moms, broken families and, more than anything, infidelity. Tessa and Val are just two women who've made mistakes and bad choices for very good reasons. And, under different circumstances, they'd probably be really close friends.   </p><p>Tessa and Val's story begins with an accident. Valerie Anderson is a strong, determined, stubborn single mom to Charlie, a very sweet, sensitive little boy who's a student at a private school in Boston. She reluctantly allows Charlie to go to a friend's birthday party, even though she finds the parents involved to be rich and snotty. At the party, Charlie is seriously injured in a campfire and rushed to the hospital. Val beats herself up over these choices, not trusting her instincts, massively upset over her hurt little boy. Her twin brother Jason tries to comfort her. But no one is able to reassure her until her son's excellent, attractive pediatric plastic surgeon, Dr. Nick Russo, arrives and tells her that Charlie is a beautiful child and would continue to be. It's just what she needs to hear at a very tough time.   </p><p>Nick, though, had to rush to the hospital from his seventh wedding anniversary dinner with Tessa, his loving, fun wife who's struggling to redefine her identity after she's given up her job as a professor to be a stay-at-home mom to her two little kids, Ruby and Frank. Tessa's mom advised her not to quit her job because she was afraid that Tessa might lose herself or become resentful of her frequently busy, often absent genius husband. Tessa feels inferior to all of the other private school moms around her, even her friend April, a cold perfectionist, and Romy, a rich woman who's panicked because the campfire accident that burned Charlie happened at her house.   </p><p>So Tessa and Val are connected by community, by mutual acquaintances and now through Nick, whom they both come to care for and have issues with.   </p><p>Giffin's writing style and the alternating points-of-view allow us to care about both women, building suspense as we wonder just how far their lives will become entwined and just how far the love triangle that eventually becomes central to the novel will go.   </p><p>HEART OF THE MATTER is arguably Giffin's best book. Like her other novels, it's occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. But, in her fifth book, Giffin allows herself to explore the deeper, darker mistakes and the minutae that can harm well-meaning people trying to find themselves while coping with marriage.   </p><p>HEART OF THE MATTER is deep and serious, occasionally incredibly sad and moving. She lets us get to know Tessa and Val and care for them in the way that her readers came to love her SOMETHING BORROWED/SOMETHING BLUE heroines Rachel and Darcy. And she mines new territory by criticizing the privileged, gossipy culture of moms that the two women live in.   </p><p>HEART OF THE MATTER is occasionally as funny, tangled and bitterly insightful as Tom Perrotta's LITTLE CHILDREN, another great book that I found myself thinking of often as I read this. But the voice of HEART OF THE MATTER is distinctly Giffin's, and fans - in particular fans of SOMETHING BORROWED - will not be disappointed by HEART OF THE MATTER.   </p><p>There is much to love in this new book. </p><p><strong>Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</strong> </p><p>Was this review helpful to you? </p><p>|</p><p>54 of 62 people found the following review helpful: </p><p>3.0 out of 5 stars <strong>Unexciting depiction of a somewhat-fresh adultery tale</strong>, May 15, 2010</p><p>By </p><p><strong>Amazon Verified Purchase</strong>(</p><p><strong>This review is from: Heart of the Matter (Hardcover)</strong></p><p>Something Borrowed is my favorite modern novel. Period. I love how it shows a balanced, thoughtful, emotional account of infidelity, friendship, and the complexities of turning 30 with unrealized expectations...with flawed characters whose voices and backgrounds are varied and ring true.   </p><p>It seems, though, that in each subsequent release, the narrators of Giffin's stories become more cookie-cutter, more self-absorbed, more whiny. In fact, the first few chapters of Heart of the Matter were boring...too much exposition, to much 'tell,' flashback, character descriptions. What happened to letting us know the characters by their behaviors and actions? Honestly, I was thrown back to Sweet Valley High when Jessica and Elizabeth's physical appearances, down to their aquamarine eyes, were described in detail around page 6 of Every. Single. Book.   </p><p>Also: female novelists: PLEASE stop giving every mommy-protagonist a single BFF who is longing to have what the mommy has. Is it possible that some single women are happy with their lives? Is it possible some married mothers are best friends with... other married mothers? You don't need that cliche character in order to cultivate a random bar/hi-jinks plot excursion. Cate was unnecessary. Completely. (And don't get me started on Romy. People DO have layers...even rich, entitled ones).   </p><p>That said, this story did get better as time went along, although I found the character Val, because of what she exposed her child to, to be not nearly as sympathetic as she should have been. I found Tessa to be fairly bland. I found the re-appearance of two of my favorite characters from Giffin's original storyline (I won't name and spoil it) to be very exciting at first...but also... a little vanilla.   </p><p>I am worried that Giffin has shown us all her tricks, kind of like Danielle Steel did with her first 2 or 3 of 8 million novels. We have a lawyer...we have a competitiveness among well-to-do women...we have infidelity of some kind...we have a female character who basically has it all but is inexplicably unsatisfied over conditions she could change if she tried... oh, and we have twins. (It's not a bothersome recurring happenstance, but again, we get it. Giffin has twins...)   </p><p>The relationship between Tessa's parents and the culmination of their past was my favorite moment in the book. I also appreciate that The Conflict was handled with sensitivity toward all parties involved. For once, though, I would appreciate a mommy story in which the mommies are not too busy trying to one-up each other and make their kids into organic-Stepford-moppets to actually support and advocate for one another. There was a great passage in the book in which Tessa describes all the things the mommies compare in each other... their husbands, their houses, their problems. What I loved most about the passage was that the things listed were all things I discuss with my mommy friends...in a NON-critical or competitive way.   </p><p>Why is it so hard for female novelists to give females credit?   </p><p>I will continue to read Giffin, because she created Dex and Rachel and Darcy and Marcus and Hilary...but when the next novel comes out, I might be on the library's waiting list instead of on the Amazon pre-order... </p><p><strong>Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</strong> </p><p>Was this review helpful to you? </p><p>|</p><p>36 of 43 people found the following review helpful: </p><p>4.0 out of 5 stars <strong>Enjoyable Giffin</strong>, March 26, 2010</p><p>By </p><p><strong>This review is from: Heart of the Matter (Hardcover)</strong></p><p><strong>Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program</strong> (</p><p>I usually love Giffin's books, and this one was no exception. She draws you in with three-dimensional characters and engaging situations. This story is told from two points of view: Tessa, a stay-at-home mom married to a pediatric surgeon, Nick; and Valerie, a single mother whose child is badly burned at a slumber party. Valerie's child, Charlie, is under the care of Nick, and Valerie finds herself drawn to Nick, who is compassionate and skillful. Soon, Nick and Valerie's friendship turns into more, and Tessa is suspicious.   </p><p>I read this book in less than 24 hours, and was able to relate to both mothers. I thought the story was wonderful. My only objection was the ending; I would have ended it differently. Still, I recommend this book to all Emily Giffin fans. </p><p><strong>Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</strong> </p><p>Was this review helpful to you? </p><p>|</p><p>Share your thoughts with other customers: </p><p><strong><em></em></strong>›<em></em> </p><p><strong>Most Recent Customer Reviews</strong>  </p><p><strong>Search Customer Reviews</strong></p><p>Only search this product's reviews</p><p><strong><em></em></strong>›<em></em> </p><ul> <li><p>All Lists &amp; Registries</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>›</p> </li> <li><p>Unlimited Instant Videos</p><ul> <li><p>Unlimited instant streaming of 5,000<br />movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime</p> </li> <li><ul> <li><ul> <li>     Rent or buy hit movies and TV shows<br />to stream or download </li></ul> </li></ul> </li> <li><p>Your movies and TV shows<br />stored in the cloud</p> </li> <li><p>Watch instantly on your TV,<br />Blu-ray player, or set-top box</p> </li></ul> </li> <li><p>MP3s &amp; 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In the CHAGA novels Ian McDonald brought an Africa in the grip of a bizarre alien invasion to life, in RIVER OF GODS he painted a rich portrait of India in 2047, in BRASYL he looked at different Brazils, past present and future. Ian McDonald has found renown at the cutting edge of a movement to take SF away from its British and American white roots and out into the rich cultures of the world.THE DERVISH HOUSE continues that journey and centres on Istanbul in 2025. Turkey is part of Europe but sited on the edge, it is an Islamic country that looks to the West. THE DERVISH HOUSE is the story of the families that live in and around its titular house, it is at once a rich mosaic of Islamic life in the new century and a telling novel of future possibilities.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Although much of the material collected here precedes Israel's recent military attack on a Gaza-bound international flotilla of embargo-breaking humanitarian aid, this succinct and eye-opening collection of recent interviews and essays from the renowned linguist and activist Chomsky (Hopes and Prospects) and prominent Israeli historian Pappé (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine) gives essential context to the crisis. The reader will find Chomsky's consistent positions on everything from the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the issue of a one- versus two-state settlement. Pappé adds vital and unexpected historical background, including a chapter on the deep American evangelical roots in the support of Zionism and the birth of modern Arab nationalism in Palestine. Pappé and Chomsky are not perfectly in synch on every point: Chomsky remains skeptical of an academic boycott of Israel, for instance, called for in the past by Pappé and others. But the fundamentals of the crisis--and its scale in humanitarian, moral and political terms--are clear, as well as clearly expressed, between them. This sober and unflinching analysis should be read and reckoned with by anyone concerned with practicable change in the long-suffering region. (Nov.) (c) <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>"Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . he may be the most widely read American voice on foreign policy on the planet."—_The New York Times Book Review_</p><p>"Ilan Pappé is Israel's bravest, most principled, most incisive historian."—John Pilger</p><p>Described by a UN fact-finding mission as "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate, and terrorize a civilian population," Israel's Operation Cast Lead thrust the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip into the center of the debate about the Israel/Palestine conflict.</p><p>In <em>Gaza in Crisis</em>, Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, two of the issue's most insightful and prominent critical voices, survey the fallout from Israel's conduct in Gaza and place it into the context of Israel's longstanding occupation of Palestine.</p><p><strong>Noam Chomsky</strong> is one of the world's foremost social critics, and one of its most prolific. He is author of <em>Failed States</em> and <em>Hegemony or Survival</em>, both <em>New York Times</em> bestsellers. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is institute professor emeritus in the MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.</p><p><strong>Ilan Pappé</strong> is professor of history at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, where he is also co-director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies, director of the Palestine Studies Centre, and a longtime political activist. He is the author of <em>The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine</em>.</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starr (Blood) eloquently juxtaposes the crimes of French serial killer Joseph Vacher and the achievements of famed criminologist Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne during France's belle époque. From 1894 to 1897, Vacher is thought to have raped, killed, and mutilated at least 25 people, though he would confess to only 11 murders. Lacassagne, who headed the department of legal medicine at the university in Lyon, was a pioneer in crime scene analysis, body decomposition, and early profiling, and investigated suspicious deaths, all in an era when rural autopsies were often performed on the victim's dinner table. Lacassagne's contributions to the burgeoning field of forensic science, as well as the persistence of investigating magistrate Émile Fourquet, who connected crimes while crisscrossing the French countryside, eventually brought Vacher to justice. Vacher claimed insanity, which then (as now) was a vexed legal issue. Lacassagne proved the "systematic nature" of the crimes. Starr, codirector of Boston University's Center for Science and Medical Journalism, creates tension worthy of a thriller; in Lacassagne, he portrays a man determined to understand the "how" behind some of humanity's most depraved and perhaps take us one step closer to the "why." 16 pages of photos. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Douglas Starr is an old pro at reporting and writing science history, which puts <em>The Killer of Little Shepherds</em> squarely in his wheelhouse. The author ably tells two stories—of the serial killer Vacher’s lust for murder and of the developing science that finally caught up with him—and there are enough fascinating details here to keep even the most jaded forensics fans entertained. More popular journalism than a failed “quest to understand evil” (_New York Times_), Starr’s compelling history can be added to the growing library of books (_Devil in the White City_, <em>The Lost City of Z</em>, <em>The Ghost Map</em>) that brings to life forgotten or neglected events by playing on a reader’s sense of adventure and the unknown, as well as the satisfaction of witnessing a confounding puzzle well solved. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>Bossypants</em> is short, messy, and impossibly funny (an apt description of the comedian herself). From her humble roots growing up in Pennsylvania to her days doing amateur improv in Chicago to her early sketches on <em>Saturday Night Live</em>, Fey gives us a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of modern comedy with equal doses of wit, candor, and self-deprecation. Some of the funniest chapters feature the differences between male and female comedy writers ("men urinate in cups"), her cruise ship honeymoon ("it’s very <em>Poseidon Adventure</em>"), and advice about breastfeeding ("I had an obligation to my child to pretend to try"). But the chaos of Fey’s life is best detailed when she’s dividing her efforts equally between rehearsing her Sarah Palin impression, trying to get Oprah to appear on <em>30 Rock</em>, and planning her daughter’s Peter Pan-themed birthday. <em>Bossypants</em> gets to the heart of why Tina Fey remains universally adored: she embodies the hectic, too-many-things-to-juggle lifestyle we all have, but instead of complaining about it, she can just laugh it off. <em>--Kevin Nguyen</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>Once in a generation a woman comes along who changes everything. Tina Fey is not that woman, but she met that woman once and acted weird around her.  </p><p>PRAISE FOR TINA FEY:  </p><p>"You'd be really pretty if you lost weight." (<strong>College Boyfriend, 1990</strong> )  </p><p>"Tina Fey is an ugly, pear-shaped, overrated troll." (<strong>The Internet</strong> )  </p><p>"Mommy, where are my pretzels?" (<strong>Tracy Morgan</strong> )  </p><p>ADVANCE PRAISE FOR <em>BOSSYPANTS</em>:  </p><p>"I hope that's not really the cover. That's really going to hurt sales." (<strong>Don Fey, Father of Tina Fey</strong> )  </p><p>"Absolutely delicious!" (<strong>A Guy Who Eats Books</strong> )  </p><p>"Totally worth it." (<strong>Trees</strong> )  </p><p>"Do not print this glowing recommendation of Tina Fey's book until I've been dead a hundred years." (<strong>Mark Twain</strong> )  </p><p>"Hilarious and insightful. Laugh-out-loud funny -- oh no, a full moon. No! Arrgh! Get away from me! Save yourself!" (<strong>A Guy Turning into a Werewolf</strong> ) </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Russian novelist Pelevin's chaotic latest examines contemporary Russia as viewed through the eyes of A. Hu-li, a 2,000-year-old werefox who is able to transform into a beautiful nymphet. The opening chapter is both an introduction to werefoxes as well as an account of how werefoxes, working as prostitutes, utilize their stunning looks to absorb a man's life energy. Hu-li's experiences are standard for an ancient werefox until she meets Alexander, an attractive Russian intelligence officer who happens to be a werewolf. The two share a whirlwind romance, and after some trouble, shack up in Hu-li's bomb shelter. While hiding out, Hu-li and Alexander argue about religion, death, truth and the like until they both claim to be the super-werewolf. This argument—and Hu-li's disclosure of her true age—rupture the bliss. Pelevin creates interesting enough characters, but the unexplainable plot twists and the author's preoccupation with philosophical ramblings are nearly as perilous as a silver bullet. <em>(Sept.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Part science fiction and part Anaïs Nin erotica, with a hint of Bridget Jones’s Diary and a whole lot of allegory, The Sacred Book of the Werewolf is the tale of A Hu-Li, a 2,000-year-old Taoist werefox who plies her trade as a prostitute in modern day Moscow. By hypnotizing johns with her magical tail, A Hu-li makes men believe they are having sex with her, earns a living, and maintains her virginity. That is until she encounters and falls in love with Alexander, a high-ranking Russian intelligence officer and—not so coincidentally—a werewolf. As he has done in his earlier works (including Homo Zapiens, 2002), Pelevin uses satire as a lens through which to view life in the post-Soviet era while at the same time casting new light on Russia’s classic writing and writers—Nabokov, Gogol, and even Russian fairy tales. Outright strange at moments, the novel holds our interest with unpredictable twists and turns, leaving us stunned, puzzled, and asking for more. --Heather Paulson </p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Someone is strangling novice nuns in Jackson's terrifying if overwrought seventh Bentz and Montoya novel (after Malice). When NOPD homicide detectives Reuben Montoya and Rick Bentz arrive at the first crime scene, the chapel of St. Marguerite's Convent, Montoya recognizes the murder victim, Sister Camille, as his old high school girlfriend, Cammie Renard. In another coincidence, the novice sister who discovered Camille's body, Lucia Costa, once dated Montoya's brother. On top of that, one of the prime suspects is a high school classmate of Montoya's, Fr. Francis O'Toole, who may have had an affair with the victim. As Cammie's sister, Valerie, a former Texas cop now a New Orleans Garden District B&amp;B owner, struggles with a surprise visit from her estranged husband, more nuns succumb to a crazed killer. Val learns more than she bargained for about her past—and Cammie's—at a nearby orphanage in a creepy thriller sure to please Jackson's many fans. (Apr.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The crime scene at St. Marguerite’s cathedral in New Orleans is shocking, even to seasoned detectives like Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya. A novice nun named Sister Camille has been found dressed in a yellowed bridal gown and viciously garroted, her body covered with an altar cloth. Valerie Houston is devastated by her sister’s death. For weeks, she’d begged Camille to leave St. Marguerite’s, where she seemed determined to live as some kind of martyr. But Camille had a knack for making bad choices — she joined the convent in part because she’d fallen for Val’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Slade. Convinced the police aren’t doing enough, Val begins to investigate. Slade, on a mission to repair their marriage, is determined to help her. But the deeper Val’s inquiries go, the more twisted the case becomes. St. Marguerite’s is far from the tranquil retreat many believe, and everyone, from handsome Father Frank O’Toole to the mysterious Mother Superior, has their own agenda. Despite their closeness, even Camille had a hidden life Val never suspected. But someone knew about Camille’s past — and Val’s, too. Now she has no choice but to catch a devious, depraved killer intent on purging St. Marguerite’s of all its sins — before she becomes the next victim… </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"When one puts [this book] down, it is with . . . a feeling of having been nourished by the truth." --May Sarton  </p><p>“To me the most impressive aspect of THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER is the astonishing humanity that enables a white writer, for the first time in Southern fiction, to handle Negro characters with as much ease and justice of those of her own race. This cannot be accounted for stylistically or politically; it seems to stem from an attitude toward life.” -- Richard Wright </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Carson McCullers was all of twenty-three when she published her first novel, <em>The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter</em>. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her "the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced." Available now for the first time on audio from Caedmon and HarperAudio, <em>The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter</em> tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.</p><p>Richard Wright was astonished by McCullers's ability "to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness." Hers is a humanity that touches all who come to her work, whether for the first time or, as so many do, time and time again. <em>The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter</em> is Carson McCullers at her most compassionate, most enduring best.</p><p>Performed by Cherry Jones</p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>“The greatest prose writer that the South produced” -- Tennessee Williams  </p><p>“Again [McCullers] shows a sort of subterranean and ageless instinct for probing the hidden in men’s hearts and minds.”  </p><p>The New York Herald-Tribune  </p><p>"The novel is a masterpiece . . . as mature and finished as Henry James's THE TURN OF THE SCREW." Time Magazine</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>A new trade paperback edition of McCullers' second novel, REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, immortalized by the 1967 film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, and John Houston.<br>Set on a Southern army base in the 1930s, REFLECTIONS tells the story of Captain Penderton, a bisexual whose life is upset by the arrival of Major Langdon, a charming womanizer who has an affair with Penderton's tempestuous and flirtatious wife, Leonora. Upon the novel's publication in 1941, reviewers were unsure of what to make of its relatively scandalous subject matter. But a critic for Time Magazine wrote, "In almost any hands, such material would yield a rank fruitcake of mere arty melodrama. But Carson McCullers tells her tale with simplicity, insight, and a rare gift of phrase." Written during a time when McCullers's own marriage to Reeves was on the brink of collapse, her second novel deals with her trademark themes of alienation and unfulfilled loves.</p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>The White Guard</em> is less famous than Mikhail Bulgakov's comic hit, </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Another fine Bulgakov work, this is a compassionate and gently satirical novel about a likable, feckless White Russian family coping as best they can while all hell breaks loose in Kiev outside their parlor in 1918-19. The play derived from this novel, The Days of the Turbins, was a popular Moscow Art Theatre piece until, under Stalin, it was considered to be too compassionate toward these gentle stumblers in the march of progress. The Turbin family consists of doctor Alexei, sister Elena married to a disappearing opportunist, and young Nikolka. All are as anxious as whippets and cherish their safe harbors of familiar ideals, their home of books, music, conversation and whist. When the shooting flairs up and subsides in Kiev, the White forces are routed by advancing armies and their own impotent confusion. Assuming military postures Alexei and Nikolka attempt to help for they are brave, and they do perform touching acts of kindness amid the brutal mindlessness of mobs. There are marvellously theatrical moments: the Turbins and their White officer friends happily shouting songs and slogans while their timorous landlord is being terrorized by raiding hoodlums; the arrival of an orphan of the storm, an unstrung relative (with bird), whose first definitive act is to crash into the dinner china. An epilogue by Victor Nekrasov from Novy Mir sets forth an affectionate appreciation of the Turbins and the translation is by Michael Glenny. A Russian Heartbreak House in which the Turbins barely survive. (Kirkus Reviews) </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>“John F. Kennedy Jr.’s former love offers glimpses into the last vestiges of Camelot. In actress Haag's debut memoir, readers get a front-row seat to her on-again/off-again love affair with JFK Jr., President Kennedy's eldest son. After nine years cloistered in Catholic school, the author was suddenly propelled into the glitzy world of upper-crust New York. Her sepia-toned recounting of evenings shared with an adolescent JFK Jr. are spellbinding, setting the stage for the romance soon to come. After a series of missed connections and serendipitous run-ins, the pair finally fell into sync, two young actors playing opposite one another in a play. In a revealing conversation, a young Haag informed JFK Jr. that if he forgot his lines, he need only, ‘stop, take a breath, and look into my eyes. It will ground you.’ It was sound advice, particularly from the woman JFK Jr. would later call his compass. Haag provides minute details that manage to humanize JFK Jr. in a manner the media never attempted. She recalled the ‘spaghetti he made with soy sauce’ and ‘leaping on the benches outside the Museum of Natural History’—both seemingly innocuous details, yet they offer a new look at an old figure. Equally intriguing are the author’s romanticized depictions of Jackie Onassis, the widow who could often be spotted riding her bicycle along the trails of Martha's Vineyard, ‘her head kerchiefed,’ searching the fields for birds. Despite her intimate view, Haag is careful not to exploit the Kennedy clan; instead, she simply returns them to human form. An honest, heartfelt account of love, politics and tragedy.”—_Kirkus Reviews<br>_<br>“_Come to the Edge_ perfectly captures what it feels like to be young and in love — the giddiness, the lunacy, the madcap swings between exhilaration and despair…Haag is a beautiful writer, and the book [is] full of wonderfully vivid descriptions.”—_Entertainment Weekly_  </p><p>“A piercing portrait of a vibrant, reckless, tender young man so bursting with life that nothing could contain him.”—_Publishers Weekly_  </p><p>“We know how the story ends, of course.  Girl loses boy.  Boy loses everything.  But in this finely-drawn, indelible portrait of a friendship and love affair, Christina Haag illuminates the private world of one of our nation’s most legendary families.  Come to the Edge should be read not only for its fascinating insider’s view, but because it’s a brave, human, beautiful, wrenching memoir.”—Dani Shapiro, author of <em>Devotion</em>  </p><p>“With unfailing grace, sensitivity, and tact, Christina Haag recreates in poignant detail her prolonged romance with John F. Kennedy Jr., who struggled to fathom the meaning of his life. The author never stoops to tabloid sensationalism or cheapens this rare glimpse into America’s royal family. However charming the hero or scenic the backdrop, the memoir is tinged with the tragic darkness that inevitably shadowed the Kennedy clan, with death and danger forever lurking just beyond camera range. Jackie Kennedy Onassis floats through the narrative as an enchanting presence who is appealing in her wisdom and bounty. This is a beautiful and, in the end, unutterably sad book about fleeting innocence, blighted hope, and the elusive nature of youthful love.”—Ron Chernow, author of <em>Washington: A Life</em>  </p><p> “Sensual and full of longing, Come to the Edge is a haunting, timeless love letter, a universal tale of romance. Christina Haag has crafted a delicate memoir of love for a man we think we know and lay claim to, but, in truth, she is writing about all of us: our youth, our hopes, our own first kisses and dreams of romance. From the first word, my soul leapt at recognition. Gorgeous!”—Erin Cressida Wilson, award-winning screenwriter of _Secretary_ and <em>Fur</em>  </p><p>"A tender tale of lost love that offers a discerning glimpse into the Kennedy family." —Fernanda Eberstadt, author of <em>_</em>Rat_ and <em>Little Money Street</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>The Love Story of JFK Jr. and Christina Haag</strong>  </p><p><strong>An elegy to first love, a lost New York, and a young man who led his life with surprising and abundant grace</strong>  </p><p>When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him at a discreet distance at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. With exquisite prose, Haag paints a portrait of a young man with an enormous capacity for love, and an adventurous spirit that drove him to live life to its fullest.<br>_<br>_A haunting book, <em>Come to the Edge</em> is a lasting evocation of a time and a place—of the indelible sting of the loss of young love, and of the people who shape you and remain with you, whether in person or in spirit. It is about being young and full of hope, with all the potential of your life as yet unfulfilled, and of coming of age at a moment in New York’s history when the city at once held danger, magic, and endless possibilities for self-discovery.    </p><p>Rarely has a love story been told so beautifully. </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Waters (_The Night Watch_) reflects on the collapse of the British class system after WWII in a stunning haunted house tale whose ghosts are as horrifying as any in Shirley Jackson's <em>The Haunting of Hill House</em>. Doctor Faraday, a lonely bachelor, first visited Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked as a parlor maid, at age 10 in 1919. When Faraday returns 30 years later to treat a servant, he becomes obsessed with Hundreds's elegant owner, Mrs. Ayres; her 24-year-old son, Roderick, an RAF airman wounded during the war who now oversees the family farm; and her slightly older daughter, Caroline, considered a natural spinster by the locals, for whom the doctor develops a particular fondness. Supernatural trouble kicks in after Caroline's mild-mannered black Lab, Gyp, attacks a visiting child. A damaging fire, a suicide and worse follow. Faraday, one of literature's more unreliable narrators, carries the reader swiftly along to the devastating conclusion. <em>(May)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>At its core, The Little Stranger is an old-fashioned ghost story, complete with spooky house, eccentric inhabitants, an air of general madness and malcontent, and a narrator who may not be as mild-mannered as he seems. What elevates this novel from the crowded genre is Waters’s ability to evoke the subtleties of the past as she skillfully weaves tension and dread into each paragraph. The reviewer from Newsday likened this tale to the psychological classic The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Perhaps the critic from the Telegraph (who voiced only a very minor complaint about the ending) summed up the reviewers’ opinions best of all by hailing this novel as a genuinely creepy story “guaranteed to make anyone with a pulse gibber in fright.”<br />Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC </p>


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In 1937, on the Dominican side of the Haiti border, Amabelle, an orphaned maid to an army colonel's wife, falls in love with Sebastien, an itinerant sugarcane cutter, but their relationship is threatened by the violent persecution of the Haitians. Reprint.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Danticat's collection of stories detailing daily life under dictatorship in Haiti was a finalist for the National Book Award. <br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>YA?Danticat, born under Haitian dictatorship, moved to the U.S. 12 years ago. Many of the stories in this moving collection reflect the misery she has observed from afar and leave readers with a deep sadness for her native country. Survivors at sea in a too-small, leaky boat endure any indignity for the chance at escape. Selections about those remaining in Haiti have a dreamlike quality. A woman must watch her mother rot in prison for political crimes. A young father longs so much to fly that he gives his life for a few moments in the air. A prostitute plies her trade while her son sleeps. "New York Day Women" shows what life might be like in the U.S. for immigrants without resources. Through unencumbered prose, the author explores the effects of politics on people and especially the consequences of oppression on women, the themes of which figure into each of these vignettes.?Ginny Ryder, Lee High School, Springfield, VA<br />Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. British author Pears matches the brilliance of his bestselling <em>An Instance of the Fingerpost</em> (1998) with this intricate historical novel, which centers on the death of a wealthy financier. In part one, after John Stone falls to his death from a window in his London mansion in 1909, Stone's seductive, much younger widow, Elizabeth, hires Matthew Braddock, who works as a journalist, to trace a child of her late husband's she never knew existed until the child is named in his will. Braddock, a novice in the world of finance, uncovers evidence that Stone's actual net worth was far less than commonly believed, even as he finds himself falling for his client. In part two, set in 1890 Paris, Henry Cort, a shadowy spy, provides another perspective on the bewitching Elizabeth. Stone's own reminiscences from his time in Venice in 1867 cast further light on the circumstances of his demise. The pages will fly by for most readers, who will lose themselves in the clear prose and compelling plot. <em>10-city author tour. (May)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Starred Review. An aging ex-reporter attends the funeral of an elderly widow. A solicitor approaches him and hands him a packet of papers that were to be delivered to him only after the woman's death. Reading them, he is transported back to events he has never forgotten. In 1909, industrialist-arms seller John Stone fell to his death from the window of his study. In his will, he left a bequest to an unknown daughter. His widow asked the young reporter to find the daughter, setting him on a search that transforms his life. Back through time the story goes—London 1909, Paris 1890, Venice 1867—with startling revelations at every step. This eminently readable tale is like one of those Russian dolls in which a tiny doll nests inside a bigger one and the bigger one inside another one bigger yet. The further you read, the more complicated it is until everything falls together in the final pages. This latest from Pears (_Dream of Scipio_) is in the best sense of the word an old-fashioned novel, populated with vital characters and bursting at the seams with narrative vigor. Highly recommended for all general collections. [See Prepub Alert, <em>LJ</em> 1/09.]—David Keymer, Modesto, CA <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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The world's leading economies are facing not just one but many crises. The financial meltdown may not be over, climate change threatens major global disruption, economic inequality has reached extremes not seen for a century, and government and business are widely distrusted. At the same time, many people regret the consumerism and social corrosion of modern life. What these crises have in common, Diane Coyle argues, is a reckless disregard for the future--especially in the way the economy is run. How can we achieve the financial growth we need today without sacrificing a decent future for our children, our societies, and our planet? How can we realize what Coyle calls "the economics of enough"? Running the economy for tomorrow as well as today will require a wide range of policy changes. The top priority must be ensuring that we get a true picture of long-term economic prospects, with the development of official statistics on national wealth in its broadest sense, including natural and human resources. Saving and investment will need to be encouraged over current consumption. Above all, governments will need to engage citizens in a process of debate about the difficult choices that lie ahead and rebuild a shared commitment to the future of our societies.  Creating a sustainable economy--having enough to be happy without cheating the future--won't be easy. But The Economics of Enough starts a profoundly important conversation about how we can begin--and the first steps we need to take.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. In a fast-paced, witty, and thoroughly winning style, Christian documents his experience in the 2009 Turing Test, a competition in which judges engage in five-minute instant-message conversations with unidentified partners, and must then decide whether each interlocutor was a human or a machine. The program receiving the most "human" votes is dubbed the "most human computer," while the person receiving the most votes earns the title of "most human human." Poet and science writer Christian sets out to win the latter title and through his quest, investigates the nature of human interactions, the meaning of language, and the essence of what sets us apart from machines that can process information far faster than we can. Ranging from philosophy through the construction of pickup lines to poetry, Christian examines what it means to be human and how we interact with one another, and with computers as equals—via automated telephone menus and within the medical establishment, for example. This fabulous book demonstrates that we are capable of experiencing and sharing far deeper thoughts than even the best computers—and that too often we fail to achieve the highest level of humanness. (Mar.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> Each year humans and computers square off for the Turing test, which Christian describes as a kind of speed dating via instant messaging, with five minutes to prove which is human. In 2009, Christian traveled to Brighton, England, to compete in a contest matching four humans and four computers. Christian chronicles his preparation and time spent devising strategies to trump the chatbot computers that can imitate humans. Along the way, he draws on philosophy, neurology, linguistics, and computer science, recalling chess master Garry Kasparov losing a match to IBM�s Deep Blue computer and more recent developments in artificial intelligence. He explores how computers have challenged our bias toward the left hemisphere of the brain (logic) versus the right hemisphere (emotions) and how he and others have come to a deeper appreciation of emotional intelligence. He laments how so many jobs have trained employees with limited scripts that render them human chatbots. Christian intersperses interviews and musings on poetry and literature, observations on computer science, and excerpts from post-Turing test conversations for a fascinating exploration of what it means to be human. This book will surely change the way readers think about their conversations. --Vanessa Bush </p>


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The internationally acclaimed author Carlos Fuentes, winner of the Cervantes Prize and the Latin Civilization Award, delivers a stunning work of fiction about family and love across an expanse of Mexican life, reminding us why he has been called “a combination of Poe, Baudelaire, and Isak Dinesen” (Newsweek). In these masterly vignettes, Fuentes explores Tolstoy’s classic observation that “happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In “A Family Like Any Other,” each member of the Pagan family lives in isolation, despite sharing a tiny house. In “The Mariachi’s Mother,” the limitless devotion of a woman is revealed as she secretly tends to her estranged son’s wounds. “Sweethearts” reunites old lovers unexpectedly and opens up the possibilities for other lives and other loves. These are just a few of the remarkable stories in Happy Families, but they all inhabit Fuentes’s trademark Mexico, where modern obsessions bump up against those of the mythic past, and the result is a triumphant display of the many ways we reach out to one another and find salvation through irrepressible acts of love.In this spectacular translation, the acclaimed Edith Grossman captures the full weight of Fuentes’s range. Whether writing in the language of the street or in straightforward, elegant prose, Fuentes gives us stories connected by love, including the failure of love–between spouses, lovers, parents and children, siblings. From the Mexican presidential palace to the novels of the poor and the vast expanse of humanity in between, Happy Families is a magnificent portrait of modern life in all its complicated beauty, as told by one of the world’s most celebrated writers.Praise for Carlos FuentesWinner of the Cervantes PrizeThe Old Gringo“A dazzling novel that possesses the weight and resonance of myth [and] the fierce magic of a remembered dream.”–The New York TimesThe Death of Artemio Cruz“Remarkable in the scope of the human drama it pictures, the corrosive satire and sharp dialogue.”–The New York Times Book Review The Years with Laura Díaz“Reading this magnificent novel is like standing beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel. . . . The breadth and enormity of this accomplishment is breathtaking.”–The Denver PostThis I Believe“Engaging, offering surprising conclusions, provocations or turns of phrase . . . Put down the page-turner and dare to drink these full-bodied, red, shining words.”–Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThe Eagle’s Throne“Dazzling, razor-sharp . . . prescient . . . a feast of political insight.”–The Washington Post Book World


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>McEwan's name will be on everyone's lips with his startling new novel, an impeccably constructed psychological thriller set in Berlin during the Cold War. Basing his story on an actual (but little known) incident, he tells of the secret tunnel under the Soviet sector which the British and Americans built in 1954 to gain access to the Russians' communication system. The protagonist, Leonard Marnham, is a 25-year-old, naive, unsophisticated English post office technician who is astonished and alarmed to find himself involved in a top-secret operation. At the same time that he loses his political innocence, Leonard experiences his sexual initiation in a clandestine affair with a German divorcee five years his senior. As his two secret worlds come together, events develop into a gruesome nightmare, far more macabre than anything McEwan ( The Child in Time ) has previously written, building to a searing, unforgettable scene of surrealist intensity in which Leonard and his lover try to conceal evidence of a murder. Acting to save himself from a prison sentence, Leonard desperately performs an act of espionage whose ironic consequences resonate down the years to a twister of an ending. Though its plot rivals any thriller in narrative tension, this novel is also a character study--of a young man coming of age in bizarre circumstances, and of differences in national character: the gentlemanly Brits, all decorum and civility; the brash, impatient Americans; the cynical Germans. McEwan's neat, tensile prose raises this book to the highest level of the genre. Film rights to Paramount; BOMC and QPB featured alternates. <br />Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Never less than wholly entertaining." —_The Wall Street Journal_  </p><p>"Deft, taut fiction. . . . Many English writers have been compared to Evelyn Waugh, often wrongly, but this book can stand with the master's best." —_Time_  </p><p>"So exhaustively suspenseful that it should be devoured at one sitting. . . . McEwan fuses a spy-novel plot with themes as venerable as the myth of Adam and Eve." —_Newsweek_  </p><p>"Has the spooky, crooked-angled, danger-around-every-corner feeling of a Carol Reid film. It reminded me often of <strong>The Third Man</strong> and that is no mean feat." —Jonathan Carroll, <em>The Washington Post Book World</em>  </p><p>"Powerful and disturbing . . . a tour de force." —_The New York Times_</p>


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<div><p><b><u>SUMMARY:</u></b></p><p><b><u></u></b>SPECIAL EDITION: Includes two bonus short stories</p><p>A man finds himself floating offshore looking back at a destroyed city. He has no memory of what happened, what his name is, who he is. The few survivors he meets also share the same memory loss. Confused, they travel the one undamaged road towards the truth, guided only by The Voice.</p><p><br></p></div>


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Fifteen years ago when Jack Delaney was a beat cop not long out of Hendon, two children went missing from Carlton Row, a small residential street in Harrow. They were never seen alive again. Two years later Delaney rescued a young girl from the boot of an abandoned car, leading to the capture of Peter Garnier, one of the most horrific child rapists and murderers in recent history. Although the bodies were never found, Garnier admitted to murdering the two children and many, many more. He was sent to prison for the rest of his natural life. Jack had thought the case was closed. But he couldn't have been more wrong. This morning a another young boy disappears from Carlton Row. Peter Garnier sends Jack the chilling message that they are both at the heart of the mystery, and Delaney has no time to figure out why, or how. Because tonight, the killings begin again a


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>“A splendid work of fiction.” —_Newsday_</p><p>“Hysterical and profound . . . Earns its place among the dark voyages that fiction must chronicle.” —_The New York Times_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>“Among Mr. Elkin’s best works of fiction . . . A comedy that cuts so many ways that it leaves us bleeding with laughter.” —_The New York Times_</strong></p><p>Eddy Bale’s twelve-year-old son died after a terrible, drawn-out illness. Now, determined to help alleviate the suffering of other sick children, Eddy plans to take a group of seven terminally ill youths on a dream vacation to Disney World. Accompanied by four eccentric chaperones, Eddy and the kids embark on what is meant to be a magical retreat that quickly devolves into a series of disasters when the kids turn out to be more full of life than anyone expected.</p><p>Written with deadpan humor and poignancy, <em>The Magic Kingdom</em> is a striking and honest portrayal of life and death—and the trouble that ensues when one attempts to master either.</p><p>This ebook features rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate and from the Stanley Elkin archives at Washington University in St. Louis.</p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"A comedy that cuts so many ways that it leaves us bleeding with laughter." -- <em>New York Times</em>  </p><p>"A true artist . . . Stanley Elkin never lets us down. . . . I read his books with pleasure and also with respect." -- <em>Saul Bellow</em>  </p><p>"Stanley Elkin’s imagination should be declared a national landmark." -- <em>Paul Auster</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>An ambitious‚ digressive‚ and endlessly entertaining account of the thousand-year history of the George Millses‚ GEORGE MILLS is the antithesis to the typical Horatio Alger story. Since the First Crusade‚ there has always been a George Mills‚ who—despite his best efforts—is unable to improve his position in life or that of his descendants. Instead‚ all the George Millses are forced to accept their lot as true blue-collar workers‚ serving important personages in a series of odd jobs ranging from horse talker in a salt mine to working as a furniture mover in contemporary St. Louis. But the latest in the long line of George Millses may also be the last‚ as he obsesses about his family’s history and determines that he will be the one to break this doomed cycle of servitude. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>“Powerful stuff. . . .This isn’t your typical memoir. It is brutally honest, difficult to read, and important.” (_The Tucson Citizen_ ) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><blockquote><p>The extraordinary personal journey of a man who, against all odds, rose to become one of America’s most surprising and promising new political figures </p></blockquote><p>Scott Brown's greatest win did not occur on a cold January election night in 2010 when he came from behind to capture the U.S. Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy for nearly fifty years. It began when he survived a savage beating at the drunken, dirty-fingernail hands of a stepfather when he was barely six years old, while trying to protect his mother. </p><p>In this gripping memoir of resilience and redemption, Brown tells the story of his difficult, often nomadic childhood, shunted from house to apartment, and town to town, seventeen times over his first eighteen years. He somehow thrived despite a largely absent father, who married four separate times. So did his mother, in relationships frequently stained with alcohol, anger, and even violence. For nearly two decades' growing up, Brown endured innumerable hardships and challenges, even stealing food to eat. He was periodically sent off to live with relatives, his possessions wrapped in a few old blankets. Saved by basketball, he was the boy who shoveled snow from the public courts to shoot hoops alone in the frozen cold. </p><p>With clear-eyed conviction and unflinching can-dor, Brown tells the story of his own bad-boy days, of the coaches who mentored him, and of how he found a way out of familial chaos through the swish of a ball in the net, winning a starting slot on the Tufts varsity basketball team as a freshman player and becoming the tenth-highest scorer to graduate in the school's history. His rise from there was even more improbable: a first-year law student and member of the Massachusetts National Guard, he was picked as <em>Cosmopolitan</em> magazine's "America's Sexiest Man" and was vaulted into the glamorous world of New York modeling at the height of the 1980s. But the man who was once ushered into the backrooms of Studio 54 returned to Massachusetts to continue with his military and legal training, settle down, raise a family, and soon found an unlikely path that would lead him to national political stardom. Here, too, are the secrets from the unprecedented Senate race that captured the country's imagination and how Scott Brown won his remarkable victory. </p><p>Poignant, heartfelt, humorous, and profound, this is the story of one man's dream and his determination to fight for a better future. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The conclusion of Fox's trilogy set in a magical version of ancient China (Dragon in Chains; Jade Man's Skin) mixes action with scenes that feel like timeless, almost perfect moments. The emperor is exiled, and his pregnant beloved is being targeted by assassins. Rebels battle for control of the nation. An island-dwelling dragon is linked to the boy Han in ways neither understands, and an old man bargains with the dragon for access to the sea in which she was once imprisoned. While some try remaking the dragon's chains, others learn that the best way to escape their own bonds is to relax. The result is an oddly pleasing feel of unhurried harmony even while the world seems ready to tear itself apart. The story and conclusion alike retain Fox's hallmark graceful prose and pace. (Apr.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“Magnificent . . . This series ranges from imperial intrigue to ocean-spanning magic to the smallest lives.”—Jay Lake, author of _Pinion  </p><p><em>"[</em>Hidden Cities_] mixes action with scenes that feel like timeless, almost perfect moments...The result is an oddly pleasing feel of unhurried harmony even while the world seems ready to tear itself apart. The story and conclusion alike retain Fox's hallmark graceful prose and pace." —_Publishers Weekly_  </p><p>“A rising star . . . With talent like Fox’s, the future of fantasy is in good hands.”—Tanith Lee, on _Dragon in Chains<br>_</p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>A World Without Heroes</em> is an addictive blend of fantasy, humor, and heroic quest. Jason is an ordinary 13-year-old involuntarily transported to Lyrian, a world ruled by the evil wizard Maldor. Jason stumbles across a book bound with human skin and learns of a secret word with the power to unmake Maldor--knowledge that puts Jason in grave danger. Galloran, a blind king who once searched for the word himself, introduces Jason to Rachel, another Beyonder (as people from Earth are called) who had appeared in Lyrian at the same time. Jason and Rachel set out to retrieve the word, and the resulting pages are filled with adventure, drama, loyalty and betrayal—a treat for fans of Mull’s Fablehaven series or those discovering this bestselling author for the first time.--_Seira Wilson_</p><h3>From</h3><p>Best known as the author of the popular Fablehaven series, Mull offers a new fantasy adventure, in which Jason and Rachel, two American kids, are separately drawn into an alternate world called Lyrian. They want to return home, but they don't know how. Aided by Rachel, the Blind King, and other allies, 13-year-old Jason undertakes a quest to discover the magical word needed to overthrow Maldor, Lyrian's evil emperor. The two teens set out to find the word's closely guarded syllables while thwarting the maneuvers of Maldor's crafty, vicious minions. Headlong adventure scenes, inventively conceived creatures, and surprising plot twists all figure into the mix as Jason and Rachel make their way through this treacherous world. The book's conclusion is not so much an ending as a respite before the beginning of the sequel. Readers seeking character-driven fiction should look elsewhere, but those drawn to long, action-filled fantasies may want to try Mull's latest. Grades 4-7. --Carolyn Phelan </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>A New York TimesBestsellerIn his latest bestseller, Atul Gawande shows what the simple idea of the checklist reveals about the complexity of our lives and how we can deal with it.The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry---in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people---consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever-advancing technologies, and still we fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can't, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference. Already, a simple surgical checklist from the World Health Organization designed by following the ideas described here has been adopted in more than twenty countries as a standard for care and has been heralded as the biggest clinical invention in thirty years (The Independent).</p>


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<div><h3>From</h3><p>Born and raised in Detroit, Clemens has witnessed firsthand the decline and death of manufacturing in that city. So when he pondered writing about the decline of the American working class, he figured a good place to start was the closing of Budd Detroit Automotive Plant, built in 1919 and employing 10,000 workers at its peak. He captures the sights, sounds, emotions, and economics of closing the plant, which made the roofs, doors, and other body parts of cars, trucks, and sports utility vehicles, offering an intimate portrait of what happens to people and a manufacturing town when the doors are closed. Clemens details the nuts and bolts, including how machinery is disassembled and shipped for reassembly in Mexico and elsewhere, as well as the human element of union reps fighting for worker benefits and former workers pondering a grim future. Clemens looks beyond the dire statistics of tens to hundreds of thousands of plant closings each year to portray the individuals involved and the loss of jobs and social bearings in the community. --Vanessa Bush </p><h3>Review</h3><p>PRAISE FOR <em>PUNCHING OUT</em>:  </p><p><strong>“Rewarding. . . . [Clemens] is a lovely, mournful observer of Detroit’s people. . . . [_Punching Out_] is a lament for a dying city and a dying way of being a man in America.”</strong><br>—Dwight Garner, <em>The New York Times</em>  </p><p><em></em>“Clemens . . . paints the definitive portrait of a strange, resonant feature of the contemporary American landscape: the defunct factory . . . [this book] is an elegiac reminder of a scary truth lurking behind those abstract-sounding business headlines.”<br><em></em>—Carlo Rotella, <em>The Boston Globe</em><br><em> </em><br><strong>“Out of the painstaking job of dismantling industrial America, a story emerges. Clemens closes the book on one venerable factory, but leaves us wondering about the future of American work.”</strong><br><em>—San Francisco Chronicle</em><br><em> </em><br><strong>“Clemens has the street cred and old-school journalism chops to deliver a first-rate piece of deep reportage.”</strong><br>—_Minneapolis Star Tribune_<br><em> </em><br><em></em>“Superb practitioners of immersion journalism older than Clemens include John McPhee, Gay Talese, Madeleine Blais, Susan Orlean, Walt Harrington, Mike Sager, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and Tracy Kidder. Based on <em>Punching Out</em>, Clemens is a worthy addition to the list and an example for journalists not just in the United States, but around the globe. His story of another closed auto factory is sadly familiar. But it has never been told this well.”<br><em></em>—Steve Weinberg, author of <em>Taking on The Trust</em><br><em> </em>  </p>

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<h3>Review</h3><p>“Great for the die-hard GNR fan…This is a cautionary tale, all the way.” (Penthouse ) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><blockquote><p>No secret is too dark. <br />No revelation too sick. But you must have the appetite for it. </p></blockquote><p>After forty years, twenty-eight ODs, three botched suicides, two heart attacks, a couple of jail stints, and a debilitating stroke, Steven Adler, the most self-destructive rock star ever, is ready to share the shattering untold truth in <em>My Appetite for Destruction</em>. </p><p>When Adler was eleven years old he told his two closest friends he was going to be a rock star in the world's greatest band. Along with four uniquely talented—but very complicated and demanding—musicians, Adler helped form Guns N' Roses. They rose from the streets—primal rockers who obliterated glam rock and its big hair to resurrect rock's truer blues roots. </p><p>They were relentless rock stars, onstage and off, taking "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" to obscene levels of reckless abandon. By the late 1980s, GNR was the biggest rock band in the world, demanding headlines, awards, and sold-out shows, with one of the greatest rock albums of all time: <em>Appetite for Destruction</em>. But there was a price to pay. For Adler, it was his health and his sanity, culminating in a brutal banishment by his once-beloved musical brothers. Adler digs deep, revealing the last secrets, not only his own but GNR's as well: Slash's betrayal, Axl's unpredictable temper, and Duff's revenge. He bares it all with this shocking fuck-the-fates exposÉ that charts his meteoric rise and devastating collapse. </p><p>Adler was humiliated and disgraced when Axl Rose kicked him out of GNR in front of an MTV audience of millions. Adler plunged into the dark side, spending most of the next twenty years in a drug-fueled hell. But he finally beat his epic addiction to crack and heroin under the care of Dr. Drew Pinsky. </p><p>With Adler's newfound clarity comes a fierce determination to tell it all. Revelatory, heartbreaking, hilarious, and ultimately inspirational, you will never read anything more jaw-droppingly honest than <em>My Appetite for Destruction</em>. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Not all these recipes are fast, nor do they all feature green veggies (nor are they consciously ecofocused). The subtitle explains it better: this rainbow of appealing recipes is for those who adore vegetable dishes and want more than an afterthought chapter dedicated to them. Middleton, a former editor-at-large for <em>Fine Cooking</em> magazine, divides recipes by cooking style, instructing readers in braising, hands-on sautéing, stir-frying, grilling, and more. She offers dishes—braised fingerlings with rosemary and mellow garlic; sautéed carrots with warm olive and mint dressing; stir-fried swiss chard with pine nuts and balsamic butter; and grill-roasted bell peppers with goat cheese and cherry tomato dressing—with layers of complexity that heighten but don't overwhelm the flavors of the intended stars, the vegetables. And she employs interesting contrasts—savory and sweet, for example—in recipes such as vanilla and cardamom glazed acorn squash rings; roasted turnips and pears with rosemary-honey drizzle; and gingery sweet potato and apple sauté with toasted almonds that are likely to tempt even the vegetable-averse. Fink's photos—mostly of green veggies, perhaps in a nod to the misnomer title—show lima beans and peas as mouth-watering, decadent treats. <em>(June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>This new bible for all things vegetable from <em>Fine Cooking's</em> Vegetable Queen is ideal for the millions of cooks who want to get more veggies into their daily diet--and want to feed their families deliciously. Susie Middleton shares her love of great-tasting veggies with a guide to stocking up the pantry, shopping for vegetables, and cooking those veggies in 9 different ways. <em>Fast, Fresh &amp; Green</em> is uniquely organized by technique so that cooks can add new ways to cook veggies to their weeknight repertoires. More than 100 recipes for side dishes--many that can double as starters or main dishes, and many that are vegan--include Spinach with Shallots and Parmigiano, Sweet Potato Mini Fries with Limey Dipping Sauce, Roasted Broccoli with Two Dipping Sauces, Braised Fingerlings with Rosemary and Mellow Garlic, and Summer Vegetable Ragout. _Fast, __Fresh &amp; Green_ is an excellent resource for vegetarians and omnivores alike. </p>


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<h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> The slippery slope into horrific armed conflict is a tale often told about World War I, but this author’s take on the antecedents of the European war of 1914–18 is distinct. Carter views the shifting alliance entanglements of the Great Powers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and especially the growing animosity and rivalry between Britain and Germany, with particular focus on the attitudes and actions of three royal first cousins: Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, and King George V of Great Britain (who also reigned as emperor of India, hence the book’s title reference to three emperors). Rich in concrete detail, elegant in style, and wise, fresh, and knowledgeable in interpretation, the author’s account observes a profound anachronism at play: that these three monarchs, in what they didn’t realize were the waning days of the institution of monarchy, handled foreign diplomacy as if it were a family business. Despite the reality of growing fissures separating their countries, “each emperor continued to paper over the cracks with cousinly gestures, each increasingly irrelevant.” Europe plunged over the precipice of war in August 1914, revealing in stark terms the inability of royal familial ties to control and contain national disagreements; as the author has it, the fact that Wilhelm, Nicholas, and George were out of touch with actual politics could not have been more apparent. An irresistible narrative for history buffs. --Brad Hooper </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Praise for Miranda Carter's George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm:  </p><p><strong>“Miranda Carter has written an engrossing and important book. While keeping her focus on the three cousins and their extended families, she skillfully interweaves and summarizes all important elements of how the war came about…Carter has given us an original book, highly recommended.” ---_The Dallas Morning News_</strong>  </p><p>"Masterfully crafted. . . Carter has presented one of the most cohesive explorations of the dying days of European royalty and the coming of political modernity. . . Carter has delivered another gem." --_Bookpage_  </p><p>"Ms. Carter writes incisively about the overlapping events that led to the Great War and changed the world. . . George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm is an impressive book. Ms. Carter has clearly not bitten off more than she can chew for she -- as John Updike once wrote of Gunter Grass -- 'chews it enthusiastically before our eyes.'" --The New York Times   </p><p>"An irresistably entertaining and illuminating chronicle . . . Readers with fond memories of Robert Massie and Barbara Tuchman can expect similar pleasures in this witty, shrewd examination of the twilight of the great European monarchies." —Publishers Weekly  </p><p>"A wonderfully fresh and beautifully choreographed work of history." —Craig Brown, <em>Mail on Sunday</em>  </p><p>"A hauntingly tempting proposition for a book . . . The parallel, interrelated lives of Kaiser Wilhelm II, George V, and Nicholas II are . . . a prism though which to tell the march to the first World War, the creation of the modern industrial world and the follies of hereditary courts and the eccentricities of their royal trans-European cousinhood . . . An entertaining and accessible study of power and personality." —Simon Sebag Montefiore, _Financial Times<br />_<br />"Carter draws masterful portraits of her subjects and tells the complicated story of Europe’s failing international relations well . . . A highly readable and well-documented account." —Margaret MacMillan, _The Spectator<br />_<br />“I couldn’t put this book down. The whole thing really lives and breathes – and it’s very funny. That these three absurd men could ever have held the fate of Europe in their hands is a fact as hilarious as it is terrifying.” – Zadie Smith  </p><p>"[An] enterprising history of imperial vicissitudes and royal reversals." --The New York Times Book Review </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Turning the offices of National Public Radio into a sugar-dusted gastrolab, NPR producer Gray (of the news program All Things Considered) spent a year testing cake recipes on coworkers to find the most satisfying among them. The result is this eclectic but cohesive cookbook, with a gentle learning curve especially useful for novices. An untrained pastry chef herself, Gray begins with a basic, lemon-glazed sour cream pound cake (which she calls the "Man Catcher") that introduces several key baking techniques: creaming the butter and sugar, incorporating eggs, beating batter, and lining the pan. She increases the skill level gradually as she goes, moving on to bundt, layer, and fruit cakes, followed by trickier temptations like angel food cake and the spicy, molasses-rich Appalachian Stack Cake. Each recipe comes with the story of its origin, reception, and variants. Readers will spot many bold-faced culinary names like Paula Deen and Ina Garten, but also obscure sources like out-of-print cookbooks, local publications, and small-town prizewinners. A handful of no-cake recipes includes cowboy cookies, butterscotch bars, and sinful fried pies. The instructional tone and homespun quality are signature NPR ingredients; fans of the network will find this cookbook a useful and companionable tool for family eating, potlucks, and easy entertaining. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Melissa Gray is National Public Radio's Cake Lady. Every Monday she brings a cake to the office for her colleagues at NPR to enjoy. Hundreds of Mondays (and cakes) later, Melissa has lots of cake-making tips to share. With more than 50 recipes for the cakes that have been dreamed of and drooled over for a lifetime including Brown Sugar Pound Cake, Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake, Lord and Lady Baltimore Cakes, Dark-Chocolate Red Velvet Cake, and Honey Buttercream and Apricot Jam Cake <em>All Cakes Considered</em> is an essential addition to every baker's library. </p>


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<h3>From</h3><p>In keeping with the new frugality, this college guide, written by a senior attending the University of Massachusetts, offers practical advice on how to pay for college without taking out loans. Decidedly old school in approach, Bissonnette advocates that students should bear the brunt of paying for their educations by working while in college and during breaks. He also suggests that attending community college for two years before transferring to a four-year college or university would go a long way toward cutting costs. Systematically and amusingly debunking the selection criteria used by U.S. News and World Report and others to rank elite colleges, Bissonnette is a strong advocate of attending reasonably priced state schools. He makes good points about how debt from student loans often prevents recent grads from starting families or buying homes. He also presents convincing research that elite graduate programs and selective employers accept plenty of people who have attended nonelite schools. Although the strictly dollars-and-cents approach to higher education may not sit well with some parents, this is a timely guide to a decision that has important financial ramifications. --Joanne Wilkinson </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"If the National Association for College Admissions Counseling had anticipated the dire consequences of one of the smartest teenagers in America encountering the ill-examined assumptions of their profession, they might have found some way to buy him off, maybe a full ride scholarship to Harvard. Too late. Bissonnette is 21 now, a senior at the University of Massachusetts. He has written the best and most troubling book ever about the college admissions process." <br />-Jay Mathews, <em>The Washington Post</em>   </p><p>"Let Zac Bissonnette help you plan for college-where to go, what to study, and how to pay for it-and you will finish rich" <br />-David Bach #1 <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of <em>The Automatic Millionaire</em> and <em>Start Late, Finish Rich</em>   </p><p>"In the new economy, your college choice is critical. Zac Bissonnette's <em>Debt- Free U</em> is the one book you need to make this life-changing decision-- thoroughly researched, smart, and funny. Grade: A+." <br />-Ali Rogers, CBS Moneywatch. Author, <em>Diary of a Real Estate Rookie</em>   </p><p>"With Bissonnette, college-bound students and their parents finally have an unbiased source to help make an educated decision about choosing and affording college. Not to mention, his advice can help you pocket tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Want to make a smart investment in this economy? Buy <em>Debt-Free U</em>." <br />-Farnoosh Torabi, financial expert and author of <em>Psych Yourself Rich</em></p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>Like his James Bond movies, Roger Moore’s autobiography is full of unbelievable scenes, corny dialogue and a lead character who doesn’t take himself too seriously...full of humor, in praise of many and offensive to few (New York Post ) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><blockquote><p>From the saint to maverick to James Bond, Roger Moore’s story is one of the last of the classic Hollywood lives as yet untold. </p><p>Until now.</p></blockquote><p>One of the most recognizable big-screen stars of the past half century, Sir Roger Moore played the role of James Bond longer than any other actor. Still, Bond was only one in a lifetime of roles stretching back to Hollywood’s studio era. Moore has seen and heard it all. He has hobnobbed with the glamorous and powerful, counting Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Seymour, and Cary Grant among his contemporaries and friends. He has outrageous stories about foulmouthed Milton Berle, surly Richard Burton, and kindhearted Richard Kiel, infamous as Bond enemy Jaws. The stories in <em>My Word Is My Bond</em> are priceless, a treasure trove of Hollywood history. Sir Roger Moore has left nothing out—especially the naughty bits.</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>How do you write the biography of a cipher? That's the daunting challenge veteran Hollywood biographer Ed Sikov tackles in exploring the life of one of the 20th century's most acclaimed comic actors. Peter Sellers' uncanny talents as a mimic would inform everything from English radio's <em>Goon Show</em> and the highly profitable--if increasingly broad--cycle of Inspector Clouseau <em>Pink Panther</em> films to his brilliant turn as Chauncey Gardiner in <em>Being There</em>, a role that had all too many discomforting parallels to Sellers' own cryptic personality. Sikov reveals that the man long hailed as comedy's greatest chameleon was in fact a tragic, troubled personal vacuum, the only child of a literal stage mother who indulged his every whim, yet left him a distinct void for a soul. Sikov interviews many of the relatives, intimates, and survivors of Sellers that filled his alternately strange and spectacular life, while thoroughly chronicling every professional triumph and more than a few missteps. Sikov's straightforward reporting, seasoned by his own dry wit, details the parts that made up the man, but the sum remains an ever compelling enigma. As <em>Lolita</em> and <em>Dr. Strangelove</em> director Stanley Kubrick, no slouch in the personal riddle sweepstakes himself, once said of Sellers: "There is no such person." <em>--Jerry McCulley</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Sellers was undoubtedly one of the 20th century's funniest people. From his first star-making turns in Lolita and Dr. Strangelove (in which he played three different characters), to the bumbling but strangely dignified Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther movies, Sellers never failed to send audiences rolling in the aisles. But as Sikov shows in this hip, unblinking biography, there was a downside to his genius. Sellers abused drugs, beat his wives and neglected his children. On set, he was a nightmare prima donna, insisting on special treatment and embroiling himself in ridiculous feuds with costars and directors. Moreover, his compulsive need to do impressions verged at times on multiple personality disorder (his first wife said, "It's like being married to the United Nations"). Sikov shows that no one, not even his friends, really knew Sellers. The actor was, in Sikov's estimation, a comic tabula rasa on which he could inscribe any character or personality. This mutability gave Sellers his first break, as he bluffed his way onto radio by impersonating a BBC star on the telephone. He later became the star of the hugely influential radio program The Goon Show, whose eccentric, Dadaist humor predated Monty Python by a decade. An avid party-goer (jet-setting friends included Roman Polanski and the Beatles), Sellers enjoyed a go-go lifestyle finally that caught up with him in 1980, when he suffered a massive heart attack. Sikov, whose previous work includes a Billy Wilder biography, treats Sellers with just the right mix of awe, irritation and sympathy, giving readers a clear-headed, respectful tribute to a disturbed genius.<br />Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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The bestselling author of The Limits of Power critically examines the Washington consensus on national security and why it must changeFor the last half century, as administrations have come and gone, the fundamental assumptions about America's military policy have remained unchanged: American security requires the United States (and us alone) to maintain a permanent armed presence around the globe, to prepare our forces for military operations in far-flung regions, and to be ready to intervene anywhere at any time. In the Obama era, just as in the Bush years, these beliefs remain unquestioned gospel.In a vivid, incisive analysis, Andrew J. Bacevich succinctly presents the origins of this consensus, forged at a moment when American power was at its height. He exposes the preconceptions, biases, and habits that underlie our pervasive faith in military might, especially the notion that overwhelming superiority will oblige others to accommodate America's needs and desires—whether for cheap oil, cheap credit, or cheap consumer goods. And he challenges the usefulness of our militarism as it has become both unaffordable and increasingly dangerous.Though our politicians deny it, American global might is faltering. This is the moment, Bacevich argues, to reconsider the principles which shape American policy in the world—to acknowledge that fixing Afghanistan should not take precedence over fixing Detroit. Replacing this Washington consensus is crucial to America's future, and may yet offer the key to the country's salvation.  Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of colonel. He is the author of The Limits of Power and The New American Militarism. His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He is the recipient of a Lannan Award and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. For the last half century, as administrations have come and gone, the fundamental assumptions about America's military policy have remained unchanged: American security requires the United States (and us alone) to maintain a permanent armed presence around the globe, to prepare our forces for military operations in far-flung regions, and to be ready to intervene anywhere at any time. In the Obama era, just as in the Bush years, these beliefs remain unquestioned gospel.In a vivid, incisive analysis, Andrew J. Bacevich succinctly presents the origins of this consensus, forged at a moment when American power was at its height. He exposes the preconceptions, biases, and habits that underlie our pervasive faith in military might, especially the notion that overwhelming superiority will oblige others to accommodate America's needs and desires—whether for cheap oil, cheap credit, or cheap consumer goods. And he challenges the usefulness of our militarism as it has become both unaffordable and increasingly dangerous.Though our politicians deny it, American global might is faltering. This is the moment, Bacevich argues, to reconsider the principles which shape American policy in the world—to acknowledge that fixing Afghanistan should not take precedence over fixing Detroit. Replacing this Washington consensus is crucial to America's future, and may yet offer the key to the country's salvation.  “To say that Washington Rules is a breath of fresh air in the debate over U.S. foreign policy would be like comparing a zephyr to a hurricane. Writing with Force-Five fury, Andrew Bacevich lays bare the dogmas and shibboleths that have animated national security doctrine for the last half century and produced an Orwellian nightmare of permanent war in the name of permanent peace. This passionate, often discomforting book brings rare clarity to a subject of urgent importance for all Americans.”—David M. Kennedy, author of Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945“Against a national strategy gone astray, Bacevich offers a unique combination of rigorous analysis and emotion-powered protest. May it be widely read, may it disenthrall us from the academic generals, militant academics, and cynical politicians who insist that we must invest blood and treasure in mud-brick Afghan villages, while China invests in advanced technology.”—Edward N. Luttwak author of The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire  “‘Washington Rules’ is the author's shorthand for the American conviction that we always represent the good and the pure in international affairs. His powerful book clearly demonstrates how threadbare this idea has become.”—Chalmers Johnson, author of the Blowback Trilogy and Dismantling the Empire“The hard-earned insights of this veteran, analyst, insider, and parent will resonate with people across the political spectrum and offer a serious, riveting, and authentically personal critique of U.S. power.”—Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!“Bacevich presents compelling and alarming evidence that our nation is locked into a counterproductive global military presence sustained by power projection and interventionism by military force. A must-read for all those concerned with America’s future.”—Lt. General (USA, Ret.) Robert G. Gard, Jr., PhD“Washington Rules dissects the convictions that have turned the United States into a warrior nation—a country devoted to military solutions that do little, if anything, to enhance its security or advance the well-being of its citizens or the foreign peoples on whom we inflict our illusory benevolence. A brilliant historian’s analysis of what ails America, this book should be read by every national officeholder and and by all who care about America’s future safety and prosperity.”—Robert Dallek, author of The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and Hope, 1945-1953“Washington Rules exposes well-entrenched assumptions that for decades have underlain ineffective and costly U.S. policies. Bacevich shines a bright light on the meaning of national security and what it requires, while addressing fundamental but long-ignored questions about America's place in the world and the role of military power.”—Paul R. Pillar author of Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy"Valiant . . . welcome thinking by a former military man who has seen the light."—Kirkus Reviews"U.S. Army colonel turned academic, Bacevich (The Limits of Power) offers an unsparing, cogent, and important critique of assumptions guiding American military policy. These central tenets, the 'Washington rules'—such as the belief that the world order depends on America maintaining a massive military capable of rapid and forceful interventions anywhere in the world—have dominated national security policy since the start of the cold war and have condemned the U.S. to 'insolvency and perpetual war.' Despite such disasters as America's defeat in Vietnam and the Cuban missile crisis, the self-perpetuating policy is so entrenched that no president or influential critic has been able to alter it. Bacevich argues that while the Washington rules found their most pernicious expression in the Bush doctrine of preventive war, Barack Obama's expansion of the Afghan War is also cause for pessimism: 'We should be grateful to him for making at least one thing unmistakably clear: to imagine that Washington will ever tolerate second thoughts about the Washington rules is to engage in willful self-deception. Washington itself has too much to lose.'"—Publishers Weekly


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Actor and producer Wagner begins this engaging memoir by recalling his childhood fascination with movies and the Hollywood community. Determined to become a part of that world, in 1942, at age 12, he worked as a golf caddy, struggling to make contact with those who could help him. As an 18-year-old Fox contract player, he got a foothold with minor roles: I wasn't very good in this period, but I was diligent. Soon he scored with <em>Prince Valiant</em> in 1954, and <em>A Kiss Before Dying</em>, thus beginning a six-decade career in theater, television series and more than 100 movies. His rule of thumb: Find smart people and listen to them. Along the way, he realized friends and family were equally as important as show business, and he writes with fondness and humor about his close friendships with David Niven and others while painting a backdrop of Hollywood in transition. As for the women in Wagner's life, he details one-night stands, his four-year affair with Barbara Stanwyck (who was twice his age) and his four marriages (twice to Natalie Wood). His love for Wood threads throughout, and his memory of her last night is chilling as he leads the reader step-by-step through her 1981 disappearance from their boat and the search for her body. <em>(Oct.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“Pieces of My Heart is a treasure. . . . Wagner’s portrait of [Natalie] Wood is adoring and poignant. . . . With admirable strength and honest self-awareness, Wagner makes plain that there’s much more to him than his handsome face.” (Washington Post )  </p><p>“Engaging” (Publishers Weekly )  </p><p>“Mesmerizing” (Kirkus Reviews ) </p>


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Frommer's 500 Best Adrenaline Adventures features high-octane experiences for both passionate travelers and adventure seekers. From dare-devil sports to hair-raising haunted houses to wacky and obscure festivals and races, Frommer's offers ideas for a wide variety of adventures. Chapters include: In the Air: Hangliding, Bungee Jumping & Ziplining On the Water: Diving, Snorkeling & Whitewater Rafting Mountains & Canyons: Skiing, Snowboarding, Climbing & Hiking Ground Adventures: Mountain Biking, Motorcycling & Sand-surfing Expeditions & Drives: Safaris, River Trips & Desert Treks Adventure Camps: Stuntman School, Cattle Wrangling & Covert Ops Races & Festivals: Iditarod, Bay to Breakers & Extreme Eating Contests With the Animals: Diving with Sharks, Canoeing with Hippos & Swimming with Dolphins Offbeat Adventures: Gloucester Cheese Roll & Tomato Food Fight Rides, Spooks & Scares: Haunted Houses, Rollercoasters & Catacombs


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Drawing on the best 1001 recipes from Dana Carpender’s bestselling books including <em>500 Low-Carb Recipes</em>, <em>15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes,</em> <em>500 More Low-Carb Recipes</em>, 2_00 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes_, <em>The Low-Carb Barbeque Book</em>, and <em>Low-Carb Smoothies</em>. You’ll find delicious and varied options including recipes for "high-carb" foods you thought you had to give up forever such as Cinnamon Raisin Bread and Mocha Chocolate Cheesecake. Staying the low-carb course will be easy with choices from barbecue to slow-cooker to internationally-inspired dishes. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Best-selling author <strong>Dana Carpender </strong>was startled to discover that limiting her carbohydrate intake not only helped her control her weight, but produced the health and vitality a low fat diet had promised but never delivered. Fifteen years later, she laughs at people who say “You can’t eat that way long-term.” Her eight cookbooks are the result of her realization that the key to permanent dietary change is the answer to the age-old question, “What’s for supper?” To date they have sold over a million copies worldwide. Dana blogs about low carb nutrition at www.HoldtheToast.com; her weekly blog digest goes out to over 20,000 readers. She is also Managing Editor of CarbSmart Magazine at http://www.CarbSmart.com, as well as a featured staff writer. She launches her internet radio show, Dana's Low Carb For Life, on Labor Day 2010. Dana lives in Bloomington, Indiana with her husband and a menagerie of pets, all of whom are well and healthily fed.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> At the heart of this sprawling, dizzying debut from a quirky, assured Australian writer are two men: Jasper Dean, a judgmental but forgiving son, and Martin, his brilliant but dysfunctional father. Jasper, in an Australian prison in his early 20s, scribbles out the story of their picaresque adventures, noting cryptically early on that [m]y father's body will never be found. As he tells it, Jasper has been uneasily bonded to his father through thick and thin, which includes Martin's stint managing a squalid strip club during Jasper's adolescence; an Australian outback home literally hidden within impenetrable mazes; Martin's ill-fated scheme to make every Australian a millionaire; and a feverish odyssey through Thailand's menacing jungles. Toltz's exuberant, looping narrative—thick with his characters' outsized longings and with their crazy arguments—sometimes blows past plot entirely, but comic drive and Toltz's far-out imagination carry the epic story, which puts the two (and Martin's own nemesis, his outlaw brother, Terry) on an irreverent roller-coaster ride from obscurity to infamy. Comparisons to <em>Special Topics in Calamity Physics</em> are likely, but this nutty tour de force has a more tender, more worldly spin. <em>(Feb.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p><em></em>SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2008<br><em></em><br>“_A Fraction of the Whole_ is that rarest of long books–<strong>utterly worth it</strong>...The story starts in a prison riot and ends on a plane, and there is <strong>not one forgettable episode</strong> in between...It reads like Mark Twain with access to an intercontinental Airbus...<strong>This book moves; it bucks and rocks </strong>in a world that feels more than a hemisphere away...So comically dark and inviting that you have no choice but to step into its icy wake.” —_Esquire </p><p><em>“Rollicking...laugh-out-loud funny.” —</em>Entertainment Weekly_<br>_<br>_“A rich father-and-son story <strong>packed with incident, humor, and characters reminiscent of the styles of Charles Dickens and John Irving</strong>...Occasionally, a big, sprawling first novel fights its way into print with a flourish, at which point its ambition and the eccentricities of its ‘firstness’ can become its best marketing tools. Such is the case with <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em>, a book that is willfully misanthropic and very funny...like Irving, Toltz makes <strong>minor characters leap off the page</strong>...He’s a superb, disturbing phrasemaker...this long novel, which lives or dies in the brilliance of its writing, has a subtle, compelling structure..._A Fraction of the Whole_ <strong>soars like a rocket</strong>.” —_Los Angeles Times_<br>_<br>_“Combines the <strong>hilarious</strong> high-low reference points of early Martin Amis with the annihilating punk inventiveness of Chuck Palahniuk.” —_Best Life </p><p>_“One of the best books I’ve ever read. <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em> is better than <em>The Corrections</em>, and Toltz did it in one book while it took Franzen two to get <em>The Corrections</em> out into the world. Granted, you have your whole life to write your first novel, but my God, <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em> does things that most writers can’t do in a lifetime... A <strong>wildly addictive</strong> exploration into a man’s soul, a <strong>profoundly moving</strong> experience almost religious in its execution and possibly one of the sharpest and irresistibly humorous post-modern adventures I’ve had the pleasure to read... Steve Toltz has written <strong>a masterpiece, a smashing debut that will long be remembered as a colossal example of just how good fiction can be</strong>. He keeps you wired to the page from the jump and he defies gravity all the way to the end.” —Ain’t It Cool News </p><p>“First novels these days too seldom dare to raise their voices above an elegant whisper or an ironic murmur. Not so <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em>, a riotously funny first novel that is <strong>harder to ignore than a crate of puppies</strong>, twice as playful and just about as messy. This is not a book to be read so much as an experience to be wallowed in. Mr. Toltz’s merry chaos–a mix of metaphysical inquiry, ribald jokes, freakish occurrences and verbal dynamite booming across the page–<strong>deserves a place next to <em>A Confederacy of Dunces</em></strong> in a category that might be called the undergraduate ecstatic. <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em> is a sort of Voltaire-meets-Vonnegut tale.” —_Wall Street Journal<br>_<br>“Madcap, exhausting, and true in the way the best lies always are.” —_New York Observer </p><p>_“Wild...an odyssey that’s <strong>inspired, sorta stoned, tender, and very funny</strong>. Sometimes all at the same time. Toltz’s invention is as breathtaking as the speed of his narrative in a book that seems to have had all the boring parts snipped...There is wit on every page...Jorge Luis Borges is obviously an influence on Toltz. There is also a bit of John Irving and Tom Robbins here in the wacky characters and narrative drive. <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em> even has a touch of the weary philosophizing of Vonnegut, too. In its structure–and especially in its ending–there is even a pinch of Tristram Shandy. Very good company, all.” —_Chicago Sun-Times_ </p><p>“<strong>Hold on tight</strong> <strong>because you are about to ride a juggernaut of words</strong>, where things will go by very quickly and you better pay attention...The real pleasure in reading this book is the pace and the language. What Toltz has done masterfully is have his way with every aspect of modern life. He racks ‘em up and knocks ‘em down with a laser wit, a fine turn of phrase and a <strong>devastatingly funny</strong> outlook on everything human.” —_Seattle Times </p><p>_“<strong>An</strong> <strong>exuberantly funny debut novel that you should just go away and read</strong>...There is plenty to laugh at in <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em>–and also, goodness knows, there is plenty of plot and the narrative pace of a puppy with attention deficit disorder. But it also has a heart...<strong>A grand achievement</strong> <strong>and the debut of a great comic talent</strong>.” —_Sunday Times_ (UK) </p><p>“Sparkling comic writing...It gives off the unmistakable whiff of <strong>a book that might just contain the secret of life</strong>.” —_Independent_ (UK) </p><p>“This <strong>absurdly incident-laden, feverish, farcical</strong> life story bears the watermark of long gestation. What’s more, it <strong>stands above the vast majority of debut novels</strong> because it seems so marvelously sure of itself and what it should be...Toltz’s <strong>fizzing, acid, funny</strong> prose is capable of a kind of broken, lyrical beauty...Amid the dizzying whirl of events, Toltz never loses sight of a deep current that runs throughout his story...It’s a spiritual search that allows a conclusion that finds an affecting depth of feeling. Yes, <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em> is <strong>a wildly looping rollercoaster</strong>. But there’s much more to it than meaningless exhilaration.” —_Independent on Sunday_ (UK)<br>“With tinges of magical realism and buckets of misanthropic humor it's <strong>a clever and funny debut</strong>.” —_Observer_ (UK)<br>“Very light on its feet, skipping from anecdote, to rant, to reflection, like a stone skimming across a pond...There’s a section about a labyrinth that you could imagine Borges writing, another about a lottery gone wrong that made me think of Vonnegut, and a strange, lovely account of childhood illness that had echoes of Garcia Marquez. In some ways it <strong>plays like a modern Arabian Nights</strong>...The inevitability of disaster is heartbreaking...<strong>Brilliant</strong>.” —_Guardian_ (UK) </p><p>“Quirky, satirical, and absolutely delirious..._A Fraction of the Whole_ is <strong>one of the most hilarious, original literary romps in years with sizzle on each and every page</strong>. Hold on tight and enjoy the ride.” —_Tucson Citizen_ </p><p>“A sprawling, dizzying debut...Comic drive and Steve Toltz’s far-out imagination carry the epic story . . . <strong>a nutty tour de force</strong>.” –_Publishers Weekly_, starred review </p><p>“What satirical fun is found on the madcap pages of this rough-and-tumble tale...This <strong>hilarious</strong>, sneaky smart first novel is as big and rangy as Australia . . . Toltz salts it all with uproarious ruminations on freedom, the soul, love, death, and the meaning of life. This is one <strong>rampaging and irresistible</strong> debut.” –_Booklist_, starred review </p><p>“The <strong>perfect vacation read</strong> for just about everyone...This book allows you to romp along with the characters on an epic journey with two crazy Australian brothers who you fall madly in love with despite their wild, degenerate lives...packed with so many rich characters, setting descriptions, philosophy and fun you need something to aid digestion after each reading...Steve Toltz is <strong>hilarious</strong>, smart, with a fantastic imagination...His novel is a rollicking worldwide adventure...<strong>Take time to enjoy this one; you won’t be disappointed</strong>.” —_The Daily Planet_, Telluride, CO </p><p>“_A Fraction of the Whole_ belongs to a neglected subgenre: serious fiction that refuses to take itself seriously. A ballsy, beautifully idiosyncratic epic, it asks dizzying primal questions about mortality, belief, and the shadowy, unmapped alleyways of human thought–and Toltz manages his metaphysics like a master surfer riding a colossal wave...It’s a madcap, <strong>propulsive</strong> story...The energy of the writing is <strong>brilliantly infectious</strong>...The novel’s heart is as big as its intellect...It feels like an added bonus that, for all its hilarious misanthropy, <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em> <strong>testifies to the power of even the most reluctant love</strong>.” —_Sunday Business Post_ (Ireland) </p><p>“Packed with plots, sub-plots, sub-sub-plots, tangents, flashbacks, diversions, philosophical wanderings and spectacular set pieces...<strong>Fuelled by brilliant ideas and driven by an original, bracing, and very funny voice</strong>.” --_The Age_ (Australia) </p><p>“<strong>Reads like the trajectory of a gleefully crazed Roman candle</strong>...a sprawling, entertaining, decidedly quirky, and at times <strong>laugh-out-loud funny</strong> romp reminiscent of John Irving’s family sagas.” —_Library Journal<br>_</p> </div>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>Novel by Jules Verne, published as De la Terre a la Lune (1865) and also published as The Baltimore Gun Club and The American Gun Club. Although the novel was subtitled Trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes ("Direct Passage in Ninety-Seven Hours and Twenty Minutes"), the actual journey to the Moon was depicted in the book's sequel, Autour de la Lune (1870; Round the Moon). From the Earth to the Moon concerns a group of obsessive American Civil War veterans, members of the Baltimore Gun Club, who conceive the idea of creating an enormous cannon in order to shoot a "space-bullet" to the Moon from a site in Florida. -- __</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Written almost a century before the daring flights of the astronauts, Jules Verne’s prophetic novel of man’s race to the stars is a classic adventure tale enlivened by broad satire and scientific acumen.   </p><p>When the members of the elite Baltimore Gun Club find themselves lacking any urgent assignments at the close of the Civil War, their president, Impey Barbicane, proposes that they build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to the moon. But when Barbicane’s adversary places a huge wager that the project will fail and a daring volunteer elevates the mission to a “manned” flight, one man’s dream turns into an international space race.   </p><p>A story of rip-roaring action, humor, and wild imagination, <strong>From the Earth to the Moon</strong> is as uncanny in its accuracy and as filled with authentic detail and startling immediacy as Verne’s timeless masterpieces <strong>20,000 Leagues Under the Sea </strong>and <strong>Around the World in Eighty Days. </strong>_  </p><p>_</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>With broad strokes, Barry once again satirizes corporate America in his third caustic novel (after <em>Jennifer Government</em>). This time, he takes aim at the perennial corporate crime of turning people into cogs in a machine. Recent b-school grad Stephen Jones, a fresh-faced new hire at a Seattle-based holding company called Zephyr, jumps on the fast track to success when he's immediately promoted from sales assistant to sales rep in Zephyr's training sales department. "Don't try to understand the company. Just go with it," a colleague advises when Jones is flummoxed to learn his team sells training packages to other internal Zephyr departments. But unlike his co-workers, he won't accept ignorance of his employer's business, and his unusual display of initiative catapults him into the ranks of senior management, where he discovers the "customer-free" company's true, sinister raison d'être. The ultracynical management team co-opts Jones with a six-figure salary and blackmail threats, but it's not long before he throws a wrench into the works. As bitter as break-room coffee, the novel eviscerates demeaning modern management techniques that treat workers as "headcounts." Though Barry's primary target is corporate dehumanization, he's at his funniest lampooning the suits that tread the stage, consumed by the sound and fury of office politics that signify nothing. <em>(Jan.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Adult/High School–By turns amusing and wry, this novel is a pleasure to read. It opens with a view of a large corporation as seen by a new employee whose first day on the job is one of high suspense–one of the doughnuts for a staff meeting is missing. Moving beyond the usual cheap but funny shots taken at corporate life, Barry takes his tale to the next level. What if this giant maze for laboratory rats in which so many people work was actually just that? The characters are stereotypes but readers will sympathize with them, nonetheless._–Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC_ <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. This searing stand-alone from bestseller Roberts (The Search) celebrates the smoke jumpers of Missoula, Mont., who routinely risk life and limb to beat down raging forest fires. As close knit as any military combat unit, the "Zulies" include veteran Rowan Tripp, haunted by the loss of Jim Brayner, her onetime jump partner who was killed the previous season in a fall, and rookie Gulliver Curry, who soon earns the nickname "Fast Feet" for his speed and prowess. Threatening trouble is cook Dolly Brakeman, Jim's girlfriend, who blames Rowan for his death—and whose new baby may well be Jim's. Rowan and Gull grow closer as the team battles fires from Montana and Idaho to California and Alaska. Meanwhile, the Zulies are plagued by vandalism and sabotage as well as a killer with arson among his crimes. Roberts fans can expect another bestseller. (Apr.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>The number-one <em>New York Times</em>-bestselling author delves into the world of elite firefighters who thrive on danger and adrenaline-men and women who wouldn't know how to live life if it wasn't on the edge. </strong>   </p><p>There's little as thrilling as firefighting-at least to Rowan Tripp. The Missoula smoke jumpers are in Rowan's blood: her father is a legend. She's been fighting fires since her eighteenth birthday. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home-even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering.   </p><p>Fortunately, this year's rookie crop is one of the strongest ever-and Gulliver Curry's one of the best. He's also a walking contradiction, a hotshot firefighter with a big vocabulary and a winter job at a kids' arcade.   </p><p>Everything is thrown off balance when a dark presence lashes out against Rowan, looking to blame someone for last year's tragedy. Rowan knows she can't complicate things with Gull-any distractions in the air or on the ground could mean the end-but if she doesn't find someone she can lean on, she may not make it through the summer. . . . </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>'Scarrow builds up a fascinating picture of a world at war and sets the stage for the looming confrontation between these two military giants -- an enthralling sequel' -- Good Reading, Australia 'One of the great duels in history, between two of its most fascinating characters. Simon Scarrow brings Wellington and Napoleon to life with a vengeance.' -- Paul Strathern, author of NAPOLEON IN EGYPT </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The second in this epic quartet of novels focusing on two giants of European history, Wellington and Napoleon It's 1796 as THE GENERALS opens, and both Arthur Wellesly (later Wellington) and Napoleon Bonaparte are making their mark as men of military genius. Wellesley, as commander of the 33rd Regiment of Foot, is sent to India, where his skill and bravery make a remarkable impression on his superiors. Napoleon's role as commander of the Army of Italy leads to success in battle and rapid political progress. By 1804, Napoleon has established himself as Emperor, and has his sights set on conquering all of Europe. The time has come for Wellesly to stand against Napoleon in the confrontation that lies ahead. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Red-hot real estate agent Darby Farr has spent years trying to forget her hometown of Hurricane Harbor, Maine—especially the painful memories of being raised by her controlling aunt following her parents' tragic deaths. Then one morning, she learns her aunt is dying, and the calculating woman has one final demand: clinch the multimillion-dollar sale of Fairview, a breathtaking waterfront estate.</p><p>The deal seems simple, but trouble is brewing on the rocky coast. Within hours of Darby's arrival, an obscure deed restriction scuttles the sale just as the backup buyer is found bludgeoned to death on the property's grounds. Assisted by handsome journalist Miles Porter, Darby uncovers dark secrets that reveal an ugly scandal . . . and even uglier motives for murder. As a brutal storm surges up the coast, Darby must salvage the deal, find the killer—and somehow stay alive.</p><p>"[Doudera] expertly weaves a tale of suspense on a Maine island, where murder and real estate are an explosive combination."-Tess Gerritsen, <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of <em>The Mephisto Club</em></p><p>"Here's a fast-paced and well-told story with a smart, savvy real estate agent as the heroine, solving crimes while making sales. Bring on the next one!"-Barbara Corcoran, real estate contributor for NBC's <em>Today Show</em> and author of <em>Nextville: Amazing Places to Live the Rest of Your Life</em> </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>Vicki Doudera </strong>is a million-dollar broker with a busy coastal firm handling luxury real estate. She is the author three nonfiction books on real estate relocation, and the Darby Farr Mystery Series—_A House to Die For_, which was selected to the Best of 2010 list in <em>Suspense Magazine</em>, and <em>Killer Listing</em>. Her articles have appeared in many magazines including <em>Parenting</em>, <em>Reader's Digest</em>, <em>Yankee </em>and <em>Down East.</em>  </p><p>Doudera has been profiled on NBC affiliate WCSH-TV's "207," and her writing has been favorably reviewed in prominent mystery and book industry magazines, as well as in the <em>Bangor Daily News</em>, <em>Times Record</em>,_ Kennebec Journal_, <em>Lincoln County News</em> and <em>Midcoast Beacon</em>. She belongs to Mystery Writers of America (MWA), and is on the board of Sisters in Crime, New England.   </p><p>Doudera lives in her own "house to die for" with her family in Camden, Maine, where she enjoys hiking, cycling and knitting—although not at the same time. She is a member of the National Association of Realtors, was Realtor of the Year in 2009, and serves as president of her local Habitat for Humanity chapter, a charity she supports through sales of her mysteries.<br /> <em></em>  </p><p><em></em>__</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Set in twelfth-century England, this epic of kings and peasants juxtaposes the building of a magnificent church with the violence and treachery that often characterized the Middle Ages. Reissue.</p>


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<div><div><p>Through her research on twins and the genetic components of aggression, scientist Jeannie Ferrami makes a startling discovery. Using a restricted FBI database, she finds two young men who appear to be identical twins: Steve, a law student, and Dennis: a convicted murderer. Yet they were born on different days, to different mothers, in hospitals hundreds of miles apart.<br><br>As Ferrami delves into their backgrounds, she unwittingly locks horns with some of the most powerful forces in America, including the university where she works, The New York Times, even the Pentagon. <br><br>What secret has Ferrami uncovered? Can she trust her boss and mentor, or must she put her life in the hands of Steve Logan, the twin she finds herself falling in love with--even though he's surrounded by intrigue and suspicion? But one thing is certain: There are those who will stop at nothing to keep their chilling conspiracy in the shadows. . . .<br><br><i>From the Paperback edition.</i>

</p><p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Through her research on twins and the genetic components of aggression, scientist Jeannie Ferrami makes a startling discovery. Using a restricted FBI database, she finds two young men who appear to be identical twins: Steve, a law student, and Dennis: a convicted murderer. Yet they were born on different days, to different mothers, in hospitals hundreds of miles apart.As Ferrami delves into their backgrounds, she unwittingly locks horns with some of the most powerful forces in America, including the university where she works, The New York Times, even the Pentagon. What secret has Ferrami uncovered? Can she trust her boss and mentor, or must she put her life in the hands of Steve Logan, the twin she finds herself falling in love with--even though he's surrounded by intrigue and suspicion? But one thing is certain: There are those who will stop at nothing to keep their chilling conspiracy in the shadows. . . .</p></div>
<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Identical twins have been the storyteller's friend since Roman times. Master-scribbler Ken Follett does the arrangement one better in his latest yarn, <em>The Third Twin</em>. The heroine, Jeannie Ferrami, is a young professor at Jones Falls University (JFU)(think Johns Hopkins) who is investigating the balance of nature versus nurture in criminality. Driven by a secret from her past, Dr. Ferrami is overjoyed to find that a straight-arrow law student at JFU has an identical twin (raised separately) who is a convicted rapist. She is not overjoyed, however, when that man is arrested for raping her best friend. Surely Mr. Perfect couldn't be guilty--enter the evil masterminds, three Nixon-era compadres who have been toiling for decades to make America safe for racial purity. It's bad enough that one of the conspirators is Dr. Ferrami's boss, but another is eyeing the Oval Office. The young professor has stumbled onto a secret that could ruin them all, and it's only a matter of pages before bad things start to happen to the pair. The shortest distance between two points is a Follett plot. Look elsewhere for subtlety; entertainment, we got. </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>After three consecutive historical sagas (A Dangerous Fortune, etc.), Follett returns to the threshold of the 21st century with a provocative, well-paced and sensational biotech-thriller about the genetic manipulation of human embryos. Striving to prove that offspring genetically predisposed toward aggression can learn to sublimate their combative nature through childhood conditioning by socially responsible parents, a feisty and brilliant young university researcher, Jeannie Ferrami, develops software to identify identical twins who have been reared apart. When she stumbles across what seems to be an impossibility?identical twins born to different mothers at separate locations on different dates, Jeannie runs into serious trouble. Pitted against her is, foremost, her own faculty mentor, Berrington Jones, a world-renowned authority on biotechnical engineering. In devious partnership with another scientist and a bigoted U.S. senator with presidential aspirations, Jones is co-founder of Genetico, a small company that pioneered biogenetic research. The trio is now in the final stages of a lucrative friendly buyout by a corporate giant?and they don't take kindly to Jeannie's diggings. Multiples created by genetic manipulation aren't new to thrillers (e.g., Ira Levin's The Boys from Brazil), but Follett puts a clever spin on the concept. And despite entwining outlandish plot strands of biotechnical skullduggery, a neo-Nazi candidate for president, academic politics and corporate greed with a steamy romance between Jeannie and one of the twins, the novel shines with the authenticity that's Follett's trademark as it explores the Internet and the mind-boggling data banks of personal statistics maintained by insurance empires, the Pentagon and the FBI. This isn't Follett's most sophisticated novel?it's heavy on the melodrama and on sexual violence?but its wicked narrative energy and catchy theme will likely propel it quickly onto the charts. Major ad/promo; simultaneous Random House audio and large-print editions; author satellite tour; <br>Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>A fabulous "lost masterpiece" becomes the ultimate prize for an art historian whose ambition consumes everyone around her, an angry young painter with a plan for revenge on the art establishment, and a desperate gallery owner who may have double-crossed his own life away... </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Ken Follett is the author of numerous international bestsellers, including Jackdaws, Hornet Flight, Code to Zero, Triple, Eye of the Needle, Pillars of the Earth, and A Dangerous Fortune. He lives in England.</p><p>Michael York is Principal Lecturer, Sophia Centre for the Study of Cultural Astronomy and Astrology, and Director of the Bath Archive for Contemporary Religious Affairs, Bath Spa University College, UK.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>A PLACE CALLED FREEDOM begins in the infernal coal mines of the Jamisson family, in the Scottish highlands, where twenty-one-year-old Mack McAsh spends most of his waking hours. Bound to his employer for life, Mack burns with an insatiable desire to escape. He finds an unlikely ally in Lizzie Hallim, the beautiful, willful young aristocratic woman who yearns for independence in a male-dominated society. Mack's hunger for freedom brings him into conflict again and again with the harsh rulers of eighteenth-century Britain. Accused of riot--a capital crime--Mack becomes one of the thousands of convicts who are shipped to the American colonies, to work as slaves for seven long years. With its vivid, fascinating portrayal of the colorful streets of London and the endless landscapes of the New World, plus an unforgettable cast of heroes and villains, lovers, and rebels, hypocrites, hell-raisers, and whores, A PLACE CALLED FREEDOM is a magnificent epic of love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.</p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Dave Itzkoff on <em>Cocaine's Son</em></strong></p><p>Whatever the circumstances of our childhoods, we all grow up to become adults with questions about our parents and how they shaped the trajectories of our lives. What lessons were our mothers and fathers trying to impart to us? What pitfalls did they want us to avoid, and what mistakes of theirs did we end up repeating anyway? And how might we treat our parents differently if we were given a second chance with them?</p><p>These are all questions I confronted when I wrote about my relationship with my father, except that we were dealt a further challenge: for the first 25 years of my life, beginning in the 1970s, my father was addicted to cocaine. He was outwardly a successful man with a wife, two children, and a thriving business, but he struggled privately–-and sometimes not-so-privately-–with his drug habit, attempting everything from psychotherapy to voluntary institutionalization to cold-turkey purges to kick his addiction. When he finally got clean, I was an almost full-grown man, desperate to know who my father had been in the time I had missed, and as fascinated to discover who he had since become as he was to learn the same about me.</p><p><em>Cocaine’s Son</em> is as much my story as it is my father’s: my chronicle of growing up enthralled by a man I could not fully understand, of our sometimes painful efforts, after his drug problem was conquered, to remain in each other’s lives, and the unexpected twists and turns that invariably led us back to each other. Whether or not your life has been touched by addiction issues, I hope this is a story with something to say about your own experience as someone’s child or parent.</p><hr><h3>From</h3><p>Itzkoff’s distress and embarrassment at his father’s behavior are tangible in this unflinching portrait of a troubled childhood. While the critics generally enjoyed this new addition to the genre, a few flaws hampered that enjoyment. Some thought that Itzkoff’s story, with its rosy, upper-middle-class veneer, lacks the edge of similar memoirs, while others raised objections to Itzkoff’s singular focus on his father, whose larger-than-life personality eclipses the other characters—including Itzkoff himself. He spends a considerable amount of time analyzing his father’s actions in an attempt to understand them, and these frequent ruminations, according to <em>Entertainment Weekly</em>, can be intrusive and redundant. When a fellow journalist publishes a book, the critics often take it easy on him or her. That the reviews were not glowing means there’s less here than meets the eye. </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Book Description:</strong> Long Beach, California, homicide detective Danny Beckett is pouring the weekend’s first shot of vodka when the call comes in: Elizabeth Williams, a teacher at nearby Warren High School, has been brutally murdered in her classroom. When Danny arrives at the school, the blood-spattered crime scene turns even his veteran stomach. What could this young woman have done to make her the target of such a violent attack? And what is the significance of the victim’s left hand, taken by the killer as a grisly trophy? Beckett delves into the case with his usual tenacious cool, yet as he pieces together the facts, long-suppressed anguish from his own past rises up with stunning force. His hunt for the murderer soon morphs into a personal quest for atonement as he struggles to come to terms with the loss of his wife and family. <em>A King of Infinite Space</em> is a riveting crime novel that serves as a memorable introduction for Danny Beckett to the ranks of fiction’s favorite hardened detectives.</p><hr><p><strong>Amazon Exclusive: Tyler Dilts on <em>A King of Infinite Space</em></strong>   </p><p>When I began writing <em>A King of Infinite Space</em>, I was in graduate school earning an MFA in fiction writing. As is the case in many such programs, there was a good deal of autobiographical introspection in the writing going on around me, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to do something different. One of the primary reasons I’ve always loved reading is that it takes me away from myself and allows me to experience the lives of other people. What, I asked myself, could I credibly write about that was very different from my own experience?</p><p>My father was a Los Angeles deputy sheriff, and throughout most of my youth, I wanted to be a police officer. Although my career goals changed, I was left with a considerable amount of background knowledge that I felt I could put to good use. And it didn’t hurt that my favorite writers included the likes of </p><p>As the writing and rewriting progressed, I felt a reassuring sense of distance from Danny, a sort of critical perspective that thought allowed me to shape and hone the character with a studied and intellectual reserve that seemed properly authorial and intellectual.</p><p>So it came as quite a surprise when the novel was finished and my friends and family began to read it. Danny sounds just like you, they said. I refused to accept this, so I interrogated them. One by one they pointed out details and ideas and jokes and phrases that they’d heard me express, usually more than once. And a few of those closest to me commented on the similarity of our voices and perspectives. Eventually, I had to admit it. They were right.</p><p>It was only recently, though, when I had the occasion to look through and old family photo album and saw a picture of myself at four years old, around the time of my father’s death. In it I wore a clip-on tie, a makeshift shoulder holster complete with cap gun, and an expression befitting the most serious of detectives. It was me I was looking at, but I couldn’t help thinking it might just as well have been Danny Beckett._--Tyler Dilts_</p><hr><h3>From</h3><p>We meet Detective Danny Beckett mixing himself another screwdriver, but it’s a bit of a feint—though he occasionally indulges, Danny is a remarkably sober protagonist. In fact, it’s this quality of quiet practicality that helps him solve a grisly crime: a young schoolteacher, hacked to death in her own classroom and robbed of her left hand. “The vic,” as the task force calls her, had no real enemies, and this allows Dilts—a talented and understated new crime writer—to flex his slow-burn, first-person narrative. Danny and his partner, Jen, turn up a surprising number of credible suspects (including a Russian mobster, an abusive father, and an Internet date), but even when characters turn out to be red herrings, Dilts plumbs them for all they’re worth in terms of fleshing out the psyches of Danny and Jen—who is, by the way, another arresting character, a dutiful martial-arts enthusiast who betrays just a flicker of attraction for her partner. This is tense, intelligent, and observant writing; here’s hoping Dilts doesn’t leave this duo hanging. --Daniel Kraus </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In this groundbreaking book, the result of seven years of research in every science connected with the impact of nutrition on health, award-winning science writer Gary Taubes shows us that almost everything we believe about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong.For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates better, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) and sugars–via their dramatic and longterm effects on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation–and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the number. There are good calories, and bad ones.Good CaloriesThese are from foods without easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. These foods can be eaten without restraint.Meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, butter, and non-starchy vegetables. Bad CaloriesThese are from foods that stimulate excessive insulin secretion and so make us fat and increase our risk of chronic disease—all refined and easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. The key is not how much vitamins and minerals they contain, but how quickly they are digested. (So apple juice or even green vegetable juices are not necessarily any healthier than soda.) Bread and other baked goods, potatoes, yams, rice, pasta, cereal grains, corn, sugar (sucrose and high fructose corn syrup), ice cream, candy, soft drinks, fruit juices, bananas and other tropical fruits, and beer. Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then –wrongly–were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be. With precise references to the most significant existing clinical studies, he convinces us that there is no compelling scientific evidence demonstrating that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease, that salt causes high blood pressure, and that fiber is a necessary part of a healthy diet. Based on the evidence that does exist, he leads us to conclude that the only healthy way to lose weight and remain lean is to eat fewer carbohydrates or to change the type of the carbohydrates we do eat, and, for some of us, perhaps to eat virtually none at all.The 11 Critical Conclusions of Good Calories, Bad Calories: 1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease. 2. Carbohydrates do, because of their effect on the hormone insulin. The more easily-digestible and refined the carbohydrates and the more fructose they contain, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being. 3. Sugars—sucrose (table sugar) and high fructose corn syrup specifically—are particularly harmful. The glucose in these sugars raises insulin levels; the fructose they contain overloads the liver.4. Refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are also the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, and the other common chronic diseases of modern times. 5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating and not sedentary behavior. 6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter any more than it causes a child to grow taller. 7. Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry. 8. We get fat because of an imbalance—a disequilibrium—in the hormonal regulation of fat tissue and fat metabolism. More fat is stored in the fat tissue than is mobilized and used for fuel. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this imbalance. 9. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated, we stockpile calories as fat. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and burn it for fuel. 10. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.11. The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be. Good Calories, Bad Calories is a tour de force of scientific investigation–certain to redefine the ongoing debate about the foods we eat and their effects on our health.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> In a single day in 2004, Danticat (_Breath, Eyes, Memory_; <em>The Farming of Bones</em>) learns that she's pregnant and that her father, André, is dying—a stirring constellation of events that frames this Haitian immigrant family's story, rife with premature departures and painful silences. When Danticat was two, André left Haiti for the U.S., and her mother followed when Danticat was four. The author and her brother could not join their parents for eight years, during which André's brother Joseph raised them. When Danticat was nine, Joseph—a pastor and gifted orator—lost his voice to throat cancer, making their eventual separation that much harder, as he wouldn't be able to talk with the children on the phone. Both André and Joseph maintained a certain emotional distance through these transitions. Danticat writes of a Haitian adage, Â 'When you bathe other people's children, you should wash one side and leave the other side dirty.' I suppose this saying cautions those who care for other people's children not to give over their whole hearts. In the end, as Danticat prepares to lose her ailing father and give birth to her daughter, Joseph is threatened by a volatile sociopolitical clash and forced to flee Haiti. He's then detained by U.S. Customs and neglected for days. He unexpectedly dies a prisoner while loved ones await news of his release. Poignant and never sentimental, this elegant memoir recalls how a family adapted and reorganized itself over and over, enduring and succeeding to remain kindred in spite of living apart. <em>(Sept.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Edwidge Danticat's father and uncle chose very different paths: the former struggled to make a new life for himself in America, while the latter remained in the homeland he paradoxically loved. In following their lives and their impact on future generations, Danticat's powerful family memoir explores how the private and the political, the past and the present, intersect. The most poignant section focuses on Joseph's tragic trip to the United States at age 81, but Danticat also tells a wider story about family and exile, the Haitian diaspora, the Duvalier regime, and post-9/11 immigration policy. Emotionally resonant and exceptionally clear-eyed, <em>Brother, I'm Dying </em>offers insight into a talented writer, her family history, and the injustices of the modern world.</p><p><em>Copyright © 2004 Phillips &amp; Nelson Media, Inc.</em></p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Ellis, the American. Jean-Pierre, the Frenchman. They were two men on opposite sides of the cold war, with a woman torn between them. Together, they formed a triangle of passion and deception, racing from terrorist bombs in Paris to the violence and intrigue of Afghanistan - to the moment of truth and deadly decision for all of them... "A deadly romantic triangle, a clandestine mission with global stakes, an exotic location, a plot as gripping and ingenious as Eye of the Needle ... engineered to perfection with breathless acceleration. I couldn't put it down!" - Los Angeles Times "Masterful... plot and counterplot, treachery, cunning and killing ... keep you on edge every moment" - Associated Press</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The opulent interior of the first airliner, the Pan American Clipper, on a transatlantic flight from Southampton, England, to New York in war-darkened 1939, is the setting for Follett's high-flying caper, guaranteed to hold the reader in his seat. Recalling a time when air travel was an exotic adventure, master of epic suspense Follett ( Pillars of the Earth ) spins an excruciatingly taut drama on the aerial equivalent of the Orient Express. Persons unknown kidnap the wife of Clipper engineer Eddie Deakin from their home in Maine in order to force Deakin to maneuver an emergency landing in the choppy waters off Bangor. Apparently the shadowy conspirators plan to remove one of the passengers, an intriguing group who include an FBI agent transporting an extradited mafioso; a Russian princess; a British industrialist chasing his wife and her lover; an American movie star; an Oswald Mosely-like aristocrat turned fascist, his daughter and her lover, a young jewel thief. Details of early aviation firmly establish the cast in their era and a tantalizing mosaic of subplots whisks the reader through a whirlwind of romance and intrigue. Follet soars to a thoroughly satisfying ending with aeronautical precision. This is his best since The Eye of the Needle. Author tour. <br>Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Kirkus Reviews</h3><p>With the Dark Ages (The Pillars of the Earth, 1989) out of his system, Ken Follett returns to the spies, sex, and Nazis that did so well for him in Eye of the Needle. Fascinated by the huge flying boats launched by Pan Am in the late 1930's to fly the north Atlantic route, Follett has cooked up a sort of Airship of Fools or Flying Grand Hotel about a Clipper load of rich folks and lowlifes fleeing England after the declaration of war. The passengers include a fascist marquess and his family--so much like the Mitfords as to include a Nazi daughter and her socialist sister; a cuckolded industrialist chasing his pretty wife; an aging movie star; a Jewish refugee physicist; a suspected mafioso; a rich, powerful, but unloved American widow; the widow's weak, treacherous brother; and the handsome young jewel-thief without whom no such epic is complete. The danger that hangs over all these worthies is sabotage of the flight plan by an otherwise trustworthy flight engineer whose wife is being held captive in Maine by nameless rotten scoundrels. The merciless kidnappers want the plane set down early in order to remove a nameless someone before it reaches New York. Since the plane flies rather slowly and since there are three refueling stops, and since the beds make up into comfortable little berths, there is plenty of time for the passengers to search for the marchioness's priceless rubies, counterplot against the bad guys, stretch the legs in Irish pubs, quarrel, have reconciliations and indulge in a fair amount of good, healthy sex. No technothrills. No psychodrama. No fine writing. Hours of good storytelling. (Book-of-the-Month Split Main Selection for November) -- <em>Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.</em></p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Barclay (_Bad Guys_) tugs hard on the heartstrings with the tragic tale of Cynthia Bigge, whose parents and brother vanished without a trace the day after she had a tempestuous teenage argument with her father. Twenty-five years later, raising a daughter with her husband, Terrence Archer, in Milford, Conn., but still haunted by her family's disappearance, Cynthia goes on TV to talk about what happened and plead for clues. A mysterious phone call leads her to believe her father, at least, may still be alive, but as her excitement grows, so do Terrence's worries. It soon appears that someone is playing a unexpectedly vicious game with Cynthia's emotions, and that her family held secrets she never suspected. Though some plot twists require significant suspension of disbelief, skilled characterization and convincing dialogue more than compensate. <em>(Oct.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>After turning out four mystery novels featuring science-fiction author Zack Walker (the most recent is Stone Rain, 2007), Toronto Star columnist Barclay pens a stand-alone thriller that carries his signature blend of humor and suspense. Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge wakes up one morning to find her entire family gone. Twenty-five years later, their unexplained disappearance still haunts her. She agrees to appear on the reenactment show Deadline, hoping the TV exposure might provide her with some answers, although her husband, English teacher Terry Archer, is considerably more skeptical. Indeed, not long after the show airs, the two are shaken down by a psychic, receive a series of bizarre phone calls, and become the victims of a break-in, although nothing is taken; instead, something is left—a hat that Cynthia is convinced belonged to her father. As Cynthia's paranoia escalates, Terry's patience wears thin, and the two decide to hire a private detective. That's when the mayhem starts. Despite a few implausible plot turns, this fast-paced read is bound to please, offering an especially intriguing premise and plenty of irreverent humor. Wilkinson, Joanne </p>

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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">Science and technology have made our lives easier, cured diseases, with achievements that an earlier age would have considered impossible. But once in a while, the law of unintended consequences breaks loose. Christopher Anvil considers the two faces of technological innovation: Sometimes the result is a literal life-saver; but at other times a breakthrough may not break quite the way it was supposed to. </p>
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<p class="description">·         A new wonder drug has the unexpected side effect of making people happy. Not a problem—everybody should want to be happy, right? But should people be happy *all* of the time? Suppose being happy required you *never* to disappoint anyone, no matter what they’re requesting. . . . </p>
<p class="description">·         Then there was the energy source for every home that would free the country from its dependence on foreign oil—except that the prototype was rushed into production a bit too fast. </p>
<p class="description">·         Back on the bright side, another device not only couldn’t possibly work by every known law of science, but didn’t have any obvious uses. Then alien invaders landed and suddenly the crackpot device was the world’s only hope. </p>
<p class="description">  </p>
<p class="description">     The upside and downside of marvelous new gadgets, as told by a master of science fiction adventure with a prescription for fun.</p></div>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>A brilliant madman dedicated to anarchy has dark plans for the U.S. In twenty-four hours, America will be plunged into chaos—the result of an unthinkable assassination to be carried out flawlessly—and the government has no inkling of the catastrophe that is about to occur. </p><p>Only one man can prevent the nightmare: disgraced rogue CTU operative Jack Bauer. But Bauer's been cut loose, is wanted for murder, and is running from the police, who have orders to shoot to kill. And there's no one he can turn to for help—because a high-level traitor in CTU wants Jack Bauer dead. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>John Whitman is the author of numerous books and projects, including the "Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear" series, <em>Zorro and the Witch's Curse</em>, and, most recently, the trading cards for "24 Day 3." He is a 4th-degree black belt and defensive tactics instructor in Krav Maga, the official hand-to-hand combat system of the Israeli military, has trained in protective services and defensive tactics in both the United States and in Israel, and has served as an instructor of U.S. law enforcement agencies and military anti-terrorist units. </p></div>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>The Sermon on the Mount</em>--now passing its 65th birthday--remains a vital and provocative introduction to the ideas at the heart of Christian Science. At heart it means to be entirely practical, as the "Science" of the name would indicate. Denying any interest in theology (there is no theology in the Bible, Fox argues), the author instead suggests that what Jesus was after was results: "Jesus explains to us what the nature of God is, and what our own nature is; tells us the meaning of life and of death; shows us why we make mistakes; why we yield to temptation; why we become sick, and impoverished, and old; and, most important of all, he tells us how all these evils may be overcome, and how we may bring health, happiness, and true prosperity into our lives."</p><p>And the Spiritual Key? Fox puts it quite simply: "The Truth turns out to be nothing less than the amazing but undeniable fact that the whole outer world--whether it be the physical body, the common things of life, the winds and the rain, the clouds, the earth itself--is amenable to man's thought, and that he has dominion over it when he knows it." <em>--Doug Thorpe</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>“Emmet Fox was one of the world’s greatest metaphysical teachers. His works have contributed profoundly to the spiritual understanding of millions of people, including myself.” (Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love )  </p><p>“A practical handbook of spiritual development . . . [Fox] gives his readers a profound outlook upon life and an absolutely fresh scale of values.” (New York Times Book Review )  </p><p>Emmet Fox has been a major spiritual inspiration in my life and a significant intellectual force behind all my work. (Steve Chandler, author of The Story of You ) </p>


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Here is the astonishing true story of Ruth Harkness, the Manhattan bohemian socialite who, against all but impossible odds, trekked to Tibet in 1936 to capture the most mysterious animal of the day: a bear that had for countless centuries lived in secret in the labyrinth of lonely cold mountains. In The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke gives us the remarkable account of Ruth Harkness and her extraordinary journey, and restores Harkness to her rightful place along with Sacajawea, Nellie Bly, and Amelia Earhart as one of the great woman adventurers of all time.Ruth was the toast of 1930s New York, a dress designer newly married to a wealthy adventurer, Bill Harkness. Just weeks after their wedding, however, Bill decamped for China in hopes of becoming the first Westerner to capture a giant panda–an expedition on which many had embarked and failed miserably. Bill was also to fail in his quest, dying horribly alone in China and leaving his widow heartbroken and adrift. And so Ruth made the fateful decision to adopt her husband’s dream as her own and set off on the adventure of a lifetime.It was not easy. Indeed, everything was against Ruth Harkness. In decadent Shanghai, the exclusive fraternity of white male explorers patronized her, scorned her, and joked about her softness, her lack of experience and money. But Ruth ignored them, organizing, outfitting, and leading a bare-bones campaign into the majestic but treacherous hinterlands where China borders Tibet. As her partner she chose Quentin Young, a twenty-two-year-old Chinese explorer as unconventional as she was, who would join her in a romance as torrid as it was taboo.Traveling across some of the toughest terrain in the world–nearly impenetrable bamboo forests, slick and perilous mountain slopes, and boulder-strewn passages–the team raced against a traitorous rival, and was constantly threatened by hordes of bandits and hostile natives. The voyage took months to complete and cost Ruth everything she had. But when, almost miraculously, she returned from her journey with a baby panda named Su Lin in her arms, the story became an international sensation and made the front pages of newspapers around the world. No animal in history had gotten such attention. And Ruth Harkness became a hero. Drawing extensively on American and Chinese sources, including diaries, scores of interviews, and previously unseen intimate letters from Ruth Harkness, Vicki Constantine Croke has fashioned a captivating and richly textured narrative about a woman ahead of her time. Part Myrna Loy, part Jane Goodall, by turns wisecracking and poetic, practical and spiritual, Ruth Harkness is a trailblazing figure. And her story makes for an unforgettable, deeply moving adventure.From the Hardcover edition.


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Baking bread is mysterious enough. But creating truly great pizza--the transformation of next to nothing into something extraordinary--is downright alchemical. It is for no small reason that there are distinct words in Italian for those disciples of these mystic arts who bake pizza and focaccia, <em>pizzaiolo</em> and <em>focacciaiolo</em>. Peter Reinhart, he who gave us <strong> and the multi-award winning </strong>, takes the reader of <em>American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza</em> right into the heart of the matter.</p><p>Reinhart begins his inquiry into pizza with his baseline palate memory for what a great pizza should be. As a teenager he had worked in a pizzeria, Mama's, and instinctively knew this pie to be the best. Returning as an adult years later, he discovered otherwise. Had he changed, or had the pizza changed? Both, it happened, were true.</p><p>So what is the nature of perfection, and where do you go to find it? In the case of Peter Reinhart, this journey includes travels through Italy and across the US. This is Part One of the book, called The Hunt. It's not the most enlivening travel writing, which would have helped elevate the insights into the nature of great pizza and the people who make it happen. But it's only a third of the entire package. The best is yet to come. In Part Two: The Recipes, Reinhart comes entirely into his own. Here is the master at work. Chapters include "The Family of Doughs", "Sauces and Specialty Toppings," and "The Pizzas." Reinhart gives you the building blocks, no matter what your kitchen, tools, and oven might be like. And then he unfolds the roadmap--pizzas from the strictly classical to the strictly whimsical. </p><p>Work diligently with <em>American Pie</em> and in time you will be able to call yourself, without hesitation or rising color, <em>pizzaiolo</em> and <em>focacciaiolo</em>. <em>--Schuyler Ingle</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>On the subject of pizza, there is never a shortage of opinions. Allegiances run from the general (Chicago versus New York style, Neapolitan versus Roman) to the particular (Pepe[HTML_REMOVED]s versus Sally[HTML_REMOVED]s, Gino[HTML_REMOVED]s East versus Pizzeria Uno), and new interpretations ever extend the pizza frontier.In AMERICAN PIE, master bread baker Peter Reinhart follows the trail from Italy to the States, capturing the stories behind the greatest artisanal pizzas of the Old World and the New. Beginning his journey in Genoa, Reinhart scours the countryside in search of the fabled focaccia col formaggio. He next heads to Rome to sample the famed seven-foot-long pizza al taglio, and then to Naples for the archetypal pizza napoletana. Back in America, the hunt resumes in the unlikely locale of Phoenix, Arizona, where Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco has convinced many that his pie sets the new standard in the country. The pizza mecca of New Haven, grilled pizza in Providence, the deep-dish pies of Chicago, California-style pizza in San Francisco and Los Angeles—these are just a few of the tasty attractions on Reinhart[HTML_REMOVED]s epic tour. Returning to the kitchen, Reinhart gives a master class on pizza-making techniques and provides more than 60 recipes for doughs, sauces and toppings, and the pizzas that bring them all together. His insatiable curiosity and gift for storytelling make AMERICAN PIE essential reading for those who aspire to make great pizza at home, as well as for anyone who enjoys the thrill of the hunt.   <em> A fascinating look into the great pizzas and pizzerias of Italy and America.</em> Peter Reinhart[HTML_REMOVED]s last book, THE BREAD BAKER[HTML_REMOVED]S APPRENTICE, was named Cookbook of the Year by both the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.   </p><p>Reviews“Peter Reinhart has taken a deep look into pizza, one of the best and simplest of foods, embracing all its variety. He probes American pizza especially, but he has tasted the original in Naples and visited elsewhere in Italy to learn about variations and relatives. He tells vivid stories, and his recipes and techniques are thorough and practical. A splendid book.”—Edward Behr, editor, The Art of Eating“I doubt whether anyone else could be as passionate as Peter Reinhart about pizzas or have made such extensive and exciting journeys in pursuing them. He has collected great anecdotes and wonderfully detailed recipes in the course of his intercontinental hunt.”—Alan Davidson, author of The Oxford Companion to Food“We all know that Peter Reinhart is a great baker and teacher, but now that he[HTML_REMOVED]s fallen in love with pizza, we can see he[HTML_REMOVED]s also a great tour guide as he takes us to the best pizzerias in Italy and America. Secrets are divulged, expert tips provided, and stories told. Much more than a collection of recipes, this is a book that is as fun to read as it is to bake from.”—Carol Field, author of The Italian Baker</p>


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This story of a young woman's confrontation with death and her past is a poetic study of human relations.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>At the start of this gut-wrenching stand-alone from bestseller Scottoline (Think Twice), an explosion rips through the nearly empty cafeteria of Reesburgh (Pa.) Elementary School. Lunch mother Rose McKenna leads two girls to safety before racing to rescue her own daughter, Melly, but Rose soon learns that she may face both civil and criminal charges for her heroics because one of the girls she saved was seriously injured in the resulting fire that killed three school staff members. The tension rises as the united front presented by Rose and her lawyer husband, Leo Ingrassia, begins to disintegrate in the face of media demands, legal maneuverings, and social pressures. Rose must also deal with school bullying (Melly has a noticeable facial blemish), difficult legal problems, and her husband's reaction when a secret from her past is revealed. Scottoline melds it all into a satisfying nail-biting thriller sure to please her growing audience. 400,000 first printing; author tour. (Apr.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Suburban mom [Rose McKenna] is forced to make a split-second decision after an explosion goes off in the school cafeteria in which she volunteers. Should she rescue her own daughter, Melly, trapped in the bathroom, or lead the girls standing in front of her, who constantly bully her daughter, to safety? Her choice reverberates throughout the little town of Reesburgh, Pennsylvania, as she is cast as the villain by the local news anchor, parents, and the school. While her attorney and husband construct a defense plan that includes filing a lawsuit against the school, [Rose] sets out to seek the truth behind this mysterious, accidental fire. With the help of a construction worker who may know the cause of the explosion as well as an incognito visit to a local factory, [Rose] slowly unravels the truth and along with it some hidden secrets in Reesburgh's dark past, including one horrifying buried memory of her own. At the quick pace of a thriller, Scottoline masterfully fits every detail into a tight plot chock-full of real characters, real issues, and real thrills. A story anchored by the impenetrable power of a mother's love, it begs the question, just how far would you go to save your child? --Annie McCormick </p>


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Chipping away at her resistance, one touch at a time...Fallon Frost's late foster mother had done so much to heal the wounds of her damaged childhood. So when a lecherous developer plans to bulldoze her old home to make room for a strip mall, the practical, ordered life Fallon has built for herself is threatened.Then he makes a twisted proposal. He'll leave the land alone if she poses nude for a sculpture that'll end up in his collection. Seeing no other choice, she heads for Nova Scotia--only to find something totally unexpected. A sexy, hot-blooded, infuriating sculptor.Guarded, sexually detached Fallon is a challenge Max Emery can't wait to tackle. Yet with each tap of his chisel, he uncovers a woman who rekindles a dream he thought lost. Home, family...love. And the closer he gets to her core, the harder it becomes to accept that he's carving her naked body for another man's eyes.As progress on the sculpture almost grinds to a halt, their fragile fantasy world collapses under the weight of reality. Threatening Fallon's one chance to save her foster mother's land...and any chance she and Max have to find love.


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<h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Grade 7 Up—This stand-alone sequel to <em>The Princess and the Hound</em> (HarperCollins, 2007) examines and critiques humanity by contrasting animals and people. Here, in what the author calls a parallel novel, the legend of King Richon is told. Because of his cruelty to those with magic, he was transformed into a bear 200 years earlier. The hound Chala, from the previous volume, gradually becomes his constant companion. Meanwhile, "unmagic" is spreading, and they must travel back in time in order to save the kingdom. King Richon, who returns to his human form, aims to make amends for his tyrannical rule. Chala, choosing to give up her hound state, must reconcile herself to her human limitations as she wonders if she sacrificed too much. Their mutual respect and deep friendship subtly and convincingly grow into love while they explore their magical shape-shifting powers and restore peace to the kingdom. Told in third person, the chapters alternate between the points of view of the bear and the hound. The plot pacing is even and taught. Deep exploration of the main characters' flaws and values blends smoothly with an exploration of good versus evil. Some well-drawn descriptions of bloody battles between animals and humans may be too intense for some readers, but the love story is as compelling as the characters are strong and complex. The message of ecological responsibility is slightly heavy-handed but readers will find the relationship between independent Chala and pensive Richon appealing.—_Amy J. Chow, The Brearley School, New York City_ END </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“The relationships between animal and human, and the magic in being both, are exquisitely delineated, and the love story between the two strong protagonists is all the more powerful for being intensely restrained....absorbing.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ) </p>


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A fresh, exciting epic fantasy debut, the first of The Vault of Heaven, a six-book series set on a fascinating world where evil creatures long kept at bay have suddenly begun to wreak havoc, and a young man must contend with the godling that commands the monsters. 


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>The central character in Sebastian Barry's novel <em>Annie Dunne</em> is a woman who has been pushed to the margins, a woman whom life has given few chances of happiness and fulfillment. Unmarried, she spends years as housekeeper for her brother-in-law because her sister is too ill to manage. Her sister dies, her brother-in-law remarries, and Annie Dunne is homeless. Invited by her cousin Sarah, she moves to a small farm in a remote part of Wicklow. As the novel opens, the two cousins share their lives and the work on the farm. It is the late 1950s and rural Ireland is changing around them. Annie's nephew heads for London in search of work and leaves his young children with their great-aunt. Content with her life with Sarah, Annie also finds a new capacity for love in her feelings for the two children. Yet even the small pleasures that Annie finds in her life are threatened. An unlikely suitor pays court to Sarah, and Annie's love for the children opens her up to pain almost as much as to happiness. <em>Annie Dunne</em> is a novel in which few external dramas occur--there is an accident with a pony and trap, one of the children goes temporarily missing--but Barry evokes superbly the inner dramas of his characters. In a society where emotions are often severely repressed and expressed only obliquely, small incidents hint at larger feelings and Barry has written a story in which these are subtly and poignantly unfolded. <em>--Nick Rennison, Amazon.co.uk</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Irish playwright and novelist Barry's gift for image and metaphor (The Whereabouts of Aneas McNulty) are equaled here by his eye for descriptive detail. This moving story is narrated by the eponymous Annie Dunne, who, in her 60s, has come to live with her cousin Sarah on an impoverished farm in Kelsha, County Wicklow. Plain and poor, and afflicted with a humpback since a childhood attack of polio, Annie is grateful to Sarah for taking her in. She loves the farm and attacks the backbreaking daily chores with fierce ardor. But when a scheming handyman on a neighboring farm begins to court Sarah, Annie sees her livelihood threatened and fights back with the only weapons in her arsenal: bitterness and rage. Complicating the events of the summer spanned by the plot are the two young children left in Annie's care by her nephew, who's gone off to London. As Annie is terrified to admit, even to herself, the children have their own dark secret, too fearsome to contemplate. Veering between dread, anger and shame, Anne's thoughts are also a mixture of whimsical observations, na‹ve ideas and a poetic appreciation of the natural world. This compassionate portrait of a distraught woman mourning the years of promise and dreams that were "narrowed by the empty hand of possibility" is a masterful feat of characterization, all the more vivid against the backdrop of rural Ireland in the 1950s, undergoing changes that throw Annie's life into sharper focus. <br />Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. </p>


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"He's in the fight of his life for a love that defies the centuries. " The last thing Juliana MacKenzie remembers is sitting in a friend's kitchen. In Kansas City. In the twenty-first century. How did she wind up on a burning ship in the middle of the ocean-in the eighteenth century? If that wasn't enough to get her heart started, some dark corner of her memory responds to the ship's enigmatic captain. A man whose touch ignites her senses even as he stubbornly holds her at arm's length. It's almost too late when Morgan realizes his stowaway is not only female, but a woman from a life and a time he'd almost forgotten. Desire resurges like an undeniable tide-but he is not the man Juliana would remember. She has been unwittingly thrust into a dangerous world, and now she, too, is a target for the pirate who once enslaved him, who still hunts him across the seven seas. Kidnapped by Morgan's worst enemy, Juliana finds herself drawing on inner reserves she never knew she possessed. No way will she let anyone-not even the man she is growing to love-choose her path for her. And no way will she let him offer himself in trade for her freedom. Warning: This book contains hot pirates, a slightly confused modern day woman and an evil villain you'll love to hate.


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>“Heralds the arrival of a major new talent in the dark fiction field.”<br>—J. A. KONRATH  </p><p>“A terrific debut.”<br>—SIMON CLARK  </p><p>“A polished and well-focused novel of raw animal terror…A winner!”<br>—WILLIAM D. GAGLIANI  </p><p>“A combination of awe-inspiring setting and deeply personal terror, <em>Voracious</em> is irresistible.”<br>—RICHARD DANSKY </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>Hungry for a good read? <em>Voracious</em> is... “A GRIPPING, ATAVISTIC SUPERNATURAL THRILLER… sexy, sensuous, and terrifying” (BRAM STOKER AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN).</strong>  </p><p>Madeline Keye’s gift—to touch someone and see flashes of the past—has set her apart from family and friends. She finds sanctuary in the wilderness, until a backcountry hike in Glacier National Park turns into a hunt—with her as the prey. Because something that’s not human is out there. And it’s hungry. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The protagonist of Cave's pleasantly demented second novel, set in England, is living out a porno: door-to-door lotion salesman Bunny Munro spends his days seducing invariably attractive women, servicing both their sexual and moisturizing needs. His wife's suicide, though, threatens to derail Bunny's amorous adventures, as he can't shake the feeling that he might somehow be responsible. Another new obstacle is the need to look after his nine-year-old son, Bunny Jr. In an effort to escape the creepiness of the apartment he shared with his wife, Bunny takes his son on the road, teaching him the ropes of salesmanship. Meanwhile, a man in red face paint and plastic devil horns accosts women in northern England before a murderous turn sends him journeying south. Bunny's deterioration from swaggering Lothario to sputtering pity case suggests he is carrying around more guilt than he cares to admit, and his obsessive behavior, while a bit of a stretch, allows for an interesting portrait of modern family dynamics. Cave's bawdy humor, along with a gallows whimsy that will be familiar to fans of his music, elevate the novel from what might otherwise be a one-note adventure. <em>(Sept.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Put Cormac McCarthy, Franz Kafka, and Benny Hill together in a Brighton seaside guesthouse, and they might just come up with Bunny Munro. As it stands, though, this novel emerges emphatically as the work of one of the great cross-genre storytellers of our age; a compulsive read possessing all of Nick Cave’s trademark horror and humanity, often thinly disguised in a galloping, playful romp.” —Irvine Welsh  </p><p>"_The Death of Bunny Munro_, is a sexually explicit, hyperactive soap opera of a book that proves, once again, that his talents are wide-ranging. Cave is a darkly gifted storyteller . . . Cave's prose surprises throughout with flashes of grotesque beauty." —Don Waters, _San Francisco Chronicle  </p><p>_"As in song, Cave the novelist is unafraid to launch headlong into roaring caricature, but while the sex and death quotient is significant, the book also reveals surprising new weapons in his armoury, particularly the tenderness and humanity with which he portrays Bunny Junior, a beacon of love and faith in a ruined world . . . Told with verve, studded with scalding humour." —Graeme Thomson, <em>The</em> <em>Observer</em></p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>With insight and candor, Yglesias recounts five years in the lives of two yuppie couples, to whom parenthood occasions typical tribulations and discouraging self-assessments. Byron's birth exacerbates the problems between Diane and Peter Hummel (she's a Yale-educated corporate lawyer, he's a wealthy fundraiser for the arts). While she foolishly tries to be super-mom, wife and professional, she also puts pressure on Byron to excel, attempting to enroll him in an elite school and forcing him to play the violin. Peter withdraws from them both after Byron's presence activates long-dormant memories of his icily aloof mother. Investment counselor Eric Gold, obsessed by the humiliation of his father's business failures, frantically pushes himself to produce substantial earnings for his wife Nina and their son Luke. Her imagined inadequacies torment Nina, especially when she cannot soothe Luke, whose colic makes him infuriatingly uncontrollable. This is a vivid description of how rearing a first child can conjure up neurotic fears, which must be resolved before parents can nurture their offspring. Yglesias has abandoned the cynicism that infused Hot Properties; this new novel is deeply felt and thought-provoking. $75,000 ad/promo; Doubleday Book Club main selection; Literary Guild featured alternate. <br>Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>"The joys of Motherhood. Are they all one great lie?" In carefully orchestrated, parallel stories of two New York couples and their sons from birth through age five, Yglesias explores this and other contemporary parenting issues. The story moves carefully between the Golds and the Hummels in a sort of literary counterpoint that becomes more staccato in the second half of the book. Educated professionals with good incomes, both sets of parents have excellent intentions but are crippled by emotional "baggage": they are adult children ("only children") themselves. The children are unusually bright, but their development, like their parents', is impeded by complex psychological issues. Yglesias writes with insight, showing how true adulthood comes with self-awareness, pain, and understanding. Definitely recommended.Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.<br>Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" and Other Nautical Adventures: Being the First Volume of the Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson, edited by Jeremy Lassen, collects all the series sea fiction of this British fantasist, much of it long unavailable. As the 23 short stories show, Hodgson (1877-1918), best known for his novels of cosmic vision, could write quite successfully for the commercial magazine market of his day. <br>Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Volume one of the Hodgson's collected fiction starts the project well, for it contains much of his best work. Hodgson was a professional merchant mariner for much of his life until his death in World War I, and his career began during the last days of seafaring under sail and without radio. His mostreprinted work is the novella <em>The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"</em>, a compelling compounding of survival at sea and the supernatural. In his Sargasso Sea stories, corralled in the book's second section, Hodgson takes the legendary endless mass of weeds in the North Atlantic, which imprisoned ships eternally, as the pretext for six Lovecraftian-before-Lovecraft, undeniably effective tales. The 13 adventures of Captain Gault and the two of Captain Jat are more classic pulp-mystery thrillers; they reflect the era when a captain was "master under God" in fact and in law, and also Anglo-German tensions before World War I. For historically minded genre fans, especially if they savor some sea salt in their fantasy. <em>Roland Green</em><br><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Everyone's life is governed by an internal code of conduct. Some call it morality. Others call it religion. But Bros in the know call this holy grail the Bro Code. </p><p>Historically a spoken tradition passed from one generation to the next, the official code of conduct for Bros appears here in its published form for the first time ever. By upholding the tenets of this sacred and legendary document, any dude can learn to achieve Bro-dom. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>Barney Stinson </strong>works at a corporation, and regularly “suits up” to help his lovelorn and altogether pathetic bro Ted Mosby. Basically the coolest dude ever, Barney Stinson has been compared to the Fonz—but Barney is much, much more awesome. Stinson lives in New York, New York—and appears weekly on the hit CBS show “How I Met Your Mother” with his friends Ted, Robin, Lily and Marshall. </p>

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Late in the summer of 1923, Mary Russell Holmes and her husband, the illustrious Sherlock Holmes, are ensconced in their home on the Sussex Downs, giving themselves over to their studies: Russell to her theology, and Holmes to his malodorous chemical experiments. Interrupting the idyllic scene, amateur archaeologist Miss Dorothy Ruskin visits with a startling puzzle. Working in the Holy Land, she has unearthed a tattered roll of papyrus with a message from Mary Magdalene. Miss Ruskin wants Russell to safeguard the letter. But when Miss Ruskin is killed in a traffic accident, Russell and Holmes find themselves on the trail of a fiendishly clever murderer. Clearly there was more to Miss Ruskin than met the eye. But why was she murdered? Was it her involvement in the volatile politics of the Holy Land? Was it her championing of women's rights? Or was it the scroll--a deeply troubling letter that could prove to be a Biblical bombshell? In either case, Russell and Holmes soon find that solving her murder may be murder itself.


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SUMMARY: A Monstrous Regiment of Women continues Mary Russell's adventures as a worthy student of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and as an ever more skilled sleuth in her own right. Looking for respite in London after a stupefying visit from relatives, Mary encounters a friend from Oxford. The young woman introduces Mary to her current enthusiasm, a strange and enigmatic woman named Margery Childe, who leads something called "The New Temple of God." It seems to be a charismatic sect involved in the post-World War I suffrage movement, with a feminist slant on Christianity. Mary is curious about the woman, and intrigued. Is the New Temple a front for something more sinister? When a series of murders claims members of the movement's wealthy young female volunteers and principal contributors, Mary, with Holmes in the background, begins to investigate. Things become more desperate than either of them expected as Mary's search plunges her into the worst danger she has yet faced.


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Only hours after Holmes and Russell return from solving one riddle on the moor, another knocks on their front door…literally.It’s a mystery that begins during the Great War, when Gabriel Hughenfort died amidst scandalous rumors that have haunted the family ever since. But it’s not until Holmes and Russell arrive at Justice Hall, a home of unearthly perfection set in a garden modeled on Paradise, that they fully understand the irony echoed in the family motto, Justicia fortitudo mea est: “Righteousness is my strength.”A trail of ominous clues leads Holmes and Russell from an English hamlet to fashionable Paris to the wild prairie of the New World. But as the moment of reckoning approaches, will justice be done…or have they been lured straight into an elusive killer’s perfectly baited trap?


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are back in Laurie R. King’s highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling mystery series. And this time the first couple of detection pair up to unlock the buried memory of a shocking crime with the power to kill again–lost somewhere in Russell’s own past.After departing Bombay by ship, Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are en route to the bustling modern city of San Francisco. There, Mary will settle some legal affairs surrounding the inheritance of her family’s old estate. But the closer they get to port, the more Mary finds herself prey to troubling dreams and irrational behavior–a point not lost on Holmes, much to Russell’s annoyance.In 1906, when Mary was six, San Francisco was devastated by an earthquake and a raging fire that reduced the city to rubble. For years, Mary has denied any memory of the catastrophe that for days turned the fabled streets into hell on earth. But Holmes suspects that some hidden trauma connected with the “unforgettable” catastrophe may be the real culprit responsible for Mary’s memory lapse. And no sooner do they begin to familiarize themselves with the particulars of the Russell estate than it becomes apparent that whatever unpleasantness Mary has forgotten, it hasn’t forgotten her. Why does her father’s will forbid access to the house except in the presence of immediate family? Why did someone break in, then take nothing of any value? And why is Russell herself targeted for assassination?The more questions they ask of Mary’s past, the more people from that past turn out to have died violent, unexplained deaths. Now, with the aid of a hard-boiled young detective and crime writer named Hammett, Russell and Holmes find themselves embroiled in a mystery that leads them through the winding streets of Chinatown to the unspoken secrets of a parent’s marriage and the tragic car “accident” that a fourteen-year-old Mary alone survived–an accident that may not have been an accident at all. What Russell is about to discover is that even a forgotten past never dies…and it can kill again.


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SUMMARY: At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England, Sherlock Holmes and his nineteen-year-old apprentice Mary Russell enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmes’s enigmatic brother, Mycroft. Their arrival coincides with a rash of unsolved murders that has baffled the authorities and seems unrelated to the growing tensions in the area among Jew, Moslem, and Christian. Still, no one is too pleased at Holmes’s insistence on reconstructing the most recent homicide in the desert gully where it occurred. What they unexpectedly uncover will lead Russell and Holmes through an exotic gauntlet of labyrinthine bazaars, verminous hovels, cliff-hung monasteries—and into mortal danger. In the jewel-like city of Jerusalem, they will at last meet their adversary, whose lust for power could reduce the city’s most ancient and sacred place to rubble and ignite a tinderbox of hostilities just waiting for a spark.…


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SUMMARY: Edgar Award-winning author Laurie R. King again proves her flair fortantalizing mystery in this first novel of an acclaimed series. Long sinceretired from his observations of criminal humanity, Sherlock Holmes is engagedin a reclusive study of honeybee behavior on the Sussex Downs. Never did heexpect to meet an intellect to match his own--until he made the acquaintance ofa very modern 15-year-old girl whose mental acuity is equaled only by heraudacity, tenacity, and unconventional taste for trousers and cloth caps. Underthe master detective's sardonic instruction, Miss Mary Russell hones her talentfor deduction, disguises, and danger--in the chilling case of a landowner'smysterious fever, and in the kidnapping of an American senator's daughter inthe wilds of Wales. But her ultimate challenge is yet to come. A near-fatalbomb on her doorstep--and another on Holmes's--sends the two sleuths on thetrail of a villain whose machinations scatter meaningless clues and seemutterly without motive. The bomber's objective, however, is quite clear: to endRussell and Holmes's partnership...and their lives.Edgar Award-winning author Laurie R. KingSherlock Holmes meets his match in a formidable new enemy--and his surprising new partner"Rousing...riveting...suspenseful." -- "Chicago Sun-Times" " "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" has power to charm the most grizzled BakerStreet Irregular." -- "Daily News," New York"If there is a new P. D. James... I would put my money on Laurie R. King, whose "A Grave Talent" kept me reading deep into the night."-- "The Boston Globe" "Amazing first novel with intelligence, intrigue, and intricacy...This workexhibits strong psychological undertones,compelling urgency, and dramaticaction. [Laurie King is] a writer to watch." -- "Library Journal" "Wonderful: an intelligently and imaginatively crafted novel that's alsogreat fun." -- "The Drood Review of Mystery" (Editors' Choice of1994)


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

In Laurie R. King’s latest Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mystery, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author delivers a thriller of ingenious surprises and unrelenting suspense—as the famous husband and wife sleuths are pursued by a killer immune from the sting of justice. It began as a problem in one of Holmes’ beloved beehives, led to a murderous cult, and ended—or so they’d hoped—with a daring escape from a sacrificial altar. Instead, Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have stirred the wrath and the limitless resources of those they’ve thwarted. Now they are separated and on the run, wanted by the police, and pursued across the Continent by a ruthless enemy with powerful connections.Unstoppable together, Russell and Holmes will have to survive this time apart, maintaining tenuous contact only by means of coded messages and cryptic notes. With Holmes’ young granddaughter in her safekeeping, Russell will have to call on instincts she didn’t know she had. But has the couple already made a fatal mistake by separating, making themselves easier targets for the shadowy government agents sent to silence them? From hidden rooms in London shops and rustic forest cabins to rickety planes over Scotland and boats on the frozen North Sea, Russell and Holmes work their way back to each other while uncovering answers to a mystery that will take both of them to solve. A hermit with a mysterious past and a beautiful young female doctor with a secret, a cruelly scarred flyer and an obsessed man of the cloth, Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, and an Intelligence agent who knows too much: Everyone Russell and Holmes meet could either speed their safe reunion or betray them to their enemies—in the most complex, shocking, and deeply personal case of their career.


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In a case that will push their relationship to the breaking point, Mary Russell must help reverse the greatest failure of her legendary husband’s storied past—a painful and personal defeat that still has the power to sting…this time fatally.For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from her husband’s past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with—and exonerated from—murder. Now the talented and troubled young man was enlisting their help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.When it comes to communal behavior, Russell has often observed that there are many kinds of madness. And before this case yields its shattering solution, she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to a bizarre religious cult, from the demimonde of the Café Royal at the heart of Bohemian London to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Russell will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced—a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.From the Hardcover edition.
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In a case that will push their relationship to the breaking point, Mary Russell must help reverse the greatest failure of her legendary husband’s storied past—a painful and personal defeat that still has the power to sting…this time fatally.For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from her husband’s past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with—and exonerated from—murder. Now the talented and troubled young man was enlisting their help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.When it comes to communal behavior, Russell has often observed that there are many kinds of madness. And before this case yields its shattering solution, she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to a bizarre religious cult, from the demimonde of the Café Royal at the heart of Bohemian London to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Russell will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced—a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.From the Hardcover edition.


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Longtime fans of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, might think that their favorite sleuth met his fate at the hands of Dr. Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. Anyone who believes that, however, obviously hasn't read Laurie R. King's delightful series featuring Holmes and his wife(!), Mary Russell. In The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Holmes succumbs to the Oxford scholar's charms; now, in The Moor, fourth in the series, Holmes and Russell are summoned to Devonshire to solve a tin miner's mysterious death. Lonely Dartmoor provides plenty of opportunities for King to both relate the haunting legends of that part of the world and offer some amusing revisions to one of Holmes's most famous cases, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Though Holmes purists might resent the liberties taken with their hero, readers in search of a strong female protagonist, some fascinating local history, and spooky ambience will enjoy The Moor.


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Laurie R. King’s bestselling mystery series featuring Mary Russell and her husband and partner, Sherlock Holmes, is beloved by readers and acclaimed by critics the world over. Now the illustrious duo returns for their most dangerous exploit yet, in a rich and atmospheric tale that takes them to India to save the life of one of literature’s most fabled heroes.It’s the second day of the new year, 1924, and Mary Russell is settling in for a much-needed rest with her husband, Sherlock Holmes. But the fragile peace will be fleeting—for a visit with Holmes’s gravely ill brother, Mycroft, brings news of an intrigue that is sure to halt their respite. Mycroft, who has ties to the highest levels of the government, has just received a strange package. The oilskin-wrapped packet contains the papers of a missing English spy named Kimball O’Hara—indeed, the same Kimball who served as the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s famed Kim. An orphaned English boy turned loose in India, Kim long used his cunning to spy for the Crown. But after inexplicably withdrawing from the “Great Game” of border espionage, he’s gone missing and is feared taken hostage—or even killed.When Russell learns of Holmes’s own secret friendship with Kim some thirty years before, she knows the die is cast: she will accompany her husband to India to search for the missing operative. But even before they arrive, danger will show its face in everything from a suspicious passenger on board their steamer to an “accident” that very nearly claims their lives. Once in India, Russell and Holmes must travel incognito—no small task for the English lady and her lanky companion. But after a twist of fate forces the couple to part ways, Russell learns that in this faraway place it’s often impossible to tell friend from foe—and that some games must be played out until their deadly end.Showcasing King’s masterful plotting and skill at making history leap from the page, The Game brings alive an India fraught with unrest and poised for change—and an unpredictable mystery with brilliance and character to match.From the Hardcover edition.


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Rome. AD 70. Private eye Marcus Didius Falco knows his way around the eternal city. He can handle the muggers, the police and most of the girls. But one fresh sixteen-year-old, Sosia Camillina, finds him a case no Roman should be getting his nose into. Some friends, Romans and countrymen are doing a highly profitable, if highly illegal, trade in silver ingots or pigs. For Falco it's the start of a murderous trail that leads far beyond the seven hills.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>No caveats for readers of Davis's second playful, well-plotted mystery featuring imperial agent Marcus Didius Falco and based in first century, C.E., Rome. Nero's successor Vespasian has squelched an early treasonous plot and assigned Falco to take care of loose ends, which include the body of the uncle of the high-born young widow Helena Justina, whom Falco met and courted stormily in Silver Pigs. Disguised as an idle vacationer in the company of his comrade and captain of the Aventine Watch, Petronius Longus and family, Falco travels south to Neapolis, Capreae and Pompeii (eight years before its destruction) where he uncovers and must thwart a new conspiracy involving the shipment of Egyptian grain to Rome and an unwitting Helena. Like a toga-clad McGee or Spenser, Falco has a modern sensibility that wears its ancient trappings comfortably, whether he's sneaking down a narrow Roman street or feasting sumptuously at a sunlit coastal villa. A rousing horserace in the Circus Maximus, balanced with a touching romantic resolution, rounds out this action-packed entertainment, enlivened by Davis's vivid characterization of both major and minor players, and his clear delight in--and easy authority with--the story's time and place. <br />Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>YA-- That rascally Roman detective, Marcus Didius Falco, is back, still pining for the unavailable, upper-class Helen; bumbling through investigations; and dodging his nagging mother. Set in Italy in a.d. 70, the mystery of Helen's "returned-to-life" husband flows smoothly, accompanied by such historical details as descriptions of prostitutes flourishing in Pompeii, salesmen hawking used chariots, and women dying their hair with the newest shade--Egyptian Russet. It's great fun to read of Falco's dubious detecting skills, aided by his sharp eye for noticing and reporting on the world around him. A book that should be required reading for those students who foolishly believe the adage "Latin is a dead language."-- Pam Spencer, Jefferson Sci-Tech, Alexandria, <br />Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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Rome, AD 71.  Marcus Didius Falco is deperate to leave the notorious Lautumiae prison - though being bailed out by his mother is a slight indignity...     Things go from bad to worse though when a group of nouveau riche ex-slaves hire him to outwit a fortune-hunting redhead, whose husbands have a habit of dying accidently, leaving him up against a female contortionist, her extra-friendly snake, indigestible cakes and rent racketeers.  And, all the while, trying to lure Helena Justina to live with him, a dangerous proposition given the notorius instability of Roman real estate.  In a case of murder as complicated as he ever faced, this classic tale shows Falco at his very finest.


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Rome, AD 72: Marcus Didius Falco has returned home from a six-month mission to the German legions. When an ex-legionary friend of his is found viciously stabbed to death, Falco is the prime suspect. Now, he has only three days to prove he is not a murderer, to trace the real suspect, amass evidence and win a fortune.   </p><p>“Fast-moving, funny and full of atmosphere; if you haven’t met Marcus Didius Falco before, start here.”–_Mail on Sunday_</p><h3>From the Inside Flap</h3><p>"GREAT STUFF...A classic hard-boiled, smart-mouth detective who happens to work in ancient Rome."<br />--Molly Ivins<br />Los Angeles Daily News<br />After six months in wild Germania, imperial gumshoe Marcus Didius Falco is back in Rome sweet Rome. But his apartment has been ransacked. And although he desperately needs 400,000 sesterces in order to marry his aristocratic love, Helena, his only client is his mother, who insists that he find out whether the scandalous claims against his dead brother, Festus, are true.<br />Then the chief tarnisher of Festus's good name is murdered, and Marcus becomes the prime suspect. Someone is definitely fiddling with the scales of justice. The more Marcus hunts for the thread that will lead him out of this doom-laden labyrinth of misery and mystery, the less his life is worth. Except, as seems likely, as a meal for the Emperor's hungry lions...<br />"AN INTRIGUING TALE...COMPULSIVE READING."<br />--Roanoke Times &amp; World-News<br />"A VIVIDLY REALIZED IMPERIAL ROME--NOISY, DENSE AND DANGEROUS."<br />--Publishers Weekly </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>If Travis McGee traveled in time back to treacherous, civilized Rome in 72 A.D., he might be something like Marcus Didius Falco. Appearing in his sixth adventure, the resourceful, bantering court investigator, who is graced with more humor than his south Florida counterpart and who hates injustice without being a drone about it, is such a regular guy that it's easy to forget he's not speaking figuratively when he talks about the latest model of chariot. Falco was denied a promised promotion into the upper class by the emperor Vespasian after his last escapade (in Poseidon's Gold), a promotion required for him to marry his lover, the patrician Helena Justina. To get out of town with Helena, he takes on a job for one of the emperor's less trustworthy underlings, heading for Syria to do a little snooping; at the same time he's also on the lookout for a runaway girl who may have been kidnapped by a Syrian. While sightseeing, Falco and Helena discover, in a cistern, the body of a playwright who had been with an acting troupe out of Rome. For various reasons, Falco and Helena sign on with the troupe in order to find the killer, with Falco taking on the little appreciated duties of the playwright for cover. Accompanying the troupe on their travels, readers get a history lesson they may wish they had had in high school, all the while being treated to a polished narrative. <br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Marcus Didius Falco, first-century Roman private eye, searches for a beautiful circus musician while also working for the emperor's chief spy. Falco's girlfriend, Helena, accompanies him to Syria, where they are both accused of murder. Excellent historical fiction.<br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Fresh from Last Act in Palmyra, Marcus Didius Falco, that most modern of ancient Romans, takes on organized crime in this latest installment of Davis's impeccably executed series. Falco has a job everyone loves to hate: he's the Emperor Vespasian's informer, or private detective?and he does his work well. This time, he's up against Balbinus Pius, perhaps the original John Gotti. Balbinus has finally been convicted of a capital crime, but, in traditional Roman style, he's been given a chance to flee before his scheduled execution. The power vacuum created by his departure seems to have sucked up every miscreant in Rome: markets are plundered, children are kidnapped, centurions are murdered. While Falco sets out to determine whether the crime wave is the work of a new kingpin or a herd of small-time operators, his private life is also in a bit of a spin. Companion Helena, a senator's daughter whom Falco is forbidden by law to marry because of their differing rank, is pregnant. And he's also pitted against his old army buddy and best friend, Petronius, captain of the fourth cohort of the Aventine Watch, in a corruption investigation. The tale gets a bit bumpy, as Davis, compensating for a slightly subpar mystery plot, tosses in lots of action scenes and personal turmoil. But Falco remains as delightfully irreverent and insightful as ever; and Davis, as usual, brings the time to life while handling the eternals?worry, danger, love and in-laws?just as deftly. <br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Davis (Last Act in Palmyra, LJ 2/1/96) turns her prodigious talents once again to ancient Rome. Marcus Didius Falco, series "secret agent," tracks an infamous criminal supposedly in exile who is exacting murderous revenge on his enemies. Dependable entertainment.<br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>In this latest addition to a durable series, Marcus Didius Falco travels to the distant province of Baetica, pregnant girlfriend in tow, to investigate a possible olive oil cartel. The emphasis in this historical mystery is as much on historical as mystery, with solid detail and vivid insights that bring the ancient Roman alive. But the plotting, though leisurely, is nicely suspenseful and the ending worth the wait.<br />Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Inimitable sleuth Marcus Didius Falco is back with a vengeance. One night, a man is killed and Rome’s Chief of Spies left for dead. This leaves no one except Falco to conduct the investigation, and he is soon plunged into the fiercely competitive world of olive oil production. Political intrigue, an exotic Spanish dancer and impending fatherhood all add to Falco’s troubles. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Secret-agent/sleuth Marcus Didius Falco (A Dying Light in Cordoba, etc.) returns with gusto for another case of mystery and intrigueAthis time involving a serial killerAin ancient Rome. As the novel opens, Falco has just come back from a perilous mission to Baetican Spain and is ready to tackle his new role as father to his first-born daughter. But his commitment to paternal responsibilities begins to lag when he and his old friend, Petronius Longus, make a gory discoveryAof a severed human hand in one of Rome's many fountains. As the inquisitive buddies do some reconnaissance work, encountering similar body parts in the Roman water supply, they learn that there is, in fact, a tradition of corpses circulating in the waterworks. Furthermore, these dead bodies often appear after public festivals. The threat of contaminated aqueducts coupled with the imminent Roman Games brings Falco and Petro to confront the authorities on the matter. Official desire to keep the problem under wraps forces the pair to determine the killer's identity on their own, with the help of Helena (Falco's wife), Anacrites (a spy and boarder in Falco's mother's home) and other toga-wearing tipsters. Once again, Davis weaves an intricate, irreverent plot filled with wittily imagined characters. <br />Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>YA-Set in first-century Rome, this fast-paced mystery is narrated by a cynical, hard-boiled hero with an imperfectly concealed soft spot for his family. Marcus Didius Falco is back in Rome after an extended trip to Spain. His mother is trying to get him to take on a new partner: his enemy, the former Chief Spy, Anacrites. Falco's friend Petronius Longus is on suspension and in danger of becoming an ex-vigile now that his wife has reported his affair with a married woman who has ties to organized crime. Falco is able to dodge Anacrites by taking Petro on as a partner, but their lives become complicated after they discover a decomposed hand in a fountain. More body parts turn up in the water supply, and it soon becomes clear that someone has been murdering and dismembering women at major festivals for years. The authorities have tried to cover it up to prevent a riot over contaminated water, but now Falco has been given the task of finding the killer before he strikes again. Davis vividly describes life during the period, but the story is never overwhelmed by historical detail. Although the book can stand alone, fans of Falco and his wife Helena will be delighted to encounter familiar characters, from Falco's many sisters and disreputable brothers-in-law to Helena's supposedly more refined aristocratic relations. A riveting, suspenseful, witty read with lots of historical flavor.<br /><em>Susan Salpini, Purcellville Library, VA </em><br />Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Marcus Didius Falco, Lindsey Davis's clever, ambitious, not-so-holy Roman man about town, is on special assignment for the Emperor Vespacian. This time he's tracking down tax fraud among the bestiarii, the slaughterers, and the lanistae, the suppliers of the gladiators and animals who provide the executions, spectacles, and entertainment for the Roman masses. </p><p>Hoisted by his own tarnished petard, Falco is unwillingly partnered with his ex-boss Anacrites, Rome's chief spy, but that's the least of his problems; his investigation has hardly begun when he finds himself in the tunnels under the arena with a lion named Leonidas--a man-killer who may or may not have been switched with a tamer beast for a private party meant to impress a wealthy Senator's mistress.</p><p>While Leonidas presents no immediate threat to Falco--the king of the jungle is quite dead--the circumstances of the beast's demise lead Falco to ponder a connection between a murderous feud that seems to have broken out in the ranks of the lanistae and the lucrative contracts soon to be let by the emperor for his magnificent new amphitheater. And when the most popular gladiator in Rome is killed--not in the arena, as might be expected, but while sleeping in his own bed--Falco and his patrician lover Helena take passage to Tripoli to track down the perpetrator. Along the way, they attempt to solve a domestic crisis involving Helena's youngest brother, who seems to be right in the middle of the African connection between the murders of man and beast, as well as the feud between two powerful lanistae. And there's still another reason to embark on a journey to the Dark Continent--the search for an extinct variety of wild garlic, which could make Falco a wealthy man and which ends with a hilarious denouement. </p><p>As usual, Davis serves up a generous helping of history, a raffish band of minor characters, a charming love story, and surprisingly relevant commentary on the nature of the bureaucracy, politics, and chicanery among the rich and famous. <em>Two for the Lions</em> promises--and delivers--a treat for the author's many fans, and a terrific introduction to his new ones. <em>--Jane Adams</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Talk about capital punishment: in the Rome of A.D. 73, top criminals are torn to pieces by a specially trained lion. And when that lion is himself found murdered with a spear, who better than Marcus Didius Falco, the Sam Spade of ancient Rome, to handle the case? Davis's 10th Falco adventure (after last year's Three Hands in the Fountain) has already won the first Ellis Peters/British Crime Writers award for a historical mystery, and should delight fans of her series. Newcomers, however, might occasionally wish that Falco weren't quite such a thorny character: like the cops on Law and Order, he seems to go out of his way to crack wise and to alienate partners and suspects alike. Working as a tax investigator with Anarcrites, a former chief spy for the emperor Vespasian, Falco calls his new associate "incompetent, devious and cheap." Falco's father, an antiquities dealer, is introduced as "the devious miser Didius Favonius"; his mother and sister are treated with equal scorn. Only Helena Justina, a senator's daughter, gets any respect from the cynical Falco: "She was neat, scathing, intelligent, wondrously unpredictable. I still could not believe my luck that she had even noticed me, let alone that she lived in my apartment, was the mother of my baby daughter, and had taken charge of my disorganized life." When he's not bad-mouthing most of Rome's population, Falco follows an increasingly tangled skein of clues to Greece and Tripoli, in search not only of the lion's killer but also of an elusive herb that sounds very much like garlic. As usual, Davis's research into the customs of the period is impeccable: it's only the excessively angst-ridden modernity of her lead character that occasionally rocks the read. (Dec.) <br />Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Marcus Didius Falco is back in another lively first-century historical mystery. The Roman investigator, informer, and imperial spy's snappy patter, romantic leanings, strong sense of irony, and penchant for getting into interesting situations have won Lindsey Davis a growing number of fans. Flush with his earnings from an African adventure (__), Falco's just been rewarded for his service to the empire with an unusual bit of political patronage: he's been appointed to the largely ceremonial position of Procurator of the Sacred Poultry, meaning he's in charge of the care and feeding of a gaggle of sacred geese. This un-Falco-like upward mobility is an opportunity for Marcus to move his patrician wife, Helena Justina, and their toddler out of a tenement and into a home of their own. As much as Marcus scoffs at middle-class pretensions, he's not above leaving his seedy surroundings and providing his family with some of the finer things, if only to show his in-laws that he can. But when Helena's brother falls over a corpse that disappears before it can be identified, Falco tosses the geese some food and gets busy finding the connection between the dead man and a 6-year-old girl who's in line to be chosen as the new vestal virgin. That leads him into intrigue, danger, and a confrontation with a former vestal virgin that almost costs him his life. Well paced, with good dialogue, excellent plotting, and a cast of terrific characters surrounding Falco and Helena, including some familiar from earlier stories, <em>One Virgin Too Many</em> shows Davis in top form. Falco the family man is better company than ever. <em>--Jane Adams</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>"I seem to be hearing about nothing but religious cults this week," says Marcus Didius FalcoAthe Spenser of Ancient RomeAearly on in this 12th entry in Davis's popular series. And indeed details of the weirder practices of Roman worship take up much (some might say too much) of the book's story. Falco himself has been rewarded for his lucrative work as a census taker with the dubious honor of looking after the Emperor's sacred geeseAincluding cleaning up their droppings. Aulus, the younger brother of Falco's highborn lover, Helena, is trying to join a prestigious agricultural/fertility sect called the Arval Brothers. And several young girls, including Falco's own niece, are caught up in the selection of a new Vestal VirginAwhich sounds in Davis's version like a children's beauty pageant straight out of the JonBenet Ramsey case. Falco has to put aside his goose-watching and reclaim his day job as private informer when (1) Aulus discovers a mutilated corpse at the Arval Brothers' bucolic retreat and (2) one of the leading VirginsAwho tried to hire Marcus because she thought her family was trying to kill herAdisappears. As usual, Davis shows us many ways in which Ancient Rome was both the same as and different from our own timesAalthough the research isn't as seamlessly integrated as before. And Falco, while still an interesting mix of ambition and democracy, doesn't have that true ring of a real Roman coin he once had. (Nov.) <br />Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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In the long, hot Roman summer of AD74, Marcus Didius Falco, private informer and spare-time poet, gives a reading for his family and friends. Things get out of hand as usual. The event is taken over by Aurelius Chrysippus, a wealthy Greek banker and patron to a group of struggling writers, who offers to publish Falco's work a golden opportunity that rapidly palls. A visit to the Chrysippus scriptorium implicates him in a gruesome literary murder, so when Petronius Longus, the over-worked vigiles enquiry chief, commissions him to investigate, Falco is forced to accept.


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In another classical crime romp - this time in Roman Britain - Falco investigates a spate of killings, only to find himself next on the assassins' list. Marcus Didius Falco, once a common informer, now middle class, discovers that newly acquired rank brings associated problems, the most gruesome of which is a corpse buried under the tiles of his new bath house. The contractors have fled to Britain where, as the Fates have it, Falco is ordered. A local chief and ally of the Romans is having a palace built by the Emperor Vespasian. However, the project is running late, work is slipshod, and fatal accidents keep happening. Somewhere on the site are the murderers who may be behind this latest spate of killings. Somewhere in the forefront, troubleshooting for the Emperor, is Falco, without an ally and now next on the list for assassination.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Davis's 14th clever, witty adventure (after 2001's A Body in the Bathhouse) starring the suave Marcus Didius Falco, from Ancient Rome, finds the informer/investigator plying his talents on the mean and muddy streets of Londinium, Britannia, in A.D. 75. In fact, almost everything about the growing community is mean, from its dark and dingy bars to the sprawling wharves and warehouses. The discovery of a body jammed headfirst into a bar's well is enough to get Falco sent to the scene as an expert on unnatural death. Falco needs all his celebrated intelligence to survive the ensuing problems. Davis skillfully braids references to Britain's future into her story of its past without ever diminishing the thrust of Falco's adventures. And what adventures! The murder victim is a disgraced henchman of King Togidubnus, an important ally of Rome. Solving and avenging the death quickly is important to placate the king. Civil order is in disrepair, while the rapidly growing city is ripe pickings for the ambitious gangsters moving in from Rome, whom Falco and his friend Petronius, have battled before. An entourage that includes wife Helena, their two small children, his sister, Maia, and her four children gives Falco questionable help. This thoroughly entertaining addition can only burnish the luster of this fine series. <br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Lindsey Davis combines an engrossing plot with pithy dialogue and a comic (though not cartoonish) depiction of the past in all its gory splendour. The Guardian 20020802 Against this richly textured backdrop is played out a story of low-down greed and grubby deals, of backhanders and protection rackets, that pulls of the trick of feeling modern, exciting and plausible. The Sunday Times 20020802 Modern, exciting and plausible. Sunday Times As always, Davis weaves a plot full of humour, surprises and domestic irony. TLS </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Fans of "informer" Marcus Didius Falco will be glad to find the classical world's answer to the modern-day gumshoe back in Rome in Davis's stellar historical, the 15th entry in this witty and learned series, after two adventures set in Britain (A Body in the Bathhouse; The Jupiter Myth). In an effort to resume his career as an informer on his home turf, Falco ends up playing advocate in a messy dispute that pits him against two highly successful "legals," Paccius Africanus and Silius Italicus. The convoluted case, which involves a wealthy, fractious family and tricky questions of inheritance, gives Davis the opportunity to explore the vagaries of Roman law, which she approaches with her usual mix of respect and sarcasm. The corruption conviction of senator Rubirius Metellus followed by his mysterious demise threaten the Metelli family's fortunes. Hired to prove the senator's death was not a suicide, Falco finds himself immersed in scandal, blackmail, corruption and intrigueâ€"common ingredients of legal practice. In one particularly fine scene, Falco delivers a speech in the Basilica that relies on amusing and effective rhetorical tricks. Wry, cynical and principled, Falco makes the perfect guide to Davis's vividly realized ancient Rome. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Rome, 75 A.D. Marcus Didius Falco, professional informer (that is, private investigator), returns to Italy after an extended trip to Britain and finds that his clients have forgotten him. Falco needs a new case to put some money in the coffers, so he signs on to investigate the supposed suicide of a senator who was recently exposed as corrupt. But, after he's talked to a few interested parties and made a few discoveries, Falco begins to wish he had passed on the case. This is the fifteenth Falco mystery, and the series shows no signs of slowing down. Falco (who narrates the novel in a noirish but never anachronistic tone) is a personable hero, and the stories are always suspenseful and surprising. Also, Davis knows how to stage a mystery against a historical backdrop without overwhelming us with information. Many historical series go flat once the milieu becomes familiar, but this one continues to mix its history and its mystery in a pleasing blend. <em>David Pitt</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The Rome of Vespasian and Titus comes to life in Davis's entertaining 16th entry in her popular ancient historical series (after 2003's <em>The Accuser</em>) featuring "finder" Marcus Didius Falco. The staff of the official government newspaper retains Falco when Diocles, the paper's gossip columnist, disappears while on a visit to Ostia. At the seaport, a cesspool of corruption, Falco follows up on rumors that pirates, supposedly put out of business by Pompey the Great decades earlier, are engaged in smuggling and a kidnapping racket. Utilizing his street smarts and well-earned cynical view of humanity, Falco moves in and out of dives and places of worship on the trail of a mysterious figure who acts as the middleman between the kidnappers and the victims' families. Disturbingly, some of the clues point to one of the detective's disreputable relatives. Longtime fans will enjoy the additional background on Falco's family, but first-timers, aided by a family tree and an introductory cast of characters, will be able to plunge right in. Unlike Steven Saylor in his Roma Sub Rosa series, Davis makes less use of the history of the time. While her deliberately modern colloquialisms ("Go with the flow, man," Falco is told) take a little getting use to, they help maintain the light arch tone that also distinguishes these fun novels from Saylor's more serious tales. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Adult/High School–In this 16th mystery set in the Roman Empire (76 A.D.), Falco investigates the disappearance of the official scandal columnist for the <em>Roman Daily Gazette</em>. When last heard from, the scribe had been leaving for vacation at Ostia. The private informer notes with typical irony that at first this assignment "had all the signs of a nice little escapade that I could handle blindfolded," but he soon finds himself pursuing a bewildering and seemingly unconnected variety of leads that involve kidnappings, Mediterranean pirates, local dives, religious customs, a teenager's romance, and an outrageous funeral celebration. His independent inquiry is complicated somewhat by his helpful wife (a Senator's daughter) and their children, several other family members, and his best friend, a policeman. Falco and company are kindly, intelligent people who live in a brutal time; they survive with integrity intact through humor, loyalty to one another, and a tough acceptance of the inevitable. Readers might be daunted by lists of characters, maps with strange place names, Briticisms, or Falco's casually allusive narrative style, but those who persevere will be richly rewarded, becoming immersed in fascinating details of a distant time and place populated by recognizable human beings. Though this story can be read independently, the series is best read in order, beginning with <em>Silver Pigs</em> (Crown, 1991); the novels progress satisfyingly through Falco's life as they explore many far-flung corners of the Empire._–Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA_ <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In Davis's engaging 17th ancient Roman historical to feature "informer" Marcus Didius Falco (after 2004's <em>Scandal Takes a Holiday</em>), Falco takes his deductive powers to Greece, where two young women tourists have died under mysterious circumstances. Accompanied by a large entourage, including his independent and sharp-witted wife, Helena, Falco soon finds that one tour, promoted by the shady Seven Sights Travel outfit, has a suspiciously high mortality rate. The long trail of corpses Falco uncovers puts the sleuth in danger of running out of suspects. While the way Falco unmasks the killer may be less than ingenious, the author's vivid picture of life in A.D. 76 and the sparkling characterizations, particularly the amusing byplay between Falco and Helena, will satisfy most readers. For those new to this popular series, which has a new publisher, Davis provides a short introduction to Falco and his world. <em>(June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> If Sam Spade traveled back in time to A.D. 76, he'd be Marcus Didius Falco, the Roman sleuth at the center of Davis' mordant series. In the seventeenth outing, Marcus, who tackles crime on behalf of the emperor (and with the help of his tart-tongued wife, Helena), casts his cynical gaze on the case of two women who met their demise on tours of Olympia, Greece. Both women perished during excursions sponsored by Seven Sights, a dubious travel agency whose slippery host dispenses a litany of lies. Marcus focuses on the more recent victim, Valeria Ventidia, who was found beaten to death with a long-jumper's hand weight. Although there's no shortage of suspects among Seven Sights' colorful clientele, Valeria's shifty, jealous husband is at the top of the list. Davis provides vibrant period detail, from majestic Greek temples and teeming Roman slums to reprehensible rulers sporting tunics trimmed with gold. Some readers of this series may have difficulty accepting the hard-boiled veneer that Davis lays over ancient Rome, but for those willing to suspend disbelief, it makes a marvelous conceit. <em>David Pitt</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>“Like visiting old friends in a familiar and endearing, if sometimes bizarre, environment. Jokes and skullduggery crowd the pages.”<br />–_Guardian_  </p><p>“Falco wisecracks his way through the empire’s sleazy underside . . . Davis’s crimes are wickedly convoluted — real fun.”<br />–_Time_  </p><p><em>From the Hardcover edition.</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>It is the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. Marcus Didius Falco and Helena have returned from Greece only to find that Helena’s brother Justinus’s marital problems have exploded. Justinus’s first love, Veleda, a tribal leader and prophetess from Germania, has been brought to Rome and put under house arrest pending a ritual sacrifice at her capturer’s Triumph.   </p><p>Justinus is love-struck once more and his wife, the temperamental Claudia, is enraged. Then Veleda escapes leaving behind a corpse. Justinus disappears too and it is up to Falco and the Chief Spy Anacrites to try to find the missing couple all against the backdrop of the orgiastic holiday period when literally anything goes . . .  </p><p><em>From the Hardcover edition.</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>A locked-room murder provides Marcus Didius Falco with an intriguing challenge in Davis's 19th novel to feature the first-century Roman sleuth (after 2007's <em>Saturnalia</em>). In the spring of A.D. 77, while on vacation with his family in Alexandria, Egypt, Falco is stunned to get word that Theon, the Great Library's head librarian, with whom he just dined, has been found dead with neither marks of violence on the body nor evidence of how the killer got away from the scene of the crime. Falco probes the academic politics surrounding the Great Library to determine whether one of Theon's potential successors was the culprit. Other deaths follow, including that of a philosophy student, mauled by a crocodile that escaped from the local zoo. While the impossible crime's solution may disappoint some readers, the twisty plot with its various false leads and the author's plausible depiction of ancient Alexandria make this one of the stronger entries in this solid historical series. <em>(May)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Even spies age, but fortunately Marcus Didius Falco—"informer" for the Roman emperor in the first century C.E.—is aging with grace. What makes Davis's long-standing series so indelible is the expert blend of Falco's wisecracking observations and crazy family life with some masterly suspense. In this latest, Falco has taken his pregnant wife, two daughters, and brother-in-law to Alexandria on what is ostensibly a vacation. (They're staying at the house of his wayward uncle and the uncle's partner.) In fact, Falco is charged with keeping his eye on things, and indeed trouble brews right away—the Librarian of Alexandria's great library is found dead in his sealed office. There's been plenty of controversy surrounding the Librarian already, and the controversy over who will succeed him turns bloody. Who knew that the race for a top library spot could be so intriguing? The mystery is intricately plotted, the characters are well drawn, and Falco is as engaging a protagonist as ever, still tough but wiser and more reflective, too. Another winner for historical mystery fans. [See Prepub Mystery, <em>LJ</em> 1/09.]—Barbara Hoffert, <em>Library Journal</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Davis immediately engages the reader's sympathies in her fine 20th ancient Roman historical featuring informer Marcus Didius Falco (after 2009's Alexandria) with her moving depiction of the death of Falco's newborn son. When Falco seeks out his father to share the horrible news, he's stunned to learn that "Pa" has also died. While Falco is coming to terms with the double tragedy, an associate asks him to help look into the murder of Julius Modestus, an art dealer whose mutilated body was dumped in a mausoleum. Falco learns that Modestus and his wife vanished after making complaints about the difficult Claudii, freedmen who originally came from the imperial family, with whom the couple had a border dispute in the Pontine Marshes. With its tricky, suspenseful plot, this entry deserves to join its immediate predecessor on bestseller lists, though some modern-sounding prose ("Have they lawyered up?" one character asks) won't please every historical fan. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>It’s the summer of AD 77, and Roman “informer” (read PI) Marcus Didius Falco is going through a rough time. Shortly after the death of his infant son, he receives news that his father has died. Alas, crime waits for no man, and Falco must grapple with his grief as he investigates the suspicious disappearance of a middle-age couple who supplied statues to his father. (It seems they got on the bad side of the Claudii, a flock of sinister freedmen.) At the same time, the discovery of a mutilated corpse at a graveyard prompts rumors of a serial killer. Marcus’ longtime friend and colleague Petronius helps him gather clues on the murder case, but it’s not long before Anacrites, Rome’s loathsome chief spy, steals it out from under them. On the domestic front, Falco is troubled by the lingering malaise of his notoriously spirited wife, Helena. Nemesis is a fitting title for this solid twentieth entry in British historian Davis’ standout series, in which Falco encounters a collection of cold-blooded and bloody annoying foes. --Allison Block </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Now with this striking new adult novel from author and creator Francine Pascal, millions of devoted fans can finally return to the idyllic Sweet Valley, home of the phenomenally successful book series and franchise. Iconic and beloved identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are back and all grown up, dealing with the complicated adult world of love, careers, betrayal, and sisterhood.  WANT MORE SWEET VALLEY RIGHT NOW??  Become a fan of Sweet Valley Confidential on Facebook or Twitter. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Available in English for the first time, Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s stunning trilogy of novellas is a remarkable literary event. In a brilliant translation by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokur, <strong>Love, Anger, Madness</strong> is a scathing response to the struggles of race, class, and sex that have ruled Haiti. Suppressed upon its initial publication in 1968, this major work became an underground classic and was finally released in an authorized edition in France in 2005.  </p><p>In <strong>Love, Anger, Madness</strong>, Marie Vieux-Chauvet offers three slices of life under an oppressive regime. Gradually building in emotional intensity, the novellas paint a shocking portrait of families and artists struggling to survive under Haiti’s terrifying government restrictions that have turned its society upside down, transforming neighbors into victims, spies, and enemies.  </p><p>In “Love,” Claire is the eldest of three sisters who occupy a single house. Her dark skin and unmarried status make her a virtual servant to the rest of the family. Consumed by an intense passion for her brother-in-law, she finds redemption in a criminal act of rebellion.  </p><p>In “Anger,” a middle-class family is ripped apart when twenty-year-old Rose is forced to sleep with a repulsive soldier in order to prevent a government takeover of her father’s land.  </p><p>And in “Madness,” René, a young poet, finds himself trapped in a house for days without food, obsessed with the souls of the dead, dreading the invasion of local military thugs, and steeling himself for one final stand against authority.   </p><p>Sympathetic, savage and truly compelling with an insightful introduction by Edwidge Danticat,_ _<strong>Love, Anger, Madness</strong> is an extraordinary, brave and graphic evocation of a country in turmoil. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Marie Vieux-Chauvet, a seminal writer of postoccupation Haiti, was born in Port-au-Prince in 1916 and died in New York in 1973. She is the author of five novels, including <em>Dance on the Volcano, Fonds des Nègres, Fille d’Haiti, </em>and <em>Les Rapaces.</em>  </p><p>Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokur have translated two novels by Patrick Chamoiseau, <em>Solibo Magnificent</em> and <em>Texaco</em>, the latter of which won the American Translators Association Galantière Prize for Best Book. Their translation of <strong>Love, Anger, Madness</strong> was supported by a Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.  </p><p>Edwidge Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She is the author of B<strong>rother, I’m Dying; Breath, Eyes, Memory; Krik? Krak!; The Farming of Bones</strong>; and <strong>The Dew Breaker.</strong> She lives in Miami with her husband and two daughters. </p>


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<h3>From</h3><p>War correspondent Barker first started reporting from Afghanistan in 2003, when the war there was lazy and insignificant. She was just learning to navigate Afghan culture, one caught between warring factions, and struggling to get space in her newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. Lulled into complacency, everyone from the U.S. military to the Afghan diplomatic corps to the Pakistani government stumbled as the Taliban regrouped. Very frank and honest, Barker admits a host of mistakes, including gross cultural ignorance that often put her in danger even as she found Afghanistan similar in some ways to Montana, her home state, what with �bearded men in pickup trucks stocked with guns and hate for the government.� She reports a string of characters: an amorous Pakistani former prime minister, a flashy Afghan American diplomat, an assortment of warlords, drug lords, fundamentalists, politicians, and fellow correspondents struck by wanderlust and plagued by messy personal lives�all of them against a backdrop of declining war coverage in declining American newspapers. A personal, insightful look at covering an ambivalent war in a complicated region. --Vanessa Bush </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Praise for <em>The Taliban Shuffle</em>  </p><p>“What’s remarkable about _The Taliban Shuffle_ is that its author, Kim Barker, has written an account of her experiences covering Afghanistan and Pakistan that manages to be hilarious and harrowing, witty and illuminating, all at the same time… Ms. Barker has discovered a voice in these pages that enables her to capture both the serious and the seriously absurd conditions in Af-Pak (Afghanistan and Pakistan), and the surreal deal of being a female reporter there, with dating problems ranging from the screwball (a boyfriend competing to cover the same story) to the ridiculous (being romantically pursued by the former prime minister of Pakistan). Black humor, it turns out, is a perfect tool for capturing the sad-awful-frequently-insane incongruities of war.  <em>The Taliban Shuffle</em>, in fact, reads like a rollicking and revealing mashup of <em>Imperial Life in the Emerald City</em> (Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s devastating 2006 portrait of the unreal world of Iraq’s Green Zone), <em>War Reporting for Cowards</em> (Chris Ayres’s entertaining 2005 account of being a newbie war reporter for <em>The Times of London</em>) and Robert Altman’s darkly satiric 1970 movie <em>MASH</em>, with a bit of Evelyn Waugh-esque satiric verve thrown in for good measure.”  </p><p><em></em>     —Michiko Kakutani, <strong>_</strong>The New York Times  </p><p><em></em><em>“</em>The Taliban Shuffle_ is part war memoir, part tale of self-discovery that, thanks to Barker's biting honesty and wry wit, manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking.”  </p><p><strong><em>    —The Chicago Tribune</em></strong>  </p><p>"Brilliant, tender, and unexpectedly hilarious."  </p><p><em></em>_    —Marie Claire<br />_<em></em><br />"[An] immensely entertaining memoir."  </p><p>    <em></em>—_The Boston Globe<br />_<em></em><br />"Politically astute and clearly influenced by Hunter S. Thompson, Barker provides sharp commentary on the impotence of American foreign policy in South Asia… Fierce, funny and unflinchingly honest.”<br /><em></em>_     <br />      —Kirkus <br />_<em></em><br />“A candid and darkly comic account of her eight years as an international correspondent for the <em>Chicago Tribune</em>…With self-deprecation and a keen eye for the absurd, Barker describes her evolution from a green, fill-in correspondent to an adrenaline junkie… In equal measure, Barker elucidates the deep political ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S.’s role in today’s ‘whiplash between secularism and extremism,’ and blasts Pakistan’s leaders for destroying their nation through endless coups and power jockeying.”<br /><em></em><br />     —_Publishers Weekly_<em></em>  </p><p>"Reporter Kim Barker immersed herself in Afghanistan and Pakistan for nine years and returned with stories that poignantly reflect her deep love for both countries—and important insights into what went wrong. With dark, self-deprecating humor and shrewd insight, Barker chronicles her experiences as a rookie foreign reporter and the critical years in which the Taliban resurged amidst the collapse of the Afghan and Pakistani governments."  </p><p>     —<strong><em>The Daily Beast</em></strong>  </p><p>"Kim Barker's memoir about her five years covering Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Chicago Tribune is brave, funny and outrageous...._The Taliban Shuffle_ will pull you in so deep that you’ll smell the poppies and quake from the bombs."<br /><em></em><br />     —<strong>_</strong>The Minneapolis Star Tribune<br /><em></em>_<br />“Read this and try not to hurt yourself laughing. Who knew war could be so funny? <em>The Taliban Shuffle</em> isn’t like any other book out there about Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s witty, brilliant, and impossible to put down. Think P. J. O’Rourke meets Paul Theroux. Kim Barker is a gifted storyteller, and her intrepid, sometimes wacky travels through these two strife-torn nations will leave you informed, amused, and—depending on your sense of adventure—wanting to tag along on her next trip.”<br /><em></em><br />     —Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of <em>Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone</em><br /><em></em><br />“_The Taliban Shuffle_ is <em>Scoop</em> meets <em>Dispatches</em>, remixed with a twenty-first-century Bollywood soundtrack. Laugh-out-loud funny, it is the true story of what it is like to be a female journalist in one of the world's most exotic war zones, while telling the reader much about what is really going on today in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”  </p><p><em></em>     —Peter Bergen, author of <em>Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden</em> and <em>The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda</em><br /><em></em><br />“Yes, there are bombs. And there is carnage. And all sorts of mayhem. But mostly there are people, human beings even, with appetites—for life, for adventure, for riches, for love. Ms. Barker offers this world—the human world caught in the crosshairs of history—with a vitality rarely seen in accounts of the war. A compelling read that offers readers a glimpse of the goings-on behind the byline.”  </p><p><em></em>     —J. Maarten Troost, author of <em>The Sex Lives of Cannibals</em><br /><em></em><br />“Kim Barker gives a true and amusing picture of hellholes and the reporters on assignment in them. But she breaks the journo code of silence and reveals a trade secret of the hacks who cover hellholes: The hell of the holes is that they’re kind of fun.”<br /><em></em><br />     —P. J. O'Rourke <em></em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Gooch (_City Poet:__The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara_) offers a surprisingly bloodless biography of Flannery O'Connor (1925–1964), who, despite the author's diligent scholarship, remains enigmatic. She emerges only in her excerpted letters, speeches and fiction, where she is as sharp-tongued, censorious, piteously observant and mordantly funny as her beloved short stories. There is little genuinely interesting new material, but there are small gems—the full story of O'Connor's friendship with the mysterious A. of her letters, for instance. Perhaps mindful of the writer's dislike of being exposed in print, Gooch errs on the side of delicacy; he does not sufficiently explore her attitudes toward blacks and how the early onset of lupus left her sequestered on her mother's Georgia farm, without the male companionship she craved. Instead, he plumbs O'Connor's fiction for buried fragments of her daily life, and the revelations are hardly astonishing. Readers looking for more startling tidbits will be disappointed by this account that brims with the quiet satisfactions the author took in her industry (I sit all day typing and grinning like the Cheshire cat), her faith, friends and stoic approach to a debilitating disease. 16 pages of b&amp;w photos. <em>(Feb. 25)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Drawing on recently unsealed letters and an impressive array of interviews, Gooch provides the first major biography of Flannery O�Connor since she died in 1964, at the age of thirty-nine. He presents a writer influenced by the early death of her father and the retreat from city life to country; an Irish Catholic upbringing that evolved into an adult fascination with theology; and a Southern small-town culture whose matrons, including O�Connor�s mother, were happy for her success but put off by the unladylike nature of her work��Everybody here shakes my hand but nobody reads my stories.� Though she spent time in both the Midwest and the Northeast, lupus narrowed the circle of her life to a dairy farm in Milledgeville, Georgia, where she collected exotic birds. Gooch�s account is meticulous, but O�Connor�s sedate, chaste life is pale in comparison with her fantastic fiction�a contrast that underscores her inscrutable genius. <br />Copyright ©2008_ Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker_</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>Cheever: A Life</em>, the author of <em>Cheever</em> is rich with detail and chronicles the mournful arc of a lifetime struggling with a core duplicity that ached throughout his writing life--despite a 41-year marriage, Cheever was a closeted bisexual who simmered with self-loathing. Bailey covers the author's childhood, his time in the army, his life as a writer and his literary rivals (Salinger, in particular, seemed to irritate him), his alcoholism (he would struggle against taking that first "scoop" of gin from the pantry every morning while he was writing), and his struggle to play the role of suburban family man. The book is peppered with literary cameos: Updike, Bellow, and Roth are there, along with his Iowa Writers' Workshop students T.C. Boyle, Ron Hansen, and Allan Gurganus. (While at Iowa Cheever made it a weekly ritual to watch <em>Monday Night Football</em> and eat homemade pasta with fellow instructor John Irving.) Bailey also edited two Library of America editions of Cheever's <em>--Brad Thomas Parsons</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Rebellious Yankee son of a father who fell victim to the Depression and a doo-gooder-turned-businesswoman mother, father to three competitive children he rode mercilessly but adored, chronicler par excellence of the 1950s American suburban scene while deploring all forms of conformity: John Cheever (1912–1982) was a mass of contradictions. In this overlong but always entertaining biography, composed with a novelist's eye, Bailey, biographer of Richard Yates and editor of two volumes of Cheever's work for Library of America (also due in March), was given access to unpublished portions of Cheever's famous journals and to family members and friends. Bailey's book is fine in descriptions of Cheever's reactions to other writers, such as his adored Bellow and detested Salinger. Bailey is also sensitive in describing the prickly dynamic of Cheever's domestic life, lived through a haze of alcoholism and under the shadow of extramarital heterosexual and homosexual relationships. This Ovid in Ossining, who published 121 stories in the <em>New Yorker</em> as well as several bestselling novels, has probably yet to find a definitive position in American letters among academicians. This thoroughly researched and heartfelt biography may help redress that situation. 24 pages of photos. <em>(Mar. 12)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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SUMMARY:
Christianity, one of the world's great religions, has had an incalculable impact on human history. This book, now the most comprehensive and up to date single volume work in English, describes not only the main ideas and personalities of Christian history, its organisation and spirituality, but how it has changed politics, sex, and human society. Diarmaid MacCulloch ranges from Palestine in the first century to India in the third, from Damascus to China in the seventh century and from San Francisco to Korea in the twentieth. He is one of the most widely travelled of Christian historians and conveys a sense of place as arrestingly as he does the power of ideas. He presents the development of Christian history differently from any of his predecessors. He shows how, after a semblance of unity in its earliest centuries, the Christian church divided during the next 1400 years into three increasingly distanced parts, of which the western Church was by no means always the most important: he observes that at the end of the first eight centuries of Christian history, Baghdad might have seemed a more likely capital for worldwide Christianity than Rome. This is the first truly global history of Christianity.


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<h3>From</h3><p>Travel writer de Botton sees the airport as the nexus of all that plagues and fascinates us about modern life: environmental destruction, high technology, constant movement, glittering distractions, consumerist temptations, and social interaction and isolation. Having accepted an invitation from British Airways to spend a week at its home, Terminal 5 of Heathrow, he is given unprecedented access to all the parts of the airport that travelers don’t generally see. So, along with the shopping areas and arrival and departure and baggage-claim areas, he wanders into the huge stations for airplane repairs, the vast storage areas for rejected samples for cabin paraphernalia, the behind-the-scene offices, and the massive food-preparation areas. From a desk announcing his position as writer in residence, de Botton engages in conversations with business travelers, parting lovers, vacationing families, and the myriad workers—stationary and passing through—for whom the airport is workplace. Author of the best-selling The Art of Travel (2002), de Botton is amusing and lyrical in his observations of our modern comings and goings. Photographs add to the allure of this engaging look at air travel. --Vanessa Bush </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Simultaneously poignant and terribly funny . . . De Botton's most imaginative work yet." —_Spectator_  </p><p>"Funny, charming, and slender enough to pack in your carry-on." —_Daily Mail_  </p><p>"Surprising. . . . His observations on airport life are wry and thought-provoking." —_Telegraph_  </p><p>"Shrewd, perceptive and gently ironic." —_Independent_  </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Mark Vonnegut on <em>Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So</em></strong></p><p>I wrote <em>Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So</em> because I was increasingly annoyed with my younger self, who had wrapped up everything with a bow. You can try but you don’t just get to get over mental illness at age twenty-five, go to medical school, write a book, get married and call it a wrap.</p><p>In the seventies I was in so in love with the medical model I almost thought I had invented it. "No shame. No blame." I was thrilled to not have my health be dependent on the sanity of society or the wellness of those around me. I was magnanimous about not wanting to credit insight or hard work or circumstances like the kindness of others. Now, the medical model has morphed into "Shut up and take your pills." What passes for care is medication, medication, and more medication, the purpose of which is only incidentally and occasionally to help the patient get a life.</p><p>Much of mental illness is genetic, but I’m now quite sure there are people with more or less the same genetics I have who never go crazy and others who never get well. As a kid who wrote a little and painted a little and played a little music, I certainly didn’t want my mental health riding on anything as flimsy as my creative abilities but, among other things, I’ve come to see that a willingness to write, paint and play music is more than a little important to progress and just trying to keep my feet under me.</p><p>It was the feeling that good things had happened to me in spite of myself, that I had a rich life that showed itself in my house and how I practiced pediatrics and how we lived as a family that made me want to write <em>Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So</em>. I’m grateful to the gritty clench-jawed kid who wrote </p><hr /><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Two not unrelated challenges--being novelist Kurt Vonnegut's son and suffering episodes of schizophrenia--shape, but don't confine, this mordantly witty, slightly subversive memoir. Vonnegut (The Eden Express) weathered a scruffy childhood with his as yet obscure dad ("I'll always remember my father as the world's worst car salesman") and was hospitalized for three bouts of psychosis in his 20s. He recovered and went on to Harvard Medical School and a successful career in pediatrics--then a fourth psychotic break upended him 14 years after the first one. (Taken to the hospital where he worked, he found himself greeting colleagues while tied to a gurney.) Vonnegut vividly conveys the bizarre logic of the voices and delusions that occasionally plagued him, which he finds not much nuttier than what passes for normalcy. (He's especially incensed by the insurance bureaucracies he thinks are ruining medicine.) His father's son, he writes with a matter-of-fact absurdism--"The patient who just died lies there quietly and everyone else stops rushing around trying to do something about it"--champions misfits, and attacks the system. All his own are Vonnegut's hard-won insights into the value of a humble, useful life picked up from pieces. Photos. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>The Enchantress of Florence</em> is about the power of story--whether it is the imagined life of a Mughal queen, or the devastating secret held by a silver-tongued Florentine. Make no mistake, it is Rushdie who is the true "enchanter" of this story, conjuring readers into his gilded fairy tale from the very first sentence: "In the day's last light the glowing lake below the palace-city looked like a sea of molten gold." At once bawdy, gorgeous, gory, and hilarious, <em>The Enchantress of Florence</em> is a study in contradiction, highlighted in its barbarian philosopher-king who detests his bloodthirsty heritage even while he carries it out. Full of rich sentences running nearly the length of a page, Rushdie's 10th novel blends fact and fable into a challenging but satisfying read. <em>--Daphne Durham</em>  </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Renaissance Florence's artistic zenith and Mughal India's cultural summit—reached the following century, at Emperor Akbar's court in Sikri—are the twin beacons of Rushdie's ingenious latest, a dense but sparkling return to form. The connecting link between the two cities and epochs is the magically beautiful hidden princess, Qara Köz, so gorgeous that her uncovered face makes battle-hardened warriors drop to their knees. Her story underlies the book's circuitous journey.A mysterious yellow-haired man in a multicolored coat steps off a rented bullock cart and walks into 16th-century Sikri: he speaks excellent Persian, has a stock of conjurer's tricks and claims to be Akbar's uncle. He carries with him a letter from Queen Elizabeth I, which he translates for Akbar with vast incorrectness. But it is the story of Akbar's great-aunt, Qara Köz, that the man (her putative son) has come to the court to tell. The tale dates to the time of Akbar's grandfather, Babar (Qara Köz's brother), and it involves her relationship with the Persian Shah. In the Shah's employ is Janissary general Nino Argalia, an Italian convert to Islam, whose own story takes the narrative to Renaissance Florence. Rushdie eventually presents an extended portrait of Florence through the eyes of Niccolò Machiavelli and Ago Vespucci, cousin of the more famous Amerigo. Rushdie's portrayal of Florence pales in comparison with his depiction of Mughal court society, but it brings Rushdie to his real fascination here: the multitudinous, capillary connections between East and West, a secret history of interchanges that's disguised by standard histories in which West discovers East.Along the novel's roundabout way, Qara Köz does seem more alive as a sexual obsession in the tales swapped by various men than as her own person. Genial Akbar, however, emerges as the most fascinating character in the book. Chuang Tzu tells of a man who dreams of being a butterfly and, on waking up, wonders whether he is now a butterfly dreaming he is a man. In Rushdie's version of the West and East, the two cultures take on a similar blended polarity in Akbar as he listens to the tales. Each culture becomes the dream of the other. <em>(June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>In 1996, 26-year-old Peter Hessler arrived in Fuling, a town on China's Yangtze River, to begin a two-year Peace Corps stint as a teacher at the local college. Along with fellow teacher Adam Meier, the two are the first foreigners to be in this part of the Sichuan province for 50 years. Expecting a calm couple of years, Hessler at first does not realize the social, cultural, and personal implications of being thrust into a such radically different society. In <em>River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze</em>, Hessler tells of his experience with the citizens of Fuling, the political and historical climate, and the feel of the city itself.</p><p>"Few passengers disembark at Fuling ... and so Fuling appears like a break in a dream--the quiet river, the cabins full of travelers drifting off to sleep, the lights of the city rising from the blackness of the Yangtze," says Hessler. A poor city by Chinese standards, the students at the college are mainly from small villages and are considered very lucky to be continuing their education. As an English teacher, Hessler is delighted with his students' fresh reactions to classic literature. One student says of Hamlet, "I don't admire him and I dislike him. I think he is too sensitive and conservative and selfish." Hessler marvels, </p><blockquote><p>You couldn't have said something like that at Oxford. You couldn't simply say: I don't like Hamlet because I think he's a lousy person. Everything had to be more clever than that ... you had to dismantle it ... not just the play itself but everything that had ever been written about it.</p></blockquote><p>Over the course of two years, Hessler and Meier learn more they ever guessed about the lives, dreams, and expectations of the Fuling people.</p><p>Hessler's writing is lovely. His observations are evocative, insightful, and often poignant--and just as often, funny. It's a pleasure to read of his (mis)adventures. Hessler returned to the U.S. with a new perspective on modern China and its people. After reading <em>River Town</em>, you'll have one, too. <em>--Dana Van Nest</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In China, the year 1997 was marked by two momentous events: the death of Deng Xiaoping, the country's leader for two decades, and the return of Hong Kong after a century and a half of British rule. A young American who spent two years teaching English literature in a small town on the Yangtze, Hessler observed these events through two sets of eyes: his own and those of his alter ego, Ho Wei. Hessler sees China's politics and ceremony with the detachment of a foreigner, noting how grand political events affect the lives of ordinary people. The passing of Deng, for example, provokes a handful of thoughtful and unexpected essays from Hessler's students. The departure of the British from Hong Kong sparks a conversational "Opium War" between him and his nationalist Chinese tutor. Meanwhile, Ho Wei, as Hessler is known to most of the townspeople, adopts a friendly and unsophisticated persona that allows him to learn the language and culture of his surroundings even as Hessler's Western self remains estranged. The author conceives this memoir of his time in China as the collaborative effort of his double identity. "Ho Wei," he writes, "left his notebooks on the desk of Peter Hessler, who typed everything into his computer. The notebooks were the only thing they truly shared." Yet it's clear that, for Hessler, Ho Wei is more than a literary device: to live in China, he felt compelled to subjugate his real identity to a character role. Hessler has already been assured the approval of a select audience thanks to the New Yorker's recent publication of an excerpt. (Feb.) <br />Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From</h3><p>Even during the dominance of the Roman Empire, Venice and Venetians were regarded as distinct by their neighbors. They spoke Latin, and later Italian, in an unusual dialect. Their geographic position as an island in a lagoon contributed to their fierce spirit of independence, but it also positioned them to control trade routes to and from the East. Ackroyd, the novelist, biographer, and writer of tributes to great urban centers (London), has captured the rich tradition, beauty, and vibrancy of this magnificent city in a survey that combines political and artistic history with aspects of a travelogue. Ackroyd moves back and forth in time as he examines the growth of Venice, from prehistoric settlement to its place in both the Roman and Byzantine empires to the present time. As he describes the development of the art and architectural treasures, he includes informative and charming diversions on various traditions, events, and personalities. For those who have visited or hope to visit the “Pearl of the Adriatic,” this work will be a treasure. --Jay Freeman </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“Ackroyd — the marvelously erudite and staggeringly industrious English writer — [has compiled] an encyclopedic amount of general and arcane factual information and then [arranged] it less chronologically than thematically — much as one might encounter it in the course of a long walk over fascinating terrain in the company of a knowledgeable but never pedantic companion. It's an experience rendered all the more agreeable by the independent turn of Ackroyd's critical imagination and lapidary quality of his prose.”<br />—_Los Angeles Times<br />_<br />"Peter Ackroyd fully explores one of the world’s most undeniably glorious cities.... Like his acclaimed <em>London</em>, Ackroyd’s account isn’t a chronological history of this charming Italian metropolis. The structure and style of <em>Venice</em> is engagingly impressionistic and digressive.... Magnificently crafted."<br />—_The Boston Globe<br />_<br />"[_Venice: Pure City_] is a swarm - a storm - of dazzling details that coalesce into an artful picture.... Ackroyd's is a glittering introduction to Venice. There is not much new that can be said about the city, but Ackroyd says it with ripeness - like those Venetian pears, only now it is the reader's appetite that is whetted. Godspeed."<br />—_San Francisco Chronicle_  </p><p>"Ackroyd's marvelous book certainly adds to the allure of this magical metropolis."<br />—_Minneapolis Star Tribune<br />_<br />"Peter Ackroyd understands Venice, perhaps even better than modern Venetians. <em>Venice: Pure City</em>is a grand biography of a subject that is as complicated and labyrinthine as Venice’s tiny alleyways. It is impossible not to get lost there, and that is why Ackroyd may have been the best person to write such an insightful book.... He approaches Venice the way a scholar would a historical figure, because that’s what Venice is. Yet he isn’t locked into a timeline: He enjoys pushing the tides of history back and forth. It’s an engaging technique."<br />—_Newark Star-Ledger_  </p><p>"Thoughtful, thorough and insightful, [Ackroyd] is at least as much interpreter as historian. He brings this iconic city to vivid life ... While Venice is by no means an orthodox traveler's guide, it's a wonderful introduction to a city that has cast a particular spell since the fifth century ... A portrait so vivid it's aromatic ... Intoxicating."<br />—_Pittsburgh Post-Gazette_  </p><p>"In an effortless style, [Ackroyd] seamlessly stitches the storied city's crazy quilt of past and present. The watery origins, the architecture that rises and seams to float on a sea of glass, the early settlers and the key players are all rendered with a historian's curiosity and a novelist's feel for plot."<br />—_The Free Lance-Star_ (Fredericksburg, VA)  </p><p>“Ackroyd provides a history of and meditation on the actual and imaginary Venice in a volume as opulent and paradoxical as the city itself. . . . How Ackroyd deftly catalogues the overabundance of the city’s real and literary tropes and touchstones is itself a kind of tribute to <em>La Serenissima</em>, as Venice is called, and his seductive voice is elegant and elegiac. The resulting book is, like Venice, something rich, labyrinthine and unique that makes itself and its subject both new and necessary.”<br />—_Publishers Weekly_  </p><p>Praise from the UK:  </p><p>"Ackroyd is hugely intelligent and formidably industrious; there can be few people, Venetian or foreign, who know Venice better than he." —John Julius Norwich, _The Telegraph<br />_<br />"Ackroyd covers an immense amount of ground with verve and elegance." —_The Independent<br />_<br />"Venice tends to provoke extreme reactions. People love it or hate it. Ackroyd’s response, however, is pleasingly complex. He observes his subject with a forensic yet morally neutral eye. You can tell he is fascinated by the place; but he is not blind to its many flaws."  —_The Times<br />_<br />"Irresistible, entrancing, occasionally weird but undeniably grand." —_Literary Review<br />_</p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Hastings is a military historian in the grand tradition . . . He is equally adept at analyzing the broad sweep of strategy and creating thrilling set pieces that put the reader in the cockpit of a fighter plane or the conning tower of a submarine."<br />--Evan Thomas, _The New York Times Book Review<br />_<br />"Compelling . . . To the broad sweep of military events Mr. Hastings adds myriad human stories . . . and he does not hesitate to offer his own keen analysis along the way."<br />--Peter R. Kann, <em>The Wall Street Journal</em>  </p><p>"The great merit of Max Hastings's many books on war is his skill at bringing the numbers, as it were, down to earth. Through the imaginative power of his writing, we get an inkling . . . of what it must have been like to slog one's way up a cliff at Iwo Jima, or be firebombed in Tokyo."<br />--Ian Buruma, _New York Review of Books<br />_<br />"Hastings has another winner . . . This book is first-rate popular history, stiffened with a strongly stated point of view . . . A close-up and personal look at war as it affected real people, and how it felt to them at the time."--Harry Levins, <em>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</em>  </p><p>"Explosive, argumentative, intensely researched . . . Demands to be read. A book of stunning disclosures."--Tom Mackin, <em>Sunday Star-Ledger</em>  </p><p>"[A] masterful interpretive narrative . . . Hastings is both comprehensive and finely acute."<br />--_Booklist_  </p><p>"Spectacular . . . Searingly powerful. Hastings makes important points about the war in the East that have been all too rarely heard." <br />--Andrew Roberts, <em>The Sunday Telegraph</em>  </p><p>"A triumph . . . The key to the book's success lies not in its accessibility, nor in its vivid portraits of the key figures in the drama--although it has both--but in something else entirely: the author's supremely confident ambition."<br />--Laurence Rees, _The Sunday Times<br />_<br />"Extraordinary . . . Anyone who believes that we're all living through a uniquely troubled time should read this . . . book." <br />--Georgie Rose, _The Sunday Herald<br />_<br />"This is a book not only for military history buffs but for anyone who wants to understand what happened in half the world during one of the bloodiest periods of the blood-soaked 20th century."<br />--_The Spectator<br />_<br />"Highly readable . . . An admirably balanced re-examination of the last phases of a conflict that it is not fashionable to remember."<br />--Dan van der Vat, _The Guardian<br />_<br />"Engrossing . . . Its originality lies in the meticulousness of the author's research and the amazing witnesses he has found."<br />--Murray Sayle, _The Evening Standard<br />_<br />"Hastings is . . . a master of the sort of detail that illuminates the human cost. It is the way he leaps so adeptly to and fro between the vast panorama and the tiny snapshot pictures that makes him such a readable historian."--_Mail on Sunday<br />_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Hailed in Britain as “Spectacular . . . Searingly powerful” (Andrew Roberts, <em>The Sunday Telegraph</em>), a riveting, impeccably informed chronicle of the final year of the Pacific war. In his critically acclaimed <em>Armageddon</em>, Hastings detailed the last twelve months of the struggle for Germany. Here, in what can be considered a companion volume, he covers the horrific story of the war against Japan.  </p><p>By the summer of 1944 it was clear that Japan’s defeat was inevitable, but how the drive to victory would be achieved remained to be seen. The ensuing drama—that ended in Japan’s utter devastation—was acted out across the vast stage of Asia, with massive clashes of naval and air forces, fighting through jungles, and barbarities by an apparently incomprehensible foe. In recounting the saga of this time and place, Max Hastings gives us incisive portraits of the theater’s key figures—MacArthur, Nimitz, Mountbatten, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. But he is equally adept in his portrayals of the ordinary soldiers and sailors—American, British, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese—caught in some of the war’s bloodiest campaigns.  </p><p>With unprecedented insight, Hastings discusses Japan’s war against China, now all but forgotten in the West, MacArthur’s follies in the Philippines, the Marines at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the Soviet blitzkrieg in Manchuria. He analyzes the decision-making process that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—which, he convincingly argues, ultimately saved lives. Finally, he delves into the Japanese wartime mind-set, which caused an otherwise civilized society to carry out atrocities that haunt the nation to this day.  </p><p><em>Retribution</em> is a brilliant telling of an epic conflict from a master military historian at the height of his powers. </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"We constantly hear that each of us will have multiple careers in a lifetime. The trick is to know how to switch from one to another. No one understands the process better than Pamela Mitchell, and she shares her secrets here in the <em>The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention</em>" <br />-_Fast Company_, "The Best Books for Business Owners 2010"   </p><p>"Pamela Mitchell is an expert in the world of career change." <br />-_BusinessWeek_   </p><p>"Although there are at least 1,300 career coaches nationwide -- and countless books on career change -- Mitchell is among a handful who are pioneering a new spin on the concept: lifestyle reinvention.'" <br />-_More_   </p><p>"Use Mitchell's 10 makes-sense laws as your guide to opportunity..." <br />-_Palm Beach Post_   </p><p>"Mitchell's advice is spot on." <br />-_Dallas Morning News_   </p><p>"Pamela Mitchell, CEO of the Reinvention Institute, expertly pairs personal stories of career 180s with practical advice for how you, too, can veer off course-and still be OK. She doesn't promise it'll be easy, but of all the useful tools she offers, her honesty is the best." <br />-_Harvard Business Review _   </p><p>"After reading Pamela Mitchell's book, I am left with an overwhelming feeling that anyone can reinvent their careers and their lives by following this simple step-by-step instruction manual. Easy to Read, Easy to Follow, Easy to Succeed..." <br />-Norm Brodsky, Senior Contributing Editor <em>INC. Magazine</em>, author of <em>The Knack</em>   </p><p>"Move over <em>What Color is Your Parachute?</em>--this book is the new go-to-guide for career changers!" <br />-Lauren Doliva, Managing Partner, Chief Advisor Network, Heidrick &amp; Struggles   </p><p>"In <em>The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention</em>, Pamela Mitchell shares the secret strategies that successful reinventors use to land on their feet, even in turbulent times. If you want a practical plan for a richer career and life--in any kind of job market--read this book." <br />-Barbara Stanny, bestselling author of <em>Secrets of Six Figure Women</em> and <em>Overcoming Underearning(r)</em>   </p><p>"It's never too late to re-write your script...and Pamela Mitchell is the perfect person to show you how. If <em>The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention</em> doesn't make you stop worrying about the future and start taking action to create your dream, nothing will." <br />-Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D., author of <em>Stop Sabotaging Your Career</em> and <em>Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>Today, career reinvention is the new-and only-form of job security.</strong>   </p><p>Until recently, most people expected to have one career with maybe two or three job changes in a lifetime. Now, experts advise us to expect seven or eight jobs with multiple <em>industry</em> changes. If you want to survive, you need the ability to transfer and repurpose your skills in a completely new direction.   </p><p>In <em>The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention</em>, Pamela Mitchell shows you how your knowledge, experience, and skill sets can be adapted to a wide spectrum of industries and jobs, and provides the tools to help you navigate the full art of career change.   </p><p>With ten clear, insightful, and practical "laws," you can: <br />* Market your skills to anyone <br />* Transition seamlessly from one industry to another <br />* Find fulfillment in a career that fits you   </p><p>From finding a vision to creating your action plan, <em>The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention</em> walks you through your own path to a new career, with success stories, workbook exercises, and actionable steps to start your new life today. </p>


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Greenfeld, the half-Japanese, half-Caucasian American Tokyo correspondent for The Nation, has written about a little-known, seamy subculture in Japan that became more prominent with the collapse of the "bubble" economy of the 1980s. In 12 compelling chapters, Greenfeld covers the grimier aspects of Tokyo's urban society: organized crime, the nightclub scene, motorcycle gangs (the eponymous bosozoku), computer hackers, ultra-right-wing nationalists, and the porn industry. His focus on individuals brings a sense of immediacy as his high-speed narrative highlights the flaws in Japan's society without bashing it. Steven Wardell's forthcoming Rising Sons and Daughters: Life Among Japan's New Young (Plympton Pr. International) focuses on teens in Kyushu and presents a more positive picture of their lives. These two books show Japan as a complex society much more like ours than people may have realized. The absence of an index makes this more suitable for most public libraries.<br /><em>Katharine L. Kan, Aiea P.L., Hawaii</em><br />Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Americans duped into believing that Japan has few social problems outside of political corruption, horrendous university entrance exams, and the suppression of women into lifelong menial jobs and unsatisfying lives as caretakers for their husbands will be shocked by some of Greenfeld's revelations: widespread methamphetamine use among youth, a booming pornographic industry (as a result of Japan's foray into sexual freedom), and a skyrocketing juvenile larceny rate. Organized crime is a problem also; the Yakuza is being replenished with disillusioned youth from the country's youth gangs, and its proliferation on the Japanese mainland and its rapid expansion overseas are frightening. The "speed tribes," or <em>Bosozoku</em>, is a catch-all term that refers to the plethora of diverse youth subcultures that have spawned as a result of Japan's famous "bubble economy." Japan's obsession with things Western intensified during the boom in the 1980s (now predicted to crash sometime in the 1990s) and is proving disastrous to its social fabric. A day in the life of a computer hacker, the "hostess" industry (with few remnants of the geisha tradition that preceded it), and a motley crew of unconventional Japanese youth as they go about their unconventional and sometimes reckless lives are some of Greenfeld's other subjects. Fascinating reading, will make many Americans rethink stereotypes they may have about the Japanese. <em>Kevin Roddy</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Mourning the demise of Gourmet magazine, series editor Hughes asks "is food writing a dying art?" Readers of this year's anthology will offer a resounding "nowhere close." Ethical concerns of organic and locavore movements and free range meats are tidily summed up by now-famous vegetarian Jonathan Safran Foer. Whereas MIT grad J. Kenji Lopez-Alt shares a recipe for making French fries as good as what McDonalds makes: "salty, crisp, light, and not greasy." At the other end of the spectrum, New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton offers a version of Nora Ephron's meat loaf recipe to die for. Pulitzer prize winner Jonathan Gold tracks the shifting locations of Los Angeles' street vendors and Tod Kliman hunts down Peter Chang, the elusive "perfect chef" who moves between Chinese restaurants, from D.C. to Atlanta, to avoid celebrity. Along the way Kliman learns that innocuous Chinese restaurants can have secret menus for the cognoscenti and experiences the exquisite pleasure of hot peppers that scorch and even numb. And travelling to Tokyo, Kevin Pang discovered to his great surprise that eating a bowl of ramen "satisfied every taste sense man is blessed to experience." A sparkling collection. <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>In a time where the most elemental of activities—consuming sustenance—is an increasingly political act, it’s not surprising that there might be more attention paid to talking about eating food than there is in actually eating food. Series editor Hughes sheds a tear for the shuttering of the venerable Gourmet, but maintains that “the rumors of food writing’s death have been greatly exaggerated.” Big changes in the culinary world are visible here, from Michael Steinberger’s lament over the passing of France’s reign of culinary mastery (all hail Spain) to Tim Carman’s plea to put Zagat out of its misery. But the trend du jour continues to be locavorism, evidenced by Carla Capalbo’s take on the epicenter of molecular gastronomy, El Bulli, getting dethroned as best restaurant in the world by a small Copenhagen joint that focuses on seasonal, place-specific ingredients. Despite all the delicious food fussiness on parade, though, the best of the best might just be Jason Sheehan’s hilarious (if you’re an industry insider) or terrifying (if you’re an unsuspecting patron) account of flash-defrosting 80-pound blocks of haddock on a frantic fish-fry Friday. --Ian Chipman </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Sometimes the simplest-seeming cookbooks yield the most surprising revelations, as in nutritionist Yarnell's guide to one-pot cooking. Yarnell's signature infusion method, cooking in a dutch oven at a very hot temperature renders layered vegetables, starches and proteins like tandoori salmon and kale with butternut squash over basmati rice, into a surprisingly well-textured, hearty meal. (It's also foolproof: when you smell the aroma of dinner, you're three minutes from the end of the cooking time.) Dishes like citrus ginger chicken with root vegetables; penne puttanesca; and fiesta steak are simple choices for busy weeknight dinners. The real genius, of course, is the single pot—Yarnell's all-inclusive meals don't require the usual juggling of oven times to coordinate complementary dishes, and cleanup is simplified even further by a preliminary canola oil spritz on the pot. Her emphasis on whole foods, abundant servings of vegetables, moderate amounts of protein and the incorporation of whole grains like amaranth and quinoa justifies her health claims. Yarnell also guides readers in creating their own custom versions of the one-pot meal, even offering a one-pot meal weekly grocery list. <em>(Dec.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“When I hear ‘crisp vegetables, tender meats, incredible flavor, ONE pot, and ready in less than thirty minutes,’ I say COUNT ME IN! That’s my Quick Fix mantra! Who doesn’t cherish strategies that deliver wholesome, family-friendly meals in just minutes? All in one pot, which makes for easy cleanup. <em>Glorious One-Pot Meals</em> offers tons of variety, from the fabulously ordinary to the incredibly extraordinary. Fish dishes range from Very, Very Mild Fish to Honey-Chili Trout and Pistachio Halibut (with lavender!). Elizabeth tempts you with All-American Pot Roast and Corned Beef and Cabbage and then wows you with Amaranth Chili. Ready to move beyond Simply Chicken and Chicken Marsala? Then try the African Peanut Butter Stew. Or leap from Glorious Macaroni and Cheese to Aloo Gobi (a flavor-packed, Indian feast). If you’ve got a pot, you’ve got a meal. There’s truly something for everyone.   </p><p>—Robin Miller, host of Food Network’s “Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller” </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company</em> begins, appropriately, amidst a time of </p><p>Fortunately, Royster, an accomplished historian and author of the Francis Parkman Prize-winning __, had more luck getting something valuable out of the Dismal Swamp than his Colonial predecessors. His richly detailed, circuitous saga makes for dense, satisfying reading. <em>--Paul Hughes</em></p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The swamp featured in this book is a vast marshy region in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. In 1763, a small group of investorsAincluding George WashingtonApurchased a huge chunk of this terrain. With the help of slave labor, they hoped to drain parts of the land to make room for farms for tobacco and other crops. They also planned to sell timber and wood shingles from the area's dense forests and to profit from roads and canals built through the land to transport commerce. The Dismal Swamp Company was largely a failure, not turning any profits until a decade after Washington's death. More than tracing the unhappy history of one business enterprise, this impressively annotated book by distinguished historian Royster (Louisiana State Univ.) provides a fascinating panorama of colorful characters (including numerous shady entrepreneurs), interesting glimpses into master-slave relations, and expert analyses of both American and British economic developments. Recommended for university and large public libraries.AThomas J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., NY <br />Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, IL, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has.  </p><p>THE PALE KING remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply intriguing and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions--questions of life's meaning and of the ultimate value of work and family--through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for a writer who dared to take on the most daunting subjects the human spirit can imagine. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>David Foster Wallace wrote the novels <em>Infinite Jest</em> and <em>The Broom of the System </em>and the story collections <em>Oblivion</em>, <em>Brief Interviews with Hideous Men</em>, and <em>Girl With Curious Hair</em>. His nonfiction includes _Consider the Lobster<strong>,</strong>A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again_, <em>Everything and More</em><em>, </em>and <em>This Is Water</em>. He died in 2008. </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Adrian Healey is magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life; unprepared too for the afternoon in Salzburg when he will witness the savage murder of a Hungarian violinist; unprepared to learn about the Mendax device; unprepared for more murders and wholly unprepared for the truth. Unprepared or not, Adrian is led through an adventure that takes in toast, Piccadilly rent-boys, Charles Dickens's lost pornographic novel, an international espionage conspiracy, disgraceful scenes on the cricket field and a machine that compels its victims to tell the truth.</p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Abducted from a life of privilege, she was sold into slavery in a distant land. For Lady Janet Leslie there would be no escaping the harem of the wealthy and powerful Sultan Selim. But from the moment the handsome ruler spied his breathtaking "Cyra," was captivated -- by the fiery desire that coursed through his veins. She belonged to him, body and soul -yet it was he who was enslaved.</p><p>Praised for her keen sense of history and remarkable storytelling powers, the bestselling author of The Spitfire displays the passionate magic that has made her a national favorite -sweeping the reader into the romantic past, from the magnificence of Renaissance Europe to the perfumed splendor of a Sultan's court.</p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Beatrice Small lives with her husband, George;<br />Deuteromony, the long-haired Maine Coon Cat;<br />Checquers, the fat black and white cat with the pink <br />ears; Nicky the Cockatiel; and Gilberto, the cranky <br />Half-Moon Conure, in the English speaking <br />community in New York State. The family heir, Tom,<br />is now a college man. Beatrice Small is the author of <br />_The Kadin, Love Wild and Fair, Adora,<br />Skye O'Malley, Unconquered, Beloved,<br />All The Sweet Tomorrows,<br />This Heart Of Mine, Enchantress Mine,<br />Blaze Wyndham, Lost Love Found,<br />The Spitfire, and A Love For All Time.<br />She loves hearing from her readers. You can write to <br />her at P.O. Box 765, Southold, NY 11971_</p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Nobody could have written this book except Dean Faulkner Wells. It is not only charming, poignant and witty, it is a priceless contribution to America's rich literary history."<strong>—</strong>Winston Groom, author, _Forrest Gump  </p><p>_"Dean Faulkner Wells has written a memorable family story, full of the intimacies of place and cherished connections, that not incidentally sheds unexpected, humanizing light on her august uncle, William Faulkner."--Thomas McGuane  </p><p>"A funny, extremely readable, incredibly likable memoir of what it was like to grow up with the great man….A wonderful book."--Mark Childress, author of <em>Crazy in Alabama</em>  </p><p>"_Read Every Day by the Sun_, then read <em>Go Down Moses</em>, <em>The Hamlet</em>, <em>The Town</em>, <em>The Mansion</em>, and you will feel you have been on an archaeological dig with a master. Dean Faulkner Wells knows where the gold is buried, where the heart strings sang, where the understanding and love were engendered….Burn the deconstructionists’ texts. <em>Every day By The Sun </em>is all you need."—Ellen Gilchrist   </p><p>"I can't recall the last time I enjoyed a book as much as <em>Every Day By The Sun</em>. Dean Faulkner Wells has performed a miracle: She’s brought a great man back to life, and in doing so she’s summoned a time and a place that now seem too far gone. I love her clean, sharp, unpretentious prose, the well-hewn stories piled one on top of the other, the intimate revelations about a family that belongs to all of us but belonged to her first. William Faulkner is a fascinating character indeed, but it is Wells herself whom I found most captivating. She’s somebody to fall in love with and never get over."--John Ed Bradley, author, <em>Tupelo Nights</em>  </p><p>"A fresh, affectionate view of 'Pappy,' the great and difficult writer."--Roy Blount, Jr.  </p><p>"Part biography, part memoir, Wells' work does much to humanize the man who is often remembered only for his words. A must-read for Faulkner-philes."--_Kirkus _  </p><p>"Marvelously evocative, intimate, and deeply moving."<br />--John Berendt </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In <em>Every Day by the Sun, </em>Dean Faulkner Wells recounts the story of the Faulkners of Mississippi, whose legacy includes pioneers, noble and ignoble war veterans, three never-convicted mur­derers, the builder of the first railroad in north Mississippi, the founding president of a bank, an FBI agent, four pilots (all brothers), and a Nobel Prize winner, arguably the most important Ameri­can novelist of the twentieth century. She also reveals wonderfully entertaining and intimate stories and anecdotes about her family—in particular her uncle William, or “Pappy,” with whom she shared color­ful, sometimes utterly frank, sometimes whimsical, conversations and experiences.   </p><p>            This deeply felt memoir explores the close re­lationship between Dean’s uncle and her father, Dean Swift Faulkner, a barnstormer killed at age twenty-eight during an air show four months be­fore she was born. It was William who gave his youngest brother an airplane, and after Dean’s tragic death, William helped to raise his niece. He paid for her education, gave her away when she was married, and maintained a unique relationship with her throughout his life.   </p><p>            From the 1920s to the early civil rights era, from Faulkner’s winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature to his death in 1962, <em>Every Day by the Sun </em>explores the changing culture and society of Oxford, Mis­sissippi, while offering a rare glimpse of a notori­ously private family and an indelible portrait of a national treasure.  </p>


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"Don Winslow may be the finest crime writer currently working in America. If you've not read the Neal Carey books before, send Busted Flush Press a note of thanks. You're in for a treat."--Robert Crais, best-selling author of "The Sentry""I look most forward to seeing all of the Neal Carey stories published by Busted Flush."--T. Jefferson Parker, best-selling author of "The Border Lords""Kudos to Busted Flush for bringing back Winslow's Neal Carey series. . . . Hands-down one of my favorite series, and it should be a 'must read' for every mystery fan."--Jon Jordan, "CrimeSpree Magazine"Back in print, this is the second novel in the Edgar Award-nominated Neal Carey private eye series by "New York Times" best-seller Don Winslow ("The Dawn Patrol"; "Savages").When chemical genius Robert Pendleton disappears from a conference with all of his research on a new fertilizer, grad student-turned-P.I. Neal Carey follows a dark trail into the heart of China.Don Winslow's first novel, "A Cool Breeze on the Underground," was nominated for an Edgar Award, and his "California Fire and Life" received the Shamus Award. "The Death and Life of Bobby Z" was made into a feature film in 2007 starring Paul Walker and Laurence Fishburne. His latest novel, "Savages," has been purchased by Oliver Stone, who plans to write, produce, and direct the film adaptation. Don lives on an old ranch in the San Diego area with his wife Jean and son Thomas.


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Olsen will have you on the edge of your seat." (Lee Child)" </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The first time was easy. No one ever suspected the victim had been murdered. The crime long buried, the dark passions guiding the killer's hand are still alive. But the need for revenge cannot be denied. Only one person can stop the killing. Only one person can identify the killer. Only one person knows the face of death - is as close as the face in the mirror... </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Oar is the last of her kind -- a resident of the so-called "planet of no return," once the Admiralty's dumping ground for undesirables and those who had become expendable. Oar's transparent body is indestructible. Yet the mind it houses grows weary and will soon surrender to the catatonic torpor that has already claimed the others of her genetically altered human race. But Oar cannot sleep, not yet. There are powerful forces seeking her destruction for reasons unknown. There are old allies who need her assistance and a true history that must be revealed. There is much Oar must accomplish before the "apathetic hibernation" overcomes her, though time is decidedly her enemy. Together with her friend, Admiral Festina Ramos, she must find her final destiny ... and in a vast and volatile universe, destiny is never a sure thing. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>James Alan Gardner is a graduate of the Clarion West Fiction Writers Workshop, and has published numerous works of short fiction in leading genre publications. He is the author of the novel <em>Expendable</em>. A Grand Prize winner of the Writers of the Future contest, he lives with his family in Canada. </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>“The whole work is distinguished by the variety and impressiveness of its incidents; and the author every-where discovers an imagination rich, powerful, and fervid.” —<strong>Samuel Taylor Coleridge</strong></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>When Matthew Lewis’s <em>The Monk</em> was published in 1796, readers were shocked by this gripping and horrific novel. Lewis’s story, which drove the House of Commons—of which he was a member—to deem him licentious and perverse, follows the abbot Ambrosio as he is tempted into a world of incest, murder, and torture by a young girl who has concealed herself in his monastery disguised as a boy. As Ambrosio spirals into hell, the reader encounters an array of haunting characters: the innocent virgin, the Bleeding Nun, the Wandering Jew, an evil prioress, and Lucifer himself.   </p><p>This Modern Library Paperback Classic, set from the unexpurgated first edition of 1796, brings to a new generation of readers a timeless classic of gothic fiction that has influenced writers from Byron and Emily Brontë to Poe and Hawthorne. </p>


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<div><div class="productDescriptionWrapper">   An inveterate traveler and author, Kaplan recently toured the rim of 
the Indian Ocean to inspect its geopolitics. Perspectives on the balance
 of power vary from country to country and speaker to speaker, but most 
agree that India and China are the ascending powers in the region. As 
Kaplan’s passages about Indian Ocean history reflect, the two countries 
can refer to tradition (to the fifteenth-century fleets of Zheng He, in 
China’s case) for their contemporary activities in the Indian Ocean, but
 the plain fact is they are busy for one reason: access to resources. As
 Kaplan journeys from Oman to Pakistan to Burma and Indonesia, the 
specific raw material comes into focus, as does the geopolitical angle 
of safely shipping it to the interested country. Touching on what could 
threaten maritime traffic, such as piracy, ethnic conflicts, or hostile 
control of choke points like the Strait of Malacca, Kaplan is guardedly 
optimistic that interested powers, including the U.S., can benignly 
manage their Indian Ocean affairs. A better-informed world-affairs 
reader will be the result of Kaplan’s latest title. --Gilbert Taylor</div><div class="productDescriptionWrapper"><div class="emptyClear"> </div>
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  <b><u>Praise for MONSOON</u></b><br><br>“An intellectual treat: Beautiful writing is not incompatible with geopolitical imagination and historical flair!” <br><b>—ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, former national security advisor  <br></b><br>“<i>Monsoon </i>is
 a shining example of Robert Kaplan’s ability to combine the most 
intrepid travel with scrupulous research and scholarship. He has been 
proven right many times before, in other ambitious books; given his 
conclusions about the future of South Asia, I do hope he is wrong this 
time.” <br><b>—PAUL THEROUX, author of </b><i><b>Ghost Train to the Eastern Star</b> </i><br> <br>“For
 much of the post–Cold War era, Robert D. Kaplan has been an 
indispensable voice in our search for order in a time of chaos. This 
book on the inescapable new role of the Indian Ocean and its influence 
on America is another enlightening and engaging contribution to our 
understanding of what matters most as the twenty-first century takes 
shape.” <br><b>—JON MEACHAM, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of </b><i><b>American Lion</b> </i><br> <br>“The
 audacity of Robert Kaplan’s approach to geography as fate is 
spellbinding. Whether you agree or disagree with his analysis and 
forecast that the Indian Ocean will occupy the center of global change 
and international politics in the coming decades, you will find this 
erudite study gripping and informative. It is a welcome and important 
addition to the debate about America’s role in a rapidly changing 
world.” <br><b>—JIM HOAGLAND, contributing editor, </b><i><b>The Washington Post</b><br> </i><br>“Kaplan
 . . . inculcates a paradigm shift when he suggests that the site of 
twenty-first-century geopolitical significance will be the Indian Ocean,
 not the northern Atlantic. . . . The book’s political and economic 
focus and forecasts are smart and brim with aperçus on the intersection 
of power, politics, and resource consumption (especially water), and 
give full weight to the impact of colonialism. An ambitious and 
prescient study.” <br><b>—<i>Publishers Weekly </i>(starred review) <br></b> <br>“Kaplan
 is a landscape artist who covers the world with extraordinary 
perception and insight and paints brilliant portraits of people, places,
 history, geopolitics, religion, and big ideas. As usual, Kaplan is one 
step ahead of everyone else as he explores how global power is 
shifting.” <br><b>—AHMED RASHID, author of </b><i><b>Descent into Chaos</b> </i><br> <br>“<i>Monsoon </i>is
 another masterpiece by one of the most compelling writers of our day. 
Anyone interested in the balance of power in our world needs to read 
this book, and fast.” <br><b>—AMY CHUA, Yale University, author of <i>World on Fire </i>and </b><i><b>Day of Empire</b> </i><br> <br>“<i>Monsoon </i>captures
 vividly what many have believed for some time—that the 
twenty-first-century balance of power in the world will rest, more than 
anywhere else, on the fortunes of China, India, and the United States in
 the Indian Ocean. This is a superb book with important lessons for 
Americans.” <br><b>—NICHOLAS BURNS, Harvard University, former undersecretary of state</b></div></div>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This gleeful, clever sequel to 2006's <em>Disappearing Nightly</em> teams up actress and singing waitress Esther Diamond with the magic-savvy but utterly unworldly Max the Magician and his slobbering canine familiar, Nelli, to discover how and why New York's mobsters are being magically duplicated. Complicating matters is Esther's suspicious would-be boyfriend, handsome Irish-Cuban police detective Connor Lopez, who would prefer a straightforward investigation involving neither Esther nor magic. Resnick introduces a colorful cast of gangsters and their associates, including a thrice-bereaved mob widow and an attractive young priest, as she spins a witty, fast-paced mystery around her convincingly self-absorbed chorus-girl heroine. Sexy interludes raise the tension between Lopez and Esther as she juggles magical assailants, her perennially distracted agent, her meddling mother, and wiseguys both friendly and threatening in a well-crafted, rollicking mystery. <em>(Jan.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>"In Laura Resnick's <em>Doppelgangster</em>, the New York actress is 'resting' between roles by working as a singing waitress at a Manhattan mob restaurant because wiseguys tip well. Then duplicated gangsters appear, bullets start flying, and it's up to Esther and her friend Max the Magician to fight Evil by stopping the gang war before it starts killing the wrong people. And if she has time, maybe Esther can actually keep a hot date with her hunky detective friend Lopez, who doesn't believe in magic. Yet. Unplug the phone and settle down for a fast and funny read." <br>--_New York Times_ bestselling author Mary Jo Putney   </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>From the award-winning author of <em>Doppelgangster</em> comes the newest novel in the popular <em>Esther Diamond</em> series </strong>   </p><p>Acting jobs don't grow on fire escapes, so struggling actress Esther Diamond is outraged when her guest role as a hooker on controversial TV drama <em>The Dirty Thirty</em> is jeopardized by zombies, angry spirits, and a voodoo curse. But will Esther's courage backfire and end up leading her to become a human sacrifice on the altar of the sinister supernatural powers that are taking over New York City? </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. In A Garden of Earthly Delights, Oates presents one of her most memorable heroines, Clara Walpole, the beautiful daughter of Kentucky-born migrant farmworkers. Desperate to rise above her haphazard existence of violence and poverty, determined not to repeat her mother’s life, Clara struggles for independence by way of her relationships with four very different men: her father, a family man turned itinerant laborer, smoldering with resentment; the mysterious Lowry, who rescues Clara as a teenager and offers her the possibility of love; Revere, a wealthy landowner who provides Clara with stability; and Swan, Clara’s son, who bears the psychological and spiritual burden of his mother’s ambition.A masterly work from a writer with “the uncanny ability to give us a cinemascopic vision of her America” (National Review), A Garden of Earthly Delights is the opening stanza in what would become one of the most powerful and engrossing story arcs in literature.A Garden of Earthly Delights is the first novel in the Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, Expensive People, them, and Wonderland, are also available from the Modern Library.</p>


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  In My Blood Approves, Peter Townsend fell in love with Alice Bonham, 
but she wasn't his first love. In a new novella told through his 
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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Another fantastic Pitt novel from the master storyteller of the Victorian mystery. 1895 and an increasingly violent tide of political unrest is rising fast all over Europe. Special Branch’s Inspector Thomas Pitt knows that they must find those responsible before England is overrun by reformists intent on overthrowing the government. When he finds himself in pursuit of a suspected terrorist, Pitt has no hesitation in following the chase all the way to France. But events take a sinister turn when Narraway, Pitt’s superior, is accused of involvement in the death of an Irish informant and abruptly removed from office. Aware that her husband’s own career is also in jeopardy if he is not reinstated, Pitt’s wife Charlotte determines to help Narraway clear his name. As Charlotte and Narraway depart for Ireland and Pitt is drawn deeper into the investigation in France, it becomes clear that outside forces have conspired to separate them at a crucial time in the country’s history. With no one else to trust can they make it back to England and stop the revolt before it’s too late? </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>With five novels to her credit, including the acclaimed <em>The Pilot's Wife</em>. News of Jack Lyons's fatal crash sends his wife into shock and emotional numbness: "Kathryn wished she could manage a coma. Instead, it seemed that quite the opposite had happened: She felt herself to be inside of a private weather system, one in which she was continuously tossed and buffeted by bits of news and information, sometimes chilled by thoughts of what lay immediately ahead, thawed by the kindness of others ... frequently drenched by memories that seemed to have no regard for circumstance or place, and then subjected to the nearly intolerable heat of reporters, photographers and curious on-lookers. It was a weather system with no logic, she had decided, no pattern, no progression, no form." The situation becomes even more dire when the plane's black box is recovered, pinning responsibility for the crash on Jack. In an attempt to clear his name, Kathryn searches for any and all clues to the hours before the flight. Yet each discovery forces her to realize that she didn't know her husband of 16 years at all. Shreve's complex and highly convincing treatment of Kathryn's dilemma, coupled with intriguing minor characters and an expertly paced plot, makes <em>The Pilot's Wife</em> really take off. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Reading Anita Shreve's novel, The Pilot's Wife, is like unraveling a thread. From the moment Kathryn Lyons answers the late-night knock at her door, she and the reader set upon a course that leads to a surprising revelation - that Kathryn's life is not what she thought it was.... </p><p>Her search leads her not only to some answers, but to a realization - that the possibility is slim of ever fully knowing those we love, even those we love the most. -- <em>_</em>BookPage_, Laura Wexler, May 1998  </p><p>Shreve has written an oddly gripping popular novel (meaning that it is not experimental; it has a conventional plot and pace) about the wife of an airplane pilot who discovers, after he is killed in a crash in Northern Ireland, that her husband had another life for several years. -- <em>Los Angeles Times, Susan Salter Reynolds</em></p>

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<div><p>When barrister Rex Graves invites a group of friends to Gleneagle Lodge, he doesn't anticipate the arrival of an old flame—much less a dead body or serial killer. Rex's houseguest and colleague Alistair, who recently made an unsuccessful attempt to convict a man for the notorious Moor Murders, now finds himself under the same roof as the killer. Rex must use his skills of intellect, observation, and logic to save Alistair's career and bring the murderer to justice.</p><p><b>Praise:</b></p><b></b><p>"Traditional mystery fans will appreciate the retro Agatha Christie style."—<i>PUBLISHERS WEEKLY</i></p></div>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>4.5 Stars, Top Pick - "Walsh paints a wonderful picture of life in America during WW2. The characters are richly developed, and the story about love and forgiveness are not to be missed." --RT Book Reviews Magazine  </p><p>"The Unfinished Gift is one for the keeper shelf! Dan's book is a fabulous story of redemption and forgiveness. Couldn't put it down and it made me cry which is hard to do."  </p><p>--Colleen Coble, Bestselling Author, The Lightkeeper's Daughter </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Patrick Collins is seven years old, and on his Christmas list are only three items. He wants the army to find his father. He wants to leave his grandfather's house. And, for reasons even he doesn't understand, he wants the soldier that's tucked away in his grandfather's attic.  </p><p>Set at Christmastime in 1943, <em>The Unfinished Gift </em>tells in an engaging, simple style the story of a family, and reminds us of the surprising things that affect powerful change in our hearts--like a young boy's prayers, a shoebox full of love letters, and even an old wooden soldier, long forgotten. This nostalgic story of forgiveness will engage readers everywhere. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>When a narrator opens her tale by declaring, I lost my sanity buying frozen apple juice, the reader knows she's in for a witty ride. The narrator is Leah Thornton, a 27-year-old Southerner, English teacher, and middle-stage alcoholic. She's got her reasons: her only child died of SIDS and her sexual relationship with her husband, Carl, is so troubled their marriage is devolving into a standoff between hostility and frigidity. Leah is steered into rehab by her BFF Molly, which kicks off transformation through growing honesty, self-awareness, and large doses of wry humor. Allan draws many strong, quirky minor characters: Leah's rehab roomie, Theresa, one of a rehab unit's worth of addicts of all manner of substances; Leah's wry obstetrician, Dr. Nolan. A few supporting characters—Carl's wealthy parents—feel more caricatured than characterized, and the largely unsympathetic portrait of Carl makes the reader wonder why the marriage is worth saving at all. A few major developments toward the book's end cry out for greater resolution. But Leah is fascinating, complicated, and above all funny. This nonformulaic look at the spiritual redemption of a life is a bright start; debut novelist Allan is one to watch. <em>(Feb.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Leah Thornton’s life, like her <em>Southern Living</em> home, has great curb appeal. But a paralyzing encounter with a can of frozen apple juice in the supermarket shatters the façade, forcing her to admit that all is not as it appears. When her best friend gets in Leah’s face about her refusal to deal with her life, Leah is forced to make an agonizing decision. Can she sacrifice what she wants to get what she needs? Joy, sadness, and pain converge, testing Leah’s commitment to her marriage, her motherhood, and her faith.</p>

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<div><p></p><blockquote>Loud rock, fast cars, and Cabo.<p>This is the life of Sammy Hagar.</p><p></p></blockquote><p>For almost forty years, Sammy Hagar has been a fixture in rock music. From breaking into the industry with the band Montrose to his multiplatinum solo career to his ride as the front man of Van Halen, Sammy's powerful and unforgettable voice has set the tone for some of the greatest rock anthems ever written—songs like "I Can't Drive 55," "Right Now," and "Why Can't This Be Love."</p><p>In <i>Red</i>, Sammy tells the outrageous story of his tear through rock 'n' roll, detailing the backstage antics and nonstop touring that have made his voice instantly recognizable. Beginning with his musical coming-of-age in the blue-collar towns of California, Sammy traces his rough and determined rise to fame, working harder than anyone else out there and writing songs about the things he loved—fast cars, loud parties, and <i>lots</i> of good times.</p><p>But solo success was just the start,...</p></div>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Born into a spiritually ambiguous family (his parents are nonpracticing Jews who follow the "Infinite Way"), Gartenstein-Ross grew up in the 1980s, in Ashland, Ore., a bucolic, posthippie paradise with a live-and-let-live ethic. Spiritually adrift through his teens, he discovers Islam through a classmate at Wake Forest University. Gartenstein-Ross—young and searching, like so many Americans of his socioeconomic class—quickly falls under the spell of fiercely committed Muslims. He begins working for al Harman, a radical Islamic charity that would eventually be linked to al-Qaeda, and soon starts a simultaneous process of being drawn deeper into the world of radical Islam and being repulsed by its brutal realities. Gartenstein-Ross fights an inner battle between his idealism, shaped by his socially conscious if somewhat scattered liberal upbringing, and his sense of the growing gap between his personal notion of Islam and the mounting list of rules and limitations its practice entails. This would seem compelling stuff, but throughout the story seems blunted. Even the chapters near the end that deal with Gartenstein-Ross's role as an informer for the FBI after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, lack tension and real insight into the dilemma faced by so many cut adrift in Western secular culture. <em>(Feb.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Gartenstein-Ross reveals how widening doctrinal tensions are dividing twenty-first-century expressions of Islam in this memoir of his journey into and out of the faith. Raised by freethinking Jewish parents in a world of former hippies, Gartenstein-Ross finds himself pondering ultimate questions after two brushes with death. Friendship with a progressive Shiite Muslim offers answers. Gartenstein-Ross therefore converts. But both he and his Shiite friend subsequently encounter--and then cross over--the chasm separating moderates from radical orthodoxy. Gartenstein-Ross even works for a Muslim charity diverting funds to terrorists. After eventually turning away from the group hatreds and anti-intellectualism of radical Islam, Gartenstein-Ross embraces Christianity--and becomes an FBI informant. To his great joy, he subsequently discovers that his Shiite friend has likewise turned away from radicalism and has returned to moderate Islam. For readers trying to understand Muslims on both sides of the radical-moderate divide, Gartenstein-Ross' story will be an eye-opener. <em>Bryce Christensen</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Campbell decided as a junior at Princeton that attending Marine Corps Officer Candidate School would look good on his résumé. Three years later, in the spring of 2004, he was in Iraq commanding a platoon known by its radio call sign, Joker One. Campbell tells its story, and his, in an outstanding narrative of the Iraq War. Joker One counted around 40 dudes: country boys and smalltown jocks; a few Hispanics and a single black. Some were college men with futures; some had pasts they preferred to forget. The battalion was assigned to one of Iraq's worst hot spots: the city of Ramadi, where faceless enemies found shelter among 350,000 Iraqi civilians. Joker One fought from street to street, house to house and ambush to ambush for seven straight months. By the end of the tour, even the Gunny's hands had started ceaselessly shaking, Campbell writes. Faced with urgent life-and-death decisions, Campbell had learned that there are no great options... you live with the results and shut up about the whole thing. For all his constant self-questioning, Lt. Campbell brought Joker One home with only one KIA—a record as impressive as his account. <em>(Mar. 17)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Critics praised Campbell as a gifted and deft writer who retells his Iraq tour in “powerful, exacting detail” (Dallas Morning News). While Campbell avoids much analysis of the war overall, or even his platoon’s specific mission, most critics found this to be a virtue. As the New York Times noted, Campbell “never quite puts his finger on the meaning, if any, of the extraordinary violence,” but he does “[lay] it all out for anyone else who wants to have a try.” Only the Denver Post found Campbell’s unreflective style trying, citing that the author “seems awkwardly obtuse when it comes to ascertaining the needs of other people.” Most reviewers, however, admired the book’s honest day-to-day look at attempting to quell the Iraqi insurgency.<br />Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>A brilliantly illuminating book on Mahatma Gandhi that enriches our understanding of his means, his accomplishments, and his failures.Gandhi has long been considered a visionary and a martyr. And certainly, he was that rare leader wholly devoted to his people. But in this ambitious, stirring, original study, Pulitzer Prize–winner Joseph Lelyveld sets out to measure Gandhi’s accomplishments as a politician and an advocate for the downtrodden—against Gandhi’s own expectations and in light of his complex, conflicted feelings about his place in Indian history.Lelyveld traces the roots of Gandhi’s philosophy of reform to South Africa, exploring in unmatched depth the campaigns for social justice he undertook there, and chronicling his continued efforts when he returned to India. We see why he became known as Mahatma—Great Soul—but we also see clearly that he was unable to achieve all the goals he set for himself and his country, suffering bitter disappointment at this shortfall, most profoundly in 1947 when India was partitioned.Here is a profoundly intelligent, vital reconsideration of Gandhi’s extraordinary accomplishments, of his fierce but finally unfulfilled hopes, and of his ever-evolving legacy.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>'Will you do my eulogy?' With those words, Mitch Albom begins his return to non-fiction. In this book he gravitates to an inner-city pastor of a church that houses the homeless. As his own cleric slowly lets go, Albom writes his farewell, having learned that a faithful heart comes in many forms and places.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this entertaining memoir, Paul recounts an unanticipated life-changing experience that began when his wife accepted a three-year work assignment in Beijing. After resettling their three young children from suburban New Jersey to China, Paul, a music and basketball journalist who played guitar only as a hobby, embarked on an exploration of local culture and music. The search prompted his transition from writing about music to being a bona fide rock star in the band Woodie Alan, a cross-cultural blues group named after Alan and his Chinese band member, Woodie Wu, a guitarist with a Stevie Ray Vaughn tattoo. Paul blogged about his Chinese experience and also wrote a column on it for the Wall Street Journal's Web site. His story, however, is much more than a musical and journalistic victory dance. It's equal parts family memoir, travelogue, personal analysis of globalization and expatriate communities, and a view of the world's most populous nation through American eyes. (Mar.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> In this funny, poignant, and entertaining memoir, Alan Paul tells his improbable story of an American music journalist unwittingly becoming a rock star in China with grace and good humor. What�s more, his Chinese American blues rock band, Woodie Alan, earns the title �Beijing�s best band.� This achievement was an accidental by-product of his journalist-wife Rebecca�s position as China bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. He writes with enthusiasm about his new life as an expatriate American in China with three children in tow, the difficulty of learning Chinese (he concludes he has a better chance of communicating with dolphins than mastering its strange words and sounds), getting a driver�s license, and understanding Chinese rules of the road, which, he theorizes, means never having to stop unless you absolutely have to. His experiences playing in a mostly Chinese band offer plenty of entertaining anecdotes that offer culture-shock insights. His Chinese sojourn ending after his wife returned to New York as the paper�s international news editor, Paul looks back with equal doses of regret for the unforgettable opportunities that came his way and anticipation toward a new American future. Immensely enjoyable. --June Sawyers </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>When Mark Bittman is cooking--in every sense of the word--he gets results without fuss. Author of the almost subversively approachable <em>The Best Recipes in the World</em>, a collection of more than 1,000 international recipes, with winners like Chinese Black Bean and Garlic Spareribs; Pan-Seared Swordfish with Tomatoes, Olives, and Capers; and Stewed Lamb Shanks with Mushrooms and Pasilla Chile Sauce, he's done it again. The selection, which covers cooking from Europe and Asia equally, is all can-do and instantly appealing--readers will want to "cook through" the whole chicken section, for example. But Bittman, a master distiller, also knows when more is more, with one caveat: "I don't mind spending a long time cooking a single dish as long as I don't have to pay too much attention to what's going on," he writes. Thus, even fuller-dress recipes like the Indian Red Fish Stew, Fast and Spicy, and Tea-Smoked Duck or Chicken can work for time-deprived cooks. A dessert section that includes the tempting likes of Orange Custard, Walnut Tart, and Caramelized Pars Poached in Red Wine, caps this incisive collection. </p><p>Included also are brief but enlightening notes on ingredients and techniques such as "On Pureeing Soups," which compares all approaches thoughtfully. Symbols indicate a recipe's potential to be made ahead or in less than 30 minutes (true of most), among other variables. With a beverage chapter and menu suggestions that are actually useful, the book will appeal to a wide audience, not only for its recipes but as a source of relaxed instruction. It's an exploration of culinary essentials from a true essentialist. <em>--Arthur Boehm</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Mark Bittman thinks big, as we saw in his Great Wall of Recipes, <em>How to Cook Everything</em>. That doorstop of a title sold big, too; there are now more than 1.7 million copies in print. This volume, in the same I-can't-believe-I-wrote-the-whole-thing vein, collects recipes from 44 countries. Bittman successfully avoids the usual suspects, drawing as heavily from places like North Africa (home of Harira, a satisfying soup traditionally used to end Ramadan fasting) and India (Marinated Lamb "Popsicles" with Fenugreek Cream) as he does from easy targets like Italy and France. The recipes are terrific in both their variety and execution. Bittman, who writes the <em>New York Times</em>'s "Minimalist" column, has a steady authorial voice and a knack for offering clear instructions, and he smoothly makes the exotic seem easy, or at least familiar (e.g., he compares Moroccan Chicken B'stilla to chicken pot pie). The everything-in-one-place format works differently here than it did in his earlier book, which was, ultimately, about technique, not individual recipes, so while there are more than 1,000 recipes here, the reader doesn't acquire quite the same "take-away." Still, for one-stop-shopping on the world's cuisine, it'd be tough to find a better book. <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p><em></em><em>Vegetarian Times’</em>, November/December 2010<br><em></em>“Offers 125 recipes for low-fat, plant-based dishes that don’t skimp on flavor.”</p><p><em></em><em>Vegetarian Living</em> (UK), December 2010<br><em></em>“Jam-packed with mouth-watering vegan recipes that are low in fat and light on calories…[Moskowitz’s] recipes are visual and gastronomic delights, which inspire the reader to try new things and cook outside of their comfort zone, while never underestimating the beauty of the familiar.” </p><p><em></em>ThisDishisVeg.com_, _12/8/10<br><em></em>“[Isa Moskowitz is] the queen of the vegans.”</p><p><strong><em>Portland</em></strong><strong>_ Press Herald_, 12/15/10</strong></p><p>“A snappy cookbook that embraces whole plant foods without a sugary snack in sight. Those avoiding gluten or soy will appreciate the numerous gluten-free and soy-free recipes, and everyone is sure to learn something from the preparation and nutrition tips [Moskowitz] sprinkles throughout the book. Best of all, her recipes for goodies such as OMG Oven-Banked Onion Rings, Tamarind BBQ Tempeh &amp; Sweet Potatoes, and Chipotle Lentil Burgers will make even dedicated carnivores appreciate the pleasures of plant-based meals.”</p><p><strong>Technorati.com, 12/23/10</strong></p><p>“Moskowitz is an innovative source of vegan recipes…_Appetite for Reduction_ offers tempting recipes that are quick and easy, and—most importantly—no- or low-fat…Moskowitz has lots of yummy ideas that prove that dieting doesn’t have to be painful…Moskowitz incorporates the reduction of unhealthy foods, environmental impact, grocery store costs, and animal suffering in her cooking philosophy. The results are tasty dishes with no guilt attached.”</p><p><strong>LeslieLovesVeggies.com, 12/23/10</strong></p><p>“Contains 125 fabulous recipes that are quick to make and most take 30 minutes or less to prepare. These tasty dishes are easy on the budget and are made with real food for real people. Nothing bizarre, no outlandish over the top ingredients, just good for ya, low fat, delish vegan food! Oh and the portions are real, too! None of these ridiculous tiny serving sizes to get the low calorie counts. These are real servings folks!”</p><p><strong>Examiner.com, 12/20/10</strong></p><p>“Moskowitz is a proven advisor you want to have in the vegan kitchen with you, consistently creating recipes that are at once accessinle to the home cook and impressive enough to show off to those you want to, well, impress. <em>Appetite for Reduction…</em>will knock your socks off, just in time for a great Christmas gift for omnivores or vegans alike and strengthen some of those New Year’s resolutions…Easy-to-follow directions, well-organized chapters, [and] gorgeous art direction and helpful tips…The icons that designate quick-to-prepare, gluten- and soy-free recpies make this cookbook especially user-friendly…_Appetite for Reduction_ casts its culinary net wide…The recipes span the globe and include rare treats calorie-conscious diners usually don’t get to enjoy…_Appetite for Reduction _gives lots of creative, easy and tasty opportunities to eat healthfully…A very worthwhile edition to anyone’s cookbook collection.”</p><p><strong>GreenWala.com, 12/27/10</strong></p><p>“[Moskowitz] has done a lot for dispelling the myth that vegan food equals rabbit food or that it’s not satisfying…The tone is conversational and often humorous and the book is not just about leaner recipes. Appetite refers also to environmental impact, animal cruelty, and your bank account.”</p><p><em></em><em>VegNews, </em>February 2011<br><em></em>“From the grand dame of vegan cookbooks, <em>Appetite </em>doesn’t leave you hungry…From salads that satisfy like meals to hearty pasta dishes to every vegetable imaginable, <em>Appetite</em> doesn’t miss a beat…Unlike other diet books, <em>Appetite </em>isn’t about dropping 20 pounds in a weekend; it’s about eating healthfully in a way that can lead to weight loss without resorting to drastic measures—measures which Moskowitz assures are guaranteed to pile pounds right back on.”</p><p><strong>EatDrinkBetter.com, 12/30/10</strong></p><p>“I recommend this cookbook for anyone, vegan or not...[Moskowitz] has put together 125 recipes that are under 400 calories—perfect for that New Year’s resolution to lose weight—and are packed with nutrients—perfect for that New Year’s resolution to eat healthier.”</p><p><strong>EatDrinkBetter.com, 12/31/10</strong></p><p>“Features many quick and delicious low-calorie vegan recipes.”</p><p><strong>WomanAroundTown.com, 12/20/10</strong></p><p>“Crammed full of good advice as well as tasty recipes.”</p><p><strong>GoDairyFree.org, 1/4/11</strong></p><p>“[Moskowitz’s] latest cookbook could be one of her greatest yet…Anyone who has already inhaled a lifetime's worth of vegan sweets and processed foods, or who is interested in the vegan diet for health reasons, will probably love <em>Appetite for Reduction</em>.”</p><p><em></em>TreeHugger.com, 1/4/11<br><em></em>“If you're suffering through the fourth day of some weird diet, you might want to pick up a copy of this book and make yourself something good to eat.”  </p><p><strong><em>New York</em></strong><strong>_ Daily News_, 1/9/11</strong></p><p>“[Moskowitz is] the queen of vegan cooking”</p><p><em></em>_<br>San Francisco Book Review_, 1/10/11<em></em></p><p>“Moskowitz has singlehandedly revolutionized vegan cooking…_Appetite _is brimming not only with recipes, but also detailed nutritional information useful to everyone, but especially important to those who seek essential vitamins and nutrients from nontraditional (non-animal) sources. But if you’re worried about typical bland diet food, have no fear: This <em>is</em> an Isa Chandra Moskowitz cookbook after all. While all recipes are between 200 and 400 calories per serving, each is loaded with delicious, vibrant flavor.”</p><p><em></em>_<br>Long Island_<em></em><strong>_ Press_, 1/7/11</strong></p><p>“Contains 125 delectable, nutritionally-balanced recipes for the foods you crave—lasagna, tacos, barbecue, curries, stews, and much more—and it’s all only 200 to 400 calories per serving, plant-based and packed with nutrients, low in saturated fat and sugar; high in fiber and, well, delicious.”</p><p><em></em>_<br>South_<em></em><strong>_ Coast_</strong><strong>_ Insider_, January 2011</strong></p><p>“Moskowitz is the best and most creative of all the chefs working with plant based foods…This is not your mother’s low-fat cookbook.”</p><p><em></em><br>InfoDad.com, 1/13/11<em></em></p><p> “It moves along like a well-oiled machine, starting with salads and continuing with side dishes, beans (a mainstay of this type of cooking), tofu and tempeh, soups, stews and more...It contains solid information and a variety of recipes that vegans will find tasty.”</p><p><em></em>_<br>BBC Good Food_ (UK), February 2011<br><em></em>“This is a vegan diet book, but forget your preconceptions and look at the food. Isa is an amazing cook—her recipes are delicious and written for people who want to lose weight, but not their enjoyment of food. She uses spices cleverly to make you forget you’re eating low fat and ups the grain and veg content to keep you satisfied. Isa reworks favorites making them lighter and healthier. Her book is worth buying for the salad dressings alone.”  </p><p><strong><em>Natural Health,</em> February 2011</strong></p><p>“[A] great read!...Moskowitz—a tireless crusader against the perception that meatless, dairy-free meals taste like cardboard—proves low-fat can be delicious. While offering plenty of tips for novice vegans, Moskowitz’s recipes are interesting and flavorful enough to delight seasoned meatless mavens, too.”</p><p><em></em>_<br>Washington_<em></em><strong>_ Post_, 1/19/11</strong></p><p>“Surprisingly creamy and hearty, this vegan soup [Cauliflower Pesto Soup] is elegant enough to serve as a first course at any dinner party.”</p><p><em></em>_<br>Hudson_<em></em><strong>_ Valley_</strong><strong>_ News,_</strong></p><p>“If you’re not vegan, but simply don’t like meat very much, you’ll find many tasty recipes here.”</p><p><em></em>_<br>January Magazine_ (Canada), 12/20/10<em></em></p><p>“_Appetite for Reduction_ is all about real food for real people, really easily…What’s not to like?...Spend a lot of time eating from the recipes in this book and you will get smaller.”  </p><p><strong><em>Living Without, </em>1/25/11</strong></p><p>“[The] tortilla soup has a light tomato broth and simple yet assertive seasoning. Stirring crushed tortilla chips into the soup as it cooks gives it a full-bodied texture.”</p><p><strong><em>Portland</em></strong><strong>_ Oregonian, _1/25/11</strong></p><p>“Leave it to innovative cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz, the co-author of <em>Veganomicon</em>, to come up with a collection of 125 low-fat recipes that won't have you leaving the table hungry…Moskowitz's writing style is accessible and fun, and she demystifies ingredients like tempeh and tofu…Every recipe has detailed nutritional analysis, including vitamin content, something too many diet cookbooks don't bother with.”</p><p><em></em><em>The Hippo, </em>1/20/11<br><em></em>“As with previous Moskowitz books, one thing not sacrificed is flavor. She plays with Asian, Mediterranean, Indian and Latin cuisine with her recipes in ways that make you feel like you’re not losing ta...</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>This is not your mother’s low-fat cookbook. There’s no foolish tricks, no bizarre concoctions, no chemicals, no frozen meals…no fake anything! <em>Appetite for Reduction</em> means cooking with real food, for real life. (Skimpy portions need not apply.)</p><p>In <em>Appetite for Reduction</em>, bestselling author and vegan chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz has created 125 delectable, nutritionally-balanced recipes for the foods you crave—lasagna, tacos, barbecue, curries, stews, and much more—and it’s all:</p><ul><li>     Only 200 to 400 calories per serving </li> <li>     Plant-based and packed with nutrients </li> <li>     Low in saturated fat and sugar; high in fiber </li> <li>     Drop-dead delicious </li></ul><p>You’ll also find lots of gluten-free and soy-free options, and best of all, dinner can be on the table in less than 30 minutes. So ditch those diet shakes. Skip that lemonade cleanse. And fight for your right to eat something satisfying! Now you can look better, feel better, and have more energy—for health at any size.</p>

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