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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Rebuilding after the ship-shattering climax of 2009's <em>Maelstrom</em>, Capt. Matt Reddy and the crew of the dimensionally misplaced <em>USS Walker</em> continue pushing their Bronze Age allies, the Lemurians, through the Industrial Revolution to take the war to the invading reptilian Grik. Somewhat aided by the paddle-wheel steam frigates of New Britain, Reddy liberates conquered cities to the west and then races to the east in a refloated <em>Walker</em> to re-rescue New British princess Rebecca Anne McDonald. The fun of watching eager aviators take to the air in carved wooden aircraft leavens the nostalgic sense of worlds being left behind and cultures forced by war to undergo unpleasant changes. Anderson raises questions about the morality of chemical warfare, genocide, and summary execution in wartime while holding out the possibility of diplomacy with relentless killers. <em>(June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Anderson launches a new Destroyermen trilogy (the first: Into the Storm, Crusade, both 2008; Maelstrom, 2009) with this complex but fine and fast-paced tale. The Grik are learning something more sophisticated than banzai tactics from, ironically enough, a Japanese officer. The USS Walker rises from the depths in some of the most moving passages of the book. The prospective alliance with the New British Empire faces prejudice and treachery by what might be called the Dishonorable East India Company. The alliance of destroyermen and Lemurians builds sailing warships, paddle-wheeler warships, and crude airplanes. Moreover, it's becoming apparent that there have been quite a few leakages from the earthly time line we know to that of Anderson's creation, eventuating in, among other things, a far-off society of fanatical Catholics and a shipload of crated P-40s. And finally, when the Dishonorables kidnap Princess Rebecca, heiress to the New British throne, they also kidnap Dennis Silva, with his genius for nasty devices. Action sf really doesn't get significantly better than this. --Roland Green </p>


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SUMMARY:
The most practical -- and legal -- companion through divorce ever published. Like most people who are going through a separation or divorce, you're probably wondering "What's next?" at every turn. So turn to Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce for clear answers that can help make your divorce as simple and inexpensive as humanly possible. With compassion and understanding, Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce will help you understand the divorce process, work with mediators or lawyers, avoid expensive and painful court battles, figure out alimony, establish child custody and visitation, determine child support, divide money and property fairly, draft a marital settlement agreement, deal with divorce emergencies, address post-divorce issues, find helpful resources and much more. On every page, this book stresses the importance of minimizing conflict, explains complex legal problems concisely, and provides advice on how to protect your interests. Plus, easy-to-use charts make it easy to find the divorce laws of your state. Plenty of books out there claim to cover divorce thoroughly, but only Nolo has the reputation of consistently delivering clear legal expertise and invaluable insights. Trust Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce to help you through every step.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This scattered collection of rambling rants lauding Google's abilities to harness the power of the Internet Age generally misses the mark. Blog impresario Jarvis uses the company's success to trace aspects of the new customer-driven, user-generated, niche-market-oriented, customized and collaborative world. While his insights are stimulating, Jarvis's tone is acerbic and condescending; equally off-putting is his pervasive name-dropping. The book picks up in a section on media, where the author finally launches a fascinating discussion of how businesses—especially media and entertainment industries—can continue to evolve and profit by using Google's strategies. Unfortunately, Jarvis may have lost the reader by that point as his attempt to cover too many topics reads more like a series of frenzied blog posts than a manifesto for the Internet age. <em>(Jan.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Jarvis, columnist and blogger about media, presents his ideas for surviving and prospering in the Internet age, with its new set of rules for emerging technologies as well as industries such as retail, manufacturing, and service. We learn that customers are now in charge, people anywhere can find each other and join forces to support a company’s efforts or oppose them, life and business are more public, conversation has replaced marketing, and openness is the key to success. Jarvis’ other laws include being a platform (help users create products, businesses, communities, and networks of their own); hand over control to anyone; middlemen are doomed; and your worst customer is your best friend, and your best customer is your partner. Jarvis offers thought-provoking observations and valuable examples for individuals and businesses seeking to fully participate in our Internet culture and maximize the opportunities it offers. It is unclear what role Google played, if any, in the preparation of this book, which provides excellent advertising for the company. --Mary Whaley </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>" Any first-time homebuyer owes it to him or herself to get this book. It's packed with information you won't find anywhere else, yet is remarkably accessible, even when covering complex financial issues." -- <em>Elisabeth DeMarse, CEO, Creditcards.com, former CEO, Bankrate.com</em>  </p><p>" Coming from a gal that knows tools, this book is a must-have tool for any home buyer. It offers so much essential information, purchasing a home without it would be like trying to drive a nail without a hammer!" -- <em>Norma Vally, host of Toolbelt Diva (Discovery Home) and author of Chix Can Fix: 100 Home Improvement Projects and True Tales From the Diva of Do-It-Yourself</em>  </p><p>" Enthusiasm, hints and tips all rolled into a great read for first-timers." -- <em>Pat Lashinsky, President of ZipRealty</em>  </p><p>"Takes the guesswork out of home buying... two thumbs up!" -- <em>Elizabeth Weintraub, Home Buying &amp; Selling Guide, About.com</em>  </p><p>A must-have for any new homebuyer. Empower yourself by informing yourself!" -- <em>Heidi Baker &amp; Eden Jarrin, co-founders of BeJane.com</em>  </p><p>Like having over a dozen real estate experts over for dinner. -- <em>Steve Kropper, president of Bank on Real Estate, founder of Domania.com</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Insider tips and advice to help you get the right place at the right price! </p><p>If you're ready to say goodbye to landlords and laundromats, Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home will help you find the right place to invest in -- and have fun doing it. </p><p>Filled with interesting facts and real-life stories, this book provides everything you need to select the right house, the right mortgage, the right agent, the right inspections -- and much more. Get the inside scoop on: </p><ul> <li>     deciding between a house, condo, co-op or townhouse  </li> <li>     exploring the market for the best value  </li> <li>     lining up financing  </li> <li>     getting inspections and insurance  </li> <li>     negotiating with sellers or new home builders  </li> <li>     successfully closing the deal  </li></ul><p>Read the real-life stories of over 20 first-time homebuyers, as well as the insights from a team of 13 real estate professionals, including: </p><ul> <li>     brokers  </li> <li>     attorneys who specialize in real estate  </li> <li>     a home inspector  </li> <li>     a neighborhood researcher  </li> <li>     a mortgage specialist  </li> <li>     and more PLUS: You'll get the The Homebuyer's Toolkit, a CD-ROM that includes dozens of forms and MP3s which will help you find the right place, crunch the numbers, interview real estate professionals, borrow down payment money from your parents -- and more.  </li></ul>


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Eight years ago, Alton Brown set out to create a cooking show for a new generation. The result was Good Eats, one of Food Networks most popular programs. Four years ago, Brown set out to write a cookbook for people who would rather understand their food than follow a recipe. A mix of cutting-edge graphics and a fresh take on preparing food, Im Just Here For the Food became one of the bestselling cookbooks of the yearand received the James Beard Foundation/KitchenAid Book Award as best reference book. This year, to commemorate and celebrate this success story (more than 300,000 copies in print), STC is pleased to announce Im Just Here For the Food: The Directors Cut. This special edition features 10 brand-new recipes, 20 pages of additional material, a jacket that folds out into a poster, and a removable refrigerator magnetalong with everything that made the original a classic instruction manual for the kitchen. Each of the books 15 sections is a module on a given cooking methodfrom pan searing to pressure cooking, stewing to steamingwith a master recipe and a varied selection of recipes that epitomize the technique. The text is accented throughout with food facts, history and lore, and science. Eight years ago, Alton Brown set out to create a cooking show for a new generation. The result was Good Eats, one of Food Networks most popular programs. Four years ago, Brown set out to write a cookbook for people who would rather understand their food than follow a recipe. A mix of cutting-edge graphics and a fresh take on preparing food, Im Just Here For the Food became one of the bestselling cookbooks of the yearand received the James Beard Foundation/KitchenAid Book Award as best reference book. This year, to commemorate and celebrate this success story (more than 300,000 copies in print), STC is pleased to announce Im Just Here For the Food: The Directors Cut. This special edition features 10 brand-new recipes, 20 pages of additional material, a jacket that folds out into a poster, and a removable refrigerator magnetalong with everything that made the original a classic instruction manual for the kitchen. Each of the books 15 sections is a module on a given cooking methodfrom pan searing to pressure cooking, stewing to steamingwith a master recipe and a varied selection of recipes that epitomize the technique. The text is accented throughout with food facts, history and lore, and science.


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>“Every page of this exciting new book explodes with the energy of new ideas. You haven't read these techniques on the Net or anywhere else. Highly recommended!”—_Joyce Lain Kennedy, America's No. 1 Syndicated Careers Coumist_</p><p><strong>Get all the interviews you want-instantly!</strong></p><p>It's a jungle out there-a jobjungle. You're crouching-and grouching-waiting impatiently to attack the next job that appears. You hear a rustle through the trees and hold your breath. Something moves—but before you can pounce, it's gone. Each time you get better and better...at blowing interviews. </p><p>Is that you? Why? What are you waiting for? You could be having more fun and more success than you've ever had in your life! <em>Instant Interviews</em> turns you into an interview magnet. If you're going to use traditional lead sources like the Internet, classified ads, or job fairs, this book will supercharge their effectiveness. You'll stop waiting for something to happen and start making it happen yourself. </p><p><em>Instant Interviews</em> includes 101 easy, proven techniques for getting the only thing that counts in the job jungle—an interview. Get face-to-face with your future using these strategies and dozens more: </p><ul> <li>     Find your ideal employer online right now  </li> <li>     Incite potential employers to interview you today  </li> <li>     Immediately reply to only the hottest job listings  </li> <li>     Know now what employers want, not what they say  </li> <li>     Read between the lines in help-wanted ads to get interviewed first  </li> <li>     Develop your interviewing persona fast  </li> <li>     Develop a list of personal references by tomorrow  </li> <li>     Use temporary assignments differently to get hired right away  </li> <li>     Get interviews through the back door this Saturday  </li> <li>     Auction yourself to the highest bidder by next week  </li> <li>     Develop an endless flow of job offers without delay  </li></ul><p>It's all inside. The techniques in <em>Instant Interviews</em> are designed solely to have you in the right place at the right time to land your dream job. Starting today. Smart, savvy, and sure-these are the ultimate skills for unlimited career success through unlimited interviews in any economy. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>Jeffrey G. Allen, JD, CPC</strong>, is the world's leading placement lawyer and author of more bestselling books in the career field than anyone else. For over four decades, Jeff has worked as an executive recruiter, human resources manager, and specialist in getting people hired-people at all ages, wages, and stages. This is the guy and this is the guide! </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"An exceptionally modest title for a volume so comprehensive. Kane and Wilder maintain an engaging, readable, and occasionally humorous style that makes the book not just incredibly useful, but hard to put down as well." --Barry Eisler, internationally bestselling author of the John Rain series, shodan in Kodokan judo. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The Little Black Book of Violence will arm you with the knowledge and good sense to make informed choices in hazardous situations. While some yahoo spewing insults about your favorite sports team is worlds apart from a drug-crazed lunatic lunging at you with a sharp knife in his hands and bloodlust in his eyes, there is a large gray area in between these two extremes where hard and fast rules do not always apply. This is where wisdom, oftentimes hard-earned wisdom, makes the difference between good decisions and bad ones.   </p><p>Every time you engage in violence, no matter how small or trivial it may appear to be at the time, it has the potential of escalating into something extraordinarily serious. What is really worth fighting for when you might find yourself spending the rest of your life behind bars, confined to a wheelchair, or trying to dig yourself out of bankruptcy from beneath the crushing weight of a civil lawsuit? It is important to ask yourself, "Is this really worth fighting over?" While in some instances the response could legitimately be "Yes," more often than not it ought to be "No."   </p><p>More than mere techniques, this book fills in crucial information about street survival that most martial arts instructors don't teach or even know. You will learn how to use awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation to help stave off violence. Despite the best intentions, however, you may still find yourself in situations where you have no choice but to fight and others where it is prudent to do so. Consequently you will also learn smart things you might want to try and dumb things you should attempt to avoid during a physical confrontation.   </p><p>In addition to learning strategies and techniques for defending yourself on the street you will also learn how to manage the aftermath of violence, including performing first aid, interacting with law enforcement, managing witnesses, finding a good attorney, navigating the legal system, dealing with the press, and overcoming psychological trauma.   </p><p>Men, who commit about 80 percent of all violent crimes, are twice as likely to become victims of aggressive behavior as women. While written primarily for this at-risk demographic, this comprehensive tome is essential reading for anyone who regularly deals with violence, thinks they may encounter a hostile situation, or who simply wants to increase their ability to survive a dangerous encounter. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Here is a practical book for non-lawyers, providing clear answers to frequently asked questions in 74 different areas of the law. "What do I do about my noisy neighbors?" "What are my rights if I'm fired from my job?" "Do I really need to make a will?" In lieu of going to law school, this book gives a good, basic grounding on the legal matters most likely to touch your life--your home, your car, your money, and your job, among others. It's an excellent reference book for any home library. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>This book digests information offered in many other Nolo Press titles. Chapters answer basic legal questions pertaining to estate planing, domestic relations, landlords and tenants, employment, small businesses, money management and debt, neighbor conflicts, elder law, and automobiles. Nolo's trademark style is present?plain English writing with useful lists of additional resources. The question-and-answer format forms the backbone of the book, and practical examples, explanations of legal principles, and useful tips appear throughout. Any library with a substantial collection of Nolo materials will find this to be redundant, but small collections looking for a general legal guide may want to add this latest offering.?Joan Pedzich, Harris Beach &amp; Wilcox LLP, Rochester, N.Y.<br />Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>In Today's Job Jungle, the Guerrilla is King</strong></p><p>"You'll learn how to build a compelling new network in days that gets you sit-down meetings with decision makers who can hire you, for jobs that aren't advertised or don't even exist yet."<br>—<strong>Kevin Donlin</strong>, creator, TheSimpleJobSearch.com; co-creator, The Guerrilla Job Search Home Study Course </p><p>"This book is brilliant. Packed with stories, examples, and tactics to help you at any point in your job search-this book is all about landing a real job with intense competition in a minimal amount of time."<br>—<strong>Jason Alba</strong>, CEO, JibberJobber.com; author, <em>I'm on LinkedIn—Now What???</em></p><p>"Recruiters: read this book! You're going to need it. When people start following the advice in <em>Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0</em>, you're going to be looking for a job."<br>—<strong>Shelly Harrison</strong>, founder and CEO, Launch Pad </p><p>"Job hunters don't need to be told the 'what' of job hunting, they want and need to know the 'hows.' They are all here and then some."<br>—<strong>Dave Opton</strong>, founder and CEO, ExecuNet.com </p><p>"Changes in information and communication technologies have created new opportunities and pitfalls for the job seeker. Stand out from the crowd and truly shine by illuminating your most important talents to the broadest audience—in a cost-effective fashion."<br>—<strong>Sam Zales</strong>, President, Zoom Information Inc. </p><p>"Don't get lost on the battlefield, win the war. <em>Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0</em> will give you the ammunition to get noticed."<br>—<strong>Donato Diorio</strong>, CEO, Broadlook Technologies </p><p>"Lays out a straightforward and detailed 'plan of attack' for every step of a job search...an indispensable tool for job seekers to land the interview."<br>—<strong>Gautam Godhwani</strong>, CEO, SimplyHired.com </p><p>"Competition for the best positions is especially fierce and every candidate will be looking for an edge. If you want to get the edge...you need to get this great new book."<br>—<strong>Steven Rothberg</strong>, founder, CollegeRecruiter.com </p><p>"The only book that explains step by step, how to land interviews with the companies you choose AND create a high-visibility profile attracting employers-like a moth to a flame."<br>—<strong>Terrence Kulka</strong>, Director, Executive MBA Program, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa </p><p>"Beyond your Guerrilla Resume...here's how to take charge of your personal brand, and stand out from the crowd leveraging LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, and more."<br>—<strong>Peter Clayton</strong>, CEO, Total Picture Radio </p><p><strong>P.S.—We knew you'd read this far. How did we know this? Please turn to Chapter 5 and read, "One Unusual Way to End Your Guerrilla Cover Letter."</strong></p><h3>From the Back Cover</h3><p>Ready! Aim! Hired! </p><p>"This is an immensely helpful book, with the ancient wisdom of recruiters, and the up-to-date insights of two skilled Internet surfers. If you're job-hunting, you'll be grateful to learn the tips and tricks of these two seasoned veterans. I learned a lot myself."<br>—Richard N. Bolles, author, What Color Is Your Parachute? </p><p>"I have been an apprentice, a company president, and a CEO. No other single source provides a more contemporary and embracing job search bible. This book offers literally hundreds of little known insider tips, strategies, out-of-the-box success stories, hands-on exercises, and pearls of wisdom. Many readers will hear the words, 'You're Hired' due to David Perry, Jay Levinson, and Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters."<br>—Kelly Perdew, Executive Vice President, Trump Ice winner of The Apprentice 2 </p><p>"Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters is an absolutely 'right on' book for today's job market. It not only has great job search tips but it takes you into the electronic job search system better than anything I've seen written to date."<br>—William J. Morin, Chairman and CEO, WJM Associates, Inc. former CEO of DBM </p><p>Using a typically unconventional Guerrilla approach, authors Levinson and Perry cover all the basics of a winning campaign. This book covers: </p><ul><li>     Using the Internet for everything from research and job searches to your own Web site, blogs, and podcasting  </li> <li>     Performing an extreme resume makeover and creating a higher-powered value-based resume  </li> <li>     Harnessing the full power of Google, LinkedIn, and ZoomInfo to uncover opportunities in the "hidden job market" ahead of your competition (or other job hunters)  </li> <li>     Branding yourself and selling your strengths in resumes, letters, e-mail, and interviews  </li></ul><p>Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters includes real-life war stories from successful job hunters and expert tips and tactics from over 100 prominent headhunters. </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. In the second book this season (after journalist Seth Mnookin's The Panic Virus) to attack vaccine paranoia, Offit—who drew antivaccinist fire for Autism's False Prophets—presents a smart, hard-hitting exposé of vaccine pseudoscience. Offit brings outstanding credentials to the subject: he's a vaccinologist at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and an expert in infectious diseases, and he tackles claims that childhood inoculations cause brain damage, autism, diabetes, and cancer, finding a farrago of misinformation, faulty research, and sly deceptions fed to distraught parents by media hype, ax-grinding activists, and personal-injury lawyers. He embellishes his account with a sprightly history of paranoid medical populism—19th-century critics of the cowpox-derived smallpox vaccine insisted it could turn people into cows—and a blistering attack on celebrity antivaccine ideologues Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey, and Bill Maher and the medical writers who pander to parental anxieties. Offit dwells less than Mnookin on the sociology of the controversy and more on the science. The result is a thorough dismantling of antivaccine notions and a sober warning about the resurgence of deadly childhood infections stemming from declining vaccination rates. Worried parents, especially, will find this a lucid, compelling riposte to antivaccine fear-mongering. Photos. (Feb.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> Infectious disease expert Offit, long an outspoken and prolific (Vaccinated, 2007) champion of universal immunization via vaccines, ratchets up the urgency of his crusade by taking on the loudest and highest-profile spokespersons for the anti-vaccine movement. He spares no one, not Jim Carrey, not Jenny McCarthy, television’s Dr. Oz, or even Dr. Bob Sears, as he tosses salvo after salvo of scientific evidence across the bow of their anti-vaccine ships. Their anti-vaccine arguments, he says, consist of nothing more than anecdotal drama combined with conspiracy theories that pander to parents’ most emotional fears. What they should be doing, he says, is encouraging parents to trust the huge bank of scientific data proving the safety of vaccines and their efficacy in eliminating many deadly infectious diseases. Armed with his own arsenal of anecdotal horror stories that focus on worst case histories of the unvaccinated, mostly children, in addition to pages of scientific study citations supporting his premise, Offit pulls no punches. His tone is edgier than usual this time, his arguments more virulent. It is clear that he wants his message and the facts, not rumors or infectious diseases, to go viral. --Donna Chavez </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Everybody's Guide to Small Claims Court walks you through the halls of small justice and explains how to file a claim, figure damages and argue your case effectively." -- <em>Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine</em>  </p><p>"Step-by-step advice on how to prepare your case, how to file it, and perhaps most importantly, how to collect if you win..." -- <em>Associated Press</em>  </p><p>"Takes you by the hand through all the potential pitfalls of trying your own case." -- <em>Los Angeles Times</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The only guide to small claims court that provides insights from judges.   </p><p>Smart preparation for your day in small claims court can make the difference between writing a check and receiving one.   </p><p>Everybody's Guide to Small Claims Court provides the information, tips and strategies you need to sue someone successfully, or put up a winning defense. Find out how to:   </p><ul> <li><p>write a demand letter  </p> </li> <li><p>file and serve papers  </p> </li> <li><p>prepare a winning presentation  </p> </li> <li><p>prepare evidence  </p> </li> <li><p>line up persuasive witnesses  </p> </li> <li><p>figure out your damages  </p> </li> <li><p>mediate a settlement  </p> </li> <li><p>collect money when you win   </p> </li></ul><p>Everybody's Guide to Small Claims Court gives you down-to-earth examples of common cases, including:   </p><ul> <li><p>auto repair  </p> </li> <li><p>rental deposit  </p> </li> <li><p>auto warranty  </p> </li> <li><p>property damage  </p> </li> <li><p>small business disputes  </p> </li></ul><p>The 12th edition is completely updated by a state-by-state appendix of small claims rules, including increases of limits on how much people can sue for, an expanded discussion of mediation, and more advice from real judges and commissioners. </p>


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<h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Adult/High School—Carson has been both a cop and a criminal defense attorney. Here, he puts his years of experience into a "how-not-to" book. He feels that most people who get arrested aren't the worst criminals; they are just the most "clueless"—small-time offenders who make bad decisions and end up in what he calls the "electronic plantation." Now that computers make it ever so easy to track people, getting arrested, even if you're not ultimately convicted, can and will come back to haunt you. Carson has three golden rules: "If cops can't see you, they can't arrest you," "Keep your dope at home," and "Give cops your name and basic info, then shut the f*@# up!" While the book read straight through may seem a little repetitive, it ultimately does come back to one of these three rules, which are imparted with examples and behavior charts. Carson uses a blunt style to make these points, but it's a style that is sure to hit home with his target audience—the underclass. And he does make it plain that while there are many middle-class and white-collar criminals, the police tend to focus their patrols in bad neighborhoods. Those most likely to be in situations where they or those they know might get arrested will get the most out of this book, but even readers in more lofty areas with an interest in law enforcement could find much to discuss.—_Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD_ <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>This essential “how not to” guide explains how to act and what to say in the presence of police to minimize the chances of being arrested and to avoid add-on charges—which can often lead to permanent disqualification from jobs, financing, and education. Citizens can learn how to avoid arrest both on the street and when pulled over in a vehicle and are alerted to basic tricks cops use to get people to incriminate themselves. Sprinkled with absurdity and humor, this urgent, eye-opening book is a guide to criminal justice for all Americans.</p>


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Attorney Brown states in his introduction that there are many reasons why municipalities may issue traffic tickets, not all of them related to unsafe or illegal driving. His book targets those who feel they have been unfairly ticketed and those who through "bad luck or indiscretion" have a need to fight a ticket. He covers types of violations, speed detection methods, how to read a ticket, understanding the charges, and how to prepare, research, and argue a case. He provides a rich appendix with summaries of traffic court rules, citations to the motor vehicle laws of each state, and references to related web sites. The text is highlighted with icons that point up cross references, tactical hints, and warnings about potential problems. Brown does not minimize the homework that needs to be done to challenge a traffic ticket successfully, and his chapter on reading the law and performing legal research is nicely done. Recommended for most public libraries.AJoan Pedzich, Harris, Beach &amp; Wilcox, Rochester, NY <br />Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"State and local governments are increasingly relying on traffic ticket revenue for daily operations. Beat Your Ticket gives responsible motorists the means to protect their rights." -- <em>James J. Baxter, President, National Motorists Association</em>  </p><p>"This is one of [our] consumer picks of the year, and a book every driver should own." -- <em>The Electric Review</em>  </p><p>"Covers... when to seek professional help, when to take the traffic-school option, how to research for court, and how to conduct yourself before the judge. -- <em>Mike Maza,Dallas Morning News</em></p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>"Enjoy the insights this book has to offer -- It is about form, joy and the love of running. Run Free!" - Micah True, AKA Caballo Blanco.   </p><p>As seen nationally on TV, radio and in print, Barefoot Running is the original, most comprehensive guide to barefoot running, written by best-selling author and running coach Michael Sandler, who has coached and inspired thousands of runners, walkers, and hikers nationwide.   </p><p>After a near-death accident left him with a titanium femur and hip along with 10 knee operations, no ACL, and an inch leg-length discrepancy, former professional athlete and Olympic hopeful Michael Sandler was told he could never run again. It was only by going barefoot and feeling the ground, he began to heal as he learned how to run light and free. He now runs pain free 10-20 miles a day and in all conditions. His step-by-step method helps runners overcome injuries, find their natural form and rediscover the pure joy of running, no matter their age, history, or fitness level.   </p><p>Co-Author Jessica Lee hated running and nagging knee pain and swore off running until the day she went barefoot. Now she helps women experience the joy of running barefoot (and pain free) nationwide.   </p><p>Written to help people get into running, back into running, or run pain free and at your best at any age, Michael Sandler's inspirational book and step-by-step guide is an easy to read bible of information and a must read for any runner. Barefoot Running is the how-to-guide that picks up where Christopher McDougall's inspiring book Born to Run left off. If you liked Born to Run, you'll love Barefoot Running.   </p><p>Topics include: Barefoot Running for Kids, for Seniors, choosing footwear, transitioning safely, cold-weather running and more.   </p><p>"You are holding in your hands a book as exhaustive and accurate of a description of barefoot running as you could ever hope for." - Barefoot Ted   </p><p>Michael Sandler is a best-selling author, and an internationally recognized barefoot running and walking coach, teaching thousands of runners, walkers, and hikers of all abilities. He has coached athletes professionally for nearly 20 years. After a near-death accident in 2006, he was told he was lucky to keep his leg and that he would never run again. With a titanium femur and hip, it was only through barefoot running and the lessons learned on the trails that he was able to heal and run again. With co-author Jessica Lee, they teach people how to rediscover the bliss of pain-free running. Together, they are cofounders of RunBare Company, a barefoot running school based out of Boulder, Colorado. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Michael Sandler is a best selling author, barefoot running and walking coach. He has coached professionally for nearly 20 years. After a nearl-fatal accident he was told that he would be lucky to keep functioning legs and that he would not run again. With an implanted titanium femur and hip, it was only through barefoot running, and lessons learned on the trails that he was able to heal and run again.  </p><p>With coauthor Jessica Lee, they travel around the world, teaching people how to discover the joy of running. </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>Jason Robillard is a master at teaching people the art and science of barefoot running. His book is highly motivating, and gives you the skills to go as far as you want. --Dr. Michael Nirenberg  </p><p>An invaluable guide by one of the experts in the field of barefoot and minimalist shoe running. --Dr. Joseph Froncioni  </p><p>The Barefoot Running Book is a no-nonsense approach to barefoot running recommended for anyone wanting to ditch their over-padded trainers and to learn what their feet have been "dying" to tell them! --Barefoot Rick Roeber  </p><p>An invaluable guide by one of the experts in the field of barefoot and minimalist shoe running. --Dr. Joseph Froncioni  </p><p>The Barefoot Running Book is a no-nonsense approach to barefoot running recommended for anyone wanting to ditch their over-padded trainers and to learn what their feet have been "dying" to tell them! --Barefoot Rick Roeber </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The Barefoot Running Book (second edition) provides expert advice for new and experienced runners interested in making the transition to barefoot or minimalist shoe running. Why? Because runners find shedding their heavy, overly-cushioned shoes provides a more enjoyable running experience while reducing injury and allowing better form. Jason Robillard uses a combination of research, collaboration, and his own experiences to bring the latest methods for making a safe, enjoyable transition to barefoot or minimalist shoe running. This new expanded second edition includes training plans, information on ultramarathons, photos, tested running tips and helpful hints. Includes contributions from top barefoot runners and experts including Barefoot Ted McDonald, Barefoot Rick Roeber, Dr. Daniel Lieberman, Dr. Michael Nirenberg, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, Dr. Scott Hadley, Dr. Joseph Froncioni, and many more. </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Quite simply, this volume should be on everybody's bookshelf... Bergman and Berman-Barrett have created a guided tour of the criminal justice system -- intended both for the curious and for those who find themselves caught up in it." -- <em>The Crime &amp; Punishment Guide, About.com</em>  </p><p>"This easy-to-understand book contains everything you need to know about criminal law. Indispensable for anyone who wants to understand exactly what goes on in a criminal case." -- <em>Roger Cossack, Legal Analyst</em>  </p><p>"Written for the average person who needs to know how to navigate the complex maze of the criminal justice system." -- <em>Freelance Writer's Report</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Quite simply, this volume should be on everybody's bookshelf... Bergman and Berman have created a guided tour of the criminal justice system -- intended both for the curious and for those who find themselves caught up in it." </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The 16 previously unpublished short stories of this collection, taken from the beginning of Vonnegut's career, show a young author already grappling with themes and ideas that would define his work for decades to come. "Girl Pool" features typist Amy Lou Little, employee of the Kafkaesque Montezuma Forge and Foundry Company, who is tasked with transcribing a plea for help she receives on her Dictaphone from an escaped, dying murderer hiding somewhere in the works of the company's cavernous factory. The tale reveals Vonnegut investigating one of his recurring themes: the isolation brought by technology and the necessity for basic humanity in the workplace. The title story melds a sentimental meditation on the true meaning of Christmas with elements of the mystery genre as a hard-nosed reporter stalks the story of stolen nativity scene characters. While these early stories show an author still testing the boundaries of his craft and obsessions, Vonnegut's acute moral sense and knack for compelling prose are very much on display. In the foreword, Dave Eggers calls Vonnegut "a hippie Mark Twain," which perfectly captures an essential truth about this esteemed author. (Jan.) (c) <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Early in his career, before he fused his satirical wit and world-weary intellect in the distinctive, quasi-sf style of Cat’s Cradle (1963) and Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Vonnegut wrote short stories for mainstream publications, such as Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post. The 16 unpublished stories in this collection were either not submitted or not accepted, although it is easy to imagine them appearing in those contexts. Tightly and crisply written, they concern cynical newspapermen and the spirit of Christmas (“While Mortals Sleep”), practical jokes taken too far (“Bomar”), the self-sacrifice of a pregnant widow (“Ruth”)—he had lived through the firebombing of Dresden but had not yet explored it in fiction. There are foreshadowings of Vonnegut the cynical sage, however, in “With His Hand on the Throttle,” when a woman dive-bombs her grown son’s overgrown train layout; in “Tango,” when libidinous dancing disrupts a WASP-y enclave; and in “Girl Pool,” in which alienation arrives via the Dictaphone. As in Look at the Birdie (2009), these stories, while clearly seminal, constitute a worthwhile contribution to the author’s oeuvre. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The legendary author’s death in 2007 means an eventual end to unpublished writings, and Vonnegut fans have read all their old paperbacks to tatters. --Keir Graff </p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>'Earthquake country,'said the Professor. 'San Francisco is geologically and seismologically a city that waits to die. Los Angeles is ringed by earthquake centres - seven massive quakes so far. We have no idea where the next, the monster, will hit…'…until a criminal fanatic kidnaps a nuclear scientist and builds his own atomic bombs. If exploded on California's fault lines they could trigger off the mightiest earthquake of them all - killing half its population and dumping the entire city of San Francisco into the sea.Goodbye California… </p>

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<h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Grade 9–11—Connelly Sternin, 16, moves through her New York City high school on cruise control. She is an average student who doesn't get into trouble, doesn't sit with the cool kids, and has a quiet home life. She fantasizes that she is living in a fairy tale and sees herself as Rapunzel, confined in an Upper East Side tower amid college applications and SAT scores. She sees wealthy Jeremy Cole as the prince of their school: loved and respected by all. What she doesn't see coming is a friendship with him based on tragedy—his younger sister has leukemia—and secrets—Connelly is preoccupied with learning how her father died. Jeremy knows more about her life than she does, and together they find the fortitude to face the present and the past. Although the narrative concerns death and lies, this first novel is not dark, but instead full of small moments and quiet realism. Connelly and Jeremy's friendship, which may turn into romance, is realistically portrayed as deepening over time. The story's pace is steady. Although the buildup to the climax—Connelly confronts her mother about her father—is better paced, and more creative and satisfying than the conflict itself, overall this is a terrific alternative to the clique-y high school novels that are all sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.—_Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT_ <br />(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Endearing, realistic and heart-wrenching, Sheinmel offers a thoughtful look at teens." —_The New York Post_  </p><p>"Sheinmel makes an impressive debut with an absorbing tale of unlikely friendship, loss, and family secrets." - Publishers Weekly  </p><p>"Satisfying and believable"- Kirkus Reviews  </p><p>Full of small moments and quiet realism. - <em>School Library Journal</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>A_Big Chill_–like group reunites for a 40-something wedding in this melancholy story of missed opportunities, lingering regrets and imagined alternatives by Shreve (_The Last Time They Met_). Bill and Bridget were sweethearts at Maine's Kidd Academy who rediscovered one another at their 25th reunion. Bridget was already divorced; Bill left his family; the two have now gathered their Kidd coterie to witness their hasty wedding—Bridget has breast cancer—at widow Nora's western Massachusetts inn. The death of charismatic schoolmate Stephen at a drunken high school party hovers over the event. Stephen's then-roommate, Harrison, now a married literary publisher, remains particularly tormented by it, especially since he had (and still has) romantic feelings for Nora, who was Stephen's then-girlfriend. Abrasive Wall Street businessman Jerry, now-out-of-the-closet pianist Rob, single Agnes (who teaches at Kidd and has a secret of her own) and various children round things out. Tensions build as the group gets snowed in, and someone gets drunk enough to say what everyone's been thinking. Though Shreve's plot, characters and dialogue are predictable (as are her inevitable 9/11 rehashes), she sure-handedly steers everyone through their inward dramas, and the actions they take (and don't) are Hollywood satisfying. <em>(Oct. 10)</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–This novel has many of Shreve's hallmarks: simple and elegant prose; characters who are entirely convincing in their portrayals of human fallibility; and a plot buildup with a twist toward the end that packs a wallop. Set in New England several months after 9/11, it is the story of seven former classmates who have not seen one another in 27 years but have come together for the wedding of Bill and Bridget, who dated during high school and then went their separate ways. They have reunited and are getting married in the face of Bridget's advanced breast cancer. Nora, who owns the inn where the wedding will be held, is trying to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. Agnes, Nora's former roommate, has a secret she is desperate to share. Over all of them hangs the specter of Stephen, whose charismatic life and tragic death they seem unable to address head-on. Paralleling the story of these friends is the one in the novel Agnes is writing about the Halifax explosion of 1917, a little-known disaster that resulted in the deaths of almost 2000 citizens. This story-within-a-story not only provides an eye-opening account of a piece of World War I history, but also allows Agnes to address some of her own issues. An understated and graceful exploration of the choices that people make in their day-to-day interactions and their consequences, <em>Wedding</em> is an excellent piece of American literature to add to any library._–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA_ <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>A loopy, immensely likable debut, both less and more than a conventional mystery. One can only imagine the sequel. -- <em>Kirkus Reviews, Jan. 2005</em>  </p><p>As debut Author Argula spins her tale, Officer Quinn struggles with her aging body, hot flashes, temper, and hormonal imbalances.... -- <em>Round Table Reviews, Jan. 2005</em>  </p><p>The author's talented; she kept me reading. Did I like this book? I think so. Maybe you will too. -- <em>I Love a Mystery, Jan/Feb 2005</em>  </p><p>Wry humor, straight-talking characters, and shades of the supernatural flavor this cleverly written debut police procedural....strongly recommended. -- <em>Library Journal, April 2005</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Homicide My Own resides in that strange and fascinating land between mystery fiction and detective fiction, adjoined with the mystique of philosophy and Native American customs. It’s a story of two slog-bottom cops from Spokane, Washington, who are assigned to what appears to be a routine mission: They’re to go to an Indian reservation on the Northwest coast and pick up a man who’s being held for kidnapping a teenaged girl. Once there, however, one of the cops (given the unusual moniker of "Odd") becomes obsessed with a decades-old murder, the only unsolved murder in the island’s history, and he really doesn’t want to head back to Spokane until he’s found some resolution. His partner, Quinn, the acid-tongued menopausal wife of a decent and boring pharmacist (and the novel’s narrator) finds Odd’s behavior rather amusing at first, but then finds it to be much more than amusing. In an intriguing character study, Anne Argula has developed a novel that not only forces a reader to keep turning the pages; it goes so far as to force the reader to look at life – and death – in a new and uncharacteristic way. Pick this book up at your own risk. You may find yourself having lost not only the next few hours but also your sense of confidence in, as one might say, "the world as you know it." </p>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; ">This YA novel was first published in 1963, and was set around fifty years in its then-future. Nearly fifty years on, it has aged remarkably well. Right on the first page, I was taken back to the sensawunda I had when I first read this book as a young teenager around thirty years ago -- not least because in the first paragraph Clarke beautifully evokes the sense of wonder his teenage protagonist feels at the sight of an international cargo vessel and the daydreams it inspires about the places it has seen.<br><br>When sixteen-year-old Johnny Clinton finds that the giant hovercraft has made an emergency landing near his home, his curiosity leads him to sneak aboard for a look around, and leaves him trapped as an accidental stowaway when it lifts off again unexpectedly. The orphaned Johnny's not too upset at the idea of being carried away from the home he's reluctantly offered by his widowed aunt, so he doesn't come out of hiding until the craft crash-lands in the Pacific Ocean. The crew have abandoned ship, and Johnny is left with nothing but a packing crate and his own clothing to keep him afloat and sheltered -- until a pod of dolphins find him and and save his life by pushing his makeshift raft the hundred miles to the nearest land.<br><br>That land is Dolphin Island, an island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef which is home to a research station studying dolphins. The station tracks down where Johnny came from before he's even released from the infirmary, but he's offered the chance to stay, an offer he's quick to accept. He rapidly builds a new life for himself, one that mixes ongoing formal education with involvement in the scientific work on communicating with the dolphins. There's more than a little adventure as well.<br><br>This is an excellent short novel, with an engaging protagonist, an interesting story, and some superb world-building. Clarke drew on his own experience of skin-diving on the Great Barrier Reef to paint a wonderful word picture of the Reef and its marine life. Clarke's extrapolation of technology hasn't suffered too badly as reality caught up with it -- it's different to what really happened, but not so much so that it jars. And glory be, the story hasn't been visited by the Sexism Fairy. There's a distinct absence of female characters, but not in a way that says that women shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about difficult things like science. Definitely one for my keeper collection. </span></div>


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<h3>From</h3><p>Gr. 1^-2, younger for reading aloud. Junie B. Jones falls in love with the new boy in her kindergarten class in the latest First Stepping Stone Book about the eager pre-schooler and her friends. As with Lois Lowry's <em>See You Around, Sam</em> (1996), older kids will laugh at Junie's klutzy innocence, even as they recognize their own vulnerability in the classroom and the school yard. Brunkus' line drawings pick up the farce of Junie's desperate efforts in the world of romance and rivalry. <em>Hazel Rochman</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Park is truly a funny writer. Although Junie B. is a kindergartner, she's sure to make middle graders laugh out loud." -- <em>School Library Journal</em> -- <em>Review</em></p>


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<div>Eyes Only<br>INTERNAL AGENCY E-MAIL<br>FROM: Rocco Taylor<br>October 3, 11:50 
p.m.<br><br>It's the waiting I can't stand. Let me belly crawl across a 
minefield into an enemy stronghold. Or give me an MP5 and a load of clips and 
just let me shoot my way in. Anything but this: playing along with the perps 
while an innocent woman pays the price. <br><br>I know the last thing Gena wants 
is a hero--or me. I made the mistake of letting her go once, putting the 
assignment ahead of the heat between us. Since then she's survived things I can 
only imagine, but no one can escape a death agent alone. Now I've got one last 
chance to win her trust, to get it right. <br><br></div>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>The City &amp; The City</em>. Mieville is well known as a modern fantasist (and urbanist), but from book to book he's tried on different genres, and here he's fully hard-boiled, stripping down to a seen-it-all detective's voice that's wonderfully appropriate for this story of seen and unseen. His detective is Inspector Tyador Borlu, a cop in Beszel whose investigation of the murder of a young foreign woman takes him back and forth across the highly policed border to Ul Qoma to uncover a crime that threatens the delicate balance between the cities and, perhaps more so, Borlu's own dissolving sense of identity. In his tale of two cities, Mieville creates a world both fantastic and unsettlingly familiar, whose mysteries don't end with the solution of a murder. --_Tom Nissley_</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Better known for New Weird fantasies (_Perdido Street Station_, etc.), bestseller Miéville offers an outstanding take on police procedurals with this barely speculative novel. Twin southern European cities Beszel and Ul Qoma coexist in the same physical location, separated by their citizens' determination to see only one city at a time. Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad roams through the intertwined but separate cultures as he investigates the murder of Mahalia Geary, who believed that a third city, Orciny, hides in the blind spots between Beszel and Ul Qoma. As Mahalia's friends disappear and revolution brews, Tyador is forced to consider the idea that someone in unseen Orciny is manipulating the other cities. Through this exaggerated metaphor of segregation, Miéville skillfully examines the illusions people embrace to preserve their preferred social realities. <em>(June)</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>Conflicting family loyalties and the burdens of the past lie at the heart of the engrossing seventh novel from four-time Agatha Award nominee Fowler to feature amateur sleuth Benni Harper. Benni's 19-year-old stepson, Sam Ortiz, confides in her that he and his pregnant girlfriend, Bliss Girard, a rookie cop in the San Celina, Calif., police department, want to marry. Benni fears that her husband, Gabe Ortiz, the town's police chief, will disapprove--and that so will Bliss's socially and politically prominent family, the Browns. Benni isn't certain how to react when Lydia Ortiz, Sam's mother and Gabe's first wife, arrives to discuss the domestic crisis. Matters come to a head when the extended families dine together at the Browns' ancestral stronghold, Seven Sisters Ranch. The murder of Giles Norton, husband of another Brown offshoot and the son of prominent vintners, puts everyone at Seven Sisters at risk. A sheriff's department newcomer, Ford "Hud" Hudson, investigates the killing, and quickly pegs Benni as an unofficial assistant because of her reputation for nosiness and her connections to the case. The tenacious Hud constantly backs Benni into corners whenever she shows signs of wanting to wash her hands of the whole affair. In the end, Benni's own instincts drive her to dig out the long-hidden truth behind the deaths of four of the original seven Brown sisters, for whom the ranch was named. How this secret relates to the present tragedy provides the stunning climax to a compelling story of families torn apart by divided loyalties. Agent, Deborah Schneider. 9-city author tour. (Apr.) <br />Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From</h3><p>On a late summer day in San Celina, California, Sam Ortiz tells his stepmother, cowgirl Benni Harper, that he is engaged to Bliss Girard, daughter of a prominent rancher. Then Bliss' cousin is murdered. When the Girards clam up, Benni investigates and discovers that the murderer may be in the family, ready to kill again. This seventh Benni Harper mystery may be the best of the series. Fowler's regular characters all show significant growth; the mystery itself is satisfying both as a puzzle (the art of quiltmaking holds the key) and as a story about secrets buried in a family's past. In addition, the tantalizing subplot about Benni's amusing, poignant relationship with her husband's first wife is as intriguing as the mystery. The emphasis on skeletons in a California family's closet echoes Ross Macdonald, while the tone and feel of the novel will remind readers of Nevada Barr. <em>John Rowen</em></p>


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<h3>From</h3><p>Most accounts of Holocaust survival are centered on central or eastern Europe, in which the Nazi program of genocide was so explicit. Although Mussolini and his Fascist minions were not necessarily genocidal in intention, they were still virulently anti-Semitic as this engrossing and moving account reveals. Lamet was born in Vienna. When he was seven, his family’s middle-class existence was shattered by the Nazi seizure of Austria. His father fled to Poland, where he presumably perished in a death camp. Lamet and his mother made a harrowing escape to Italy, where they spent months seeking refuge in various isolated mountain villages. They resided in a southern rural hamlet east of Naples until the Allied liberation in 1943. Lamet recounts his mother’s struggles to provide a secure home for her child while both attempt to adjust from their urban, relatively sophisticated background to life in what initially appears to be a bleak, primitive setting. This memoir will be an excellent addition to Holocaust collections. --Jay Freeman </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Eric Lamet was only seven years old when the Nazis invaded Vienna--and changed his life and the lives of all European Jews forever. Five days after Hitler marches, Eric Lamet and his parents flee for their lives. His father goes back to his native Poland--and never comes back. His mother hides out in Italy, on the run from place to place, taking her son deeper and deeper into the mountains to avoid capture.</p><p>In this remarkable feat of memory and imagination, Lamet recreates the Italy he knew from the perspective of the scared and lonely child he once was. We not only see the hardships and terrors faced by foreign Jews in Fascist Italy, but also the friends Eric makes and his mother's valiant efforts to make a home for him.</p><p>In a style as original as his story, the author vividly recalls a dark time yet imbues his recollections with humor, humanity, and wit. Very few Holocaust memoirs address the plight of Jews sent into internal exile in Mussolini's Italy. Lamet offers a rare and historically important portrait, one you will not soon forget. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this vast, intricately patterned novel, Smiley accurately captures the voice of the medieval sagas. Understated, scattered with dreams and warnings, darkened by the brooding sense of unavoidable disasters to come, it is the tale of a Scandinavian settlement that lasted perhaps 500 years. With a meticulous attention to detail, the novel brings daily activities to lifefrom cheese making to hunting walruswhile examining the passions of a people under stress. The action centers on the family of Gunnar Asgeirsson. Gunnar's sister Margret is married off to Olaf, but he fails to consummate the marriage, and Margret begins a clandestine affair with a Norwegian sailor, Skuli Gudmundsson, who has stayed on in Greenland as a household retainer. Violence and tragedy ensue, and as Margret's unhappiness increases, her character hardens, and she offers her labor as an itinerant servingwoman. Although Margret is not always onstage, the novel spans the years of her long life. A foil to Margret, but no luckier, is Gunnar's wife, Birgitta, who is gifted with second sight. It is she who sums up the overriding sense of futility: "We have come to the ending of the world, for in Greenland the world must end as it goes on, that is with hunger and storms and freezing." Like the original Norse sagas, The Greenlanders roves restlessly from one folk group to another. Many of their destinies interlock, and certain exterior forces prey upon them all: the harsh climate; the marauding "skraelings," aboriginal Eskimos regarded as demons; outbreaks of bubonic plague and famine. Compulsive feuding, a witchcraft craze and a willingness to heed the apocalyptic prophecies of the madman Larus help to tear the society apart. As in her previous fiction (Duplicate Keys, The Age of Grief), this novel reveals Smiley's skill in delineating the behavior of individuals confined within a group. Her depiction of an isolated medieval folk battling for survival has a modern relevance. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild alternate. <br />Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Of proven skill when writing short stories and conventional novels, Smiley here attempts a family saga set among the Norse peoples of 14th-century Greenland. Centered on the fortunes of farmer Asgeir Gunnarsson and his children and grandchildren, the narrative pictures a bleak, declining society. Founded by Erik the Red, the Greenland colonies flourished for centuries; then trade shipments were cut off by the Black Death in Europe, the climate grew colder, and native peoples became increasingly hostile. Vivid, even stunning descriptions of the land and customs of these "lost settlements" are the book's strong points. Characterizations are less successful; many personalities remain wooden throughout the lengthy action. Nevertheless, the exotic subject matter will appeal to historical novel fans.Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.<br />Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this white-knuckler, ATF agent Dobyns infiltrates a chapter of the Hells Angels to show that, aside from much of the romance surrounding the group, it is indeed a violent gang. His investigations lead him through a fascinating cast of crystal meth-heads, gun runners, gang rapists and frauds. Dobyns and co-writer Johnson-Shelton tell a bracing story in straightforward prose that doesn't dilute any aspect of the toll his undercover act (a sprawling long-term investigation that penetrated deeper into the gang than any other) took on his life. A family guy who frequently finds himself taking calls from his worried wife while in the middle of an operation, Dobyns is brutally honest about how far his assignment takes him into the dark side and leaves the impression at the end that it's highly unlikely he will ever be able to totally return to undercover work (Hunter S. Thompson was beaten up while writing his 1967 take on the gang in <em>Hell's Angels</em>). From the medieval desert clan gatherings to breakneck-paced highway odysseys and high-noon showdowns, this is the real deal from an agent whose knack for the job and ability to transform it into elucidating reading recalls the story of Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco. <em>(Feb.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>This story of a two-year undercover investigation of the Arizona Hells Angels begins at the end and then backs up to tell the whole story. Dobyns, an officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, developed an addiction for the adrenaline rush after being shot and nearly killed during an arrest. In a harrowing first-person account, Dobyns describes his double life as family man and gun trader during the two years he spent undercover investigating the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. As he advanced within the club, eventually earning a “full patch,” he became more estranged from his family and more enmeshed in the violence of his persona, “Bird.” Feared and respected, the Angels were granted free drinks, sex, and drugs but held to a high level of conformity within the club. Dobyns details the “time, commitment, trust, risk, and money” it took for the ATF to penetrate a highly closed group populated by violent felons—some, like him, with families and day jobs. A fascinating look at the Hells Angels and the price one man paid for infiltrating the gang. --Vanessa Bush </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Corsi weaves an intriguing tale of science and religion that is more than a good read--it is about as near to an out-of-body experience as we are bound to witness. Believers and non-believers alike will be attracted to this book, if not for the same reasons."--Bill Donahue, The Catholic league for Religious and Civil Rights </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The priest. . . . Brought back to life on an operating room table after a horrific car crash, Father Paul Bartholomew is haunted by frightening visions—especially the moments when he seems to inhabit the body of Christ at Golgotha. The skeptics. . . . Dr. Stephen Castle, a New York City psychiatrist and renowned atheist, has built an international reputation for his book arguing that religion is a figment of human imagination. Professor Marco Gabrielli, an Italian religious researcher and chemist, has made a career of debunking supposed miracles, of explaining the unexplainable. The miracle. . . . For centuries, however, the Shroud of Turin has defied scientific explanation. Is this ancient remnant that bears such a vividly detailed pictorial representation truly the burial cloth that wrapped Christ after he was taken down from the cross? Or is it the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the Christian community? As Father Bartholomew—newly returned to his parish, the venerable St. Joseph’s Church in upper Manhattan—celebrates Mass, blood starts running down his arm. The horrified congregation watches him collapse to the ground, his vestments soaked with the blood pouring from wounds on his wrists. The phenomenon is known as stigmata, when a person appears to manifest the wounds that Christ suffered upon the cross. But in Father Bartholomew’s case there is a mysterious added dimension: he has been transformed to resemble in almost every physical aspect the Christ-like figure represented on the Shroud of Turin. Worried that Bartholomew’s case could be proved a hoax, the Vatican employs Dr. Castle and Professor Gabrielli to investigate. But for the well-known psychiatrist and the experienced man of science both, Father Bartholomew presents the most perplexing challenge either has ever faced. Dr. Castle watches in person while the priest appears to writhe in agony, blood spurting from wounds identical to those portrayed on the famous shroud, and he wonders if he too can have been sucked into some kind of shared hallucination. Meanwhile, Professor Gabrielli—confident that he can reproduce the shroud by using materials and methods available in the Middle Ages—works frantically to prove that the shroud is a medieval forgery. </p><p>But when the priest’s uncanny resemblance to the crucified Christ on the Shroud prompts the two men to investigate the famous artifact itself, each is finally forced to face mysteries that cannot be explained by sheer reason alone. It will be the most unsettling—and eventually soul-wrenching—journey of discovery they have ever undertaken. </p><p>From Jerome R. Corsi, author of the #1 <em>New York Times </em>bestseller <em>The Obama Nation, </em>comes a magnificent, thought-provoking first novel. Grounded in the same kind of in-depth, all-encompassing research that has distinguished Corsi’s nonfiction, <em>The Shroud Codex </em>plumbs the farthest reaches of science and the human spirit.</p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>The Zombie Apocalypse has been good to Sarah and David. Their marriage is better than ever. They communicate well, share responsibilities, and now, they're starting a business. ZombieBusters-for all your zombie extermination needs.  </p><p>There are lots of zombies and that means lots of customers...Except one of them doesn't want the zombies dead, he wants them alive and ready for experimentation. Mad scientists make for difficult clients and this time, Sarah and David might have bitten off more than they can chew. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>A Facebook application once told Jesse Petersen that she'd only survive a day in a zombie outbreak, but she doesn't believe that. For one, she's a good shot and two, she has an aversion to bodily fluids, so she'd never go digging around in zombie goo. Until the zombie apocalypse, she lives in the Midwest with her husband and two cats. Find out more about the author at www.jessepetersen.net. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The cantina scene in <em>Star Wars</em>, as Niven (_Ringworld_) points out in his introduction, partakes of "a hoary old tradition," as do the 27 Draco Tavern stories in this solid SF collection. Most of the tales, set in the 2030s, are short-shorts, often reading like brilliant, half-whimsical notebook jottings. The inverted city carved out of the ice by ocean-dwelling creatures on Europa in "Playground Earth" could be the basis for a novel. Niven tosses it off in a sentence. Many of the best moments are similar hints: an overheard conversation about how an alien species casually denied humans immortality because the perception of death flavors human poetry ("Limits"). The most startling perspective of all comes from "The Green Marauder," in which a two-billion-year-old creature explains how the Earth was "ruined" by "pollution" long ago. These stories are best taken a few at a time, to savor their inventiveness without noticing the undeveloped characters or that, even for bar stories, there's sometimes too much chatter and not enough action. <em>(Jan.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Throughout an award-winning 40-year career, Niven has taken time out for brief layovers at his favorite interspecies watering hole, the Draco Tavern. Run by inimitable multimillionaire Rick Schumann in the middle of Siberia, where the enigmatic extraterrestrial Chirpsithra made first contact with humans, the saloon serves as trading post and chat room for aliens from every corner of the galaxy. Here Niven corrals all the Draco Tavern tales into one volume that consequently showcases his ability to use sf to explore mind-boggling, universal questions. In one story, the Chirpsithra reveal knowledge of a species that learned what waits beyond death--but were the resulting mass suicides provoked by discovering heaven, or nothingness? In others, Niven inspects such ultimate conundrums as immortality, extraterrestrial intelligence, and computers that outstrip their creators' cleverness. Most of the 27 stories are short shorts that, taken altogether, radiate Niven's wit and technological inventiveness. A must for Nivenites and just plain good reading for everyone else. <em>Carl Hays</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einsteins general theory of relativity. But, almost a century after their advent, most people havent the slightest clue what either is about. Did you know that theres so much empty space inside matter that the entire human race could be squeezed into the volume of a sugar cube? Or that you grow old more quickly on the top floor of a building than on the ground floor? Get set for the most entertaining science book of the year.


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The publisher reportedly paid $5 million for this book but expects to recoup its investment; after all, this will be the only Brando autobiography available. Lindsey, who authored the prize-winning The Falcon and the Snowman, also helped Ronald Reagan when he faced writer's block over his autobiography. A 500,000-copy first printing.<br />Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From</h3><p>When Marlon Brando, playing Terry Malloy in <em>On the Waterfront</em>, bemoaned the fact that he "coulda been somebody," audiences hung onto his words, but according to Brando, the role "was actor-proof, a scene that demonstrated how audiences often do much of the acting themselves in an effectively told story. " Brando's evaluation of his acting and that of other celebrated actors, e.g., Olivier in <em>Wuthering Heights</em>, mark this rumination on his life. In his analysis of his films, from <em>Streetcar</em> to <em>The Freshman</em>, the master tries hard to demonstrate hubris and to provide public lessons. At the same time, he claims that luck, physical desires, and the need to make money motivate him. The book, which the publisher would not release in galleys, strikes the reader as a confession, an attempt to set the record straight, to circumvent "a carrion press that has an insatiable appetite for salaciousness and abhors being denied access to anyone, from pimps to presidents." Is it coincidence that Manso's unauthorized <em>Brando</em> and this book are being published a month apart? Whatever its raison d'{ˆ}etre, <em>Songs My Mother Taught Me</em> has much to offer. First, it's beautifully illustrated, beginning before the text with 24 pages of photographs covering Brando's early life, continuing with a number of well-placed photos documenting various film shoots, and concluding with 32 pages of photographs near the end. Brando's account of his early years rings true as he records the frailties of his alcoholic parents. His anecdotes about work and play are entertaining and memorable, and he addresses the many social causes he has championed. It's an interesting, albeit incomplete, work: according to coauthor Lindsey, Brando promised to "hide nothing . . . except his marriages and his children." (So many marriages, so many children.) Readers of Manso can't come here to find Brando's side of his marital troubles or the perplexing murder of his daughter's husband at the hands of his son. But they will find insight into the life of a man who was definitely a contender. <em>Bonnie Smothers</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Award-winning veteran narrator George Guidall gives a masterful performance of White's latest Doc Ford suspense thriller, creating well-drawn characters, including a grizzled ex-wrestler, two Cuban kidnappers, a teenage boy, a snobby Hamptons millionaire and Ford's hippie colleague. The scenes in which Ford painstakingly pieces together clues and provides backstory tend to drag a bit, but the action sequences are gripping and nail-bitingly suspenseful. Mystery fans are well advised to snatch this one up. <em>A Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 19). (Mar.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Retirement didn’t sit well with Doc Ford, White’s marine biologist and black-ops agent. Doc’s back in the game now but choosing his own projects, including a spot of vigilante settling up with the serial rapist who killed one of the fishing guides from Dinkin’s Bay Marina, Sanibel Island, Doc’s beloved home. With the local cops on his tail, Doc hops a plane for New York, there to rendezvous with a fetching U.S. senator who finds the biologist’s horned-rim glasses and broad shoulders a very appealing combination. Naturally, things happen. Ford witnesses the senator’s attempted kidnapping and manages to keep her out of harm’s way, but another person riding in the limo, a 14-year-old Native American boy, is snatched instead. It’s all part of a scheme by some rogue Cubans to recover a cache of Castro’s private papers. Soon enough the boy has been buried alive (with an air vent providing a rapidly diminishing air supply), and Ford and best-buddy Tomlinson, who hails from Long Island, are on the trail. The action, typical for White, is relentless, and the tension builds agonizingly (nothing like burying somebody alive to ratchet up the suspense). But the real interest here is the glimpse White provides of Tomlinson’s background (rich kid with seriously bent kinfolk). This may not be the tightest or most entertaining novel in the series, but longtime fans—of whom there are many—have been wanting to hear more of hippie-dippy Tomlinson’s backstory for years, and they’ll be overjoyed to get their wish. --Bill Ott </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Don't start reading <em>The Last Detective</em> with much on your calendar. This tense, satisfying thriller will glue you to your chair, as private eye Elvis Cole--the star of <strong> and </strong>--faces his toughest case: the abduction of his girlfriend's son, 10-year-old Ben Chenier, who was staying with Elvis when he was snatched.</p><p>Panic at Ben's disappearance turns to terror when the kidnapper phones to reveal his apparent motive, a dark secret from Elvis's past. But the plot thickens and twists, and then twists again, as Elvis and his longtime buddy, tough guy Joe Pike, race the clock against a group of villains as sinister as they are capable. The author mixes Elvis's first-person narration with third-person sections that describe other points of view--a risky technique, but Crais makes it work. He also does a fine job resurrecting the wisecracking Elvis of earlier books while imbuing him with a new depth and darkness. </p><p>This dazzlingly plotted, crisply told story is threaded with real detection (what a rarity!) and peopled by characters you can't help but care about--including Carol Starkey, the haunted bomb-squad cop from <em>Demolition Angel</em>, who's now a juvenile-abduction detective. Crais has long been getting better with each book, and <em>The Last Detective</em> continues the pattern. <em>--Nicholas H. Allison</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Elvis lives! Elvis Cole that is, Crais's iconoclastic, smart-aleck L.A. PI, last seen in Indigo Slam (1997). Violent and action-packed, this eighth book in the series has less of Cole's usual wisecracking but all the intensity and convoluted plotting of his two recent stand-alone thrillers, Demolition Angel (2000) and Hostage (2001). Cole is babysitting Ben, the 10-year-old son of his lawyer lover, Lucy Chenier, when the boy is kidnapped. As Cole and his super-tough, enigmatic pal, Joe Pike, join the police in the search for Ben, Lucy's obnoxious ex-husband, Richard, arrives from New Orleans with his own investigators. At first, the kidnappers imply they're seeking revenge for atrocities Cole committed in Vietnam. Several powerful, beautifully written flashbacks to Cole's horrendous Nam experiences and his troubled childhood follow. The narrative switches between Cole's vivid first-person point-of-view and a third-person account of a brave, frightened Ben and his savage captors. As the kidnappers' deadline nears and disturbing motives surface, the suspense becomes almost unbearable. The terrible, heartstopping climax is so well written that time seems to stop. Crais combines the thriller and private eye genres into a dazzling novel that is far more accomplished than the sum of its parts.<br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>''Magnificent. A science fiction masterpiece.'' -- <em>Galaxy</em>  </p><p>''Those who have thought of science fiction as only child's play will see how wrong they are.'' -- <em>Detroit Free Press</em>  </p><p>''One is left with the feeling that he has been in the presence of a master!'' --_National Observer_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Once again, master storyteller Robert A. Heinlein delivers a wild and intriguing classic of science fiction. Written at the dawn of the 1970s, this novel is the brilliantly shocking story of the ultimate transplant.   </p><p>As startling and provocative as his famous <em>Stranger in a Strange Land</em>, here is Heinlein's grand masterpiece about a man supremely talented, immensely old, and obscenely wealthy who discovers that money can buy everything.  </p><p>Johann Sebastian Bach Smith was immensely rich -- and very old. Though his mind was still keen, his body was worn out. His solution was to have surgeons transplant his brain into a new body. The operation was a great success -- but the patient was no longer Johann Sebastian Bach Smith. He was now fused with the very vocal personality of his gorgeous, recently deceased secretary, Eunice -- with mind-blowing results! Together they must learn to share control of her body. </p>

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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Sure, there's time enough for love...but who has time enough to get through 281/2 hours of a novel as dull as this? It opens 22 centuries in the future, when the ruler of a remote colony planet tries to keep 2000-year-old Lazarus Long from committing suicide before he passes on what he has learned. What follows is a very talky book, comprised mostly of Long's reminiscences. Curious about his possible blood ties to almost everyone he encounters, Long talks at length about genetics, but what he says now seems absurdly out-of-date, thanks to recent developments in DNA fingerprinting. When this book first appeared in 1973, it was hailed as one of Heinlein's masterworks the capstone to his future history cycle. Now it creaks with age, leaving listeners to marvel at how quickly the future can grow stale. Lloyd James's reading injects some life into the story but not enough to make it a worthwhile acquisition to any but well-funded sf collections. R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA <br />Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>As read by James, each tiny emotional nuance is delicately shaded with insight and understanding, bringing the text into an art form verging on theater. --Booklist  </p><p>Written as a memoir and narrated with gusto, this saga is both delightful and entertaining. Lloyd James breathes life into Heinlein's characters with an arsenal of onomatopoeia and vocal ranges from machismo to sultry. . . . James's talent for dialogue will make a Heinlein fan of anyone. --AudioFile  </p><p>As read by James, each tiny emotional nuance is delicately shaded with insight and understanding, bringing the text into an art form verging on theater. --Booklist </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Chief Inspector Wexford is one of the most admirable presences in mystery fiction today." --_The New York Times Book Review_  </p><p>"Rendell is a master of the form." --_The Washington Post Book World_  </p><p>"No one can take you so totally into the recesses of the human mind as does Ruth Rendell." --_The Christian Science Monitor_  </p><p>"The best mystery writer anywhere in the English-speaking world." --_The Boston Globe_ -- <em>Review</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The bed was neatly made, and the woman on top neatly strangled.  </p><p>According to all accounts, Angela Hathall was deeply in love with her husband and far too paranoid to invite an unknown person into their home. So who managed to gain entry and strangle her without a struggle? That is the problem facing Inspector Wexford in <strong>Shake Hands Forever</strong>. Perhaps it was the mystery woman who left her fingerprints on the Hathall's bathtub? Perhaps it was Angela's husband who lied about a stolen library book? And why was the Hathall home, usually so unkempt, exqisitely clean the day of Angela's death? Then a neighbor--friendly, knowing, disarmingly beautiful--offers Wexford her assistance. And what begins as a rather tricky case turns into an obsession that threatens to destroy the Inspector's career--as well as his marriage.   </p><p>Maddeningly addictive, smart and surprising, <strong>Shake Hands Forever</strong> showcases Ruth Rendell at the height of her storytelling powers.  </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Rendell is a master of the form." --_The Washington Post Book World_  </p><p>"An unusual detective story. . .intelligent, well-written, with a surprising twist." --_The Times Literary Supplement_  </p><p>"Ruth Rendell. . .retains her place of highest distinction in the field." --_The New York Times Book Review_  </p><p>"The best mystery writer anywhere in the English-speaking world." --_The Boston Globe_  </p><p>"No one can take you so totally into the recesses of the human mind as does Ruth Rendell." --_The Christian Science Monitor_ -- <em>Review</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Rhoda Comfrey's death seemed unremarkable; the real mystery was her life.  </p><p>In <strong>A Sleeping Life</strong>, master mystery writer Ruth Rendell unveils an elaborate web of lies and deception painstakingly maintained by a troubled soul. A wallet found in Comfrey's handbag leads Inspector Wexford to Mr. Grenville West, a writer whose plots revel in the blood, thunder, and passion of dramas of old; whose current whereabouts are unclear; and whose curious secretary--the plain Polly Flinders--provides the Inspector with more questions than answers. And when a second Grenville West comes to light, Wexford faces a dizzying array of possible scenarios--and suspects--behind the Comfrey murder.   </p><p>Brilliantly entertaining, exceptionally crafted, <strong>A Sleeping Life</strong> evokes the dark realities, half-truths, and flights of fancy that constitute a life.   </p>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "><h3 class="productDescriptionSource" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.23em; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.375em; margin-left: -15px; clear: both; ">Product Description</h3><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Rodney Williams's disappearance seems typical to Chief Inspector Wexford -- a simple case of a man running off with a woman other than his wife. But when another woman reports that her husband is missing, the case turns unpleasantly complex. </div></span></div>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Meet Ashley Patterson, the brainy, babelicious "computer whiz" and confused heroine of <em>Tell Me Your Dreams</em>. Although she has a cushy job at Global Computer Graphics, a fast-growing start-up in Silicon Valley, her life falls short of fulfilling. She's lonely, shy, and absolutely convinced she's being stalked. What's worse, the only sympathetic ear around is her father, Dr. Patterson, the heartless heart surgeon, who has the charm of an electric eel and the compassion of a tarantula. Given her options, Ashley looks to the heavens for support and offers up an ultimatum to the Almighty: "I'll make a deal with you, God. If it doesn't rain, it means that everything is all right, that I've been imagining everything." Of course, it starts raining buckets just paragraphs later, setting off a car alarm of an omen about our computer cutie's fate.</p><p>Enter Toni Prescott and Alette Peters. They both work with Ashley at Global Computer Graphics, but the similarities end there. Toni is a saucy, British vixen with a penchant for Internet dating and discotheques. <em>La bella Italiana</em> Alette, on the other hand, is a wannabe artist who prefers quiet, dreamy weekends with beefcake painters. Reminiscent of junior high school, Toni and Alette do their best to keep Ashley out of their cool clique, but find it difficult when a string of murders irrevocably binds them together. Based on a true story and laden with realistic details--not to mention a whopper of an ending--_Tell Me Your Dreams_ is vintage Sheldon. However, there is one necessary caveat: avoid moviegoer types who insist on telling you the entire plot before you have a chance to see it. You should be doing this anyway, but take extra care with this book. Once the surprise ending is blown, so is the fun in reading it. <em>--Rebekah Warren</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Perennial bestseller Sheldon (The Best Laid Plans) doesn't get under the reader's skin here as he does at his best, even though he weaves together many of his time-tested elements?childhood horror and its consequences; lust and murder as bedfellows; a pretty, hapless heroine; good men in the legal and medical professions trying to undo the wrongs done by others. Despite gory crime scene depictions, the old master, uncharacteristically, has left out the suspense and the layers of feeling. We finger the serial murderer all too quickly, just as we know before we know that Ashley's creepy physician father, Steven, abused her as a child. We never doubt that goodhearted lawyer David Singer will convince hostile judge Tessa Williams that, yes, multiple personality disorder happens, and that, morally and legally, it separates the doer from the deed. Nor is it any surprise that psychiatrist Gilbert Keller, spurred on by personal as well as professional longings, takes Allison apart and puts her back together the right way?or does he? A prefatory sentence says the novel is based on real cases. Maybe so, but one wishes that the authentic details had been told with genuine passion. Literary Guild main selection. <br />Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The latest novel by the veteran author ( If Tomorrow Comes, etc.) is a fast-paced thriller. Upon taking office, idealistic President Paul Ellison inaugurates the "people-to-people" program, intended to establish America's ties with Iron Curtain countries. Instead of naming an experienced diplomat as ambassador to Romania, Ellison selects wholesome Mary Ashley, instructor of Eastern European political science at Kansas State University. Mary initially declines the post, but after her husband dies in a suspicious car crash, she warily accepts Ellison's offer in an attempt to quell her overwhelming grief. Unwittingly, Mary has placed herself in peril, for a sinister covert organization of right- and left-wing tycoons and politicians called Patriots for Freedom intends to abort Ellison's project by lethal means. To kill Mary in Romania, these code-named extremiststheir identities aren't divulged until the novel concludeshire Angel, a terrorist infamous for for barbarity, skill, and dedication. Sheldon's characterizations are slick but involving, and the action escalates to an electrifying final scene. Adding depth are descriptions of harsh Romanian life, the agony of widowhood and the foreign service initiation process. <br />Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>In the world of political intrigue and espionage Sheldon's work is far from Le Carre or even Ludlum. But he can spin a fast-moving tale and give it a few twists. Here an international cabal of politically powerful right- and left-wingers seeks to destroy President Paul Ellison's plan to strengthen relations with Iron Curtain countries. Ellison's program is to start in Romania, and for ambassador he selects Mary Ashley, political science professor, wife, and mother who has seldom been outside Kansas in her 35 years, but whose writing has caught Ellison's eye. Sheldon strains credulity severely along the way, notably in murders masked as accidents, and Ashley's gaffes on the Washington diplomatic scene are glaringly inconsistent with her shrewd negotiating in Bucharest a few months later. But the story speeds along and the epilogue is a chiller. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.<br />Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Bill Buford's funny and engaging book <em>Heat</em> offers readers a rare glimpse behind the scenes in Mario Batali's kitchen. Who better to review the book for Amazon.com, than Anthony Bourdain, the man who first introduced readers to the wide array of lusty and colorful characters in the restaurant business? We asked Anthony Bourdain to read <em>Heat</em> and give us his take. We loved it. So did he. Check out his review below. <em>--Daphne Durham</em></p><hr /><p><strong>Guest Reviewer: Anthony Bourdain</strong>  </p><p><strong>Anthony Bourdain is host of the Discovery Channel's <em>No Reservations</em>, executive chef at Les Halles in Manhattan, and author of the bestselling and groundbreaking </strong>  </p><p><em>Heat</em> is a remarkable work on a number of fronts--and for a number of reasons. First, watching the author, an untrained, inexperienced and middle-aged desk jockey slowly transform into not just a useful line cook--but an extraordinarily knowledgable one is pure pleasure. That he chooses to do so primarily in the notoriously difficult, cramped kitchens of New York's three star </p><p>Secondly, the book is a long overdue portrait of the real </p><p>Thirdly, <em>Heat</em> reveals a dead-on understanding--rare among non-chef writers--of the pleasures of "making" food; the real human cost, the real requirements and the real adrenelin-rush-inducing pleasures of cranking out hundreds of high quality meals. One is left with a truly unique appreciation of not only what is truly good about food--but as importantly, who cooks--and why. I can't think of another book which takes such an unsparing, uncompromising and ultimately thrilling look at the quest for culinary excellence. <em>Heat</em> brims with fascinating observations on cooking, incredible characters, useful discourse and argument-ending arcania. I read my copy and immediately started reading it again. It's going right in between Orwell's <em>--</em></p><hr /><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Buford's voice echoes the rhythms of his own writing style. Writing about his break from working as a <em>New Yorker</em> editor and learning firsthand about the world of food, Buford guns his reading into hyperspeed when he is jazzed about a particularly tangy anecdote, and plays with his vocal tone and pitch when mimicking others' voices. At its base, Buford's voice is tinged with a jovial lilt, as if he is amused by his life as a "kitchen slave" and by the outsize personalities of the people he meets along the way. Less authoritative than blissfully confused, Buford speaks the way he writes, as a well-informed but never entirely knowledgeable outsider to the world of food love. Listening to his imitation of star chef Mario Batali's kinetic squeal, Buford ably conveys his abiding love for the teachers and companions of his brief, eventful life as a cook. <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><strong>Product Description</strong><br />The prize-winning author of <em>Legend of a Suicide</em> delivers his highly anticipated debut novel. </p><p>On a small island in a glacier-fed lake on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, a marriage is unraveling. Gary, driven by thirty years of diverted plans, and Irene, haunted by a tragedy in her past, are trying to rebuild their life together. Following the outline of Gary's old dream, they're hauling logs to Caribou Island in good weather and in terrible storms, in sickness and in health, to build the kind of cabin that drew them to Alaska in the first place.</p><p>But this island is not right for Irene. They are building without plans or advice, and when winter comes early, the overwhelming isolation of the prehistoric wilderness threatens their bond to the core. Caught in the emotional maelstrom is their adult daughter, Rhoda, who is wrestling with the hopes and disappointments of her own life. Devoted to her parents, she watches helplessly as they drift further apart.</p><p>Brilliantly drawn and fiercely honest, <em>Caribou Island</em> captures the drama and pathos of a husband and wife whose bitter love, failed dreams, and tragic past push them to the edge of destruction. A portrait of desolation, violence, and the darkness of the soul, it is an explosive and unforgettable novel from a writer of limitless possibility. </p><hr /><p><strong> A Q&amp;A with David Vann </strong><br /><hr /></p><p><strong>Q:</strong> Set in Alaska, <em>Caribou Island</em> is the story of a marriage’s unraveling and the tragic events it precipitates. How does your setting reflect and shape the novel’s plot and the characters, especially Irene and Gary? </p><p><strong>Vann:</strong> I think wilderness has no meaning on its own. It’s a giant mirror. So as I was writing <em>Caribou Island</em>, I kept focusing on Alaska, and as I described the landscape I was indirectly describing and discovering the interior lives of Irene and Gary. The island and lake are constantly shifting in shape and mood, and even the storms that come down off the glacier feel like they belong to Irene. She resents taking care of this man for thirty years and receiving only his vacancy in return, and the desolation of the place increases the pressure on her. There are no distractions, and no escape is possible.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> You were born in Alaska and spent your childhood there. What was that experience like? What are your impressions of this state that has become such a focus of public consciousness? </p><p><strong>Vann:</strong> Alaska is magnificent, and the cold rainforest of Ketchikan, where I spent my childhood, is still mythic in my imagination. In that forest, I always felt I was being watched, and we really did have bears and wolves. There was so much undergrowth and deadfall, I’d sometimes fall through the forest floor to a second floor and disappear completely. And the ocean was even more impossible. The first king salmon I caught was taller than I was, and my grandfather caught a 250-lb halibut. I remember watching it slowly rising to the surface, growing until it became bigger than my imagination. I write about Alaska because it’s in that landscape that I can find some sense of self and possibility and freedom. </p><p><strong>Q:</strong> You have been very open about your family tragedies, including your father’s suicide. Was it difficult approaching such a sensitive topic? How has using the raw material of these events affected you?</p><p><strong>Vann:</strong> It took me ten years to write <em>Caribou Island</em> there are again several true family stories in the background, but farther away than my father’s suicide, and my focus again was on seeing how the stories would shift and become something else. </p><p><strong>Q:</strong> As a male writer, did you face any challenges capturing the voice of your female characters? </p><p><strong>Vann:</strong> I didn’t expect to write about marriage, and I didn’t expect to write from the viewpoint of a woman, but I saw that Irene was the center of the story, and that her daughter Rhoda was also vitally important. I didn’t struggle with voice or point of view at all for some reason, perhaps because my sympathies were with Irene and Rhoda and less with Gary and Jim. To me, Irene and Rhoda make the best sense of the world and are the most honest, and this follows what I’ve experienced in real life, also. I was raised by women, and I trusted their accounts more than men’s accounts.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> How would you assess your evolution as a writer from your award-winning collection <em>Legend of a Suicide</em> to this, your first novel? Did you find your voice naturally, or was it a struggle to find the right sound and rhythm?</p><p><strong>Vann:</strong> With <em>Legend of a Suicide</em>, I was learning how to write. The book is a short novel framed by five short stories, and I was tremendously influenced by various writers during that ten-year period, so the style and voice vary from story to story and form a kind of debate. This makes sense for the material, because no one in my family could agree on who my father was, what happened, or what his suicide meant. There was no one story or one voice to find anywhere. But <em>Caribou Island</em> is a far more cohesive piece, and I wrote two pages per day in a kind of extended dream, hoping it would feel like it was written in one sitting. And I didn’t struggle at all with voice, because I think of writing as being mostly unconscious and out of control. All I have to do is get out of the way and avoid having plans and ideas. As long as I return each day to focus on place and character, the book writes itself. The final published version is almost exactly the same as my first draft, and it just is what it is. I don’t think authors really get to choose what they write. </p><p><strong>Q:</strong> Who are the writers you admire?</p><p><strong>Vann:</strong> My favorite writers focus on landscape. Cormac McCarthy’s <em>Blood Meridian</em>, for instance, we find mountains “whose true geology was not stone but fear.” We focus on the real mountains and then they slip and shift and describe what we fear and desire and who we imagine ourselves to be. We shape ourselves through place. </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>People haunted by their own failures and lost dreams drive Vann's earnest but uneven first novel, which opens with Irene, an ailing middle-aged Alaskan woman, telling her grown daughter, Rhoda, about coming home and finding her mother "hanging from the rafters" one day when she was 10 years old. Irene also tells Rhoda that she believes her husband, Gary, wants to leave her. Gary, "a champion of regret," wanted to be an academic, but ekes out a living fishing and building boats while planning a self-imposed exile with Irene on an island in Alaska's Skilak Lake, where he's building a crude log cabin. Rhoda envisions marital bliss with her boyfriend, Jim, a philandering, selfish dentist. Their internal monologues rage with ideas and desires that read like authorial conceits, not the thoughts of real people. The only true character is Alaska itself, and Vann, author of the story collection Legend of a Suicide, is at his best depicting the harsh, rugged landscape of the Alaskan wilderness. (Jan.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p>


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In semiautobiographical stories set largely in David Vann's native Alaska, Legend of a Suicide follows Roy Fenn from his birth on an island at the edge of the Bering Sea to his return thirty years later to confront the turbulent emotions and complex legacy of his father's suicide.


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>In 1954, Shelby Foote was a young novelist with a contract to write a short history of the Civil War. It soon became clear, however, that he had undertaken a long-term project. Twenty years later Foote finally completed his massive and essential trilogy on the War Between the States. His three books are prose masterpieces with lively characterizations and gripping action. Although Foote never sacrifices the truth of what happened to his penchant for artistry, his skills as a novelist serve him well. Reading all three of these books will take some time, but they are worth the investment--especially if you, like Foote, have a touch of sympathy for the South's lost cause. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Here, for a certainty, is one of the great historical narratives of our century, a unique and brilliant achievement, one that must be firmly placed in the ranks of the masters... a stirring and stupendous synthesis of history."  </p><p>-- Van Allen Bradley, Chicago Daily News  </p><p>"A grand, sweeping narrative... will continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind."  </p><p>-- Richard N. Current, N.Y. Herald Tribune  </p><p>The Civil War:  </p><p>A Narrative  </p><p>Fredericksburg to Meridian  </p><p>"This, then, is narrative history -- a kind of history that goes back to an older literary tradition... The writing is superb ... one of the historical and literary achievements of our time."  </p><p>-- T. Harry Williams, Book World  </p><p>"The lucidity of the battle narratives, the vigor of the prose, the strong feeling for the men from generals to privates who did the fighting, are all controlled by a constant sense of how it happened and what it was all about. Foote has the novelist's feeling for character and situation, without losing the historian's scrupulous regard for recorded fact. The Civil War is likely to stand unequalled."  </p><p>-- Walter Millis </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Here, for a certainty, is one of the great historical narratives of our century, a unique and brilliant achievement, one that must be firmly placed in the ranks of the masters... a stirring and stupendous synthesis of history."  </p><p>-- Van Allen Bradley, Chicago Daily News  </p><p>"A grand, sweeping narrative... will continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind."  </p><p>-- Richard N. Current, N.Y. Herald Tribune  </p><p>The Civil War:  </p><p>A Narrative  </p><p>Fredericksburg to Meridian  </p><p>"This, then, is narrative history -- a kind of history that goes back to an older literary tradition... The writing is superb ... one of the historical and literary achievements of our time."  </p><p>-- T. Harry Williams, Book World  </p><p>"The lucidity of the battle narratives, the vigor of the prose, the strong feeling for the men from generals to privates who did the fighting, are all controlled by a constant sense of how it happened and what it was all about. Foote has the novelist's feeling for character and situation, without losing the historian's scrupulous regard for recorded fact. The Civil War is likely to stand unequalled."  </p><p>-- Walter Millis --_Review_  </p><p>"Here, for a certainty, is one of the great historical narratives of our century, a unique and brilliant achievement, one that must be firmly placed in the ranks of the masters... a stirring and stupendous synthesis of history."  </p><p>-- Van Allen Bradley, Chicago Daily News  </p><p>"A grand, sweeping narrative... will continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind."  </p><p>-- Richard N. Current, N.Y. Herald Tribune  </p><p>The Civil War:  </p><p>A Narrative  </p><p>Fredericksburg to Meridian  </p><p>"This, then, is narrative history -- a kind of history that goes back to an older literary tradition... The writing is superb ... one of the historical and literary achievements of our time."  </p><p>-- T. Harry Williams, Book World  </p><p>"The lucidity of the battle narratives, the vigor of the prose, the strong feeling for the men from generals to privates who did the fighting, are all controlled by a constant sense of how it happened and what it was all about. Foote has the novelist's feeling for character and situation, without losing the historian's scrupulous regard for recorded fact. The Civil War is likely to stand unequalled."  </p><p>--Walter Millis </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>"I have never read a better, more vivid, more understandable account of the savage battling between Grant's and Lee's armies.... Foote stays with the human strife and suffering, and unlike most Southern commentators, he does not take sides. In objectivity, in range, in mastery of detail in beauty of language and feeling for the people involved, this work surpasses anything else on the subject.... It stands alongside the work of the best of them."--_New Republic_</p>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; ">FREDERICKSBURG TO MERIDIAN<br><br>"Gettysburg...is described with such meticulous attention to action, terrain, time, and the characters of the various commanders that I understand, at last, what happened in that battle.... Mr. Foote has an acute sense of the relative importance of events and a novelist's skill in directing the reader's attention to the men and the episodes that will influence the course of the whole war, without omitting items which are of momentary interest. His organization of facts could hardly be better."--<em>Atlantic</em><br><br>Focused on the pivotal year of 1863 the second volume of Shelby Foote's masterful narrative history brings to life some of the most dramatic and important moments in the Civil War including the Battle of Gettysburg and Grant"s Vicksburg campaign. "Foote has an acute sense of the relative importance of events and a novelist"s skill in directing the reader"s attention to the men and the episodes that will influence the course of the whole war without omitting items which are of momentary interest. His organization of facts could hardly be better." -The Atlantic "Though the events of this middle year of the Civil War have been recounted hundreds of times they have rarely been re-created with such vigor and such picturesque detail." -The New York Times Book Review "The lucidity of the battle narratives the vigor of the prose the strong feeling for the men from generals to privates who did the fighting are all controlled by constant sense of how it happened and what it was all about. Foote has the novelist"s feeling for character and situation without losing the historian"s scrupulous regard for recorded fact. The Civil War is likely to stand unequaled." -Walter Mills</span></div>


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<div><p class="description">Gideon Dixon was a good solider but bad at everything else. Now the British Army doesn't want him any more. So when he hears about the Valhalla Project it seems like a dream come true. They're recruiting fromer service personnel for execellent pay, no questions asked, to take part in unspecified combat operations. The last thing Gideon expects is to finding himself fighting alongside the gods of the </p>
<p class="description">ancient Norse pantheon. The world is in the grip of one of the worst winters it has ever known, and Ragnarok-the fabled final conflict of the Sagas-is looming.</p></div>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Jasper introduces tattoo artist Riley Poe in this shallow launch of a Southern-fried vampire romance trilogy. Once a wild child, Riley is now a surrogate parent to her younger brother, Seth. Riley's adopted Gullah relatives provide a living blood bank for the Dupré family of "good" vampires, who kept deadly undead "strigoi" bloodsuckers encrypted in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery until Seth's teenage prank freed them. Now evil strigoi Victorian and Valerian are bent on recruiting Seth and slaking their thirst on Riley's rare blood. Mysterious and magnetic Eli Dupré, entrusted with Riley's protection, both thrills her and freaks her out with vampiric cravings and sensual caresses. This superficial addition to today's vampire craze, couched in superheated first-person tough-girl lingo, adds only a few meager drops of insight into the current popularity of Dracula's literary descendants. (Nov.) (c) <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Darkly atmospheric and steamy, Jasper’s tale follows Riley Poe from her wild-child teens to her becoming a talented tattoo artist, and taking care of heryounger brother, Seth, after their mother dies. One night she follows Seth, 15, and his friends to the historical Bonaventure Cemetery, where, before she can stop them, they break into an ancient crypt that her Gullah friend Preacher had always called “da hell stone” and warned her away from. Over the next few days, Seth’s personality changes as he spends the days sleeping and the nights prowling the city. Preacher takes Riley to meet the Dupres, an ancient vampire family who helped Preacher lock the Arcoses, two evil vampire brothers, in the crypt long ago. Now that they’ve escaped and infected the teens, the city is in peril. Eli Dupre is gorgeous and has an instantaneous deep connection to Riley, but they have to stop the growing pack of soon-to-be-vampire teens and the Arcoses. --Diana Tixier Herald </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>First published to wide acclaim in Russia in 1996, the intriguing first Labyrinths of Echo novel introduces readers to protagonist, narrator and pseudonymous author Max Frei. Max, a self-described classic loser, stays up all night and sleeps during the day. His erratic sleeping habits turn out to be a blessing when a dream brings him to Echo, an otherworldly city inhabited by magicians, where he is named the Nocturnal Representative of the Most Venerable Head of the Minor Secret Investigative Force. After training to shed his terrestrial habits, Max's investigative intuition quickly makes him one of the city's most revered—and feared—men, and soon he's taking on midget murderers and rescuing bewitched sea captains. Gannon's translation preserves the book's quintessentially Russian wit and makes it easily accessible to English-speaking fantasy mystery fans. <em>(Apr.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"The whole effect is like a collaboration between Raymond Chandler and Gilbert and Sullivan-cheerfully noirish and disturbingly satirical." - <em>Library Journal</em>   </p><p>"I've never looked forward to the publication of a book more than I did Max Frei's The Stranger...a fantastic book."-_January Magazine_   </p><p>"_The Stranger_ is a hugely enjoyable mix of madcap mirth and fantastical adventure." -_California Literary Review_</p>


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In 1961, at the age of nineteen, young, black, eighth-grade dropout, Wilbert Rideau, despaired of the dead-end and small-town future his life held for him. He set out to rob the local bank and in an ill-concieved out and bungled robbery he murdered the bank teller a young, white female. He was arrested and gave a full confession at the local police station while angry mobs chanted kill that nigger outside. From this beginning, where we meet Rideau, newly sentenced to death row, he starts on an extraordinary journey. One that begins in the most violent prison in America, where brutality, years spent in solitary confinement, sexual slavery and local politics govern and confine many in ways that bars alone cannot.The ending to this compelling book is like nothing you will have read before, full of breathtaking suspense and gripping, gritty realism, a heartbreaking, emotionally wrought and magical ending to Rideaus prison life is skilfully and vigorously evoked.This is a powerful and inspirational memoir unlike any other, one that is sure to question our expectations of prisoners and the role of jails in rehabilitating them .


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>In Book Two of the epic adventure that began in SPLIT INFINITY, Stile discovers life on Proton and Phaze is getting more difficult. On Proton he's a serf trying to prove his right to exist by competing in the Great Games. And on Phaze, where only magic worked, he was the Blue Adept trying to master the powers of sorcery. On both worlds, someone was trying to assassinate him. And as if that weren't enough, he has to win the love of Lady Blue, fight a dragon, discover the ultimate weapon, and of course, seek out the all-powerful Citizen who was trying to kill him!<br />THE APPRENTICE ADEPT SERIES<br />Book One: SPLIT INFINITY<br />Book Two: BLUE ADEPT<br />Book Three: JUXTAPOSITION </p><h3>From the Inside Flap</h3><p>In Book Two of the epic adventure that began in SPLIT INFINITY, Stile discovers life on Proton and Phaze is getting more difficult. On Proton he's a serf trying to prove his right to exist by competing in the Great Games. And on Phaze, where only magic worked, he was the Blue Adept trying to master the powers of sorcery. On both worlds, someone was trying to assassinate him. And as if that weren't enough, he has to win the love of Lady Blue, fight a dragon, discover the ultimate weapon, and of course, seek out the all-powerful Citizen who was trying to kill him!<br />THE APPRENTICE ADEPT SERIES<br />Book One: SPLIT INFINITY<br />Book Two: BLUE ADEPT<br />Book Three: JUXTAPOSITION </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Using the same Florida setting as his horror novel Shade of the Tree , Anthony here conjures up a nightmarish creature who stalks humans through sexual attraction and leaves them grotesquely sucked dry of their protoplasm. When bodies reduced to skin and skeleton are found on a remote wildlife sanctuary, the reclusive owner of the estate refuses to call in outside help to track down the killer. His employees are left to fend for themselves against the menace of a predator who lures them in the way a firefly traps its prey--by emitting pheromones, powerfully sexual chemicals--and uses digestive acids to dissolve the bodies of its victims. Speculating about the power of an alien monster to decimate the human race, Anthony devotes much of the narrative to plumbing his characters' past experiences, many of them couched in allegorical terms, and examining the differences between love and sex, with emphasis on sexual abuse. Absorbed in working out his theme, Anthony unfortunately overlooks flawed logic and plot inconsistencies. While some readers may find his ideas intriguing, many will be put off by a narrative that verges on the pornographic. <br />Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>A mysterious monster stalks a private wildlife preserve, leaving behind only the skin and bones of its victims--and an overpowering pheromonic residue. The author of a multitude of fantasy and sf series and single novels tries his hand at horror with mixed results, producing an unfortunate trivialization of the problems that beset the novel's protagonists. Despite Anthony's strong imagination and affection for his characters, this is not recommended.<br />Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Stile had problems on two different worlds. On Proton he was threatened with murder, and on Phaze, an alternate world ruled by magic, he had to master magic, fight a dragon, win the friendship of a lady unicorn, locate his enemy among the paranoid Adepts and return out of Phaze to win the Great Games on Proton. After that, he was ready to face the real problems!<br />THE APPRENTICE ADEPT<br />Book OneSPLIT INFINITY<br />Book TwoBLUE ADEPT<br />BookThreeJUXTAPOSITION  </p><h3>From the Inside Flap</h3><p>Stile had problems on two different worlds. On Proton he was threatened with murder, and on Phaze, an alternate world ruled by magic, he had to master magic, fight a dragon, win the friendship of a lady unicorn, locate his enemy among the paranoid Adepts and return out of Phaze to win the Great Games on Proton. After that, he was ready to face the real problems!<br />THE APPRENTICE ADEPT<br />Book OneSPLIT INFINITY<br />Book TwoBLUE ADEPT<br />BookThreeJUXTAPOSITION </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Out of print no longer: Book Four of the Apprentice Adept series--from the <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author.   </p><p>Two worlds--the scientific Proton, and the magical Phaze--exist side-by-side. Now, Mach has crossed from Proton to Phaze, switching places with his counterpart Bane. And both must learn to survive in environments alien to their own nature. </p>


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The now-merged worlds of magical Phaze and technological Proton face a new threat from an invading force known as the Hectare. While Citizens and Adepts alike wait helplessly on the sidelines, the task of turning defeat into victory falls to two special children--and an enemy agent. This conclusion of the "seven-novel Adept trilogy" features more of Anthony's best: sparkling wordplay, endless permutations of plot and characters, and light-hearted entertainment. Recommended where the series--or the author--is popular.<br />Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Sparkling wordplay, endless permutations of plot and characters, and light-hearted entertainment. -- <em>_</em>Library Journal_</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Anthony's Apprentice Adept series takes place on a world inhabited simultaneously by two separate spheres of being: the science fictional Proton's technological Earth colonists and the fantasy Phaze's magical natives including dragons, demons and goblins. An imbalance that has developed between the aspects now threatens both and wreaks particular havoc with the lives of robotic Mach of Proton and human Bane of Phaze, who are the only contact between realms. For that reason, the zealous Adverse Adepts seek to control the pair by kidnapping their lovers, the alien Agape and the unicorn Fleta. This tepid reworking of A Midsummer Night's Dream from the usually boisterous Anthony becomes a series of contests, from a lovers' bakeoffcomplete with brownie recipeto an Olympics whose events include storytelling and word games. <br />Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>In this sequel to Anthony's Out of Phaze , two pairs of star-crossed lovers hold the fates of magic-based Phaze and its sister-world Proton in their hands as Adverse Adepts and Contrary Citizens plot to gain control of an all-knowing computer and its magical analog. Fans of games, logic problems, and mental conundrums will appreciate the plot permutations that highlight the adventures of four feisty heroes in this sf/fantasy blend. JC<br />Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>Split Infinity</em> is the first book in Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series. Here two worlds exist side by side: Proton and Phaze. Proton is a science fiction world, where everything works in a logical and scientific manner. Phaze is a fantasy world similar to Anthony's Xanth in that there's no such thing as science--it's all done with magic! The wild plot involves a young adventurer named Stiles who lives in Proton and learns that his "double" in Phaze has been murdered. To solve his own demise, Stiles must travel between the two realities, each abounding with the expected confusions and unexpected plot twists for which Anthony is famous. An artful blending of SF and fantasy clichés and situations, <em>Split Infinity</em> shows Piers Anthony at the top of his ingenious game(s). <em>--Stanley Wiater</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>On the technological, decadent world of Proton, someone was trying to destroy Stile, serf and master Gamesman. His only escape lay in Phaze, a world totally ruled by magic. Soon he learned that his alternate self had already been murdered, and that he was next. On Proton, his fate depended on winning the great Games. On Phaze, he must master magic to survive. And if he used any magic at all, his friends were determined to kill him at once!  </p><p>THE APPRENTICE ADEPT<br />Book OneSPLIT INFINITY<br />BookTwoBLUE ADEPT<br />Book ThreeJUXTAPOSITION  </p>


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The parallel wars of wits and politics on the magical world of Phaze and its technological sister-world Proton take a bizarre twist as the children of the Robot Adept Mach and his Phaze-born counterpart Bane play hide-and-seek for keeps to foil the plans of the Contrary Citizens of Proton and the Adverse Adepts of Phaze. Familiar characters from previous series titles come together for a rousing climax in this "conclusion" to one of Anthony's most endearing series. Recommended.-- JC<br />Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Especially with an all-new package.   </p><p>The combined magic and technology between the parallel worlds of Phaze and Proton is not enough to save the planets from a conquering invasion. Only Mach and Bane--robot and wizard, linked between worlds--have any chance of stopping this threat. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>This first-ever fully annotated edition of one of the most beloved novels in the world is a sheer delight for Jane Austen fans. Here is the complete text of <em>Pride and Prejudice </em>with more than 2,300 annotations on facing pages, including:  </p><p>• <strong>Explanations of historical context</strong><br />Rules of etiquette, class differences, the position of women, legal and economic realities, leisure activities, and more.  </p><p>• <strong>Citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings</strong><br />Parallels between the novel and Austen’s experience are revealed, along with writings that illuminate her beliefs and opinions.  </p><p>• <strong>Definitions and clarifications </strong><br />Archaic words, words still in use whose meanings have changed, and obscure passages are explained.  </p><p>• <strong>Literary comments and analyses</strong><br />Insightful notes highlight Austen’s artistry and point out the subtle ways she develops her characters and themes.  </p><p>• <strong>Maps and illustrations </strong><br />of places and objects mentioned in the novel.  </p><p>• <strong>An introduction, a bibliography, and a detailed chronology of events</strong>  </p><p>Of course, one can enjoy the novel <em>without </em>knowing the precise definition of a gentleman, or what it signifies that a character drives a coach rather than a hack chaise, or the rules governing social interaction at a ball, but readers of <em>The Annotated Pride and Prejudice </em>will find that these kinds of details add immeasurably to understanding and enjoying the intricate psychological interplay of Austen’s immortal characters. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>Jane Austen</strong> was born in 1775 and died in 1817. The daughter of a Hampshire clergyman, she never married. On her father's retirement in 1801, the family moved to Bath for several years and then to Southampton, settling finally at Chawton Cottage, near Alton, Hampshire, which was Jane's home for the rest of her life. The novels published in Austen's lifetime were <em>Sense and Sensibility</em> (1811), <em>Pride and Prejudice</em> (1813), <em>Mansfield Park</em> (1814), and <em>Emma</em> (1816). <em>Persuasion</em> was issued in 1818 with Northanger Abbey. Her minor works include her juvenilia, the novella <em>Lady Susan</em>, and the fragments <em>The Watsons</em> and <em>Sanditon</em>.  </p><p><strong>David Shapard</strong> graduated with a Ph.D. in European History from the University of California at Berkeley; his specialty was the eighteenth century. Since then he has taught at several colleges, and lives in upstate New York. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Whether you're looking for the restroom in The Rijksmuseum, free beer at the Heineken Brewery, information at The Prostitution Information Centre, yellow corduroy flares at the Waterlooplein market, a canal bike to cruise the waterways, a primer on Dutch cheese, or where to dial for BBC World Service broadcasts--look no further. <em>Amsterdam: The Rough Guide</em> can help you fulfill these and thousands of other needs. </p><p>There are many reasons to visit Amsterdam, not the least of which could be its breath-of-fresh-air qualities compared to the rush of other cities. As the authors explain, "With its tree-lined canals, cobbled streets, tinkling bicycle bells and stately architecture, Amsterdam is a world away from the traffic and noise of other European city centres--clean, modern and quiet, while still retaining a perfectly preserved 400-year-old centre." </p><p>The Rough Guide's maps include sights, bars, hotels, restaurants, clubs, and public transport routes. They're easy to read and well-marked and are accompanied by choice-provoking tidbits about places to stay and nearby eateries and drinkeries: "Well-worn but clean rooms awaiting imminent renovation, friendly and helpful staff," "Small, homely and serving delicious pancakes," "Tiny place that looks and feels like an African mud hut, except for the hip-hop beats. Grass specialists." </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>"The Rough Guide to Amsterdam" is the essential travel guide with clear maps and coverage of the unforgettable attractions of this compact and instantly likeable city. From the Anne Frankhuis to the Reijksmuseum, the Rough Guide will steer you via outstanding art galleries, elegant canal-side architecture and all the unmissable city sites. The guide provides comprehensive coverage of the best restaurants, stylish bars, intimate cafes, vibrant markets and hottest nightlife in Amsterdam for all budgets. "The Rough Guide to Amsterdam" includes a chapter devoted to day-trips featuring places you can comfortably get to and back from in a day including Haarlem, Alkmaar and Edam. Explore all corners of the city with authoritative background on evrything from the city's canal houses to the art of the Golden Age, relying on the clearest maps of any guide and practical language tips. Whether you're sipping a beer in an old cafe, or dodging the trams on Dam Square, this guide is indispensable. Make the most of your holiday with "The Rough Guide to Amsterdam". </p>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>Praise for the theatrical version of I.O.U.S.A.: </p><p>"I.O.U.S.A. is a clear, cogent and compelling primer on contemporary American economics and the not-so-small matter of how we ended up at the edge of a precipice." -- Toronto Star </p><p>"The buck stops here in this sobering but disarmingly irreverent look at the national debt." -- Hollywood Reporter </p><p>I.O.U.S.A. | 3.5 Stars! "...it accomplishes an amazing thing. It explains the national debt, the foreign trade deficit, the decrease in personal savings, how the prime interest rate works, and the weakness of our leaders." -- Roger Ebert </p><p>"An alternately amusing and alarming primer on America's off-the-charts fiscal irresponsibility." -- Variety </p><p>"Equal parts enlightening and alarming, "I.O.U.S.A." highlights our unwise preference for short-term reward over long-term planning." NY Times </p><p>"For anyone seeking a clearer understanding of the financial state of the union -- and strong enough to take the sobering news -- [I.O.U.S.A.] is a good place to start." LA Times </p><p>"Some even wonder if it might do for the economy what Al Gore’s "An Inconvenient Truth" did for the environment..."I.O.U.S.A" is a bold attempt to highlight a potentially huge problem." -- The Economist </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The United States has been spending its way deeper and deeper into the red, and saddling future generations with the mess—but who's paying attention?<br>To answer that question, the companion book to the critically acclaimed documentary <em>I.O.U.S.A.</em> talks with some of the most revered voices in the nation, including Warren Buffett; former Treasury Secretaries Paul O’Neill and Robert Rubin; Pete Peterson, CEO of The Blackstone Group; Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas); and bestselling <em>Empire of Debt</em> author Bill Bonner.<br>Armed with these interviews, historical references, and damning statistics, the book takes a lively and entertaining romp through the four deficits the nation faces: the budget deficit, the personal savings deficit, the trade deficit—and what former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, who resigned abruptly in 2008 over Congress’s lack of action, calls the “leadership deficit” in Washington.<br>Defiantly non-partisan, the empowering solutions outlined in these pages are a must-read for any American who wants to help change “business-as-usual” in Washington as a new administration heads towards the Oval Office. “We the People” can get our politicians to stop spending, promote responsible economic programs, and hand our children and grandchildren the secure future they deserve.  </p>

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<h3>Review</h3><p>"A guide to understanding 'the dismal science' and how economic concepts and institutions affect our daily lives" (_The Economist_, December 2010) </p><p>"...a must read in economic literacy." (_USA Today_, November 29, 2010) </p><p>"Finally, an economics book that is neither dull nor inscrutable and that won't put you to sleep. Greg Ip gives us a lucid and entertaining understanding of 'the dismal science' and reveals how economic concepts and institutions affect our daily lives. This little gem can turn all of us into sophisticated and educated citizens."<br />—<strong>Burton G. Malkiel</strong>, Professor of Economics, Princeton University; author of <em>A Random Walk Down Wall Street</em> and <em>The Elements of Investing</em></p><p>"Greg Ip is one of the world's best economic journalists. The Little Book of Economics will teach you much more than a little about the forces that shape all of our lives."<br />—<strong>N. Gregory Mankiw</strong>, Professor of Economics, Harvard University; author of <em>Principles of Economics</em></p><p>"Here's the perfect way to understand the economy without breaking a sweat. Clearly written and easy to understand, <em>The Little Book of Economics</em> guides you through what you need to know. Ip's bright light illuminates places previously darkened by insider jargon and arcane formulae."<br />—<strong>Robert B. Reich</strong>, Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley; former U.S. Secretary of Labor </p><p>"The book is an excellent introduction to basic economic concepts and ideas explained in clear and thoughtful ways. A must read in economic literacy." "<br />—<strong>Nouriel Roubini</strong>, Professor of Economics, New York University; Co-founder and Chairman of Roubini Global Economics </p><p>"Greg Ip has the rare talent of making even the toughest topics easy to understand. In <em>The Little of Book of Economics</em>, he tells you what you need to know with superb clarity and memorable examples. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a clear explanation of how the forces of economics shape the world."<br />—<strong>Michael J. Mauboussin</strong>, Chief Investment Strategist, Legg Mason Capital Management; Author of <em>Think Twice</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>One positive side-effect of the recent financial market meltdown that toppled giant, century-old institutions and cost millions their jobs is that it created a strong desire among many Americans to better understand how the U.S. economy functions. In <em>The</em> _Little Book of Economics_, Greg, Ip, one of the country’s most recognized and respected economics journalists, walks readers through how the economy really works. </p><p>Written for the inquisitive layman who doesn’t want to plow through academic jargon and Greek letters or pore over charts and tables, <em>The Little Book of Economics</em> offers indispensible insight into how the American economy works – or, doesn’t. With engaging and accessible prose, the book </p><ul> <li>     Provides a comprehensive understanding of each aspect of our economy from inflation and unemployment to international trade and finance  </li> <li>     Serves as an insider’s guide to the people and institutions that control America’s economy such as the Federal Reserve and the federal budget  </li> <li>     Explains the roots of America’s current economic crisis and the risks the country faces in its aftermath, such as stratospheric government debt, while offering advice on overcoming these threats  </li> <li>     Walks readers through the basic concepts and terminology they need to understand economic news  </li> <li>     Punctures myths and political spin from both the left and the right with candid and often surprising insight  </li></ul><p>A must read for anyone who wants a better grasp of the economy without taking a course in economics , <em>The Little Book of Economics</em> is a unique and engaging look at how the economy works in all its wonderful and treacherous ways. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Former CIA director Tenet leaves the main vocal duties for this audio in the capable hands of Conger (who also recently narrated <em>The Reagan Diaries</em>). Yet in reading both the brief introduction and lengthy-but highly compelling-afterword, Tenet demonstrates a command of the spoken word that makes one wonder why he did not handle his own narration. However, the two men project a compatible style and tone, conveying deeply personal emotion within the boundaries of professionalism and decorum. Tenet does not shy away from acknowledging his own responsibility in controversies involving terrorism and the Iraq War, but he also takes several key political leaders to task for scapegoating the intelligence community in the wake of unpopular policy. The musical interludes at the start and end of each CD serve to maintain the cloak and dagger ambience. Those who prefer to skim the surface of news events may find the length taxing, but listeners ready to move beyond the headlines and into a wider world of nuanced complexity will be more than satisfied. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Tenet, former director of the CIA, has finally delivered his long-anticipated book. It was supposed to provide background and insight into the events of September 11 as well as the lead-up (and fall down) of the Iraq War. But most readers will find that Tenet's hodgepodge of facts tangled with homey anecdotes, excuses, and mea culpas will leave them as confused as ever. Alternately presenting himself as the folksy Greek American kid from Queens and the high-charging power broker, Tenet is proud of the many things the CIA did right under his charge, such as disrupting terrorist attacks leading up to 9/11 (while, of course, missing the big one), and he writes feverishly about successes in Afghanistan and elsewhere during the trying months afterward. The book is at its best painting just how dangerous, confusing, and exhausting those days were. Then comes the distraction from terrorism that was Iraq, and according to Tenet, common purpose disappeared in Washington, and interagency warfare reigned. Cheney comes out looking bad, and Rice worse, but much of the blame for the ill-preparedness goes to the slightly lower-level neocons: Wolfowitz, Libby, et al. As for the president, Tenet likes him––a lot. But in a telling few pages, Bush keeps trying to get neocon favorite Ahmed Chalabi off the payroll, and no one pays a bit of attention to him. Turning these pages is like walking through mirrors. Cooper, Ilene <br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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The subject of a major motion picture starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter. One man saved the British Royal Family in the first decades of the 20th century amazingly he was an almost unknown, and certainly unqualified, speech therapist called Lionel Logue, whom one newspaper in the 1930s famously dubbed _The Quack who saved a King_. Logue wasn't a British aristocrat or even an Englishman - he was a commoner and an Australian to boot. Nevertheless it was the outgoing, amiable Logue who single-handedly turned the famously nervous, tongue-tied, Duke of York into the man who was capable of becoming King. Had Logue not saved Bertie (as the man who was to become King George VI was always known) from his debilitating stammer, and pathological nervousness in front of a crowd or microphone, then it is almost certain that the House of Windsor would have collapsed. The King's Speech is the previously untold story of the extraordinary relationship between Logue and the haunted young man who became King George VI, drawn from Logue's unpublished personal diaries. They throw extraordinary light on the intimacy of the two men and the vital role the King's wife, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, played in bringing them together to save her husband's reputation and his career as King. The King's Speech is an intimate portrait of the British monarchy at a time of its greatest crisis, seen through the eyes of an Australian commoner who was proud to serve, and save, his King.


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<h3>From</h3><p>Ever since the Boston Tea Party, Americans have never exhibited the same passion for tea that so many others in the world cultivate. Much of the tea consumed here is iced tea. Harney sets out to change American minds and educate their palates. Writing in language typically reserved for wine, Harney describes the distinctive tastes, colors, and mouthfeel of teas from each of the major groups: white, green, oolong, yellow, and black. He divides the green teas into Chinese and Japanese, and the black into Chinese and “British legacy,” a catchall term for teas from India and other remnants of the British Empire. He also recommends proper brewing temperatures and the appropriate brewing time for each tea variety. Harney’s comprehensive analyses of the differences among teas make this a noteworthy book for tea drinkers and a worthwhile reference tool for librarians. --Mark Knoblauch </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>The country’s leading connoisseur presents a comprehensive guide for developing your tea palate</strong>.  </p><p><em>The Harney &amp; Sons Guide to Tea</em> transforms tea drinkers into tea experts. Written by one of the country’s leading tea professionals, <em>The Harney &amp; Sons Guide to Tea</em> is an illuminating resource for tea drinkers interested in developing and refining their palate as well as their understanding of the complex agricultural, historical, and cultural significance of tea.  </p><p>Drawing on his singular experience, Michael Harney masterly explores the full range of teas, revealing how each tea is distinctive, with a taste that derives from a precise combination of cultivation and production techniques, and influenced by the geography as well as its history. These lively profiles of diverse tea varieties—from delicate white tea to aged black puerh tea—include brewing instructions and vivid descriptions of the beverage scent, taste, and appearance; everything you need to become a connoisseur.  </p><p>Tea has long been popular in the United States, but only recently have Americans treated this nuanced beverage with a deeper curiosity, more refined approach, and wider appetite. <em>The Wall Street Journal</em> reports that total U.S. tea sales are nearly four times what they were in 1990, and this growing population of discriminate consumers will celebrate the new vocabulary provided in <em>The Harney &amp; Sons Guide to Tea</em>.  </p><p>Unique in scope, candor, and accessibility, <em>The Harney &amp; Sons Guide to Tea</em> will quickly become the classic reference and staple in the library of every serious tea drinker. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Imagine you're the world's biggest Beatles fan and you've just snuck into John Lennon's hotel room. But instead of being thrown out, inexplicably you're invited to spend the day with your idol. That's exactly what happened to fourteen-year-old Jerry Levitan in 1969. After hearing John was in Toronto for a "bed in," Jerry tracked him down at the King Edward Hotel and convinced the world's biggest rock star to sit down for an exclusive forty-minute interview. John talked candidly about war, politics, the scandalous <em>Two Virgins</em> album, and the supposed subliminal messages in his music. </p><p>Now, forty years later, it's all here: Jerry's once-in-a-lifetime adventure, illustrated by acclaimed artist James Braithwaite and featuring never before seen photographs of John and Yoko. Also included in the book is Jerry's memorabilia from that day--notes from John and Yoko, the secret code to contact him, drawings, John's doodles, and much more. Complete with an audio and video DVD of the interview that inspired the Academy Award-nominated film of the same name, <em>I Met the Walrus</em> is an immortalized one-on-one moment with John--a must-have for Lennon fans around the world, as well as anyone who has ever dreamed of meeting a hero. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Jerry Levitan is a musician, actor, filmmaker, writer, and lawyer living in Toronto. Under the persona Sir Jerry (www.sir-jerry.com), he has been described as "one of Canada's most innovative children's performers" and has produced two critically acclaimed children's albums, <em>Bees, Butterflies &amp; Bugs</em> and <em>Sir Jerry's World</em>. As a litigation lawyer, he has set precedents in the fields of constitutional, human rights, and administrative law. And as an actor, he has appeared in film and television including an appearance on <em>The West Wing</em>. He produced and starred in the 2008 Academy Award-nominated film <em>I Met The Walrus</em>, winning acclaim and festival awards from around the world. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Following conviction for bank fraud, White spent a year in a minimum-security prison in Carville, La., housed in the last leper colony in mainland America. His fascinating memoir reflects on the sizable group of lepers living alongside the prisoners, social outcasts among the motley inmate crew of drug dealers, mob types and killers. Narrating in colorful, entertaining snapshots, White introduces the reader to an excellent supporting cast in his imprisonment: Father Reynolds, the peerless spiritual monk; Mr. Flowers, the no-nonsense case manager; Anne, the sorrowful mother with leprosy whose baby was taken from her arms; and Ella the Earth Mother, with wisdom to spare. Brisk, ironic and perceptive, White's introspective memoir puts a magnifying glass to a flawed life, revealing that all of life is to be savored and respected. <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> White was a successful magazine publisher in 1993 when he was convicted of fraud and check kiting and sentenced to prison in Carville, Louisiana. He knew he was facing 18 months without his wife and two young children; he knew his enormous ego and ambition had landed him in prison; he knew he had to figure out a way to save his marriage and somehow rebound financially. What he didn’t know was that the isolated 100-year-old facility at Carville was home to a leper colony of 130 patients. He learned that the patients (some severely disfigured and disabled) and the 250 inmates eyed each other suspiciously across the corridors and breezeway, each thinking the other was the scourge of the earth. Because his work detail brought him into frequent contact with the patients, White developed strong relationships with them. His favorite was Ella, a dignified and beatific elderly black woman, who had lived at Carville for more than 50 years. Among the inmates, White encountered counterfeiters and tax evaders along with drug traffickers and carjackers. When the Bureau of Prisons decided to evict the leprosy patients, tensions built on both sides. White, near the end of his sentence and struggling to come to grips with the consequences of his crime, is caught in the middle. He offers a memoir of personal transformation and a thoroughly engaging look at the social, economic, racial, and other barriers that separate individuals that harden, dissolve, and reconfigure themselves when people are involuntarily thrust together over long periods. --Vanessa Bush </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"_The One-Straw Revolution_ is one of the founding documents of the alternative food movement, and indispensable to anyone hoping to understand the future of food and agriculture."—Michael Pollan</p><p>"Only the ignorant could write off Fukuoka, who died two years ago at the age of 95, as a deluded or nostalgic dreamer...Fukuoka developed ideas that went against the conventional grain....Long before the American Michael Pollan, he was making the connections between intensive agriculture, unhealthy eating habits and a whole destructive economy based on oil." --Harry Eyres, <em>The Financial Times</em>  </p><p>"Fukuoka's do-nothing approach to farming is not only revolutionary in terms of growing food, but it is also applicable to other aspects of living, (creativity, child-rearing, activism, career, etc.) His holistic message is needed now more than ever as we search for new ways of approaching the environment, our community and life. It is time for us all to join his 'non-movement.'"—Keri Smith author of <em>How to be an Explorer of the World</em></p><p>“Japan’s most celebrated alternative farmer...Fukuoka’s vision offers a beacon, a goal, an ideal to strive for.” —Tom Philpott, <em>Grist</em></p><p>“_The One-Straw Revolution_ shows the critical role of locally based agroecological knowledge in developing sustainable farming systems.” —_Sustainable Architecture_</p><p>“With no ploughing, weeding, fertilizers, external compost, pruning or chemicals, his minimalist approach reduces labour time to a fifth of more conventional practices. Yet his success in yields is comparable to more resource-intensive methods…The method is now being widely adopted to vegetate arid areas. His books, such as <em>The One-Straw Revolution</em>, have been inspirational to cultivators the world over.” —_New Internationalist_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.”  </p><p>Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort.  </p><p>Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own. </p>


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“This is a fabulously idiosyncratic small masterpiece ... it’s so good it takes your breath away.”—Times (UK)After living abroad for years, novelist Peter Carey returns home to Sydney and attempts to capture its character. Seeking the help of his old friends, Carey is soon drawn into their strange, anarchic worlds, each one orbiting the place he has come back to see. The result is a wild and wonderful journey of discovery and rediscovery as bracing as the southerly bluster that sometimes batters Sydney’s shores. Famous sights such as Bondi Beach, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the Blue Mountains all take on a strange new intensity when exposed to the penetrating gaze of the author and his friends.30 Days in Sydney offers the reader an enchanting glimpse behind the facades and the Venetian blinds of the city.


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This dramatic, beautifully written account of the flood that ravaged Florence, Italy, in 1966 weaves heartbreaking tales of the disaster and stories of the heroic global efforts to save the city's treasures against the historic background of Florence's glorious art. On November 4, 1966, Florence, one of the world's most historic cities and the repository of perhaps its greatest art, was struck by a monumental calamity. A low-pressure system had been stalled over Italy for six weeks and on the previous day it had begun to rain again. Nineteen inches fell in twenty-four hours, more than half of the annual total. By two o'clock in the morning twenty-thousand cubic feet of water per second was moving towards Florence. Soon manhole covers in Santa Croce were exploding into the air as jets of water began shooting out of the now overwhelmed sewer system. Cellars, vaults, and strong-rooms were filling with water. Night watchmen on the Ponte Vecchio alerted the bridge's jewelers and goldsmiths to come quickly to rescue their wares. By then the water was moving at forty miles per hour at a height of twenty-four feet. At 7:26 a.m. all of Florence's electric civic clocks came to a stop. The Piazza Santa Croce was under twenty-two feet of water. Beneath the surface, twelve feet of mud, sewage, debris, and oil sludge were starting to ooze and settle into the cellars and crypts and room after room above them. Six-hundred-thousand tons of it would smother, clot, and encrust the city. Dark Water brings the flood and its aftermath to life through the voices of witnesses past and present. Two young American artists wade heedlessly through the inundated city carrying their baby in order to witness its devastated beauty: the Ponte Vecchio buried in debris and Ghiberti's panels from the doors of the Florence Baptistery, lying heaped in yard-deep mud; the swamped Uffizi Gallery; and, in the city libraries, one billion pages of Renaissance and antique books, soaked in mire. A Life magazine photographer, stowing away on an army helicopter, arrives to capture a drama that, he felt, "could only be told by Dante" amid the flooded tombs of Machiavelli and Michelangelo in Giotto and Vasari's Santa Croce. A British student, one of thousands of "mud angels" who rushed to Florence to save its art, spends a month scraping mud and mold from Cimabue's magnificent and neglected Crocifisso as intrigues and infighting among international art experts and connoisseurs swirl around him. And during the fortieth anniversary commemorations of 2006 the author asks himself why art matters so very much to us, and how beauty seems to somehow save the world even in the face of overwhelming disaster.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Imagine Donald Trump as a drop-dead gorgeous woman and you'll have an approximate image of Lara Cameron, the heroine of Sheldon's latest--barely tepid--potboiler. A super-successful real estate developer, Lara has made millions of dollars--and a few enemies--in her ascent from a childhood of deprivation to the upper echelons of the business world. When she falls in love with a renowned concert pianist, she sets about "winning" him as she would a prime piece of waterfront property. But her ties to a lawyer with Mafia connections and her shady way of doing business threaten her happiness and eventually her income and reputation. In settings that vary from Canada to Chicago and New York, bestselling novelist Sheldon ( The Other Side of Midnight, Rage of Angels ) brings real zest to the high-stakes poker game that provides the novel's backdrop. But his pancake-flat characters are as insubstantial as the paper fortunes that drive the real estate business. Moreover, the characters have an annoying tendency to speak in overwrought cliches; sounding for all the world like Scarlett O'Hara, young Lara laments, "Someday . . . I will have my own land, and no one--no one--will ever take it away from me." Frankly, by the final chapter, readers won't give a damn. First serial to Cosmopolitan; Literary Guild main selection. <br />Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Kirkus Reviews</h3><p>It may conclude in 1992, but Sheldon's latest is sheer 80's excess--the compulsively readable, sin-laden saga of a tycooness who's part Donald Trump, part Leona Helmsley. Though Sheldon's recent heroines (Memories of Midnight, etc.) have been sexy saints, his earlier leading ladies had a crueler edge--just like young Canadian Lara Cameron here, who in a series of canny real-estate deals uses her body as well as her wits to climb out of backwater poverty. With $3 million in her pocket, Lara moves to Chicago, multiplies her fortune, and, in 1984, takes on N.Y.C. There, even as she puts up a Monopoly board's worth of hotels and office buildings, including the world's tallest; battles sexism in the industry; and proves wildly generous to her employees, Lara reveals a darker side--slapping one worker; drugging prospective investors with Valium; harassing tenants by turning their building into a de facto homeless shelter; bedding mob lawyer Paul Martin. Is Sheldon depicting the evolution of a monster? Not at all--for outweighing these flaws, he hammers home, are Lara's <code></code>independence and courage, her talent and vision and generosity.'' And her loneliness, dispelled by marriage to star pianist Philip Adler, the perfect icing on Lara's cake. So where's the drama? It comes in spades in the late 80's, as the market crashes: Lara's fortune dwindles; her ex-secretary writes a tell- all book; and the law starts poking into the casino that Lara set up with Paul Martin's crooked help, and into the attack by a thug- -hired by a jealous Lara?--who cut Philip's wrist and career. Can it be that, like another hotel queen, Lara will end up wearing stripes? Don't bet on it. Savvy Sheldon knows that nothing becomes the rich and famous like a little scandal, and that a faux-morality tale like Lara's needs an upbeat ending to play big--as this one will, right to the top. (Literary Guild Dual Selection for November) -- <em>Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.</em></p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong> Noah Boyd on How to Catch a Serial Killer</strong>   </p><p>Mystery Readers, </p><p>Thought you might like to hear about my last case with the FBI.</p><p>The first three bodies were found in the abandoned Monterey Motel in Highland Park, a small, once affluent city surrounded by Detroit. But the public concern didn’t reach full pitch until the count reached eight, all the victims raped and strangled. That’s when I was called in.</p><p>My first impulse when tackling any problem is looking for a way to slice through the Gordian knot, a shortcut seeker’s most reliable tool. What I had learned by working on the Green River Murders and studying other serial killings was to search for a surviving victim; it’s how Gary Ridgeway and Ted Bundy had both been caught.</p><p>The first thing I asked for at the Highland Park PD was any tips that had been called in—a technique I had learned during my three months in Seattle. After an exchange of confused looks, one of the detectives said that he thought they were in the third floor (long-abandoned) bathroom. Inside a twisted, dusty filing cabinet, I found about a hundred of them.</p><p>One had been called in by a woman who had been raped and then severely choked by a man she knew only as “Tony” before she escaped by running down a busy street naked in the middle of the winter. The assault had taken place in the basement of an abandoned Howard Johnson’s restaurant, which was immediately adjacent to the Monterey Motel. Being an investigator of keen insight, it occurred to me that Tony was somebody we needed to find.</p><p>It being Detroit, the woman had used an alias to report the crime and “Tony” would turn out to be a nickname without a single etymological connection to the killer’s true identity. These—let’s call them—big city idiosyncrasies, caused a two-month delay before we were able to arrest Benjamin Atkins and obtain a confession to 11th homicides, along with a planned 12th to celebrate his birthday in two weeks.</p><p>--Noah Boyd</p><h3>From</h3><p>Steve Vail, once an ace FBI agent, now a bricklayer (The Bricklayer, 2009), arrives in Washington to take Kate Bannon, the bureau’s assistant director, to an embassy soiree. But his romantic mission is sidelined by an urgent summons from the bureau: a Russian embassy staffer, code-named Calculus, is offering to name Americans feeding sensitive information to Russian intelligence. But no sooner than the bureau accepts the Russian’s terms, he is spirited off to Moscow, presumably to be tortured into admitting what he has done. Steve and Kate must identify the moles and reel them in before the Russians snuff them. But before that can happen, Vail must solve the many puzzles that Calculus uses to conceal information. Thriller fans get an endlessly twisting plot strewn with chases, gun battles, and explosions. Calculus’ puzzles are engaging, and the bureau’s procedural and bureaucratic thickets sound real. Cynics will enjoy the portrayal of all FBI administrators as butt-covering careerists, but Vail, equal parts Sherlock Holmes and Dirty Harry, strains credulity. Not as strong as The Bricklayer, but fans won’t want to give up on the series yet. --Thomas Gaughan </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>A historical figure already larger than life, Capt. Sir Richard Francis Burton, pursues a legendary and violent Victorian creature, Spring Heeled Jack, at the behest of the prime minister in this convincingly researched debut. Fans of steampunk will be intrigued by the alternate history setting, in which the queen dies mid-century; they will also enjoy following Burton and his sidekick, poet Algernon Swinburne, as they investigate the dark secrets of 19th-century England and recall Burton's legendary expedition to find the source of the Nile. Burton is an intriguing character, but the story might have benefited by more than token appearances of his intrepid fiancée, Isabel Arundell, and better integration of the fantastical elements--werewolves, time travelers--into the narrative before a wild ending that pulls everything together. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> The usual superlatives for really clever fantasy (imaginative, mind-bending, phantasmagorical) aren’t nearly big enough for this debut novel. With this one book, Hodder has put himself on the genre map. The time is 1861; the place, London, England. The country is besieged by loups-garous (werewolves), and Spring Heeled Jack, the notorious (and possibly mythical) creature who appears out of nowhere to accost young women, is causing a bit of a ruckus. To deal with these problems, the prime minister recruits Sir Richard Francis Burton, the noted explorer, linguist, and self-promoter. With the help of his friend, the poet Algernon Swinburne, Burton wades in with both feet and uncovers a frightening conspiracy and a (potentially) world-altering technology. And that’s just the bare-bones story of this wildly inventive—another insufficient superlative—novel. Hodder has brilliantly combined various genre staples—time travel, alternate reality, steampunk—into something you’ve never quite seen before. His mid-nineteenth-century Britain features steam-driven velocipedes, rotorchairs, verbally abusive messenger parrots, a pneumatic rail system, and robotic street cleaners. The book’s supporting characters include Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Francis Galton, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the revolutionary civil engineer (although Hodder uses them in excitingly twisted new ways). The book is incredibly ambitious, and the author pulls it off like an old pro: not only is the setting exciting and fresh, the story is thrilling and full of surprises. Hodder’s only problem now is to find a way to follow up this exhilarating debut, which will appeal not only to sf/fantasy readers but also to mystery and historical-fiction fans. --David Pitt </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. With vigor and elegance, Kumar describes the clash of titans that took place in the world of physics in the early 20th century, between physicists who did and those who did not believe in the quantum—the strange concept that we now know to be the underpinning of reality. The titans in Kumar's account of the conflict are Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. In 1900, Max Planck discovered that electromagnetic radiation and the energy of light are transmitted not in a continuous flow but in small packets called quanta (singular, quantum). Bohr applied the idea of quantum to electrons, leading to the development of quantum mechanics. Bohr's theory explained experimental results that were inexplicable in classical theory. Einstein rejected Bohr's theory overturning reality in dangerous but also thrilling ways. The clash culminated at the 1927 Solway conference. Kumar, founding editor of <em>Prometheus</em> and a consulting science editor for <em>Wired UK</em>, recounts this meaty, dense, exciting story, filled with vivid characters and sharp insights. With physics undergoing another revolution today, Kumar reminds us of a time when science turned the universe upside down. 16 pages of photos. <em>(May)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> “A first rate mind, extremely critical and far-seeing.” Einstein quickly sizes up the mental powers of Danish scientist Neils Bohr. How ironic that Bohr will demonstrate his farseeing vision most compellingly by discrediting Einstein’s own myopia! Kumar recounts Bohr’s astounding triumph over the great German theorist in their debate over quantum physics, thus illuminating a pivotal episode in modern physics. In that episode readers see how quantum mechanics integrates a range of promising but puzzling and seemingly disconnected subatomic discoveries. Readers see, for instance, how a cautious Max Planck reluctantly parcels light into discrete packets and how a befuddled Ernest Rutherford recognizes that only a radically new model of the atom can explain alpha-particle deflections. Though only specialists will understand the technical issues, Kumar keeps the main thread of his narrative accessible to the intelligent general reader, particularly clarifying how Einstein’s belief in objective reality pits him against the daringly agnostic Bohr, who leaves the mysteries of wave-particle duality veiled in statistical probabilities and abstract formulas. Intellectual exhilaration runs high as Einstein repeatedly presses Bohr—posing daunting questions about how to weigh an imaginary box of light and how to explain eerily “entangled” particles. The future of science hangs in the balance: physics becomes high drama. --Bryce Christensen </p>


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The parchment head was green with mold, and hung in shriveled tatters. The hoop, which was of solid silver, was so blackened and tarnished that jt looked like dilapidated iron. The strings were gone, and most of the tuning-screws had dropped out of. their decayed sockets. Altogether it had the appearance of having been made before the Flood, and been forgotten in the forecastle of Noah's Ark ever since.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> At the start of Burdett's superb third mystery-thriller to feature Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep (after <em>Bangkok 8 </em>and <em>Bangkok Tattoo</em>), Jitpleecheep shows old friend Kimberley Jones, an American FBI agent, a vicious snuff film he's received depicting the murder of an ex-lover of his named Damrong. Jitpleecheep and Jones maintain their complex platonic relationship as, helped by Jitpleecheep's assistant Lek, they pursue Damrong's killers. The trail leads them to an important banker, an American teacher, a Buddhist and an exclusive men's club called the Parthenon. Jitpleecheep, who now lives with Chanya, a former prostitute pregnant with his child, is visited in an erotic way by Damrong's ghost, while his corrupt superior, police colonel Vikorn, orders Jitpleecheep to help start a porn film business. Expertly juggling elements that in lesser hands would become confused or hackneyed, Burdett has created a haunting, powerful story that transcends genre. <em>75,000 first printing; 6-city author tour. (June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the hero of Burdett’s Bangkok-based thrillers, is a unique police detective. A Buddhist as closely attuned to karma as to crime, Sonchai is profoundly aware that the latter is only an expression of the former, and, accordingly, he finds answers in places that logic-hampered Westerners would never know to look. In his third adventure to date, a murdered prostitute proves to be—even more in death than she was in life—a femme fatale of special magnitude. As in previous episodes, the pleasures derive less from Burdett’s baroque plotting (in this case including former Khmer Rouge hired killers, a pornography ring debased even by Bangkok standards, and a death by torture involving elephants) than from the vivid portrait he paints of contemporary Thai life and mores. <br />Copyright © 2007 </p>


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A bold English adventuer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in a mighty saga of a time and place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust and the struggle for power. "Superbly crafted...grips the reader like a riptide...gets the juices flowing!" -- "Washington Star." "Exciting, totally absorbing...be prepared for late nights, meals unlasting, buisness unattended..." -- "Philadelphia Inquirer." "Adventure and action, the suspense of danger, shocking, touching human relationships...a climactic human story." -- "Los Angeles Times."


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What is the lesson in abuse, neglect, abandonment, rejection?What is the lesson when you lose someone you really love?Just what are the lessons of life's hard times?Bestselling author Iyanla Vanzant has had an amazing and difficult life -- one of great challenges that unmasked her wonderful gifts and led to wisdom gained. In this simple book, she uses her own personal experiences to show how life's hardships can be re-languaged and re-visioned to become lessons that teach us as we grow, heal, and learn to love. The pain of the past does not have to be today's reality. Iyanla Vanzant is an example of how yesterday's tears become the seeds of today's hope, renewal, and strength.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The author's admirers are familiar with middle-aged black PI Derek Strange, featured in several novels (Soul Circus, etc.) so strong that one critic has dubbed Pelecanos the Zola of contemporary crime fiction. This memorable tale is a prequel to those novels, set in Washington, D.C., mostly just before and during the 1968 riots sparked by the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. The first few chapters, though, unfold in 1959, introducing major characters whose paths will entwine later: Derek-who's nabbed for shoplifting but given a break that will set his life on a (more or less) law-abiding pat-hand his older brother, Dennis; their hardworking parents; and some ancillary figures. By 1968, Derek is a young cop partnered with a white guy; Dennis is a pot-smoking slacker; and many of their acquaintances from '59 are working dead-end jobs with an eye toward crime. The ensuing narrative swirls around two scenarios: a plan by Dennis and two street-thug pals to rob a local Greek-owned store (Pelecanos wrote extensively about D.C.'s Greek community in early novels, and many of the nonblack characters here are Greek-American) and a plot by three young white hoods to rob a bank, but only after they drunkenly kill a young black man for sport. The action is fueled by the heat of race relations, which Pelecanos explores with acuity-particularly in his portrayal of Derek, who as a black cop is considered an enemy by many other blacks. Written in rich, observant prose, the novel is a brilliant study of a society tearing apart as racial tensions escalate after the King killing; no wonder some observers have pointed to Pelecanos as the kind of thriller writer who should be nominated for a National Book Award. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Pelecanos first introduced a 50-something Derek Strange in <em>Right as Rain</em>, <em>Hell to Pay</em>, and <em>Soul Circus</em>. <em>Hard Revolution</em> takes us back in time and juxtaposes Derek's childhood with his early years as a cop. Pelecanos, a hard-boiled crime writer, sets this novel, like his previous ones, in a gritty, violent, and racist Washington, D.C. He makes no excuses for the era or place, describing the city and its workings in detailed, urgent, and often offensive prose. It's not a page-turner, but rather a window into the hope--and despair--of an era. The characters seek redemption, but don't always find it. At heart, notes <em>The</em> <em>New York Times Book Review</em>, the story speaks to "the ways Americans love, betray, help and cannot help one another." </p><p><em>Copyright © 2004 Phillips &amp; Nelson Media, Inc.</em></p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>George Pelecanos's Washington, D.C., is a far cry from the upwardly mobile, tourist-attraction-speckled enclave of Margaret Truman (_Murder at the National Cathedral_, <em>Murder in Georgetown</em>). Pelecanos's capital is a haunting terrain of drugs and death, a no man's land of posturing dealers and skeletal warehouses that shelter their buyers:</p><blockquote><p>A rat scurried into a dim side room, and a withered black face receded into the darkness. The face belonged to a junkie named Tonio Morris. He was one of the many bottom-of-the-food-chain junkies, near death and too weak to cut out a space of their own on the second floor; later, when the packets were delivered to those with cash, they'd trade anything they had, anything they'd stolen that day, or any orifice on their bodies for some rock or powder.</p></blockquote><p>When PI Derek Strange is hired by Chris Wilson's mother to find out why her son, a black cop, was killed by a white cop, Terry Quinn, on a dark night in that no man's land, Strange figures that the answer is painfully clear: a typical case of mistaken identity, fueled by the assumptions and preconceptions of Quinn's innate racism. But what Strange finds is a tentative kinship with Quinn, who is desperate to proclaim himself "color-blind." Kicked off the force and convinced that there's more to his own story, Quinn asks to join Strange in his investigation. As the two pry into the past, drifting through the neighborhoods both men have known all their lives, they find themselves enmeshed in a tangle of cold-blooded competition and heated personal enmity.</p><p>Pelecanos generally has a light touch with the treacherous quagmire of -isms, veering only occasionally into sententious meanderings about the consequences of an economically and racially divided society. His wry humor, particularly in his descriptions of Earl and Ray, the heroin middlemen who bring the concept of white trash to a depressingly low level, leavens the novel's noir bleakness. And Strange himself is a compelling character: a middle-aged black man who has seen more of life's callousness than he cares to admit, and whose jitteriness about personal commitment speaks volumes about his own expectations for happiness. A strong character and a good read--Pelecanos fans can settle in and look forward to Strange's next appearance. <em>--Kelly Flynn</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Nearly a decade after Pelecanos (Shame the Devil; Nick's Trip) introduced Nick Stefanos to the private eye scene, the hard-boiled specialist has come up with a new urban gumshoe who's just as tantalizing to watch in action. Derek Strange, a black ex-cop in his mid-50s, walks the same Washington, D.C., streets as Stefanos, yet does so with far more experience under his belt. In his debut, Strange is hired to answer nagging questions about the death of black police officer Chris Wilson, who was killed by another cop in a shootout. Police investigators cleared Terry Quinn, the white cop who killed Wilson, but Strange soon discovers several hidden issues that may put a different spin on the case. Quinn confirms that he shot Wilson in self-defense, but admits he remains disturbed by the actions of the other people present at the scene of the conflict. Strange enlists his aid in the investigation and the case takes both men deep into the worlds of drug dealing, police corruption and racism. The plot rolls along in a workmanlike, almost predictable fashion. Yet as is usually the case with Pelecanos, it's the characters who give the story the gritty, dark twists that have become the author's trademark. The cast is wonderfully varied, yet Pelecanos also manages to capture the essence of most of his characters with just a few descriptive licks. It's Strange, however, who steals the show. He's a mature man with a highly defined sense of who he is--an aging private eye who knows that his best weapons these days are his wits and wisdom. (Feb. 6)Forecast: A new Pelecanos series hero is big news in the noir world. British, Italian, French and Japanese rights have already been sold, and a five-city author tour will start sales rolling in the U.S.</p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p>


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It's time to take back our country.   Now. It's that simple. It's that urgent.   So begins Dick Morris and Eileen McGann's latest and most important book. They say that we must act before President Barack Obama fully implements his radical political agenda. Because after Obama has won his war on prosperity and canceled the war on terror, it will be too late to regain our liberty or our security.   At a time when we needed a pragmatic centrist to lead us out of recession, we got a doctrinaire socialist who wants to use the crisis to put the government in charge of the economy and enact European socialism here in the United States.   Cars, banks—what's next? He will keep at it until Washington governs every major business in America and sets all our salaries.   It's a catastrophe.   Dick Morris and Eileen McGann saw the meltdown coming. In their book Outrage, they called out the house of cards that was Fannie Mae. In Fleeced, they went after the credit card companies, the subprime mortgage lenders, and the hedge fund billionaires who conspired to wreck the economy—and Barack Obama, whose policies, they predicted last summer, would "trigger a stock market crash."   Now, in Catastrophe, Morris and McGann take a hard look at America in free fall—and at how Obama is transforming a vulnerable America into a socialist state.   They tell the truth about Obama and his radical policies:   He will destroy our health care system so that no one gets adequate care.  He designed his bank rescue plan to pave the way for nation-alization of the banks and socialization of the economy. He firmly believes in government control of our major industries—he's already commandeered the banks and the automobile industry. He plans to reshape the political landscape to keep the left in power for decades by cooking the census, enfranchising illegal immigrants, muzzling talk radio, and coercing workers into unions. He is attacking those who fight terrorism while letting the terrorists go free. He gives aid to Hamas while Shariah Law threatens to take over America. He has repealed the Declaration of Independence and put us under a worldwide, European-dominated financial regulatory system.   But Obama is not working alone. Morris and McGann spell out how Congress is complicit:   How Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Charlie Rangel use special interests and special friends for their own enrichment and glorification. How Ted Kennedy Jr. is exploiting his father's health care power.   "This is no time for apathy or alienation or hopelessness," Morris and McGann remind us. "It's a time for action." And that action must begin now—before it's too late.


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The Continental Op, hero of this mystery, is a cool, experienced employee of the Continental Detective Agency. Client Donald Wilson has been killed, and the Op must track down his murderer. Personville, better known as Poisonville, is an unattractive company town, owned by Donald's father, Elihu, but controlled by several competing gangs. Alienated by the local turf wars, the Op finagles Elihu into paying for a second job, "cleaning up Poisonville." Confused yet? This is only the beginning of an incredibly convoluted plot. Hammett's exquisitely defined charactersDthe shabby, charming, and completely mercenary lady-of-the-evening; the lazy, humorous yet cold and avaricious police chief; and especially the tautly written, gradual disintegration of the Op's detached personalityDmake this a compelling read. In addition, William Dufris's performance is outstanding. Each character has his/her own unique vocal tag composed of both tonal inflections and speech patterns suited to his/her persona. Wonderful! The only flaw is the technical difficulty of cueing the "track book marked" CD format. An exceptional presentation of a lesser classic from the golden age of the mystery genre. Recommended for all but the smallest public and academic libraries.DI. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Boone, IA <br />Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"An acknowledged literary landmark."  --<strong>NY Times Book Review</strong>.  </p><p>"Dashiell Hammett is an original. He is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer." -- <strong>Boston Globe</strong>  </p><p>"Hammett's prose [is] clean and entirely unique. His characters [are] as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction."  </p><p>--<strong>The New York Times</strong> -- <em>Review</em></p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>“A brilliantly articulated piece, penned by a wildly acclaimed fiction writer. Nothing short of dazzling. So astonishingly effecting, so powerful, so stimulating!” –_Chicago Tribune_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>A startling encounter on a New York subway platform leads two strangers to a run-down tenement where a life or death decision must be made.  </p><p>In that small apartment, “Black” and “White,” as the two men are known, begin a conversation that leads each back through his own history, mining the origins of two fundamentally opposing world views. White is a professor whose seemingly enviable existence of relative ease has left him nonetheless in despair. Black, an ex-con and ex-addict, is the more hopeful of the men–though he is just as desperate to convince White of the power of faith as White is desperate to deny it.   </p><p>Their aim is no less than this: to discover the meaning of life.  </p><p>Deft, spare, and full of artful tension, <em>The Sunset Limited</em> is a beautifully crafted, consistently thought-provoking, and deceptively intimate work by one of the most insightful writers of our time. </p>


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<h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Kindergarten-Grade 2?In this early chapter book, Junie, a boisterous, effervescent kindergartner, and her friend Grace invite themselves over to the home of Lucille's wealthy grandmother, with whom the girl and her family live. They agree to help Lucille beg her "richie nanna" for a poodle. Once there, the girls find that everything in the house is exquisite?and untouchable. Lucille's bedspread is silk and her huge stuffed animals cost a fortune. Junie accidentally drops a crystal glass, which shatters into pieces. Her hot dog slides off her fork onto a white Irish linen table cloth. The friends have a good time but Junie is glad to go home to her own nanna's house where she can drink out of a plastic glass and not have to worry about breaking anything. Appealing black-and-white line-and-wash drawings extend the humorous situations. While parts of the story are funny and ring true, Junie's babyish, immature grammar will quickly wear thin.?Janet M. Bair, Trumbull Library, CT<br />Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Park is truly a funny writer. Although Junie B. is a kindergartner, she's sure to make middle graders laugh out loud." -- <em>School Library Journal</em> -- <em>Review</em></p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Foster's writing style here is much more gritty and no-nonsense. Staccato sentences and down-to-earth dialogue keep the action moving quickly and maintain the suspenseful, all-or-nothing tone." - <em>School Library Journal</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The eagerly awaited fourth <em>Terminator</em> movie, <em>Terminator Salvation</em>, starring Christian Bale and directed by McG, reaches cinemas on 22 May 2009.  </p><p>In a brand-new chapter in the <em>Terminator</em> chronicles, Judgment Day has come to pass and Skynet has destroyed much of the world’s population. In this post-apocalyptic world, the resistance, led by John Connor, continues its brutal fight for survival.  </p><p>The official novelisation will provide readers with the full story of this much-anticipated movie - a must for all <em>Terminator</em> fans! </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>As is evident in his many thrilling novels, Alan Dean Foster is a master at creating other worlds in an array of genres. Now he turns his imagination to the short story in these spectacular tales of outer space, cyberspace, ancient gods, modern demons, and mortal horror, including  </p><p>Panhandler A predatory lawyer encounters a fabled boyhood hero and falls victim to the less innocent intrigues of eternal youth.  </p><p>Growth <strong> </strong>Not even his minidrag Pip can save Flinx from the overly intimate advances of an intruder who goes entirely too far.   </p><p>Basted A lowly, hen-pecked Egyptian discovers that the Pharaoh’s tomb holds exactly what he needs for a whole new life.  </p><p>The Killing of Bad Bull A man with a knack for getting gambling’s one-armed bandits to give it up finds himself at the top–of several hit lists.  </p><p>At Sea A poor Scandinavian captain forced into running drugs is shown a way out of his desperate straits with the help of five beautiful blondes who are simply out-of-this-world.<br /><em></em><br /><em></em>Open Exceptions to Reality to find these amazing stories and nine other irresistibly unearthly tales! </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Alan Dean Foster has written in a variety of genres, including hard science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Star Wars: The Approaching Storm and the popular Pip &amp; Flinx novels, as well as novelizations of several films including Star Wars, Transformers, the first three Alien films, and Alien Nation. His novel Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first science fiction work ever to do so. Foster and his wife, JoAnn Oxley, live in Prescott, Arizona, in a house built of brick that was salvaged from an early-twentieth-century miners’ brothel. He is currently at work on several new novels and media projects.  </p><p>www.alandeanfoster.com </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Unmatched in scope and literary quality, <strong>The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry</strong>_ _spans three thousand years, bringing together more than six hundred poems by more than one hundred thirty poets, in translations–many new and exclusive to the book–by an array of distinguished translators.  </p><p>Here is the grand sweep of Chinese poetry, from the <strong>Book of Songs</strong>–ancient folk songs said to have been collected by Confucius himself–and Laozi’s <strong>Dao De Jing</strong>_ _to the vividly pictorial verse of Wang Wei, the romanticism of Li Po, the technical brilliance of Tu Fu, and all the way up to the twentieth-century poetry of Mao Zedong and the post—Cultural Revolution verse of the Misty poets. Encompassing the spiritual, philosophical, political, mystical, and erotic strains that have emerged over millennia, this broadly representative selection also includes a preface on the art of translation, a general introduction to Chinese poetic form, biographical headnotes for each of the poets, and concise essays on the dynasties that structure the book. A landmark anthology, <strong>The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry</strong>_ _captures with impressive range and depth the essence of China’s illustrious poetic tradition. </p><h3>Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</h3><p><strong>ZHOU DYNASTY</strong>  </p><p>(1122-256 BCE)  </p><p>Though Chinese civilization stretches back to Neolithic times, the earliest known dynasty, the Xia, is of limited importance to a discussion of Chinese literature, as there is no evidence that a written language was in use. The succeeding dynasty, the Shang, was a Bronze Age agricultural civilization. During the Shang, characters were written on oracle bones (usually made of turtle shell or cattle shoulder bones, and later on bamboo strips, silk, and bronze), but no literature from this time is extant.  </p><p>The Shang were overthrown by the king of Zhou, a small dependent nation in the Wei River Valley in the western Shang territory, and thus began the Zhou dynasty, the first great period of Chinese literature. It was during the Zhou dynasty that the doctrine that the Chinese King was exercising a "Mandate of Heaven" in his rule developed. It later became an extremely important doctrine both to justify imperial rule and to explain the fall of an empire (should an emperor prove corrupt or weak, heaven would remove his mandate). The Zhou dynasty is the longest of China's many dynasties, and is divided into the Western Zhou (1122-771 BCE) and the Eastern Zhou (771-256 BCE), as the Zhou were forced out of their capital at Xian by barbarian invaders from the north, and moved east to found their new capital in Luoyang. The Eastern Zhou is itself subdivided into the Spring and Autumn Period (771-481 BCE) and the Warring States Period (463-221 BCE). The troubled Warring States Period marked the waning years of the dynasty. Such great thinkers, moralists, and philosophers as Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, and Zhuangzi lived during the Eastern Zhou. It was the time of the Hundred Schools of Thought, the golden age of Chinese philosophy, when the great traditions of Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, Militarism, and Mohism developed. In this period, itinerant thinkers traveled with their followers, finding employment with rulers, who would seek their advice on warfare, morality, diplomacy, and government. The Zhou dynasty eventually weakened to the point where it ruled only in name, as seven powerful warring states vied for dominance. In 221 BCE, the ruler of a western state emerged triumphant from the ongoing warfare and unified China, naming himself Shi Huangdi (the "first emperor") and beginning the Qin dynasty. After eight hundred years, heaven had removed its mandate from the Zhou at last.  </p><p>The three Zhou dynasty texts presented here are the source of Chinese poetic literature, evolving out of the beginnings of Chinese writing, and foreshadowing what was to come in this extraordinary three thousand year tradition. Chinese poetry begins with the Book of Songs, comprised of folk songs, hymns, and court songs collected largely from ordinary people living along the Yellow River, and putatively edited by Confucius himself (thus the collection is sometimes referred to as the Confucian Odes). The fact that the Chinese poetic tradition begins with folk poetry reworked and set to music has meant that the long tradition of Chinese poetry written by the nobility has often striven for a sense of folk authenticity to blend with the master poet's craft and skill, simplicity balancing elegance. The four-character verses in the Book of Songs are the model for shi poetry, whose variations came to dominate classical Chinese poetry for the next two thousand years.  </p><p>The Book of Songs is one of the Confucian classics, studied throughout Chinese history by the nobility and by those who wished to rise in society as scholar-officials. Poetry is held to be one of the great arts that educated Chinese men (and sometimes women) should know and be able to practice. In fact, poetry has been in the mainstream of literary expression in Chinese literature, and so it is often afforded great powers of influence in the Chinese critical tradition. The "Great Preface" to the Book of Songs states that poetry is a Confucian rectifier that establishes the proper relationships between spouses, encourages respect and loyalty for the old, strengthens human ties, improves civilizations, and excises bad customs. In the Analects, Confucius often mentions the Songs. In Analect 2.2, for example, he states, "There are 300 Songs, but they can be summed up with one phrase: let your thoughts be free of depravity." Poetry serves a moral purpose, according to Confucius, "stimulating the reader, and making him observant, sociable, and capable of expressing his grievances," while at the same time "helping him to serve his family and his King" (Analect 17.8). Though the poems in the Book of Songs were in fact simply songs of the peasants, they were read as moral allegories, or as analogues to political and historical events.  </p><p>The second text presented here is the marvelous, riddling, profound, and elegantly difficult Dao De Jing of Laozi (better known in the West by an earlier transliteration as the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu). As the Book of Songs stands as one of the key texts that gave birth to the Confucian tradition, so the Dao De Jing (along with another great text, the Zhuangzi) stands as the source of the great religious and philosophical tradition of Daoism, and ultimately of Chinese Buddhism, which blended with Daoism in a particularly Chinese philosophical and spiritual mélange. Though it is not normally considered to be poetry, the Dao De Jing translates as marvelous poetry. A selection from it can help give Western readers an understanding of the concepts that underlie so many of the great Daoist and Buddhist poets in China who were to come later.  </p><p>The final text in this section is a selection from the great long poem Encountering Sorrow, by Qu Yuan (c. 332-c. 295 bce). This poem comes from the Verses of Chu, the second great early anthology of Chinese poetry, which included Qu Yuan's poetry, as well as that of a later poet, Song Yu. Encountering Sorrow and other poems in the collection tell of how Qu Yuan's dedication to his king was rewarded with banishment, leading him to drown himself in despair. The poems are celebrated for their Confucian dedication to duty. The work of Qu Yuan represents the beginning of an ornate literary tradition in China, which is counterbalanced by the simpler, vernacular, folk tradition of the Book of Songs. His poems are also the source of Chinese fu poetry, an irregular blend of poetry and prose that was to become an important part of the Chinese tradition. Fu poems usually begin and conclude with prose passages, with rhymed poetry in the center.  </p><p>Qu Yuan is supposedly the first Chinese poet whose name we know (though in fact there are a few cases in the Book of Songs in which a poet's name is embedded). That the Verses of Chu begins the tradition of named poetry in China is more important than one might think. When one knows a poet's name, and something of his or her life, one gets a powerful sense of human connection to the person behind the poem. As poets name the world, so their own names name something to us as readers-a life and, perhaps more important, a lifework. Though the songs from the Books of Songs can often feel personal, they are almost exclusively anonymous and written to set generic topics. Thus, despite their allusive and elaborate nature, the poems of Qu Yuan are the fountainhead of personal poetry in China.  </p><p><strong>BOOK OF SONGS</strong>  </p><p>(c. 600 bce)  </p><p>The Book of Songs is the earliest anthology of Chinese poetry, and the thematic and formal source of the Chinese poetic tradition. The Chinese name for the Book of Songs is the Shi Jing, and the term shi (the general term for poetry, like the Japanese term waka) derives from its name. Legend has it that its 305 poems were compiled by Confucius (551-479 bce) from an earlier manuscript of around three thousand songs. The assertion that Confucius was the compiler is questionable, but certainly the anthology was extant in Confucius's time, and it seems likely that the anthology was collected between 1100 and 600 bce. Confucius refers to the Book of Songs in the Analects, and it was part of the curriculum of his disciples; it is counted among the Confucian classics that form the basis of Confucian education. The collection was banned in the third century bce, along with the other Confucian classics, but was reconstructed during the Han dynasty, and the edition that is most complete derives from this time.  </p><p>The Book of Songs contains three basic categories of song: folk songs and ballads, court songs, and sacrificial songs. Like the Sanskrit Vedas of India, these songs provide us with a window onto the simple and beautiful life of an ancient time. Heroes and ancestors are praised, love is made, war is waged, farmers sing to their crops, people complain about their taxes, and moral categories are set forth in stark and powerful form. Though these are songs, the music has been lost, and some of them have been revised from folk song roots by court musicians, rhymed and arranged into stanzas. Others were aristocratic songs, songs to be sung to accompany ritual dancing, or to accompany the rites of ancestor worship.  </p><p><strong>White Moonrise</strong>  </p><p>The white rising moon  </p><p>is your bright beauty  </p><p>binding me in spells  </p><p>till my heart's devoured.  </p><p>The light moon soars  </p><p>resplendent like my lady,  </p><p>binding me in light chains  </p><p>till my heart's devoured.  </p><p>Moon in white glory,  </p><p>you are the beautiful one  </p><p>who delicately wounds me  </p><p>till my heart's devoured.  </p><p>Translated by Tony Barnstone  </p><p>and Willis Barnstone  </p><p>Fruit Plummets from the Plum Tree  </p><p>Fruit plummets from the plum tree  </p><p>but seven of ten plums remain.  </p><p>You gentlemen who would court me,  </p><p>come on a lucky day.  </p><p>Fruit plummets from the plum tree  </p><p>but three of ten plums still remain.  </p><p>You men who want to court me,  </p><p>come now, today is a lucky day!  </p><p>Fruit plummets from the plum tree.  </p><p>You can fill up your baskets.  </p><p>Gentlemen if you want to court me,  </p><p>just say the word... </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>A recipient of the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, stand-up comedian Carlin (1937–2008) wrote three bestselling humor books and looked back over his five-decade career in his recent memoir, <em>Last Words</em>. Now music journalist and culture critic Sullivan, a contributor to <em>Rolling Stone</em> and the <em>San Francisco Chronicle</em>, offers an overview, starting with the young Carlin in 1950s New York. The Air Force sent him off to Louisiana, where he began as a Shreveport radio personality. As a DJ in Fort Worth, Tex., he polished a comedy act with Jack Burns, and the two left for the West Coast, performing together for two years before they split in 1962. Going solo, Carlin's taboo topics and subversive attitude took center stage. In this linear summary of Carlin's career, Sullivan dissects the comedian's classic iconoclastic routines, probes his working methods and successfully captures his rocketlike ascent to fame from night clubs and the 1960s comedic cauldron of Greenwich Village to television acclaim, controversy, and creative conflicts. However, those who want to experience a full explosion of the cynical and caustic Carlin blasting off minus the heat shields should instead seek out the finely tuned and wit-saturated <em>Last Words</em>. <em>(June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p><strong><em>La Crosse Tribune</em>, 1/3/2010</strong><br />“A critical biography, this is an insightful examination of Carlin’s body of work as it pertained to its cultural times and the man who created it.”  </p><p><strong><em>Library Journal</em>, 3/1/10</strong><br />“[A] well-written and thorough biography…A celebration of the life of George Carlin and how his comedy remade stand-up, this is a great companion to Carlin’s recently published autobiography, <em>Last Words</em>. Highly recommended for readers interested in performing arts, George Carlin, comedy, and celebrity biographies.”  </p><p><strong><em>Kirkus Reviews</em>, 3/15/10</strong><br />“The author meticulously chronicles Carlin’s career, which intersected with many formative cultural trends of the ’50s and ’60s…Sullivan ably captures a sense of the entertainment industry at the time—glamorously competitive and fiercely insular…The author also dutifully covers Carlin’s personal life…This is an apt, detailed memorial to a groundbreaking performer.”  </p><p><strong><em>Booklist</em>, 4/1/10</strong><br />“Sullivan isn’t interested in padding out his book with stand-up material. His focus is on exploring the man himself, with a sharp critical eye and a good feeling for the sociohistorical context of Carlin’s comedy. An excellent account of the life and work of an important and greatly missed artist.”  </p><p><strong><em>Publishers Weekly</em>, 3/29/10</strong><br />“In this linear summary of Carlin's career, Sullivan dissects the comedian's classic iconoclastic routines, probes his working methods and successfully captures his rocketlike ascent to fame from night clubs and the 1960s comedic cauldron of Greenwich Village to television acclaim, controversy, and creative conflicts.”  </p><p><strong><em>Kirkus Reviews</em>, 4/15/10</strong><br />“Although volumes have been written about his contemporaries—his predecessor and mentor Lenny Bruce before him and his contemporary Richard Pryor, to name but a few—relatively little analysis has been done about the late, great George Carlin’s mark on the 20th century. In his new book, journalist James Sullivan delves deep into the seven-decade history of one of America’s most daring comics.”  </p><p><strong><em>Sacramento Book Review</em>, 5/27/10</strong><br />“The book is an impressive effort…diligently researched, well-constructed, and showing great affection for the subject without ignoring Carlin’s demons, missteps, or low times.”  </p><p><strong><em>Los Angeles Magazine</em>, June 2010</strong><br />“This biography probes [George Carlin’s] life and works.”  </p><p><strong><em>Newark Star-Ledger</em>, 6/6/10</strong><br />“This portrayal, by former San Francisco Chronicle pop culture writer James Sullivan, ought to satisfy anyone who has ever laughed at a Carlin routine—and that takes in a lot of us. From his early days in Greenwich Village clubs through his epic legal battles over words you can’t say on television, which he said anyway, Carlin’s story is inspiring and hilarious. Sullivan correctly nails the reasons for Carlin’s popularity…His spot-on judgment of Carlin’s achievements is worth the read.”   </p><p><strong>The A.V. Club, 6/3/10</strong><br />“Offer[s] a broad overview of the formative American stand-up comic…Sullivan’s light hand makes <em>7 Dirty Words</em> a brisk read.” <br /><em></em><br />Bookslut, June 2010<em></em><br />“There were many iterations of Carlin’s public personality, and Sullivan captures both ends of his life well in his cultural treatise.”  </p><p><strong><em>Boston Globe</em>, 6/10/10</strong><br />“James Sullivan has done an outstanding job in his new book <em>7 Dirty Words</em> positioning the late comedian George Carlin as a counterculture icon whose loathing of hypocrisy and love of language changed comedy forever…In his new biography, Sullivan manages to skillfully show us the drama of Carlin’s performing career and how it blended with the larger cultural landscape.”  </p><p><strong>AOL’s Asylum, 6/7/10</strong><br />“An engrossing tale of one of our greatest comedic minds.”  </p><p><strong><em>Internet Review of Books</em>, June 2010</strong><br />“I can give no reason <em>not</em> to read <em>7 Dirty Words</em>. Sullivan’s book is an authoritative and well-researched chronicle of Carlin’s professional career, with bits and pieces here and there devoted to his upbringing, his family, and other influences.”</p><p><strong>“The Bookworm” column, June 2010</strong></p><p>“Sullivan digs deep into American entertainment circa 1950 to 1970, which means that lots of stars from a bygone era are in here: Flip Wilson, Merv Griffin, Danny Kaye, Ed Sullivan, Steve &amp; Eydie, Lenny Bruce, and others you might not recognize if you're under 40. Still, there's enough for younger readers in this book to make it worth a peek. Be aware that Sullivan (James, that is) isn't afraid to liberally use Carlin's infamous Seven, so if profanity bothers you, pass on it. But if you can handle ‘_7 Dirty Words_,’ the word you want is ‘Y-E-S.’”</p><p><strong>Gene Lavanchy</strong>, <strong>Fox 25 News Boston, 6/25/10</strong></p><p>“Sullivan takes a look at the highs and lows, the up-bringing and occasional downfall of a comedy genius…It’s a brilliant book, and if you love George Carlin you have to read it.”</p><p><strong>Bookviews, July 2010</strong></p><p>“An inside look at Carlin’s unique views as well as his personal battles with addiction, his scrapes with the law, and comedic routines that pulled back the curtain of political correctness to make audiences confront life as he saw it.”</p><p><strong><em>New York</em></strong><strong>_ Times_</strong><strong>, 7/9/10</strong></p><p>“It fills in and complicates our mental image of Carlin…This book gets the story told…Sullivan convincingly makes the case that for 50 years Carlin ‘may well have produced more laughs than any other human being.’”</p><p><strong><em>Boston</em></strong><strong>_ Phoenix_, 7/2/10</strong></p><p>“Sullivan has exhaustively documented the rise of both blue jeans and James Brown, but perhaps his latest book, <em>Seven Dirty Words</em>, has the most to say about the evolution of American society.”</p><p><strong>Salon.com, 7/16/10</strong></p><p>“Excellent…Insightful…_7 Dirty Words_ deepens Carlin's posthumous memoir by putting his evolution in context. Sullivan deftly mixes quotes from Carlin's friends, rivals, protégés, collaborators and employers with impeccably researched overviews of trends in radio, TV, the record industry and the nightclub circuit. The result is at once an engrossing account of Carlin's life that rarely lapses into hero worship, and a highly readable survey of 20th century popular culture, stretching from the last gasp of vaudeville during the Depression through the rise of premium cable and the Internet. No matter how much you know, or think you know, about American show business, you'll still learn a lot from this book. The sections dealing with the ‘dirty words’ case are especially good.”</p><p><strong><em>ForeWord</em>, July/August 2010</strong></p><p>“Sullivan does far more than just record a period in American history when free speech was under assault. He tells the story of one of our funniest and sharpest comedic minds.”</p><p><strong><em>Buffalo</em></strong><strong>_ News_, 7/18/10 (Editor’s Choice)</strong></p><p>“Makes its own key contribution to the history of show business…Sullivan is so eloquent and lucid…A very wise and very good book.”</p><p><em></em><em>Creative Loafing Charlotte</em>, 7/20/10<br />“Last year, a kind of posthumous autobiography, <em>Last Words</em>, was published…Now, journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan has published a more detailed look at Carlin's life, which helps fill in some of the gaps in the comedy legend's own version. Sullivan does a good job of presenting a linear rundown of the various incarnations Carlin went through in his 71 years…He's smart enough to let Carlin's story tell itself—and to put it in the context of how one man's inner growth matched the changes many people in America were going through at the same time…Sullivan's approach is that of the straightforward journalist. He doesn't pad the book with Carlin's comedy material, but instead focuses on how the man changed over the years, and how his influence grew…The author has a sharp critical eye.”<br /><em></em></p><p><strong>Blogcritics.org, 7/28/10</strong></p><p>“Sullivan explores the life and times (crimes) of one of the most popular and controversial stand-up comedians in history…While some aspects of Carlin’s material were controversial, Sullivan makes him likable…This biography is thorough, respectful, sensitive and appropriately funny!”</p><p><em></em>Clark Isaacs (syndicated columnist), 7/22/10<br />“Sullivan is an accomplished author who is able to demonstrate how comedy changed when new faces entered the scene in the early l950s…One of the most outstanding features of this biography is the behind-the-scenes glimpses of the interrelationship between the comedians who were famous and how they would help aspiring hopefuls achieve their day in the spotlight…Sullivan has written a lasting tribute to this icon of American humor which was well researched, annotated, and most of all, entirely believable. This book is highly recommended for adults who want to have their memories refreshed about comedians of the past and present.”<em></em></p><p><em></em>_<br />Under the Radar_, July 2010<em></em></p><p>“Follows C...</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Standup comic George Carlin follows up his dark-horse smash bestseller __ with another compendium of cranky meditations, cinching his reputation as the Andy Rooney of boomer hepcats. "Road rage, air rage," Carlin rails. "Why should I be forced to divide my rage into separate categories? To me, it's just one big, all-around, everyday rage. I don't have time for fine distinctions." Carlin is not into the lengthy essay--he's a sprinter of the mind. Most sentences in the book could be lifted out to stand alone and provoke deep thought: "How can it be a spy satellite if they announce on television that it's a spy satellite?" Good question. "Why do they bother saying 'Raw sewage'? Do some people cook that stuff?" Yuck, but yes, Carlin's got a point. </p><p>He can do an extended bit too, most memorably the transcript of Jesus on a talk show plugging his new tell-all memoir about the Trinity, <em>Three's a Crowd</em>. Carlin is funny, but genuinely angry and poignant at times: "You live 80 years and at best you get about six minutes of pure magic," he says. Sad, but about right.</p><p>And how did Carlin get into his line of business, "thinking up goofy s---," as he puts it? There's a clue in one entry in this book: "As of 1995 the number of people who had lived on earth was 105,472,380,169 ... it means that at this point there have been almost 1 quadrillion human bowel movements and most of them occurred before people had anything to read. These are the kind of thoughts that kept me from moving quickly up the corporate ladder."</p><p>Thank god Carlin stayed low on the corporate food chain and high on his own utterly idiosyncratic ideas! <em>--Tim Appelo</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Politically incorrect comic and Grammy winner Carlin has shown no signs of burnout during a four-decade career arc as solo stand-up, TV writer and sitcom actor (That Girl; The George Carlin Show), with 18 hit recordings and 10 solo HBO specials, plus film roles (Dogma; The Prince of Tides). Living in L.A. and Vegas, he continues to take his act to stages across the country. Four years ago, Carlin's huge fan following kept his Brain Droppings on the New York Times bestseller list for 40 weeks, so it's no surprise he's back for another round of acrid and oblique observations on modern mores. He covers a wide range of issues from rape and religion to the homeless: "There's no war on homelessness... it's because there's no money in it." And any topic is fair game: abortion, airport security, cars, funerals, language, organ donors, sports, technology, TV and war. On the latter, he says, "Men, insecure about the size of their penises, choose to kill one another." Over 100 scintillating short pieces are interrupted by loony lists and hundreds of clever one-liners. The fragmented format and colloquial style of writing suggest that much of this laugh-out-loud book is drawn directly from Carlin's stage act. Several satires here ("A day in the life of Henry VIII," a nine-page interview with Jesus, an avant-garde play program) indicate a different direction Carlin might consider for future books. (May 1)Forecast: HighBridge's abridged audiocassette and CD might lead some to peruse the book, which splashes in the wake of a massive Carlin retrospective ("From Class Clown to Social Critic") two months ago at the Museum of Television &amp; Radio (N.Y./L.A.). With a 10-city author tour and national publicity, sales could equal those of Brain Droppings (700,000 copies).</p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>In 2005, two tragedies--the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina--turned CNN reporter Anderson Cooper into a media celebrity. <em>Dispatches from the Edge</em>, Cooper's memoir of "war, disasters and survival," is a brief but powerful chronicle of Cooper's ascent to stardom and his struggle with his own tragedies and demons. Cooper was 10 years old when his father, Wyatt Cooper, died during heart bypass surgery. He was 20 when his beloved older brother, Carter, committed suicide by jumping off his mother's penthouse balcony (his mother, by the way, being Gloria Vanderbilt). The losses profoundly affected Cooper, who fled home after college to work as a freelance journalist for Channel One, the classroom news service. Covering tragedies in far-flung places like Burma, Vietnam, and Somalia, Cooper quickly learned that "as a journalist, no matter ... how respectful you are, part of your brain remains focused on how to capture the horror you see, how to package it, present it to others." Cooper's description of these horrors, from war-ravaged Baghdad to famine-wracked Niger, is poignant but surprisingly unsentimental. In Niger, Cooper writes, he is chagrined, then resigned, when he catches himself looking for the "worst cases" to commit to film. "They die, I live. It's the way of the world," he writes. In the final section of <em>Dispatches</em>, Cooper describes covering Hurricane Katrina, the story that made him famous. The transcript of his showdown with Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu (in which Cooper tells Landrieu people in New Orleans are "ashamed of what is happening in this country right now") is worth the price of admission on its own. Cooper's memoir leaves some questions unanswered--there's frustratingly little about his personal life, for example--but remains a vivid, modest self-portrait by a man who is proving himself to be an admirable, courageous leader in a medium that could use more like him. --_Erica C. Barnett_</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>HarperCollins touts the handsome, prematurely gray host of CNN's <em>Anderson Cooper 360°</em>as the "prototype for a twenty-first century newsman." Sadly, that statement is all too true. This brief, self-involved narrative reaffirms a troubling cultural shift in news coverage: journalists used to cover the story; now, more than ever, they are the story. Cooper is an intrepid reporter: he's traveled to tsunami-ravaged Asia, famine-plagued Niger, war-torn Somalia and Iraq, and New Orleans post-Katrina. Here, however, the plights of the people and places he visits take a backseat to the fact that Cooper is, well, there. The Yale-educated son of heiress and designer Gloria Vanderbilt weaves personal tragedies (at 10, he lost his father to heart disease and later his older brother to suicide) awkwardly into far graver stories of suffering he's observing. Even when he plies the reader with his own unease ("the more sadness I saw, the more success I had") and obliquely decries TV news's demand for images of extreme misery ("merely sick won't warrant more than a cut-away shot"), he seems to place himself in front of his subjects. Cooper is an intelligent, passionate man and he may be a terrific journalist. But this book leaves one feeling he's little more than a television personality. <em>(June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<p class="description">HOME IS WHERE THE WAR IS America may be reeling from endless recessions and crippling oil wars, but hack reporter Ben Walker never expected to see his homeland invaded and occupied by a reunified Korea—now a formidable world power under Kim Jong-il’s dictator son. The enemy’s massive cyberattack is followed by the detonation of an electromagnetic pulse that destroys technology across the United States. Communications, weapons, and defense systems are rendered useless; thousands perish as vehicles suddenly lose power and passenger jets plummet to the ground. Fleeing the chaos of Los Angeles, Walker discovers that although America’s military has been scattered, its fighting spirit remains. Walker joins the soldiers as they head east across the desert, battling Korean patrols—and soon finds his own mission. Walker reinvents himself as the Voice of Freedom, broadcasting information and enemy positions to civilian Resistance cells via guerrilla radio. But Walker’s broadcasts have also reached the ears of the enemy. Korea dispatches its deadliest warrior to hunt the Voice of Freedom and crush the ever-growing Resistance before it can mount a new war for American liberty.</p>


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<p class="description">Meditation helps us defuse stress, experience greater tranquility, find a sense of wholeness, strengthen our relationships, and face our fears. Meditation helps sharpen focus, lower blood pressure, and reduce chronic pain. Meditation helps protect the brain against aging and improves our capacity for learning new things. And it’s as easy as sitting down and taking a breath.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Two teenage orphans in an anemic fantasy analogue of Victorian London are baffled to find themselves on the run in this overeager effort from British author and blogger Hunt (_For the Crown and the Dragon_). Molly, pursued by determined assassins with mysterious masters, hides underground, while Oliver, framed for his uncle's death, takes to the air to escape the fey-hunting Special Guard. They also draw the attention of the Court of the Air, a shadowy black-ops organization, and communityist revolutionaries seeking to resurrect ancient subterranean gods. An entire steampunk menagerie is pressed into lackluster service, but the pace leaves no time to focus on any single element. Only the steammen and their refreshingly tender machine culture are affecting and original. The historical and geographical parallels are overly frequent and mostly trite. Hunt has packed the story full of intriguing gimmicks, but the end result is more overload than wonder. <em>(June)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Praise for <em>The Court of the Air</em></p><p>“Hunt has packed the story full of intriguing gimmicks…the ‘steammen’ and their refreshingly tender machine culture are affecting and original.”--_Publishers Weekly_</p><p>“A curious part-future blend of aerostats, mechanical computers, psychic powers, self-willed steam-power robots, Elder gods, talking superweapons and more…Harry Potter mugs H.P. Lovecraft and L. Ron Hubbard explains it all.”--_Kirkus Reviews_</p><p>“An ultra supersonic speed Dickens fantasy thriller…put on your seatbelts for a frenetic cat and mouse encounter that includes some nasty paranormal adversaries as this is an exciting tale of two orphans trying to save the world from those who want Armageddon now.”--_SFRevu__ _</p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>A delightful, thrill-packed adventure set in the world of 2008's <em>Court of the Air</em>, this charming steam-pulp yarn chronicles the journey of archeologist Amelia Harsh as she searches for the fabled kingdom of Camlantis. Bad-boy tycoon Abraham Quest finances the journey; does he merely want to test his new airships, or is something more devious going on? Amelia is joined by Commodore Black and his crew, who have escaped a horrifying underwater debtor's prison, as well as Amazon-like warrior Veryann, but even they may be no match for sabotage, fierce native attacks (spurred by the actions of the expedition's lunatic steamman guide, Ironshanks), furious thunder lizards and forced service to the insectile Daggish. Wildly imaginative and compelling, Amelia's journey plays out against a backdrop of civil war and failed rebellion, layered and complex treachery and love in surprising corners. <em>(Aug.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p><strong>PRAISE FOR </strong></p><p>_<strong>THE COURT OF THE AIR</strong>_</p><p><strong>“Hunt has packed the story full of intriguing gimmicks…the ‘steammen’ and their </strong><strong>refreshingly tender machine culture are affecting and original.” </strong></p><p>_—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY<strong></strong>_</p><p>“A curious part-future blend of aerostats, mechanical computers, psychic powers, self-willed steam-power robots, Elder gods, talking superweapons and more…Harry Potter mugs H. P. Lovecraft and L. Ron Hubbard explains it all.” </p><p>_—KIRKUS REVIEWS<strong></strong>_</p><p>“An ultra supersonic speed Dickens fantasy thriller….”</p><p>—SFREVU.COM</p>

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Failure of the Hive to contain the Umbrella Corporation's most deadly viral creation has led to an outbreak of apocalyptic proportions. Now the streets of Raccoon City swarm with the living dead, compelling Umbrella to deploy another of its bioweapons, a hulking prototype soldier code-named NEMESIS that kills anything in its path.  Jill Valentine of the RCPD and several others are determined to get out of Raccoon alive, but only if they can escape the city's hordes of undead, Umbrella's unleashed creatures, and the relentless pursuit of Nemesis itself. Their one chance is with one of the only survivors of the Hive -- a young woman named Alice, who learns a terrifying secret behind her connection to Umbrella.


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Following the events of the first two films, Resident Evil and Resident Evil Apocalypse, the genetic research facility owned and operated by Umbrella Corporation has failed to contain the horrifying T-virus...leaving the streets of Raccoon City swarming with the living dead before the metropolis is eventually and utterly destroyed. Now the survivors of the catastrophe, including the mysterious Alice, must fight their way across the Nevada desert and to safety, even as Umbrella's conspires to bring about their complete annihilation... </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>Keith R.A. DeCandido</strong> was born and raised in New York City to a family of librarians. He has written over two dozen novels, as well as short stories, nonfiction, eBooks, and comic books, most of them in various media universes, among them <em>Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Marvel Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Resident Evil, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Farscape, Xena,</em> and <em>Doctor Who</em>. His original novel <em>Dragon Precinct</em> was published in 2004, and he's also edited several anthologies, among them the award-nominated <em>Imaginings</em> and two <em>Star Trek</em> anthologies. Keith is also a musician, having played percussion for the bands the Don't Quit Your Day Job Players, the Boogie Knights, and the Randy Bandits, as well as several solo acts. In what he laughingly calls his spare time, Keith follows the New York Yankees and practices <em>kenshikai</em> karate. He still lives in New York City with his girlfriend and two insane cats. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>The Hive: a subterranean genetic research facility owned and operated by Umbrella, an immensely powerful corporation with interests in everything from human longevity to biowarfare. With computerized defenses and heavily armed human backup, the Hive is impregnable and invulnerable. Or so Umbrella believes. </p><p>But something has gone fatally wrong. The Hive has lost containment of its most lethal and horrific creation: a virus that kills and reanimates human life, reducing the entire facility staff of five hundred men and women to mindless creatures with a single driving force -- hunger. And the key to stopping them rests with one young woman who cannot even remember who she is. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Keith R.A. Decandido is a top genre author whose tie-in novels for Pocket include several Star Trek titles across all series as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer novelizations. He is also known for his Star Trek: The Next Generation comicbook miniseries Perchance to Dream, and is the editor of several science-fiction and fantasy anthologies. </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Charting loss, love, and the difficult art of growing up, these stories unfurl with wicked humour and insight. Two young boys make midnight trips to a boat graveyard in search of their dead sister, who set sail in the exoskeleton of a giant crab; a boy whose dreams foretell implacable tragedies is sent to 'Sleepaway Camp for Disordered Dreamers' (Cabin 1, Narcoleptics; Cabin 2, Insomniacs; Cabin 3, Somnambulists. . . ); a Minotaur leads his family on the trail out West, and finally, in the collection's poignant and hilarious title story, fifteen girls raised by wolves are painstakingly re-civilised by nuns. These ten extraordinary stories introduce an audacious new talent, and a world in which weird and wonderful predicaments magically reveal the truth of our own lives. A blazingly original voice, a dazzling debut, a breathtaking discovery.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>A colorfully written account of a crime genius. Rothstein follows the life and career of Arnold Rothstein, the man who fixed the 1919 World Series. The book follows his tempestuous career throughout, as an underworld figure, and introduces readers to thegrimy world that clung to the glittering Jazz Age of New York City like a barnacle. The model for The Great Gatsby's Meyer Wolfsheim and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Arnold Rothstein was much more than a fixer of baseball games. He was everything that made 1920s Manhattan roar. Transporting readers onto Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs, bookies, denizens of the racetracks, showgirls, political movers and shakers, and sports stars, here is the biography of the devilishly beloved gangland dandy who reigned supreme when the fast buck ruled and violence stalked the streets of Gotham. David Pietrusza unearths the canny way Rothstein fixed the 1919 World Series, playing all sides off one another so that he alone could not lose, and unravels the mystery ofhis November 1928 murder in a Times Square hotel room. A masterful portrait of a Roaring '20s legend filled with fascinating photographs, Pietrusza's award-nominated Rothstein cements the place of "The Big Bankroll" as the godfather of organized crime inAmerica.</p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Get proven results from this safe, effective, and easy-to-follow diet </p><p>Using the glycemic index is a proven method of losing and maintaining weight safely and quickly. <em>The Glycemic Index Diet For Dummies</em> presents this system in an easy-to-apply manner, giving you the tools and tips you need to shed unwanted pounds and improve your overall health. </p><p>Recommends foods that boost metabolism, promote weight loss, and provide longer-lasting energy </p><ul> <li>     Features delicious recipes for glycemic-friendly cooking at home </li> <li>     Includes exercises for maintaining glycemic index weight loss and promoting physical fitness </li> <li>     Offers guidance on shopping for food as well as eating at restaurants and away from home </li></ul><p>You'll not only see how to apply the glycemic index to your existing diet plan, but also how to develop a lifestyle based around improving your overall health. </p><h3>From the Back Cover</h3><p>Lose weight and improve your overall health</p><p>Eating fewer carbohydrates may be trendy — but since your body needs them to function, eliminating too many carbs from your diet is neither healthy nor practical. Enter the glycemic index, a proven method for calculating the way carbohydrates act in your body to help you lose weight safely, quickly, and effectively. The Glycemic Index Diet For Dummies presents this system in an easy-to-apply manner, giving you the tools and tips you need to shed unwanted pounds and improve your overall health. </p><ul> <li><p>Explore the glycemic index — find out exactly what the glycemic index is and how you can use it to develop a healthier diet and lifestyle</p> </li> <li><p>Get your health back on track — use a low-glycemic diet to help control diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, hypothyroidism, metabolic syndrome, and other health conditions </p> </li> <li><p>Eat the low-glycemic way — get helpful, easy-to-follow guidelines for adding low-glycemic foods to your meals at home, while dining out, and on the go</p> </li></ul><p>Open the book and find: </p><ul> <li><p>Easy and delicious recipes for a low-glycemic diet</p> </li> <li><p>Common low-glycemic and high-fiber foods</p> </li> <li><p>Simple strategies to increase your metabolism</p> </li> <li><p>Tips on reading food labels </p> </li> <li><p>Guidelines for dining out</p> </li> <li><p>Healthy-eating strategies </p> </li> <li><p>The best ways to stay on track with a low-glycemic diet </p> </li> <li><p>How to modify your favorite meals for a low-glycemic diet</p> </li> <li><p>A sensible exercise plan that you can stick with</p> </li></ul><p>Learn to: </p><ul> <li><p>Use the glycemic index to achieve your weight-loss goals</p> </li> <li><p>Improve your overall wellness and control specific health conditions</p> </li> <li><p>Eat and cook the low-glycemic way</p> </li> <li><p>Make positive, sustainable lifestyle and diet changes</p> </li></ul>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>"The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life"?so runs the catchy opening to Heim's impressive first novel. The speaker is Brian Lackey, now a troubled teenager, once an introverted kid growing up scared in the small town of Hutchinson, Kans. The reason for his memory lapse and his fear, as we and Brian learn during the course of the novel, turns out not to be the space aliens that he first suspects, but his molestation at the hands of his Little League coach. The key to Brian's reclamation of those lost hours is homosexual hustler Neil McCormick?the slugger on that Little League team and an accomplice to Brian's sexual abuse. Working its way over the course of a decade toward Brian and Neil's reunion, the narrative unfolds through chapters whose points of view alternate among Brian, Neil and a handful of their siblings and confidants. Heim makes numerous freshman mistakes, including a relatively static narrative, prominent characters who outlive their usefulness and occasional lapses in the writing. He also creates scenes of genuine beauty, however, and handles his complicated characters and delicate subject matter with calm assurance. <br>Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Brian Lackey and Neil McCormick are so different by nature that they might never have met except for a shared incident at age eight. One summer afternoon, a storm forces the cancellation of a Little League game, and Brian catches a ride home with his coach and Neil. Ten years later, Brian still can't remember that afternoon, although he suspects that it was a turning point in his life. His search for answers eventually leads to Neil, who helps re-create the afternoon of seduction and sexual abuse that Brian has blocked from his mind. Told from a variety of perspectives, this novel looks at the long-term effects of sexual abuse and the coping mechanisms employed by abused children. First novelist Heim deals frankly with a controversial topic without becoming accusatory or maudlin. The result is powerful stuff that every public library should have.<br><em>Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale</em><br>Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>_<strong>A cardiologist's revolutionary weight-loss plan that allows dieters to enjoy good carbs while still losing weight</strong>_</p><p>The glycemic index has been the basis of many popular diets. But it doesn't take into account the serving sizes people actually eat and eliminates too many foods for dieters to stick with it. Now Dr. Robert Thompson's breakthrough program uses the glycemic load--the glycemic index adjusted for serving size--to take the GI a step forward. The glycemic load is a more accurate and effective tool in controlling weight and insulin resistance, allowing dieters to eat more foods while still burning fat, cutting cravings, and speeding up their metabolism. Safe, simple, and scientifically proven, it's the smartest weight-loss plan yet.</p><h3>From the Back Cover</h3><p><strong>It's not about willpower--it's about your body chemistry</strong></p><p>You've tried dieting, and, after some initial success, you always seem to put the weight back on. Stop blaming yourself! The problem isn't with you; it's with the diets themselves.</p><p>Many are based on the glycemic index, which doesn't make a distinction between good carbohydrates, such as carrots, from bad ones like starches--potatoes, white pasta, sugar, etc. Nor do they take into account real-life serving sizes; the GI numbers are based on lab-controlled portions. The good news is that nutritional scientists have developed the <em>glycemic load</em>, a powerful new tool for controlling weight that's based on what people_ actually eat_ and allows for more of a variety of foods.</p><p>In <em>The Glycemic-Load Diet, </em>cardiologist Dr. Rob Thompson unveils a revolutionary eating and exercise plan that helps you reverse insulin resistance, allowing you to:</p><ul> <li>     Eat more of the foods you like  </li> <li>     Eliminate cravings for starchy foods  </li> <li>     Eat chocolate and still lose weight!  </li> <li>     Speed up your metabolism with regular, non-strenuous exercise  </li> <li>     Keep the weight off without "dieting"  </li></ul>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Two brothers combine forces to compile the ultimate guy's to-do-before-marriage list. Tim is married but still "fight(ing) the good fight" and Michael is "still a free man." They take advantage of their different points of view, banking on Tim's nostalgia for his bachelor days and Michael's determination to take full advantage of the time he has left. Whether offering predictable ideas, like traveling Europe by rail or "road-trippin' North America" with some buddies, or slightly more original plans like running with the bulls in Spain, throwing a mustache party, or pretending to be someone else for a weekend, they keep readers entertained. The writing style is conversational and candid, and its humor is aimed squarely at the guy's guy ("You're not going to meet your wife in Cancun, but you'll probably take home her slutty sister"). Though at times repetitive; the Burkes themselves happily acknowledge the role formula plays in their schemes: "if you're in search of a good story just get smashed in a different town" sums it up nicely. Though sure to irritate any woman who happens to pick it up (women are divided into two categories: kill-joy wives and drunken sluts), that shouldn't be a problem for the target audience. Most single guys under thirty will enjoy this title-and may even be inspired by it.<br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Attention, guys of America: It's time to get off the couch, turn off the PlayStation, and set down your beer (just kidding--_never_ set down your beer). Your days of freedom are numbered. Every guy owes it to himself to do something audacious, ostentatious, hilarious, or just plain fun before it's too late. The time is now for the kinds of things that will be decidedly against the rules after you "settle down." <em>Die Happy</em> is here to help you create the kind of stories you'll be telling for the rest of your life. Stories about things like:   </p><p>· How you spent your graduation cash: You start at Oktoberfest in Munich and wake up on a Thai beach (which is totally what your Aunt Edith had in mind). From Fantasy Fest to La Tomatina, here's a breakdown of the wildest parties and the craziest worldwide destinations.<br />· The best places to, ahem, <em>explore other cultures</em> (or whatever): Corfu's Pink Palace. Ireland's pubs. Amsterdam's Red Light District. Ibiza. Plus plenty of other fascinating events and locales, many of which also happen to serve booze.<br />· Getting a job (don't worry, not a <em>real</em> job): Jet Ski guy. Cruise ship bartender. Casino dealer. Lifeguard. Roadie. Where and how to earn the money to subsidize your fun, usually in some exotic location full of very friendly women.  </p><p>At once a "How To," a "To Do," and a "We Did," <em>Die Happy</em> contains all the ideas, checklists, and insanely funny true stories you'll need to help you have as much fun as possible--while you still can.  </p>


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<h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Grade 7 Up—Comparable to books by R. L. Stine and Stephen King, <em>The Devouring</em> will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Reggie is a horror fanatic. When she finds a journal in a box of used books at the bookstore where she works, she "borrows" it. It tells of the Vours, black smokelike beings that possess humans who can't conquer their fear on Sorry Night (the eve of the winter solstice). Reggie and her friend Aaron attempt to make the Vours materialize but instead they possess her little brother. In a fight to the death, Reggie joins the battle of humanity against the Vours. This story contains classic elements of the genre: a horrific monster, fusion (where two different entities are fused into one), and the process of discovery. The book has some graphic content, blood, and gore, which only add to the chills. A must-have for horror fans.—_June H. Keuhn, Corning East High School, NY_ <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Comparable to books by R. L. Stine and Stephen King, <em>The Devouring</em> will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Reggie is a horror fanatic. When she finds a journal in a box of used books at the bookstore where she works, she "borrows" it. It tells of the Vours, black smokelike beings that possess humans who can't conquer their fear on Sorry Night (the eve of the winter solstice). Reggie and her friend Aaron attempt to make the Vours materialize but instead they possess her little brother. In a fight to the death, Reggie joins the battle of humanity against the Vours. This story contains classic elements of the genre: a horrific monster, fusion (where two different entities are fused into one), and the process of discovery. The book has some graphic content, blood, and gore, which only add to the chills. A must-have for horror fans. (<strong>School Library Journal</strong> _<strong>June H. Keuhn, Corning East High School, NY</strong>_ )  </p><p>"When the dark creeps in and eats the light, / Bury your fears on Sorry Night," begins this creepy tale that reads like A Nightmare on Elm Street with a dollop of demonic possession. Reggie Halloway, a mousy girl and avid horror fan, discovers a strange journal while working at an occult bookstore. Upon investigation, she learns about the Vours, horrific demons who feed on fear and take over the body, morphing its host into a cold, cruel creature. When, as a prank, Reggie and her friend Aaron attempt to summon a Vour, things go horribly awry and a Vour takes over the body of her little brother, Henry. Reggie then must battle the Vours to try to get her brother's soul back into his body. In this introductory volume, cinematic in its scope, Holt borrows conventions from many horror films, including a Stygian carnival complete with killer clowns and dreams in which injuries can manifest themselves in the real world. A scary yarn spun at breakneck speed, perfect for those chilly winter nights. (<strong>Kirkus</strong> )  </p><p>Reggie is a horror junkie who can't get enough of creepy movies, stories, and books, so she is naturally thrilled to stumble upon a mysterious old journal that describes the Vours, demonic beings that can enter fearful human bodies once a year. Although Reggie initially assumes the journal to be fiction, it quickly becomes clear that her timid younger brother, Henry, has actually been possessed by a Vour. Suddenly, Reggie is faced with a brother who kills his own beloved hamster and threatens her life, but she is certain that the Henry she loves is still there underneath. Although the diary gives few clues about how to actually exorcise demons, Reggie is determined to save her brother, even if it means facing unberable fears of her own. The fear-created world where Henry is stuck is remarkably creepy, built out of the most alarming imaginings of a young boy (murderous clowns, abandoning mothers, grotesquely dying children make up a few of the obstacles through which Reggie must travel to get to her brother). In addition, the intriguing local roots of the Vours, presented mostly through snippets of the desperate journal entries, add a layer of historical depth to this otherwise straightforward, modern novel. Horror fans will likely find the crsip writing, effectively relentless pacing, and haunting concept irresistible. (<strong>The Bulletin</strong> ) </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. In addition to solving two long-ago murders, Chief Inspector Wexford is troubled by female genital mutilation in the local Somali community. The temptation would be to cut the subplot, but this abridgment retains the richness of the novel. Tim Curry's performance is splendid, even better than Daniel Gerroll's excellent performance of Rendell's <em>End in Tears</em>. Curry does a particularly marvelous job with the minor characters, such as the two wives-in-law of a local author, who cackle at the sexual innuendos of their own jokes. Then there's 84-year-old Irene McNeil, alternately supercilious and weepy. Throw in the obsessive Grimbles, on whose land the bodies were found; some migrant fruit-picking Roma; Wexford's family; Somali immigrants; and Curry somehow sounds like a full-cast audio. If only Wexford sounded less like his assistant Burden, the performance would be absolutely perfect. <em>A Crown hardcover (reviewed online). (July)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Rendell, winner of three Edgar Awards, has two primary approaches in her acclaimed crime fiction: edgy novels of psychological suspense and more traditional police procedurals starring Chief Inspector Wexford of Kingsmarkham, Sussex. Where Rendell’s suspense can leave the reader deliciously unsettled, the Wexford novels place the reader on solid, sometimes overly familiar, ground. For example, Rendell overrelies on the old “see who cracks when the police visit” convention, using the questioning of witnesses/suspects in their homes as a launch pad for scathing comments on home decor and the occupants’ physical attributes—after the fourth or fifth visit, the formula starts to creak. But Rendell works feverishly within the form to deliver some surprises, starting here with the discovery of a human hand by a dog trained to hunt for truffles in the woods. The remains, according to the pathologist, have been buried for almost a decade. Wexford centers his investigation on the owners of the land where the hand was found, a contentious couple, greatly caught up in land disputes. When a second body is found in a basement wood pile, the action takes off. Rendell keeps the suspense going nicely, even if Wexford remains something of a cardboard character, and the procedure is mostly rooted in the past. For devoted fans of the series, of whom there are many, this will be much anticipated and, as always, satisfying; for others, only so-so. --Connie Fletcher </p>


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<div><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Grade 7–10—Emily the Strange, evil genius and skateboarder extraordinaire, has invented many things in her time—golems, working cat translators, great names for bands. But the duplication device may have been a mistake, especially when an accident produces an identical Emily. At first OtherMe is cool and useful, but it quickly becomes apparent that she is evil and will take over the world if not stopped. Emily's second journal, a sequel to <em>The Lost Days</em> (HarperCollins, 2009), is a dark delight, filled with all kinds of Strangeness: a broken leg, a Strange Manifesto that causes the entire town to go loony, an ex-spymaster neighbor, and an oddly understanding and absurdly patient mother, all described with demented wit and great relish, and accompanied by manga-style black-and-white cartoons. Does it all make sense? No, not really. Does it matter? Not at all. Fans of the first book and newcomers alike will thoroughly enjoy the zaniness and clamor for more.—_Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library_ <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>In The Lost Days (2009), Emily the Strange wakes up with a nasty case of amnesia and can’t remember who she is. Now, she has managed to clone herself and can’t tell which is the real her or, more importantly, which clone is evil. The book dresses up teen-identity issues in midnight-black humor and piles on so much persistent weirdness that oddball outsiders, goths in training, and other subversive types will find themselves positively smirking with glee. The diary-entry presentation—crammed full of lists, doodles, and staged dialogue—makes for a frenzied read, which will suit fans just fine. Grades 7-10. --Ian Chipman </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Book Description</strong>  </p><p>13 Elements you will find in the first Emily the Strange novel: </p><blockquote><ol><li><p>Mystery </p> </li> <li><p>A beautiful golem </p> </li> <li><p>Souped-up slingshots </p> </li> <li><p>Four black cats </p> </li> <li><p>Amnesia </p> </li> <li><p>Calamity Poker </p> </li> <li><p>Angry ponies </p> </li> <li><p>A shady truant officer </p> </li> <li><p>Top-13 lists </p> </li> <li><p>A sandstorm generator </p> </li> <li><p>DoppelgÄngers </p> </li> <li><p>A secret mission </p> </li> <li><p>Earwigs </p> </li></ol></blockquote><p>Emily the Strange: 13 years old. Able to leap tall buildings, probably, if she felt like it. More likely to be napping with her four black cats; or cobbling together a particle accelerator out of lint, lentils, and safety pins; or rocking out on drums/ guitar/saxophone/zither; or painting a swirling feral sewer mural; or forcing someone to say "swirling feral sewer mural" 13 times fast . . . and pointing and laughing. </p><p><strong>Amazon Exclusive: Questions for Emily the Strange</strong></p><p><strong>How does it feel to have amnesia? I can imagine there are some situations in life where amnesia would be pretty useful, right?</strong></p><p>Well, when you have it and don’t know what’s going on, it’s pretty grabbling frustrating. Once you know why you have it, and IF you are lucky enough to have given it to yourself, and IF you have a failproof way to get your memory back, it’s pretty exciting. Still frustrating, but good to know that it’s all for a reason. Did I mention you feel pretty stupid, too? I mean--you don’t even know who you are!</p><p><strong> I bet golems are pretty handy, too--can you tell us how you made yours? </strong></p><p>Hmmm. Let’s see. I won’t give you the full recipe, but I can tell you that my latest golem, Raven, was made from several parts bird (the Chihuahuan Raven species, to be exact--for its booming voice, navigational abilities, and superior lingual skills), circuitry from a discarded cash register (for simple math skills), extra-strength parabolic synth tubes (for muscle mass), super-long lasting chewing gum (we don’t want her getting tendonitis, do we?), various devices I “borrowed” from my mom (her garage door opener, curling iron, and blender), and finally a thermo-reducer distilling apparatus that cools volatile material (this golem needs to keep her cool in heated situations!). All that got blended with some real bad luck--and a golem is born! (Again!)</p><p><strong> You’re known for your skills with a slingshot. Can you give us any slingshot-maintenance tips? </strong></p><ol><li><p>Replace the elastic regularly (or better yet, use surgical tubing). This will keep proper torque and prevent backfire, misfire, or breakdown when you need it the most.   </p> </li> <li><p>Depending on the size of your rig, adding a tasteful bicycle grip to the shaft can improve handling, and thus your aim (and confidence).   </p> </li> <li><p>I find that a few basic modifications (time-reverse, teleport, x-ray vision) can really add value to a simple slingshot.   </p> </li> <li><p>Keep your gear out of the sun. It dries out the elastic, makes the wood brittle, and shrivels your soul. </p> </li></ol><p><strong>If Nee-Chee, Mystery, Sabbath, and Miles wrote a book about your Lost Days, what would they say?</strong></p><ol><li><p>NEECHEE: You’ve gone through a lot of trouble just to make more trouble for yourself.   </p> </li> <li><p>MYSTERY: Blackrock is such a magical essence, any effort to protect it would be worthy.  </p> </li> <li><p>MILES: It was a nice return to the alley. Been a while since I camped out there.   </p> </li> <li><p>SABBATH: Dude, Cabbage was close…but no cigar. </p> </li></ol><h3>From</h3><p>Reger’s gothy cult heroine, who began life as a sticker for skaters and other underground types before moving into comics, now makes the leap into full-fledged YA noveldom. But not to worry: this is anything but a sellout. The book (structured as the girl’s diary) opens with Emily coming to with a fresh case of plot-device-grade amnesia. As she tries to figure out who she is, where she is, and just about everything else (aside from remembering an affinity for cats and the number 13), Emily gets involved in a power struggle among a cast of shady characters in the town of Blackrock. Although the lurching plot perambulations are increasingly difficult to follow, there’s no doubting the lighthearted but darkly hued creativity on display, nearly always sacrificing sense for strangeness. A bevy of lists (all 13 items long) and black-and-red drawings work to break up the narrative. The central mystery of who Emily is eventually gets (sort of) resolved; any number of other unexplained peculiarities will have to wait for further installments. Pure black gold for the right readers. Grades 7-10. --Ian Chipman </p>

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After a brief and ill-advised dalliance with the Suffragette movement, Lady Rose Summers_ debut season in London society turns out to be a complete disaster. Rose_s father suspects that her fianc_, Sir Geoffrey Blandon, is a first class scoundrel and calls in Captain Harry Cathcart to investigate.But when a malicious guest is found dead in suspicious circumstances, Rose becomes far more interested in discovering the truth than in landing a more appropriate suitor. As Harry and Rose begin to unravel this web of lies and rumours, a clever murderer sets out to make Rose_s disastrous first season her last.


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It would seem that even a pretend engagement cannot keep Lady Rose Summer from trouble. Bored with endless parties, teas and balls, she befriends Dolly Tremaine, a beautiful young girl newly arrived from the country and overwhelmed by the demands of the Season. Their friendship is cut tragically short, however, when Dolly is found dead in the river, with flowers in her hair and blood on her breast.Rose immediately summons her fianc_, investigator Captain Harry Cathcart, to help solve the mystery of Dolly_s death _ and to keep her from becoming the murderer_s next victim.


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>A Letter from Kim Edwards</strong></p><p>Dear Readers, </p><p><em>The Memory Keeper’s Daughter</em> was that rare thing, a true word-of-mouth best seller, and I want to begin this letter by thanking all the readers who have been part of this amazing experience. I appreciate your passion for books and for stories, your intense and thoughtful conversations, and the comments you have sent to me from across the country and across the world. </p><p>Now, I’m really pleased and excited to introduce you to my new novel, <em>The Lake of Dreams.</em> Set in the beautiful Finger Lakes area of upstate New York, this novel is the story of Lucy Jarrett and her discovery of a hidden past, glimpsed first through fragments of old letters and traces left in stained glass windows. Lucy’s quest through the artifacts of history brings her face to face with the dynamics she fled the summer after her father drowned; it compels her to make an inward journey, too, one that will alter her understanding of herself and change the course of her life. </p><p><em>The Lake of Dreams</em> is a book I’ve been imagining for a long time. Years ago I wrote a 400 page draft of a different novel that had some of these same thematic concerns, including a complex family history, the importance of the land, and the comet connecting generations. That early novel ended up in a box in my basement, as so many first novels do, though I did return to it from time to time, and once I even made it 200 pages into another version before I put it aside again. Meanwhile, I finished my story collection, <em>The Secrets of a Fire King</em>. I wrote <em>The Memory Keeper’s Daughter</em>. </p><p>Yet the essence of the earlier story persisted, and shortly after <em>The Memory Keeper’s Daughter</em> was finished, but before it was published, I started writing <em>The Lake of Dreams</em>. Those earlier, discarded drafts had finally brought me to the heart of the story, and this time I had the voice, which is always the crucial discovery. Then the characters from the past began to emerge, with all their fascinating revelations. I immersed myself in the writing, and this new novel was well underway before the excitement of the best seller lists and book tours began. When things began to quiet down again, it was a real pleasure to return to <em>The Lake of Dreams</em>, to Lucy and her family and the mysteries of glass, and to the story that was waiting for me there. </p><p>I’ll be going on tour for <em>The Lake of Dreams</em> in January. </p><p>Best wishes to my readers! I hope you enjoy <em>The Lake of Dreams. </em></p><p>Warmly, </p><p>Kim Edwards </p><p>(Photo of Kim Edwards © Deborah Feingold) </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Bestseller Edwards's much anticipated second novel may disappoint fans of her first, The Memory Keeper's Daughter. When Lucy Jarrett returns to her childhood home in Lake of Dreams, N.Y., she learns that her brother, Blake, who's gone into the family business, and his girlfriend hope to drain a controversial marsh to construct a high-end property. Meanwhile, Lucy, who remains haunted by her father's death in a fishing accident years earlier, reconnects with her first boyfriend, Keegan Fall, now a successful glass artist. But when she sees something familiar in the pattern of one of his pieces, and discovers a hidden note in her childhood home, Lucy finally digs into her family's mysterious past. Unfortunately, the lazy expository handling of information mutes the intrigue, and readers will see the reignited spark between Keegan and Lucy coming for miles. All loose ends eventually come together with formulaic ease to rock the family boat. Edwards is at her best when highlighting the strain between her characters. (Jan.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p>

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<div><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Grade 6–10—In New Avalon, most everyone has a personal fairy. Charlie, 14, has a parking fairy; if she is in a car, a perfect parking spot is found on the first try. But since Charlie doesn't drive and hates exhaust, she thinks she's been cursed. Her friend Rochelle has a clothes-shopping fairy that makes everything look perfect on her, and her sworn enemy, Fiorenze, has an every-boy-will-like-you fairy. Charlie's attempts to starve her fairy away by walking everywhere just collects her demerits for lateness at New Avalon Sports High, where it is all sports all the time. When the water polo star virtually kidnaps her in his car for his illegal purposes and the "pulchritudinous" new boy on whom she has a crush falls for Fiorenze, Charlie needs to get drastic. She and Fiorenze forge an alliance and hatch a plan to switch their fairies, and she learns to be careful about what she wishes for. With the every-boy-will-like-you fairy, girls turn on Charlie, and she wonders whether Steffi likes her or if he is just responding to her fairy. Charlie is totally likable, smart, and sarcastic, a perfectly self-involved, insecure teen. At its core, this is a typical coming-of-age story, but the addition of the fairies, the slightly alternative setting, and the made-up slang make it much more. This "doos" (brilliant) fantasy will not be ditched.—_Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME_ <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all—especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart’s desire, it isn’t at all what she thought it would be like, and she’ll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment? From the author of the acclaimed <em>Magic or Madness</em> trilogy, this is a delightful story of fairies, friendships, and figuring out how to make your own magic.  </p>

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<h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Grade 7 Up—Terra's body is very nearly perfect, except for the port-wine birthmark on her left cheek, which several surgeries have failed to remove. It is the teen's final semester of high school and she looks forward to college where she can study art and escape from her bullying, verbally abusive father. Over the Christmas holidays, Terra and her mother get into a car accident and meet Jacob, a Goth Chinese boy with a cleft lip, and his adoptive mother. The women immediately strike up a supportive friendship, while Terra and Jacob grow close. When Terra's brother, who lives in Shanghai, sends her and her mother tickets to visit, and Jacob's mother wants to try to track down Jacob's birth mother, they decide to travel together. But what about Erik, Terra's enamored but slightly clueless boyfriend? Headley's ambitious novel is written in a beautifully crafted style that flows seamlessly. The pace is somewhat bogged down in the first half but it quickens when the characters travel to China, where Jacob, Terra, and their mothers begin to confront their insecurities. Terra and Jacob are flawed, complex, and memorable characters. The message that true beauty and strength come from within is dominant, but this is also a moving and satisfying story in its own right.—_Amy J. Chow, The Brearley School, New York City_ <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> Sixteen-year-old Terra seems to be a typical high-achieving high-school student. Under her heavy makeup, though, she hides a port-wine colored birthmark on her cheek that makes her feel like an outsider. During yet another attempt to remove the birthmark, Terra runs into Jacob, a gorgeous Goth with a cleft-palette scar. That encounter initiates a transformation in both Terra and her subservient mother. Headley has written an exquisite book that explores the difference between physical and true beauty as Terra and her mother travel from Washington state to China, and from the home of a shame-faced, cruel cartographer into the presence of an adventurous, strong woman and her insightful teenage son. Headley uses map metaphors throughout, even in the activity, geocaching, which helps bond Terra and Jacob in both Washington and China. She also uses Terra’s artistic medium, collage, as a literary device to create layer upon layer of experiences and insights into a artfully written journey of self-discovery, self-actualization, and love. With every carefully chosen word, well-crafted sentence, and fully developed character, Headley maps out a wholly satisfying reading experience that takes readers from terra nullis to terra firma. Grades 9-12. --Frances Bradburn </p>


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The Boralevi women rose from the depths of a Russian ghetto to the heights of wealth and power in St. Petersburg, Hollywood and the Middle East. Dazzle is the story of these amazing women, a racy, scintillating novel packed with all the blockbuster potential of Gould's earlier bestsellers, Sins and Love-Makers.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Donoghue takes scraps of the intriguing true story of Mary Saunders, a servant girl who murdered her mistress in 1763, and fashions from them an intelligent and mesmerizing historical novel. Born to a mother who sews for pennies and a father who died in jail, 14-year-old Mary's hardened existence in London brings to mind the lives of Dickens's child characters. Mary has an eye for fine things and ambitions beyond her social station, and her desire for a shiny red ribbon leads her to sell the only thing she owns: her body. Turned out by her mother, Mary is taken in by a local prostitute, Doll Higgins; they live together in Rat's Castle in the seedy section of town. Doll teaches Mary the tricks of her trade and gives her all the gaudy dresses Mary once coveted. For a year, the term slammerkin meaning a loose gown or a loose woman becomes all too familiar to Mary, until she checks into a charity hospital and attempts to straighten out. Missing the "liberty" of her former life, she leaves the hospital only to encounter more trouble back on the streets. Fleeing to the country village of Monmouth, her parents' hometown, Mary finds Mrs. Jones, an old friend of her mother's, and obtains a maid's position in her household, but Mary can't shake her dark ambitions: she re-enters the flesh trade, bringing disaster upon herself. Readers may feel both sympathetic to and angry with Mary, who questions whether hers is the lot of all women, but whose anesthetized spirit leads to her rash action. Donoghue's characterizations are excellent, and her brutal imagery and attention to language capture the spirit of the time with vital precision. Agent, Caroline Davidson. (June)Forecast: The provocative jacket will catch readers' attention, but attentive handselling, perhaps helped by the author tour, will be required to distinguish this worthy historical novel from similar titles.</p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>"Slammerkin," an 18th-century term meaning a loose gown or loose woman, is a fitting title for Irish writer Donoghue's (Hood) third novel. Mary Saunders's mother scratches out a meager living as a seamstress in 1760s London, but Mary longs for a more luxurious life with fine ribbons and clothes. At 13, she sneers at her mother's suggestion that she take up the needle, then makes a fateful mistake that leads her into prostitution. On the street, the young woman indulges her fine tastes and lives an independent life. When illness forces her to seek help, she vows to reform her lifestyle. Mary flees to a tiny hamlet where she finds work as a maid and seamstress. In her new life, she discovers the comforts of a home and family. But she questions whether "honest" women are any freer than prostitutes and is unable to forget her former life and her need for autonomy a need that leads to violence. This eloquent and engrossing novel, rich in historical detail and based on an actual murder, raises numerous issues about a woman's station in society during this period. An ideal choice for book groups; recommended for all public and academic libraries. Karen T. Bilton, Cedar Mill Community Lib., Portland, OR <br />Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Rutherfurd weaves an expansive tapestry of Russian lore in this sprawling, occasionally soap-operatic historical novel--a seven-week PW bestseller and a Literary Guild selection in cloth--which vividly explores the historical influences on the modern Russian psyche. <br>Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>In his newest novel, Rutherfurd does for Russia what his last novel, Sarum ( LJ 9/15/87), did for England. Focusing on a small farming community in the Russian heartland between the Dnieper and the Don at the edge of the steppes, he traces its growth through its inhabitants from the first Tatar raid on the Slavs through the Cossacks, aristocrats, and an emigre's recent return. These interconnected lives present a vast panoramic portrait of Russia and its history. However, abundance of historic detail, fascinating though it is, intrudes and overwhelms. Transitions from intertwined stories of succeeding generations are abrupt and the reader longs for more character and plot development. Recommended for devotees of James Michener and Sarum . Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/91.<br><em>- Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.</em><br>Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Edward Rutherfurd belongs to the James Michener school: he writes big, sprawling history-by- the-pound. His novel, <em>London</em>, stretches two millennia all the way from Roman times to the present. The author places his vignettes at the most dramatic moments of that city's history, leaping from Caesar's invasion to the Norman Conquest to the Great Fire to (of course) the Blitz, with many stops in between. <em>London</em> is ambitious, and students of English history will eat it up. The author doesn't skimp on historical detail, and that's a signal pleasure of the book. Ultimately, though, the structure of the novel determines the lion's share of its success. Rutherfurd is a good storyteller and each vignette makes for a good story; however, he has given himself the inevitable task of beginning what amounts to a new book every 40 pages or so. Just as one begins to warm to the characters, they are hurried off the stage. You can't read <em>London</em> without a scorecard—but that's part of the fun. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>YA. Certainly not for the fainthearted, this 800+ page novel on the history of London is true to the author's form. Rutherford so skillfully weaves detailed fiction and fact that YAs may have to head for the reference books to verify which is which. Basically, the story is London's evolution from a trading post to the seat of an Empire and the families who lived that history. Through the adventures and everyday lives of these characters, one can go to Shakespeare's Globe Theater, tend the plague patients with Dr. Richard Meredith, attend hangings at Newgate Prison, weep at the loss of life and limb due to "God's fire," visit the taverns with Chaucer and his pilgrims, and have other experiences in this exciting city. A special book for readers who have a burning interest in history and the stick-to-itiveness to finish and reflect on it. A perfect choice for the summer hiatus or winter holidays.?Carol Clark, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA<br>Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<h3>Review</h3><p>“The experimental masterpiece modern Italian literature has long been awaiting.… There is a kinship to Joyce, especially in Gadda’s inspired outbursts of comic invective, his ferocious Romantic humor.” —_The New York Times _</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In a large apartment house in central Rome, two crimes are committed within a matter of days: a burglary, in which a good deal of money and precious jewels are taken, and a murder, as a young woman whose husband is out of town is found with her throat cut. Called in to investigate, melancholy Detective Ciccio, a secret admirer of the murdered woman and a friend of her husband’s, discovers that almost everyone in the apartment building is somehow involved in the case, and with each new development the mystery only deepens and broadens. Gadda’s sublimely different detective story presents a scathing picture of fascist Italy while tracking the elusiveness of the truth, the impossibility of proof, and the infinite complexity of the workings of fate, showing how they come into conflict with the demands of justice and love.   </p><p>Italo Calvino, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Alberto Moravia all considered <em>That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana</em> to be the great modern Italian novel. Unquestionably, it is a work of universal significance and protean genius: a rich social novel, a comic opera, an act of political resistance, a blazing feat of baroque wordplay, and a haunting story of life and death. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Book Description</strong><br />A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism.  </p><p>Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington’s presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation’s largest fleet of steamships to lord of a railroad empire. Lincoln consulted him on steamship strategy during the Civil War; Jay Gould was first his uneasy ally and then sworn enemy; and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, was his spiritual counselor. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation—in fact, as T. J. Stiles elegantly argues, Vanderbilt did more than perhaps any other individual to create the economic world we live in today.</p><p>In <em>The First Tycoon</em>, Stiles offers the first complete, authoritative biography of this titan, and the first comprehensive account of the Commodore’s personal life. It is a sweeping, fast-moving epic, and a complex portrait of the great man. Vanderbilt, Stiles shows, embraced the philosophy of the Jacksonian Democrats and withstood attacks by his conservative enemies for being too competitive. He was a visionary who pioneered business models. He was an unschooled fistfighter who came to command the respect of New York’s social elite. And he was a father who struggled with a gambling-addicted son, a husband who was loving yet abusive, and, finally, an old man who was obsessed with contacting the dead.</p><p><em>The First Tycoon</em> is the exhilarating story of a man and a nation maturing together: the powerful account of a man whose life was as epic and complex as American history itself.</p><hr /><p><strong>Excerpts from an Interview with T.J. Stiles</strong>  </p><p><strong>Question:</strong> Your last book was a   </p><p><strong>T.J. Stiles:</strong> I was drawn by who he was as a person, the lack of writing about him, and the historical themes that defined his life.</p><p>Like Jesse James, Vanderbilt was man of action--decisive, dramatic, and always interesting. He courted physical danger, fought high-stakes financial battles, and always set the terms of his existence. Like Jesse James, Vanderbilt has not been the subject of much serious research. And like Jesse James, Vanderbilt opened a window on the making of modern America. Vanderbilt was central to the rise of the corporation, the emergence of Wall Street, and the birth of big business. His was a dramatic life played out on an enormous stage.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong>How long have you been working on this book and what kind of research went into it?</p><p><strong>TJS:</strong> I worked on it for more than six years. My research was challenging because Vanderbilt kept no diary, preserved no letters, and left behind no collection of papers. Second, the last serious biography about him was written in 1942. The increasing digitization of newspapers and Congressional documents helped, but I did most of my work the old-fashioned way, digging through archives and sitting in front of microfilm readers. My biggest discovery came when I stumbled upon the Old Records Division of the New York County Clerk’s Office; I spent months there going through original lawsuit papers from as early as 1816. I uncovered entire episodes of Vanderbilt’s life that no one ever suspected--fistfights, steamboats ramming each other, inside trading and noncompetition agreements, details about his physical office and epic tales of betrayal. I also focused on Vanderbilt’s associates and rivals, and found priceless letters about him in their papers. Of course, I spent months more going through the papers of his various railroad corporations at the New York Public Library. I found so much new material that I decided to include a lengthy bibliographical essay.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong>Throughout the book, you highlight Vanderbilt's role in the making of the modern idea of economic regulation. You also write, "The Commodore’s life left its mark on Americans’ most basic beliefs about equality and opportunity." Where in our modern institutions do you think his legacy is most apparent?</p><p><strong>TJS:</strong> Vanderbilt early on voiced a political philosophy rooted in radical Jacksonianism. He believed in individual equality, in the right to compete freely. He denounced monopolies and corporations. This strain of thought remains a key part of American values. Yet he ended his life at the pinnacle of an incredibly unequal society, the master of a giant corporation that overshadowed almost every other business in America. That late-life transformation strongly influenced the new acceptance of government regulation that arose after the Civil War. I don’t think so much that Vanderbilt’s legacy can be seen in our institutions as much as our economic culture--the rise of the modern idea that government should intervene to regulate large businesses, and redress the balance of wealth and power in society.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> What do you think Vanderbilt would have to say about our current economic climate; its root causes as well as the ever increasing bail-outs of giant corporations?</p><p><strong>TJS:</strong> When the Panic of 1873 hit, Vanderbilt gave an immediate analysis to a newspaper reporter that virtually describes the current situation. The problem was asset inflation: a speculative bubble (in his case, railroads, in our case, real estate) that tamped down skepticism about the value of securities issued by overvalued companies (or, in our case, mortgage-backed securities based on shaky home loans). Eager to ride the rising wave, banks in New York marketed the securities abroad, giving a stamp of approval, much as they have done with mortgage-backed securities today. In other words, Vanderbilt would have understood the root causes of our crisis, despite the great differences in the economy between then and now. And, though he usually looked askance at government intervention, the seriousness of the situation might have led him to approve of strong action. It’s hard to say, because he denounced subsidies, yet after the Panic of 1873 he also urged the federal government to pump new money into the economy. In any case, he would have had a sophisticated grasp of our conundrum.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong>Your own family history recently made national news when it was discovered, at The Smithsonian in Washington, DC, that one of President Lincoln's watches contained a secret inscription from your great-great grandfather. That must have been pretty exciting for you, not only as a family member but as a historian who has written extensively about the Civil War. How do you feel about this news and what do you make of all the attention it received?</p><p><strong>TJS:</strong>The news accounts floored me. I never expected this favorite family story, one I never quite believed, to enter national mythology. My great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Dillon, was an Irish immigrant who was working in a Washington, D.C., watch repair shop when Fort Sumter was fired on. He happened to be holding Lincoln's watch in his hand. He made an inscription on the back of the dial, closed it up, and said nothing to Lincoln about it. My second cousin, Douglas Stiles, tracked the watch to the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, and convinced the director to open the watch up and check. The message was there--a little different from my great-great-grandfather's memory, but it was there.</p><p>I think it struck a chord with the nation at the moment of Lincoln's bicentennial. Here was a plucky, immigrant watchmaker who left a silent message of encouragement in Lincoln's pocket. No fanfare, nothing attention grabbing, just a patriotic, very human little act. I grew up with this story, and named my own son Dillon, in a kind of chain tribute to Jonathan Dillon, the watchmaker. (My father's middle name is Dillon, and of course it was my great-grandmother Isabella Dillon's maiden name.) When he was born in 2007, I often told the story about Lincoln's watch. If I had my doubts about it, I figured that no one would dare tear open Lincoln's watch to check. Glad they did.</p><p>As a historian, I found it particularly startling to be brought so close to perhaps the most important American of any era. I wrote about Lincoln in <em>The First Tycoon</em>. Now I know that, as he held an urgent conference with Cornelius Vanderbilt over how best to deal with the Confederate ironclad Merrimack, he might have had in his pocket a secret message from my great-great-grandfather. The story adds an immediacy to the past, showing how close any one of us is to great historical events.</p><p>(Photo © Joanne Chan)</p><h3>From</h3><p>In the panic of 1869, Cornelius Vanderbilt “appeared in the role of a hero,” Stiles writes, praised for steadying the markets with his confidence and his cash. In reality, Vanderbilt’s own machinations had helped push the markets to the brink. He gambled not only his fortune but, with it, the “health of the national economy,” and “the only thing more remarkable than his recklessness was his success.” Vanderbilt started out running a ferry off Staten Island and went on to control shipping lines and railroads; he built Grand Central with his own money. The canvas of his life is so large that giants like Jay Gould appear as bit characters. (There’s also Tennessee Claflin, a “magnetic physician” and clairvoyant turned stockbroker; Stiles thinks that she and Vanderbilt had an affair but discounts some of the more vivid stories about their relationship.) Mark Twain described Vanderbilt as something like the Grinch, the “idol of . . . a crawling swarm of small souls”—a cartoon that Stiles does a good job of redrawing. <br />Copyright ©2008_ Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker_</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Vigorous, self-assured, self-consciously youthful and proudly bilingual, Naca's debut should get many times the attention afforded most poets' first books. Poems short and long, made of family anecdotes and (like Neruda's) of impressionistic lists, poems of remembered place (The Adoration at El Montan, set in San Antonio, Tex.) and poems of sexual joy between women give uncommon variety to the collection, even as Naca's fast pace, mixed English and Spanish (with bits of Tagalog), and first-person emphasis give it obvious unity. Spanish means there's another person/ inside you, she remembers her father saying. Poems composed originally in English mix with poems composed in Spanish and printed with her English translations. The next-to-last poem finds Naca in Mexico City, City so high that passion lacks heat... City where I spoke a word of Spanish, and like a spigot, my dreams squeezed shut. She also takes up, repeatedly, her Filipino-American background, the Pittsburgh of her youth, and the wide-open spaces she saw as an optimistic young writer in Nebraska. Chosen for the National Poetry Series' new mtvU award by Yusef Komunyakaa, the volume might be noticed by young people who may not otherwise purchase poetry but may discover Naca on cable TV. <em>(Oct.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>A winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series mtvU Prize as selected by Yusef Komunyakaa (winner of the Pulitzer Prize), Kristin′s work perpetuates NPS′s tradition of promoting exceptional poetry from lesser known poets.</p><p>Her poems are playful and serious all at once. They explore the richness of her cultural and linguistic heritage, which spans the globe from Mexico to the Philippines. They defend with vigor and humor the color purple. And they analyze the insecurities of the letter ′h′ -- among other things.</p><p>For thirty years, the National Poetry Series has discovered many new and emerging voices and has been instrumental in launching the careers of poets and writers such as Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Denis Johnson, Cole Swensen, Thylias Moss, Mark Levine, and Dionisio Martinez.</p>

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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Chandler is not only the best writer of hardboiled PI stories, he's one of the 20th century's top scribes, period. His full canon of novels and short stories is reprinted in trade paper featuring uniform covers in Black Lizard's signature style. A handsome set for a reasonable price. <br />Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Raymond Chandler is a master." --_The New York Times_<br />_<br /><em>“[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered.” --</em>The New Yorker  </p><p><em>“Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” --Robert B. Parker, </em>The New York Times Book Review  </p><p><em>“Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye.” --</em>Los Angeles Times<br />_<br />“Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist.” —_The Boston Book Review<br />_<br />“Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century. . . . Age does not wither Chandler’s prose. . . . He wrote like an angel.” --_Literary Review<br />_<br />“[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision.” --Joyce Carol Oates, _The New York Review of Books  </p><p>_“Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence.” —Ross Macdonald<br />_<br />_“Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude.” --Erle Stanley Gardner<br />_<br />_“Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since.” --Paul Auster   </p><p>“[Chandler]’s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that’s like ours, but isn’t. ” --Carolyn See<br />_<br />_</p>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-size: 14px; ">Do you love the sound of a peg leg stomping across a quarterdeck? Or maybe you prefer a parrot on your arm, a strong wind at your back? Adventure, treasure, intrigue, humor, romance, danger -- and, yes, plunder. Oh, the Devil does love a pirate -- and so do readers everywhere.<br><br>Fast Ships, Black Sails presents an incredibly entertaining volume of original swashbuckling stories from the past to the present and beyond.<br><br>Come along on the voyage with bestselling authors Naomi Novik, Garth Nix, Carrie Vaughn, Eric Flint &amp; David Firer, and. Michael Moorcock, as well as such other stellar talents as Kage Baker, Elizabeth Bear &amp; Sarah Monette, Steve Aylett, and Conrad Williams -- all offering up a veritable treasure chest of piratical adventure, the likes of which have never been seen in the four corners of the Earth.<br><br>Highlights include a brand-new Garth Nix "Sir Hereward tic Mister Fitz" novella, as the two clever ne'er-do-wells storm the seagate of the scholar-pirates of Sarkoe.<br><br>If ever you had a yearning for adventure on the high seas, now's the time to indulge it, with Fast Ships, Black Sails. You'll return with a sword shoved through your sash, booty in a safe harbor, and beer on your breath. We promise.</span></div>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "><h3 class="productDescriptionSource" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.23em; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.375em; margin-left: -15px; clear: both; ">Product Description</h3><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; "><div><div>According to his business cards, Harry Ransom is a "professor" and a "lightbringer" and "licensed"... not that business cards mean much in a town called Disorder.</div></div></div></span></div>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; ">A mechanically inclined orphan who lives in the basement of a sanitarium is urged to “make new friends.” A doddering scientist shares his living space, and he encourages the effort — providing all the assistance his weakening mind will permit. <br><br>So the orphan makes a friend … with the materials that lie immediately at hand. Unfortunately, the resulting automaton would rather cause chaos than keep him company.</span></div>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "><h3 class="productDescriptionSource" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.23em; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.375em; margin-left: -15px; clear: both; ">Product Description</h3><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; "><div><div>Jon and Toku travel the universe suspended in Interdream, only waking up to check up on certain business ventures. Simple. Until one of the business ventures, something called "Earth," objects.</div></div></div></span></div>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"The stories remind one of the elemental terrors of childhood."--James Hilton, <em>Herald Tribune </em>  </p><p>"In her art, as in her life, Shirley Jackson was an absolute original. She listened to her own voice, kept her own counsel, isolated herself from all intellectual and literary currents . . . . She was unique."--_Newsweek_<br />-- <em>Review</em>  </p><p>Shirley Jackson's <em>The Lottery</em> is a memorable and terrifying masterpiece, fueled by a tension that creeps up on you slowly without any clear indication of why. This is just a townful of people, after all, choosing their numbers for the annual lottery. What's there to be scared of? The ending is all the more stunning for the social commentary that comes like the slap of a hand and is gone. While <em>The Lottery</em> is probably the darkest story in this collection, the twist, the dig, and the unrelenting insights into human prejudices and frailties are present throughout. Prime targets are self-satisfied matrons, whose racism and elitism are glaringly exposed. Other tales are gentler yet often eerie: a single woman waits expectantly for the man she is to marry that morning, only to find he has disappeared as completely as if he had never existed; mild Emily Johnson faces down her kleptomaniac neighbor; Margaret's dream vacation in New York City begins to feel like a nightmare. Sometimes the stories are downright funny, including a hilarious description of working at Macy's, yet even in the humorous pieces, there is an unsettling feeling, like looking in a fun-house mirror where nothing is quite as you expected. This is a collection that will make you think while sending big and little chills down your spine. <em>-- For great reviews of books for girls, check out </em>. -- <em>From </em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The people of a village perform their annual lottery, with startling consequences for the recipient of the one paper with the black spot. </p>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "><h3 class="productDescriptionSource" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.23em; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.375em; margin-left: -15px; clear: both; ">Product Description</h3><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">The title doesn't lie: This is a story about a young writer and an old witch who meet on a lonely road that winds towards the New Capital.<br><br>Actually, they meet there twice. The first time, there's a curse involved. The second time--you'll have to read and find out.<br><br>It all adds up to about 4,000 words--perfect as a train read or an after-dinner fable. (Didn't you hear? Doctors recommend after-dinner fables.)<br><br>== Praise for previous work ==<br><br>Here's what some Amazon reviewers had to say about my previous story, Mr. Penumbra's Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store:<br><br>"In my book, 5 stars are reserved for works that you carry around in your mind even when you've finished reading them. This short story qualifies."<br><br>"Tightly wound mystery/fantasy plot. Wonderful characters given just enough flesh to leave your imagination room to play. An unbroken string of sentences that charm. And it's drink-snortingly funny."<br><br>"...I was really impressed by the cover art (in the Kindle book itself) and the one drawing featured in the text. Basic stuff, yes, but very stylish and well-done. Pictures sometimes look awful on the Kindle in 'big name' books, so it was nice to see such a polished presentation here."<br><br>"I enjoyed Robin Sloan's short story immensely. This story was as well-written as one could hope for. It pulled me right in until I finished it. I certainly hope Sloan will be writing more for us soon!"<br><br>== About the author ==<br><br>Robin Sloan grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between San Francisco and the internet. You can learn more, and keep in touch, at robinsloan.com.</div></span></div>


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<h3>From</h3><p>A new guy named Michael has been watching Ellie at school. It is soon revealed that he remembers Ellie from a trip their families took years ago, though Ellie has no similar recollection. But being near Michael awakens her desire to learn the truth about herself, which seems that only Michael knows. Guess what? Her recurrent dreams about flying are not dreams after all, as the two really can fly. That’s not all: both teens can read people’s thoughts, and each has developed a taste for blood. Ellie fears that they are vampires until her parents finally tell her the truth about the biblical story of fallen angels. Soon evil is following Ellie, and the teens are forced to choose which side of the ancient battle to align with. Yes, this is yet another entry into the crowded vampire/angel genre of series fiction. There is not a whole lot to set this apart from other recent examples, though the religious aspect is a nice twist, and fans with an insatiable appetite will eat this up, too. Grades 9-12. --Shauna Yusko </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Heaven-sent? </p><p>Ellie was never particularly good at talking to boys—or anyone other than her best friend and fellow outcast, Ruth. Then she met Michael.</p><p>Michael is handsome, charming, sweet. And totally into Ellie. It’s no wonder she is instantly drawn to him. But Michael has a secret. And he knows Ellie is hiding something, too. They’ve both discovered they have powers beyond their imagining. Powers that are <em>otherworldly</em>.</p><p>Ellie and Michael are determined to uncover what they are, and how they got this way . . . together. But the truth has repercussions neither could have imagined. Soon they find themselves center stage in an ancient conflict that threatens to destroy everything they love. And it is no longer clear whether Ellie and Michael will choose the same side.</p><p>In this electrifying novel, Heather Terrell spins a gripping supernatural tale about true love, destiny, and the battle of good versus evil.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Linked anecdotes about the perils of young womanhood from Australian author Wood trendily play off of antediluvian diction and antiquated women's advice columns, but actually possesses some hard-won wisdom. Divided into themes such as virginity, truth, art, commitment, marriage and loss, the tales treat the predictable muddle of female experience, though in the feisty literary persona of not such a "good girl." Indeed, the first story, "The Deflowering of Rosie Little," finds the narrator, at 14, eager to look up Latin words in the dictionary used in sexual relations, losing her virginity in the most demeaning fashion at a party to a coarse lager lout who offers her a popular cocktail for girls called "Rene Pogel" (read it backward). In another wacky tale that goes off the rails into reality, "Rosie Little in the Mother Country," the narrator, now 17, is sent for a long visit to her childless godparents' house back in England, where the joyless, emotionally numbed couple finds Rosie's sexual vivacity unnerving and finally insupportable. Despite corny sidebars on penis sizes, pubic hairstyling, and "Nominative Determinism" (you are what you're named), Wood addresses real issues: domestic violence, abortion and the desire to be married with children, among others. What emerges is a sense of destiny for Rosie, a woman who works hard-as a newspaper reporter and an assistant purser on an American cruise ship, among other things-and senses intuitively that a life of heartstrings' unraveling is surely worth a pull or two. <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Rosie, a Little Red Riding hood type with lace-up Doc Martens instead of scones, narrates this story collection for the smart, strong female who can't help getting into trouble... Wood's prose reads as powerful, funny, and real... Rosie may have 'a difficult relationship with the word eclectic,' but that's what this book is. In a good way. Grade: A-" --Entertainment Weekly  </p><p>"...emotionally pitch-perfect...[The stories] are funny and moving, and original enough to cover long-trampled territory like virginity and domestic abuse and seem new...get it and you'll have the smartes book at the beach." --Santa Cruz Sentinel  </p><p>"Wood's collection of linked short stories makes a delightful trek through the life of bad girl Rosie Little...A clever and wickedly amusing character...Wood's writing is succinct, elegant, witty, and wonderfully suited to the form. Highly recommended." --Library Journal STARRED review  </p><p>"...emotionally pitch-perfect...[The stories] are funny and moving, and original enough to cover long-trampled territory like virginity and domestic abuse and seem new...get it and you'll have the smartes book at the beach." --Santa Cruz Sentinel  </p><p>"Wood's collection of linked short stories makes a delightful trek through the life of bad girl Rosie Little...A clever and wickedly amusing character...Wood's writing is succinct, elegant, witty, and wonderfully suited to the form. Highly recommended." --Library Journal STARRED review </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In Delta of Venus Anaiuml;s Nin penned a lush, magical world where the characters of her imagination possess the most universal of desires and exceptional of talents. Among these provocative stories, a Hungarian adventurer seduces wealthy women then vanishes with their money; a veiled woman selects strangers from a chic restaurant for private trysts; and a Parisian hatmaker named Mathilde leaves her husband for the opium dens of Peru. Delta of Venus is an extraordinarily rich and exotic collection from the master of erotic writing.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This gently encouraging book by popular teacher Chödrön (_When Things Fall Apart_; <em>The Places That Scare You</em>) applies Buddhist wisdom to the problems of deeply ingrained reactions. An American Buddhist nun in the lineage of Tibetan master Chogyam Trungpa, she writes that we already have what we need to change and heal. Chödrön focuses on the preverbal moment—called <em>shenpa</em> in Tibetan—in which individuals are hooked into harmful stories, emotions and actions within the flux of their experiences. Clear descriptions of how this process works are accompanied by simple techniques to begin to break the cycle. Her suggestions can be easily practiced by anyone at any time without meditation training, although she presents the benefits of sitting meditation. With anecdotes from her teachers and examples from her own and others' lives, Chödrön demonstrates that people can stop their suffering and access their natural intelligence, warmth and openness. Throughout, she emphasizes the global implications of personal change. Among her strengths are compassion for the difficulty of human existence and her willingness to acknowledge her own failings. This short guide provides valuable tools for change in uncertain times. <em>(Sept. 8)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“This gently encouraging book by popular teacher Chödrön applies Buddhist wisdom to the problems of deeply ingrained reactions. Among her strengths are compassion for the difficulty of human existence and her willingness to acknowledge her own failings. This short guide provides valuable tools for change in uncertain times.”—_Publishers Weekly_   </p><p> “Straightforward and personal, <em>Taking the Leap</em> is a fine addition to Chödrön’s work.”—BellaOnline.com   </p><p>“You don’t have to be a Buddhist to benefit from reading Chödrön’s book, you just have to be willing to approach new ideas with an open mind.”—_The Lindsay Post_ (Canada)   </p><p>“_Taking the Leap <em>seems to speak directly to the angst we are currently facing and she is spot on with her teachings.  Chödrön is effective not because she coddles the reader, but because we get the sense that she understands exactly what this pain feels like.”—</em>LA Yoga_</p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Even after Obama, America’s healthcare system is still broken, and it’ll soon bankrupt us all. The solution: <em>radical simplification</em>. Now, leading healthcare expert and entrepreneur Dr. Doug Perednia reveals the system’s shocking, unnecessary inefficiencies--and outlines a simple, logical, complete solution that offers greater security, enhances competition, and will save <em>trillions</em>. </p><h3>From the Back Cover</h3><p>“Finally, a healthcare system that works! <em>Overhauling America’s Healthcare Machine</em> is a superbly written book on what it takes to reduce administrative bloat, simplify the system, slash costs, and give all Americans sustainable medical and financial security.”</p><p>–William Bernstein, Bestselling author of <em>A Splendid Exchange </em>and <em>The Birth of Plenty</em></p><p>“Scholarly both in thinking and writing. A terrific accomplishment.”</p><p>–Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg, Director, National Library of Medicine</p><p>Bureaucratic complexity is smothering America’s healthcare system–pointless, costly, wasteful complexity created by both the government and insurance companies. In <em>Overhauling America’s Healthcare Machine</em>, leading physician, healthcare expert, and entrepreneur Douglas A. Perednia, M.D., systematically identifies worthless overhead that is making healthcare inaccessible to millions, driving providers from practice, and bankrupting America. Then, he shows how to design a far simpler system that delivers care to everyone by drawing on the best of both free markets and carefully crafted public initiatives. </p><p>The Obama “healthcare reform” involved more than 2,000 pages of special interest-friendly legislation. It mandates 168 new federal committees and programs, which reflects even higher healthcare spending and billions in new taxes. Yet, the system is still utterly broken–and unless it’s fixed, it will break us all. Perednia offers a better way: a logical, comprehensive, and nonpartisan approach that gives providers and patients both security and freedom, enhances competition, and will save more than $570 billion each year. </p><p><strong>Why we spend twice as much on healthcare–without better results</strong></p><p>The real reasons American healthcare costs more without delivering more</p><p><strong>Where does all the money go–and why?</strong></p><p>Uncovering the insane waste and bureaucracy pervading American healthcare</p><p><strong>Scrubbing the sand out of the gears </strong></p><p>Eliminating the worthless tasks, processes, and rules that cause soaring costs</p><p><strong>Focusing spending where it will do the most good</strong></p><p>Getting the greatest medical benefit from limited dollars</p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>“I always suspected I had few bad habits of mind. Thanks to André Kukla, I am now certain I have many. If that makes reading <em>Mental Traps</em> sound like a dispiriting experience, it shouldn’t. Kukla has a light touch with weighty ideas. Readers will be enlightened and entertained, as well as improved.” <br>— Jamie Whyte, author of  <strong>Crimes Against Logic</strong>_  </p><p>_“While it may be unlikely that any single person will have fallen into all mental traps so cunningly described by André Kukla in this exhilarating book, it is absolutely certain that every person will have fallen into some of them. That’s why it will ring loud bells and switch on bright lights in the minds of all who read it. Which means, of course, that everyone ought to.” <br>— Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh, author of <strong>Godless Morality</strong>_  </p><p>_“Ever looked TWICE for your lost keys in an EMPTY bowl? Returned more than once to check you’d locked the door? Ever spoiled a moment by niggling with your partner over trivia? Ever been unable to get yourself to do something you really know you should? EVER LOST OUT because you couldn’t decide between two great lovers, or two great investments? OF COURSE YOU HAVE! André Kukla shows us how to think about these Mental Traps. If you want out of the big sandtraps and onto the green, read his book. KUKLA IS RIGHT! We could all be bopping along much more comfortably towards our goals. His nice, clear, straightforward examples steer us past the trap horizons. He helps us out of dark mental ditches into which we have fallen. His stories give us insights we need to talk about to those who know us INTIMATELY — or over the watercooler, in the coffeehouse, or at our bookclub.” <br>— John M. Kennedy, FRSC  </p><p><em>From the Hardcover edition.</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>Mental Traps</strong> is André Kukla’s immensely enjoyable and down-to-earth catalogue of the everyday blunders we make in our thinking habits, how these traps can affect our entire lives, and what we can do about it.  </p><p>Ever find yourself putting off even relatively minor tasks because of the many other little jobs that you’d have to tackle first? Or spending far too much time worrying about things you can’t change? Or living for the future, not for today? Truth is, we all do — and we all recognize that sometimes our ways of thinking just aren’t productive. When it comes to our daily lives, we often laugh off habits like procrastination as being human nature and just resolve to approach things differently next time. Or, when the issues facing us are enormous or traumatic, we might recognize that we’re dwelling on our problems, or otherwise spending our time on fruitless thinking, but have no idea how to get out of that miserable rut. Either way, it takes up a lot of our mental energy.  </p><p>But as André Kukla makes clear in <strong>Mental Traps</strong>, what we <em>don’t </em>recognize — or at least admit to ourselves! — is how thinking unproductively about even the smallest elements of everyday life can mount up and keep us from being happy, from living life to the fullest. For what appear to be minor lapses are actually “habitual modes of thinking that disturb our ease, waste enormous amounts of our time, and deplete our energy without accomplishing anything of value for us or anyone else.” So whether we’re dealing with how to attain our major career goals or deciding when to serve the salad course at dinnertime, the end results can be much the same: readily identifiable patterns of wasteful thinking. These, in Kukla’s view, are the mental traps.  </p><p>In his introduction, Kukla compares his method to that of naturalist’s guides, which take a very matter-of-fact approach to providing practical information. He then outlines eleven common mental traps, such as persistence, fixation, acceleration, procrastination and regulation. Devoting a chapter to each, he provides simple examples to help us to identify mental traps in our own thinking — and to recognize why it would be beneficial to change our ways. Our anxiety, our dissatisfaction, our disappointment — these are often the consequences of thinking about the world the wrong way. And it’s in the parallels he draws between the major and minor events of our lives that he truly brings his point home: How is refusing to eat olives like toiling at a job that has long ago lost all satisfaction? How is arriving at the airport too early a symptom of a life never fully lived? Again, what can seem to be a very inconsequential habit can actually signal bigger, more detrimental problems in our ways of thinking.  </p><p>Kukla’s goal — one that we should share, in the end — is to help us realize how much more enjoyable our lives would be if we were a little more attentive to our thought processes. Just as Buddhism, from which the author has drawn many of his ideas, teaches that we should perform all of our acts mindfully, Kukla suggests that we make a conscious effort to step back, clear our minds, and simply observe how our thoughts develop. By doing so, we will begin to recognize unproductive patterns in our own thinking, and then we can try to avoid them. Ultimately, Kukla hopes that <strong>Mental Traps</strong>_ _will help readers move towards what he calls a “liberated consciousness” — a state in which we no longer allow mental traps to inhibit our experiences. From having more energy to being able to act impulsively, we’d realize the benefits of living in the moment and feel truly free.  </p><p><em>From the Hardcover edition.</em></p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Within twenty-four hours a nightmare will be unleashed that could cause the death of untold millions and devastate a great nation. It's a plot being carried out by the unlikeliest of allies. A powerful mole within the deepest reaches of U.S. Intelligence has secretly conscripted the very criminals he's been charged with investigating -- former IRA terrorists, Latino and Asian gang members, Middle Eastern assassins and others -- creating one of the most insidious terrorist networks law enforcement has yet to take down. </p><p>One man stands between the destroyers and the death tide: Jack Bauer, lone wolf operative for America's brand-new elite Counter Terrorist Unit. But he's three thousand miles from the CTU command center without backup in a strange city, New York. He's been artfully set up and is being hunted by the FBI for the murder of two of its agents. And time's almost up . . . </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Marc Cerasini's writing credits include <em>The Complete Idiot's Guide to U.S. Special Ops Forces and Heroes: U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor Winners</em> and several projects for Tom Clancy, including creating the bible for the Clancy Power Play series, writing the YA action/adventure thriller <em>The Ultimate Escape</em> for Clancy's NetForce series, and writing a major essay on Clancy's contribution to the technothriller genre for the national bestseller <em>The Tom Clancy Companion</em>. Among the movie tie-in novelizations Marc has written are <em>Wolverine: Weapon X</em>, based on the popular X-Men series, the <em>USA Today</em> bestseller <em>AVP: Alien Vs. Predator</em>, based on the motion picture from 20th Century Fox, as well as five original novels based on the Toho Studios classic "Godzilla," and co-authored (with J.D. Lees) a nonfiction look at the film series, <em>The Official Godzilla Compendium</em>. Marc's other credits include the book <em>24: The House Special Subcommittee Investigation of CTU</em>, which he co-authored with his wife, Alice Alfonsi, and the previous <em>24 Declassified</em> novels <em>Operation Hell Gate</em>, <em>Trojan Horse</em>, and <em>Vanishing Point</em>. </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The next twenty-four hours will be crucial to America's survival. A determined band of terrorists holds the key to bringing down the government by plunging the country into darkness, fear, and chaos -- a nightmare born not in a distant enemy land . . . but rather in the heart of America itself. </p><p>After a mission gone bad, Counter Terrorist Unit operative Jack Bauer is relegated to infiltrating a dangerous homegrown militia group -- and stumbles upon information about an activated sleeper cell of Middle Eastern terrorists on American soil. But the roots of the insidious threat may go deeper than he suspects, firmly planted in the lies and treacheries of powerful government agencies. And without the trust and support of his CTU superiors, Jack may have to rely on the very fanatics he's sworn to destroy . . . or face an earth-shattering catastrophe at the end of the day. </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>

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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>The world's most powerful leaders are gathering in Los Angeles for the G-8 summit, unaware that they have been targeted by two separate terrorist groups, each with its own lethal agenda. Uncovering and disarming one bomb would be difficult enough; eliminating both will be nearly impossible. </p><p>On the trail of a rabid Islamic assassin, rogue CTU agent Jack Bauer doesn't know that another conspiracy is brewing around him—a poisonous plot to violently dictate the future of the free world. If Bauer does nothing, in twenty-four hours the entire planet may be plunged into chaos, its primary heads of state ruthlessly destroyed. But if he acts, his daughter Kim will die instead. </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>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Area 51: America's top-secret advanced military testing ground, hidden away in the Nevada desert, where the awesome weapons of tomorrow are being developed. But a mole inside the impregnable facility has been leaking highly advanced killing technology to America's worst enemies . . . who intend to turn its destructive power on an unsuspecting nation before the day is out. </p><p>Agent Jack Bauer has a mere twenty-four hours to derail a horrific plot, as a deadly endgame takes shape in the neon glare of nearby Las Vegas. But to do so, the rogue CTU operative will have to lead an impossible assault on Area 51 itself—and expose a lethal string of betrayal and corruption that leads from the terrorists to the underworld and all the way into the heart of the U.S. government. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Marc Cerasini's writing credits include <em>The Complete Idiot's Guide to U.S. Special Ops Forces and Heroes: U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor Winners</em> and several projects for Tom Clancy, including creating the bible for the Clancy Power Play series, writing the YA action/adventure thriller <em>The Ultimate Escape</em> for Clancy's NetForce series, and writing a major essay on Clancy's contribution to the technothriller genre for the national bestseller <em>The Tom Clancy Companion</em>. Among the movie tie-in novelizations Marc has written are <em>Wolverine: Weapon X</em>, based on the popular X-Men series, the <em>USA Today</em> bestseller <em>AVP: Alien Vs. Predator</em>, based on the motion picture from 20th Century Fox, as well as five original novels based on the Toho Studios classic "Godzilla," and co-authored (with J.D. Lees) a nonfiction look at the film series, <em>The Official Godzilla Compendium</em>. Marc's other credits include the book <em>24: The House Special Subcommittee Investigation of CTU</em>, which he co-authored with his wife, Alice Alfonsi, and the previous <em>24 Declassified</em> novels <em>Operation Hell Gate</em>, <em>Trojan Horse</em>, and <em>Vanishing Point</em>. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>In a remote corner of New Jersey is a nation within a nation—a refuge for fanatical converts and fervent believers. But within the confines of the secluded Islamic community of Kurmastan, plans are underway to spread fear, death, and untold destruction across America . . . and to deliver one fatal blow to the country's exposed and vulnerable heart. </p><p>On the East coast to supervise the activation of CTU's New York office, rogue agent Jack Bauer finds himself in the center of an unleashed hurricane perhaps already too powerful to stop. But if it isn't, in twenty-four hours the U.S. will be brought to its knees by a secret army grown on its own earth. And there is no one Jack Bauer can trust—because the roots of the terror go very deep . . . and frighteningly high. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Marc Cerasini's writing credits include <em>The Complete Idiot's Guide to U.S. Special Ops Forces and Heroes: U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor Winners</em> and several projects for Tom Clancy, including creating the bible for the Clancy Power Play series, writing the YA action/adventure thriller <em>The Ultimate Escape</em> for Clancy's NetForce series, and writing a major essay on Clancy's contribution to the technothriller genre for the national bestseller <em>The Tom Clancy Companion</em>. Among the movie tie-in novelizations Marc has written are <em>Wolverine: Weapon X</em>, based on the popular X-Men series, the <em>USA Today</em> bestseller <em>AVP: Alien Vs. Predator</em>, based on the motion picture from 20th Century Fox, as well as five original novels based on the Toho Studios classic "Godzilla," and co-authored (with J.D. Lees) a nonfiction look at the film series, <em>The Official Godzilla Compendium</em>. Marc's other credits include the book <em>24: The House Special Subcommittee Investigation of CTU</em>, which he co-authored with his wife, Alice Alfonsi, and the previous <em>24 Declassified</em> novels <em>Operation Hell Gate</em>, <em>Trojan Horse</em>, and <em>Vanishing Point</em>. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>It is what you always dreamed but never expected. It's having God as your dad, your biggest fan, and your best friend. It is having the King of Kings in your cheering section. It is hearing the applause of heaven. Max Lucado believes that the Beatitudes provide what we need to discover the the joy of God. Much more than a how-to book on happiness. <em>The Applause of Heaven</em> is an encounter with the Source of Joy.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>To celebrate the launch of Quick Reads in 2006, The Sun ran a short story competition called 'Get Britain Reading' in order to find the hidden talent among its ten million readers.It was judged by Sun columnist and bestselling author Jane Moore.The Sun Book of Short Stories contains a selection of the winning entries.They may make you smile, laugh or cry but all of them are sure to entertain you.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Chris Jericho worked his way into the big time of wrestling after training in Canada. He had his first pro fight at just 19, but it wasn't until he was 25 that he made the big time, joining the WCW. Within a year he had won his first title. Finally, in August 1999 he moved to the WWF (now WWE) where he would eventually become one of the biggest names on their books, and bedcome the undisputed Heavyweight Champion.In this fascinating account, he relives his early days in the sport in Mexico and Japan, and working his way up alongside Chris Benoit and Lance Storm. He also recalls his rivalries with The Rock, Steve Austin and Triple H among others. He retired from the sport in August 2005, but there have been many rumours since then of a comeback. A Lion's Tale is as honest, outspoken and direct as the man himself.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Time and space are fluid and perspectives are intriguingly alien and off-kilter in this cosmological first novel from Serbian author Zivkovic. Built from multiple intertwined plots fleshed out in short chapters rich with impressionistic images, it attempts the difficult feat of conveying a parallel world through the experiences of characters largely unaware that alternate realities exist. Two principal story lines—one involving a Buddhist techno-whiz who creates a female computer program, the other concerned with a medieval novitiate who witnesses the mystical resurrection of a master whom he believed dead—anchor a narrative that also admits episodes in which Archimedes, Stephen Hawking, Nikola Tesla and other scientific luminaries find ways to slip the bounds of the time-space continuum and inadvertently travel to a common meeting place. Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Conan Doyle all make appearances in the final chapters to deduce a dizzying, if talky, rationale for what exactly is going on. Zivkovic does a superb job of communicating the befuddlement, confusion and awe of individual characters as they wrestle with mysteries that exceed the understanding that their time, place and intellectual capacity permits. He also suggests a coherent cosmic blueprint that incorporates the novel's many episodes yet still remains intriguingly beyond full comprehension. Not all the mysteries are laid bare at the novel's somewhat abrupt end, but readers will enjoy the tale's epistemological gymnastics and the interplay of real and imaginary personalities. <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Four great scientists--Archimedes, van Ceulen, Tesla, and Hawking--gather at an ancient Buddhist temple deep in a jungle to meet computer scientist Srinavasa; his sentient computer program Rama; and the latter's child, sired by an ape. Elsewhere, a radio telescope awaits a specific signal, spherical beings go about their lives, the pack travels to see mysterious presences during the month they call Thule, and a medieval artist's assistant embarks on a journey into what he perceives as the circles of Hell. Then Sherlock Holmes receives a mysterious note--a perfect circle--and must join forces with his nemesis Moriarty to close the Fourth Circle. As the prologue, which is also the ending, informs us, Holmes' task is not one of obtaining answers but one of asking new questions and making contact across the varied worlds of the novel. Zivkovic distinguishes the book's discrete narratives stylistically and links its semicircular development back to itself seamlessly, opening the door to speculation about what happens next, which turns out to be a perfectly satisfactory conclusion. <em>Regina Schroeder</em><br><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Rimble, the Trickster, is a merry god--dancing through streets as a gust of leaves, hobbling along canals as an old hag, roaming through gardens as a wiry dog. And where Rimble travels, trouble follows. Trouble of a most peculiar nature. Advertising in Locus and American Fantasy.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Bored with his life in the dull state of Speakinghast, Rimble the Trickster, the youngest god of the Greatkin family, decides to perform the ultimate prank, unraveling time and creating his own warped sense of temporal reality called "Shiftime"</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The vicious attack Capt. Gabriel Huntley witnesses in a dark alley sparks a chain of events that will take him to the ends of the Earth and beyond - where what is real and what is imagined become terribly confused. And frankly, Huntley couldn't be more pleased. Intrigue, danger, and a beautiful woman in distress - just what he needs. Raised thousands of miles from England, Thalia Burgess is no typical Victorian lady. A good thing, because a proper lady would have no hope of recovering the priceless magical artefact Thalia is after. Huntley's assistance might come in handy, though she has to keep him in the dark. But this distractingly handsome soldier isn't easy to deceive... </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Archer follows 2010's Warrior with another delightful tale of an intelligent, competent woman sharing adventure and romance with a formidable partner. In this version of 19th-century Europe, rival secret societies battle over ancient sources of magic. Meek linguist London Harcourt is brought to Greece by her controlling, secretive father. After a chance meeting with the charming Bennett Day, London learns that her father and his companions want England to control the world's magic, while Bennett's group, the Blades of the Rose, is trying to return the artifacts to the peoples that originally owned them. London, finally ready to make her own choices, becomes an active participant in the race to save the mystery of Greek fire from abuse by her father's organization, beginning a relationship with Bennett along the way. London's personal growth paces the adventure story beautifully, and readers will cheer for both the romance and the Blades. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>London Harcourt's father is bent on subjugating the world's magic to British rule. But since London is a mere female, he hasn't bothered to tell her so. He's said only that he's leading a voyage to the Greek isles. No matter, after a smothering marriage and three years of straitlaced widowhood, London jumps at the opportunity - unfortunately, right into the arms of Bennett Day. Bennett is a ladies' man, when he's not dodging lethal attacks to protect the powers of the ancients from men like London's father. Sometimes, he's a ladies' man even when he is dodging them. But the minute he sees London he knows she will require his full attention. The woman is lovely, brilliant, and the only known speaker of a dialect of ancient Greek that holds the key to calling down the wrath of the gods. Bennett will be risking his life again - but around London, what really worries him is the danger to his heart... </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Nathan Lesperance is used to being different. He's the first Native attorney in Vancouver, and welcome neither with white society nor his sometime tribe. Not to mention the powerful wildness he's always felt inside him, too dangerous to set free. Then he met Astrid Bramfield and saw his like within her piercing eyes. Now, unless she helps him through the harsh terrain and the harsher unknowns of his true abilities, it could very well get him killed...Astrid has traveled this path before. Once she was a Blade of the Rose, protecting the world's magic from unscrupulous men, with her husband by her side. But she's loved and lost, and as a world-class frontierswoman, she knows all about survival. Nathan's searing gaze and long, lean muscles mean nothing but trouble. Yet something has ignited a forgotten flame inside her: a burning need for adventure, for life - and perhaps even for love... </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Gemma Murphy has a nose for a story - even if the boys in Chicago's newsrooms would rather focus on her chest. So when she runs into a handsome man of mystery discussing how to save the world from fancy-pants Brit conspirators, she's sensing a scoop. Especially when he mentions there's magic involved. Of course, getting him on the record would be easier if he hadn't caught her eavesdropping...Catullus Graves knows what it's like to be shut out: his ancestors were slaves. And he's a genius inventor with appropriately eccentric habits, so even people who love him find him a little odd. But after meeting a certain redheaded scribbler, he's thinking of other types of science. Inconvenient, given that he needs to focus on preventing the end of the world as we know it. But with Gemma's insatiable curiosity sparking Catullus' inventive impulses, they might set off something explosive anyway... </p>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"An awesome zombie novel." -- David Moody, author of <em>Hater</em>  </p><p>"Hypnotically readable." -- R. Thomas Riley, author of <em>Through the Glass Darkly</em>  </p><p>"An action-packed zombie extravaganza." -- Ryan C. Thomas, author of <em>The Summer I Died</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>THE END BEGINS WITH AN UNPRECEDENTED VIRAL OUTBREAK:</strong></p><p>Morningstar. The infected are subject to delirium, fever, violent behavior...and a one hundred percent mortality rate. </p><p><strong>BUT THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING:</strong></p><p>The victims return from death to walk the earth. When a massive military operation fails to contain the plague of the living dead, it escalates into a worldwide pandemic. <strong></strong></p><p>NOW, A SINGLE LAW OF NATURE DOMINATES THE GLOBAL LANDSCAPE: </p><p>Live or die, kill or be killed. On one side of the world, thousands of miles from home, a battle-hardened general surveys the remnants of his command: a young medic, a veteran photographer, a brash private, and dozens of refugees -- all are his responsibility. While in the United States, an army colonel discovers the darker side of Morningstar and collaborates with a well-known journalist to leak the information to the public.... </p>

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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. BRYNNA MALAK MIGHT BE THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE.</p><p>Brynna is a fallen angel trying to earn redemption. She’s escaped from Hell in search of a new life on Earth, but Lucifer’s deadliest hunters are hot on her trail. Police Detective Eran Redmond is after her for a different reason: he needs Brynna to help him find a serial killer who is terrifying Chicago . . . and the trail leads them right to Hellspawned demons of the most dangerous kind. She’s also got a very <em>human </em>problem: dealing with a stubborn, attractive cop who makes her long for everything she knows she can’t have.</p><p>Staying alive long enough to earn a shot at Heaven will mean breaking some major rules in the mortal world, as she learns just how complicated and wonderful being human can be. With so much stacked against her, even Brynna has to wonder if she’s crazy. But she’s not giving in without a fight.</p><p>Not a chance in Hell. . . . </p><h3>Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</h3>


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<h3>Review</h3><p><em>New York Times</em> bestselling author <strong>Yasmine Galenorn</strong> writes urban fantasy, mystery, and metaphysical nonfiction. A graduate of Evergreen State College, she majored in theater and creative writing. Yasmine has been in the Craft for more than twenty-nine years and is a shamanic witch. She describes her life as a blend of teacups and tattoos and lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Samwise, and their cats. Yasmine can be reached via her website at www.galenorn.com, via Twitter: www.twitter.com/yasminegalenorn, and via her publisher. If you send her snail mail, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope if you want a reply. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Eons ago, vampires tried to turn the Dark Fae in order to harness their magic, only to create a demonic enemy more powerful than they imagined. Now Myst, the Vampiric Fae Queen of the Indigo Court, has enough power to begin a long prophesied supernatural war. And Cicely Waters, a witch who can control the wind, may be the only one who can stop her-and save her beloved Fae prince from the Queen's enslavement. </p>


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SUMMARY:
Meet the D'Artigo sisters: half-human, half-faerie, they're savvy-and sexy-operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But their mixed-blood heritage short-circuits their talents at all the wrong times. Delilah shapeshifts into a tabby cat whenever she's stressed. Menolly's a vampire who's still trying to get the hang of being undead. And Camille is a wicked-good witch, except her magic's as unpredictable as the weather, as her enemies are about to find out-the hard way.


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SUMMARY:
"The first in an engrossing new series, [Witchlingwas] a whimsical reminder of fantasy's importance in life" (Publishers Weekly). Now comes Changeling-again featuring Camille, the good witch, Menolly, the vampire, and Delilah, a feline shapeshifter. They're the D'Artigo sisters, half-human, half-Faerie supernatural agents who are now enlisted to find the fiends responsible for slaughtering the weres of Rainier Puma Pride.


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SUMMARY:
The D'Artigo sisters, Camille, Delilah, and Menolly, are half-human, half- Fae operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. When humans begin to go missing, then turn up as newly born vampires, Menolly- an acrobat extraordinaire-turned-vampire- must face the demons haunting her memories.


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SUMMARY:
The D'Artigo sisters are half-human, half-Fae operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Camille is doing her best to juggle magic, men, and the demonic war into which they've been thrust until she discovers a secret that could change all their lives.


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The D’Artigo sisters are half-human, half-Fae operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Delilah, a werecat who’s one of the Autumn Lord’s Death Maidens, has to fight off the demon general who stole the third Spirit Seal and is now out for blood.


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Menolly, Camille, and Delilah are the D’Artigo Sisters—half-human, half-Faerie operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Their latest assignment is to root out the secret society responsible for unleashing chaos magic against the city—and to stop a demon from devouring Delilah’s soul.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW: **The *New York Times* bestselling author of *Demon Mistress* returns with a new sensual Otherworld paranormal... ** Another equinox is here, and life's getting more tumultuous for the D'Artigo sisters. Smoky, the dragon of Camille's dreams, must choose between his family and her. Plus, the sisters can't locate the new demon general in town. And Camille's summoned to Otherworld, thinking she'll reunite with her long-lost soul mate Trillian. But once there, she must undergo a drastic ritual that will forever change her and those she loves.


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We're the D'Artigo sisters: sexy, savvy operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But being half-human, half-Fae means our supernatural talents can go haywire at any time. My sister Camille is a wicked good witch whose life recently took a drastic turn. Menolly's a vampire who's still getting the hang of being undead. And me? I'm Delilah, a werecat with a very interesting love life. But life isn't all fun and games. We're on the trail of the demon general who has decided that we've become quite a nuisance...

It's Samhain, and the Autumn Lord, has called for my training to begin with the Death Maidens...and I find that I like it. But we've got problems: werewolves are going missing and a new magical drug, "Wolf Briar," is being used as a weapon. My dear Chase and I have come to a delicate crossroads and there's no turning back from our decision. And most dangerous of all: Stacia Bonecrusher has put a bounty on our heads. Now it's a race to take out the demon general before she realizes the sixth Spirit Seal is within her reach...


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The D'Artigo sisters have just turned in their badges to the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Now that they're free agents they're hoping things will be easier, but when you're half-human, half-Fae, things can go astray at the most inopportune times...especially if you're attempting to go undercover and penetrate the underworld of a vamp society on the brink of war. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Yasmine Galenorn knows the Tarot. She has been a professional Tarot reader for ten years and has practiced the Craft since 1980, studying intensively both as a solitary and with others. As a Priestess of Mielikki and Tapio, she has led numerous public and private rituals. Furthermore, she is a multi-talented author, and public speaker, currently residing in Washington with her cats and husband Samwise. <br>Galenorn holds a degree in Theatrical Management and Creative Writing and has a background in the performing arts. In addition, she has authored several books on the subjects of witchcraft and magic. Including, Trancing the Witch's Wheel, Embracing the Moon, and Dancing With the Sun--all of which have been Llewellyn titles. She also served as key note speaker for a memorial honoring those killed during the Salem Witch Trials and has also appeared on several radio and television shows in the Washington area.   </p>

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The remarkable thing about Atummyc Afterbath Dusting Powder was that it gave you that lovely, radiant, atomic look—just the way the advertisements said it would. In fact, it also gave you a little something more!


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<p class="description">Naturally human work was more creative, more inspiring, more important than robot drudgery. Naturally it was the most important task in all the world … or was it?</p>


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SUMMARY:
As the years pass, Black Wilder is waiting for just the right moment to emerge from the shadows in the small prairie town. The time is now, the beasts are hungry, the Undead are awake, and the putrid stench of evil hangs in the area. The townspeople are about to be touched by the Devil's kiss.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The town was alive with cats. Sam, Nydia, and Little Sam had never seen so many of them. The cats' eyes were glowing slits as they watched the newcomers. And their furry tails were slowly switching back and forth. . . The town was ripe with evil. Soon Sam, Nydia and Little Sam would battle the forces of darkness, standing alone against the ultimate predator--The Devil's Cat. Book cover designed with "horror" hologram.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Here Comes Civilization: The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn, Volume II, edited by James A. Mann and Mary C. Tabasko, celebrates the achievement of a preeminent SF author of the 1950s. With numerous stories published for the first time since their initial appearance in magazines, the complete body of Tenn's only novel and an analytic essay, this second volume should receive as much praise as the first, Immodest Proposals.</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>One by one, five sixteen-year-old orphans are brought to a strange building. It is not a prison, not a hospital; it has no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Nothing but endless flights of stairs leading nowhere —except back to a strange red machine. The five must learn to love the machine and let it rule their lives. But will they let it kill their souls? This chilling, suspenseful indictment of mind control is a classic of science fiction and will haunt readers long after the last page is turned. </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Lost in another world and time, a regiment of Union soldiers find themselves part of a tactical retreat from the onslaught of the mysterious Merki hordes, reenacting the classic Russian retreats from the French and Germans. Original.</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>It has been 10 years since a group of American Civil War soldiers was swept away from the battlefields of Earth to a distant world--where the only place for a human is as a slave to an alien race. But even though they are far from home, the members of the Union 35th Main regiment still embody the radical ideas of democracy and freedom--and they're willing to lay down their lives rather than sound retreat! Ads in "Locus". </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>'More readable and rewarding than The Lord of the Rings' -- <em>The Times</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>THE JOURNEY STARTS <em>HERE</em>, AND NOW </p><p>A million readers have revelled in William Horwood's now classic trilogy <em>The Duncton Chronicles</em> which tells how Moledom's Stone followers struggled to find peace and truth for allmole. </p><p>But now Moledom's greatest tale can be told - from which all began and to which all is leading. </p><p>If you have never read a Duncton story before, start here and now. </p><p>If you are already a Stone follower then prepare for the greatest pilgrimage of your life to find the Silence of the Stone. </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>The Princess Bride</em> is a true fantasy classic. William Goldman describes it as a "good parts version" of "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure." Morgenstern's original was filled with details of Florinese history, court etiquette, and Mrs. Morgenstern's mostly complimentary views of the text. Much admired by academics, the "Classic Tale" nonetheless obscured what Mr. Goldman feels is a story that has everything: "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles." </p><p>Goldman frames the fairy tale with an "autobiographical" story: his father, who came from Florin, abridged the book as he read it to his son. Now, Goldman is publishing an abridged version, interspersed with comments on the parts he cut out. </p><p>Is <em>The Princess Bride</em> a critique of classics like <em>Ivanhoe</em> and <em>The Three Musketeers</em>, that smother a ripping yarn under elaborate prose? A wry look at the differences between fairy tales and real life? Simply a funny, frenetic adventure? No matter how you read it, you'll put it on your "keeper" shelf. <em>--Nona Vero</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>PRAISE FOR <em>THE PRINCESS BRIDE</em></p><p>"[Goldman's] swashbuckling fable is nutball funny . . . A 'classic' medieval melodrama that sounds like all the Saturday serials you ever saw feverishly reworked by the Marx Brothers." --_Newsweek_  </p><p>"One of the funniest, most original, and deeply moving novels I have read in a long time." --_Los Angeles Times_</p>

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<p>'3 extraordinary tales of fantasy each by a master of the art, and in each there is incident and invention enough to surpass most full-length novels...</p>


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SUMMARY:
Volume 4 in the bestselling World According to Clarkson series Jeremy Clarkson had a dream. A world where the nonsensical made sense, the idiotic was abolished and the sheer bloody brilliant was embraced. In How Hard Can It Be? our hero embarks on a quest to set the world to rights. Again. En-route he discovers how rhubarb will become the new crack, that a comb over will end anyone's quest for global domination and what unites a Filipino chambermaid in Abergavenny with Prince Andrew. For anyone who's ever woken up and thought the time has come to stop the nonsense and celebrate the sensational, read on. Because seriously, how hard can it be?


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights, by Various, is part of the Barnes &amp; Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes &amp; Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices &amp; Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes &amp; Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Modern American politicians refer to “the founders” so often that they’re in danger of becoming clichés. But Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail and John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, and the other authors included in this new collection were a wholly unique—and complex—group of individuals, graced with extraordinary intellectual powers, a profound dedication to their ideals, and a striking ability to articulate those ideals in clear and passionate prose. This original anthology of their writings, many of them far less familiar to us than they should be, demonstrates the depth of their thinking—and of their disagreements. It covers the full range of events from 1773 to 1789: that is, from the early debates about whether the North American colonies should declare their independence from England, to the ratification of the Constitution and the first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights). Among the documents included are papers from the first and second Continental Congresses, the Articles of Confederation, Washington’s Farewell Address to his armies, and extensive excerpts from the Federalist papers and the Madison–Jefferson correspondence on the Constitution. Jack N. Rakove is W.  R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1980. He is the author of four books on the American Revolutionary era, including The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress, James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic, and Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, which received the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in History.</p>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>Professor John S. Wright <em>My Bondage and My Freedom</em> is Frederick Douglass's most accomplished rendering of his life on literary and philosophical terms. It is also his most acutely romanticist and 'transcendental autobiography'...can provide yet another chance for us readers to think more closely with a dedicated thinking man about how we might grapple with the complexly interwoven meanings of his life and our own. -- <em>Review</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><em>My Bondage and My Freedom</em>, by <strong>Frederick Douglass</strong>, is part of the <em>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics</em><em> </em>series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of <em>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics</em>: </p><ul><li>     All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. <em>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics </em>pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. </li></ul><p>Born a slave, <strong>Frederick Douglas</strong> educated himself, escaped, and became one of the greatest social leaders in American history. Although usually identified with the monumental <em>Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave</em>, Douglass produced two additional autobiographies, the second of which he called <em>My Bondage and My Freedom</em>.   </p><p>A richer, deeper, and far more ambiguous work than the earlier <em>Narrative</em>, <em>My Bondage and My Freedom</em> reveals Douglass’s increased intellectual sophistication and maturity. In the decade that had elapsed since Douglass wrote_ Narrative_, he had broken away from his antislavery mentors, successfully toured England, and established himself as an inspired speaker and writer. With the publication of <em>My Bondage and My Freedom</em> in 1855, Douglass became the country’s foremost spokesman for American blacks—free and enslaved—during the tense and politically charged years preceding the Civil War.  </p><p>One of the highlights of <em>My Bondage and My Freedom</em> is the appendix, which contains excerpts from several of Douglass’s speeches, including perhaps his most famous, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”  </p><p><strong>Brent Hayes Edwards</strong> is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Rutgers University. He is the author of <em>The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism</em> (Harvard University Press, 2003) and of numerous articles on twentieth-century African-American literature, contemporary poetry, Francophone Caribbean literature, surrealism, and jazz. </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The subtitle of this monumental collection refers to the home (Lookout Farm) that Hemingway owned in Cuba from 1939 to 1959. That time frame accounts for most of the short fiction, published and unpublished, that followed the major collection issued in 1938, The First Forty-Nine. There are 60 stories in all. Of the 21 not included in the 1938 collection, the seven heretofore unpublished pieces will interest readers most. Three are especially good. "A Train Trip" and "The Porter" are self-contained excerpts from an abandoned novel that match in tone and appeal the early Hemingway work in which he explored the adolescent sensibility exposed to an adult world that is exciting but at the same time threatening and morally complex. Drawing from the author's experiences in Europe during World War II, "Black Ass at the Crossroads" is excellent in its detailing of violent action, portraying an ambush of German soldiers from the point of view of an American infantry officer, depressed and angry over the suffering he has inflicted in the course of battle. The other previously unpublished pieces include a Spanish Civil War story reminiscent of Hemingway's play, The Fifth Column; two quite touching stories about a father's disappointments with a troubled son; and a long section comprising four chapters from an early version of the novel, Islands in the Stream. Intrinsically readable, the collection is also significant in drawing together much that was unavailable or difficult to access. <br />Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>A thoughtfully arranged, comprehensive edition of Hemingway's short fiction justifies publication. This is not it. At best, it offers convenience rather than creativity or even completeness: it omits five stories published two years ago. It reprints the "the first 49" stories (1938), adds 14 subsequently published, and appends seven hitherto unpublished. What is lacking is a fresh reordering of the storiesthematic, chronological, or stylistic. Further, three of the unpublished pieces are not stories but excerpts from novels. None of the new material is artistically significant. Yet each bears the hallmark of Hemingway's geniuswhich will survive even this. Arthur Waldhorn, City Coll., <br />Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The Souls of Black Folk, by W. E. B. Du Bois,is part of the Barnes &amp; Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes &amp; Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices &amp; Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes &amp; Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.One of the most influential books ever published in America, W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk is an eloquent collection of fourteen essays that describe the life, the ambitions, the struggles, and the passions of African Americans at the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist whose astounding career spanned the nation’s history from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. In The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, Du Bois argued against the conciliatory position taken by Booker T. Washington, at the time the most influential black leader in America, and called for a more radical form of aggressive protest—a strategy that would anticipate and inspire much of the activism of the 1960s. Du Bois’s essays were the first to articulate many of Black America’s thoughts and feelings, including the dilemma posed by the black psyche’s “double consciousness,” which Du Bois described as “this twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings . . . in one dark body.” Every essay in The Souls of Black Folk is a jewel of intellectual prowess, eloquent language, and groundbreaking insight. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the struggle for Civil Rights in America.Farah Jasmine Griffin is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York City.</p>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "><div><i>The Bostonians</i>, by <b>Henry James</b>, is part of the <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics</i><i> </i>series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics</i>:<div><ul type="disc" style="list-style-type: disc; margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 20px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 20px; "></ul>All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics </i>pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.</div></div><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">Nearly a century before the birth of the contemporary feminist movement, <b>Henry James</b> dealt with its nineteenth-century forerunner in <i>The Bostonians.</i> Mixing acute social observation and psychological analysis with mordant humor, James hangs his story on a unique instance of the traditional romantic triangle. At its apex stands the vibrantly beautiful Verena Tarrant, an intense public speaker who arouses the passions of two very different people. Olive Chancellor, a Boston-bred suffragette, dreams of turning Verena into a fiery campaigner for women’s rights. Basil Ransom, a Mississippi-bred lawyer, dreams of turning her into his wife. As these two struggle for possession of Verena’s soul—and body—their confusions, crises, and conflicts begin almost preternaturally to prefigure today’s sexual politics. In fact, James’s complex portrait of Olive and her ideals, savagely satirical yet sympathetic and so controversial when it first appeared, continues to evoke both anger and admiration. But he treats Verena and Basil with equal complexity, climaxed by the novel’s quietly haunting final sentence.<br></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><b>Siri Hustvedt</b> earned a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University in 1986 and is the author of a book of poetry, <i>Reading to You;</i> three novels: <i>The Blindfold, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl,</i> and <i>What I Loved;</i> and a book of essays,<i>Yonder</i>.</p></span></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction, by Kate Chopin, is part of the Barnes &amp; Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes &amp; Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices &amp; Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes &amp; Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. When it first appeared in 1899, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was greeted with cries of outrage. The novel’s frank portrayal of a woman’s emotional, intellectual, and sexual awakening shocked the sensibilities of the time and destroyed the author’s reputation and career. Many years passed before this short, pioneering work was recognized as a major achievement in American literature. Set in and around New Orleans, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother who, determined to control her own life, flouts convention by moving out of her husband’s house, having an adulterous affair, and becoming an artist.Beautifully written, with sensuous imagery and vivid local descriptions, The Awakening has lost none of its power to provoke and inspire. Additionally, this edition includes thirteen of Kate Chopin’s magnificent short stories. Stories Included in the Volume:The AwakeningEmancipation: A Life FableA Shameful AffairAt the ‘Cadian BallDésirée’s BabyA Gentleman of Bayou TêcheA Respectable WomanThe Story of an HourAthénaïseA Pair of Silk StockingsElizabeth Stock’s One StoryThe StormThe GodmotherA Little Country Girl  Rachel Adams teaches nineteenth and twentieth-century American literature at Columbia University.</p>


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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "><h3 class="productDescriptionSource" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.23em; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.375em; margin-left: -15px; clear: both; ">Product Description</h3><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; "><div><div><div><i>The Deerslayer</i>, by <b>James Fenimore Cooper</b>, is part of the <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics</i><i> </i>series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics</i>:<div><ul type="disc" style="list-style-type: disc; margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 20px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 20px; "></ul>All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics </i>pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.</div></div></div><div> </div><div>“Live by your own council. Be brave in the face of the unknown. Be always fair.”<br>-Natty Bumppo, <i>The Deerslayer</i><br><br>One of the greatest heroes in American literature, Natty Bumppo is the rugged frontiersman of <b>James Fenimore Cooper</b>’s <i>Leatherstocking Tales</i>, a series of five novels that includes <i>The Last of the Mohicans</i> and <i>The Deerslayer</i>. Although the final volume to be written, <i>The Deerslayer</i> is the first in the chronology of Natty Bumppo’s life, depicting the character as a young man testing himself in the wilderness, and against enemies, for the first time.<br><br>Set in the 1740’s just as the French and Indian wars have begun, the novel opens as Natty Bumppo—known as Deerslayer—and his friend Hurry Harry travel to Tom Hutter’s house in upstate New York. Hurry plans to marry Tom’s beautiful daughter Judith, while Deerslayer has come to help his close friend Chingachgook save his bride-to-be, Wah-ta-Wah, from the Huron Indians. When war breaks out, and Hurry and Tom are captured by Indians, Deerslayer must go on his first warpath to rescue them.<br><br>One of the earliest novels to be considered truly “American," <i>The Deerslayer</i> is a masterpiece of suspense, adventure, and romance.</div><div> </div><div><div><b>Bruce L. R. Smith</b> is a fellow at the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University. He is the author or editor of sixteen scholarly books, and he continues to lecture widely in the United States and abroad.</div></div></div><div><br></div><div class="emptyClear" style="clear: both; height: 0px; font-size: 0px; "></div></div></span></div>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "><h3 class="productDescriptionSource" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.23em; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.375em; margin-left: -15px; clear: both; ">Product Description</h3><div class="productDescriptionWrapper" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; "><div><div><i>The Virginian</i>, by <b>Owen Wister</b>, is part of the <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics</i><i> </i>series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics</i>:<div><ul type="disc" style="list-style-type: disc; margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 20px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 20px; "></ul>All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. <i>Barnes &amp; Noble Classics </i>pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.</div></div><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">The western is one of America’s most important and influential contributions to world culture. And it was <b>Owen Wister</b>’s <i>The Virginian</i>, first published in 1902, that created the familiar archetypes of character, setting, and action that still dominate western fiction and film.  </p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><i>The Virginian</i>'s characters include: The hero, tall, taciturn, and unflappable, confident in his skills, careful of his honor, mysterious in his background; the heroine, the “schoolmarm from the East,” dedicated to civilizing the untamed town, but willing to adapt to its ways—up to a point; and the villain, who is a liar, a thief, a killer, and worst of all, a coward beneath his bluster. Its setting—the lonely small town in the midst of the vast, empty, dangerous but overwhelmingly beautiful landscape—plays so crucial a role that it may be regarded as one of the primary characters. And its action—the cattle roundup, the capture of the rustlers, the agonizing moral choices demanded by “western justice,” and the climactic shoot-out between hero and villain—shaped the plots of the thousands of books and movies that followed.</p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "> </p><div><b>John G. Cawelti</b> has published ten books, including <i>Apostles of the Self-Made Man</i>, <i>Adventure</i>, <i>Mystery and Romance</i>, <u>The Spy Story</u>, <i>Leon Forrest: Introductions and Interpretations</i>, and <i>The Six-Gun Mystique Sequel</i>. He has also published about seventy essays in the fields of American literature, cultural history, and popular culture, and has made oral presentations at more than one hundred universities and scholarly conferences.</div></div></div></span></div>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. This sprawling first biography of the writer Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) complements an exemplary account of the man and his milieu with a history of 20th-century architecture, film, philosophy, visual art and political activism—not to mention a stunning exegesis of Barthelme's work and a surfeit of vignettes from New York literary life in the 1960s and '70s. Daugherty, a professor of English and creative writing at Oregon State and former student of Barthelme, renders the writer of <em>The Dead Father</em> in all his complexity: the experimental iconoclast, the establishment figure without a university degree who published more than 100 stories in the <em>New Yorker</em>, the citizen-activist, admitted alcoholic, the devoted if distant father and the prankster on the page. While Daugherty firmly takes Barthelme's side in his four troubled marriages, he assesses the writer's legacy, his champions and detractors (e.g., Joyce Carol Oates, John Gardner and the hundreds of readers who canceled their <em>New Yorker</em> subscriptions in 1968 to protest the publication of his catty <em>Snow White</em>). Like Barthelme's best stories, this unapologetically literary and ambitious book is cultural and artistic bricolage at its finest. 16 pages of b&amp;w photos. <em>(Feb.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Critics unanimously applaud Daugherty for the first comprehensive, analytical biography of his former teacher. <em>The Oregonian</em> calls <em>Hiding Man</em> a "remarkably tender, sympathetic treatment" of Barthelme, and while Daugherty may have given Barthelme a glowing biography, he doesn't downplay his more negative traits. The book also does an excellent job of connecting the writer to his literary and social context. The Oregonian notes that while Barthelme can be difficult to read, "in Daugherty's hands the stories seem not nearly as challenging as they are inviting," a point echoed by the <em>Washington Post. </em>Readers interested in Barthelme will find an informative, entertaining biography; readers unacquainted with this postmodern giant may wish to start with one of his short story collections.Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC </p>


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<h3>From</h3><p>In his first novel, Taylor, a retired Delta Force commander, introduces Pike Logan, a member of a supersecret, off-the-grid unit of commandos authorized to work outside the law. Logan was the star of the team, called the Taskforce, until a personal tragedy left him unable to work and nearly destitute. A chance encounter with a woman puts him back in the game, however, and he discovers how much he missed the action. Working without the help of his former team, he attempts to track two rogue terrorists in possession of a powerful weapon. Unfortunately, the enemy’s agenda is vast, and their resources give them easy access to Logan and his former team. Taylor’s debut flows like the best of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. An intense and intriguing character, Logan is definitely an action hero to watch. --Jeff Ayers </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>Vince Flynn and Brad Thor, move over: introducing a pulse-pounding new international thriller series by a former Delta Force commander. </strong>   </p><p>They call it the Taskforce. Their existence is as essential as it is illegal. Commissioned at the highest level of the U.S. government. Protected from the prying eyes of Congress and the media. Built around the top operators from across the clandestine, intelligence, and special forces landscape. Designed to operate outside the bounds of U.S. law. Trained to exist on the ragged edge of human capability.   </p><p>Pike Logan was the most successful operator on the Taskforce, his instincts and talents unrivaled-until personal tragedy permanently altered his outlook on the world. Pike knows what the rest of the country might not want to admit: The real threat isn't from any nation, any government, any terrorist group. The real threat is one or two men, controlled by ideology, operating independently, in possession of a powerful weapon.   </p><p>Buried in a stack of intercepted chatter is evidence of two such men. The transcripts are scheduled for analysis in three months. The attack is mere days away. It is their bad luck that they're about to cross paths with Pike Logan. And Pike Logan has nothing left to lose. </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Eric Schlosser has visited the state of the art labs where scientists recreate the flavours and smells of everything from cooked chicken to fresh strawberries in the test tube and he has spoken to workers at meatpacking plants with some of the worstsafety records in the world. He explores the links between Hollywood and the fast food trade, and the tactics used to target ever younger consumers. In a meticulously researched and powerfully argued account, Fast Food Nation reveals the full price of our appetite for instant gratification.</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>John Berendt's <em>Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil</em> has been heralded as a "lyrical work of nonfiction," and the book's extremely graceful prose depictions of some of Savannah, Georgia's most colorful eccentrics--remarkable characters who could have once prospered in a William Faulkner novel or Eudora Welty short story--were certainly a critical factor in its tremendous success. (One resident into whose orbit Berendt fell, the Lady Chablis, went on to become a minor celebrity in her own right.) But equally important was Berendt's depiction of Savannah socialite Jim Williams as he stands trial for the murder of Danny Hansford, a moody, violence-prone hustler--and sometime companion to Williams--characterized by locals as a "walking streak of sex." So feel free to call it a "true crime classic" without a trace of shame. </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>After discovering in the early 1980s that a super-saver fare to Savannah, Ga., cost the same as an entree in a nouvelle Manhattan restaurant, Esquire columnist Berendt spent the next eight years flitting between Savannah and New York City. The result is this collection of smart, sympathetic observations about his colorful Southern neighbors, including a jazz-playing real estate shark; a sexually adventurous art student; the Lady Chablis (' "What was your name before that?" I asked. "Frank," she said.' "); the gossipy Married Woman's Card Club; and an assortment of aging Southern belles. The book is also about the wealthy international antiques dealer Jim Williams, who played an active role in the historic city's restoration--and would also be tried four times for the 1981 shooting death of 21-year-old Danny Handsford, his high-energy, self-destructive house helper. The Williams trials--he died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 59--are lively matches between dueling attorneys fought with shifting evidence, and they serve as both theme and anchor to Berendt's illuminating and captivating travelogue. <br />Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Portes's chilling debut tracks a 13-year-old Nebraska girl's hard-going life on the road. Young Luli knows losers—her "aging Brigitte Bardot" mother, Tammy, and her father, Nick, go at each other every night at the Alibi, the watering hole in hometown Palmyra, Neb. Tammy runs away one morning, and Nick soon follows, leaving Luli alone at home with the Smith and Wesson .45 her Uncle Nipper gave her. Pistol in tow, she hitches rides heading west to Vegas. A crooked man (literally; he "looks like an italic," says smart-alecky Luli) named Eddie picks her up briefly before throwing her out of the car. Next comes cocaine-snorting grifter Glenda, who enlists Luli as an accessory to a robbery that goes awry. Glenda takes Luli under her wing. The two cross paths again with Eddie, who rapes Luli and ties her up in a secluded motel. Glenda comes to her rescue, but the confrontation with Eddie ends badly. Luli's flippant narration makes for a love-it or hate-it read. <em>(May)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Though its first-person narrating voice is fast-paced, powerful and unquestionably authentic, Hick is a debut novel. Beyond this voice, what makes the book so extraordinary is that, although all of the worst things imaginable do befall this 13-year-old girl, she is never defeated by them. Luli always fights back; she always resurfaces. Set as a coming-of-age novel, Hick tracks the real perils that modern teenagers so often face. And it does so with bright wit, energy, and an indomitable spirit. This is a book that will grab the reader from the first page and not let go. And it is written by a woman who is becoming a cultural force in the hippest parts of Los Angeles. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Bestseller Folsom's improbable sequel to his equally improbable <em>The Machiavelli Covenant</em> (2006) takes ex-LAPD detective Nicholas Marten, who's trying to create a new life for himself as a landscape architect in England, to Equatorial Guinea, at the behest of the U.S. president, John Henry Harris, who became his confidante in the previous book. In a village on the island of Bioko, Marten meets Willy Dorhn, a 78-year-old German-born priest, who shows him photos of rebels being armed by members of a U.S. security firm hired to protect American oil workers. Soon after, soldiers who serve the impoverished country's brutal dictator attack the village, leaving Dorhn dead and Marten a fugitive. Marten's efforts to report what he's learned to people he can trust lead him to Germany and Portugal. Readers expecting a nuanced look at corruption in sub-Saharan Africa in the vein of John le Carré's <em>The Constant Gardener</em> will be disappointed. <em>(Nov.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“Folsom sets a frenetic pace from the start . . . reading this book is like watching <em>24</em>.” —_The Tampa Tribune_</p><p>“High impact thriller writing with an almost visceral impact.”—_Publishers Weekly_  </p><p>“More twists and turns than a strand of DNA.”—William Peter Blatty, <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of <em>Dimiter </em></p>

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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Truman Capote is the most perfect writer of my generation."<br />–NORMAN MAILER </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Published when Truman Capote was only twenty-three years old, <em>Other Voices, Other Rooms</em> is a literary touchstone of the mid-twentieth century. In this semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel, thirteen-year-old Joel Knox, after losing his mother, is sent from New Orleans to live with the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at Skully’s Landing, the decaying mansion in rural Alabama, his father is nowhere to be found. Instead, Joel meets his morose stepmother, Amy, eccentric cousin Randolph, and a defiant little girl named Idabel, who soon offers Joel the love and approval he seeks.  </p><p>Fueled by a world-weariness that belied Capote’s tender age, this novel tempers its themes of waylaid hopes and lost innocence with an appreciation for small pleasures and the colorful language of its time and place.  </p><p>This new edition, featuring an enlightening Introduction by John Berendt, offers readers a fresh look at Capote’s emerging brilliance as a writer of protean power and effortless grace. </p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Bring The Classics To Life Series - Reading Level 5.0-6.0 This novel has been adapted into 10 short reading chapters. Ages 7+ and English Language Learners of all ages. 8.5""x11"" ""worktext"". Abridged with excersice acitivities built in along with answer keys. </p><h3>From</h3><p>This science fiction classic needs a "big screen," even on audio. The dazzling music, sound and special effects bring the listener to the pulsing, eerie center of the machine-dominated year 2027. With earphones the listener wants more space to hear and experience the fanatsy and eerie reality. Metropolis, a Hugo Award-winner, is best known as the 1930's film prophesying the decay of humanism and self-control. Ziggurat has gone back to the original novel and adapted it to a spectacular radio play. A cast of at least a dozen actors contributes voices of varying ages and styles. The program rivets the listener. This program belongs with Welles's War of the Worlds and other well-loved futurist classics. R.F.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Make-or-break decisions involving millions of dollars are all in a day’s work for Christian Gillette, chairman of Everest Capital, New York’s most renowned private equity firm. He’s taken on the toughest, most powerful, and often most dangerous adversaries and prevailed–all the while honing his skill for being cool under fire, literally. But now Gillette will be put to the ultimate test. He’s offered the chance to seal a deal unlike any other, one that goes beyond boardrooms, balance sheets, and even Everest itself–one that will leave its mark on history.Gillette is no stranger to Jesse Wood, the first African American president of the United States, having been Wood’s chosen running mate in his historic bid for the White House. Though still slightly upset over being dropped from the ticket at the eleventh hour, Gillette’s not about to ignore the chief executive’s summons to a top-secret meeting at Camp David. There, Wood drops a bombshell: The president of Cuba is dead. Cuba’s communist regime has kept the dictator’s demise hush while it races to fill the power vacuum. And the United States is poised to support a cabal of Cuban professionals plotting a coup. The President wants Gillette to meet with the conspirators and size up the chances for a successful capitalist revolution. But by no means can his mission be traced back to the White House. If anything goes wrong, Gillette is on his own.And if certain people have their way, something will go wrong. For the conspiracy to liberate Cuba isn’t the only one afoot. Enemies in high places, who will go to any lengths to wreak revenge on Gillette and to unseat President Wood, have set in motion a campaign of deception, sabotage, and murder whose shockwaves will resonate from the streets of Havana to the Oval Office. But for Gillette, who has just named his alluring and ambitious protégé, Allison Wallace, as his successor at Everest, the greatest peril may lie much closer to home.The Successor is blue-chip Stephen Frey, marshaling his flawless instincts for edgy, provocative, breathtaking suspense with a master’s touch.</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Murder, global conspiracy, treason, blackmail, sexual infidelity and perversity propel bestseller Frey's entertaining, if highly implausible, third financial thriller starring Christian Gillette (after 2005's <em>The Protégé</em>). Christian, the CEO of Everest Capital, a hugely successful Manhattan-based investment firm, faces a host of adversaries, chief among them the Order, a secret society made up of nine white American businessmen and government leaders whose predecessors have been manipulating financial and historical events since the society's inception in 1839. Led by Jackson Prescott Hewitt, chairman of U.S. Oil, the Order fears that America is falling under the control of minorities whose agendas include statehood for Puerto Rico and Mexico and the election of the nation's first African-American president. Christian comes to the attention of this cabal and, aided by series regulars Allison Wallace and Quentin Stiles, is soon fighting for his very life. The action roars along like a small tsunami, sweeping logic aside and carrying aloft those readers willing to suspend a substantial amount of disbelief. <em>(July)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Christian Gillette, chairman of the largest private equity fund in the country, is poised for even greater things when he becomes the running mate for the Democratic presidential candidate. Although his late father was a Republican senator, Gillette shirked politics in favor of adventure, but being part of a history-making ticket (the presidential candidate is African American) qualifies as adventure. But someone is out to get him. Could it be his managing partner? Or is there really a conservative secret society determined to discredit the Democrats? Although veteran thriller author Frey gives in to some over-the-top plot elements, he still manages to generate enough tension to please action-oriented thriller fans. <em>Mary Frances Wilkens</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p><em></em>_An original adventure featuring Jedi Kerra Holt—star of the hot new Dark Horse <em>Knight Errant</em> comic series_  </p><p>A thousand years before Luke Skywalker, a generation before Darth Bane, in a galaxy far, far away . . . <br /> <em></em><br />The Republic is in crisis. The Sith roam unchecked, vying with one another to dominate the galaxy. But one lone Jedi, Kerra Holt, is determined to take down the Dark Lords. Her enemies are strange and many: Lord Daiman, who imagines himself the creator of the universe; Lord Odion, who intends to be its destroyer; the curious siblings Quillan and Dromika; the enigmatic Arkadia. So many warring Sith weaving a patchwork of brutality—with only Kerra Holt to defend the innocents caught underfoot.  </p><p>Sensing a sinister pattern in the chaos, Kerra embarks on a journey that will take her into fierce battles against even fiercer enemies. With one against so many, her only chance of success lies with forging alliances among those who serve her enemies—including a mysterious Sith spy and a clever mercenary general. But will they be her adversaries or her salvation?  </p><p><strong> Includes a special, full-color excerpt from the Dark Horse comic <em>Star Wars: Knight Errant</em></strong></p><h3>From the Author</h3><p><strong><em>Knight Errant</em></strong> follows Kerra Holt, a young Jedi operating in Sith space during a time in which the Republic and Jedi Order have largely abandoned many systems to their fates. The Outer Rim is a crazy-quilt patchwork of mini-empires controlled still crazier Sith Lords, all of whom have their own deranged spins on Sith philosophy and a healthy hatred for their rivals. Hiding among the enslaved citizens, Kerra sees Sith madness up-close -- and acts. But how much can a Jedi alone do -- and can she really trust anyone at all?  </p><p>Kerra Holt also appears in <em>Knight Errant</em> comics from Dark Horse, but the novel stands alone, providing an easy entry into this tumultuous era in <em>Star Wars</em> history. Depicting a time 1,000 years before <em>Episode I</em> and a place where Sith rule is near-absolute, <em>Knight Errant</em> asks its heroine what it means to be a Jedi when hope is nearly gone. </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Portnoy's Complaint n. [after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: 'Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient's "morality," however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.' (Spielvogel, O. "The Puzzled Penis," Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.With a new Afterword by the author for the 25th Anniversary edition.</p>


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At the dawn of civilization ...An exotic stranger appears in a Mesopotamian village and is venerated as a goddess ...until she unleashes a horror beyond anything humankind has ever known. At the sunset of civilization ...A mercenary unit in northern Iraq, led by Sergeant Jason Yaeger, has trapped radical Islam's most wanted target in a mysterious cave that sits at the heart of the Genesis story. When a Marine platoon seeks to control the extraction mission, a threat far more ominous is found lurking beneath the mountains. Meanwhile in Boston, Massachusetts, Agent Thomas Flaherty helps archaeologist Brooke Thompson escape assassination by a Las Vegas televangelist intent on using the cave's deepest secret to bring the Middle East to its knees.


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>A band of war-weary soldiers have uncovered a plot that may tear the very fabric of reality forever. To save their own lives and to prevent a long-banished race of monsters from unleashing an army of horrors upon the waking world, they must reach the very heart of Dal Quor. To stop the cataclysm in time, they must fight their way to .  "From the Paperback edition."</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The second book in the series written by Eberron creator Keith Baker.Author Keith Baker+s proposal for the exciting world of Eberron was chosen from 11,000 submissions, and he is the co-author of the Eberron Campaign Setting, the RPG product that launched the setting. This is the sixth book in the Eberron line of novels. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>Keith Baker</strong> is a freelance writer and game designer. In 2003 his proposal for the world of <strong>Eberron</strong> was selected as the winner in the Wizards of the Coast fantasy setting search.</p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The City of Towers launches a brand new novel line set in the world of Eberron, Wizards of the Coast’s newest D&amp;D&amp;#174; campaign setting.  Author Keith Baker’s proposal for the exciting world of Eberron was chosen from 11,000 submissions, and he is the co-author of the Eberron Campaign Setting, the RPG product that launched the setting. The Eberron world will continue to grow through new roleplaying game products, novels, miniatures, and electronic games.  AUTHOR BIO: Keith Baker is a freelance writer and game designer. In 2003 his proposal for the world of Eberron was selected as the winner in the Wizards of the Coast fantasy setting search. "From the Paperback edition."</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>There, in Russia five years ago, when Cuba had been taken out of the oven to cool and Vietnam was still coming to a simmer, Bech did find a quality of life impoverished yet ceremonial, shabby yet ornate, sentimental, embattled, and avuncularreminiscent of his neglected Jewish past.In these two short stories, Updikes brilliant observational acuity is matched by a light, comic touch. The writer Henry Bech travels to Europe on a hapless cultural exchange, first to Russia, where he struggles to spend his money when everything from his meals to his bugged hotel room is already paid for, and then to Rumania.This book includes Rich In Russia, Foreword, Bech in Rumania, Appendix A and Appendix B.</p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>In the seventh book in the bestselling series, evil scientists are still trying to convince Max that she needs to save the world, this time by providing the genetic link in speeding up the pace of evolution. Worse, they're trying to convince her that her perfect mate is Dylan, the newest addition to the flock. The problem is that, despite herself, Max is starting to <em>believe</em> it.   </p><p>Fang travels the country collecting his own gang of evolved humans, but the two separate flocks must unite to defeat a frightening doomsday cult whose motto is <strong><em>Save the Planet: Kill the Humans. </em></strong>And this time, the true heroine, for once, might just be little Angel. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>James Patterson is the author of the highly praised Maximum Ride novels, <em>Witch &amp; Wizard</em>, the Daniel X series, and of bestselling detective series featuring Alex Cross and the Women's Murder Club. His novels have sold more than 180 million copies worldwide. In 2009 and 2010 he was nominated for the Children's Choice Award for Author of the Year. He lives in Florida.  </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This new volume of autobiographical writings (never before translated into English) by Calvino, whose short stories and novels gave him international acclaim as one of the 20th century's most important Italian fiction writers, is a welcome addition to his extensive works as well as to The Road to San Giovanni, a posthumous collection of autobiographical essays published more than a decade ago. This volume includes a series of articles and interviews that builds on the understanding of Calvino's life after World War II when he returned to Italy from the Communist resistance in the Alps, a period when Calvino felt a "moment of uncertainty" and a "perplexity about" his vocation as a writer before producing his first novel, The Cloven Viscount. The articles also feature Calvino's views on some of his most popular novels: "In the United States... the book of mine that became a hit was the one that you would have said was the furthest from American reading habits: Invisible Cities." But it is Calvino's lifelong fascination with America that makes this collection remarkable: more than half the book is given to an "American Diary 1959-1960," written during Calvino's two years traveling in the U.S., as he explores New York's thriving Greenwich Village and Actors Studio; a "violent, tough" Chicago; San Francisco's "squalid and filthy" beatnik scene; and Montgomery, Ala., where Calvino (who died in 1985) finds himself "in the middle" of "crucial days of struggle" of the Civil Rights movement. His diary reveals an obsession with what he later says most interests him as a writer: "daily life as the constant nourishment for writing." <br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Posthumous writings from Calvino. <br />Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is part of the Barnes &amp; Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes &amp; Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices &amp; Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes &amp; Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. If the “Roaring Twenties” are remembered as the era of“flaming youth,” it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who lit the fire. His semi-autobiographical first novel, This Side of Paradise, became an instant best-seller and established an image of seemingly carefree, party-mad young men and women out to create a new morality for a new, post-war America. It traces the early life of Amory Blaine from the end of prep school through Princeton to the start of an uncertain career in New York City.Alternately self-confident and self-effacing, torn between ambition and idleness, the self-absorbed, immature Amory yearns to run with Princeton’s rich, fast crowd and become one of the “gods” of the campus. Hopelessly romantic, he learns about love and sex from a series of beautiful young “flappers,” women who leave him both exhilarated and devastated. Fitzgerald describes it all in intensely lyrical prose that fills the novel with a heartbreaking sense of longing, as Amory comes to understand that the sweet-scented springtime of his life is fragile and fleeting, disappearing into memory even as he reaches for it. Sharon G. Carson is Professor Emerita in the English Department at Kent State University, where she has taught for thirty-five years. She is the author of numerous articles and essays on modern and contemporary fiction.</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The battle for the kingdom of goblins reaches its peak!  </p><p>Geth and his allies have fled the city of Rhukaan Draal, after failing to dethrone Lhesh Tariic, and reach out to the Kech Volaar for help. There they seek information on how to destroy the enigmatic Rod of Kings by searching for the secret doom of a third goblin artifact, the Shield of Nobles. Meanwhile, imprisoned, Ashi d’Deneith seeks a chink in Tariic’s armor.   </p><p>The exciting conclusion to the Legacy of Dhakaan! </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The horror of war, the thrill of adventure, the magic of <strong>Eberron</strong>®  </p><p>While trying to find the assassin who killed the Emperor of Dhakaan, the heroes launch a plan to keep the Rod of Kings out of the hands of his unstable successor. To do so, they must stay one step ahead of political factions; thwart a murderous new cult leader and her lackey, hellbent on killing the heroes; and prevent full-scale war with the Five Nations.<em></em><br><em></em></p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The return of the shifter Geth!  </p><p>In the wake of the Last War, a new king has risen and seeks to unite the newly formed goblin kingdom of Darguun under his rule. He seeks an ancient scepter, a symbol under which to unite his people and hires Geth, a shifter who owns one of the trio of artifacts to which the scepter once belonged, to find it. But will the artifact do what the Darguul king needs it to? </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Don Bassingthwaite is the author of numerous fantasy and dark fantasy novels. His latest books are <em>The Yellow Silk</em>, <em>Mistress of the Night</em> (co-authored with Dave Gross), and the books of The Dragon Below trilogy: <em>The Binding Stone</em>, <em>The Grieving Tree</em>, and <em>The Killing Song</em>. He lives in Toronto. </p>

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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>If you start your novel with a terminally ill child and a last-chance herbal remedy, chances are you've got a story. If you have the terminally ill child survive a car accident and become lost in the remote West Virginia woods you've got some stressful reading. If, for kicks, you put a psychopathic murderer in the woods, you've got Diane Chamberlain's nail-biting drama <em>The Courage Tree</em>. Sophie Donohue is the wise-beyond-her-years child. Janine is the mother wolf who courageously admits her child into the clinical trial of a new medicine against the advice of her ex-husband, Joe, and her cynical parents. Lucas Trowell is the <em>literally</em> tree-hugging love interest who supports Janine. Chamberlain knows how to place her characters in internal and external conflicts, and there are rich subplots for each character, though the abundance and timing of them can detract from the central drama. Even with its faults, <em>The Courage Tree</em> will lure you in and keep you reading late into the night._--Nancy R.E. O'Brien_</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>A race against time to find a sick child lost in the West Virginia wilderness keeps pages turning in this suspenseful family drama by former psychotherapist Chamberlain (Breaking the Silence). Janine Donohue lives with her eight-year-old daughter, Sophie, on the Ayr Creek estate in Vienna, W.Va., a horticultural reserve operated by the descendants of the original owner. Janine's parents live in the main house, while Janine, a former Army Reserve helicopter pilot, and Sophie, who suffers from renal failure, live in the guesthouse. Despite resistance from her parents and ex-husband, Joe, Sophie is being treated with a new alternative herbal therapy, Herbalina, at the suggestion of estate horticulturist Lucas Trowell. The promising results have allowed Sophie to accompany her Brownie troop on a weekend camping trip. Joe blames Janine for Sophie's illness, believing it is a result of Gulf War syndrome, and disapproves of Sophie's trip. Sophie, her friend Holly and troop leader Allison travel in a separate car on the return journey, then an accident kills Holly and Allison. When the three don't arrive back with the rest of the troop, the police begin to search the dense West Virginia woods. Dazed, scared and weak without her medicine, Sophie manages to make it to a dilapidated cabin, where aging film star Zoe is hiding out. Zoe is awaiting the arrival of her daughter Marti, on the lam after a jailbreak, and Zoe is prepared to do anything to ensure her daughter's safety after many years of neglect. Meanwhile, Janine's parents and Joe suspect Lucas of foul play. Despite some cramped characterizations and too many narrative trails converging at once, this page turner will please those who like their stories with as many twists and turns as a mountain road. Multicity author tour. (Feb.) <br />Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


