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Five lost souls in search of redemption . . .To outsiders it looks as if Mary was born unlucky, but deep down she believes in a happy ending. She just needs someone to remind her.And Sam looks like a waster and a disappointment the man who had it all and then threw it all away. He needs a fresh start.Penny is the life and soul of every party. Shes also a drunk and some would say a home wrecker. She needs someone to understand her.Ivans a sucker a man who still cares about the woman who broke his heart and took his children from him. He needs to be brave.And Adam is in a loveless marriage and cheating on his wife, though only he knows why he married the wrong woman. He needs a wake-up call.For these five souls change is going to come, and, when it does, they all get more than they bargained for.


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Tyler makes things look so easy that she never gets enough credit, yet she portrays everyday Americans with such humor, grace and, ultimately, emotional force that her books are always deeply satisfying. In <strong>Saint Maybe</strong> her protagonist Ian Bedloe, stricken with guilt over the death of his older brother, raises three children unrelated to him by blood. He is strengthened in this Herculean task by the storefront Church of the Second Chance, to which he devotes himself with equal fervor. Someone once said all great writers are comic writers. Among living Americans, Tyler is exhibit A. </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Although Tyler ( Breathing Lessons ; Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant ) is again writing about families--the way they cleave together in times of trouble and muddle through with stoic courage--her eminently satisfying new novel breaks her familiar mold, giving us ordinary, not eccentric characters who are shaped by disastrous events into quietly heroic behavior. The Bedloes are cheerful and count their blessings, even if they are far from rich and live on a slightly seedy street in Baltimore. But when 17-year-old Ian rashly informs his older brother Dan that the latter's wife was undoubtedly pregnant before their marriage, Dan commits suicide, and Ian is left with profound guilt--especially since Dan's wife dies soon after. Asking God's forgiveness, he receives spiritual guidance at the endearingly shabby Church of the Second Chance. He drops out of college, becomes a carpenter and helps his parents care for the three orphaned children; as the years pass, that burden falls primarily on Ian's shoulders. Wondering when God will signal that his atonement can end, Ian has an epiphany: "You could never call it a penance, to have to care for those three." Ian eventually does construct a life for himself, in one of Tyler's most appealing endings. The narrative also enjoys her whimsical humor (although the group role of the "foreigners" who live in the neighborhood verges on caricature). Since her characters' foibles never overwhelm their homespun simplicity, the reader is emotionally involved and touched as never before. 250,000 first printing; BOMC main selection; first serial to the New Yorker. <br>Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore</em>, Hale’s linguistic talent locks the reader into their seat and sends them ticking up the roller coaster ride of Bruno Littlemore’s life. An unlikely narrator, Bruno is a chimpanzee trying to become a man--a process he sees as “equal parts enlightenment and imprinting your brain with taboos.” Bruno acquires a fervent love of language--and of primatologist Lydia Littlemore, with whom he develops a deep (and, yes, sexual) relationship until she falls ill. Comic relief comes in the form of Leon, a boisterous subway thespian, who introduces Bruno to the stage shortly before a murderous transgression results in Bruno’s return to captivity. With <em>Bruno Littlemore</em>, Hale has crafted a truly original narrator, holding a mirror on humanity with a razor-like precision that makes this stunning novel one readers will want to discuss the minute they turn the last page._--Seira Wilson_</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>An enlightened chimp goes on the wildest adventure since Every Which Way but Loose in Hale's mischievous debut. Bruno Littlemore, the narrator chimp, eventually lands in a research lab at the University of Chicago, where he falls in love with Dr. Lydia Littlemore, who, shortly after hearing Bruno speak his name, takes him first to her apartment (sex is had, much later) and later to the quietude of a Colorado ranch owned by a couple of odd animal rights advocates. It is in this environment that Bruno becomes a fully articulate and artistic being, but the idyll does not last: Lydia falls ill, and Bruno is captured, escapes, ends up in New York City, and befriends a dreamer named Leon with whom he mounts a performance of The Tempest before being forced by circumstance to return, tragically, to Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. Bruno, having mastered speech, is quite happy to play with this new toy, going on philosophical riffs and speaking at length about art, and while his monologues are less tedious than you'd imagine, it's his quest for answers about the agonizing dilemmas of existence that is unexpectedly resonant. (Feb.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p>


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Alec Milius is young, smart, ambitious and comfortable with deceit. So when a chance encounter leads him to MI6, Alec thinks he's landed the perfect job for his talents. But working alone, relying on instinct, he's soon spinning a web of deception that has him caught between his new masters and powerful opponents. For in his new line of work the difference between the truth and a lie can be the difference between life and death. And Alec is having trouble telling them apart ...;A Spy by Nature is the calling card of a major new talent; compellingly told, utterly authentic and heart-racingly tense, it will grip you till the very last page.


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Mark and Benjamin Keen have not seen their father, Christopher, for 20 years. When he reappears hoping for a reconciliation, he has only begun to shed light on his shadowy past before being killed by an unidentified assailant. His violent death leaves questions unanswered. Was his murder an act of retribution? Had he been silenced for discovering a conspiracy involving Mark? Or had the carefully constructed facade of his past simply collapsed? As the truth unfolds, his sons must face the legacy of their father's life as a spy.


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In exile. In danger. On the run. For six years Alec Milius has been trying to escape his past. But his past refuses to release him. Abandoned by MI6 after a disastrous operation with the CIA, Milius has slowly rebuilt his life in Madrid: he has a flat, a job and a relationship with the wrong woman. Older and wiser that the young spy who first caught the eye of British Intelligence, Milius still has a talent for deception and a fatal weakness for secrets. So when a prominent politician disappears in suspicious circumstances he canrs"t resist tracking him down. But the rules have changed. Alec is now working alone outside the boundaries of any official agency. Paranoid and expendable, he soon becomes vulnerable to the ruthless duplicities of the secret world. He can trust no one. But as he comes face to face with the nightmare of modern terror, Alec is given one last chance for redemption.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. British author Cumming (Typhoon) revitalizes the moribund cold war spy novel in this stunning stand-alone that centers on the "Cambridge Five" (Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, et al.), who betrayed their country to the Soviet Union during and after WWII. Fifteen years after 76-year-old Edward Crane is pronounced dead at a London hospital in 1992, academic Sam Gaddis learns that Crane was the oft-rumored sixth man in the Cambridge spy ring—and that he's alive and ready to tell his story. Gaddis, a well-regarded scholar of modern Russia who needs money to support his ex-wife and their daughter, thinks he can turn this bombshell into a bestselling book. But the people who know about it, including one of Gaddis's best friends, journalist Charlotte Berg, are turning up dead—and the intelligence agencies in Britain and Russia would prefer to squelch the story. Cumming's knowledge of the spy business, his well-crafted prose, and his intensely engaging plot make this a breakthrough novel. 100,000 first printing. (Mar.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> Books and films almost beyond number have been inspired by the �Cambridge Spies,� five well-bred, brilliant English university students recruited to spy for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Their efforts helped Stalin defeat the Nazis, press the Cold War, and even brought down the government of Harold Macmillan in 1963. They also created a cottage industry of speculation that their number was larger. Playing on that speculation is what Cumming is up to in his latest novel. History professor Sam Gaddis, facing mounting financial problems, learns that there was a sixth Cambridge spy. People with information Sam needs for the book that will get him out of debt begin to die, and Sam must wonder not only if he will be next but whether his assailant will come from Russia�s FSB or Britain�s MI6. Cumming�s plot is appropriately convoluted, and the convolutions drive the narrative. The characters are well drawn, especially Sam and a sly 91-year-old former spook in a nursing home. Cold War hot spots, including Moscow, Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest, as well as Cambridge circa 1933, are rendered skillfully. The Trinity Six is a fine successor to Typhoon (2009) for a young author already compared with le Carr� and Littell. --Thomas Gaughan </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"A crackling cyberthriller. This is Tom Clancy interfacing Bruce Sterling. David Williams has hacked into the future."—Stephen Baxter, author of the Manifold series  </p><p>"<strong>The Mirrored Heavens</strong> presents an action-jammed and audacious look at a terrifyingly plausible future. By comparison to Williams' future, the present mess surrounding the Iraq conflict seems almost benign. Highly recommended for politicians, not that most would wish to see where their actions could easily lead."—L. E. Modesitt, Jr.  </p><p>“<strong>The Mirrored Heavens</strong> is a complex view of global politics in time of crisis.  Williams understands that future wars will be fought as much on-line as off.  It's also rousing adventure with breathless, non-stop action—Tom Clancy on speed.  And you will NOT be able to guess the ending.”—Nancy Kress, author of the Probability trilogy   </p><p>"Explodes out the gate like a sonic boom and never stops. Adrenaline bleeds from Williams' fingers with every word he hammers into the keyboard. The razors of <strong>The Mirrored Heavens</strong> would eat cyberpunk's old-guard hackers and cowboys as a light snack."—Peter Watts, author of <em>Blindsight</em>  </p><p>“<strong>The Mirrored Heavens</strong> presents an action-jammed and audacious look at a terrifyingly plausible future. By comparison to Williams' future, the present mess surrounding the Iraq conflict seems almost benign. Highly recommended for politicians, not that most would wish to see where their actions could easily lead.”—L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of the Saga of Recluse series, the Spellsong Cycle series, and the Corean Chronicles series  </p><p>"<strong>The Mirrored Heavens</strong> is a 21st century <em>Neuromancer</em> set in a dark, dystopian future where nothing and no one can be trusted, the razors who rule cyberspace are predators and prey, and ordinary human life is cheap. It starts out at full throttle and accelerates all the way to the end." —Jack Campbell, author of _The Lost Fleet: Courageous  </p><p>_“Calling to mind Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry more than Humphrey Bogart and Philip Marlowe, <strong>The Mirrored Heavens'</strong> action is wild and relentless…. In a welcome respite from noir stereotyping, Williams' female protagonist is neither killed nor kidnapped. A subject, not an object, Claire Haskell moves and shakes her dystopic world.”—_Seattle Times_<br />_<br />_"Non-stop action propels the reader forward. Like William Styron's <em>Sophie's Choice</em>, characters face horrific decisions involving mass destruction of innocents and murder of close friends and allies.”—Sfrevu.com  </p><p>“A powerful, rapid-fire sf adventure/intrigue story with echoes of cyberpunk.”—_Library Journal  </p><p>_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In this thrilling debut, David J. Williams delivers a hard-hitting blend of military SF and dystopian cyberpunk, set in a futuristic landscape where hostilities rage from the Eastern and Western hemispheres to the outer ranges of space. <em></em>  </p><p><em></em>In the 22nd century, the first wonder of a brave new world is the Phoenix Space Elevator, designed to give mankind greater access to the frontier beyond Earth. Built by the U.S./Pan-Asian Coalition, the Elevator is also a grand symbol of superpower alliance following a second cold war. And it’s just been destroyed.   </p><p>The South American insurgent group Autumn Rain claims responsibility for the attack, but with suspicions rampant, armies and espionage teams are mobilized across the globe and beyond. Enter Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe, U.S. counterintelligence agents, and former lovers—though their memories may only be constructs implanted by their spymaster. Forced to set aside the enigma of their past, their agenda is to trust no one. For in a time of shifting loyalties, the enemy could be anyone—from a shadowy assassin working a questionable mission on the dark side of the moon, to a Euro data thief working under deep cover and wooed into a dangerous pact.   </p><p>As the crisis mounts, and the search for Autumn Rain spans both Earth and Moon, the lives of all those involved will converge in one explosive finale—and a startling aftermath that will rewrite everything they’ve ever known—about their mission, their world, and themselves </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>_  </p><p><em>"David J. Williams writes on the finest edge of science fiction. The Autumn Rain novels are driving and relentless, full of rock 'em sock 'em cyber warfare, space commandos, cutthroat politics and one stunning reversal after another. Strap yourself in. These books start fast and never let up."—Jeff Carlson, author of </em>Plague War<br />_<br />“Stellar hard SF.” —_Library Journal_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In his electrifying debut, <strong>The Mirrored Heavens</strong><em>, </em>David J. Williams created a dark futuristic world grounded in the military rivalries, terror tactics, and political wrangling of our own time. Now he takes his masterful blend of military SF, espionage thriller, and dystopian cyberpunk one step further—to the edge of annihilation . . . .  </p><p>Life as U.S. counterintelligence agent Claire Haskell once knew it is in tatters—her mission betrayed, her lover dead, and her memories of the past suspect. Worse, the defeat of the mysterious insurgent group known as Autumn Rain was not as complete as many believed. It is quickly becoming clear that the group’s ultimate goal is not simply to destroy the tenuous global alliances of the 22nd century—but to rule all of humanity. And they’re starting with the violent destruction of the Net and the assassination of the U.S. president. Now it’s up to Claire, with her ability to jack her brain into the systems of the enemy, to win this impossible war.  </p><p>Battling ferociously across the Earth-Moon system, and navigating a complex world filled with both steadfast loyalists and ruthless traitors, Claire must be ready for the Rain’s next move. But the true enemy may already be one step ahead of her. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The 22nd century's WWIII crashes to an unexpected end in this slam-bang conclusion to Williams's Autumn Rain trilogy (after 2008's <em>The Mirrored Heavens</em> and 2009's <em>The Burning Skies</em>). The Russia- and China-led Eurasian Alliance uses two heretofore secret megaspaceships to blast the U.S. and bring the American space fleet to its knees, while the spooky commando triads of Autumn Rain carry out desperate clandestine maneuvers. At the focus of the bloody action is Claire Haskell, the Manilishi, a posthuman supercomputer/cyborg able to implement the theories of her designer Matthew Sinclair, who intends to become God via experiments with teleportation, telepathy, and time travel. Williams's readers will eagerly devour this cyberpunk feeding frenzy, long on dizzying action and sinister tangled politics, but newcomers to the series will struggle with the shallow characterizations and overdoses of X-rated vocabulary. <em>(June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>With The Machinery of Light,</strong> David J. Williams completes his furiously paced, stunningly imagined trilogy—a work of vision, beauty, and pulse-pounding futuristic action.  </p><p>September 26, 2110. 10:22 GMT. Following the assassination of the American president, the generals who have seized power initiate World War Three, launching a surprise attack against the Eurasian Coalition’s forces throughout the Earth-Moon system. Across the orbits, tens of thousands of particle beams and lasers blast away at one another. The goal: crush the other side’s weaponry, paving the way for nuclear bombardment of the cities.   </p><p>As inferno becomes Armageddon, the rogue commando unit Autumn Rain embarks on one last run. Matthew Sinclair, an imprisoned spymaster, plots his escape. And his former protégé Claire Haskell, capable of hacking into both nets and minds, is realizing that all her powers may merely be playing into Sinclair’s plans. For even as Claire evades the soldiers of East and West amid carnage in the lunar tunnels, the surviving members of the Rain converge upon the Moon, one step ahead of the Eurasian fleets but one step behind the mastermind who created Autumn Rain—and his terrible final secret.  </p>


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Eighteen years after the barbarous war with the Serbs that tore their communities apart, a group of Croation villagers discover the identity of the Englishman whom they believe betrayed them by welching on a deal to supply them with arms.
With revenge in sight at last, they hire a professional killer from London to track him down… but is the story as simple as they think?


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>"Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu." Like a fairy tale, Ha Jin's masterful novel of love and politics begins with a formula--and like a fairy tale, <em>Waiting</em> uses its slight, deceptively simple framework to encompass a wide range of truths about the human heart. Lin Kong is a Chinese army doctor trapped in an arranged marriage that embarrasses and repels him. (Shuyu has country ways, a withered face, and most humiliating of all, bound feet.) Nevertheless, he's content with his tidy military life, at least until he falls in love with Manna, a nurse at his hospital. Regulations forbid an army officer to divorce without his wife's consent--until 18 years have passed, that is, after which he is free to marry again. So, year after year Lin asks his wife for his freedom, and year after year he returns from the provincial courthouse: still married, still unable to consummate his relationship with Manna. Nothing feeds love like obstacles placed in its way--right? But Jin's novel answers the question of what might have happened to Romeo and Juliet had their romance been stretched out for several decades. In the initial confusion of his chaste love affair, Lin longs for the peace and quiet of his "old rut." Then killing time becomes its own kind of rut, and in the end, he is forced to conclude that he "waited eighteen years just for the sake of waiting." </p><p>There's a political allegory here, of course, but it grows naturally from these characters' hearts. Neither Lin nor Manna is especially ideological, and the tumultuous events occurring around them go mostly unnoticed. They meet during a forced military march, and have their first tender moment during an opera about a naval battle. (While the audience shouts, "Down with Japanese Imperialism!" the couple holds hands and gazes dreamily into each other's eyes.) When Lin is in Goose Village one summer, a mutual acquaintance rapes Manna; years later, the rapist appears on a TV report titled "To Get Rich Is Glorious," after having made thousands in construction. Jin resists hammering ideological ironies like these home, but totalitarianism's effects on Lin are clear: </p><blockquote><p>Let me tell you what really happened, the voice said. All those years you waited torpidly, like a sleepwalker, pulled and pushed about by others' opinions, by external pressure, by your illusions, by the official rules you internalized. You were misled by your own frustration and passivity, believing that what you were not allowed to have was what your heart was destined to embrace. </p></blockquote><p>Ha Jin himself served in the People's Liberation Army, and in fact left his native country for the U.S. only in 1985. That a non-native speaker can produce English of such translucence and power is truly remarkable--but really, his prose is the least of the miracles here. Improbably, Jin makes an unconsummated 18-year love affair loom as urgent as political terror or war, while history-changing events gain the immediacy of a domestic dilemma. Gracefully phrased, impeccably paced, <em>Waiting</em> is the kind of realist novel you thought was no longer being written. <em>--Mary Park</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Jin's quiet but absorbing second novel (after In the Pond) captures the poignant dilemma of an ordinary man who misses the best opportunities in his life simply by trying to do his duty—as defined first by his traditional Chinese parents and later by the Communist Party. Reflecting the changes in Chinese communism from the '60s to the '80s, the novel focuses on Lin Kong, a military doctor who agrees, as his mother is dying, to an arranged marriage. His bride, Shuyu, turns out to be a country woman who looks far older than her 26 years and who has, to Lin's great embarrassment, lotus (bound) feet. While Shuyu remains at Lin's family home in Goose Village, nursing first his mother and then his ailing father, and bearing Lin a daughter, Lin lives far away in an army hospital compound, visiting only once a year. Caught in a loveless marriage, Lin is attacted to a nurse, Manna Wu, an attachment forbidden by communist strictures. According to local Party rules, Lin cannot divorce his wife without her permission until they have been separated for 18 years. Although Jin infuses movement and some suspense into Lin's and Manna's sometimes resigned, sometimes impatient waiting—they will not consummate their relationship until Lin is free—it is only in the novel's third section, when Lin finally secures a divorce, that the story gathers real force. Though inaction is a risky subject and the thoughts of a cautious man make for a rather deliberate prose style (the first two sections describe the moments the characters choose not to act), the final chapters are moving and deeply ironic, proving again that this poet and award-winning short story writer can deliver powerful long fiction about a world alien to most Western readers. (Oct.) FYI: Jin served six years in the People's Liberation Army, and came to the U.S. in 1985. <br>Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>'How deep is Hardeep's love of food? As deep as Loch Ness and as unfathomable as India. Indian Takeaway is a very funny and beguiling journey.' Paul Whitehouse </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>As a boy, Hardeep Singh Kohli knew where home was: Glasgow. But everyone else always assumed he was Indian. Because surely he couldn't be British, with his brown skin and turban? Thirty years later, Hardeep sets out on a journey to discover where he is really from. His story is as hilarious as it is moving. </p>

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A SECOND VISIT TO THAIBURLEY: THE CITY OF DREAMS, THE FABLED CITY OF A HUNDRED ROWS. Dark forces are gathering in the shadowy depths, and the whole city is under threat. The former street-nick, Tom, embarks on a journey to discover the source of the great river Thair, said to be the ultimate power behind all of Thaiburley. Accompanying him are the assassin Dewar and the young Thaistess Mildra. It soon becomes evident that their journey has more significance than any of them realise, as past secrets catch up with them and unknown adversaries hunt them... to the death! File Under: Fantasy [ Towering City | Ancient Secrets | Assassins & Gods | Soul Thief! ]


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Swain, author of the gambling crime series starring Tony Valentine (_Grift Sense_, etc.), avoids many of the clichés of the antisocial ex-cop novel in this chilling stand-alone. A specialist in finding missing children, former cop Jack Carpenter was fired from the force for assaulting a prisoner. Broke after a civil lawsuit and estranged from his wife and daughter, he's living in a seedy beachside apartment north of Miami, Fla., with his dog. Then Simon Skell (aka the Midnight Rambler), whom Carpenter helped convict for murdering prostitutes, is released from prison on a technicality. Determined to prove Skell guilty, Carpenter is frozen out by the cop on the case, but help comes from an FBI agent whose daughter vanished years earlier. The tension rises as the investigation widens far beyond Skell. Well-defined characters and intricately woven subplots, one involving a nail-biting scene at Disney World, make this a page-turner. <em>12-city author tour. (Oct.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Praise for James Swain and Midnight Rambler  </p><p>“Midnight Rambler is a heavy hitter, fast and spare. Travis McGee meets Philip Marlow.”<br />–Randy Wayne White, author of Hunter’s Moon  </p><p>“Moves like a bullet train on overdrive . . . I tore through this one without putting on the brakes. I guarantee you will, too!”<br />–Michael Connelly  </p><p>“Midnight Rambler kept me up all night long, and Jack Carpenter is as appealing a hero as I’ve ever met. The only problem with Swain’s riveting thrillers is they end.”<br />–Tess Gerritsen, author of The Bone Garden  </p><p>“Swain is one terrific writer.”<br />–The Wall Street Journal  </p><p><em>From the Hardcover edition.</em></p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Amazon Exclusive: A Q&amp;A with Joseph O'Neill</strong>   </p><p><strong>Joseph O’Neill was born in Ireland and raised in Holland. He received a law degree from Cambridge University and worked as a barrister in London. He writes regularly for <em>The Atlantic Monthly</em> and is the author of two previous novels, <em>New York Times</em> Notable Book. O'Neill received the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his third novel, <em>Netherland</em>. He lives with his family in New York City.</strong></p><p><strong>Question:</strong> President Obama mentioned in a <em>New York Times Magazine</em> profile that he’s reading <em>Netherland</em>. How do you feel about the President reading your book?</p><p><strong>Joseph O'Neill:</strong> I'm very honored, of course.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> How is the world of <em>Netherland</em> particular to the United States after 9/11? </p><p><strong>Joseph O'Neill:</strong> The story takes place in the aftermath of 9/11. One of the things it does is try to evoke the disorientation and darkness of that time, which we only emerged from with the election of President Obama.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> What is the importance of the sport of cricket in this book? Do you play? </p><p><strong>Joseph O'Neill:</strong> I love sport and play cricket and golf myself. Sport is a wonderful way to bring together people who would otherwise have no connection to each other.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> One of your reviewers calls <em>Netherland</em> an answer to </p><p><strong>Joseph O'Neill:</strong> Halfway through the book I realized with a slightly sinking feeling that the plot of <em>Netherland</em> was eerily reminiscent of the <em>Gatsby</em> plot: dreamer drowns, bystander remembers. But there are only about 5 plots in existence, so I didn't let it bother me too much. Fitzgerald thankfully steered clear of cricket.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> Many reviewers have commented on the “voice” of this novel. How it is more a novel of voice than of plot? Do you agree with this? </p><p><strong>Joseph O'Neill:</strong> Yes, I would agree with that comment. This is not a novel of eventful twists and turns. It is more like a long-form international cricket match (which can last for 5 days without a winner emerging), about nuance and ambiguity and small slippages of insight. And about language, of course. </p><p>(Photo © Lisa Acherman) </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Hans van den Broek, the Dutch-born narrator of O'Neill's dense, intelligent novel, observes of his friend, Chuck Ramkissoon, a self-mythologizing entrepreneur-gangster, that he never quite believed that people would sooner not have their understanding of the world blown up, even by Chuck Ramkissoon. The image of one's understanding of the world being blown up is poignant—this is Hans's fate after 9/11. He and wife Rachel abandon their downtown loft, and, soon, Rachel leaves him behind at their temporary residence, the Chelsea Hotel, taking their son, Jake, back to London. Hans, an equities analyst, is at loose ends without Rachel, and in the two years he remains Rachel-less in New York City, he gets swept up by Chuck, a Trinidadian expatriate Hans meets at a cricket match. Chuck's dream is to build a cricket stadium in Brooklyn; in the meantime, he operates as a factotum for a Russian gangster. The unlikely (and doomed from the novel's outset) friendship rises and falls in tandem with Hans's marriage, which falls and then, gradually, rises again. O'Neill (_This Is the Life_) offers an outsider's view of New York bursting with wisdom, authenticity and a sobering jolt of realism. <em>(May)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>

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Award-winning author Kjell Ola Dahl has attained cult status in his home country of Norway with his sharp, riveting bestsellers. Over the last decade he has found audiences in ten other countries and finally, with his gripping and intelligent novel, The Fourth Man, the master of Norwegian crime writing is crossing the Atlantic.In the course of a routine police raid, Detective Inspector Frank Frølich of the Oslo Police saves the life of Elizabeth Faremo, a dark-haired beauty with mysterious eyes who was inadvertently caught in the crossfire. Some weeks later, Frølich coincidentally runs into her again---but their ensuing affair is no accident.By the time he learns that she is no stranger---but rather the sister of a wanted member of a larceny gang---it is already too late.In the middle of the night, Frølich receives a call that a young guard has been killed in the course of an attempted break-in. Scrambling to respond, he realizes that Elizabeth is no longer in his bed. And all at once, Frølich’s life has changed. In a turn of events cryptic, erotic, and complex, he finds himself a prime murder suspect and under the watch of his doubting colleagues.Led through the dark underworld of Oslo and his own soul, Frølich---suspended from the force, blindly in love, and on the hunt for some hint of truth in a vortex of darkness and lies---must find out if he is being used . . . before his life unravels beyond repair.The Fourth Man is a sexy, fast-paced psychological thriller that puts a modern twist on the classic noir story of the femme fatale. K. O. Dahl has crafted a dark, poetic, and incredibly complex crime novel for his U.S. debut---the first in a series of detective novels from this rising international mystery star.Praise for The Fourth Man:“A Norwegian Mankell”---Norra Vasterbotten (Sweden)“I have read many clever and thrilling crime novels through my life, but often they have nothing to do with real life. If I don’t believe in them, they don’t impress me. But when K.O. Dahl tells his stories, I believe every single word.”---Karin Fossum, author of The Indian Bride“An absorbing study of sexual enthrallment, dogged police work and a harrowing twist or two: Fans of procedurals…will snap this one up.”---Kirkus“Recommend to fans of Karin Fossum and Kjell Eriksson. Dahl is a formidable talent whose books may well become as popular in the US as in Norway.” ---Booklist“A crime master of style... Dahl’s original trait, the rich language, is here fully developed. He is perhaps the most literary of our crime writers. He fully masters the use of images and re-takes that serve to emphasize and strengthen the text, the latter a risky business regardless of genre. In addition to this, he is a proper devil at describing emotions, and throughout the entire spectrum at that…. Conclusion: Kjell Ola Dahl has again written an excellent crime novel.”---Aftenposten (Norway)“Effective and entertaining crime….We let ourselves be both mesmerized and entertained…”---Adresseavisen (Norway)“Elite crime writing… Kjell Ola Dahl is one of the big names of Norwegian crime fiction, and The Fourth Man shows why: here, the plot is effectively narrated, the drive forward is dynamic and the reader is served his seconds over and over again…”---Stavanger Aftenblad (Norway)“High-shine crime… a crime novel solidly and aptly constructed. Chock full of action, with precise shifts in tempo, sparkling good dialogue and a plot that carries all the way through.” ---Bergens Tidende (Norway)“A suspenseful and well costructed story… Stringent and directed towards an astounding denouement.”---Münchner Merkur (Germany)“…an excellent crime novel has seen the light of day…”---Hersfelder Zeitung (Germany)


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Chick-lit author Caldwell (_The Year of Living Famously_) switches gears to draw from her former career as a trial lawyer for her first suspense novel. Manhattan attorney Hailey Sutter is headed to Chicago to represent the McKnight Corporation, whose Internet company has been accused of Web technology theft, when she receives a note saying, "There is no statute of limitations on murder. Look closely." The ominous statement catapults Hailey back to Woodland Dunes (a small seaside town on Lake Michigan), where her mother died from a head injury when Hailey was seven. Shortly afterward, her older brother and sister disappeared, and she was left in the care of her father, who refuses to discuss the incident. Between the McKnight arbitrations, Hailey flies from Manhattan to Chicago to Portland in search of her estranged siblings and answers that she hopes will shed some light on her mother's mysterious death. The smooth first-person narrative builds suspense and paints a fine picture of time and place. Unfortunately, the book loses steam in the final chapter, and the ending falls as flat as a day-old soufflé. <em>Agent, Maureen Walters at Curtis Brown Ltd. (June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"This fast read has a thought-provoking theme and an interesting medical angle." -- <em>Romantic Times on A Clean Slate</em></p>


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<h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Gr 8 Up–The catastrophic wildfires that ravaged Southern California in 2007 serve as the backdrop for this compelling story of a forbidden romance with tragic consequences. In the inland farming community of Fallbrook, 15-year-old Pearl tells her story through a leisurely voice. She deals with her parents' divorce; her cousin's anger at his father's suspected adultery; and, most significantly, her undeniable attraction to the alluring undocumented Mexican migrant worker Amiel, whose damaged vocal chords limit his speech but not his communication. Disaster is referred to throughout the narrative, filling readers with a sense of foreboding as Pearl's persistence overcomes Amiel's trepidation and the two draw together in an intense secret affair. All of this leads to a heart-pounding final act when the wildfire breaks out and Pearl must choose between family and romance, safety and uncertainty. The ramifications of the ill-fated decisions made by both Pearl and Amiel will surely spark strong discussion among readers. Both the plot and setting are grounded in rich, realistic detail; the author's love for the town of Fallbrook shines vividly through lyrical descriptions of avocado groves and orange blossoms. While Amiel remains a somewhat mysterious figure, Pearl's relationships with her family and friends are fully realized through her nostalgic recollections of simpler times. Drawn in by the appeal of clandestine love and looming disaster, teens will also be rewarded with much thought-provoking substance in this novel's complex characters and hauntingly ambiguous ending._Allison Tran, Mission Viejo Library, CA_<br />© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"This debut solo effort after several collaborations with husband Tom McNeal (_The Decoding of Lana Morris_, 2007, etc.) stands out in the crowded coming-of-age field. The affecting narrative springs believably from the first-person thoughts of Pearl DeWitt as she recalls her 15th summer, when, entranced by a nearly mute, illegal Mexican migrant worker, the beautiful and gifted teenage Amiel, Pearl makes choices that lead to tragedy. Evocative language electrifies the scenes between the pair, as they develop a relationship both complicated and deepened by their limited verbal communication. Her warnings to readers of impending disaster amplify rather than diminish the impact of the misguided, wrenching decisions she makes when a raging wildfire sweeps through their rural California community. Besides her poignant relationship with Amiel, Pearl navigates her father’s recent abandonment of her and her mother and her complicated relationship with her cousin Robby as he blunderingly deals with his father’s apparent infidelity. Notable for well-drawn characters, an engaging plot and, especially, hauntingly beautiful language, this is an outstanding book."_ <br />-_<strong><em>Kirkus Reviews</em>, starred review</strong></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>When Ruby Murphy—Brooklyn resident, cat whisperer and mad-dash urban bicyclist—notices a human leg in her psychiatrist's fish tank in her third diverting sleuthing adventure (after 2004's <em>Gargantuan</em>), the limb proves to belong to Tobias Ray, the estranged spouse of Dr. Jody Ray, Ruby's coolly professional therapist. Once over the shock, Jody begs Ruby to help hunt for Tobias, an apparent kidnapping victim. But just when Ruby finds the one-legged Tobias, Jody disappears. Meanwhile, Ruby is inexplicably fired from her job at the Coney Island Museum; her live-in boyfriend suddenly needs "space"; and her only loyal friend is Jack Valentine, her beloved horse. Though the plot meanders and takes a tortoise-and-hare nap occasionally, Estep's wry observations, razor-sharp wit and deliciously vivid characters will keep readers turning the pages. <em>(Sept.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“Maggie Estep is a writer of a thousand voices. . . . She can get into just about anyone’s head, including the horses who are such strong, individualized characters in this series.” —_New York Times Book Review_  </p><p>“[Estep’s] vividly drawn characters and the wit of their interchanges . . . rip through the constraints of the [mystery] genre. I was blown away by the gale force of Estep’s talent.” —Salon.com  </p><p>“This is a book that burns like brilliance at its zenith.” —Ken Bruen, author of <em>The Dramatist</em>  </p><p>“Maggie Estep writes like no one else. She is one of my favorite writers, and_ Flamethrower_ might be her best book. Do yourself a favor and read all of her books now.” —Sara Gran, author of <em>Dope</em> and <em>Come Closer</em>  </p><p>“A tour de force of mystery fiction and a maniacally hilarious black comedy . . . Ruby Murphy is a terrifically flawed protagonist, operating one step ahead of disaster. . . . With <em>Flamethrower</em>, Estep is at the top of her game.” —Jason Starr, author of_ Lights Out_  </p><p>“It’s always such a joy to enter Maggie Estep’s world, where everyone—dogs, horses, people, and places—is unique, real, and treated with respect, even when they’re completely demented. Ruby Murphy is a great character and I enjoy every minute I spend with her.” —S. J. Rozan, author of <em>Absent Friends</em></p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Anne McCaffrey's Pern is one of the most memorable worlds in science fiction and fantasy. Humans and their flying dragon companions live in fear of <em>thread</em>, a caustic, deadly material that falls sporadically from space. But when the thread doesn't fall for a long time, people become complacent, forgetting that it is the brave dragonriders who can save them from the periodic threat. But when the thread falls, human and dragon heroes must fight the scourge. This edition encompasses the first three unforgettable novels of McCaffrey's epic series: <em>Dragonflight</em>, <em>Dragonquest</em>, and <em>The White Dragon</em>. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Finally together in one volume, the first three books in the world's most beloved science fiction series, THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN, by Anne McCaffrey, one of the great science fiction writers of all time: DRAGONFLIGHT, DRAGONQUEST, THE WHITE DRAGON. Those who know these extraordinary tales will be able to re-visit with Lessa, F'lar, Ruth, Lord Jaxon, and all the others. And for those just discovering this magical place, there are incomparable tales of danger, deceit, and daring, just waiting to be explored..  </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Readers will be fascinated by the setting of this slow-starting but compelling far-future debut. On a planet settled by Muslims and ravaged by constant war and pollution, Nyx, a former government-sponsored assassin or "bel dame," gets by as a bounty hunter. Her assistant is the foreign magician Rhys, who can control the ubiquitous insects that drive the planet's technology. When the government asks them to hunt down an off-worlder who possesses technology that could end the war, they find themselves facing off against foreign agents and their fellow bel dames. Hurley's world-building is phenomenal, with casual references to insectile technology and the world's history that provide atmosphere without info dumps. Far too many pages are spent introducing the characters, but the story is highly engaging once it starts, and Hurley smoothly handles tricky themes such as race, class, religion, and gender without sacrificing action. (Feb.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Hurley's world-building is phenomenal... (she) smoothly handles tricky themes such as race, class, religion, and gender without sacrificing action." --Publishers Weekly  </p><p>"An aggressively dark, highly original SF-fantasy novel with tight, cutting prose and some of the most inventive world-building I've seen in a while." - Stefan Raets, Fantasy Literature.com --fantasyliterature.com/hurleykameron.html  </p><p>Kameron Hurley's a brave, unflinching, truly original writer with a unique vision--her fiction burns right through your brain and your heart. --Jeff VanderMeer, author of Finch </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>It was the biggest leak in history. WikiLeaks infuriated the world's greatest superpower, embarrassed the British royal family and helped cause a revolution in Africa. The man behind it was Julian Assange, one of the strangest figures ever to become a worldwide celebrity. Was he an internet messiah or a cyber-terrorist? Information freedom fighter or sex criminal? The debate would echo around the globe as US politicians called for his assassination. Award-winning "Guardian" journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding have been at the centre of a unique publishing drama that involved the release of some 250,000 secret diplomatic cables and classified files from the Afghan and Iraq wars. At one point the platinum-haired hacker was hiding from the CIA in David Leigh's London house. Now, together with the paper's investigative reporting team, Leigh and Harding reveal the startling inside story of the man and the leak. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>WikiLeaks has been written by a team of top Guardian journalists, led by David Leigh, the paper's investigations editor whose work was behind the jailing of Jonathan Aitken and the exposure of secret payments by arms company BAE, and Luke Harding, the paper's Moscow correspondent. </p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>The Illumination</em>. No longer able hide their own pains from the world, and suddenly exposed to the discomfiting wounds of strangers, friends, and lovers, these characters struggle to adapt to a new way of experiencing life and, in very different ways, to understand the intrinsic connection between love and pain. "There was an ache inside people that seemed so wonderful sometimes," one character muses. And then, because this ache is also corporeal, "He wished he had brought his camera with him." While Brockmeier's brilliant novel is innately tied up in pain and loss, witnessing the lives he creates in the midst of this new wonder is not only a beautiful experience but, yes, an illuminating one. --_Lynette Mong_</p><hr><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. In Brockmeier's spectacular latest (after The View from the Seventh Layer), pain manifests itself as visible light after a mysterious event called "the Illumination," revealing humanity to be mortally wounded, and yet Brockmeier finds in these overlapping, storylike narratives, beauty amid the suffering. Jason Williford, a photojournalist, loses his wife in a traffic accident and fixates on a troubled teenage girl who teaches him to cultivate pain "in a dreamlike vesper." Chuck Carter, a battered and bullied neighbor boy, steals a journal of love notes from Jason's house, and later gives the journal to door-knocking evangelist Ryan Shifrin, who found his faith after watching his younger sister die from cancer. Telescoping into his decades of service to the church, Ryan wonders at the civil strife and disasters that "produce a holocaust of light." Through accounts of quotidian suffering depict humanity's quiet desperation--the agony of a severed thumb, the torture of chronic mouth ulcers--Brockmeier's careful reading of his characters' hearts and minds gives readers an inspiring take on suffering and the often fleeting nature of connection. (Feb.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In 1165, a letter ostensibly written by the distant Christian king Prester John describing a kingdom of wonders rocked medieval Europe. In this enchanting retelling of the legend, the first volume in a projected trilogy, Hugo nominee Valente (Palimpsest) imagines what might have been discovered by Rome's ambassadors if the letter had not been a hoax. Nothing is quite as fabulous as the pious priests had hoped. Prester John and St. Thomas the Twin married nonhuman women; the Fountain of Youth does not sparkle, but instead "oozes thick and oily, globbed with algae and the eggs of improbable mayflies." Three very different personalities narrate: the brooding Prester John himself; his carefree and openhearted wife, the blemmye Hagia; and maternal Imtithal of the elephant-eared panotii. Filled with lyrical prose and fabled creatures, this languorous fairy tale is as captivating as Prester John's original letter. (Dec.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>This is the story of a place that never was: the kingdom of Prester John, the utopia described by an anonymous, twelfth-century document which captured the imagination of the medieval world and drove hundreds of lost souls to seek out its secrets, inspiring explorers, missionaries, and kings for centuries. But what if it were all true? What if there was such a place, and a poor, broken priest once stumbled past its borders, discovering, not a Christian paradise, but a country where everything is possible, immortality is easily had, and the Western world is nothing but a dim and distant dream?  </p><p>Brother Hiob of Luzerne, on missionary work in the Himalayan wilderness on the eve of the eighteenth century, discovers a village guarding a miraculous tree whose branches sprout books instead of fruit. These strange books chronicle the history of the kingdom of Prester John, and Hiob becomes obsessed with the tales they tell. The Habitation of the Blessed recounts the fragmented narratives found within these living volumes, revealing the life of a priest named John, and his rise to power in this country of impossible richness. John's tale weaves together with the confessions of his wife Hagia, a blemmye--a headless creature who carried her face on her chest--as well as the tender, jeweled nursery stories of Imtithal, nanny to the royal family. Hugo and World Fantasy award nominee Catherynne M. Valente reimagines the legends of Prester John in this stunning tour de force. </p>


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Duelling, derring-do, and dastardly deeds are all in a daya??s work for Liberty Lane: a new heroine for fans of Matthew Hawkwood and Sarah Watersa??s Victorian novels. Thomas Jacques Lane a?? radical, romantic, scholar and devoted father a?? had led an unconventional life but of one thing his daughter, Liberty, is certain: he would never have taken part in a duel. So when she receives a note informing her of his death in just such a manner, Liberty ignores all advice and sets off in pursuit of the truth. With no resources bar her wits, she travels to the Continent and back in search of her father's killer. And as the nation prepares for the coronation of a young Victoria, Liberty uncovers murder and treachery at the very highest levelsa?|.


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One fine day in May, Hattie's life changes for ever...Single mother Hattie has plenty of reasons to be happy. Her antiques business is flourishing, her teenage son is settled at boarding school and shes enjoying a fling with a younger, very sexy man. But when her job takes her back to the idyllic village of Little Crandon, painful memories of her first love - Dominic Forbes, the married politician she worked for years ago, the man who changed the course of her life come flooding back...Things come to a head when Hattie bumps into Dominics widow and his gorgeous younger brother, Hal, in the village and she finds her world turned upside down. Will Hattie come clean about what really happened with Dominic all those years ago? And, if she does, is she ready to face the consequences? Whatever happens, Hattie comes to realize that you cant keep running from your mistakes. Its time to move on and maybe, just maybe, let herself fall in love again


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>After receiving a cryptic message from her father, Abhorsen, a necromancer trapped in Death, 18-year-old Sabriel sets off into the Old Kingdom. Fraught with peril and deadly trickery, her journey takes her to a world filled with parasitical spirits, Mordicants, and Shadow Hands. Unlike other necromancers, who raise the dead, Abhorsen lays the disturbed dead back to rest. This obliges him--and now Sabriel, who has taken on her father's title and duties--to slip over the border into the icy river of Death, sometimes battling the evil forces that lurk there, waiting for an opportunity to escape into the realm of the living. Desperate to find her father, and grimly determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction by the horrible forces of the evil undead, Sabriel endures almost impossible exhaustion, violent confrontations, and terrifying challenges to her supernatural abilities--and her destiny. </p><p>Garth Nix delves deep into the mystical underworld of necromancy, magic, and the monstrous undead. This tale is not for the faint of heart; imbedded in the classic good-versus-evil story line are subplots of grisly ghouls hungry for human life to perpetuate their stay in the world of the living, and dark, devastating secrets of betrayal and loss. Just <em>try</em> to put this book down. For more along this line, try Nix's later novel: __. (Ages 12 and older) <em>--Emilie Coulter</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Sabriel is her last year at Wyverley College, a private school in Ancelstierre, where Magic does not work, but near the Border with the Old Kingdom, where it does. She and her father are also highly skilled necromancers, who fight the dead who seek to return to Life. But when her father is somehow trapped in Death, she must journey into the Old Kingdom to find him. She does not know that it is wracked by struggle (like that in Ursula LeGuin's The Farthest Shore)-a magician has brought chaos by refusing to die and hopes to use Sabriel and her father to further consolidate his power. Sabriel goes on a long journey throughout a densely imagined world, learning as she goes, and meeting such strange characters as Mogget, a raging natural force contained in the shape of a cat. She also develops a relationship with Touchstone, a young man who turns out to be as crucially involved as she is. Although Sabriel is possessed of much heavy knowledge ("A year ago, I turned the final page of The Book of the Dead. I don't feel young any more"), she is still a teenager and vulnerable where her father and love for Touchstone are concerned, making her a sympathetic heroine. Rich, complex, involving, hard to put down, this first novel, an Australian import, is excellent high fantasy. The suitably climactic ending leaves no loose ends, but readers will hope for a sequel. Ages 12-up. <br>Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Fourteen years have passed since the necromancer Sabriel bound the Greater Dead Adept Kerrigor beyond the Ninth Gate and helped restore King Touchstone to the Old Kingdom throne. Now she rules at his side as Abhorsen, the sole necromancer of the Old Kingdom, keeping the people safe from the dark power of Free Magic. But this is not just Sabriel's tale. It is also the story of Hedge, a mysterious necromancer who is digging up a monstrous evil that could utterly destroy the Old Kingdom. And it is the story of Prince Sameth, Touchstone and Sabriel's only son, who would rather fight an entire army of Dead than disappoint his beloved parents. And Sam's friend Nick, who has unknowingly loosed Free Magic into the Old Kingdom, blissfully ignorant of its complete malevolence. But mostly, this is the tale of Lirael, the only daughter of the future-seeing Clayr who does not possess the Sight. Burying the pain of her Sightlessness in the Clayr's great library, Third Assistant Librarian Lirael's insatiable curiosity will soon lead her to an unbelievable destiny that may even be connected with that of the great Sabriel herself. </p><p>Garth Nix's stunning sequel to __, full of Mages, Moggets, and even a Disreputable Dog, is on par with the equally superb works of Philip Pullman and William Nicholson. And fantasy lovers of all ages will be thrilled to discover that <em>Lirael</em> ends with more questions than answers, which will mean a third dip into Nix's beguiling Charter Magic. Both exhilarating and mesmerizing, this fine novel is pure enchantment. (Ages 12 and older) <em>--Jennifer Hubert</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In Nix's sequel to Sabriel, readers return to the entrancing and complicated Old Kingdom: a world of necromancy, seers, dangerous monsters and talking animals (the cat Mogget is back). The relationships between the Kingdom's various realms and the magic may take some unraveling for readers new to the series, but the heroine's plight will be instantly compelling. Lirael is the only one of a community of clairvoyant women not to be gifted with "the Sight," and the mystery of her parentage contributes to her alienation. Just after her 14th birthday, Lirael releases a Stilken (half-woman, half-crustacean) from a glass-covered coffin. Her act leads to a meeting with a healer (Lirael's great-great-grandmother) who fortifies her and urges her to take as her only friend the impertinent "Disreputable Dog," a creature of suspicious magical origin whose true nature remains unknown. The overall plot may follow the expected course an evil magician threatens the well-being of the Old Kingdom and Lirael finds her destiny linked with that of handsome, nervous Prince Sameth (son of Sabriel) but startling subplots abound and keep the pages turning. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and Nix leaves nearly every major question unanswered. The evil is still at large, the Disreputable Dog still unexplained and Lirael's mother's desertion of her unresolved. Readers hoping for a satisfying ending will have to wait for the third in the series, to be titled Abhorsen, and tentatively scheduled for fall 2002. Ages 12-up. </p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>An explosive prologue sets the stage for Nix's riveting continuation of the story begun in Sabriel and Lirael. While newcomers might find the intricate plotting and the rituals of the Charter Magic off-putting at first, Nix rewards their efforts. Returning characters Lirael, former Second Assistant Librarian of the Clayr and now an Abhorsen-in-Waiting (the Abhorsen's "birthright and charge [is] to maintain the borders of Life and Death"), and her nephew, Prince Sameth, along with Disreputable Dog and the mysterious white cat, Mogget, are ensorcelled in the Abhorsen House by a Dead creature, Chlorr of the Mask, who is in league with the evil necromancer Hedge. They break out to try and rescue Sam's old friend, Nicholas Sayre, who has been tricked by Hedge into digging up Orannis, the Destroyer; if Hedge's plan succeeds, the evil now contained by two separate hemispheres will join and annihilate all life. The grotesque imagery of the Death realm provides a haunting note, which Nix offsets by the brightness of the main characters' quest to defeat the Destroyer. At once an allegory regarding war and peace and a testament to friendship, this thought-provoking fantasy also resolves the true identities of the popular Dog and Mogget characters-and suggests that Nix may still have more tricks up his sleeve. Ages 12-up. <br>Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Grade 7 Up-The long-awaited confrontation between the evil necromancer Hedge and Abhorsen-in-Waiting Lirael and her nephew Sameth finally takes place in this conclusion to Nix's trilogy. Fans were left hanging at the end of Lirael (HarperCollins, 2001) as they learned that Hedge had magically enslaved a horde of the newly dead and Sam's friend Nick to help him dig up Orannis, a powerful Free Magic being who intended to destroy all life in the Kingdom. Long ago, Orannis had been broken in two and buried deep beneath the earth and Nick has discovered a way to join the two pieces to release him. All the characters from the previous books are here, but Lirael and Sam dominate the action. Lirael is destined to travel into death to find out how Orannis was defeated before and to try to find out how to defeat him once again. The experience leaves her scathed but stronger, and she finds her family, heritage, and her place in the world. Readers discover the real identities of the Disreputable Dog and the cat Mogget but Lirael's mother's actions still remain unsatisfactorily explained. Lirael and Sam have gained confidence in themselves and in their abilities in this title. There are also fewer surprises here, but Nix maintains the nonstop action, imaginative magical descriptions, and high level of violence of the previous titles. It is essential to read the series in order. There is a resolution, but the ending hints that this may not be the last story about the Old Kingdom. Fans will be overjoyed.<br><em>Sharon Rawlins, Piscataway Public Library, NJ</em><br>Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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The series that brought grittiness to Fantasy and became a bestseller in the US finally comes to the UK. Darkness wars with darkness as the hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must. They bury their doubts with their dead.
Then comes the prophecy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more . . .
This is fantasy for all fans of Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie and David Gemmell. Available for the first time in a UK edition.
Contains the first three Black Company novels: THE BLACK COMPANY, SHADOWS LINGER and THE WHITE ROSE
With the Black Company series, Glen Cook single-handedly changed the face of fantasy - something a lot of people didn’t notice, and maybe still don’t. He brought the story down to a human level, dispensing with the cliche archetypes of princes, kings and evil sorcerers. Reading his stuff is like reading Vietnam fiction on Peyote’ STEVEN ERIKSON


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<h3>Product Description</h3><blockquote><p>In the evolution of every sentient race, there is a turning point when the species achieves transcendence through technology. </p><p>The warlike Sh’daar are determined that this monumental milestone will never be achieved by the creatures known as human. </p></blockquote><p>On the far side of known human space, the Marines are under siege, battling the relentless servant races of the Sh'daar aggressor. With a task force stripped to the bone and the Terran Confederation of States racked by dissent, rogue Admiral Alexander Koenig must make the momentous decision that will seal his fate and the fate of humankind. A strong defensive posture is futile, so Koenig will seize the initiative and turn the gargantuan Star Carrier <em>America</em> toward the unknown. For the element of surprise is the only hope of stalling the Sh'daar assault on Earth's solar system—and the war for humankind's survival must be taken directly to the enemy. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Ian Douglas is the author of the popular military SF?series <em>The Heritage Trilogy</em>, <em>The Legacy Trilogy</em>, and <em>The Inheritance Trilogy</em>. A former naval corpsman, he lives in Pennsylvania. </p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Odiwe's sequel to <em>Sense and Sensibility</em> is best at recalling Austen's descriptive abilities, but falls short in its treatment of Austen's beloved characters. Three years after Marianne and Col. William Brandon get married, they're still unable to discuss two critical and intertwined issues: namely, that Marianne feels jealous of William's ward, Eliza, the illegitimate daughter of his first love; and the reappearance of Eliza's father, John Willoughby, who was once Marianne's love. Matters are complicated by the growing affection between Marianne's sister, Margaret, and William's nephew Henry, a developing relationship that serves as a stand-in for the original book's. As their unshared feelings fester, distance grows between Marianne and William; Odiwe nods occasionally to the inequality between marriage partners, which allows the man to carry on much as he did prior to marriage, an issue that Austen herself would likely tackle; unfortunately, it's hard to maintain suspense when the central plot conflict can be cleared up with a five-minute conversation. <em>(Nov.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Odiwe follows Lydia Bennet’s Story (2008), her sequel to Pride and Prejudice, with a sequel to Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Marianne has settled nicely into life as wife and mother, although every so often she indulges in one of her infamous flights of sensibility. She is certain her husband, William, adores her, but has he gotten over his passion for his first love, whose portrait occupies a place of honor in their home? The arrival of William’s nephew Henry grants Marianne the opportunity to play matchmaker between Henry and her sister Margaret, but the return of John Willoughby to Dorsetshire is not welcome news because now Marianne faces the difficult decision of whether to remain true to the quietly dependable man who married her, or give in to temptation with the rogue who broke her heart. Odiwe’s elegantly stylish writing is seasoned with just the right dash of tart humor, and her latest literary endeavor is certain to delight both Austen devotees and Regency romance readers. --John Charles </p>

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<div><p class="description"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; ">Amazon.com Review</span></p><p>Poor Stanley. He's a perfectly normal boy until one morning he wakes up flat. After his parents peel the incriminating bulletin board off of him, Stanley must adjust to life as a pancake. He is a boy who takes this kind of thing in stride, though, and soon he's enjoying the advantages of squashedness. Sliding under closed doors is fun, and it's gratifying to be of use to his mother when she drops her ring through a narrow metal grating. Expensive plane fare to California? No problem. Svelte Stanley folds comfortably into a brown paper envelope. There's even room left over in there for an egg-salad sandwich. But Stanley's true moment of glory comes when a gang of thieves begins stealing paintings from the Famous Museum of Art. The case seems hopeless--until our two-dimensional hero saves the day. Here is one boy who doesn't let his profile-challenged body stop him from living life fully--that is, until his brother finds a way to help him become well rounded again. Jeff Brown's matter-of-fact tone and Tomi Ungerer's witty and engaging drawings tickle the funny bone, making this 1964 classic a perennial favorite. (Ages 4 to 8) <em>--Emilie Coulter</em></p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Kindergarten-Grade 3–Based on Jeff Brown's original story (HarperCollins, 1964), this oversize picture book condenses some of the adventures of the ever-popular character who was flattened by a bulletin board. Ending up four feet tall, a foot wide, and half-an-inch thick, Stanley discovers that being flat is not only novel (he can slip under cracks), but also exciting. He is mailed off to California in a large envelope; he can be flown like a huge kite; and one night, disguised as a shepherdess, he hides in a painting in the art museum and foils some thieves. Full-page, cartoon illustrations in watercolor and crayon enhance the story while remaining true to the original. This version of an old favorite will introduce a beloved character to a new generation of younger children. It should have wide appeal._–Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY_ <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The Lambchop family has just about recovered from Stanley’s flatness when their peace and quiet is disrupted once again, this time by a very eager-to-please young genie. He does the boys’ homework instantly, produces a hybrid housepet called a liophant, and introduces Stanley and his family to the joys (and pitfalls) of fame, all because they wished for it . . . didn’t they? Long out of print, this high-spirited sequel to Flat Stanley should delight newly independent readers. (Originally published as A Lamp for the Lambchops.)</p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Jeff Brown has worked on the editorial staffs of The New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post, and his stories have appeared in these magazines and many others. Mr. Brown is the author of several other books about the Lambchop Family, including STANLEY aND THE MAGIC LAMP and FLAT STANLEY both published by HarperCollins. Jeff Brown lives in New York, NY. </p><p>Steve Bjšrkman has illustrated many books for young readers including In 1492 by Jean Marzollo, and ALIENS FOR BREAKFAST, ALIENS FOR LUNCH, and ALIENS FOR DINNER. He lives in Irvine, CA, with his wife and three children. </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Special delivery: Danger! </p><p>When Stanley's mother needs the secret ingredient for a special recipe, Stanley mails himself to Mexico to track down its mysterious maker. But when a band of spies threatens to steal the secret, Stanley's simple trip becomes a race against an opponent that even a flat boy like himself can't slip past!! </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Jeff Brown created the beloved character of Flat Stanley as a bedtime story for his sons. He has written other outrageous books about the Lambchop family, including <em>Flat Stanley</em>, <em>Stanley and the Magic Lamp</em>, <em>Invisible Stanley</em>, <em>Stanley's Christmas Adventure</em>, <em>Stanley in Space</em>, and <em>Stanley, Flat Again!</em></p>

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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Stanley’s not the only flat one! </p><p>When a flat skull is discovered in Africa, Stanley Lambchop decides to travel there with his brother, Arthur, and their father, George. Maybe studying the skull will give them clues to Stanley's flatness. But once in Africa, the Lambchops are in for more adventure than they bargained for. From lions to zebras to elephants, it's the safari of a lifetime! </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Jeff Brown created the beloved character of Flat Stanley as a bedtime story for his sons. He has written other outrageous books about the Lambchop family, including <em>Flat Stanley</em>, <em>Stanley and the Magic Lamp</em>, <em>Invisible Stanley</em>, <em>Stanley's Christmas Adventure</em>, <em>Stanley in Space</em>, and <em>Stanley, Flat Again!</em></p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>One day June Nealon was happily anticipating a lifetime of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart. Now her life is a waiting game. Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for justice. Waiting for a miracle to happen. For Shay Bourne, life holds no more surprises. The world has given him nothing, and he has nothing to offer the world. In a heartbeat, though, something happens one day that changes everything for him. Now he has one last chance for salvation, and it lies with June's twelve-year-old daughter, Claire. But between Shay and Claire stretches an ocean of bitter regrets, past crimes and the rage of a mother who has lost her child. Once again, Jodi Picoult mesmerises and enthralls readers with a story of justice, love and redemption.</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Five separate narrators tell a sometimes muddled story involving race fixing, kidnapping and murder in Estep’s second Ruby Murphy mystery (after 2003’s Hex), set primarily at New York’s Belmont Park. The most distinctive voice belongs to Ruby, a good-hearted gal who’s taken up with a troubled jockey, Attila Johnson, after the unexpected departure of her FBI agent boyfriend, Ed Burke. Attila, torn between his attraction to Ruby and his love for his seriously disturbed wife, also has problems on the track where he’s trying to overcome past mistakes. Ed Burke, Ruby’s pal Big Sal and sad loner Ben Nester provide the other points-of-view, but their combined tale of tangled relationships, misunderstandings and jealousies isn’t always easy to follow. Still, Estep’s ability to take readers into the "backside" at the racetrack where the horses, jockeys, grooms and hotwalkers work make this an entertaining ride.<br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Maggie Estep’s critically praised heroine, Ruby Murphy, is back! Back in Coney Island with a bunch of endearing misfits, back at the racetrack ogling thoroughbreds, and back learning that, on the seamy side of the sport of kings, survival can be a long shot.   </p><p>Ruby’s life is nothing if not complicated: she’s spending a lot of her time worrying about a jockey named Attila Johnson; a good-hearted Teamster with a bad back; a neighbor who is suspicious of anything that moves; one very fat cat who craves raw meat; a missing FBI agent; an underused piano; a few fine horses—and the sure knowledge that somehow, somewhere, there is a killer among them. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Toni Morrison's highly acclaimed novel <em>Sula</em> is as gripping on audiotape as it is on paper. The Nobel Prize-winning writer narrates the unabridged version of the book in a rich, soothing voice that mesmerizes listeners with its relaxed and methodical cadence. <em>Sula</em> revolves around the relationship between two little girls growing up in a poor, black neighborhood nestled high in the hilltops. "The Bottom," as the barrio came to be known, is brimming with eccentric residents but sadly deprived of human warmth. (The town actually takes pride in celebrating National Suicide Day.) However, out of this bitter, abrasive environment grows a beautiful friendship between Sula and Nel. Their shared secrets and dreams blossom through childhood, but their special bond suffers after the two separate. Sula leaves the Bottom to conquer the unknown cities of America, while Nel becomes a homebody, settling down as a wife and mother. When Sula returns to her hometown, she feels like a stranger; she repels everyone, even the only true friend she ever knew. Morrison's vocal range evokes an extraordinary atmosphere of survival in a harsh and unforgiving world. <em>(Four cassettes; running time: aprox. four hours)</em></p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Hearing an author read her own work creates a special ambiance. To hear Morrison read a short, unabridged novel published 24 years ago, to hear in her voice how much she still values the writing, well, who could ask for more? The only drawback is that Morrison, while very much in tune with her characters, often lets her voice drop to a whisper, making these tapes difficult to listen to while driving and almost impossible on a highway with the window open. On the page, Sula is one of her more clearly defined novels?the friendship and later hatred that envelopes the lives of two black women from "the bottom"?but the imagistic nature of the writing means listeners may have to replay passages if they want to follow the action. A small price to pay for a masterpiece.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York<br />Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>“Deeply perceptive. . . . Return[s] risk and mischief to the contemporary American novel.” —John Irving, _The New York Times Book Review  </p><p><em>“Toni Morrison has made herself into the D. H. Lawrence of the black psyche, transforming individuals into forces, idiosyncrasy into inevitability.” —</em>New York  </p><p><em>“Arresting images, fierce intelligence, poetic language . . . One becomes entranced by Toni Morrison’s story.” —</em>The Washington Post   </p><p><em>“Wrenchingly good. A terrific book.” —</em>The Philadelphia Inquirer  </p><p><em>“Hypnotic, stunningly alive.” —</em>The San Diego Union-Tribune  </p><p><em>“That rare commodity, a truly public novel. . . . Morrison’s genius lies in her uncanny ability to immerse you totally in the world she creates.” —</em>Newsweek  </p><p><em>“Powerful. . . . A stunning performance. . . . Morrison is one of the most exciting living American writers.” —</em>Kansas City Star  </p><p><em>“It takes one to the sheer edge of human relationships.” —</em>Vogue  </p><p><em>“Wise, beautiful, astonishing, absolutely breathtaking.” —</em>St. Louis Globe-Democrat  </p><p><em>“Reminds us again that Toni Morrison is one of the finest writers in America today.” —</em>Louisville Courier-Journal  </p><p>_“<strong>Tar Baby</strong>_ <em>is stupendous. Morrison is a writer of amazing skill.” —</em>Roanoke Times &amp; World  </p><p><em>“Its scope is grand and the interplay complex. But Morrison has the control of a skilled choreographer, with a careful eye pinned on pacing, suspense, grace, and frenzy. . . . She has an awesome lyric flair.” —</em>The Charlotte Observer<br />_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Ravishingly beautiful and emotionally incendiary, <strong>Tar Baby</strong>_ _is Toni Morrison’s reinvention of the love story. Jadine Childs is a black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes and desires. As Morrison follows their affair, which plays out from the Caribbean to Manhattan and the deep South, she charts all the nuances of obligation and betrayal between blacks and whites, masters and servants, and men and women. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Bestseller Green (Swapping Lives, The Other Woman) injects a topical note into an otherwise paint-by-numbers work. After a terrorist attack on an Amtrak train kills 39-year-old Tom, his death serves as the catalyst for changes in the lives of four estranged schoolmates he left behind in England. Reuniting at Tom's memorial service are Holly, a former free spirit uncomfortably forced into becoming a suburban matron by her workaholic, social-climbing husband; Olivia, a lonely director of an animal shelter; Paul, a writer whose blissful marriage with his fashionable wife is marred by their inability to conceive; and Saffron, a recovering alcoholic actress secretly involved with a married Hollywood megastar. Tom's death reignites their friendship, causes them to reevaluate their lives and sends them marching toward a concluding warm fuzzy. Green's writing is competent, though her characters feel more like embodiments of their problems than actual people. There are few surprises, but the fairy tale ending should appease Green's many fans. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Green, author of chick-lit favorites <em>Swapping Lives</em> (2006) and <em>The Other Woman </em>(2005), explores the way one man's death affects the lives of his friends. Tom Fitzgerald, a Brit living in the States, is only 39 when he kisses his wife and children good-bye and boards a doomed train. In the wake of his death, his friends, some of whom haven't seen in each other in nearly two decades, come together to remember him. Despite one night of passion, Holly and Tom remained best friends, and she thinks she is content with her picture-perfect life despite a lack of love for her husband until she reconnects with Tom's charismatic, introspective younger brother. Olivia takes a chance on a man Tom set her up with shortly before he died. An actress in L.A., Saffron has fallen in love with one of Hollywood's sexiest stars, but she is growing tired of waiting for him to leave his loveless marriage. Paul and Anna couldn't love each other more, but her inability to conceive a child mars their happy marriage. Peopled with her trademark likable, sympathetic characters, Green's latest is sure to have wide appeal. <em>Kristine Huntley</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<div><h3>From Kirkus Reviews</h3><p>Dazzling metaphysical epic-adventure as Barker surpasses his previous ground-breaking work (The Great and Secret Show, 1989, etc.) to reconfigure the Fall and to imagine a modern-day attempt to reverse it. A complex cosmology underpins the vigorous, at times horrific, action here: <code>Imajica'' is the known universe of five</code>Dominions,'' or parallel worlds, four <code>reconciled'' but the fifth, Earth,</code>unreconciled''--unaware of the other four, of the tyrannical <code>Autarch'' who rules them, and of the</code>God Hapeximendios,'' who oversees all five (and who wrested <code>His'' power from the</code>Goddesses'' of old). Periodically, Hapeximendios has sent His <code>sons''--including Christ--to attempt to unite, by magical rites, the Fifth Dominion to the others. The last attempted</code>Reconciliation'' ended in catastrophe--an invasion of Earth by hellish powers--and today magic has been nearly eradicated from Earth by a <code>Society'' that alone knows of the Imajica and of the catastrophe. The densely woven story here opens with a jealous man venturing into London's dankest slum to hire an assassin to kill his estranged wife, Judith; the assassin turns out to be a</code>mystif,'' a fabulous creature from the Second Dominion, capable of appearing as the erotic ideal of any who behold it. As the mystif hunts Judith, it in turn is hunted by Judith's former lover, <code>Gentle,'' who in time learns that he is the new</code>Reconciler''- -and the mystif his long-forgotten servant. Undertaking dangerous, splendor-filled journeys through the other Dominions, Gentle and the mystif fall in love, marry, and encounter numerous fantastic creatures and, finally, death; later, Gentle helps dethrone the Autarch, learns the chilling secret of his and Judith's origin, helps free the Goddesses and slay God, and, back on Earth, inspires the destruction of the Society and undertakes Reconciliation--with hell-borne, then heaven-sent, results. An astonishing feat of the imagination, immensely engrossing despite its demanding--at times indulgent--length, running riot with ideas, fantastical inventions, graphic sex and violence, soul- terrors, and emotional and intellectual resonances. Barker's best yet. -- <em>Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>'Moves with tidal force and power' - William S Burroughs 'The tears of blood and nightmare imagery are passionate and ingenious! Imajica is a ride with remarkable views' - Times Literary Supplement 'Barker's fecundity of invention is beyond praise. In a world of hard-bitten horror and originality, Clive Barker dislocates your mind' - Mail on Sunday 'A powerful and fascinating writer with a brilliant imagination! Clive Barker is an outstanding storyteller' - J G Ballard </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In his first book since 1999, it's just like old times as Vonnegut (now 82) makes with the deeply black humor in this collection of articles written over the last five years, many from the alternative magazine <em>In These Times</em>. But the pessimistic wisecracks may be wearing thin; the conversational tone of the pieces is like Garrison Keillor with a savage undercurrent. Still, the schtick works fine most of the time, underscored by hand-lettered aphorisms between chapters. Some essays suffer from authorial self-indulgence, however, like taking a dull story about mailing a manuscript and stretching it to interminable lengths. Vonnegut reserves special bile for the "psychopathic personalities" (i.e., "smart, personable people who have no consciences") in the Bush administration, which he accuses of invading Iraq so America can score more of the oil to which we have become addicted. People, he says, are just "chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power." Of course, that's exactly the sort of misanthropy hardcore Vonnegut fans will lap up—the online versions of these pieces are already described as the most popular Web pages in the history of <em>In These Times. (Sept.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><em>A Man Without a Country</em> is Kurt Vonnegut’s hilarious and razor-sharp look at life (“If I die—God forbid—I would like to go to heaven to ask somebody in charge up there, ‘Hey, what was the good news and what was the bad news?’”), art (“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”), politics (“I asked former Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton what he thought of our great victory over Iraq and he said, ‘Mohammed Ali versus Mr. Rogers.’”), and the condition of the soul of America today (“What has happened to us?”). Gleaned from short essays and speeches composed over the last five years and plentifully illustrated with artwork by the author throughout, <em>A Man Without a Country</em> gives us Vonnegut both speaking out with indignation and writing tenderly to his fellow Americans, sometimes joking, at other times hopeless, always searching.</p><p><strong>Kurt Vonnegut</strong> is among the very few grandmasters of contemporary American letters, without whom the very term “American literature” would mean less than it does. His novels include <em>Cat’s Cradle</em> and <em>Slaughterhouse Five</em>, among so many others. Projects with Seven Stories Press in recent years include <em>God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian</em> and, with Lee Stringer, <em>Like Shaking Hands with God</em>, a book about writing. His most recent novel is <em>Timequake</em> (1997). In addition to his writing, Vonnegut is a visual artist of note. His paintings and prints can be seen at <em>www.vonnegut.com</em>. He lives with his wife, photographer Jill Krementz, in New York City.</p><p><strong>Daniel Simon</strong> is the founder and publisher of Seven Stories Press and served as editor on two previous books by Kurt Vonnegut, <em>God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian</em> and, with Lee Stringer, <em>Like Shaking Hands God</em>. Simon is also co-author of a biography of Abbie Hoffman, <em>Run, Run, Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman</em>.</p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>By any standards, Howard Zinn has led a remarkable life as teacher, writer, and social activist, a life in which those three categories are viewed not as compartmentalized tasks but as part of a unified identity. <em>You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train</em>, a title taken from his advice to students about his take on American history and current events, is a powerful testament to that life.</p><p>It begins with his 1956 acceptance of a teaching post at Atlanta's Spelman College, a school for black women that would soon be caught up in the civil rights movement. Zinn, who had already been radicalized on the streets of Brooklyn as a teenager, got caught up along with his students (who included the future head of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman, and author Alice Walker), and was kicked out in 1963 for "insubordination." He moved to Boston University, where he became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, and would prove a constant thorn in the side of university president John Silber throughout the 1970s and 1980s.</p><p>Zinn writes in plain language that brooks no nonsense when it speaks of moral urgency, but he isn't above a sense of humor. Noting that the FBI was watching him constantly during the war era, he wryly observes that, "I have grown to depend on them for accurate reports on my speeches." Individual scenes leap out at the reader: Zinn's horror when he realized, years after WWII, that he had dropped napalm bombs on German troops; a meeting in a college classroom with the sister and parents of one of the victims of the Kent State massacre; Selma, Alabama, police beating blacks attempting to register to vote while federal agents stand by and do nothing. Through it all, Zinn writes, "I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage, sacrifice, patience." <em>--Ron Hogan</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Noted left-wing historian Zinn ( A People's History of the United States ) believes that activism and education are inextricable, and his memoir illuminates a well-engaged life. Teaching at Atlanta's Spelman College in the early days of the civil rights movement, he found allies in principled students like Marian Wright (now Edelman) and budding writer Alice Walker. He advised SNCC in Selma, Ala. He volunteered to fight the Nazis but, after Hiroshima, developed a skeptical pacifism he further exercised as a passionate opponent of the Vietnam War. Zinn's narrative is oddly disjointed: not until late in the book does he recount his youth in the slums of Brooklyn, his discovery of Dickens, Marx and Steinbeck and his post-WW II years as a laborer and a 27-year-old college freshman. If Zinn is a bit Pollyannish, he's also inspirational, arguing that, because much has changed in history, "We can be surprised again. Indeed, we can do the surprising." <br>Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<h3>From</h3><p>One of the world’s greatest spiritual leaders reflects on his commitments as a human being, a Buddhist monk, and the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Stril-Rever, the Dalai Lama’s longtime translator, has collected his autobiographical musings, dharma talks, and public speeches, and provided informative commentary, to create a book of clarion essays shaped by the Dalai Lama’s wisdom, intellect, kindness, and humor, as well as his experiences of persecution, exile, and world travels. Readers both well versed in and new to the Dalai Lama’s teachings will make invaluable discoveries as the Dalai Lama emphasizes our common humanity, our interdependence, and the need for us to “cultivate a greater sense of universal responsibility.” The Dalai Lama calls for religious harmony and expresses his support for secular democracy and his hope for a peaceful resolution of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Most forcefully, and poetically, the Dalai Lama voices his growing concern over global environmental degradation. We must act together to protect nature, the source of our survival, the Dalai Lama writes, assuring us that if the Buddha returned, “He would be an ecologist!” --Donna Seaman </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“An important record of the mind and heart of one of the great figures of our times.” (New Age Retailer )  </p><p>“This gathering of insights on a variety of topics should ...please the Dalai Lama’s English-speaking adherents.” (Library Journal )  </p><p>“’Spirituality’” may be the most nebulous word in the English language, but My Spiritual Journey provides a definition that both devotee and atheist might approve: ‘the full blossoming of human values that is essential for the good of all.’” (The Washington Post )  </p><p>“Readers both well versed in and new to the Dalai Lama’s teachings will make invaluable discoveries as the Dalai Lama emphasizes our common humanity, our interdependence, and the need for us to ‘cultivate a greater sense of universal responsibility.’” (Booklist )  </p><p>“An intriguing portrait of the Tibetan spiritual leader.” (Los Angeles Times )  </p><p>“In his moving new memoir, My Spiritual Journey,… the Dalai Lama’s immense hope and good humor shine throughout.” (Organic Spa Magazine ) </p>


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<div><h3>From</h3><p>The term Roaring Twenties connotates an era of uninhibited excess, characterized by drinking, shameless flappers, jazz, and gangland wars. All of these aspects are covered in this enjoyable, if uneven, survey of the decade. Moore also convincingly asserts that this was a period of significant social and political change with long-term effects. Utilizing a topical approach, she offers interesting descriptions of the emergence of organized crime, the excesses of big business, the Harlem Renaissance, and the stirrings of civil rights activism. She provides many useful tidbits about personalities as varied as Al Capone and Marcus Garvey. As long as Moore stays with her descriptive narrative, her account moves along smoothly. Unfortunately, her efforts to analyze these trends and to link them to our current economic and political conditions don’t ring true and are often based upon unwarranted assumptions. Still, for general readers, this work provides an interesting and wide-ranging look at a tumultuous period. --Jay Freeman </p><h3>Review</h3><p><strong>Praise for <em>Anything Goes</em>:</strong>  </p><p>³A gorgeous historical indulgence.² --_InStyle_  </p><p>³Quickstepping over the surface of the 1920s, a high-octane and high- speed decade that F. Scott Fitzgerald christened the Jazz Age, U.K. writer Moore emphasizes that the 1920s was a time a lot like our recent past.² --_Publishers Weekly_  </p><p>³Lucy Moore¹s enlightening, well-researched biography of the 1920s will appeal to scholars as well as a general audience. Filled with attention-grabbing details that many historians neglect and a wide range of subjects‹from celebrities like Charlie Chaplin or Bessie Smith to political corruption and social upheaval‹_Anything Goes_ will not disappoint readers, no matter their educational background.² --_ForeWord Reviews_  </p><p>³A varied and dazzling portrait gallery of crooks and film stars, boxers and presidents, each brilliantly delineated and coloured in by a historian with a novelist¹s relish for human foibles.² --_The Sunday Times_ (London) </p>

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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>From <em>Michael Symon’s Live to Cook</em>: Veal Chop Milanese with Arugula Salad</strong>   </p><p>This is a very simple dish to make and is also one that works with all sorts of different meats, such as chicken, pork, beef, and most game. It makes a great late lunch or early dinner in the summertime when tomatoes and arugula are bountiful. The thing I love about it is you get some great texture from the standard breading, and the arugula salad keeps things light and flavorful. <em>-- Michael Symon</em></p><p><strong>Ingredients</strong></p><ul> <li>     4 bone-in veal chops, each 12 ounces </li> <li>     2 cups all-purpose flour </li> <li>     4 large eggs </li> <li>     2 cups panko bread crumbs </li> <li>     1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese </li> <li>     Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper </li> <li>     1/4 cup olive oil </li> <li>     2 tablespoons unsalted butter </li> <li>     1 garlic clove, minced </li> <li>     Juice of 1 lemon </li> <li>     1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil </li> <li>     1 red onion, thinly sliced  </li> <li>     3 cups arugula </li> <li>     1 cup grape tomatoes, halved </li> <li>     12 fresh basil leaves </li></ul><p>(Serves four)</p><p><strong>Directions</strong></p><p>Put the veal chops on a cutting board and cover them with a large piece of plastic wrap. With a meat mallet, pound the meat to 1/4 inch thick.</p><p>Set up a breading station: In three separate bowls put the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs. Lightly whisk the eggs. Stir the Parmesan into the bread crumbs.</p><p>Season the veal chops liberally with salt and pepper. Dredge them in flour and shake off the excess, then dip them in egg, and then in bread crumbs to coat. </p><p>Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat and add the olive oil and butter. When the fat is hot add the veal chops and cook until golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Remove to paper towels to drain until ready to serve.</p><p>In a large mixing bowl combine the garlic, lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon salt. Whisk in the extra-virgin olive oil. Add the onion, toss to coat evenly, and let marinate for 10 minutes.</p><p>Add the arugula, tomatoes, and basil to the dressing and gently toss together.</p><p>To serve, place a veal chop in the center of each plate and top with salad. </p><hr /><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Cleveland's most famous restaurateur, Symon is an iron chef on the Food Network, and he's got the personality to hang with Mario Batali and Bobby Flay. His fun, brash appeal often shines through in this collection of bold and surprisingly simple to master recipes. He doesn't hold back with the flavorings: a simple linguine with heirloom tomatoes is spiced with capers, anchovies and chili, and even veggie side dishes—peas and pancetta; Ohio creamed corn with bacon; crispy cauliflower with anchovy aioli—are decadent. Chapters on pickling and charcuterie are evidence that this is a legit chef's cookbook, but he makes such recipes as lamb bresaola, duck confit, and pickled ramps completely approachable. Though the prose feels dashed off (one paragraph says Symon's food is reliant on good technique and a few lines later claims it uses almost no technique whatsoever) and the design is occasionally forced (chapter contents and some headings are displayed in a font apparently meant to evoke Symon's many tattoos, but they're barely legible), the recipes are very strong. This volume is excellent for anyone who wants to cook like a chef without a lot of stress._ (Nov.)_ <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>"It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," Milo laments. "[T]here's nothing for me to do, nowhere I'd care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing." This bored, <em>bored</em> young protagonist who can't see the point to anything is knocked out of his glum humdrum by the sudden and curious appearance of a tollbooth in his bedroom. Since Milo has absolutely nothing better to do, he dusts off his toy car, pays the toll, and drives through. What ensues is a journey of mythic proportions, during which Milo encounters countless odd characters who are anything but dull.</p><p>Norton Juster received (and continues to receive) enormous praise for this original, witty, and oftentimes hilarious novel, first published in 1961. In an introductory "Appreciation" written by <em>The Phantom Tollbooth</em> leaps, soars, and abounds in right notes all over the place, as any proper masterpiece must." Indeed.</p><p>As Milo heads toward Dictionopolis he meets with the Whether Man ("for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be"), passes through The Doldrums (populated by Lethargarians), and picks up a watchdog named Tock (who has a giant alarm clock for a body). The brilliant satire and double entendre intensifies in the Word Market, where after a brief scuffle with Officer Short Shrift, Milo and Tock set off toward the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the twin Princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Anyone with an appreciation for language, irony, or <em>(Ages 8 and up)</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>" I read [The Phantom Tollbooth] first when I was 10. I still have the book report I wrote, which began 'This is the best book ever.'"<br>--Anna Quindlen, <em>The New York Times</em>  </p><p>"A classic... Humorous, full of warmth and real invention."<br>--_The New Yorker_  </p><p><em>From the Trade Paperback edition.</em> -- <em>Review</em></p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>Minxin Pei is unquestionably one of this country's best informed and most insightful analysts of contemporary Chinese politics. This well-written, provocative book­-a sobering picture of a China beset by severe social problems yet resistant to the political reforms needed to resolve them-­directly challenges much of the conventional wisdom about the rise of China. It is certain to be welcomed by scholars, policymakers, and general readers alike.<br>--Elizabeth J. Perry, author of <em>Patrolling the Revolution</em> (20060531)  </p><p>In this superb work, Pei asks penetrating questions about the course of China's development. He offers a very effective critique of the gradualist approach to reform, explaining that the problems China faces are not incidental to but an integral part of that approach. Powerfully argued, this is a major contribution sure to stir debate.<br>--Joseph Fewsmith, author of <em>China since Tiananmen</em> (20060612)  </p><p>Pei's notion of a 'trapped transition' will prove valuable­-and not just for its application to China. It serves to challenge the deterministic and evolutionary assumptions behind much of the literature on democratization.<br>--Philippe C. Schmitter, European University Institute (20060901)  </p><p>Not only does Minxin Pei make the case that the Chinese reforms are partial and self-limiting, but he also calls into question the hopeful view that rapid growth will ultimately generate political reform. His important book has implications for current debates about the United States-China relationship, but will also force a rethinking of the broader comparative literature on the developmental state.<br>--Stephan Haggard, co-author of <em>The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions</em> (20061001)  </p><p>Thought-provoking...Mr. Pei argues, persuasively, that China's gradualism, often favourably contrasted with the former Soviet Union's flirtation with radical reforms, is as much a political as an economic strategy.<br>--Martin Wolf (_Financial Times_ )  </p><p>Pei does not have much time for the optimistic assumption that democracy in China is just around the corner...For Pei, there is little chance of dethroning the Communist party behemoth in spite of the heroic efforts of the dissidents and democracy campaigners.<br>--Chris Patten (_Financial Times_ )  </p><p>As Pei sees it, big trouble looms [for China]. Continued progress toward a more modern economy will require the establishment of a true rule of law, which in turn will require 'institutional curbs' on governmental action. These two limitations on power are incompatible with the party's insistence on dominating society. So long as the current political framework remains in place, then, China is effectively, and perhaps fatally, trapped in its state of transition...[_China's Trapped Transition_ presents a] comprehensive and, I believe, compelling understanding of present-day China.<br>--Gordon G. Chang (_Commentary_ )  </p><p>[An] acute and insightful examination of China's ongoing transition.<br>--Chris Hunter (_China Economic Review_ )  </p><p>Pei's most significant contribution lies in his lucid exposition of the causal links between the structural logic of China's "illiberal adaptation" and its manifest socio-economic and political consequences...He has arguably--like Elvin before him--raised the level of debate and altered the terms of engagement.<br>--Richard Baum (_China Journal_ ) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The rise of China as a great power is one of the most important developments in the twenty-first century. But despite dramatic economic progress, China’s prospects remain uncertain. In a book sure to provoke debate, Minxin Pei examines the sustainability of the Chinese Communist Party’s reform strategy—pursuing pro-market economic policies under one-party rule. </p><p>Pei casts doubt on three central explanations for why China’s strategy works: sustained economic development will lead to political liberalization and democratization; gradualist economic transition is a strategy superior to the “shock therapy” prescribed for the former Soviet Union; and a neo-authoritarian developmental state is essential to economic take-off. Pei argues that because the Communist Party must retain significant economic control to ensure its political survival, gradualism will ultimately fail. </p><p>The lack of democratic reforms in China has led to pervasive corruption and a breakdown in political accountability. What has emerged is a decentralized predatory state in which local party bosses have effectively privatized the state’s authority. Collusive corruption is widespread and governance is deteriorating. Instead of evolving toward a full market economy, China is trapped in partial economic and political reforms. </p><p>Combining powerful insights with empirical research, <em>China’s Trapped Transition</em> offers a provocative assessment of China’s future as a great power. </p><p>(20070101) </p>

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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>This book of previously published essays by the author of <strong> and </strong> is an eclectic chronicle of the information revolution's first 10 years. "The last decade of the twentieth century came as a surprise," writes James Gleick. <em>What Just Happened</em> shows how surprising it was: in the book's first piece, from 1992, Gleick notes that "a relatively small number of personal computer users use Windows." (He's a good sport about it, too, poking fun at himself in an introduction for making such an obsolete observation.) A longish piece on Microsoft from 1995 seems to correct the problem when Gleick comments on "the ever-advancing boundary of Microsoft's Windows package." Then it goes on to get something really right: "Microsoft's own power poses a threat, too--the threat that comes with the self-fulfilling destiny of any monopolist." That's a prescient observation, considering the antitrust actions taken against the company since those words were written. The closing chapter of the book is fascinating and forward-looking; it's not about what just happened but what may happen. Gleick anticipates the appearance of wristwatches containing "biometric information about your loved ones, so you can see how your parents are doing." If that doesn't sound exciting enough, consider this prediction: "One can even imagine properly functional motor-vehicle offices." Now <em>that's</em> something to look forward to. <em>--John Miller</em></p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The expert science writer who explained Chaos to us now explains what technology has done to our lives.</p><p>Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Whereas Friedman's last book, The Next 100 Years, focused on "the impersonal forces that shape history in the long run," now the geopolitical intelligence expert examines the impact of current decision making, especially of the United States government, on the world. Friedman suggests that problems currently affecting us significantly may not actually matter in the long run. He compares the position of the United States today to that of Britain in 1910, and argues that the U.S. is an "unintended empire" and that its president is a "global emperor," in part due to the size of the country's economy. Throughout, Friedman argues for an end to the reluctance, as he sees it, to entangle the country in global affairs. He examines the past strategies of Presidents Bush and Clinton and stresses what President Obama and his successor must do about terrorism and technology to foster relations with the Middle East, Europe, the Western Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Israel, Iran, and Russia. When it comes to Bush and Obama he doesn't play favorites, criticizing their policies and comparing them with presidents who possessed more Machiavellian attributes, in his view. While his ideas are well-researched and compelling, Friedman makes the occasional leap that casual readers might find confusing. <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>PRAISE FOR GEORGE FRIEDMAN:<em></em>  </p><p><strong>“There is a temptation, when you are around George Friedman, to treat him like a Magic 8-Ball.″ —_New York Times Magazine_</strong><br><em></em></p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. As the digital age sparks increasing debate about what new technologies and increased connectivity are doing to our brains, comes this chilling examination of what our iPods and iPads are doing to our relationships from MIT professor Turkle (Simulation and Its Discontents). In this third in a trilogy that explores the relationship between humans and technology, Turkle argues that people are increasingly functioning without face-to-face contact. For all the talk of convenience and connection derived from texting, e-mailing, and social networking, Turkle reaffirms that what humans still instinctively need is each other, and she encounters dissatisfaction and alienation among users: teenagers whose identities are shaped not by self-exploration but by how they are perceived by the online collective, mothers who feel texting makes communicating with their children more frequent yet less substantive, Facebook users who feel shallow status updates devalue the true intimacies of friendships. Turkle 's prescient book makes a strong case that what was meant to be a way to facilitate communications has pushed people closer to their machines and further away from each other. (Jan.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>With the recent explosion of increasingly sophisticated cell-phone technology and social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook, a casual observer might understandably conclude that human relationships are blossoming like never before. But according to MIT science professor Turkle, that assumption would be sadly wrong. In the third and final volume of a trilogy dissecting the interface between humans and technology, Turkle suggests that we seem determined to give human qualities to objects and content to treat each other as things. In her university-sponsored studies surveying everything from text-message usage among teens to the use of robotic baby seals in nursing homes for companionship, Turkle paints a sobering and paradoxical portrait of human disconnectedness in the face of expanding virtual connections in cell-phone, intelligent machine, and Internet usage. Despite her reliance on research observations, Turkle emphasizes personal stories from computer gadgetry’s front lines, which keeps her prose engaging and her message to the human species—to restrain ourselves from becoming technology’s willing slaves instead of its guiding masters—loud and clear. --Carl Hays </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>England's almost bloodless Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which the Dutch king William of Orange overthrew James II, began as a hostile takeover but rapidly turned into a friendly merger, according to British historian Jardine (_The Awful End of Prince William the Silent_). She explores the fascinating Anglo-Dutch relationship to answer how and why two sworn foes became friends so seamlessly. Jardine focuses mainly on the subterranean intellectual, cultural and scientific intersections between the two countries and finds that contacts were continuous and mutually advantageous for decades before William's invasion. Cross-border fertilization resulted in two of the greatest painters of the age—Peter Paul Rubens and Anton van Dyck—working for English patrons while esteemed members of the Royal Society (such as Isaac Newton) corresponded with their Netherlandish counterparts (such as Christian Huygens). By looking so closely at elite opinion, however, Jardine too lightly dismisses the virility of petty nationalism lower down the scale and too easily glosses over the very real military tensions between the two powers. Nevertheless, this is a highly original work that will appeal to fans of Simon Schama's groundbreaking <em>The Embarrassment of Riches.</em> Color and b&amp;w illus. <em>(Sept.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Exploring the cultural interchange between England and the Netherlands in the mid-1600s, historian Jardine focuses on the royal and courtier circles that cultivated the arts and sciences blossoming in that period. Her effusively illustrated book reproduces nearly 100 contemporary images of paintings and prints, each of which leads into the text, which discusses their connective role between the two countries. Jardine also traces the connections between the House of Stuart and the House of Orange, whose political interactions culminated in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the drama of which historically overshadows their rich web of cultural relationships, Jardine’s inquiry suggests. Indeed the antagonists James II and William of Orange are instantly recognizable to history readers, whereas Jardine’s protagonist is hardly known. He is Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), a Dutch diplomat and connoisseur of painting, architecture, and garden design, and father of Christian, the renowned astronomer, and Constantijn, who was William’s secretary during the invasion of England. Weaving the fortunes of the Huygens clan into dynastic dynamics, Jardine richly displays the society in which Rubens and van Dyck flourished. --Gilbert Taylor </p>

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Sugar Beth Carey's come back to Parrish, Mississippi, and she's brought her reputation for wreaking havoc with her. She's broke, desperate, and too proud to show it, even with her old enemies lining up for a chance to get even. Her former girlfriends have their eyebrow pencils sharpened into lethal points. Winnie Davis, her longtime rival, is fully armed with the money, power, and prestige that had once been Sugar Beth's. But worst of all is Colin Byrne, the man whose career Sugar Beth had destroyed -- and not exactly accidentally. Now Colin's a famous novelist living in Sugar Beth's old mansion, and this modern day dark prince is using his writer's imagination to figure out how to bring the town's beautiful former princess to her knees. But despite her sassy mouth, feisty spirit, and hardheaded ways, Sugar Beth's no longer the spoiled rich girl they all remember. No, now she's a woman to be reckoned with ... and a great big reckonin' is about to happen, not least of all for one dark prince who might -- just might -- be thinking about falling in love with the wickedest girl in town. Ain't She Sweet? A funny, heartwarming, oh-so-spicy story of love, friendship, and the possibility of happily-ever-after.


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Isabel Favor is a life-style coach whose life is falling apart. Her accountant has run off with her money, her reputation is in tatters and her fiance has just dumped her for an older woman. Isabel needs to escape so she heads for Tuscany determined to find a little perspective - breathing room - and start over.Instead she ends up in a hotel room with Hollywood bad boy, Lorenzo Gage. He makes his living killing people on the screen at least. Ren's reputation is blacker than black. But when you're everyone's favourite villain, it goes with the territory. Isabel's always prided herself on her neatly ordered life. But look where being good has got her. Maybe it's time to live a little...?</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong> A Letter from Susan Elizabeth Phillips to Jennifer Crusie </strong> <br /><hr />Dear Jenny, </p><p>It’s once again time to talk about how wonderful you are. No, wait… My new book, <em>Call Me Irresistible</em>, is coming out on January 18, 2011, so it’s time to talk about how wonderful I am. Except I shamefully tried to do exactly that in our last interview, which was about you and your fabulous </p><p>Back to me. So go ahead. Ask me some questions. Make them easy. I’m not half as smart as you. But I’ll put my banana bread up against yours any day.</p><p>Love, <br />Susan  </p><hr /><p><strong> A Letter from Jennifer Crusie to Susan Elizabeth Phillips </strong> <br /><hr />Dear Susan, </p><p>My banana bread leaves your banana bread sniveling in the pan from its inadequacy. However, I might write another book again someday and then you’ll owe ME an interview, so I won’t mention that. HA. And I will be Adult and not make the interview about me.</p><p>Love, <br />Jenny  </p><hr /><p><strong> Amazon Exclusive: Jennifer Crusie Interviews Susan Elizabeth Phillips </strong>   </p><p><strong><em></em></strong>Jennifer Crusie:<em></em> Welcome to Jennifer Crusie’s interview with her Close Personal Friend, Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I’m Jenny Crusie and I’m thrilled to be interviewing Susan because she’s not only my Close Personal Friend, she’s also the Queen of Romantic Comedy! Oh, and because she has a new book coming out. And because that’s what Close Personal Friends do. So Susan, tell us about <em>Maybe This Time</em>. </p><p><strong> Susan Elizabeth Phillips:</strong> Sigh… Once you tell your Close Personal Friend how much you love her book, she never lets you forget it.</p><p><strong> JC:</strong> Sorry, sorry, I meant <em>Call Me Irresistible</em>. What was I thinking? Probably that “irresistible” is a bitch to spell, unlike “Maybe,” “This,” and “Time.” So you have a new novel coming out FINALLY. Not that I’ve been impatient or anything, but ye gods, woman, you have fans and none of us are getting any younger. What took you so long? And when do I get my Close Personal Friend of Susan Elizabeth Phillips copy?</p><p><strong> SEP:</strong> So glad you pointed out the difficulty of spelling “irresistible.” Where was my brain? As for taking so long… Writing is hard! Didn’t anybody ever tell you that? (An advanced copy of the book is coming to you in the mail. Along with a truly superb loaf of banana bread.)</p><p><strong> JC:</strong> Sorry, sorry, I’m just thrilled that <em>Call Me Irresistible</em> is coming out. Finally. For one thing, I get to see some of my favorite characters again like Meg from <strong> and Lucy from </strong>, not to mention Ted from <strong> and </strong>. Is it fun for you to revisit them? (Not that I care, it’s fun for me, so bring them back anyway, that’s what I say.) Oh, and will readers have to have read all those books to understand this one? Because if so, good marketing.</p><p><strong> SEP: </strong>I love revisiting old characters. Just like revisiting old friends. (Not that we’re old. Or even remotely mature.) The thing about my books is that they all stand alone, even those with familiar characters. And, boy, does <em>Call Me Irresistible</em> have a lot of familiar characters. If readers want to pick up the older books, more power to them. But they don’t have to. That would be like homework. Except more fun.</p><p><strong><em></em></strong>JC:<em></em> You remember back when I told you not to marry Charles and you got all huffy about it? Meg does the same thing to Lucy in this book and she listens. What kind of heroine tries to break up her pal’s wedding? (Tell Charles I said hi.)</p><p><strong><em></em></strong>SEP:<em></em> My husband’s name is Bill, not Charles. (This interview isn’t going nearly as well as I’d hoped.) Meg, the heroine of <em>Call Me Irresistible</em>, sees clearly what Lucy Jorik, the bride, can’t—that Lucy and Ted Beaudine aren’t the perfect match everyone believes them to be. Lucy flees her wedding just as she’s supposed to be saying, “I do,” leaving Meg to face the wrath of Wynette, Texas… and Ted Beaudine.</p><p><strong><em></em></strong> JC:<em></em> Okay, the last time I saw Ted he was a kid, so his appeal as a leading man wasn’t evident (cute, though) but now he sounds like The Perfect Man: a civic minded, athletic, sweet, rich genius. Did Meg turn into superwoman in between books to earn this paragon? Because I’m feeling inadequate enough without having to live up to a Perfect Heroine.</p><p><strong><em></em></strong> SEP:<em></em> Not to worry. As you pointed out, Ted really does have it all: looks, money, charm, and that annoying genius I.Q. As for Meg… Unlike our sexy paragon of a hero, Meg is so deliciously imperfect. Kind of a screw-up, although her heart’s in the right place. She also has big problems. She’s broke, stranded, and unemployed in a town where everybody’s out to get her…and where Ted Beaudine holds all the power.</p><p><strong><em></em></strong> JC:<em></em> What is it with you and Texans? Not that I have anything against Texas except, you know, politics, but you’re practically a tumbleweed groupie. Did you have a great one-night stand there that you’ve never quite let go of? Did you look across a room and meet the eyes of a tall, dark ranger and then Charles made you play golf? Because your erotic fascination with that state is well-documented. Give us all the details. And pictures. Pictures or it didn’t happen.</p><p><strong><em></em></strong>SEP:<em></em> My husband’s name is NOT CHARLES, it’s BILL! And who are you calling a groupie? I seem to remember a certain wild night, a certain famous rocker… I’ll say no more. As for my Texas settings—and no offense to my Lone Star friends—but that state is a writer’s dream. You can make any dang fool thing happen in Texas and readers will believe it. Thank you Sam Houston and all your fine descendents.</p><p><strong><em></em></strong> JC:<em></em> I never had a chance to be a groupie once you told him I threw rolls at you. You asked me some really good questions in our last Amazon interview (smart, talented, and beautiful; you really do have it all, oh Queen of the RomCom), so I’m throwing two of the best back at you: “How do the stories you want to tell now differ from the ones you wanted to tell when you started writing? How are they the same?”</p><p><strong><em></em></strong> SEP:<em></em> Do I detect a little sarcasm with all these Queen references? I should never have borrowed your tiara. Great, insightful questions, by the way! (Please don’t bring up the roll incident.) My core story will, I think, always be the same. I love books that make me laugh and get a lump in my throat, sometimes on the same page. I love sexy heroes, funny heroines, and happy endings. Basically, there’s not much difference between what I used to write and what I write now. Except now I’m a lot better speller.</p><p><strong><em></em></strong> JC:<em></em> Thank you, Susan for these insightful and fascinating answers. And now for our last question: WHAT’S NEXT? Tell me all about what you’re working on so I can harass you so you can finish it faster and I can read it. And because I’m a pal, proofread it.</p><p><strong><em></em></strong> SEP:<em></em> I’m not giving too much away by saying that, by page thirty of <em>Call Me Irresistible</em>, Lucy Jorik has fled her wedding, and we don’t see her again for the rest of the book. Leaving us to wonder… Exactly what happened to our runaway bride?</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Phillips crafts a laugh-out-loud and romantic story with panache that mostly makes up for some gaping plot holes. Onetime PGA star and smalltown mayor Ted Beaudine (met in 2005's Fancy Pants) is about to marry Lucy Jorik, the daughter of a former president, when she's persuaded to break it off by her best friend, Meg Koranda (2008's Glitter Baby), the aimless daughter of Hollywood royalty. Everyone in Wynette, Tex., loves Ted, but Meg feels Lucy deserves a passionate partner, not a god of self-control. After the disaster of calling off the wedding at the last minute, Meg's parents cut her off, stranding her in the hostile town. As Meg finds her own path and helps Ted discover his heart, the townspeople stoutly (and hilariously) defend their golden boy. However, some readers may not appreciate that Meg's good deed is punished so often and severely en route to happiness. (Jan.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p>


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Praise for Susan Elizabeth Phillips: 'She makes you laugh, makes you cry . . . Makes you feel good. Nobody tops Susan Elizabeth Phillips' JAYNE ANN KRENTZ 'funny, sexy, fast, wonderful . . . and hilarious' ELIZABETH LOWELL 'a wicked comedy . . . Don't miss . . .' CLOSER (on AIN'T SHE SWEET) 'Phillips adeptly develops the theme of love's healing power. Phillips digs deep to expose weaknesses and strengths in the psyche and faith of her characters. The result is a book that is touching, funny, sexy and humane.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'A warm and humorous story.' L.A. TIMES


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<h3>Review</h3><p>LaVyrle SpencerRefreshingly original, witty and touching.  </p><p>Elizabeth LowellWhat the world needs is more books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.  </p><p><em>Publishers Weekly</em>This delectable confection offers unadulterated entertainment. Sleek romantic comedy. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><em>THEY'RE CAVIAR AND BEER. KEROSENE ON FIRE. AND THEY'RE FALLING HEAD-OVER-HEELS IN LOVE....</em></p><p>She was the most beautiful British bauble in Europe's jet-set playgrounds. Now she's broke, furious, and limping down a backwoods road in an ugly pink Southern Belle gown....</p><p>He was tall, lean, and all-American gorgeous. He liked his brews cold and women loved to keep him warm. Why in hell is he stopping his car for this woebegone, surly Scarlett?</p><p>Meet Francesca Day and Dallie Beaudine, two incredible characters whose tangled love affair is at the heart of this ravishing <em>New York Times</em> bestseller from award-winning author Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Come enjoy the adventure of a lifetime -- an irresistible story that's touching, hilarious, and hellcat-passionate. You'll never forget Dallie and the sassy lady who needs a good swift kick in her... </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Praise for Susan Elizabeth Phillips: 'a wicked comedy...don't miss' CLOSER 'No one tops Susan Elizabeth Phillips' JAYNE ANNE KRENTZ 'Funny, sexy, funny, fast, funny, wonderful - and hilarious! If you can read Susan Elizabeth Phillips without laughing out loud, check for a pulse! What the world needs is more books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips' ELIZABETH LOWELL 'Witty, moving, passionate and tender...pure up-to-the-minute entertainment...well-written, funny, sexy, and altogether satisfying.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><blockquote><p>Welcome to the world of the Glitter Baby </p></blockquote><p>Fleur Savagar is the most beautiful woman in the world . . . to everyone but herself. With her oversized hands and paddle-boat feet, her streaky blond hair and funny green eyes, she lives a life filled with secrets that began before she was born. That was when her bewitching mother left home to find James Dean and met Errol Flynn instead. Now Fleur has to grow up quickly, and life won't make that easy. </p><p>Jake Koranda is both New York's most brilliant playwright and Hollywood's hottest actor. Difficult, talented, and tormented, he has no patience for international glamour girls, not even ones with beautiful bodies and smart-aleck mouths. But there's more to the Glitter Baby than shine, and Fleur's tougher than Jake expects. Even with the odds stacked against her, she's fiercely determined to discover the woman she's destined to be. </p><p>An ugly duckling who can't believe she's turned into a swan . . . A tough-guy movie star with a haunted past . . . In a land of broken dreams, can two unlikely lovers trust their hearts? </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Susan Elizabeth Phillips soared onto the <em>New York Times</em> bestseller list with <em>Dream a Little Dream</em>. She's the only four-time recipient of the Romance Writers of America's prestigious Favorite Book of the Year Award. A resident of the Chicago suburbs, Phillips is also a hiker, a gardener, a reader, a wife, and the mother of two grown sons. </p>

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<h3>Review</h3><p>"No one tops Susan Elizabeth Phillips" -- <em>--</em>_ Jayne Ann Krentz_  </p><p>"Susan Elizabeth Phillips triumphs once again" -- <em>--</em>_ Romantic Times_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><blockquote><p>Bobby Tom Denton is going to his Texas hometown to shoot his first movie. </p><p>Gracie Snow's job is to "handle" him. </p><p>Good luck with that. </p></blockquote><p>"There's been a terrible misunderstanding, Mr. Denton. Can't you see that I don't look like a stripper?" Gracie snatched up her suit jacket. "Please. Could we go somewhere private to talk?" </p><p>Bobby Tom sighed and uncoiled from his chair. "I s'pose we'd better. But you've got to give me your word you'll keep your clothes on. It wouldn't be fair for me to see you naked when my party guests can't." </p><p>"I promise, Mr. Denton, that you will never see me naked." </p><p>He looked doubtful. "I don't mean to question your good intentions, honey, but judging from my past history, it might not be that easy for you to resist." </p><p>A head-spinning battle of the sexes with Beauty waging war against Brain, except this male beauty has a fine intelligence, and brainy Gracie isn't nearly as ordinary as she thinks. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Phillips's new novel, a psychology-driven tale of tortured yet shallow characters, can't touch her earlier, delightful Hot Shot. Honey Jane Moon is only 16 but has been her family's commanding force for years when she decides to drive her pretty cousin Chantal Booker from South Carolina to California to audition for TV's Dash Coogan Show. Dash, "the last of America's movie cowboy heroes" is indeed impressed--but by Honey, whom he picks to play his daughter. Although suddenly tossed into life's fast lane, Honey still wants just what she always wanted: a close-knit family and some affection. Her South Carolina kin live with her, but their closeness resembles the adhesion of leeches. Dash, who learned about relationships from his ex-wives, turns a cold shoulder to Honey, who desperately needs him to be a real-life father figure, while Eric Dillon, Honey's "dark, sullen, and gorgeous" co-star, stomps on the puppy love she has to offer. Yet it is only through their complicated relationships that Honey, Dash and Eric can finally exorcise their personal demons. <br />Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>A New York Times Bestselling Author</strong></p><p>She has a crazy name, a heart full of hope, and a passion for making dreams come true. . . . Honey Jane Moon was a South Carolina orphan, discovered by Hollywood and made into a child star. Now she's all grown up, but her life is still a dramatic roller coaster. Two men know how fiercely she lives and loves. But what Honey wants most of all is the family she never had . . . </p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Phillips ( Fancy Pants ) recovers from a sluggish start to offer a fun and lively look at lots of 'tales' already love, microchips and rock 'n' roll. In 1976, California socialite Susannah Faulconer is engaged to marry an up-and-coming executive in her father's technology corporation when Sam Gamble hustles his way into Susannah's well-ordered life with a revolutionary product: a prototype for a microcomputer, the work of electronics maven Yank Yankowski. Sam, a long-hairedp. 42 visionary, captures Susannah's imagination, and when he crashes her picture-perfect garden wedding, she hikes up her gown and hops onto the back of his Harley. Her euphoria is short-lived as she realizes that neither Yank nor Sam has the requisite business sense to succeed in pk their venture. She digs in, making the most of her upper-crust training and a few library books on business, but it's clear they need a professional. The unlikely entrepreneurs pique the interest of marketing wizard Mitchell Blaine. Mitch sees Susannah as Sam's "woman trouble" but when he tries to cut her out of the company, he learns that under the ex-debutante facade is a woman who can play hardball with the boys. <br>Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>A New York Times Bestselling Author</strong></p><p>Susannah Faulconer flees her society wedding on the back of a bad boy's Harley and enters a world for which no etiquette book could ever prepare her. A world with men such as Mitch Blaine, a corporate genius who has no time for a rich California socialite, and Sam Gamble, a charismatic visionary. Now, the unforgettable woman called Hot Shot must find the courage to see her dreams through, on her own terms. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"A dazzling voice in contemporary woman's fiction" -- <em>Linda Barlow, author of Leaves of Fortune</em>  </p><p>"Watch Susan Elizabeth Phillips go places!" -- <em>LaVyrle Spencer</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The Windy City isn't quite ready for Phoebe Somerville—the outrageous, curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is <em>definitely</em> not ready for the Stars' head coach, former gridiron legend Dan Calebow, a sexist jock taskmaster with a one-track mind. Calebow is everything Phoebe abhors. And the sexy new boss is everything Dan despises—a meddling bimbo who doesn't know a pigskin from a pitcher's mound. </p><p>So why is Dan drawn to the shameless sexpot like a heat-seeking missile? And why does the coach's good ol' boy charm leave cosmopolitan Phoebe feeling awkward, tongue-tied...and ready to fight? </p><p>The sexy, heartwarming, and hilarious "prequel" to <em>This Heart of Mine</em>—Susan Elizabeth Phillips's <em>New York Times</em> bestselling blockbuster—_It Had To Be You_ is an enchanting story of two stubborn people who believe in playing for keeps. </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>With the Civil War over, Kit Weston, a.k.a. Katherine Louise of Risen Glory Plantation, South Carolina, travels to New York disguised as a boy to eliminate her newly named guardian and regain control of her beloved plantation. Unfortunately for Kit, Baron Cain proves difficult to kill, and when he discovers her identity, Baron promptly stashes her in a New York finishing school for young ladies. </p><p>Three years later, Kit returns to Risen Glory to find that Baron has restored the plantation to its former prosperity. Baron scarcely recognizes the hoyden he remembers in the mature, 21-year-old Kit. The instant passion that flares between them is unwanted by both and equally undeniable. Pushed to the edge, Baron threatens to banish Kit from her beloved plantation, and she commits an impulsive, nearly unforgivable act. Baron's response is equally impossible and thrusts the pair into an intolerable situation. Wild and willful, passionate and wary, the two lovers must somehow find a way to overcome pride and distrust before there can be any likelihood of a loving resolution. </p><p>Readers who love Phillips's highly successful contemporary romances will be just as enthralled with this historical romance. Lush landscapes, complex characters, a charming cast of secondary players, and a subplot that takes a look at the effects of slavery and racist attitudes in the Old South all add up to an excellent novel. A rewrite of an early title, <em>Just Imagine</em> is classic historical romance at its best. <em>--Lois Faye Dyer</em></p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>This rewritten, retitled version of Phillips's 1984 Risen Glory is a classic tale of the Reconstruction Era, featuring a young Southern hellion who will do anything to reclaim her plantation, a Northern war hero who finds himself in possession of said plantation and guardian of the girl, and an abundance of well-defined secondary characters. It goes without saying that Baron Cain is definitely a hero of the first tier; but while he has some trust issues that he eventually overcomes with the help of the heroine it is Kit Weston's transformation from a fiery, reckless teenager into a strong, determined, courageous woman that is truly memorable. Skillfully weaving issues of politics, power, slavery, poverty, and social class into the plot, this historical may not be what readers expect from Phillips, but her strong characters, lively humor, and excellent pacing are all there. Phillips is a best-selling, RITA Award-winning writer and lives in the Chicago area. <br>Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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Lady Emma Wells-Finch has only two weeks to destroy her reputation. The ever-so-proper headmistress of England's St. Gertrude's School for Girls, Emma arrives in Texas knowing that only one thing will save her from losing everything she holds dear: complete and utter disgrace. Meanwhile, world famous playboy-athlete Kenny Traveler—suspended from the sport he loves because of very bad behavior—knows the only thing that can restore his career is complete and utter respectability. Unfortunately, he's been blackmailed into chauffeuring around a beautiful, bossy, single-minded Brit who's hell-bent on visiting honky-tonks, tattoo parlors, and worse. . . . Much worse.   The incomparable Susan Elizabeth Phillips gives readers a wild and sexy story brimming with hilarity and heart—a tall Texas tale of the sparks that fly when a gorgeous god of a man who can't afford another scandal hooks up with a hardheaded woman who's determined to cause one.


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Praise for Susan Elizabeth Phillips: 'a wicked comedy. . .don't miss' CLOSER 'No one tops Susan Elizabeth Phillips' JAYNE ANNE KRENTZ 'Funny, sexy, funny, fast, funny, wonderful - and hilarious! If you can read Susan Elizabeth Phillips without laughing out loud, check for a pulse! What the world needs is more books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips' ELIZABETH LOWELL 'Witty, moving, passionate and tender...pure up-to-the-minute entertainment...well-written, funny, sexy, and altogether satisfying.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this latest installment in Phillips's romance series starring the Chicago Stars football players (_This Heart of Mine_; <em>Nobody's Baby but Mine</em>), the bestselling novelist delivers a love story wrought with delicious sexual tension and charged banter. When debonair starting quarterback Dean Robillard, on a soul-searching road trip after a serious shoulder injury, happens across Blue Bailey, walking alongside the road wearing a beaver costume, he stops to help her. Blue is far from a Barbie-esque football groupie, but broke and stranded, she needs both a ride and a job, and the football all-star (driving a sexy Aston Martin) poses an interesting opportunity. As the two travel from Colorado to Dean's new farmhouse in east Tennessee, Blue resists his advances, and both athlete and vagabond struggle with deeply rooted trust and familial issues that are soon exacerbated by the unexpected presence of Dean's mother at the farm. While the verbal sparring in this textbook case of opposites attracting feels stagy at first, the rough edges come together in an alluring way. <em>(Feb.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>After her ex-boyfriend Monty insists that she is the only person he ever loved, Blue Bailey packs up everything she has (which isn't much) and moves from Seattle to Colorado to be with him. But once Blue arrives, she discovers Monty has found love again with a younger, blonder new girlfriend. With few job options and practically no money, Blue thought she might be stuck in Colorado for a long time, until Dean Robillard drives through on his way to Tennessee. The last person Blue wants to ask for a favor is a way-too-gorgeous-for-his-own-good stranger who annoys her to no end. And who turns out to be the quarterback for the Chicago Stars. But Dean is Blue's only ticket out, even if it means she is stuck with him all the way to Tennessee. RITA Award-winner Phillips creates yet another classic romance in her loosely connected Chicago Stars series with this splendidly satisfying tale of love, family, and redemption. Generously seasoned with plenty of tart humor and snappy dialogue, and graced with a delightfully amusing pair of protagonists trying desperately not to fall in love, <em>Natural</em> <em>Born</em> <em>Charmer</em> is simply irresistible. <em>John Charles</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Praise for Susan Elizabeth Phillips: 'a wicked comedy...don't miss' CLOSER 'No one tops Susan Elizabeth Phillips' JAYNE ANNE KRENTZ 'Funny, sexy, funny, fast, funny, wonderful - and hilarious! If you can read Susan Elizabeth Phillips without laughing out loud, check for a pulse! What the world needs is more books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips' ELIZABETH LOWELL</p>


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Praise for Susan Elizabeth Phillips: 'a wicked comedy...don't miss' CLOSER 'No one tops Susan Elizabeth Phillips' JAYNE ANNE KRENTZ 'Funny, sexy, funny, fast, funny, wonderful - and hilarious! If you can read Susan Elizabeth Phillips without laughing out loud, check for a pulse! What the world needs is more books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips' ELIZABETH LOWELL


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Phillips (_It Had to Be You_) makes old Hollywood gossip new again in this over-the-top, hot-under-the-sheets rom-com. Sitcom <em>Skip and Scooter</em> co-stars Georgie York, who like her character exudes spunky charm, and Bram Shepard, whose upbringing couldn't be more different from the nice boy he plays, hate each other even before Bram's offscreen sexual escapades lead to the sitcom's cancellation. Flash forward eight years: his career has cratered, and her biggest accomplishment has been briefly marrying hunky star Lance Marks, who abandons her for sex-goddess-turned-international-do-gooder Jade Gentry. So when Bram and Georgie wake up from a Vegas bender and find themselves married to each other, they make the most of it: Georgie aims to undo the damage Lance has done to her heart and her public image, while Bram is gunning for a second chance at life, love and stardom. It's a blast to watch the hate-each-other-yet-made-for-each-other couple as they duck paparazzi or spar before falling into bed. In this massively entertaining romp, redemption is always possible, and even a fake Hollywood couple trapped in a pretend marriage might find true love. <em>(Feb.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><em>How did this happen?</em> Georgie York, once the costar of America's favorite television sitcom, has been publicly abandoned by her famous husband, her film career has tanked, her father is driving her crazy, and her public image as a spunky heroine is taking a serious beating. </p><p>What should a down-on-her-luck actress do? <em>Not</em> go to Vegas . . . <em>not</em> run into her detestable former costar, dreamboat-from-hell Bramwell Shepard . . . and <em>not</em> get caught up in an ugly incident that leads to a calamitous elopement. Before she knows it, Georgie has a fake marriage, a fake husband, and maybe (or not) a fake sex life. </p><p>It's a paparazzi free-for-all, and Georgie's nonsupporting cast doesn't help. There's Bram's punk-nightmare housekeeper, Georgie's own pushy parent, a suck-up agent, an icy studio head with a private agenda, and her ex-husband's new wife, who can't get enough of doing good deeds and saving the world—the bitch. As for Georgie's leading man, Bram's giving the performance of his life, but he's never cared about anyone except himself, and it's not exactly clear why. </p><p>Two enemies find themselves working without a script in a town where the spotlight shines bright . . . and where the strongest emotions can wear startling disguises. </p>

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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>After seeing his father hauled off to debtor’s prison, Tom Tin sets out to take revenge on Mr. Goodfellow, the man responsible for his family’s misfortunes. But the fog-filled London streets are teeming with sinister characters. Tom encounters a blind man who scavenges the riverbed for treasure—and wants what Tom digs up; Worms, a body snatcher who reveals a shocking surprise; and a nasty gang of young pickpockets who mistake Tom for someone ominously known as the Smasher. And ultimately, Tom comes up against the cruel hand of the law.   </p><p>Accused of murder, Tom is given a seven-year sentence. He is to be transported to Van Diemen’s Land with other juvenile convicts. But Tom can’t abide life on the Hulk, the old ship where the boys are temporarily held. He decides to escape. But if he’s to succeed, his luck needs to turn. . . .  </p><p><em>From the Hardcover edition.</em></p><h3>Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</h3><p>I begin my adventure  </p><p>When she was six and I was eight, my little sister, Kitty, died. She fell from a bridge, into the Thames, and drowned before anyone could reach her. My mother was there when it happened. She heard a scream and turned to see my sister spinning through the air. She watched Kitty vanish into the eddies of brown water, and in that instant my mother's mind unhinged.<br />She put on mourning clothes of the blackest black and hid herself from head to toe, like a beetle in a shell. As the sun went up, as the sun went down, she stood over Kitty's grave. Her veils aflutter in the wind, her shawls drooping in the rain, she became a phantom of the churchyard, a figure feared by children. Even I, who had known her all my life, never ventured near the place when the yellow fogs of autumn came swirling round the headstones.<br />It was a day such as that, an autumn day, when my father had to drag her from my sister's grave. The fog was thick and putrid, like a vile custard poured among the tombstones. From the iron gate at the street I couldn't see as far as the church. But I saw the crosses and the marble angels, some distinct, some like shadows, and my father among them, as though battling with a demon. I heard my mother wailing.<br />Her boots were black, her bonnets black, and the rippling of her clothes made her look more like a beast than a person. She shrieked and fought against him, clinging to the headstone, clawing at the earth. When at last my father brought her through the gate, she was howling like a dog. In her hand was a fistful of dirt. She looked at it, and fainted dead away.<br />We lifted her into the cart, among the bundles and the chests that represented all our goods. The drayman climbed to his seat. He cracked his whip and swore at his horse, and off we started for Camden Town.<br />I walked beside my father as we passed our empty house and turned toward the bridge. By chance, the drayman chose the same route that Father took every morning on his useless treks to the Admiralty. I saw him look up at the house, then down at the ground, and we went along in silence. Only a few feet before me, the cart was no more than a gray shape. It seemed to be pulled by an invisible horse that snorted and wheezed as it clopped on the paving stones. My mother woke and sat keening on the cart.<br />We were nearly at the river before my father spoke. "This is for her own good," he said. "You know that, Tom."<br />"Yes," I said, though it wasn't true. We were not leaving Surrey for my mother's sake, but only to save the two pennies my father spent crossing the bridge every day. We were leaving because Mr. Goodfellow had driven us away, just as he had driven us from a larger house not a year before. I believed he would haunt us forever, chasing us from one shrinking home to the next, until he saw us out on the streets with the beggars and the blind. We were leaving Surrey because my father was a sailor without a ship.<br />He didn't walk like a sailor anymore. He didn't look like one, nor even smell like one, and I wouldn't have believed he had ever been a sailor if it weren't for the threadbare uniform he donned every morning, and for the bits of sailory knickknack that had once filled our house but now were nearly gone. In all my life I had watched him sailing out to sea only once, and then in a thing so woeful that it sank before he reached the Medway. That, too, had been Mr. Goodfellow's doing; that had been the start of it.<br />When we reached the timber wharfs at the foot of the bridge I could feel the Thames close at hand. Foghorns hooted and moaned, and there came the thumping of a steamboat as it thrashed its way along the river. But I couldn't smell the water; the stench of the fog hid even that.<br />We paid our toll and started over the bridge. Father walked at the very edge, his sleeve smearing the soot that had fallen on the rail. Horses and carriages appeared before us, and a cabriolet came rattling up from behind. I had to dodge around people, and step nimbly from a curricle's path, but my father walked straight ahead with a mind only for the river below us. Ladies on the benches drew in their feet as he passed. One snatched up a little white dog. A man shouted, "Watch where you're walking." But Father just brushed by them all.<br />I imagined that he could somehow see the water, and all the life upon it. Sounds that drifted up to me as mere groans and puzzling splashes must, to him, have been visions of boatsmen and bargemen, of oars and sails at work. His head rose; his shoulders straightened for a moment.<br />I had no wish to know his world, though I had been born by the banks of the Thames, where the river met the sea. We'd left the village before I was two, at the wishes of my mother. The river had taken her father, and the sea had taken her brothers, and ever since my sister's death she'd taught me to fear them both. I often thought--when I saw the Thames swirling by--that one or the other was waiting to take me too.  </p><p><em>From the Hardcover edition.</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. Shortly before the Cuban missile crisis, mystery Grand Master Block (_Hit and Run_) donned a pen name to publish this absorbing yarn about five men vying for a $100,000 prize put on Fidel Castros head by a mysterious guy named Hiraldo. Bounty hunter Ray Garrison only works on his own; hardened murderer Michael Turner is paired with 19-year-old Jim Hines, avenging his brothers execution; and Earl Fenton, longing to do some good before he dies of cancer, teams up with jack-of-all-trades Matt Garth, who just wants the money. As they make their way to the Cuban coast, sympathetic locals support the five would-be killers in their titular goal despite their penchant for rape and mayhem. Passages discussing Castros life and times add depth to this intense, taut thriller, just as good now as it was in 1961. <em>(Jan.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Hard Case Crime continues to resurrect early work by genre salwart Lawrence Block that was orginally published in mass-market paperback under various pseudonyms. This one may be the most interesting find of all: published in 1961, before the Cuban Missile Crisis and only a few years after Castro assumed control of the government, the novel anticipates the various off-the-wall attempts by the U.S. to assassinate the Cuban leader. Five Americans, some hardened criminals, others idealists with various anti-Castro axes to grind, are offered $20,000 each if any of them succeed in killing the dictator. Three separate plots unwind simultaneously, as Block tracks the reactions of his five principals as they, variously, realize the improbability of their task, stick to their idealistic guns, or come under the sway of the Cuban nationals they encounter. The ending may seem far-fetched in light of later history, but as a kind of alternate pulp history, the novel works just fine, with plenty of blood and bullets and, as always with Block, a fine feel for character. A curiosity, yes, but also an entertaining thriller. --Bill Ott </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Liverpool, 1893, and tragedy sends Beth Bolton on a journey far from home ...Fifteen-year-old Beth's dreams are shattered when she, her brother Sam and baby sister Molly are orphaned. Sam believes that only in America can they make their fortunes so, reluctantly leaving Molly with adoptive parents, brother and sister embark on the greatest adventure of their lives.Onboard the steamer to New York there are rogues aplenty. But Beth's talent with the fiddle earns her the nickname Gypsy - and the friendship of charismatic gambler Theo and sharp-witted Londoner, Jack. And after dodging trouble across America, finally the foursome head for the dangerous mountains of Canada and the Klondike river in search of gold.How far must Beth go to find happiness? And will her travels lead this gypsy to a place she can call home?</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The pseudonymous Davys's third crime spoof to feature stuffed animals who behave just like humans (after Lanceheim) might have benefited from characters the reader can care more about as well as more humor. Insp. Falcon Ècu and his partner, Anna Lynx, accompany Mollisan Town's Supt. Larry Bloodhound to a crime scene in Tourquai, where Oswald Vulture's head has been sliced off and apparently carried away by the evildoer. If Larry and his team find the missing head of the deeply disliked "finance vulture," it can be reattached and Oswald resurrected. The pace picks up after Philip Mouse, a PI pal of Larry's, begins sniffing around in what becomes a standard police procedural. Plush suspects include Jake Golden Retriever, an art forger working for slippery gallery owner Igor Panda; eccentric inventor Oleg Earwig; Oswald's society wife, Irina Flamingo; and Oswald's mistress, Jasmine Squirrel; but the "killer" is an eye-winking surprise. (Mar.) <br>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>The Mollisan Town quartet, of which this is the third installment, is an uneven adventure. The basic conceit—that all the characters are stuffed animals—worked to wonderful effect in Amberville (2009), a mystery with metaphysical undertones. (Why would factories make stuffed animals when they’re destined to be destroyed?) But Lanceheim (2010) was a disappointment, a plodding religious allegory whose revelations were mundane. And now we have Tourquai, another mystery, in which a disliked, venture-capitalist vulture is beheaded while sitting at his desk. The police—Larry Bloodhound, Falcon Ècu, and Anna Lynx—try to determine who had the most to gain: sultry secretary Emanuelle Cobra, the mysterious Jasmine Squirrel, or Igor Panda, trafficker in forged paintings? There is still some pleasure in exploring the pseudonymous Davys’ world and pondering the peculiar biology of its denizens. But does using stuffed animals as characters make for a better book? In Amberville, it did. In Lanceheim, it didn’t disguise a lack of invention. And here it’s mere upholstery on a moderately satisfying mystery. One wonders, mildly, what’s in store for the finale, Yok. --Keir Graff </p>

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Valerie Wilson Wesley’s Tamara Hayle mystery series featuring Newark, New Jersey’s number one private investigator are loved for their smart, sexy protagonist who “has a way with a wisecrack that is positively lethal” (Washington Post). Now in Dying in the Dark, Hayle is entrenched in a sinister investigation that will demand her best detective work yet.Tamara Hayle’s past has come back to haunt her–literally. She’s been plagued by terrifying dreams about Celia Jones, an old friend whose walk on the wild side led her to a horrible death. Celia’s teenage son, Cecil, begs Tamara to find his mother’s killer . . . only to end up dead himself, stabbed through the heart.The search for Celia and her son’s killer pulls Tamara deep into her friend’s troubled love life, where everyone adored her but somebody held a murderous  grudge. There’s her bullying thug of an ex-husband; a handsome ex-lover who woos Tamara with charm and lies; and an angry, jealous woman who claims that Celia broke her heart. And those were just the obvious people with axes to grind.Despite her better judgment and the admonitions of the police department, Tamara refuses to back away from the mystery surrounding her old friend’s death and the tragedy that met her son. All clues lead to the past Tamara shared with Celia Jones, and Tamara fears that that past will threaten her own son. But she uncovers more than she bargained for–and unearths secrets someone would kill to keep in the shadows.From the Hardcover edition.


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>            At twenty-three, Jazen Parker has completed his Legion hitch a hero.  But in four months, he’ll have a price on his head.  Worse, he’s lost his past, and he can’t find his future.  Worst of all, he’s chosen to search for them on the deadliest planet known to mankind.</p><p>            When Jazen reluctantly hires on to a Trueborn Earthman tycoon's safari to bag a deadly trophy, the reluctant mercenary finds himself shipped out to Downgraded Earthlinke 476, the outpost at the end of the universe known to everyone except its tourism bureau as "Dead End."</p><p>            But the hunt goes terribly wrong, and Jazen must survive a tough, beautiful local guide who hates mercenaries, an eleven ton beast that can crush main battle tanks with one claw tied behind its back, and the return of a nightmare that has haunted Jazen since birth. Then Jazen learns that the stakes are not merely his own life, but the fate of an entire alien race. </p><p>“Buettner goes well beyond . . . military science fiction . . . he understands . . . living as a soldier—the boredom punctuated by terror, the constant anxiety and self-doubt, the random chaos that battle always is, and the emotional glue that holds together people who may have nothing in common except absolute responsibility for one another's lives.” —<strong>Joe Haldeman</strong>, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author</p><p>“[O]nce in a while . . . a contemporary author penetrates to the heart of Heinlein's vision . . . to replicate the master's effects. . . . [O]ne such book [is] Robert Buettner's <em>Orphanage</em>.” —_The Washington Post_</p><p>“Entertaining. Buettner shows the Heinlein touch.” —_Denver__ Post_</p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Robert Buettner was born July 7, 1947 in Manhattan, grew up in Cleveland and eventually slid west to Colorado. He earned a B.A. from the College of Wooster, with Honors in geology, then studied as a National Science Foundation Fellow in Paleontology at the University of Cincinnati, earning a Juris Doctorate. He worked in mining as a rig hand and prospector in the Sonoran Desert of Southwest Texas and the mountains of Alaska, and worked his way through law school as a petroleum geologist. He practiced natural resources law while serving out his Army Reserve Intelligence Commission as a Captain. He has been writing fiction since 1994. When not writing, he’s run marathons, climbed mountains, snowboarded and scuba’d. He currently lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge north of Atlanta with his family and more bikes than a grownup needs. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Recent retiree George Hall, convinced that his eczema is cancer, goes into a tailspin in Haddon's (_Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time_) laugh-out-loud slice of British domestic life. George, 61, is clearly channeling a host of other worries into the discoloration on his hip (the "spot of bother"): daughter Katie, who has a toddler, Jacob, from her disastrous first-marriage to the horrid Graham, is about to marry the equally unlikable Ray; inattentive wife Jean is having an affair—with George's former co-worker, David Symmonds; and son Jamie doesn't think George is OK with Jamie's being queer. Haddon gets into their heads wonderfully, from Jean's waffling about her affair to Katie's being overwhelmed (by Jacob, and by her impending marriage) and Jamie's takes on men (and boyfriend Tony in particular, who wants to come to the wedding). Mild-mannered George, meanwhile, despairing over his health, slinks into a depression; his major coping strategies involve hiding behind furniture on all fours and lowing like a cow. It's an odd, slight plot—something like the movie <em>Father of the Bride</em> crossed with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" (as skin rash)—but it zips along, and Haddon subtly pulls it all together with sparkling asides and a genuine sympathy for his poor Halls. No bother at all, this comic follow-up to Haddon's blockbuster (and nicely selling book of poems) is great fun. <em>(Sept.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Haddon's acclaimed debut novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," brilliantly imagined the inner world of an autistic teen-ager. Here the hero is similarly uncommunicative and detached, this time because of a stiff upper lip. George, recently retired, thinks talking is "overrated" and greets the death of a friend with relief "that they would not be playing squash again." Obsessed with his own mortality, he barely registers the dramas around him: his wife is having an affair, his daughter is marrying a man she's not sure she loves, and his son is afraid to bring his boyfriend to the wedding. Haddon has a deft comic touch, but he pushes his characters too hard toward epiphanies, and in the end this antic farce is merely affable, without surprises. <br>Copyright © 2006 </p>

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The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times  reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or "alienist." On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan's infamous brothels.        The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler's intellect and Moore's knowledge of New York's vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret (for alienists, and the emerging discipline of psychology, are viewed by the public with skepticism at best), the unlikely team embarks on what is a revolutionary effort in criminology-- amassing a psychological profile of the man they're looking for based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who has killed before. and will kill again before the hunt is over.        Fast-paced and gripping, infused with a historian's exactitude, The Alienist  conjures up the Gilded Age and its untarnished underside: verminous tenements and opulent mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. Here is a New York during an age when questioning society's belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences.From the Paperback edition.


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"The more widely this book is read, the better future social science will be."<br />—<strong>Stephen M. Walt</strong>, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University  </p><p>"I teach qualitative methods. If I could only have one text in my classroom, this would be it."<br />—<strong>Colin Elman</strong>, Executive Director, Consortium on Qualitative Research Methods, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University  </p><p>"This superb book will improve enormously our disciplinary debates and help all of us in our research and teaching."<br />—<strong>Peter J. Katzenstein</strong>, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr., Professor of International Studies, Cornell University  </p><p>"In scope, clarity, and erudition, this book sets a new standard not just in the analysis of case-study methods, but in the study of social science methods more broadly."<br />—<strong>David Dessler</strong>, Associate Professor of Government, College of William and Mary  </p><p>"This is the sort of book scholars—and not just graduate students—will want to come back to over and over again."<br />—<strong>Marc Trachtenberg</strong>, Professor of Political Science, University of California at Los Angeles  </p><p>"The beauty of George and Bennett's approach is their careful integration of theory and method and their conviction that the pursuit of empirical knowledge is profoundly theory dependent."<br />—<strong>Charles Ragin</strong>, Professor of Sociology, University of Arizona  </p><p>"_Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences_ makes an indispensable contribution to the growing literature on qualitative methods in the social sciences."<br />—<strong>Jack S. Levy</strong>, Board of Governors' Professor, Rutgers University  </p><p>"An immensely helpful practical guide to the case method."<br />—<strong>Stephen Van Evera</strong>, Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>Winner of the 2006 Giovanni Sartori Book Award, given by the American Political Science Association's Qualitative Methods Section.</strong>  </p><p>The use of case studies to build and test theories in political science and the other social sciences has increased in recent years. Many scholars have argued that the social sciences rely too heavily on quantitative research and formal models and thus have attempted to develop and refine rigorous methods for using case studies. This text presents a comprehensive analysis of research methods using case studies and examines the place of case studies in social science methodology. It argues that case studies, statistical methods, and formal models are complementary rather than competitive.  </p><p>The book explains how to design case study research that will produce results useful to policymakers and it emphasizes the importance of developing policy-relevant theories. It offers three major contributions to case study methodology: an emphasis on the importance of within-case analysis, a detailed discussion of process tracing, and development of the concept of typological theories. <em>Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences</em> will be particularly useful to graduate students and scholars in social science methodology and the philosophy of science, as well as to those designing new research projects, and will contribute greatly to the broader debate about scientific methods. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Morgan Stanley's David M. Darst on <em>Dear Mr. Buffett: What an Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street</em> </strong></p><p>In 14 Chapters, 265 pages, and 443 footnotes drawing upon 119 sources, structured finance and derivatives consultant and expert witness Janet M. Tavakoli writes about her “meeting with Warren Buffett on the eve of the greatest market meltdown in history” and how meeting him subtly changed the way she looks at global financial markets.</p><p>But <em>Dear Mr. Buffett: What an Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street</em> is much more than a personal investing <em>bildungsroman</em>. The book is so loaded with lessons, warnings, admonishments, and recommendations that readers will find themselves copiously underlining the text and filling the margins with stars, checkmarks, and exclamation points. <em>Dear Mr. Buffett</em> is wide ranging and hard hitting, written with humility, great specificity, honesty, humanity, and historical awareness.</p><p>Captious (or offended) readers may criticize the book as: too harsh in parts; overly broad-brush in its treatment of micro and macro events; and possibly bordering on solipsism when Tavakoli frequently cites her own articles, letters, e-mail exchanges, telephone conversations, and television appearances. Serious financial debacles in the post-Millennium years have left plenty of blame to be apportioned among firms, regulators, the financial system, and let’s face it, human nature, and though polite and deferential, Tavakoli (called by Business Week “the Cassandra of credit derivatives”) is not reticent. At times, her tone can be Biblically prophetic.</p><p>That said, <em>Dear Mr. Buffett</em> is worth its weight in gold for two main reasons. First, the timeless investment lessons laced throughout the book. To cite a few:</p><ul> <li>     Warren does not rely on a price because that is what you pay. He relies on value because that is what you get (page 23).  </li> <li>     The five most dangerous words in business may be “Everybody else is doing it” (page 38).  </li> <li>     Janet Tavakoli’s Theory of Everything in Finance: The value of any financial transaction is based on the timing of cash flows, the frequency of cash flows, the magnitude of cash flows, and the probability of receipt of those cash flows (page 69).  </li> <li>     One of Warren Buffet’s core principles: Don’t lend money to people who can’t pay you back. If you do not understand something, do not invest (page 105).  </li> <li>     The fraud triangle: need, opportunity, and the ability to rationalize one’s behavior (page 199).  </li></ul><p>Second, the book contains lucid, lapidary descriptions of options backdating (Chapter 3); mortgages (Chapter 5); complex structured products, securitizations, and off-balance sheet vehicles (Chapter 7); and the perils of leverage and the developments leading to the difficulties at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and other financial enterprises (Chapters 8 and 9).</p><p>Parts of the book read like replaying a YouTube video of a hurricane. Whether or not you agree with Tavakoli in all cases on the details and/or her approach, what comes through in every sentence is her conviction and courage in recounting what happened and her creativity and concretization in proposing safeguards and solutions. In the Preface, she says she is “still learning,” and the financial realm stands the richer from her energy, discernment, persistence, erudition, curiosity, insight, and human empathy.</p><p>Read this book as soon as you can. As Warren Edward Buffett has said, “Janet Tavakoli should have been listened to much more carefully in the past… and <em>will be</em> in the future.”</p><p><em>David M. Darst is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. He serves as Chief Investment Strategist of the firm's Global Wealth Management Group and is the Chairman of the Asset Allocation Committee. Darst is also the founding president of the Morgan Stanley Investment Group. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 1996, he was with Goldman Sachs for over twenty years, where he served as a senior executive in the Equities Division. Darst is often quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times, among others. He is also a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, and FOX News. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and received a BA in economics from Yale University. Darst is a CFA charterholder.</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>Altogether this book is an excellent read, loaded with information about the goings-on in the financial sector in the US till as recently as September 2008. The is informal, almost like a conversation in a lounge bar, racy, laced with wit and when it comments on leading actors in the drama, dipped in vitriol. Tavakoli is a name we will be hearing about frequently in the near future. (_Business Standard_) </p><p>"_Dear Buffett_ is must reading . . . in a way that only Tavakoli could provide. . . Tavakoli knows her stuff. She knows where the bodies are buried in the complex formulas. . . And, almost as a bonus, we get Buffett's views and insights into his derivatives trading. There's nothing more you could ask for in a financial book in this day and age of financial derivatives meltdown." (_Economic Policy Journal_) </p><p>"...full of anecdotes, details and character sketches that add depth...she knows her stuff, has strong opinions and turns a colourful quote." (_Financial Times_, February 21st 2009) </p><p>"A clear and pacy run through the multitude of sins and sinners in the modern financial world. . . full of anecdotes, details and character sketches that add depth and colour to even the best known episodes of the past two years. [Tavakoli] also covers events only a few years before the current crisis that should have been big warning signs. The correspondence between Buffett and Tavakoli over the past three years reinforced her existing views on the dangers of complex finance. And with Buffett's blessing, this book will find a ready-made fan base with little marketing effort. . . Tavakoli makes for an attractive pundit - she knows her stuff, has strong opinions and turns a colourful quote. . . There is a healthy dose of "I told you so" about this volume - but, to be fair, Tavakoli is one of the few who did." (_Financial Times_) </p><p>"[Tavakoli has] been railing against emperors wearing no clothes in the credit derivatives markets forever... </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Montgomery (_King of Fish_), a geomorphologist who studies how landscapes change through time, argues persuasively that soil is humanity's most essential natural resource and essentially linked to modern civilization's survival. He traces the history of agriculture, showing that when humans exhausted the soil in the past, their societies collapsed, or they moved on. But moving on is not an option for future generations, he warns: there isn't enough land. In the U.S., mechanized agriculture has eroded an alarming amount of agricultural land, and in the developing world, degraded soil is a principal cause of poverty. We are running out of soil, and agriculture will soon be unable to support the world's growing population. Chemical fertilizers, which are made with lots of cheap oil, are not the solution. Nor are genetically modified seeds, which have not produced larger harvests or reduced the need for pesticides. Montgomery proposes an agricultural revolution based on soil conservation. Instead of tilling the land and making it vulnerable to erosion, we should put organic matter back into the ground, simulating natural conditions. His book, though sometimes redundant, makes a convincing case for the need to respect and conserve the world's limited supply of soil. Illus. not seen by <em>PW</em>. <em>(May)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Anyone interested in environmental issues should read this book. . . . Entertains and stimulates thought."--_Times Higher Ed Sup (Thes)_  </p><p>"Fascinating insights into what be our most precious natural resource and gives important pointers toward sustainable land management."--_Bioscience_  </p><p>"How societies fare in the long run depends on how they treat their soils. Simple. Concise. You are your dirt."--_Hobby Farms_  </p><p>"Sobering. . . . A timely text that will no doubt stimulate the discussion of this issue, and its potential solutions, for years to come."--_Environment &amp; History_  </p><p>"Strengthen[s] appreciation for how important the soil is to our existence."--_Great Plains Research_</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this new addition to the fast-fix diet book shelf, Enig and Fallon attempt to correct what they see as Americans' false belief that tropical fats and oils (such as coconut and palm) are unhealthy, asserting that those fats (and coconut, especially) are beneficial saturated fats that should be more heavily incorporated into our diets. Enig, a biochemist and nutritionist, along with Fallon, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation (a non-profit dedicated to helping people implement healthy approaches to nutrition), say "high-fat, low-carb really works," eschewing the disastrous effects a high-fat diet can have on a person's heart. They like the Atkins diet, but say it doesn't take advantage of the "metabolism-boosting" powers of coconut oil. Their approach skews more toward traditional diets and away from modern diets (e.g., chose animal fats over vegetable oils; raw or fermented dairy products instead of pasteurized ones). Though based on considerable research, the book is somewhat off-putting. Its emphasis on one ingredient-in the recipe section, for example, one sample menu has readers eating a dish with coconut in it seven times in one day-seems nutritionally suspicious. <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The healthy alternative to trans fats, this revolutionary program explains why we must eat healthy, saturated fats-especially coconut-to achieve weight loss and good health.   </p><p>Since the late 1950s, it's been drilled into Americans that fat makes you fat, saturated fats (such as those found in butter, eggs, and red meat) are unhealthy, and tropical fats and oils (like coconut and palm) are downright deadly. And yet-as we eliminate saturated fats from our diet for fear of high cholesterol levels and hardened arteries-obesity, heart disease, and cancer rates have continued to climb.   </p><p>Based on more than two decades of research by world-renowned biochemist and fats expert Dr. Mary Enig, <em>Eat Fat, Lose Fat</em> flouts conventional wisdom by asserting that so-called healthy vegetable oils (such as soybean and corn) are in large part responsible for our national obesity and health crises, while the saturated fats traditionally considered "harmful" are, in fact, essential to weight loss and health.   </p><p>World populations on four continents that subsist on the coconut, with less evidence of heart disease, weight gain, or other chronic illnesses, provide the best proof of this food's safety and efficacy; dozens of studies conducted by prestigious, mainstream universities support the use of coconut and other healthy fats and reveal the faulty reasoning underlying the saturated fat/heart disease hypothesis; and case stories from a wide range of people illustrate how using coconut oil in concert with other healthy fats can spark weight loss and heal serious illnesses, including anxiety, hypothyroidism, and chronic fatigue syndrome.   </p><p>Featuring delicious recipes for each of its three nutritional programs, <em>Eat Fat, Lose Fat</em> is the book to help you build energy, lose weight, fight disease, and boost your immunity. </p>

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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>The long-anticipated return of Elminster, the most famous mage in the <strong>Forgotten Realms®</strong>--now in paperback!  </p><p>Elminster, the most famous wizard in the Forgotten Realms, has foiled countless world-spanning threats, leaving a trail of powerful enemies behind him. Now that the Spellplague has robbed Elminster of much of his power, those enemies are coming out of the shadows, whetting their blades, and preparing to hunt him down. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>ED GREENWOOD is the creator of the <strong>Forgotten Realms®</strong> fantasy world setting and the author of more than 170 books that have sold millions of copies worldwide in over two dozen languages. In real life, he's a Canadian librarian who lives in the Ontario countryside with his wife, a cat, and far too many books. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Inspired by a New York Times article Rasenberger wrote on ironworkers in early 2001, this historical overview of skyscraper construction in New York City and elsewhere traces the erection of such structures as the Flatiron and Chrysler buildings, the Empire State Building, the George Washington Bridge, the World Trade Center and the lavish new Time Warner Center. This last building is the narrative column around which Rasenberger builds his book, which is largely devoted to "the men who risked the most and labored the hardest"—the ironworkers who put the high-rise steel columns in place. Though his admiration at times seems compulsory rather than genuine, Rasenberger emphasizes the often heroic, death-defying feats ironworkers perform. He also takes account of far-flung communities that breed ironworkers, such as the Mohawk Indians of upstate New York. The chronological history is broken up by alternating sections on the Time Warner Center and often feels less like a single narrative than a collection of vignettes. Rasenberger's principal claim, that ironwork's days are numbered because of the growing reliance on concrete, is often lost in the telling. Even the Time Warner Center was built more with concrete than iron, which is costlier and more vulnerable to heat in events such as the World Trade Center attacks. This recounting, while less than fully absorbing, serves as a valuable history for building enthusiasts and a thoughtful testament to a dying craft that has helped fuel the American economy for more than a century. 21 b&amp;w photos. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Journeying through the past century of New York City's ironworking trade, Rasenberger recounts signal events in its labor history while developing a powerful impression of its unique occupational culture. The latter he absorbed from close ground- and sky-level observation of ironworkers at two mid-Manhattan construction sites, and at the World Trade Center site. Raising steel for bridges and skyscrapers is extraordinarily hazardous. Several of the workers profiled sustained severe and, in one instance, permanently disabling injuries--painfully proving ironwork's annual 5 percent death-and-injury rate. Why any man would court its dangers is a tantalizing question to which Rasenberger advances a multitude of answers. One is generational continuity, which Rasenberger discerned from his trips to the homes of Mohawk Indians and Newfoundlanders who've worked in the trade for decades. Another is the autonomy on the job that ironworkers enjoy, and the pride they derive from being the first colonists of a square of air. With ironworkers' social prestige elevated in the aftermath of the WTC calamity, Rasenberger's muscular portrait deserves an outsize audience as well. <em>Gilbert Taylor</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this enchanting first novel, Dilloway mines her own family's history to produce the story of Japanese war bride Shoko, her American daughter, Sue, and their challenging relationship. Following the end of WWII, Japanese shop girl Shoko realizes that her best chance for a future is with an American husband, a decision that causes a decades-long rift with her only brother, Taro. While Shoko blossoms in America with her Mormon husband, GI Charlie Morgan, and their two children, she's constantly reminded that she's an outsider--reinforced by passages from the fictional handbook How to Be an American Housewife. Shoko's attempts to become the perfect American wife hide a secret regarding her son, Mike, and lead her to impossible expectations for Sue. The strained mother-daughter bond begins to shift, however, when a now-grown Sue and her teenage daughter agree to go to Japan in place of Shoko, recently fallen ill, to reunite with Taro. Dilloway splits her narrative gracefully between mother and daughter (giving Shoko the first half, Sue the second), making a beautifully realized whole. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Shoko was a young woman in Japan during WWII. Once her parents realized that Japan was going to be defeated, they encouraged Shoko to marry an American and obtain a better life. She did so at the expense of her relationship with her brother, Taso, who could not forgive her for betraying her country. Jumping ahead many years, it’s clear that Shoko has done what she could to be the best American housewife. She now longs to return to Japan and reunite with Taso, but she is too ill to travel. She enlists the help of her daughter, Sue, whose own failings as a housewife have caused a rift between the women. Despite their strained relationship, Sue makes the trip and discovers another side to her mother, and family secrets that have come between them. Dilloway narrates from both women’s perspectives, sensitively dramatizing the difficulties and struggles Shoko and Sue faced in being Japanese, American, and housewives. --Carolyn Kubisz </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>This is the book that made "innumeracy" a household word, at least in some households. Paulos admits that "at least part of the motivation for any book is anger, and this book is no exception. I'm distressed by a society which depends so completely on mathematics and science and yet seems to indifferent to the innumeracy and scientific illiteracy of so many of its citizens."</p><p>But that is not all that drives him. The difference between our pretensions and reality is absurd and humorous, and the numerate can see this better than those who don't speak math. "I think there's something of the divine in these feelings of our absurdity, and they should be cherished, not avoided."</p><p>Paulos is not entirely successful at balancing anger and absurdity, but he tries. His diatribes against astrology, bad math education, Freud, and willful ignorance are leavened with jokes, mathematical or the sort (he claims) favored by the numerate.</p><p>It remains to be seen if <em>Innumeracy</em> will indeed be able, as Hofstadter hoped, to "help launch a revolution in math education that would do for innumeracy what Sabin and Salk did for polio"--but many of the improvements Paulos suggested have come to pass within 10 years. Only time will tell if the generation raised on these new principles is more resistant to innumeracy--and need only worry about being incomputable. <em>--Mary Ellen Curtin</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>He takes us a couple of steps closer to numeracy, and it is all in all an enlightening place to be. -- <em>Christopher Lehman-Haupt, New York Times, 1989</em>  </p><p>Paulos makes numbers, probability, and statistics perform like so many trained seals for the reader's entertainment and enlightenment. -- <em>Jon Van, Chicago Tribune, 1989</em>  </p><p>The innumerate will surely profit from this entertaining book. -- <em>Morris Kline, New York Times Book Review, 1989</em>  </p><p>The world, as seen by Paulos, is less mysterious, yet somehow more elegant, less magical, yet more wonderful. So many apparently strange events do, in fact, become all the more magnificent in their not-so-fearful symmetry. -- <em>Arthur Salm, San Diego Tribune, 1989</em>  </p><p>This admirable little book is only 135 pages long. You can read it in 2 hours. Chances are that they could be among the most enlightening and even profitable 120 minutes you ever spent. -- <em>Henry Kisor, Cicago Sun-Times, 1989</em>  </p><p>This elegant survival manual is brief, witty, and full of practical applications. (Stefan Kanfer, Time Magazine, 1989)</p><p>REVIEW: Like carrying on a conversation with an engaging, articulate math whiz who easily shifts from the profound to the funny. -- <em>Christopher Farrell, Business Week, 1989</em></p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>“The authors … [take] us from the early days of the Blackstone Group, when the firm was just two guys and a secretary, to the buyout boom, when Mr. Schwarzman’s conspicuous consumption became a symbol of the new Gilded Age. In between, the book dives deeply into the firm’s signature deals — Celanese! Nalco! Distressed cable bonds! — that made Mr. Schwarzman and his partners so rich. It also delivers some fun details about many of the now-famous Wall Street players that did tours of duty at the firm. <strong><em>—New York Times DealBook </em></strong>   </p><p>“Carey and Morris’ thorough reporting offers a compelling look into the little understood Wall Street giant and the secrets of its success.” <br /><strong><em>—Worth Magazine </em></strong>   </p><p>“[R]anks as one of the most even-handed treatments of the industry. David Carey and John Morris . . . received unusual access to Blackstone. . . . This allowed them to chronicle the firm in full and entertaining fashion across its 25-year history.” <br /><strong>—_Bloomberg Brief – Mergers _</strong>   </p><p>“[A] broad history of private equity, with Blackstone as the touchstone.” <br /><strong>—</strong>_<strong>Fortune.com</strong>_ <br />  __ <br />“Check out "King of Capital" because<strong> it's got gossip, it's got brains, and it's as readable as hel</strong>l. And it's got some really good Schwarzman stories too.” <br /><strong>—</strong>_<strong>The Deal </strong><br />_<em></em>_<br />_<strong>"_King of Capital _aspires to be a serious portrait of Blackstone and the way that Schwarzman so brilliantly built it up, scoring numerous coups along the way and avoiding the mistakes of many competitors. And it does a fine job in what it sets out to do." </strong>— Financial Times<br /><em></em><br />“The authors link Blackstone’s history to the larger story of private equity’s expansion and its relationship to corporate America. They offer a lucid explanation of how the debt markets evolved from junk bonds to securitised loans, changing the types of deals that private-equity firms were able to finance.” — <strong>The Economist</strong><br /><em></em>   </p><p><em></em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>Strippers and Flippers . . . or a New Positive Force Helping to Drive the Economy . . . </strong>  </p><p>The untold story of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone, the financier and his financial powerhouse that avoided the self-destructive tendencies of Wall Street. David Carey and John Morris show how Blackstone (and other private equity firms) transformed themselves from gamblers, hostile-takeover artists, and ‘barbarians at the gate’ into disciplined, risk-conscious investors. <br />The financial establishment—banks and investment bankers such as Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley—were the cowboys, recklessly assuming risks, leveraging up to astronomical levels and driving the economy to the brink of disaster.<br />Blackstone is now ready to break out once again since it is sitting on billions of dollars<br />that can be invested at a time when the market is starved for capital.  </p><p><strong>The story of a financial revolution—the greatest untold success story on Wall Street: </strong>Not only have Blackstone and a small coterie of competitors wrested control of corporations around the globe, but they have emerged as a major force on Wall Street, challenging the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for dominance.<br /><hr /><strong>Great human interest story: </strong>How Blackstone went from two guys and a secretary to being one of Wall Street’s most powerful institutions, far outgrowing its much older rival KKR; and how Steve Schwarzman, with a pay packet one year of $398 million and $684 million from the Blackstone IPO, came to epitomize the spectacular new financial fortunes amassed in the 2000s.<br /><hr /><strong>Controversial: </strong>Analyzes the controversies surrounding Blackstone and whether it and other private equity firms suck the lifeblood out of companies to enrich themselves—or whether they are a force that helps make the companies they own stronger and thereby better competitors.<br /><hr /><strong>The story by two insiders with access: </strong>Insightful and hard-hitting, filled with never-before-revealed details about the workings of a heretofore secretive company that was the personal fiefdom of Schwarzman and Peter Peterson.<br /><hr /><strong>Forward-looking: </strong>How Blackstone and private equity will drive the economy and provide a model for how financing will work. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Book Description:</strong> Speculative science fiction at its finest, <em>MetaGame</em> by Sam Landstrom is a ‘future gamers’ field guide and a philosophical cyberpunk adventure. In this original and disturbingly irreverent prospective world, gaming is more than a diversion—and gamers are, literally, in it for life. The OverSoul, an enigmatic, unifying force, offers winners points that add up to currency. Reigning champs are given the gift of immortality—while losers are condemned to aging and death. D_Light is one of the best players in his Family and will do anything to win, even if it means committing murder. When he’s invited to a MetaGame—an exclusive, high-stakes competition—he jumps at the chance. But after the first quest, D_Light’s overly ambitious ways brand him a renegade. With a warped sense of freewill that is needed to prevail, D_Light must either kill someone he’s grown to love—or lose everything. </p><hr /><p><strong>Amazon Exclusive: A Q&amp;A with Sam Landstrom</strong>   </p><p><strong>Question:</strong> <em>MetaGame</em> takes place in a futuristic world where biotech, nanotech, gaming, and "religion" merge to blur the lines between fantasy and reality. How did you dream up the story line? </p><p><strong>Sam Landstrom:</strong> Funny you should say "dream," because that’s literally how it started. One night I had a vivid dream in which I was a devil in a ghetto apartment complex and was being hunted by the police. The whole idea took off from there. Gradually, I built a world around that single scene. For months, I fleshed out the world in a private blog with over 60 posts with titles like "Fashion," "Economics," "Religion," "Lingo," "Work," etc. I continually worked to hook these together logically, keeping in mind that one aspect of this futuristic society would influence the others. Once I felt I had a reasonable world, I hung a plot outline on it (including my dream scene). As I wrote the book, the world continued to evolve; in fact, the present book has only a slight resemblance to those early blog posts I created two years ago.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> You’ve previously worked in a lab programming robots to help sequence the human genome. Did this experience and background knowledge play a role in the story?</p><p><strong>Sam Landstrom:</strong> At a high level, yes. Back in the lab, before I got interested in software, I wanted to be a genetic engineer. I felt then, as I do now, that biotechnology will eventually become ubiquitous in our lives and so I wanted to help design that future. At the same time, I wondered what exactly that future would look like. To me, being able to engineer the living is an incredibly powerful technology that can do wonderful things for humanity, but, at the same time, elicits in me a primal dread... just the sort of stew I like for fiction! Obviously, I’m not the only one with such an outlook, since biotech is a sci-fi staple.</p><p>I don’t include lab techniques or techs from that job because they would be far obsolete in the future. Heck, they’re completely obsolete now, and it’s only been 10 years! Given this, the technology I wrote about is a wild extrapolation, an entertaining guess, really. About all I tried to convey in the book from my time at the lab, in a literal sense, was the genuine passion and intelligence I observed in those who work in this field.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> What research did you do while writing <em>MetaGame</em>?</p><p><strong>Sam Landstrom:</strong> Most of the research I did was related to confirming that the future technologies presented in the book are even theoretically possible and how they might be implemented. For example, how can a machine read and write to a person’s mind? With difficulty, as it turns out! Luckily for my readers, I only used this research to color my descriptions and confine the scope of these future technologies, not to provide in-depth specifications. Thanks to this balance, I think <em>MetaGame</em> gets to stay in the hard sci-fi category while remaining, first and foremost, an entertaining book.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> What authors or books have influenced your writing?</p><p><strong>Sam Landstrom:</strong> Lucky for me, the public school system forced me to read <em>1984</em>, <em>Brave New World</em>, and <em>Fahrenheit 451</em>. These books were more about sociology and philosophy than technology, and they taught me that sci-fi did not necessarily require aliens or spaceships.</p><p>In addition to these stand-alone books, I really enjoyed the Dune series by Frank Herbert because he built up a fully realized universe that included components of religion, politics, economics, and even ecology. Dune had a big influence on <em>MetaGame</em>.</p><p>I have heard from several readers that <em>MetaGame</em> shares elements with Neal Stephenson’s work. This might not be a coincidence since I read <em>The Diamond Age</em> and <em>Snow Crash</em> before writing <em>MetaGame</em>. Good stuff.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> <em>MetaGame</em> fits solidly in the sci-fi/cyberpunk genre, but also weaves in philosophy and thriller writing. Have you considered trying your hand at other genres in the future?</p><p><strong>Sam Landstrom:</strong> Yes, in fact I’m writing a fantasy novel now. Magic, monsters, infinite dimensions, a high school kegger.. You get the idea--not hard sci-fi, but entertaining and, hopefully, a bit thought provoking.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> Have you always wanted to write? What other careers have you pursued?</p><p><strong>Sam Landstrom:</strong> I’ve wanted to write off and on over the years. When I was really young (like 8-9 years old) I pumped out books; however, these quick reads emphasized pictures over writing. The art sported a lot of guns blazing, swords swinging, blood spraying, heads flying through the air, etc. I went to a hippie school that wasn’t big into formal education. I remember my older cousin reading one of my books, after which he told me, "You need to start a sentence with a capital letter and end with a period." First of all, I didn’t know what he was talking about and second, who cares? I didn’t understand why he wasn’t praising me for the awesome action scenes. I mean, you just didn’t see that kind of stuff in books I found in the library, much less at school! I like to think my writing has improved since those days, although my grammar could still use some work. Thank God for good editors.</p><p>As an adult, I’ve had many different career interests I considered pursuing, including underwater archaeology and neurology. When I started college, I actually went in with the intention of becoming a doctor, but quickly discovered I was more into the science of medicine than the actual application of it, hence the degree in molecular biology. Aside from working in software (my current career) and in biotech, I spent a lot of time on the water as a deck hand, first on a passenger ferry, and then on a small cruise ship in Alaska. I was really considering a life at sea. However, it turns out I was ill suited to the regimen of a sailor’s job. Captains were not impressed with what I thought were creative solutions to problems, nor with me setting my own priorities.</p><p><strong>Question:</strong> What's next for you?</p><p><strong>Sam Landstrom:</strong> I’m sort of writing three books at once--the fantasy novel I mentioned earlier, as well as a prequel and sequel to <em>MetaGame</em>. I’ve made the most progress on the fantasy, so that’s what I’ll likely finish first. On the side, I also started developing a smart-phone application that is a virtual boyfriend for young women. I hope to make him handsome and charming, even as he speaks in a computer-generated Stephen Hawking voice. I’ve heard you can get a long way with flattery, so I’m hoping a phone can successfully use the same strategy. I’m not sure when I’ll finish that, if ever. By the way, I’d make a virtual girlfriend too, but giving men what they want through a phone (or any media) is too easy.</p><hr /><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Life is a game, literally. Winners earn immortality, while losers are condemned to aging and death. D_Light, a gifted player, knows this all too well and he’s willing to do anything to win—even kill. It is no wonder then that when given the chance to enter a MetaGame—an exclusive, high-stakes, anything goes contest—he’s quick to jump at the opportunity. The MetaGame starts out well enough for D_Light, the first quest being to hunt down a dangerous fugitive, but through his own ambition, the tables turn and D_Light finds himself the renegade. Now, D_Light pits himself against his world to find the truth behind “The Game” and must decide between winning it and saving what’s left of his humanity.   </p><p>This 122,000 word (~400 page) novel blends emerging political and cultural trends, such as gaming culture, globalization, and the ever-increasing hegemony of corporations, with technological trends, such as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Emerging from this stew is an original world for you to explore through the point of view of its many "players".  </p><p>Author's Note<br />I welcome any feedback you have! Here are a few options: <br />- Post a review<br />- Post a discussion thread on this page<br />- email me at snoutholder at yahoo.com </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Active investing strategies to profit from world-changing trends</p><p>In <em>The Next Great Bull Market</em>, Matthew McCall advocates an approach he calls, "Conversification," meaning concentrating your investments in specific areas that are poised to benefit from global change. The areas of change addressed throughout this book include the green movement, infrastructure expansion, commodities, peak oil, the next great commodity-water-aging baby boomers, a growing global middle class, geopolitical upheavals, and the explosion of exchange-traded funds. With today's world characterized by rapid change on many different levels, McCall's approach holds even greater promise in the years ahead. Page by page, he provides strategies for both conservative investors interested in long-term growth and aggressive investors interested in generating fast profits. </p><ul> <li>     Describes the dynamics driving each major change and provide specific strategies to take advantage of them </li> <li>     Shows how to profit from short-term swings in fast-moving sectors of the world economy </li> <li>     Highlights how to use various investment vehicles, including ETFs, stocks, and options </li></ul><p>Investors who understand and anticipate the changes ahead stand to profit handsomely. With <em>The Next Great Bull Market</em> as your guide, you'll quickly discover how the trends that are changing the world can be used to enhance the performance of your portfolio. </p><h3>From the Inside Flap</h3><p>The world is rapidly changing from the forces of globalization, resource depletion, population growth, and geopolitical uncertainty. Finite supplies of resources are running headlong into a growing global middle class—creating potential shortages in oil, water, and other commodities—while, at the same time, concerns over planetary constraints have sparked a resurgent environmental movement. This fast-changing world is turning investment truisms upside down. But, says Matthew McCall, investors who understand and anticipate these trends stand to profit handsomely in the years ahead. </p><p>Savvy investors made a great deal of money anticipating major trends of the past twenty years—such as the Internet boom of the 1990s, the rise of China and Brazil, and the jump in oil prices—and the rapid change on many different levels in today's world holds even greater promise in the years ahead. </p><p>In <em>The Next Great Bull Market</em>, McCall shows how world-changing trends are creating pockets of investment opportunity within a largely bearish investment environment—and he introduces a number of major investment themes that will take advantage of the new global economy. With traditional diversification across asset classes now producing anemic returns, he points out, the days of buying the stock of the biggest names on Wall Street and riding the ups and downs is over. McCall offers a new, hands-on approach that adapts to the changing market environment with a combination of concentration and diversification that he calls "conversification." By concentrating on the sectors of the market that are outperforming, but at the same time diversifying across those same sectors, his approach will produce results that are much greater than that of a portfolio that is diversified and offers less risk than a portfolio that is concentrated. </p><p>Covering the full spectrum of change, McCall offers specific advice for profiting from trends such as the green movement, global infrastructure expansion, the new bull market for commodities, health care and aging baby boomers, a growing global middle class, geopolitical upheavals, and more. <em>The Next Great Bull Market</em> is a blueprint for profiting in today's swiftly changing world. </p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>If smoked salmon and cream cheese omelets, sautéed jumbo shrimp, and double-patty burgers suit your palate, belly up to the <em>Protein Power</em> diet: "Not a high protein diet" but "an adequate protein diet." Doctors Michael R. and Mary Dan Eades make a persuasive case in favor of "the diet we were meant to eat."</p><p>Similar to Dr. Robert Atkins's __, the authors cite insulin as the main culprit in weight gain and expound the benefits of a diet extremely low in carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, which are changed into sugar during digestion, stimulate the body to store fat, making weight loss virtually impossible. The most revolutionary idea put forth in <em>Protein Power</em> is that the fat you eat has very little bearing on the fat you gain: in other words, we aren't what we eat after all. Researchers have found that eating larger portions of protein in conjunction with severely reduced portions of carbohydrates causes people to burn the excess fat stored in their bodies.</p><p><em>Protein Power</em> is packed with helpful charts and formulas, so you can estimate your body-fat percentage and your ideal weight for your particular body composition. There are worksheets to calculate your protein need and carbohydrate and protein equivalency charts, as well as charts that allow you to track your fat and weight loss. But this book is not all grams and percentages: it also shows you what a day of eating on this diet would look like and includes sample menus and 70 pages of recipes. If you've been starving yourself for years and just can't seem to lose weight, this may be the diet for you. <em>--Jhana Bach</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The Eades, who share a weight-loss and family-medicine practice in Arkansas, have each written a popular medical book?his is Thin So Fast; hers, The Doctor's Complete Guide to Vitamins and Minerals. In their first shared volume, they turn popular weight-management beliefs?and the latest FDA food-guide pyramid?upside down. For years, overweight Americans have been counseled to turn away from meat and fat and embrace a high-carbohydrate diet. Joining a growing band of researchers that includes Barry Sears (The Zone), the Eades discuss the biochemical roles of hormones in the metabolic process to demonstrate why low-fat, high-carb programs don't always result in weight loss and present a convincing case for their high-protein, low-carb alternative. The key is preventing, through diet, overproduction of insulin, which itself "controls the storage of fat" and is triggered by the ingestion of carbohydrates. Their eating plan?which is bolstered by lists of protein and carbohydrate counts for common foods, a collection of about 75 appealing recipes and discussion of the necessity of exercise?will lead, they aver, to the body's more efficent burning of fat, leading in turn to reduction in one's percentage of body fat. Cholesterol, vitamins, minerals and various risk factors are also discussed. Chapters end with fairly complete summaries that will be appreciated by readers who are not willing or able to work through the fairly extensive scientific data cited by the Eades in this iconoclastic program. <br>Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>It was in the pulp detective magazines of the 1930s that Raymond Chandler's definitive take on the hard-boiled detective story first appeared. Here then, from the well-thumbed pages of "Black Mask" and "Dime Detective Magazine", are eight of his finest stories including "The Man Who Liked Dogs", "The Lady in the Lake" and "Bay City Blues". Sharper than a hoodlum's switchblade, more exciting than an unexpected red-head and stronger than a double shot of whisky, they are packed full of the punchy poetry and laconic wit that makes Chandler the undisputed master of his genre. </p><h3>From the Publisher</h3><p>Elliott Gould is an Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee who has performed in over 70 feature films. Upcoming motion picture projects include Playing Mona Lisa, and Picking up the Pieces, with Woody Allen and Sharon Stone. </p><p>He can be seen ongoing in his recurring role on NBC's smash hit, Friends. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Thanks to globalization, more countries depend on each other for trade, capital, and ideas than ever before. Yet politically, these countries are drifting further apart. In <em>Seeing the Elephant</em>, author and emerging markets expert Peter Marber describes how increasing economic integration and the rise of new actors is drastically altering the geopolitical landscape, and offers insights on how the US can maintain a leading role in the 21st century and beyond.</p><p>While America remains the single most important economy today, rising economic powerhouses — China, Russia, India, Brazil and others — bring a diverse set of interests to the table that the US cannot afford to ignore, Marber explains. Moreover, globalization has created thousands of non-state actors – corporations, banks, hedge funds, activists and even terrorists – who bring their own concerns to bear on the world system.</p><p>In the era of globalization, America's success hinges on the success of its neighbors, too. Yet from its invasion of Iraq to its disregard of major treaties — some recent US choices have shown little regard for these new players. As the lines between economic, defense, environmental, immigration, and energy policy become increasingly blurred, having a holistic and coherent approach to cross-border challenges is essential. Yet the forums and institutions that once coordinated these relationships – the UN, World Bank and the G7— are losing relevance and no longer adequately represent the world's expanded power roster. To remain vital, Marber believes all our multilateral institutions will require fresh ideas and revamping.</p><p><em>Seeing the Elephant</em> demystifies globalization, and analyzes the megatrends and interconnections of the 21st century. With bold suggestions on how America reassert its historic leadership in the new global arena, <em>Seeing the Elephant</em> should be required reading for policy makers, businessmen and informed citizens alike. </p><h3>From the Inside Flap</h3><p>In the new millennium, it is nearly impossible for us to talk about basic concerns like food or gas prices, without examining global intersections in trade, energy, immigration, the environment, and defense. Many countries once described as "developing" nations now wield greater economic and political influence than some of the so-called "major" powers. Former debtor nations have become creditors of the United States and other developed countries that run budget deficits. Without recognizing and understanding these connections, we cannot even begin to discuss how the United States and other countries can craft and harness effective policies amid this breathtaking progress. In Seeing the Elephant, Peter Marber describes how increasing economic integration and the rise of new actors is drastically altering the geopolitical landscape, and offers insights on how the U.S. can make policy to maintain a leading role in the years to come.</p><p>The twenty-first century, Marber explains, demands a very different lens for viewing the world. In the era of globalization, America's success hinges on the success of its neighbors, too. Rising economic powerhouses—China, Russia, India, Brazil, and others—bring a diverse set of interests to the table that the U.S. cannot afford to ignore. Moreover, globalization has created thousands of non-state actors—corporations, banks, hedge funds, activists, and even terrorists—who bring their own concerns to bear. Marber underscores the importance of forging strong relationships with pivotal developing nations and America's need to reaffirm the centricity of global protocols, rules, and institutions after an unfortunate period of neglect. It's not too late. By focusing on seven key cross-border, interlinking issues—trade and finance, energy, security, immigration, health, the environment, and poverty—Marber recommends key adjustments in policies that aim to strengthen and modernize our current institutional infrastructure, including NATO, the WHO, the WTO, the World Bank, and the UN, among others. While his strategies do not guarantee that the United States will remain on top economically, they ensure that the global system America helped to create triumphs in the end, protecting against the factionalism that led to two World Wars and destroyed decades of economic progress.</p><p>In this timely book, Marber demystifies globalization and analyzes new international megatrends and interconnections. With bold suggestions on how America can reassert its historic leadership in the new global arena, <em>Seeing the Elephant</em> will show readers how the U.S. still remains the planet's best chance at building enduring peace and prosperity. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Smith's remarkably adept debut thriller traces the fates of three people and a wrecked plane with $4.4 million. <br />Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>YA-On an afternoon jaunt, Hank, his brother, and a friend accidentally discover a wrecked plane. Inside they find the dead pilot and a sack containing four million dollars. The men know that they should notify the authorities, but instead they devise a foolproof scheme for keeping the money. They will hide it for one year, tell no one, live normally, and then divide the loot into three equal portions. Nothing can go wrong with such a simple plan-or can it? Smith draws his characters deftly, fully exploring the changes that occur in each of the men after their discovery. The plot is clever, gripping, and full of twists. As Hank narrates the story, the tension builds slowly, but is sustained until the surprise ending. YAs will quickly become caught up in this polished suspense novel.<br /><em>Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA</em><br />Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>“The whole world can be found in this city. . . .”<br>–from the Preface  </p><p>Fifty years ago, New York City had only a handful of ethnic groups. Today, the whole world can be found within the city’s five boroughs–and celebrated New York Times reporter Joseph Berger sets out to discover it, bringing alive the sights, smells, tastes, and people of the globe while taking readers on an intimate tour of the world’s most cosmopolitan city.   </p><p>For urban enthusiasts and armchair explorers alike, The World in a City is a look at today’s polyglot and polychrome, cosmopolitan and culturally rich New York and the lessons it holds for the rest of the United States as immigration changes the face of the nation. With three out of five of the city’s residents either foreign-born or second-generation Americans, New York has become more than ever a collection of villages–virtually self-reliant hamlets, each exquisitely textured by its particular ethnicities, history, and politics. For the price of a subway ride, you can visit Ghana, the Philippines, Ecuador, Uzbekistan, and Bangladesh.   </p><p>As Berger shows us in this absorbing and enlightening tour, New York is an endlessly fascinating crossroads. Naturally, tears exist in this colorful social fabric: the controversy over Korean-language shop signs in tony Douglaston, Queens; the uneasy proximity of traditional cottages and new McMansions built by recently arrived Russian residents of Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. Yet in spite of the tensions among neighbors, what Berger has found most miraculous about New York is how the city and its more than eight million denizens can adapt to–and even embrace–change like no other place on earth, from the former pushcart knish vendor on the Lower East Side who now caters to his customers via the Internet, to the recent émigrés from former Soviet republics to Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach and Midwood whose arrival saved New York’s furrier trade from certain extinction.   </p><p>Like the place it chronicles, The World in a City is an engaging hybrid. Blending elements of sociology, pop culture, and travel writing, this is the rare book that enlightens readers while imbuing them with the hope that even in this increasingly fractious and polarized world, we can indeed co-exist in harmony. </p><h3>Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</h3><p>Chapter 1  </p><p>So You Thought You Knew Astoria  </p><p>...  </p><p>For half a century, Astoria in Queens has been a neighborhood of cafés where dark-haired Greek men sip strong coffee and smoke strong cigarettes while talking in Greek late into the night. It is a place of quiet sidewalks lined with tenderly fussed-over brick and shingle row houses, where a solitary widow in black can be glimpsed scurrying homeward as if she were on the island of Rhodes.  </p><p>The cafés are still teeming, the houses tidy. But the Greek hold on the neighborhood has slowly been weakening. Successful Greeks have been leaving for leafier locales. As a result, there are moments when Astoria has a theme-park feel to it, a cardboard façade of a Greek Main Street with cafés named Athens, Omonia, and Zodiac and Greece’s blue and white colors splashed everywhere, but a diminishing number of actual Greeks living within.  </p><p>That’s because other groups have been rising up to take their place. On a Friday on Steinway Street, one of Astoria’s commercial spines, several hundred men from North African and Middle Eastern countries were jammed into Al-Iman Mosque, a marble-faced storefront that is one of several Muslim halls of worship that have sprung up in Astoria. Some wore ordinary street clothes, some white robes and knit white skullcaps. There were so many worshipers that thirteen had to pray on the sidewalk, kneeling shoeless on prayer mats and touching their foreheads and palms to the ground. When the prayers were over, El Allel Dahli, a Moroccan immigrant, emerged with his teenage son, Omar, telling of the plate of couscous and lamb he had brought as a gift to the poor to honor the birth that morning of his daughter, Jenine. “I am very happy today,” he told me.  </p><p>He could also have been happy that, as his visit confirmed, the immediate neighborhood was turning into New York City’s casbah. Not only was there his flourishing mosque, but down Steinway Street, as far as his eyes could see, there were Middle Eastern restaurants, groceries, travel agencies, a driving school, a barber shop, a pharmacy, a dried fruit and nuts store, a bookstore—twenty-five shops in all. In the cafés,  </p><p>clusters of Egyptian, Moroccan, or Tunisian men were puffing on hookahs—tall, gaudily embellished water pipes stoked with charcoal to burn sheeshah, the fragrant tobacco that comes in flavors such as molasses and apple. Sometimes these men—taxi drivers, merchants, or just plain idlers—play backgammon or dominoes or watch Arabic television shows beamed in by satellite, but mostly they schmooze about the things Mediterranean men talk about when they’re together— soccer, politics, women—while waiters fill up their pipes with chunks of charcoal at $4 a smoke. In classic New York fashion, Steinway Street is a slice of Arabic Algiers on Astoria’s former Main Street, renamed after a German immigrant who a century before assembled the world’s greatest pianos a few blocks away.  </p><p>And it is not just Middle Easterners and North Africans who are changing the neighborhood’s personality. Those settling in Astoria in the past decade or two include Bangladeshis, Serbians, Bosnians, Ecuadorians, and, yes, even increasingly young Manhattan professionals drawn by the neighborhood’s modest rents, cosmopolitan flavors, and short commute to midtown Manhattan. More vibrant than them all seem to be the Brazilians, who have brought samba nightclubs and bikini-waxing salons to streets that once held moussaka joints. When Brazil won the World Cup in 2002, Astoria’s streets were turned into an all-night party, and when the team lost in 2006, the streets were leaden with mourning.  </p><p>New York can be viewed as an archipelago, like Indonesia a collection of distinctive islands, in its case its villagelike neighborhoods. Each island has its own way of doing things, its own flavor, fragrance, and indelible characters. But, as a result of the roiling tides of migration and the unquenchable human restlessness and hunger for something better and grander, most of these neighborhoods are in constant, ineluctable flux. Some transform with astonishing swiftness as if hit by a flood; a few suffer erosion that is scarcely detectable until one day its inhabitants realize that what was there is gone.  </p><p>Astoria was an appropriate jumping-off point for my three-year-long ramble around the city because it is a classic New York neighborhood, a place that has long had a sharply defined character and a distinct place in the city’s landscape, but one that has been turned into a Babel of cultures by the waves of immigration set off by the 1965 law. When New Yorkers dropped the name Astoria, it was understood they were talking about an enclave where Greek was spoken and Greek folkways were observed. So it was striking to me as I walked the streets how much of that accent had faded. Astoria’s Greek population has been cut by a third in the past two decades, by some unofficial estimates, to 30,000 from 45,000, with official, if undercounted, census figures even gloomier, putting the number of people who claimed Greek ancestry at just 18,217, or 8.6 percent of the neighborhood’s residents.  </p><p>The decline of the Greeks can be seen as an old New York story, no different from the shrinking of the Jewish population on the Lower East Side or the number of Italians along Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. As immigrants of one nationality make it, they forsake the jostling streets, and newer immigrants, hoping to make their fortunes, move in. “It’s an upward mobility kind of thing,” said Robert Stephanopoulos, dean of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral on East Seventy-fourth Street and father of George (Bill Clinton’s press secretary and now an ABC broadcaster). But the fact that it is an oft- told story is scant consolation for longtime Greek residents who have tried to rekindle the old country in this new one. They find a bittersweet quality to the changeover. On the one hand, it affirms their community’s upswing; on the other, their village in New York is withering.  </p><p>“In New York everything turns around,” Peter Figetakis, forty-eight, a Greek-born film director who has lived in Astoria since the 1970s, told me. “Now the Hindus and Arabs, it’s their time.”  </p><p>For the newer residents, the mood is expansive. On a two-block stretch of Steinway between Twenty-eighth Avenue and Astoria Boulevard, there is a veritable souk, with shops selling halal meat, Syrian pastries, airplane tickets to Morocco, driving lessons in Arabic, Korans and other Muslim books, and robes in styles such as the caftan, the abaya, the hooded djellaba, and the chador, which covers the body from head to toe, including much of the face. Indeed, a common street sight is a woman in ankle-length robe and head scarf— hijab—surrounded by small children. Laziza of New York Pastry, a Jordanian bakery, may have baklava superior to that made by the neighborhood’s Greeks. With two dozen such Arabic shops, the Steinway strip outpaces the city’s most famous Middle Eastern thoroughfare, Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue, which was started by Lebanese and Syrian Christians, not Muslims. In cafés and restaurants once owned by Greeks and Italians, television shows from Cairo and news from Qatar- based Al Jazeera are beamed in on flat-screen televisions. Some cafés are open round-the-clock so taxi drivers can stop in and have their sheeshah and an espresso.  </p><p>Noureddine Daouaou, a taxi driver from Casablanca who has lived in the United States for more than twenty years, said he prefers Astoria to other places in New York where Arabs cluster because the neighborhood has a cosmopolitan mix of peoples. “You don’t feel homesick,” he said. “You find peace somehow. You find people try to get along. We can understand each other in one language.”  </p><p>The number of Arab speakers in the neighborhood the city designates as Queens Community Board 1 (the city is broken into fifty-nine community boards that offer advice on land-use and budget issues) rose from 2,265 in 1990 to 4,097 in 2000, an 80 percent increase, and will be far larger in the next census. For the Middle Easterners, the attraction to Astoria seems to be the congenial Mediterranean accent: foods that overlap with such Greek delicacies as kebab, okra, lentils, and honey-coated pastries, and cultural harmonies such as men idling with one another in cafés. “They feel more comfortable with Greeks,” George Mohamed Oumous, a forty-five-year-old Moroccan computer programmer, said of his fellow Arabs. “We’ve been near each other for centuries. You listen to Greek music, you think you could be listening to Egyptian music.”  </p><p>Ali El Sayed, who is Steinway’s Sidney Greenstreet, the man aware of this mini-Casablanca’s secrets, was a pioneer. A broad-shouldered Alexandrian with a shaved head like a genie, Sayed moved to Steinway Street in the late 1980s to open the Kabab Café, a narrow six-table cranny filled with Egyptian bric-a-brac, stained glass, and a hookah or two. It sells a tasty hummus and falafel plate. “How’s the food, folks?” he’ll sometimes ask, displaying his American slang. “I’m just an insecure guy, so I need to ask.” He found Astoria congenial because it was easy to shop for foods, such as hummus and okra, that he uses in his cooking. Within a few years the neighborhood had enough Arabs and other Muslims to support its first mosque, which was opened in a onetime pool hall on Twenty-eighth Avenue.  </p><p>Sayed told me that Egyptians in Astoria are proud to be Americans, proud to blend into American society. Indeed, Egyptians and other Arabs and Muslims are assimilating in the United States with as much enthusiasm as earlier immigrant groups. In London, Paris, and Hamburg, there is far more ambivalence. Even two and three generations after t... </p>

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<h3>Review</h3><p>If you need a book on personal finance, <em>Your Money: The Missing Manual</em> is a solid choice. It gets all the important stuff right, and does a great job of distinguishing between that stuff (that you have to get right) and the peripheral stuff (that you can do any of several different ways, as long as you do it).</p><p>-- Philip Brewer, </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Keeping your financial house in order is more important than ever. But how do you deal with expenses, debt, taxes, and retirement without getting overwhelmed? This book points the way. It's filled with the kind of practical guidance and sound insights that makes J.D. Roth's GetRichSlowly.org a critically acclaimed source of personal-finance advice. </p><p>You won't find any get-rich-quick schemes here, just sensible advice for getting the most from your money. Even if you have perfect credit and no debt, you'll learn ways to make your rosy financial situation even better.</p><ul> <li>     Get the info you need to make sensible decisions on saving, spending, and investing  </li> <li>     Learn the best ways to set <em>and</em> achieve financial goals  </li> <li>     Set up a realistic budget framework and learn how to track expenses  </li> <li>     Discover proven methods to help you eliminate debt  </li> <li>     Understand how to use credit wisely  </li> <li>     Win big by making smart decisions on your home and other big-ticket items  </li> <li>     Learn how to get the most from your investments by avoiding rash decisions  </li> <li>     Decide how -- and how much -- to save for retirement  </li></ul><p><strong>Practical Tips for Saving Money from J.D. Roth</strong></p><p><strong>1. Saving is mental ... and easier if you avoid advertising</strong></p><p>One of the best ways to win the mental battle to save is to reduce your exposure to advertising. Fight this by ignoring ads, or by learning to question their premises. </p><p><strong>2. Customize your saving (or, how to create your own Wii account)</strong></p><p>Each of us is different. We have different goals, we have different skills, and we have different mindsets. </p><p>Don't think of saving as a chore. Think of it as the golden ticket to getting the things you really want. I set up what I call "targeted savings accounts" at my bank, and I use these to save for my goals. When I wanted a Nintendo Wii, I opened a separate savings account at my credit union and I called it "Nintendo account." The teller laughed at me, but she understood what I was doing. It helped me save. </p><p>Each person needs to find a savings technique that matches her goals and abilities. If one method doesn't work, try another. Keep looking until you find a technique that works for you. </p><p><strong>3. Starter goals: vacations, cars and retirement</strong></p><p>A great way to develop the savings habit is to save for a vacation. We all love to take trips, right? Save for a fishing trip to Alaska. Save for a cruise to Belize. Save for a three-week tour of Paris. Whatever strikes your fancy. And once you've developed the saving habit, apply it to more practical things. </p><p>Another great goal is to save for a car. Too many people allow themselves to be trapped by a lifetime of car payments. It doesn't have to be that way. Develop a system that allows you to pay cash whenever you go shopping for a new vehicle. Earn interest on your car money instead of paying interest to somebody else. </p><p>And, of course, you should begin saving for retirement as soon as possible. This can be tough to do, especially if you're young. You think you've got decades to go, so why start today? You could use that money for a ski trip or a new iPad. But the sooner you start, the more time the extraordinary power of compounding has to help your money grow. If you don't think you can afford to (or want to) set aside 10 percent (or 25 percent, like my wife), then start small. Start with 5 percent. Or even 1 percent. Develop the habit and increase your saving with time. </p><p><strong>4. Limit your long-term goals and keep track of short-term tasks</strong></p><p>I only set a handful of long-term goals at a time. In fact, this year I only have one long-term goal. If we set too many goals, we spread our attention, and we're less likely to accomplish any of them. But if we concentrate on just a handful of things at once, we're more likely to do what we dream. </p><p>But while I don't have many long-term goals, I have a bunch of stuff I want to accomplish in the short term. To stay focused on these tasks, I use a simple but brilliant system I learned from Erica at erica.biz. I start on the first page of a spiral notebook. I make a brain dump of everything I have to do. Then I put the date at the top of the page. I refer to this list many times throughout the day, crossing things off the list as I go. If something else comes up that needs to be done, I add it to the bottom of the list. Every evening, I copy the list onto a new page and put the next day's date. This system works like a charm for me, not just for financial tasks, but for all tasks. </p><p><strong>5. Memberships/subscriptions you can cancel</strong></p><p>It can be difficult to give up things that we might consider "vices." For you, that might be the daily latte. For me, it's always been comic books. (Sad, but true.) These are constant money drains, but they also bring joy to our lives. Instead of giving these things up, I encourage folks to find ways to reduce them, or to save on them. </p><p>But to really save money, look for ways to reduce recurring monthly expenses. These are constant drags to your budget, and if you can reduce them, it's a great way to improve your cash flow. Some examples: </p><p><strong>Cancel your cable television and start watching shows online at Hulu.com or similar services.</strong> Or, if that's too extreme, cut back from your deluxe digital package to bare minimum basic. I did this and saved over $600 a year.<br /><strong>Cancel your magazine and newspaper subscriptions.</strong> Yes, I know these industries are hurting, but so is your own budget.<br /><strong>Cancel your gym membership.</strong> Find cheap ways to exercise at home, including biking and running and yard work. Bodyweight exercises (like pushups and situps) are free and effective.<br /><strong>Cancel other monthly memberships.</strong> I used to pay $15/month to play an online videogame. Not only was this sucking my time away, but it was costing me $180 a year. I know that's not a lot, but when put together with other expenses, it can add up.<br /><strong>Cancel your cell phone contract and move to pay-as-you-go.</strong> In other countries, prepaid cell contracts are the norm. But for some reason, in the U.S., they're the exception, not the rule. As a result, folks end up paying through the nose, either because they have more service than they need, or because they don't have enough. With a prepaid plan, you only pay for what you need.  </p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>while</em> driving), but I can't remember the last time I saw a book on all the time we spend stuck in our cars. It's a topic of nearly universal interest, though: everybody has a strategy for beating the traffic. Tom Vanderbilt's <em>Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)</em> has plenty of advice for those shortcut schemers (Vanderbilt may well convince you to become, as he has, a dreaded "Late Merger"), but more than that it's the sort of wide-ranging contrarian compendium that makes a familiar subject new. I'm not the first or last to call <em>Traffic</em> the <em>Freakonomics</em> of cars, but it's true that it fits right in with the school of smart and popular recent books by Leavitt, Gladwell, Surowiecki, Ariely, and others that use the latest in economic, sociological, psychological, and in this case civil engineering research to make us rethink a topic we live with every day. Want to know how much city traffic is just people looking for parking? (It's a lot.) Or why street signs don't work (but congestion pricing does), why new cars crash more than old cars, and why Saturdays now have the worst traffic of the week? Read <em>Traffic</em>, or better yet, listen to the audio book on your endless commute. <em>--Tom Nissley</em>   </p><p><strong>Questions for Tom Vanderbilt, author of <em>Traffic</em></strong>  </p><p><strong>Q: Was this book really born on a New Jersey highway?</strong><br>A: Yes, though it could have been any highway in the world, where countless drivers, driving on a crowded road that is about to lose a lane, have had to make a simple decision: When to merge. For my entire driving life, I had always merged "early," thinking it was the polite and efficient thing to do. I viewed those who kept driving to the merge point, to the front of line, as selfish jerks who were making life miserable for the rest of us. I began to wonder: Were they really making things worse? Was I making things worse? Could merging be made easier? Why were there late mergers and early mergers, and why did people get so worked up about the whole thing? In that everyday moment I seemed to sense a vast, largely under-explored wilderness before me: Traffic.   </p><p><strong>Q: Is it true that the most common cause of stress on the highway is merging? Why of the myriad things to cause stress on the road is this at the top?</strong><br>A: Merging is the most stressful single activity we face in everyday driving, according to a survey by the Texas Transportation Institute. People who have done studies at highway construction work zones have also told me of extraordinarily bad behavior, triggered by this simple act of trying to get two lanes of traffic into one. Sometimes, it’s simply the difficult mechanics of driving — trying to enter a stream of traffic flowing at a higher speed than you are, for example. Drivers, to quote a physicist who was actually talking about grains, are objects "who do not easily interact." But I also think there’s something about the forward flow of traffic that makes us register progress only by our own unimpeded movement; as in life, we seem to register losses more powerfully than gains, and registering these losses boosts stress.   </p><p><strong>Q: You say that, "For most of us who are not brain surgeons, driving is probably the most complex everyday thing we do in our lives." How so?</strong><br>A: Researchers have estimated there are anywhere from 1500 to 2500 discrete skills and activities we undertake while driving. Even the simplest thing — shifting gears — is a decision-making process consuming what is called "cognitive workload." We’re operating heavy machinery at speeds beyond our long evolutionary history, absorbing (and discarding) huge amounts of information, and having to make snap decisions — often based on limited situational awareness, guesses about what others are going to do, or a hazy knowledge of the actual traffic law. It took years of research, for example, by some of the country’s top robotics researchers, to create expensive, sophisticated self-driving "autonomous vehicles" that are basically mediocre beginning drivers that you’d never want to let loose in everyday traffic. When we forget that driving isn’t necessarily as easy as it seems to be, we get into trouble.   </p><p><strong>Q: Drivers polled in America say the roads are getting less civil with each passing year. ‘Road Rage’ is an ever more common term. What is to blame? Hummers? Or are we just getting ruder?</strong><br>A: Every year, more people are driving more miles, so one reason for the sense that the roads are getting less civil is simply that there are many more chances for you to have an encounter with an aggressive or rude driver. It’s tough to put numbers on it, but I happen to feel, like many people, that behavior has gotten qualitatively worse — surveys have suggested, for example, that using the turn signal is an increasingly optional activity. Leaving aside the issue that not signaling is illegal (because, let’s face it, we’re never going to be able ticket everyone who doesn’t do it, nor do we probably want to), it’s one of those small things, requiring little effort from the driver, that makes traffic flow more smoothly — I myself have honked countless times at "idiots" slowing for no apparent reason, only to seem them eventually make a turn. It’s antisocial behavior, the equivalent of having the door held open for you and saying nothing in return. So why don’t people signal? My immediate theory is that they’re using a cell phone and are distracted or physically incapable of signaling. But a deeper reason, I suspect, may be seen in the surveys of psychologists who measure narcissism in American culture. They find, as time goes on, more people are willing to say things like "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place." Traffic is filled with people who think that roads belong only to them — it’s "MySpace" — that being inside the car absolves them from any obligation to anyone else. People are glad to tell you that their child is a middle school honor student — as if anyone cared! — but they deem it less important to tell you what they’re going to do in traffic.   </p><p><strong>Q: So much of what you uncover about life on the road seems counterintuitive. Like the fact that drivers drive closer to oncoming cars when there is a center line divider then when there is not; that most accidents happen close to home in familiar, not foreign, surroundings; that dangerous roads can be safer; safer cars can be more dangerous; that suburbs are often riskier than the inner city; the roundabout safer than the intersection. When it comes to traffic why are things so different from how we instinctively perceive them?</strong><br>A: I think part of the reason is it’s easy for us to confuse what feels dangerous or safe in the moment and what might be, in a larger sense, safe or dangerous. We have a windshield’s eye view of driving that sometimes blinds us to larger realities or skews our perception. Roundabouts feel dangerous because of all the work one has to do, like looking for an opening, jockeying for positioning. But it’s precisely because we have to do all that, and because of the way roundabouts are designed, that we have to slow down. By contrast, it feels quite "safe" to sail through a big intersection where the lights are telling you that you have the right to speed through. We can, in essence, put our brain on hold. But those same intersections contain so many more chances for what engineers call "conflict," and at much higher speeds, than roundabouts. So when what seems quite safe suddenly turns quite dangerous — will we be as well prepared? Similarly, we might be reassured that that yellow or white dividing line on a road is telling us where we should be, but how does that knowledge then change our behavior, to the point where may actually be driving closer — and faster — to the stream of oncoming traffic? Accidents are more likely to occur closer to home. Mostly this is because we do most driving closer to home, but studies do show that we pay less attention to signs and signals on local roads, because we "know" them, yet this knowledge actually give us a false sense of security.   </p><p><strong>Q: What were some of the things that most surprised you in researching this book?</strong><br>A: Things that surprised me the most were those that challenged my own long-held beliefs as a driver, like that "late mergers" simply must be somehow worse for the traffic flow at work-zones, that roundabouts were dangerous places, that warning signs were there because they must be working, that car drivers were more of a contributing factor in truck-car crashes than truck drivers. It was also quite a revelation to learn about the many ways our eyes and our minds deceive us while driving, the ways we "look but don’t see," the way we sometimes believe, to slightly change up the warning our mirrors gives us, that objects are further away than they actually are. Then there were the things I had never really thought about, but were surprising nonetheless — that drivers seem to pass closer to cyclists when those cyclists are wearing helmets, how the ways in which drivers honk at each other contain subtle indications of status and demographics, how much traffic on the streets is simply people looking for parking. I was also unpleasantly surprised to learn how far the U.S. had slipped in terms of traffic safety in the world, where it was once the leader.   </p><p><strong>Q: You write, "The truth is the road itself tells us far more than signs do." So do traffic signs work?</strong><br>A: We’ve probably all had the somewhat absurd moment of driving in the country, past a big red barn, the pungent smell of cow manure on the breeze, and then seeing a yellow traffic sign with a cow on it. Does anyone need that sign to remind them that cows may be nearby? To quote Hans Monderman, the legendary Dutch traffic engineer who was opposed to excessive signing, "if you treat people like idiots, they’ll act like idiots." Then again, perhaps someone did come blazing along and hit a crossing cow or a tractor, and in response engineers may have been forced to put up a sign. The question is: Would that person have done that regardless of the sign? The bulk of evidence is that people don’t change their behavior in the presence of such signs. Children playing, School zone? People speed through those warnings, faster than they even thought, if you query them later. To take another example, the majority of people killed at railroad crossings in the U.S. are killed at crossings where the gates are down. If this is insufficient warning that they should not cross the tracks then is a sign warning that a train might be coming really going to change behavior? At what point do people need to rely on their own judgment? We as humans seem to act on the message that traffic signs give us in complex ways — studies have shown, for example, that people drive faster around curved roads that are marked with signs telling them the road is curved. We tend to behave more cautiously in the face of uncertainty.   </p><p><strong>Q: What is "psychological traffic calming"?</strong><br>A: Traditional "traffic calming" relies on putting big, visually obvious obstructions in the road, like speed bumps, or the wider, flatter speed humps. Unfortunately, since the bulk of drivers, like tantrum-throwing toddlers, really don’t like to be calmed, a lot of these don’t work as well as hoped, or produce negative, unintended consequences, like the fact that people will raise their speed between the bumps to make up for the time lost slowing to traverse the bump. So-called "psychological traffic calming" basically tries to calm traffic without drivers even realizing they’re being calmed. It does so through things like reducing the width of roads, using pavements of different colors or textures, even removing center-line dividers, which studies have shown is one way to get drivers to slow down. Even creating visual interest along the side of the road, a no-no in traditional traffic engineering because it’s a "distraction," can be used to calm traffic — when something’s worth seeing, after all, people slow down. The most radical approach is removing any signage at all, and forcing drivers to rely on their own wits, as well as the dynamics of human interaction, as has been seen in some interesting experiments in the Netherlands.   </p><p><strong>Q: You cite 20 miles per hour as the speed at which eye contact becomes impossible. How central to understanding traffic, and human communication generally, is this statistic?</strong><br>A: Eye contact is a fundamental human signal — all kinds of studies have shown, for example, how people are more likely to cooperate with one another when they can make eye contact. When we don’t have it, when we become anonymous, we not only lose some of that impulse towards cooperation, we seem to become susceptible to all kinds of behavior we might not otherwise engage in. In most driving situations, of course, we lose eye contact, and have to make do with our rather limited vocabulary of traffic signals. At much slower speeds, however, like those seen in the experimental roundabouts in the Netherlands were most signage has been stripped away, it is fascinating to see how intricately all the traffic can interweave — exactly because some of those human signals have been restored.   </p><p><strong>Q: We’ve all had the experience of the annoying passenger who can’t stop critiquing our driving when we know are driving just perfectly. Then again, we’ve all been the back seat driver to people who think they are driving perfectly when we know for sure they are about to kill us. What accounts for the way drivers vs. passengers experience the same ride?</strong><br>A: First of all, I should stress that passengers, even annoying back-seat drivers, are good for us: Statistics show that people are less likely to crash when they are accompanied in the car (except, interestingly, teen drivers). But there’s several interesting things going on between drivers and passengers. For one, driving as an activity often lacks regular feedback — we’re often not aware in the moment of how close to a crash we almost came, or our own culpability in that. Secondly, drivers tend to self-enhance. They all tend to think they are better than average, or at least average drivers — it’s been called the "Lake Woebegone Effect." Passengers are not caught up in this dynamic — there’s no such thing as a "better than average" passenger — nor do they feel themselves joined to the mechanics of the car, the way a driver does. Brain scans of people doing simulated driving have even revealed different results from people acting as simulated passengers. In the end, a back-seat driver, like it or not, is providing feedback, the same way someone can view footage of their golf swing to learn what they couldn’t see in the moment.   </p><p><strong>Q: You talk about numerous experiments going on around the world to study traffic, what are some of the ones that you found most interesting?</strong><br>A: One of the most fascinating things that is happening, thanks to technology like TiVo style cameras and feedback sensors, is that researchers are becoming increasingly able to study how drivers really behave on the road, learning curious details about, for example, how much time drivers spend looking in certain places — forward at the road, in the rear-view mirrors, away from traffic, at the radio, etc. With companies like DriveCam, this information is actually being used to coach drivers — beginners but also experienced drivers — based on the crashes they narrowly avoided. The work of Hans Monderman, who unfortunately died in January, in the Netherlands was also utterly fascinating. Faced with a visually unappealing, traffic clogged intersection in the heart of the Dutch city of Drachten, Monderman turned it into a roundabout, with fountains and plantings but no traffic lights and virtually no signage — the result, more than a year later, is the traffic moves more efficiently through the town, and there have been fewer crashes. It was also quite memorable to be in Los Angeles’ "traffic bunker" on Oscar Night. They set up special traffic patterns so that the stars’ limos can all get to the red carpet at roughly the same time. It was striking to see how one person, sitting alone at a computer screen, can orchestrate the whole city’s flows, its competing patterns of desire.   </p><p><strong>Q: You have been all over the world studying traffic. So, where was it the worst and how does the city in which we live dictate our highway behavior?</strong><br>A: It depends on how you define worst! I’ve been in nasty jams from Seoul to San Francisco. The places that felt the most chaotic were cities like Hanoi, which currently has the highest level of motorbikes per capita in the world, and where, in many parts of the city, the only way one can cross the street is by simply wading into the flow. New Delhi was also quite unnerving, not just for the hustle and bustle of so many modes of transportation on the road at once, but the chronic disobedience of traffic rules. In Beijing, where "driver" not that long ago was only the title of a job, driving was hectic but I found it quite difficult as well to be a pedestrian — drivers were always plunging into the crosswalks when I had the "walk" man, I was always having to climb bridges or submerge into tunnels to cross streets, and the city’s "super-blocks" are sort of oppressive — I walk quickly but it took me nearly an hour to walk around the block on which my hotel was located.   </p><p>I think traffic behavior is dictated by a complicated mix of cultural factors and the traffic engineering measures in place. In Copenhagen, home of the world’s largest anarchist community, people on foot are astonishingly law-abiding in terms of not crossing against the light. In New York, an arguably more individualistic, ego-driven sort of place, you’re viewed as a tourist if you don’t jaywalk. But in London, for example, studies have shown that the number of pedestrians who violate red lights literally changes with each block; it’s not that those people’s culture changed from one block to the next, it was simply that some lights were too punishingly long to wait for.   </p><p><strong>Q: You seem to feel pretty strongly about what constitutes an "accident" on the road. While drugs and alcohol are called out as criminal, cell phone use, texting and general disregard for traffic laws are not. Do you think we are heading toward stricter laws on this front? Should we?</strong><br>A: Since the car was invented, drivers have been reluctant to give up what they see as their "rights," even as these supposed rights keep changing. This is why, for example, cars are sold without "speed governors," a device that would greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the illegal — let’s call it what it is — act of speeding, and certainly reduce fatalities and injuries. It took years for people to accept that drinking and then getting behind the wheel was not a good idea, and obviously many still do think it’s acceptable. As the science emerges that cell phone conversations, not simply dialing, can seriously impair a driver’s attention and reaction times, the very reasons we criminalize drunken driving, I’m not sure what the distinction is that should be made if a driver kills a pedestrian while drunk versus while on their cell phone, or for that matter who kills a pedestrian because they were driving 25 miles over the speed limit. Does one get years in jail and the other a slap on the wrist? Don’t they both show an equal disregard for the law? People are leery of imposing stricter laws on negligent driving because it’s always been viewed as a "folk crime," like fudging your taxes, sort of widespread and not as serious as others. People are reluctant to criminalize what they see as "normal" behavior. But how did it become normal behavior? When I got my driver’s license, the cell phone hadn’t been invented, and somehow as a society we managed to get along. The economy didn’t collapse, and, if you believe surveys, people were no less happy then they are now. No one wants to get into an accident, they’re certainly not premeditated, but were people doing everything they reasonably could to avoid an "accidental" crash when it later turns out they were talking on a cell phone while driving? It’s something we’re going to have wrestle with as a society as the science really begins to come in.   </p><p><strong>Q: What is "a forgiving road"?</strong><br>A: This is a school of thought that says, drivers are only human, they’re going to make mistakes, so let’s build things so that if they do make a mistake, they won’t be seriously injured or killed. Sounds good in theory, and in some places, it’s good practice. If you’re cruising along the highway at 75 mph and your tire blows out, wouldn’t you want a guardrail to prevent you from crashing into a tree? The problem is: Where do you draw the line? The early traffic engineers thought the forgiving road was such a good idea they argued it should be extended to every road in the country. Even residential streets, they argued, shouldn’t be lined with trees, and instead should have massive "clear zones" for people to skid off into without killing themselves. The problem, apart from the fact that forgiving roads don’t really make for nice residential or city environments, is that the forgiving road principles, can, in effect, give permission to drivers to drive more recklessly, which is not good for other drivers, pedestrians, or cyclists — and often not good for them. Just as the only safe car is the one that never leaves the garage, the only truly safe road is the one that’s never driven. Trying to make roads "too safe" for drivers leads to all sorts of unintended consequences.   </p><p><strong>Q: You write that "as the inner life of the driver begins to come into focus, it is becoming clear not only that distraction is the single biggest problem on the road, but that we have little concept of just how distracted we are." Can you explain?</strong><br>A: To give you an idea, I took a test on a driving simulator. I was doing a kind of logic exercise via a hands-free phone while I drove on the highway. I smacked into the back of a truck. When I looked at the software that tracked my eye movements, they were locked onto the back of that truck. Did I realize how distracted I was? Not at all. Think of when you zone out as someone’s talking to you. You’re only made aware of it when they ask if you’re listening to them. Or take the famous "gorilla video" experiment. You’re trying to pay attention to people passing the basketball to each other. In the meantime, a guy in a gorilla suit strolls by. Most people don’t see it. You’re distracted from the gorilla by the act of counting passes, but you’ve no idea. This kind of thing, scarily, happens in driving all the time. There are times we know we’re distracted in some way, like physically dialing a phone, but other times when we’re not aware of the extent of our distraction because we think we’re paying attention.   </p><p><strong>Q: You write about the cars and technologies of the future and as you put it, "It is probably no accident that whenever one hears of a "smart" technology, it refers to something that has been taken out of human control." Are we headed towards the driverless automobile?</strong><br>A: We’re definitely already in the era of "driver-assist" automobiles, with blind-spot warnings and adaptive cruise control and the like. As people who study automation have noted, these "semiautomated" processes come with very particular challenges — drivers may relax their vigilance, thinking everything is fine thanks to the car’s technology, but something might happen that actually confounds the car’s systems, and suddenly the driver is "out of the loop." This kind of thing has been seen in airline crashes. That said, were it to be fully achievable, full automated driving would have all kinds of benefits, from smoother traffic flow to a reduction in crashes. But that’s a ways away — the legal issues, for one, are massive — but maybe by 2050, like in the film <em>Minority Report</em>, we’ll all have little autonomous pods connected to a grid…   </p><p><strong>Q: If you had to choose from the vast array of prescriptions, what would be some of the top things you would recommend to make our roads safer and our traffic less maddening?</strong><br>A: 1. Pay attention to the task at hand. You are operating heavy machinery, not driving a big phone booth or a make-up mirror. Every glance away from the road, every phone call, every fumbling for your last McNugget, not only disrupts traffic flow, it boosts the risk for a crash, which is itself one of the leading causes of congestion. Even though we often read about how much money we’re losing because of traffic congestion, which people often site as reason to build more roads, it’s been estimated that crashes cost us more in economic terms than congestion itself. <br>2. Remember the ants. Army ants are among the world’s best commuters, for a single reason: They’re all cooperating. They move in unison, they help each other out, the individual doesn’t consider his own interests above that of the traffic stream. We all want to assert our individuality, or our sense of superiority on the road, but as everyone does that, it makes it worse for everyone else, and the whole system gets worse. <br>3. Keep in mind you’re not as good a driver as you think you are. On the road, we’re moving faster than our evolutionary history has prepared us. We cope pretty well regardless, but we’re still susceptible to all kinds of flaws and distortions in our sensory and decision-making equipment. Just because your eyes are on the road and your hands upon the wheel doesn’t mean you’re actually prepared to deal with an emergency. <br>4. We can’t build our way out of traffic, but we can think our way out. Building more roads when they’re already under-funded doesn’t seem workable, and given that most roads are only congested part of the time, it’s not really the most efficient solution anyway, for loads of reasons. As a former Disney engineer told me when I asked why they didn’t just build more rides instead of worrying about new ways to manage the long queues, "you don’t build a church for Easter Sunday." But being able to clear a stalled car quickly because sensors detect the traffic flow has changed, knowing which routes are crowded in that moment, and possibly charging accordingly; or, perhaps, making traffic lights adapt to changing demand — or getting rid of traffic lights altogether — there’s countless innovative solutions out there that are more sophisticated, and more sustainable,than simply laying more asphalt, and that don’t necessarily involve not driving — though that of course is the ultimate traffic solution.   </p><p><strong>Q: Okay so the big question. We know you have learned a lot about traffic but what have you learned about we humans behind the wheels?</strong><br>A: In a word, that we’re …human! We make mistakes, we misjudge our abilities, we’re not as aware of what’s happening in traffic as we think we are, we act differently in different situations, we get angry over things that matter little in the long run, we’re susceptible to distortions in our sense of time, we have trouble living beyond the moment, of seeing the big picture — oh, and also, that everyone has a different opinion on who the worst drivers are and where they live…"Los Angeles! L.A. drivers are the worst… No, Atlanta has terrible drivers… No way, Boston drivers are nuts…" Try this with your friends sometime.   </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Vanderbilt looks at the psychology of driving and the many false impressions drivers use to operate their vehicles. He also looks at other subjects potentially unconsidered by the average driver, such as traffic control centers and smart technology that improves driving decisions. David Slavin's diverse application of tone and personality make him a great choice for this production. Vanderbilt's writing is accessible, but it changes in tone depending on the context (ranging from life-and-death issues of accidents to reflecting about traffic controllers protesting during the Academy Awards). Slavin balances these shifting thoughts and maintains an overall energetic personality throughout the production. The big challenge of this audiobook is how much drivers who listen to audiobooks will adjust their habits while listening to it. A Knopf hardcover. (Reviews, May 19). <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>From its opening pages, Anita Shreve's <em>Sea Glass</em> surrounds the reader in the surprisingly rich feeling of the New Hampshire coast in winter. Vividly evoking the life of the coastal community at the beginning of the Great Depression, <em>Sea Glass</em> shifts through the multiple points of view of six principal characters; it's a skillfully created story of braided lives that bounces easily (even inevitably) from character to character. We learn how these lives come together following the stock market crash of 1929 and about the struggles of mill workers on the starkly beautiful New Hampshire coast during the following year. At the novel's center is the story of Honora Beecher, a young newlywed who compulsively collects sea glass along the beach as she collects unexpected friendship in her new beachside community, and Francis, a boy who discovers a father figure in the towering character of McDermott, an Irish mill worker, at a time when he most needs direction. Each character finds unexpected new purpose beyond the struggle to survive during that turbulent year among the dunes. First their lives barely touch, then they intersect, and finally they become inextricably bound. By the powerful and unexpected final scenes of the story, every point of view, every brilliant shard of life depends deeply on all the others. It is a very satisfying read--confidently told and deeply felt--with as many subtle colors and reflections as the sea glass that permeates the narrative. <em>--Paul Ford</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In addition to spinning one of her most absorbing narratives, Shreve here rewards readers with the third volume in a trilogy set in the large house on the New Hampshire coast that figured in The Pilot's Wife and Fortune's Rocks. This time the inhabitants are a newly married couple, Sexton and Honora Beecher, both of humble origins, who rent the now derelict house. In a burst of overconfidence, slick typewriter salesman Sexton lies about his finances and arranges a loan to buy the property. When the 1929 stock market crash occurs soon afterward, Sexton loses his job and finds menial work in the nearby mills. There, he joins a group of desperate mill hands who have endured draconian working conditions for years, and now, facing extortionate production quotas and reduced pay, want to form a union. The lives of the Beechers become entwined with the strikers, particularly a principled 20-year-old loom fixer named McDermott and Francis, the 11-year-old fatherless boy he takes under his wing. A fifth major character is spoiled, dissolute socialite Vivian Burton, who is transformed by her friendship with Honora. As Honora becomes aware that Sexton is untrustworthy, she is drawn to McDermott, who tries to hide his love for her. The plot moves forward via kaleidoscopic vignettes from each character's point of view, building emotional tension until the violent, rather melodramatic climax when the mill owners' minions confront the strikers. Shreve is skilled at interpolating historical background, and her descriptions of the different social strata the millworkers, the lower-middle-class Sextons, the idle rich enhance a touching story about loyalty and betrayal, responsibility and dishonor. This is one of Shreve's best, likely to win her a wider audience. 6-city author tour. (Apr. 9) Forecast: Expectations of brisk sales, indicated by the one-day laydown, will likely be achieved. Readers should find timely resonance in the setting of 1920s economic turbulence.<br />Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> The death of Michelle Fisher strikes Joe Gunther as a little unusual in Mayor's superb 17th novel to feature the Vermont Bureau of Investigation detective (after 2005's St. Alban's Fire). When Joe calls for her autopsy results, he stumbles on a political snarl that threatens both his investigation and his relationship with chief medical examiner Beverly Hillstrom. Meanwhile, small-time criminal Mel Martin is intent on becoming a big-time criminal with the help of his wife, Nancy, and their friend Ellis Robbinson; for their part, Ellis and Nancy are increasingly disenchanted with Mel and enchanted by each other. Spinning out parallel story-lines and then weaving the strands together with deft precision, Mayor crafts not one but several mysteries and gives nothing away until the very last moment. While there's clearly a lot of history-most notably the recent end of Joe's 20-year romance with politician Gail Zigman, frequently mentioned despite its near-irrelevance to this particular plot-it's entirely accessible to new readers. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Has there been a crime? Joe Gunther, head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, doesn't know. Michelle Fisher is dead, but her body lies in peaceful repose in her converted nineteenth-century schoolhouse on the outskirts of Bennington. Nothing seems amiss, but Gunther's decades of experience and intuition nag at him. Natural causes? A suicide? Only medical examiner Beverly Hillstrom will be able to make the call, but Hillstrom is being harassed by her supervisor and can't do the requisite tests. At the same time, two of Bennington's smash-and-grab crooks are getting ready to hit the big time. Are they involved in Fisher's death? As a plot, it sounds thin, but in the hands of Mayor, it's a wonderful vehicle for a sweet, sad waltz of a crime novel. Mayor's elegiac tone and his insights into the human condition make <em>The Second Mouse </em>a fine addition to one of the most consistently satisfying mystery series going. <em>Thomas Gaughan</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>‘<strong>Arguably the finest modern American spy story</strong>’<br>— <em>New York Times</em></p><p>‘<strong>Charles McCarry is the best modern writer on the subject of intrigue - by the breadth of Alan Furst, by the fathom of Eric Ambler, by any measure</strong>’<br>— P.J. O’Rourke</p><p>‘<strong>Intelligent and enthralling... superbly constructed... wholly convincing</strong>’<br>— Eric Ambler</p><p>‘<strong>Absorbing, intelligent... True entertainment</strong>’<br>— New Yorker</p><p>‘<strong>McCarry’s thrillers really thrill, his political insight is praised by senior politicians and his erudition, experience and good writing turn spy stories into literature. McCarry and his dynamic alter-egos wipe the floor with the opposition</strong>’<br>— <em>Telegraph</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In The Miernik Dossier, five international agents embark on a car trip in a Cadillac, traveling from Switzerland to the Sudan. Among them is Tadeusz Miernik, the shy and bumbling Polish scientist who might be the leader of a terror force that could set the Cold War aflame. </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The Tears of Autumn, McCarry's riveting novel of espionage and foreign affairs, was a major bestseller upon its first publication. Spun with unsettling plausibility from the events surrounding the assassination of John F Kennedy, and featuring secret agent Paul Christopher, it is a tour de force of action and enigma. Paul Christopher the legendary spy, at the height of his powers, believes he knows who arranged the assassination, and why. But his theory is so destructive of the legend of the dead president, and so dangerous to the survival of foreign policy, that Christopher is ordered to desist from further investigation. Christopher resigns from the Agency and embarks upon a tour of investigation that takes him from Paris to Rome, Zurich, the Congo and Saigon. Pursued by Kennedy's assassins and by his own government, Christopher follows the scent of his suspicion - one breath behind the truth, one step ahead of discovery and death.</p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>“Charlotte Carter blends street savvy with wry urbanity.”<br />–_The New York Times_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><em></em>_Of <em>Jackson Park</em>, the first Cook County mystery featuring an unconventional trio of sleuths, Margo Jefferson <em>of The New York Times</em> said, “Charlotte Carter blends street savvy with wry urbanity and delivers a truly modern big-city crime tale.” Now Carter returns with another suspenseful novel that brings the black experience to vivid life during one of the most turbulent times in American history.<br />_<em></em><br />It is December 1968. In the wake of assassinations and the violence of the Democratic convention in Chicago, “Summer of Love” idealism has disintegrated into suspicion and disillusion. On the city’s North Side, twentyishCassandra Perry longs to be independent. She leaves the overprotective embrace of her granduncle and grandaunt, Woody ans Ivy Lisle, and moves into a multiracial commune dedicated to brotherhood and just causes. But Cassandra’s search for identity plunges her into the dark side of peace, love, and unlimited freedom–even before she discovers the brutally violated bodies of the commune’s most charismatic activist couple.  </p><p>As Cassandra investigates with the help of Woody and Ivy, she begins to see some friends–especially one of her dearest–in a disturbing, deadly light. But when the three amateur sleuths run afoul of a police cover-up with explosive political ramifications, they face a desperate enemy determined to bury the–along with the truth. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Genre-hopping Dan Simmons returns to science fiction with the vast and intricate masterpiece <em>Ilium</em>. Within, Simmons weaves three astounding story lines into one Earth-, Mars-, and Jupiter-shattering cliffhanger that will leave readers aching for the sequel. </p><p>On Earth, a post-technological group of humans, pampered by servant machines and easy travel via "faxing," begins to question its beginnings. Meanwhile, a team of sentient and Shakespeare-quoting robots from Jupiter's lunar system embark on a mission to Mars to investigate an increase in dangerous quantum fluctuations. On the Red Planet, they'll find a race of metahumans living out existence as the pantheon of classic Greek gods. These "gods" have recreated the Trojan War with reconstituted Greeks and Trojans and staffed it with scholars from throughout Earth's history who observe the events and report on the accuracy of Homer's <em>Iliad</em>. One of these scholars, Thomas Hockenberry, finds himself tangled in the midst of interplay between the gods and their playthings and sends the war reeling in a direction the blind poet could have never imagined. </p><p>Simmons creates an exciting and thrilling tale set in the thick of the Trojan War as seen through Hockenberry's 20th-century eyes. At the same time, Simmons's robots study Shakespeare and Proust and the origin-seeking Earthlings find themselves caught in a murderous retelling of <em>The Tempest</em>. Reading this highly literate novel does take more than a passing familiarity with at least <em>The Iliad</em> but readers who can dive into these heady waters and swim with the current will be amply rewarded. <em>--Jeremy Pugh</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Hugo and Stoker winner Simmons (Hyperion) makes a spectacular return to large-scale space opera in this elegant monster of a novel. Many centuries in the future, Earth's small, more or less human population lives an enjoyable, if drone-like existence. Elsewhere, on some alternate Earth, or perhaps it's the distant past, the battle for Troy is in its ninth year. Oddly, its combatants, Hector, Achilles and the rest, seem to be following a script, speaking their lines exactly as Homer reported them in The Iliad. The Gods, who live on Olympus Mons on the planet Mars, may be post-humans, or aliens, or, well, Gods; it isn't entirely clear. Thomas Hockenberry, a late-20th-century professor of the classics from De Pauw University in Indiana, has, along with other scholars from his era, apparently been resurrected by the Gods. His job is to take notes on the war and compare its progress to Homer's tale, noting even the smallest deviations. Meanwhile, the "moravecs," a civilization of diverse, partially organic AIs clustered on the moons of Jupiter, have been disturbed by the quantum activity they've registered from the inner solar system and have sent an expedition to Mars to investigate. It will come as no surprise to the author's fans that the expedition's members include specialists in Shakespeare and Proust. Beautifully written, chock full of literary references, grand scenery and fascinating characters, this book represents Simmons at his best.<br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Welcome back to the Trojan War gone round the bend. Hector and Achilles have joined forces against the Olympic Gods. Back on a future Earth, assorted creatures from Shakespeare's __ get ready to rumble in a winner-takes-the-universe battle royale. And amid it all, a group of confused mere mortals with their classically trained robot allies (from Jupiter no less) race across time and space to keep from getting squashed as the various Titans of the Western Canon square off.</p><p>Confused? It's all part of Dan Simmons's <em>Olympos</em>, a novel one part fun-with-quantum-physics and two parts through-the-looking-glass survey of Western Literature. Picking up where he left off in the high-wire act __, Simmons doesn't disappoint. Not only is <em>Olympos</em> excellent hard science fiction and grand space opera, it's a riveting and fast-paced book that is alternately shocking, thrilling, and often deftly hilarious as his hapless human creations wrestle the forces of literary history itself. Be sure to read <em>Ilium</em> first though. That and a more-than passing familiarity with <em>_ might come in handy for the journey to Mars, Ilium's far-off shores, and the Earth that might be. --</em>Jeremy Pugh_</p><p><strong>Amazon.com Exclusive Content</strong></p><p><strong><em>Master of the Universes</em>: An Exclusive Interview with Dan Simmons</strong>   </p><p><em>Olympos</em>, a tale of Mars, the Greek gods, and survival in a post-human world.</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> Drawing from Homer's <em>Iliad</em>, Shakespeare's <em>Tempest</em> and the work of several 19th-century poets, Simmons achieves another triumph in this majestic, if convoluted, sequel to his much-praised <em>Ilium</em> (2003). Posthumans masquerading as the Greek gods and living on Mars travel back and forth through time and alternate universes to interfere in the real Trojan War, employing a resurrected late 20th-century classics professor, Thomas Hockenberry, as their tool. Meanwhile, the last remaining old-style human beings on a far-future Earth must struggle for survival against a variety of hostile forces. Superhuman entities with names like Prospero, Caliban and Ariel lay complex plots, using human beings as game pieces. From the outer solar system, an advanced race of semiorganic Artificial Intelligences, called moravecs, observe Earth and Mars in consternation, trying to make sense of the situation, hoping to shift the balance of power before out-of-control quantum forces destroy everything. This is powerful stuff, rich in both high-tech sense of wonder and literary allusions, but Simmons is in complete control of his material as half a dozen baroque plot lines smoothly converge on a rousing and highly satisfying conclusion. <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>Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan returns in this far-fetched but expertly plotted, eminently entertaining novel. When detective Joe Quinn is called to investigate the murder of a young woman whose skin has been peeled away from her skull, he presses the overloaded Eve to work her grisly magic. Eve is shocked to realize that the victim bears an uncanny resemblance to Jane MacGuire, the headstrong 17-year-old she and Joe have adopted, and who was already menaced by another serial killer in 1999's <em>The Killing Game</em>. Then a suspicious inspector from Scotland Yard, Mark Trevor, arrives with the grim news that a string of women with similar features have been murdered in Italy, England and Spain. A serial killer he calls Aldo has been working his way around the globe, butchering women who look like Cira, a beautiful young actress from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum (which was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius), whom he holds responsible for his father's death (such is the logic of the insane). Since Jane looks like Cira (and, incidentally, has been having nightmares about being her and trying to escape the volcano's destruction) she will be his prey—or bait. Johansen fans will recall that Eve lost her biological daughter, Bonnie, to a serial killer, so her desire to bring Aldo to justice is tied up with her still-sharp grief. Meanwhile, Jane behaves like a typical teenager, living in denial of her own mortality while feeling intoxicated by the sexy air of peril that now surrounds her. Aldo never comes fully into focus as a villain, but that doesn't matter much, since one of the real engines of fear in the novel is Jane's burgeoning sexuality. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>In her latest thriller about Atlanta detective Joe Quinn and the love of his life, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan, Joe gives Eve a skull to reconstruct. Eerily enough, the face resembles 17-year-old Jane MacGuire, who has been offered sanctuary by Eve and Joe after surviving a rough-and-tumble life on the streets. Now it seems that a killer is trying to erase all evidence of her face because it is identical to that of a statue of a woman who died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Several look-alikes have already been killed in Europe, and Scotland Yard sends in hunky Mark Trevor to help. Eve mistrusts him, but Jane, who has had recurring nightmares related to the killings, believes that he's there to help her. Eve and Joe want to protect Jane, but the intrepid teenager knows that unless she confronts the killer, she will live the rest of her life in fear. Johansen has become adept at mixing supernatural elements with intriguing suspense, and her new tale will please both fans and new converts with its unpredictable journey from Atlanta to the archaeological digs of Herculaneum in Italy. REVWR<br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Prolific bestseller Johansen subjects gutsy Jane Maguire to more troubles in her latest thrill ride. Jane, the adopted daughter of forensic sculptor Eve Duncan, was threatened by one serial killer in 1999's <em>The Killing Game</em> and another in 2004's <em>Blind Alley</em>, so it's no surprise that she's in danger again. The once troubled adolescent is now a brilliant Harvard student and talented artist who spends her summers at far-off archeological digs in Pompeii and Herculaneum, but she's still haunted by her resemblance to Cira, a woman who lived 2,000 years ago in the latter city. Suddenly she's being ambushed in alleys. Does the attempted kidnapping have something to do with <em>Blind Alley</em>'s climax, in which Eve; her husband, Joe Quinn of the Atlanta PD; soldier of fortune Mark Trevor; and Jane, the bait, triumphed over the psychopath who was killing women who looked like Cira? You bet it does, as Trevor turns up in Cambridge, enigmatic but still definitely magnetic, determined to protect Jane from danger due to new developments regarding Cira, "the femme fatale of the ancient world." Seems all kinds of notorious criminals are after Cira's lost gold, but some people have mass murder on their minds. Action, romance, castles, bomb plots and a booby-trapped hideaway in snowbound Idaho—what more could Johansen fans want? <em>Agent, Andrea Cirillo at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>The legend of Cira and her gold intrudes once again on Jane MacGuire's life. In <em>Blind Alley</em> [BKL Ag 04], the streetwise adopted daughter of forensic sculptor Eve Duncan and Atlanta detective Joe Quinn became a serial killer's pawn. Now she's a target for terrorists who believe she has the key to a lost treasure. When one of Jane's childhood friends is killed, she realizes that she must find out why, especially when, as before, Scotland Yard's handsome Mark Trevor becomes involved. He has tried to keep Jane out of his latest escapade, but he swoops in to the rescue, bringing her to Scotland to keep her safe. Never completely on the right side of the law, Jane questions Trevor's motives while trying to keep in check the sexual tension between them as they try to quell a deranged madman who is after Trevor and the lost treasure. Along the way, Jane discovers that many people are trying to find the truth about Cira, and that Jane herself is perceived as the reincarnation of that fabled Roman figure. Johansen delivers a top-notch sequel filled with great chases, original characters, and intricate plot twists, creating a unique supernatural twist on the classic thriller. <em>Patty Engelmann</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, and from torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who must alter the environment to accommodate physical limitations, animals are adaptable to an amazing range of conditions.   Examining everything from food sources in the extremely barren winter land-scape to the chemical composition that allows certain creatures to survive, Heinrich's Winter World awakens the largely undiscovered mysteries by which nature sustains herself through winter's harsh, cruel exigencies.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>“Stevens’s blazingly brilliant debut introduces a great new action heroine, Vanessa Michael Munroe, who doesn’t have to kick over a hornet’s nest to get attention, though her feral, take-no-prisoners attitude reflects the fire of Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander….Thriller fans will eagerly await the sequel to this high-octane page-turner.” —Publishers Weekly, starred, boxed reviewVanessa “Michael” Munroe deals in information—expensive information—working for corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise. Born to missionary parents in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé, she earned the respect of the jungle's most dangerous men, cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative career from her home base in Dallas, she's never looked back.Until now.  A Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It’s not her usual line of work, but she can’t resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that she’s tried for so long to forget. Gripping, ingenious, and impeccably paced, The Informationist marks the arrival or a thrilling new talent.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The foremost single volume authority on the English language, the Oxford Dictionary of English is at the forefront of language research, focusing on English as it is used today. It is informed by the most up-to-date evidence from the largest language research programme in the world, including the two-billion-word Oxford English Corpus. This new edition includes thousands of brand-new words and senses, as well as up-to-date encyclopedic information, and extensive appendices covering topics such as countries, heads of state, and chemical elements.New features include Word Trends which showcase language research based on the Oxford English Corpus and illuminate the extraordinary stories behind fast-changing words of everyday English. 12 months' access to Oxford's premium online dictionary and thesaurus service is included with this book, so you can get accurate definitions and synonyms wherever you are.Find out more about our living language using Oxford Dictionaries Online - updated regularly with the latest changes to words and meanings, so you have the most accurate picture of English available. Use the thousands of audio pronunciations to hear how words are spoken. Improve your confidence in writing with helpful grammar and punctuation guides, full thesaurus information, style and usage help, and much more.</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; ">This Halcyon Classics ebook collection contains 36 of Jules Verne's best known works. Verne (1828-1905) was a French writer who, along with English author H.G. Wells, is regarded as the "Father of Science Fiction." He is best known for his novels A JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH (1864), FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (1865), 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1869–1870), A JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1871) AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS (1873) and THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1875). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before navigable aircraft and practical submarines were invented, and before any means of space travel had been devised. A number of his works have been made into feature films and his books remain popular and in print more than a century after his death.<br><br>This ebook is DRM free and includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.<br><br>Contents<br><br>1. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea<br>2. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth<br>3. Around The World In Eighty Days<br>4. The Mysterious Island<br>5. From The Earth To The Moon<br>6. Around The Moon<br>7. A Voyage In A Balloon<br>8. Doctor Ox's Experiment<br>9. Master Zacharius<br>10. A Drama In The Air<br>11. A Winter Amid The Ice<br>12. Ascent Of Mont Blanc<br>13. An Antarctic Mystery<br>14. Dick Sand; Or, A Captain At Fifteen<br>15. Eight Hundred Leagues On The Amazon<br>16. Facing The Flag<br>17. Five Weeks In A Balloon<br>18. Godfrey Morgan<br>19. The Adventures Of Captain Hatteras<br>Part I: The English At The North Pole<br>Part Ii: The Field Of Ice<br>21. In Search Of The Castaways<br>22. Michael Strogoff<br>23. Off On A Comet<br>24. Robur The Conqueror<br>25. The Adventures Of A Special Correspondent<br>26. The Blockade Runners<br>27. The Fur Country<br>28. The Master Of The World<br>29. The Pearl Of Lima<br>30. The Secret Of The Island<br>31. The Survivors Of The Chancellor<br>32. The Underground City<br>33. The Waif Of The Cynthia<br>34. Ticket No. 9262<br>35. Topsy Turvy<br>36. In The Year 2889<br><br>This unexpurgated edition contains the complete text with errors and omissions corrected.</div></span></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The Magic That Doesn’t Go AwayCutbacks have forced Sarah out of the asylum in which she was raised—and into a strange new place where the Head Wolf rules the beautiful and the doomed. But Sarah can never truly assimilate, for she possesses wild talents. Walls tell her their secrets. Safes tell her their combinations. And a favorite toy dragon whispers dire warnings about those who would exploit her for their own malevolent purposes. There’s no place Sarah can hide, from her pursuers or from her past…</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Becker Drane knows exactly how The World works You know the rain we had two weeks ago, or that nightmare you had last night? Becker Drane can tell you exactly who or what was responsible because Becker works as a Fixer for The Seems. From the Department of Weather to the Department of Time, The Seems is the world-behind-our-World, and it keeps everything running smoothly.  But every so often, something goes wrong. When a Glitch makes its way into the Department of Sleep, Becker is called in for his very first Fixer assignment and he’s got to get it right. But this Mission is tricky, and his regular Tools aren’t up to the test. If Becker doesn’t find a Fix fast, he just might lose the coolest job ever—and The World will lose a lot more than a good night’s sleep.</p>


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Now thirteen years old and still a Fixer in the parallel universe called the Seems, Becker Drane is called upon to repair the damage caused by an enormous bomb planted in the Department of Time, an act of terrorism perpetrated by the evil members of the T


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>A series of malicious pranks prompts Fort St. Antoine deputy sheriff Claire Watkins to collaborate with forensic experts to solve a mystery with links to the brutal murders of a farming family fifty years earlier. By the author of Glare Ice and Dark Coulee.</p>


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Michael McGarrity's acclaimed Santa Fe police chief, Kevin Kerney is back-with his estranged son. Two bodies have been found in a burned building. One is a missing person from Kerney's cold case files. The other is a more recent homicide. Both will lead father and son into a vast network of crime...and the darkest places of the soul.


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Discover the fate of the original black Magician, Pug, and his motley crew of agents who safeguard the world of Trigia, as prophecy becomes truth in the first book of the last ever Midkemian trilogy.THE KINGDOM BESIEGEDThe Darkness is coming'ŚThe Kingdom is plagued by rumour and instability. Kingdom spies in Kesh have been disappearing - either murdered, or turned to the enemy side. Information has become scant and unreliable; but one thing appears clear. Dark forces are on the move'ŚSince Pug and the Conclave of Shadows enforced peace after the last Keshian invasion, the Empire has offered no threat. But now factions are rising and Jim Dasher reports mobilizations of large forces in the Keshian Confederacy.As the men of the West answer the King's call to muster, Martin conDoin - left as caretaker of Crydee Keep - will suddenly be confronted with the vanguard of an invading army. He reminds himself that he is a year older than his legendary ancestor, Prince Arutha, was when he stood firm against the Tsurani invasion, but Arutha had an army to command, and Martin is left with old men and young boys.Massive events are about to unfold, events which threaten the future of all human life in Midkemia'Ś


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Fleeing the authorities after a diastrous bank heist, Parker is rescued from the law enforcement pursuit by Tom Lindahl, an angry recluse and one-time whistleblower tossed aside by the corrupt political establishment, who has a daring scheme to seek revenge and a plan to use Parker to accomplish his goal. By the author of Nobody Runs Forever.


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>Moonwalking with Einstein</em> follows Joshua Foer's compelling journey as a participant in the U.S. Memory Championship. As a science journalist covering the competition, Foer became captivated by the secrets of the competitors, like how the current world memory champion, Ben Pridmore, could memorize the exact order of 1,528 digits in an hour. He met with individuals whose memories are truly unique—from one man whose memory only extends back to his most recent thought, to another who can memorize complex mathematical formulas without knowing any math. Brains remember visual imagery but have a harder time with other information, like lists, and so with the help of experts, Foer learned how to transform the kinds of memories he forgot into the kind his brain remembered naturally. The techniques he mastered made it easier to remember information, and Foer's story demonstrates that the tricks of the masters are accessible to anyone. <br><em>--Miriam Landis</em>   </p><p><strong>Author Q&amp;A with Joshua Foer</strong></p><p><strong>Q:</strong> First, can you explain the title of you book, <em>Moonwalking with Einstein</em>?</p><p><strong>A:</strong> The title refers to a memory device I used in the US Memory Championship—specifically it's a mnemonic that helped me memorize a deck of playing cards. Moonwalking with Einstein works as a mnemonic because it's such a goofy image. Things that are weird or colorful are the most memorable. If you try to picture Albert Einstein sliding backwards across a dance floor wearing penny loafers and a diamond glove, that's pretty much unforgettable.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> What are the U.S. Memory Championships? How did you become involved?</p><p><strong>A:</strong> The U.S. Memory Championship is a rather bizarre contest held each spring in New York City, in which people get together to see who can remember the most names of strangers, the most lines of poetry, the most random digits. I went to the event as a science journalist, to cover what I assumed would be the Super Bowl of savants. But when I talked to the competitors, they told me something really interesting. They weren't savants. And they didn't have photographic memories. Rather, they'd trained their memories using ancient techniques. They said anyone could do it. I was skeptical. Frankly, I didn't believe them. I said, well, if anyone can do it, could you teach me? A guy named Ed Cooke, who has one of the best trained memories in the world, took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew about memory techniques. A year later I came back to the contest, this time to try and compete, as a sort of exercise in participatory journalism. I was curious simply to see how well I'd do, but I ended up winning the contest. That really wasn't supposed to happen.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> What was the most surprising thing you found out about yourself competing in the Memory Championships?</p><p><strong>A:</strong> In the process of studying these techniques, I learned something remarkable: that there's far more potential in our minds than we often give them credit for. I'm not just talking about the fact that it's possible to memorize lots of information using memory techniques. I'm talking about a lesson that is more general, and in a way much bigger: that it's possible, with training and hard work, to teach oneself to do something that might seem really difficult.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> Can you explain the "OK Plateau?"</p><p><strong>A:</strong> The OK Plateau is that place we all get to where we just stop getting better at something. Take typing, for example. You might type and type and type all day long, but once you reach a certain level, you just never get appreciably faster at it. That's because it's become automatic. You've moved it to the back of your mind's filing cabinet. If you want to become a faster typer, it's possible, of course. But you've got to bring the task back under your conscious control. You've got to push yourself past where you're comfortable. You have to watch yourself fail and learn from your mistakes. That's the way to get better at anything. And it's how I improved my memory.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> What do you mean by saying there an "art" to memory?</p><p><strong>A:</strong> The "art of memory" refers to a set of techniques that were invented in ancient Greece. These are the same techniques that Cicero used to memorize his speeches, and that medieval scholars used to memorize entire books. The "art" is in creating imagery in your mind that is so unusual, so colorful, so unlike anything you've ever seen before that it's unlikely to be forgotten. That's why mnemonists like to say that their skills are as much about creativity as memory.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> How do you think technology has affected how and what we remember?</p><p><strong>A:</strong> Once upon a time people invested in their memories, they cultivated them. They studiously furnished their minds. They remembered. Today, of course, we've got books, and computers and smart phones to hold our memories for us. We've outsourced our memories to external devices. The result is that we no longer trust our memories. We see every small forgotten thing as evidence that they're failing us altogether. We've forgotten how to remember.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> What is the connection between memory and our sense of time?</p><p><strong>A:</strong> As we get older, life seems to fly by faster and faster. That's because we structure our experience of time around memories. We remember events in relation to other events. But as we get older, and our experiences become less unique, our memories can blend together. If yesterday's lunch is indistinguishable from the one you ate the day before, it'll end up being forgotten. That's why it's so hard to remember meals. In the same way, if you're not doing things that are unique and different and memorable, this year can come to resemble the last, and end up being just as forgettable as yesterday's lunch. That's why it's so important to pack your life with interesting experiences that make your life memorable, and provide a texture to the passage of time.</p><p><strong>Q:</strong> How is your memory now?</p><p><strong>A:</strong> Ironically, not much better than when I started this whole journey. The techniques I learned, and used in the memory contest, are great for remembering structured information like shopping lists or phone numbers, but they don't improve any sort of underlying, generalizable memory ability. Unfortunately, I still misplace my car keys.</p><p>(Photo of Joshua Foer © Emil Salman Haaretz)</p><h3>From</h3><p>If you sometimes can�t remember where you put your car keys or, like Foer, the car itself, don�t panic. You�re not alone, and you can do something about it. In this intriguing look at the nature of memory, Foer reassures us that we don�t need to acquire a better memory; we just need to use the one we have more effectively. Foer introduces us to people whose memories are both astonishing, like the man who could memorize 1,528 random digits in order, and frightening, such as a man with such an extreme case of amnesia that he doesn�t know his own age and can�t remember that he has a memory problem. He explores various ways in which we test our memories, such as the extensive training British cabbies must undergo. He also discusses ways we can train ourselves to have better memories, like the PAO system, in which, for example, every card in a deck is associated with an image of a specific person, action, or object. An engaging, informative, and for the forgetful, encouraging book. --David Pitt </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>A tale of heroism and exploit in the tradition of Robert E. Howard...  </p><p>Enter Remy, a quick-witted courier whose dangerous freight leads him into the vanguard of an ancient war between forces of light and the rising tide of shadows that threatens to overwhelm the burgeoning civilizations of the Two Rivers Gulf.  </p><p>The story opens with Remy alone and near death after an encounter with several stormclaw scorpions. His horse dead and poison sapping his strength, Remy collapses with his package at his side, undelivered. When he awakes, he is in the company of a band of adventurers who found him by the side of the road and nursed him back to health.  Among them is a grim dragonborn paladin named Biri-Daar, whose wariness of the magical seals on Remy’s freight is outweighed by an overwhelming sense of duty to those in need.  </p><p>As they journey on, the nature of Remy’s package becomes a greater and greater curiosity.  Soon the party, which has come to comprise some six-strong adventurers, finds itself to be the lynchpin that holds an army of netherworld forces at bay.   </p><p>Award-winning author and veteran shared-world writer Alex Irvine brings his unique characters and considerable storytelling talents to bear in the world of <strong>Dungeons &amp; Dragons</strong>®. </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Thieves, liars, and killers—it's a criminal world out there, and someone has to write about it. A thrilling collection of the year's best reportage by the aces of the true-crime genre, <em>The Best American Crime Reporting 2009</em> brings together the mysteries and missteps of an eclectic and unforgettable set of criminals. Gripping, suspenseful, and brilliant, this latest addition to the highly acclaimed series features guest editor Jeffrey Toobin, <em>New Yorker</em> staff writer, CNN senior legal analyst, and bestselling author of <em>The Nine</em>. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Jeffrey Toobin has been a staff writer at <em>The New Yorker</em> since 1993 and is the senior legal analyst for CNN. In 2000 he received an Emmy Award for his coverage of the EliÁn GonzÁlez case. He is the author of <em>The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court</em>, which spent more than four months on the <em>New York Times</em> bestseller list. Before joining <em>The New Yorker</em>, Toobin served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Brooklyn, New York. He lives in Manhattan. </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>The True Story of Anti-Abortion Killer James Kopp</strong></p><p><em>Sniper</em> opens in October 1998 near Buffalo, NY. A man is alone in the dark in a forest. He clutches an assault rifle and is thinking about his mission. "You can cut holes in the fences around the death camps," he thinks. "A trickle of relief in the abortion holocaust. It is your duty to do it." He nestles the rifle into his shoulder and shoots at  his target through the back window of a house, then flees. Barnett Sepia, a doctor who provides abortions, is fatally wounded. </p><p>The shooter is James Kopp, the son of a Marine, who came to embrace the pro-life cause and ultimately the notion of "justifiable homicide: against abortion providers. Kopp fancies himself a lone wolf in the movement; a celibate man driven to "defend the unborn." He is nicknamed "Atomic Dog" in the movement and helps orchestrate assaults on abortion clinics. As the story unfolds, he becomes the central figure in an international manhunt for multiple shootings in Canada. On the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list, Kopp flees to Mexico, Ireland, and France. Award-winning journalist Jon wells followed Kopp's footsteps, traveled to his hometown, and interviewed investigators in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and France to tell this gripping detective story and dark psychological drama. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>Jon Wells</strong> has written six multi-week book-length true crime stories for the <em>Hamilton Spectator</em>. His 2003 story "Poison" won a National Newspaper Award. A graduate of the master's journalism program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Jon was named Journalist of the Year in 2005 for <em>Sniper.</em> The author's research for the crime stories has taken him to India, Ireland, France, San Francisco, New York city, and western Canada, and Into prisons where he has interviewed five convicted killers. He has also conducted research in forensic labs and on shooting ranges. </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In McGarrity's latest Kevin Kerney procedural, Kerney, police chief of Santa Fe, N.Mex., is drawn into a messy murder investigation while vacationing at a California ranch. A wealthy hotel magnate, Clifford Spalding, dies of poisoning in the guest room next to Kerney's. Finding himself a suspect, Kerney decides to pursue the case on his own for a few days, uncovering some peculiar circumstances and characters in Spalding's background. They include an unfaithful trophy wife and her shady boyfriend, a deranged and bitter ex-wife and a missing son who presumably died in Vietnam 30 years ago, as well as a couple of police officials who are not as forthcoming as one would expect. Within a few days, Kerney is cleared by California authorities and returns home to more familiar ground. But because of the case's Santa Fe connections, he and his stable of detectives continue the pursuit. As in McGarrity's eight previous Kerney novels (_Everyone Dies; _etc.), the author excels at detailing police procedures as well as creating a homespun, wry tone that suits setting and characters. His action sequences are shakier, however, and several highly dramatic moments—the arrest of the main suspect, her release and eventual capture—are flat and hurried. A bit more attention to pacing and momentum could give this appealing series a needed shot of adrenaline. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney is visiting a Santa Barbara ranch, looking to buy quarter horses, when he stumbles on the dead body of another guest staying at the ranch. Kerney looks like a prime suspect, which prompts him to make a few inquiries of his own. The trail leads Kerney on a crisscrossing journey around the country, with a stop-off at FBI headquarters in Virginia, near where his wife, Sarah, a career army officer, is stationed at the Pentagon. As in past episodes in this long-running series, McGarrity juggles police procedural and domestic story lines effectively, drawing readers into the dynamics of Kerney's long-distance marriage just as he unerringly charts the painstaking investigative work that defines the lives of real-world cops. Precise realism remains McGarrity's hallmark; his own experience as a deputy sheriff and as a therapist working with abuse victims informs his fiction on every page. This is not a series for those who hope to find either high-octane excitement or existential angst in their cop novels. McGarrity's milieu is the quotidian reality of a cop's life. <em>Bill Ott</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Taking the best elements from two of his most outstanding bestsellers, The Gold Coast and The General's Daughter, Nelson DeMille combines the breathless suspense of an expertly wrought murder mystery with his wry perspective on a peculiarly American social scene to deliver an enthralling and compelling story. Wounded in the line of duty, NYPD homicide detective John Corey convalesces in the Long Island township of Southold, home to farmers, fishermen -- and at least one killer. Tom and Judy Gordon, a young, attractive couple Corey knows, have been found on their patio, each with a bullet in the head. The local police chief, Sylvester Maxwell, wants Corey's big-city expertise, but Maxwell gets more than he bargained for. The early signs point to a burglary gone wrong. But because the Gordons were biologists at Plum Island, the offshore animal disease research site rumored to be involved in germ warfare, it isn't long before the media is suggesting that the Gordons stole something very deadly. Suddenly a local double murder becomes a crime with national and worldwide implications. John Corey doesn't like mysteries, which is why he likes to solve them. His investigations lead him into the lore, legends, and ancient secrets of northern Long Island -- more deadly and more dangerous than he could ever have imagined. During his journey of discovery, he meets two remarkable women, Detective Beth Penrose and Mayflower descendant Emma Whitestone, both of whom change his life irrevocably. Ultimately, through his understanding of the murders, John Corey comes to understand himself. Fast-paced and atmospheric, marked by entrancing characters, incandescent storytelling, and brilliant comic touches, Plum Island is Nelson DeMille at his thrill-inducing best.</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>John Corey and Asad Khalil have both lived hard-knock lives. As revealed in Nelson DeMille's monster bestseller __, the gruff, wisecracking NYPD homicide cop Corey stopped a hail of bullets--but he couldn't stop his wife from walking out on him. Asad, raised under Muammar Qaddafi's eye after his dad's murder, lost his surviving family in the 1986 bombing of Libya. He's heard the nasty rumors about his mom and the colonel, but he aims his rage at the infidels. The boy's got such a gift for terrorism he's earned the nickname "the Lion," and Boris, his vodka-sozzled, sex-addicted émigré mentor, knows precisely how to conduct a murder tour of America one step ahead of the police, the FBI, the CIA, and the ATTF (Anti-Terrorist Task Force), which combines members of all three. A pity Boris must die, but hey, he's an infidel too.</p><p>Asad pretends to defect, handcuffed to agents aboard a 747 bound for JFK, and he proves to be a worse seatmate than a siding salesman. Corey and his ATTF colleagues (most conspicuously the FBI's sexy Kate Mayfield, Corey's match in badinage and bad-guy busting) strive to halt Asad's methodical yet unpredictable bloodbath. Skillfully, DeMille alternates chapters told from Asad's and Corey's points of view. DeMille did his authenticity homework: when we're not savoring his gift for wiseacre dialogue in the Corey-Kate chapters, we're sweating alongside Asad on his ghastly, ingenious jihad. </p><p><em>The New York Times</em> put DeMille's social satire on a par with Edith Wharton's, and he's great on the colliding folkways of the feuding, mutually doublecrossing crimebuster institutions. Naturally, he's on the side of the regular-guy flatfoots. "Cops sit on their asses and flip through their folders," he writes. "Feds sit on their derrieres and peruse their dossiers." And the CIA gets it in the shorts, satirically speaking. One deplores the mass murderers, but the book's real bad guys wear the priciest suits.</p><p>DeMille reportedly has a $25 million book contract. With fast, funny, absorbing thrillers like <em>The Lion's Game</em>, he's earned it. <em>--Tim Appelo</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>John Corey, former NYPD Homicide detective and star of DeMille's Plum Island, is back in this breezily narrated high-octane thriller about the hunt for a Libyan terrorist who has set his sights on some very specific targets--the Americans who bombed Libya on April 15, 1986. The novel begins with a tense airport scene--a transcontinental flight from Paris is flying into New York, and no one has been able to contact the pilot via radio. On the flight is Asad Khalil, a Libyan defector who will be met by Special Contract Agent Corey, his FBI "mentor" Kate Mayfield, and the rest of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force. But when the plane lands, everyone on board is dead--except Khalil, who disappears after attacking the ATTF's airport headquarters. Has he left the country? Not if John Corey's right--and we know he is, thanks to gripping third-person chapters detailing Khalil's mission alternating with Corey's easy-going first-person narration. And by making Khalil, who lost most of his family in the 1986 bombing, as much of a protagonist as Corey, DeMille adds several shades of gray to what in less skillful hands might have been cartoonishly black and white. If anything, the reader ends up rooting for the bad guy, Khalil, with his mission of vengeance, is a more complex character than John Corey, who never drops his ex-cop bravado (thus trivializing a romance that moves from first date to proposal of marriage within the few days the plot covers). But as usual, DeMille artfully constructs a compulsively readable thriller around a troubling story line, slowly developing his villain from a faceless entity into a nation's all-too-human nemesis. Agent, Nick Ellison. 500,000 first printing; major ad/promo; BOMC main selection; 12-city author tour; Time-Warner audio. (Jan.) <br />Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective, assigned to the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force in the pre-millennium 90's, makes a return appearance in a thoughtful novel offering an alternative to the government's "official" position on what really happened to TWA Flight 800, which crashed off the Long Island coast in the summer of 1996. Accompanying his wife Kate to a memorial marking the five-year anniversary of the crash, Corey's curiosity is aroused by what appears to be a concerted effort by Kate's fellow federal agents to keep him--and her--from investigating a case that appears to be closed. Corey's detecting skills lead him to two witnesses to the crash, who were enjoying an adulterous interlude on the beach at the time the plane went down--and videotaping their sexual escapades while what appears to be a terrorist missile attack takes place in the background. What ratchets up the tension in this capably written thriller is what the reader knows but Corey doesn't as he heads for a showdown with those responsible for the official cover-up as the clock ticks down to the morning of September 11, 2001. DeMille's deft touch with a riddle wrapped in an enigma--what really happened to Flight 800--makes his "what if" scenario a more than plausible theory; you don't have to believe in conspiracies or government cover-ups to find his latest engrossing, entertaining, and enlightening. <em>--Jane Adams</em></p><p><strong>Amazon.com Exclusive Content</strong></p><p><strong>Nelson DeMille on <em>Night Fall</em>: An Exclusive Essay</strong>   </p><p><em>Night Fall</em>. Read this Amazon.com   </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Demille's latest is sure to be a #1 bestseller—but it's also sure to be controversial. The book is centered on an investigation of the July 1996 crash of flight TWA 800, "when... a big Boeing 747 bound for Paris with 230 passengers and crew on board, exploded off the Atlantic coast of Long Island, sending all 230 souls to their deaths." In July 2001, Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force detective John Corey, a brilliant, smart-ass detective last seen in <em>Plum Island </em>and <em>The Lion's Game</em>, accompanies his FBI agent wife, Kate Mayfield, to the fifth anniversary of the disaster. John, whose wife worked the crash in 1996, understands that Kate has brought him along because she doesn't buy the official finding of "mechanical failure" and wants him to mount his own investigation. There are 200 eyewitnesses who swear they saw a missile lift into the clear night sky and bring down the airplane, a charge dismissed by the CIA as an optical illusion. Though Corey is warned away from the investigation, like any good fictional detective, this only serves to spur him on. He uncovers evidence that a man and a woman, on the beach that fateful night videotaping their adulterous affair, inadvertently caught on tape the missile hitting the plane. The book is primarily about John tracking down the couple, but as the end nears, readers will begin to understand the perilous direction in which Demille is leading them. The pages will turn in a blur as a feeling of dread grows, until the end comes and one's worst fears are confirmed. Readers will think about this one for a long time. <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>What happens to a priggish, WASPy, disillusioned Wall Street lawyer when a Mafia crime boss moves into the mansion next door in his posh Long Island neighborhood? He ends up representing the gangster on a murder rap and even perjures himself so the mafiosostet lc can be released on $5 million bail. That's the premise of DeMille's ( The Charm School ) bloated, unpersuasive thriller. Attorney John Sutter has problems that would daunt even Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby. His marriage is crumbling, despite kinky sex games with his self-centered wife, Susan, who's the mistress of his underworld client Frank Bellarosa. The IRS is after Sutter, and his law firm wants to dump him. As a sardonic morality tale of one man's self-willed disintegration, the impact is flattened by its elitist narrator's patrician tones. A comic courtroom scene and some punches at the end, however, redeem the novel somewhat. BOMC main selection; film rights to Guber/Peters-Columbia. <br>Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>'Captivating...addictive...irresistible.' - WASHINGTON POST 'The so-called 'Gold Coast' will never be the same again' - DAILY MAIL </p>

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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Long before the John Travolta film of <em>The General's Daughter</em> (which the author extols in the foreword), Nelson DeMille's seventh mystery was the breakout hit of his career. The rapid-fire dialogue and scenes are cinematic, and the storytelling puts most movies to shame. </p><p>The book has three heroes: Paul Brenner and Cynthia Sunhill of the army's Criminal Investigation Division and Capt. Ann Campbell, found dead with her underpants around her neck on the firing range at Fort Hadley, Georgia. Brenner and Sunhill are lowly warrant officers, but as investigators they can theoretically arrest their superiors--as long as their case is airtight. This ups the tension level, as does the fact that Brenner and Sunhill once had an adulterous affair.</p><p>The chief problem, though, is too many suspects. Capt. Campbell, the daughter of the general who runs the base, is literally a poster woman for the New Army, a West Point grad and Gulf War hero who posed in a life-size recruitment poster. It's pinned up on her basement wall--and when the sleuths touch the poster it swings back to reveal a hidden playroom stocked with sex toys and videos of many army guys in pig masks and the captain in high heels. She was a high-IQ "two percenter"--and Brenner finds that two percenters often wind up on his desk as homicide suspects. Why is this one a victim? It has something to do with the collected works of Nietzsche on her bookshelf, corruption in high places, and the rag and bone shop of the heart. </p><p>This is one racy read, and it crackles with authenticity. DeMille is a Vietnam veteran who does for military justice what John Grisham does for civilians. <em>--Tim Appelo</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>After the wit and panache of his bestselling The Gold Coast , DeMille's latest effort may disappoint his fans. The author returns to his more customary stylish-suspense-novel mode but retains a smart-aleck narrator--here, Paul Brenner, of the Army's Criminal Investigation Division. At Fort Hadley, Ga., Ann Campbell, daughter of the post commander, is found murdered under bizarre circumstances. Brenner learns that Ann's entire personal life, in fact, veered toward the bizarre; she even had a secret basement "playroom" in her home. Moral turpitude runs riot at Fort Hadley, and Brenner must wade through muck of all sorts to discover the killer's identity. Too much muck, as it turns out: the detective work becomes repetitious, and suspense is unfortunately in short supply. Brenner's one-liners have none of the punch of John Sutter's wry observations in The Gold Coast --indeed, the device of a waggish narrator doesn't fit these proceedings; the wisecracks seem grafted on. So, too, does a resumed romance between Brenner and an old flame--we don't get a good enough picture of either to care about whatever sparks might fly. Characterization in general is fuzzy, though DeMille captures the often unquestioning regimen of life on a military base. One only wishes that his tale had more spirit and dash. Author tour. <br />Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>In <em>Up Country</em>, Nelson DeMille cannily revives the army career of Chief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, the cynical, hardworking Criminal Investigation Division man who was forcibly retired after solving the high-profile killing in __. Brenner's called back to investigate the murder of a young army lieutenant by his captain. The catch is, the crime took place during the heat of the Tet Offensive, and the only living witness was a North Vietnamese soldier who described the incident in a 30-year-old letter that has only recently come to light. Soon Brenner, a Vietnam vet, is on an ostensible nostalgia tour of his old stomping grounds. The trip immediately turns dangerous as he heads "up country" to search for the letter writer, accompanied by a gorgeous American businesswoman, who's hiding more than even the smartest CID officer could imagine. </p><p>DeMille, who saw his own tour of duty in Vietnam (and even found a letter on a dead Vietnamese soldier), intersperses historical facts and chilling political possibilities with enough local color to provide some serious flashbacks for his fellow veterans. To non-vets the book may seem very long, but the payoff at the end is worth a couple hundred extra pages. <em>--Barrie Trinkle</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>That DeMille has written a sequel to The General's Daughter comes as no surprise; after all, that's arguably his best-known novel because of the hit film version starring John Travolta. Nor is it surprising that he's set this sequel in Vietnam; returning hero Chief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, Ret., served two stints there during the war, and DeMille himself not only saw action in Nam but returned in 1997 for an extended visit. What is curious, and relatively unfortunate, is that the long narrative focuses so much on travelogue instead of intrigue and action; it's as if DeMille, a wickedly fine thriller writer, has been possessed by the soul of James Michener. Still, the overarching story line captivates, as Brenner agrees to return to Vietnam to track down a Vietnamese witness to a 30-year-old unprosecuted crime, in which a U.S. Army captain murdered an army lieutenant and plundered some treasure. Joined by beautiful Susan Weber, who says she's an American expat businesswoman doing a favor for the U.S. government, Brenner travels to the little village where the witness may still live; along the way, the pair flirt, sightsee, visit a nude beach, sightsee, have sex, sightsee, and talk a lot. The sightseeing carries serious emotional impact as Brenner processes his wartime past and Vietnam's present, and it carries serious risk, as Colonel Mang of the secret police tracks Brenner's and Susan's movements. There's some violence as the two Americans elude Mang and his minions, and a melodramatic finale as Brenner realizes just who the murderous captain now is, and some dramatic suspense as Brenner peels away layers of Susan's identity covers. And then there's blasted, resilient Vietnam, which DeMille captures expertly, in all its anguished pride. With a film version in development at Paramount and the Warner publicity machine working at top gear, expect this engrossing but not exceptional novel to shoot to the top. 15-city author tour. </p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>'A bulldozer of a book, expertly, relentlessly terrifying.' Cosmopolitan. 'It is a book which grips from the opening words ... a hugh enthralling novel.' Manchester Evening News. 'Chillingly believable, peopled with recognizable characters. Cathedral entertains with the unimaginable.' Publishers Weekly. 'Strong, long, well-sustained suspense ... a chaotic, explosive finale.' Kirkus Reviews </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>St. Patrick's Day, New York City. Everyone is celebrating, but everyone is in for the shock of his life. Born into the heat and hatred of the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA man Brian Flynn has masterminded a brilliant terrorist act -- the seizure of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Among his hostages: the woman Brian Flynn once loved, a former terrorist turned peace activist. Among his enemies: an Irish-American police lieutenant fighting against a traitor inside his own ranks and a shadowy British intelligence officer pursuing his own cynical, bloody plan. The cops face a booby-trapped, perfectly laid out killing zone inside the church. The hostages face death. Flynn faces his own demons, in an electrifying duel of nerves, honor, and betrayal.... </p>

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Twelve miles above the Pacific Ocean, a missile strikes a jumbo passenger jet. The flight crew is crippled or dead. Now, defying both nature and man, three survivors must achieve the impossible. Land the plane. From master storyteller Nelson DeMille and master pilot Thomas Block comes Maydaythe classic bestseller that packs a supersonic shock at every turn of the page....the most terrifyingly realistic air disaster thriller ever. Like a growing tidal wave, the escaping air was gathering momentum. A teenaged girl in aisle 18, seat D, near the port-side aisle, her seat dislocated by the original impact, suddenly found herself gripping her seat track on the floor, her overturned seat still strapped to her body. The seatbelt failed and the seat shot down the aisle. She lost her grip and was dragged after it. Her eyes were filled with horror as she dug her nails into the carpet, as the racing air pulled her toward the yawning hole that led outside. Her cries were unheard by even those passengers who sat barely inches away from her struggle. The noise of the escaping air was so loud that it was no longer decipherable as sound, but seemed instead a solid thing pounding at the people in their seats......


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>If fiction can assuage the lingering moral pain of the Vietnam War, it's through the kind of driving honesty coupled with knowledgeability that DeMille (By the Rivers of Babylon) employs here, in a story which, as riveting as The Caine Mutiny but with wider implications, probes the conflicting concepts of honor, duty and loyalty as they relate to an event of the My Lai varietyand assesses blame. Prompted by a just-published book that holds ex-lieutenant Ben Tyson accountable for a hushed-up massacre committed by his platoon in a Hue hospital 18 years before, the army recalls Tyson to stand trial for murder. Tyson, confronted by an army authority anxious to save its own face, an embarrassed federal government (which has its own "deal" to propose) and a threatened marriage, and entangled, furthermore, in his own past lives and present sense of guilt, must call on all his lawyer's cleverness and his own inner toughness to fight his case. The flashbacks to Hue, the pre-trial investigation (involving an attractive female major), the court-martial proceedings, the emotions of the principal characters and the soul-sickness wrought by war (which is the story's effective subtext)all are depicted with marvelous vividness. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo. Foreign rights: Jack Ellison. November 11<br>Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>This huge and merciless account follows an ordinary corporate man, Ben Tyson, as his Army commission is reactivated so that he can be court-martialed on charges of murder. The events go back 15 years to a hospital in Vietnam where his platoon took heavy action and many civilians died. Did he wantonly kill enemy and civilian alike? The investigation, intended to restore military honor after My Lai, gives no quarter. All the hostile witnesses are called up while friendly witnesses are lost or silent. Tyson's own sense of honor lets him give only tiny scraps of information even to his attorney. The courtroom sequences are so powerful that most of the other action is like filler. The dialogue rings true and shows a gift for wit and timing. Apart from its unfortunate length and a slightly over-drawn hero, this succeeds as a mature and compassionate statement about Americans at war in Vietnam. Barbara Conaty, Medical Coll. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee<br>Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This highly readable sequel to <em>An Irish Country Doctor</em> follows the trials and exultations of Dr. Barry Laverty as he begins his assistantship to Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly in Balleybucklebo, a fictional Irish Ulster village of the 1960s. Barry loves his diverse work—conjunctivitis to obstetrics—and his provincial patients are keen on folk wisdom and proverbs. He grows fond and admiring of his gruff, imposing senior colleague, who heals bodies and also attacks social maladies, like the greedy local councilor who threatens to turn the Black Swan, a local pub, into a tourist trap. Meanwhile, Barry's infatuation with plucky engineering student Patricia Spence thickens, though her ambition may land her a scholarship that would lure her to Cambridge. And then there's the matter of a potential career-ending lawsuit by a recent widow whose husband died after Barry botched a diagnosis. Detailed medical procedures of the era are fascinating to a modern reader, though Taylor sometimes throws in too much play-by-play. The book, with its spot-on dialects (a glossary is included for those who don't know what, say, soft hand under a duck means) and neatly tied endings, largely succeeds as light entertainment. <em>(Feb.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“Highly readable. . . . Detailed medical procedures of the era are fascinating to a modern reader. . . . The book, with its spot-on dialects and neatly tied endings, largely succeeds as light entertainment.”—_Publishers Weekly_ on _An Irish Country Village  </p><p><em>“Full of stories and vivid characters, the novel recalls a good night in a pub. Its greatest charm lies in homey Ulster idioms. . . . Good, light entertainment.”—</em>Booklist_ on _An Irish Country Village  </p><p><em>“</em>An Irish Country Doctor_ makes for escapist, delightful fun.”—_Publishers Weekly  </p><p><em>“Ballybucklebo is an easy place for readers to sink into, with likable characters and atmospheric dialogue.”—</em>Kirkus Reviews_ on <em>An Irish Country Doctor</em></p>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>A very popular and sentimental tale about a charwoman's jaunts in Paris.</p>
<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Mrs Harris is a salt-of-the-earth London charlady who cheerfully cleans the houses of the rich. One day, when tidying Lady Dant's wardrobe, she comes across the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life - a Dior dress. In all the years of her drab and humble existence, she's never seen anything as magical as the dress before her and she's never wanted anything as much before. Determined to make her dream come true, Mrs Harris scrimps, saves and slaves away until one day, after three long, uncomplaining years, she finally has enough money to go to Paris. When she arrives at the House of Dior, Mrs Harris has little idea of how her life is about to be turned upside down and how many other lives she will transform forever. Always kind, always cheery and always winsome, the indomitable Mrs Harris takes Paris by storm and learns one of life's greatest lessons along the way. This treasure from the 1950s introduces the irrepressible Mrs Harris, part charlady, part fairy-godmother, whose adventures take her from her humble London roots to the heights of glamour.</p></div>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>The conclusion to the groundbreaking epic Prince of Nothing fantasy trilogy. </p><h3>From the Publisher</h3><p>Will Kelhus be able to rise to claim his role within the ascendancy, or will he be overtaken by his enemies--both within and without? Will he reach the ancient city of Shimeh and reunite with his father? Upon the apocalypse, will there be survivors left to write the history of the Holy War? </p><p>The startling and far-reaching answers to these questions, left hanging at the conclusion of The Warrior Prophet, are brought into thrilling focus in The Thousandfold Thought, the conclusion to the Prince of Nothing series. Casting into question all the action that has taken place before, twisting readers' intuitions in unforeseen directions, remolding the fantasy genre to broaden the scope of intricacy and meaning, R. Scott Bakker has once again written a fantasy novel that defies all expectations and rewards the reader with an experience unlike any to be had in the canon of fantasy literature. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p><em>More About Boy</em> is the story of Roald Dahl’s very own boyhood, as told in Boy, featuring never-before-seen material from behind the scenes, and some of the secrets he left out. Enjoy tales of sweet shops and chocolate, mean old ladies and a Great Mouse Plot—the inspiration for some of his most marvelous stories in the years to come. This stunning new edition includes some wonderful and strange things that have NEVER been seen before! Some funny, some frightening—all true. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Roald Dahl (1916–1990) is one of the most beloved storytellers of all time. He wrote many award-winning books for children, including <em>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</em>, <em>Fantastic Mr. Fox</em>, <em>James and the Giant Peach</em>, and <em>Matilda</em>.</p><p>Quentin Blake is a well-known artist who has illustrated almost three hundred books, including most of Roald Dahl’s children’s books. </p>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>When Spenser accepts a job as a "bodyguard" for a beautiful young woman, he gets in way over his head. "(Spenser) gives the connoisseur of that rare combination of good detective fiction and good literature a chance to indulge himself."--The Boston Globe.MASS MARKET PAPER </p><h3>From the Publisher</h3><p>Spenser is..."The sassiest, funniest, most-enjoyable-to-read-about private eye around today...the legitimate heir to the Hammett-Chandler-Macdonald tradition." --_The Cincinnati Post_</p><p>Spenser is..."Tougher, stronger, better educated, and far more amusing than Sam Spade, Phil Marlowe, or Lewis Archer...Spenser gives the connoisseur of that rare combination of good detective fiction and good literature a chance to indulge himself." --_The Boston Globe_</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The pickled Martian's tentacles are fraying at the ends and Professor Coffin's Most Meritorious Unnatural Attraction (the remains of the original alien autopsy, performed by Sir Frederick Treves at the London Hospital) is no longer drawing the crowds. It's 1895; nearly a decade since Mars invaded Earth, chronicled by H.G. Wells in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Wrecked Martian spaceships, back-engineered by Charles Babbage and Nikola Tesla, have carried the Queen's Own Electric Fusiliers to the red planet, and Mars is now part of the ever-expanding British Empire. The less-than-scrupulous sideshow proprietor likes Off-worlders' cash, so he needs a sensational new attraction. Word has reached him of the Japanese Devil Fish Girl; nothing quite like her has ever existed before. But Professor Coffin's quest to possess the ultimate showman's exhibit is about to cause considerable friction amongst the folk of other planets. Sufficient, in fact, to spark off Worlds War Two. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Robert Rankin is the author of THE HOLLOW CHOCOLATE BUNNIES OF THE APOCALYPSE, THE TOYMINATOR, KNEES UP MOTHER EARTH, THE BRIGHTONOMICON, THE WITCHES OF CHISWICK, THE DA-DA-DE-DA-DA CODE, NECROPHENIA and RETROMANCER. He lives in Brighton. </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Hoag's success (_Dark Horse_; <em>Guilty as Sin</em>), evidenced once again in this engaging new thriller, is the triumph of substance over style. In a genre overrun with self-conscious jargon, brooding descriptions and fragments masquerading as sentences, her clean, measured prose—full, balanced sentences delivered at a steady pace—doesn't so much create an ominous mood as draw the reader into the worlds of her characters. Here, before they know it, readers are invested in the dilemma of Los Angeles bike messenger Jace (J.C.) Damon, on the run after picking up a package from high-powered attorney Lenny Lowell, who is subsequently murdered. Orphaned Jace lives under society's radar in Chinatown, with his 10-year-old brother, Tyler; his surrogate family includes sassy dispatcher Eta Fitzgerald and the Chen clan, the boy's closest neighbors. Similarly, the police in pursuit are an unconventional, if dysfunctional, family: long-suffering lead detective Kev Parker; his annoying and ambitious new partner, Renee Ruiz; squabbling second-string detectives Jimmy Chew and Bradley Kyle; and coroner Diane Nicholson, who is also Kev's lover. The wild card in the game is Lowell's daughter, Abby, volatile and full of secrets, which Hoag reveals at appropriate intervals. A link to Hollywood provides a burst of fresh energy in the later chapters of this character-driven, solidly constructed thriller. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Nineteen-year-old Jace Damon has had a hard life. His mother died when he was just 13, and since then he has been struggling to raise his younger brother, all while staying beneath the radar of Child Protective Services. With the help of an understanding Chinese benefactress, Madam Chan, the two have been living in L.A.'s Chinatown, where Jace works as a bike messenger. One dark and rainy night, Jace agrees to do a last delivery. He picks up a package from a shady lawyer, but when he gets to the delivery address, he finds an empty lot; suddenly, someone attacks him and tries to grab the package. The bike messenger takes off, but the attacker pursues him, nearly runs him over with a car, and takes a couple of shots at him. Injured and frightened, Jace returns to Lowell's office only to find the place swarming with cops and the attorney murdered. The plot thickens as Jace attempts to elude both homicide detective Ken Parker, who wants some answers, and a menacing, shadowy figure, who is trying to get that package. Although this novel is a little heavy on the stereotypes, with its preponderance of macho, chauvinistic male cops and lusty, fiery female cops, Hoag's loyal readers and fans of police procedural suspense novels will definitely love it. <em>Kathleen Hughes</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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The deepest waters hide the darkest secrets....When the body of a murdered man literally falls at Elizabeth Stuart's feet, she's able to wash away the blood--but not the terror. Unwelcome newcomers to Still Creek, Minnesota, she and her troubled teenage son are treated with suspicion by the locals, including the sheriff. Yet nothing will stop her from digging beneath the town's placid surface for the truth—except the killer.Running from a messy divorce, Elizabeth believed buying a small-town newspaper offered a fresh start for herself and her son. But idyllic Still Creek, nestled in the heart of lush Amish farmlands, hides secrets dangerous enough to push someone to commit murder. Now Elizabeth must risk everything to save herself and her son, and to unmask the killer...before the current of evil flowing through Still Creek drags her under.When Elizabeth Stuart searched for a quiet, peaceful home for herself and her son, Still Creek seemed perfect. Nestled in the heart of lush Amish farmlands, this small, idyllic Minnesota town would allow her to put a shattering divorce behind her. But the locals were noticeably cool to the newcomer—who was rumored to be a gold-digger—especially when she started stirring up controversy with her newspaper. And now when a murdered body literally falls at her feet, she has a slight credibility problem...particularly with the arrogant sheriff whose blue eyes seem to know her darkest secrets.An ex-pro athlete who had returned to Still Creek a hero, Sheriff Dane Jantzen doesn't have much use for the media—especially not in the form of this glamorous, gutsy outsider who spells trouble with every word she prints. So when she becomes his suspect in a vicious crime, the last thing Dane expects is the jolt of attraction at their every encounter.Elizabeth would soon challenge Dane's every assumption, including the one that he's better off without love. But as they risk everything to uncover the truth, the current of evil that contaminates Still Creek threatens to pull them both under...


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Returning from 2004's <em>Slow Kill</em>, stoic Sante Fe police chief Kevin Kerney receives an unexpected visit from Johnny Jordan, a childhood friend and now cantankerous former rodeo pro, who convinces Kerney to serve as a technical adviser in the shooting of a local western film. Eager for a break, Kerney heads to the location in southwestern Bootheel with his lovely wife, Army Lt. Col. Sara Brannon, and his young son, Patrick, in tow. But what starts out as a working vacation in this seventh Kerney outing quickly detours into a bloody crime scene when the body of an undercover Border Patrol agent is dumped onto Highway 81. In no time, U.S. Customs joins Kerney's investigation into a possible illegal immigrant and drug smuggling operation. Meanwhile, Sara's army job unexpectedly takes her to Ireland where she must track down and seize the notorious George Spalding, a gemstone smuggler and wartime deserter. McGarrity focuses on the details of the settings and on the characters' tactical maneuvers career- and parenting-wise. The result is slightly amplified sleuthing, deftly swapped out at surprising moments to the POV of the bad guys, and with fine but low-grade intensity. <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>The title of this latest in the Kevin Kerney series misses the point entirely. Yes, many cop novels, especially those veering toward noir, are about nothing but trouble, but McGarrity's series--at least since Kerney became Santa Fe chief of police and married career army officer Sarah--has been about all sorts of things besides trouble: domestic life in a long-distance marriage and the joys and frustrations of middle-age parenting, for example. McGarrity's remarkable eye for detail, always the hallmark of his series, remains so, whether the hero is choosing a day-care facility or working a stakeout. This time the action is split between Sarah tracking an army defector in Ireland--a story begun in <em>Slow Kill </em>(2004)--and Kerney serving as a consultant on a movie about rodeo competitors. There's plenty of trouble on both fronts, of course, but McGarrity never loses sight of the everyday, even in the heat of battle. Longtime fans of the series may yearn for some of the edginess of the early installments, but that's how it goes with life--either too much excitement or not enough. <em>Bill Ott</em><br><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>"Nineteen Eighty-Four" revealed George Orwell as one of the twentieth century's greatest mythmakers. While the totalitarian system that provoked him into writing it has since passed into oblivion, his harrowing cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate: its relevance and power to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade. In Winston Smith's desperate struggle to free himself from an all-encompassing, malevolent state, Orwell zeroed in on tendencies apparent in every modern society, and made vivid the universal predicament of the individual.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Adichie (_Half of a Yellow Sun_) stays on familiar turf in her deflated first story collection. The tension between Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans, and the question of what it means to be middle-class in each country, feeds most of these dozen stories. Best known are "Cell One," and "The Headstrong Historian," which have both appeared in the <em>New Yorker</em> and are the collection's finest works. "Cell One," in particular, about the appropriation of American ghetto culture by Nigerian university students, is both emotionally and intellectually fulfilling. Most of the other stories in this collection, while brimming with pathos and rich in character, are limited. The expansive canvas of the novel suits Adichie's work best; here, she fixates mostly on romantic relationships. Each story's observations illuminate once; read in succession, they take on a repetitive slice-of-life quality, where assimilation and gender roles become ready stand-ins for what could be more probing work. <em>(June)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>A country famously known to the West for its e-mail scams, Nigeria is indebted to Adichie for these graceful and evocative stories that portray it as the rich and diverse nation it truly is. They also demonstrate her keen insight into the rough terrain of human nature beset by external demands and pressures. Adichie, compared to a "hostess" (_San Francisco Chronicle_) who invites her achingly believable characters fully formed into her stories, treats her protagonists -- mostly women -- with respect and compassion. A few minor complaints included less-convincing American characters and some awkward endings, but all critics recognized Adichie as an accomplished storyteller whose careful study of her native land illuminates its foreignness as well as the similarities between us all. </p>

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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Based on more than 1000 hours of secretly recorded conversations, this book tells the story of New Jersey's DeCavalcante crime family. Originally dismissed by the large New York City crime organizations, the DeCavalcantes sought the opportunity to move up in the crime world when their big-city counterparts began having legal troubles and when The Sopranos, which recounts the life of a fictional Jersey mob family, became such a hit on HBO. Unfortunately for the DeCavalcantes, they had been infiltrated by an FBI informant. Although the show's creator has denied it, much of The Sopranos is said to be based on this real-life crime family, and DeCavalcante members were even caught on federal wiretaps bragging about their similarity to the TV mobsters. But while Daily News mob reporter Smith draws many parallels between the DeCavalcantes and the fictional Sopranos, the book does not quite live up to its potential. Much of the writing seems disjointed and repetitious, and a few superfluous anecdotes scattered throughout seem to have little relevance to the rest of the story. Recommended with reservations for large public libraries where there is a strong interest in organized crime books.<br /><em>Sarah Jent, Univ. of Louisville Lib., KY </em><br />Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>It wasn't until the success of "The Sopranos" that New Jersey's powerful DeCavalcante family became legitimized in the eyes of big city capos. But a higher profile meant higher risk. Member turned against member, and eventually one of them turned to reporter Greg B. Smith to expose the rise and fall of one of the most notorious families in America. </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>True financial crimefrom the author of Mob Cops and Made Men. The eye-opening, untold story of one of the most elaborate conspiracies to rock Wall Streeta scheme involving the Mafia, murder, and millions of dollars.</p>


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<div><h3>From</h3><p>This intriguing first novel takes another look at the world of espionage in Afghanistan. A travel writer with firsthand knowledge of the area, Elliot effectively combines action and landscape in a thriller set prior to 9/11. Anthony Taverner, a recent recruit to MI6, the British Secret Service, is sent to Afghanistan to destroy several Stinger missiles before al-Qaeda can get its hands on them. With the help of a veteran and friend, Taverner undergoes extensive training to prepare himself for the deadly mission and the forbidding terrain. He quickly learns that the success of the mission will depend on cunning as well as conditioning: secrets abound in the spy world, and nothing is what it seems. The Afghan setting is vividly rendered, but the slow pace of the story will make it a hard sell for readers expecting something in the Vince Flynn or Brad Thor vein. For those wanting a realistic look behind the news, however, Elliot delivers the goods. --Jeff Ayers </p><h3>Review</h3><p>'Fast-paced and strikingly authentic' Stella Rimington 'As sharp as Frederick Forsyth - as exotic as Wilbur Smith' Jason Goodwin 'A terrific spy thriller' Guardian 'The ideal thriller for the age of C.S.I' New York Times </p>

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<h3>From</h3><p>Abbas Khemiri’s friends include Bono, Kofi Annan, and Salman Rushdie. He’s the greatest photojournalist of his time, illuminating the plight of the world’s poor and powerless, but he began life as an orphan in Tunisia. His “antique” (i.e., oldest) friend, Kadir, emails Jonas, Khemiri’s Tunisian-Swedish son, a novelist, to propose that they collaborate on a biography of Jonas’ famous father. Kadir is insistent, but Jonas is reluctant—he hasn’t seen his father in nine years. Jonas and Kadir begin a correspondence that conflicts in both substance and style. Kadir’s accounts of Abbas are admiring, and his writing is buoyant and often funny. Jonas’ memories are critical and laced with irony and rage. But both ultimately focus on racism and nativism, the “smothering set of prejudices” in Sweden that defied Abbas’ efforts to fit into Swedish society, support his family, and keep Jonas from feeling that he’s an outsider. Montecore will startle many American readers who know little of the anti-immigrant sentiments that have been fomenting in Sweden since the 1990s. An illuminating and involving novel. --Thomas Gaughan </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"[_Montecore_ is] funny, ambitious, and inventive. Also black: rage and tragedy pulse beneath the fireworks…a potent chemical mix." — _The New York Times Book Review<br />_<em></em> <br /><em></em><br />"To those whose experience of Swedish fiction has been as bleak as Nordic winter, <em>Montecore</em> arrives as a sunny revelation. An exuberant account…the novel in fact challenges assumptions about Swedish identity…[A] rollicking tale." —Barnes &amp; Noble  </p><p>"_Montecore <em>is brilliant. Like its title—an invented creolized noun equal parts Arabic, French, Swedish, Siegfried &amp; Roy, and Dungeons &amp; Dragons—Jonas Hassen Khemiri's novel is itself a thrillingly hybrid creature: an immigrant story, a coming-of-age tale, an epistolary epic, an indictment of Swedish racism and nationalism, a meditation on storytelling and translation. . .Above all, however, this is a beautiful novel, a bewitching novel, as funny as it is heartbreaking, as self-aware as it is self-effacing, and certainly the best book that I've read in a long time." —Rattawut Lapcharoensap, author of </em>Sightseeing<br />_   </p><p>"[A] vibrant story of culture, class, and family history enlivened by Khemiri’s subtle wit and voice." <br />—_Publishers Weekly<br />_  </p><p>"Amusing and multilayered. . .Khemiri adds a distinctive and quirky voice—actually several of them—to contemporary literature." —_Kirkus_ (starred)</p>


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From the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner comes a fast-paced and astonishing scientific adventure story: has the long-sought secret of eternal youth at last been found?   In recent years, the dream of eternal youth has started to look like more than just a dream. In the twentieth century alone, life expectancy increased by more than thirty years—almost as much time as humans have gained in the whole span of human existence. Today a motley array of scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs believe that another, bigger leap is at hand—that human immortality is not only possible, but attainable in our own time. Is there genius or folly in the dreams of these charismatic but eccentric thinkers?   In Long for This World, Jonathan Weiner, a natural storyteller and an intrepid reporter with a gift for making cutting-edge science understandable, takes the reader on a whirlwind intellectual quest to find out. From Berkeley to the Bronx, from Cambridge University to Dante's tomb in Ravenna, Weiner meets the leading intellectuals in the field and delves into the mind-blowing science behind the latest research. He traces the centuries-old, fascinating history of the quest for longevity in art, science, and literature, from Gilgamesh to Shakespeare, Doctor Faustus to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."   And he tells the dramatic story of how aging could be conquered once and for all, focusing on the ideas of those who believe aging is a curable disease. Chief among them is the extraordinary Aubrey de Grey, a garrulous Englishman who bears more than a passing resemblance to Methuselah (at 969 years, the oldest man in the Bible) and who is perhaps immortality's most radical and engaging true believer.   A rollicking scientific adventure story in the grand manner of Oliver Sacks, Long for This World is science writing of the highest order and with the highest stakes. Could we live forever? And if we could...would we want to?


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Desperately single thirtysomething men and women populate Keyes's breezy novel. Childhood friends Tara, Katherine, and Fintan muddle along, dealing with the indignities and inconveniences we all face--and then some. Tara's perfectly horrible, freeloading boyfriend Thomas watches her diet like a hawk and remarks cruelly on the size of her posterior, comparing her unfavorably to younger, thinner women. Katherine is a professional success, but her personal life is nonexistent. Every one of her prior relationships--six in all--has ended disastrously, with Katherine getting dumped. Each time, she retreats further and further into her shell, until her most intimate relationship is with her remote control. Fashion industry insider Fintan has found true love with his Italian boyfriend, Sandro, but a health crisis threatens their happiness. Tara, Katherine, and Fintan, as well as their quirky cast of friends (people with names like Lorcan and Mandii), live, love, and learn the hard way, the only way they can. Not quite as obsessive as Bridget Jones and that damn diary of hers, Keyes manages to convey a painfully accurate portrayal of what it means to be single today, tempered by a few of life's less humiliating and more important lessons, like the value of true friendship. Funny and irreverent, Keyes's <em>Last Chance Saloon</em> is a terrific vacation read. <em>--Alison Trinkle</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Imagine Bridget Jones in a Jacobean revenge drama, a sort of 'Tis a Pity She's Single that's the flavor of this entry in the urban unmarried female angst sweepstakes. This time, the protagonists are two London women who grew up together in the small, repressive Irish town of Knockavoy. Tara, a computer analyst, lives with Thomas, a bitter and miserly high school geography teacher. Afraid to live on her own, she is willing to overlook the fact that Thomas ignores her birthday, constantly monitors her eating habits and insults her friends under the guise of being "honest." Katherine Casey, an accountant for an advertising agency, wears boring suits, has a hyperorganized underwear drawer and brushes off all advances, including those of attractive advertising account executive Joe Roth. As they turn 31, each woman is full of suggestions for improving the other's life and full of excuses for doing nothing about her own. That begins to change when Fintan O'Grady, their gay pal and fellow Knockavoy refugee, falls ill with a mysterious disease. As their paths are crisscrossed by a self-centered Irish actor named Lorcan Larkin, Fintan emotionally blackmails Tara and Katherine into making long-needed changes. Keyes (Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married) effectively describes the young women's searches for autonomy and love, but her flippant, arch tone is less effective when recounting the more grim stories of Fintan and Lorcan. In addition, some of the repartee, perhaps fresh when the book was originally published in Great Britain in 2001, already seems shopworn. The Knockavoy refugees are a sympathetic trio, however, and their deftly plotted saga is likely to appeal to fellow singletons. (Aug.)Forecast: Readers will have to be nearly as desperate as the heroines of Keyes's relationship drama to find satisfaction here but there's no underestimating the appeal of even halfway decent girl-talk books. </p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Dana Evans, who made her first appearance in Sidney Sheldon's __, is a spunky, good-looking, young Washington TV journalist who's recently returned to the nation's capital from the Balkans, where she adopted a handicapped war orphan who's having trouble adjusting to life in America. But that doesn't keep Dana from following a story all over the world, from Washington to Aspen, Nice, Juneau, Dusseldorf, Rome, Brussels, Moscow, and Siberia. Each of these brief visits is like a postcard--a local landmark or two, an interesting local restaurant (at least in the European venues), and another piece of the puzzle, which has to do with why every member of a venerable, old Washington dynasty has died a violent death in the last year. It seems strange that in a media-savvy city like Washington, no one but Dana has noticed there's a pattern in the rapid extinction of the Winthrops or even whispered the words <em>family vendetta</em>. But that's why pretty, young girl TV reporters were invented, at least by Sheldon. </p><p>As Dana sets out to investigate the distinguished career of the Winthrop family patriarch, her lover Jeff, a sports anchor at her station, is called away to administer aid and succor to his former wife, a beautiful model who's realized, too little and too late, that she never should have dumped him. And Kemal, the 12-year-old orphan, is being drugged by his baby sitter, who's in cahoots with at least one set of bad guys. Dana hasn't noticed how tractable the temperamental boy has become recently because she's been dressing up like a two-bit Russian tramp to infiltrate a secret weapons base in Siberia... Do you hear the words <em>movie locations</em>? But all's well that ends well, as it usually does for Sheldon's heroines, and in the meantime you've learned where the five-star hotels are and what to order in a famous restaurant in Rome. A slick, commercial, slightly thin tale told by a craftsman of the genre. <em>--Jane Adams</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Efficiently brisk and reliably suspenseful, Sheldon's (Tell Me Your Dreams, etc.) 17th novel demonstrates that this veteran master of commercial fiction has not lost his touch. Freshly returned to Washington, D.C., from a stint reporting in Sarajevo, TV newscaster Dana Evans (introduced in Sheldon's The Best Laid Plans) struggles to cope with her new adopted son, troubled 12-year-old Kemal, whose parents and sister were killed in the fighting. Back on the job, Dana interviews youngish millionaire Gary Winthrop, the scion of a Kennedyesque clan, only to learn the next day that the prospective Senate candidate and philanthropist has been murdered in his Washington townhouse. Unbelievably, Dana is the only person who finds it odd that five members of the Winthrop family have died violent deaths in the last year. Despite this weakness in the plot, Sheldon crafts a page-turner that takes Dana on a worldwide quest from France, Germany and Italy to Alaska and Moscow as she pursues her hunch that all the Winthrop deaths are related. Deceased family patriarch Taylor Winthrop, she discovers, was a manipulative, unscrupulous businessman, politico and womanizer with many enemies. And the senior Winthrop's connection to the real-life Siberian underground city of Krasnoyarsk-26 and its production of plutonium proves the source of the family's wealth and their ill fortune. A love triangle involving Dana, sports anchor Jeff Connors and his ex-wife, internationally known model Rachel Stevens, seems gratuitous, tossed in merely to add plot texture, but it does provide some viable moments of romance and schmaltz. When the villains behind the killings turn against Dana as she comes closer to the truth, the tension builds and holds right through to a seven-alarm finale. Agent, Mort Janklow. 750,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday main selections; Mystery Guild featured alternate; People Book Club alternate; 6-city author tour. (Sept.) <br />Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>Praise for <em>The Silent Sea</em>:   </p><p>"Fast-paced and a lot of fun-delivers the wallop Cussler's fans have come to expect." <br>-_Booklist_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>The extraordinary new adventure from the #1 <em>New York Times</em>- bestselling author. </strong>   </p><p>Jungles come in many forms. There are the steamy rain forests of the Burmese highlands. There are the lies and betrayals of the world of covert operations. And there are the dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination. To pull off their latest mission, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon must survive them all.   </p><p>A devastating new weapon unleashed in thirteenth-century China...a daring rescue in the snowbound mountains along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border...a woman gone missing in the jungles of northern Thailand and Myanmar...for Cabrillo and his crew, all of these events will come together-leading to the greatest threat against U.S. security that the world has ever known. </p>

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<p>Ferguson is the most brilliant British historian of his generation ... 
he writes with splendid panache The Times  One of the world's leading 
historians -- Hamish McRae Independent  [Praise for The Ascent of Money]
 Beautifully written... Breathtakingly clever -- Martin Van Weyer Sunday
 Telegraph  [Praise for The Ascent of Money] The tales he tells of boom 
and bust, of triumph and disaster, of bubbles that inflate... are the 
very essence of financial history -- Bill Emmott Financial Times  
[Praise for The Ascent of Money]  An often enlightening and enjoyable 
tour through the underside of great events, a lesson in how the most 
successful great powers have always been underpinned by smart money</p>


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For anyone planning events—student, novice, or experienced professional—Confessions of an Event Planner is an “apprenticeship in a book.” This insider’s guide takes you on a narrative journey, following a fictional event planning company that stages various types of events around the world for many different clients.       While other books, college courses, and training programs give you the theory and how-to of the profession, Confessions of an Event Planner reveals the real world of event planning and what can happen—usually the unexpected—on an event program when actual participants are added to the event planning design and execution mix. In a climate of media scrutiny and corporate scandals, event planners must be masters of discretion, knowing how to avoid and deal with everything from sexual romps to financial shenanigans, to chainsaw wielding salesmen dead set on “re-landscaping” the grounds of the resort they’re staying at. From an event planner who’s seen it all and knows how to deal with it all, comes practical first-hand advice delivered in an entertaining and accessible format.       Each chapter is set in a unique location, with a cast of characters, and a host of challenges and problems to overcome—from the boardroom to the resort guest bedrooms. Readers learn what they can come up against, how to problem solve creatively on the fly, get ideas for staging spectacular events, and see the principles of event planning in action. The scenario in each chapter is introduced by an outline of what will be covered in the chapter, and each chapter concludes with a series of review questions to explore key issues and stimulate reflection or discussion for individuals or groups. Ideal as a companion to Judy Allen’s six other event planning books, as a textbook in event planning courses, or as a professional training tool Confessions of an Event Planner prepares planners for what they can expect once they start working in the world of corporate and social event planning, and will help decision-makers set company policies, procedures and protocol and promote discussion about codes of conduct in the office and offsite.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>An American reporter takes in one Middle East cataclysm after another in this searing memoir. <em>Los Angeles Times</em> correspondent Stack covered the war in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, then bounced around to other hot-spot postings, including Israel during the second Intifada, occupied Baghdad, and southern Lebanon during the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Stack offers gripping accounts of the sorrows of war, especially of the traumas Afghan and Lebanese civilians endured under American and Israeli bombing, but she also writes evocatively of quieter pathologies: Libya's jovially sinister totalitarian regime, corruption under Egypt's quasi-dictatorship, and lyric anti-Semitism at a Yemeni poetry slam. Dropping journalistic detachment in favor of a novelistic style, she enters the story as a protagonist whose travails—fending off a lecherous Afghan warlord, seething under the humiliating restrictions of Saudi Arabia's gender apartheid system—illuminate the societies she encounters. The big-picture lessons Stack draws—The Middle East goes crazy and we go along with it—are none too cogent, but her vivid, atmospheric prose and keen empathy make her a superb observer of the region's horrific particulars. <em>(Jun.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p><em>Starred Review</em> Society assigns war to the military, not the media, yet journalists venture into combat zones ahead of, alongside, and well after the troops whose stories they tell. As a 25-year-old correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Stack covered Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11, then traveled to other outposts in the war on terror, from Iraq to Iran, Libya, and Lebanon. In a disquieting series of essays, Stack now takes readers deep into the carnage where she was exposed to the insanity, innocence, and inhumanity of wars with no beginning, middle, or end. Her soaring imagery sears itself into the brain, in acute and accurate tales that should never be forgotten by the wider world, and yet always are. Stack grew increasingly demoralized with each new outburst of hostilities, and clearly covering the violence took its emotional toll: the uncomfortable hypocrisy of Abu Ghraib, the unconscionable confusion over women’s subjugation, the unfathomable intricacies of tribal allegiances. Anyone wishing to understand the Middle East need only look into the faces of war that Stack renders with exceptional humanity—the bombers as well as the bureaucrats, the rebels and the refugees, the victors and the victims. --Carol Haggas </p>


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The signs of the times are missing apostrophes. The world needed a hero, but how would an editor with no off-switch answer the call? For Jeff Deck, the writing was literally on the wall: “NO TRESSPASSING.” In that moment, his greater purpose became clear.  Dark hordes of typos had descended upon civilization… and only he could wield the marker to defeat them. Recruiting his friend Benjamin and other valiant companions, he created the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). Armed with markers, chalk, and correction fluid, they circumnavigated America, righting the glaring errors displayed in grocery stores, museums, malls, restaurants, mini-golf courses, beaches, and even a national park. Jeff and Benjamin championed the cause of clear communication, blogging about their adventures transforming horor into horror, it’s into its, and coconunut into coconut. But at the Grand Canyon, they took one correction too far: fixing the bad grammar in a fake Native American watchtower.  The government charged them with defacing federal property  and summoned them to court—with a typo-ridden complaint that claimed that they had violated “criminal statues.” Now the press turned these paragons of punctuation into “grammar vigilantes,” airing errors about their errant errand.. The radiant dream of TEAL would not fade, though.   Beneath all those misspelled words and mislaid apostrophes, Jeff and Benjamin unearthed deeper dilemmas about education, race, history, and how we communicate. Ultimately their typo-hunting journey tells a larger story not just of proper punctuation but of the power of language and literacy—and the importance of always taking a second look.


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface -- a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character -- and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you.</p><p>In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, <em>How to Read Literature Like a Professor</em> is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.</p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Tom Foster is Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Flint, where he teaches classes in contemporary fiction, drama and poetry as well as creative writing and composition. He has written several books on twentieth-century British and Irish literature and poetry and lives in East Lansing, Michigan. </p>


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<P>‘On 24 February 1994, the police turned up at 25 Cromwell Street, an ordinary three-story house in central Gloucester, with a warrant to dig up the back garden. The door was answered by Stephen West, the 20-year-old son of the householders Fred and Rosemary West. The police told him that they were looking for the body of his sister Heather, who had disappeared in May 1987 at the age of 16.’</P> <P>The world’s most depraved murderers were somebody’s neighbour, someone else’s father. What turns a person into a killer? Enter the dark world of true crime... With nineteen chilling chapters on notorious killers including Harold Shipman and Charles Manson, those less well known such as Albert DeSalvo and Dennis Nilsen, and the massacres at Hungerford and Columbine, this book examines how and why these people became the most barbaric murderers of our times.</P>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"An exquisite writer . . . [B]lissfully overarching descriptions and deadpan humour that ensure Burgess won't be filed as a horror writer." -- <em>Uptown Magazine</em>  </p><p>"Buy all his books." -- <em>ow Magazine</em>  </p><p>"It may be one of the most important novels published this year." -- <em>Toronto Star</em>  </p><p>"Pontypool Changes Everything is, quite literally, a hell of a read, enough to satisfy the most jaded appetite." -- <em>eye Weekly</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The dark side of humanity is explored in this electrifying science fiction thriller in which an epidemic virus terrorizes the earth. Causing its inhabitants to strike out on murderous rampages, the virus is caught through conversation and, once contracted, leads its host on a strange journey—into another world where the undead roam the streets of the smallest towns and largest cities, hungry for human flesh. Describing in chilling detail what it would be like if thousands suddenly caught such a virus and struck out on a mass, never-ending, cannibalistic spree, this terrifying narrative is perfect for those who are ready to explore their darkest secret imaginings through a sinister and compelling literary work of art. This new edition includes a new afterword on the making of the new motion picture.</p>

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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>Talking to Girls About Duran Duran</em> may sound like a dream come true to all the women who she-bopped through the 80s, but at heart it's the Feminine Mystique that every boy-next-door has been waiting for (and will actually read). It's something like a prequel to <em>--Anne Bartholomew</em>  </p><hr /><h2>Rob Sheffield's Top '80s Summer Cruising Songs</h2><p>Reading <em>Talking to Girls About Duran Duran</em> is a nostalgia trip you'll love taking: add Rob Sheffield's exclusive playlist to the mix--featured below, with liner notes--and you'll be ready for some kind of wonderful summer night. You can also sample and download these songs in <em></em>  </p><p><em></em>  </p><p><hr /><em>Scarface</em>, I got high on my own supply, which means I spent the summer with one hand on the wheel and another one stuffing my face. I was also listening to the radio 18 hours a day, so I got obsessed with this song. I still get choked up at the "heartbreak overload" part.   </p><hr /><hr /><hr /><hr /><p><hr />This song always reminds me of a cool girl I hung around with in the summer of 1988. She liked setting things on fire, getting both of us thrown out of bars, and Def Leppard. It's funny because this is a classic hair-metal ballad, but with all these glossy keyboards, it sounds like impeccable '80s synth-pop--it could pass for prime New Order or OMD. (Editor's note: Song is available on album only.)   </p><hr /><hr /><hr /><hr /><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this tuneful coming-of-age memoir, the glamorous New Wave band Duran Duran presides spiritually over the all-consuming teenage male efforts to comprehend the opposite sex. Music journalist Sheffield (_Love Is a Mix Tape_) chronicles his passage through the 1980s in a series of chapters in which period groups—from headliners like Roxy Music and Prince to one-hit wonders like Haysi Fantayzee of Shiny Shiny semifame—provides musical accompaniment to his adolescent angst. They are the soundtrack to his fumbling attempts to dance or make passes at girls, to weather a winless stint on the high school wrestling team, to survive a summer job as an ice-cream truck driver. The relationship insights he arrives at—chiefly, the imperative of unquestioning submission to female whims—are no more or less cogent than the song lyrics he gleans them from. The book really shines as a collection of free-form riffs on the glorious foolishness of Reagan-era entertainment—the movie <em>E.T.</em>, he writes, was about a sad muppet who thought he was David Bowie—and its weirdly resonant emotional impact. The result is a funny, poignant browse from a wonderful pop-culture evocateur. <em>(July)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Crafted with all the skills that have made his previous books bestsellers, The Book of Secrets will be essential reading for Deepak Chopra's huge number of followers worldwide, and also appeal to everyone searching for the meaning of life, and looking for answers to the questions: Who Am I? Where Did I Come From? and Why Am I Here? Each of the fifteen chapters discusses a 'secret' - such as: The World Is In You; Transformation Is Not The Same As Change; Death Is Conquered By Dying Every Day; Everything Is Pure Essence. Chopra believes that 'Every life is a book of secrets ready to be opened', and that the only way to discover the answers to these secrets is to delve inside yourself, and cease to be a mystery to yourself. Only by going to 'the still point inside' can you see life as it really is. 'The rock star of the new spirituality' GUARDIAN 'The poet-prophet of alternative medicine' TIME 'Undoubtedly one of the most lucid and inspired philosophers of our time' MIKHAIL GORBACHEV</p>


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What happens when an educated professional wants to become a stay-at-home mom but not end her career forever?Here is a book for the millions of moms who want to do what's best for their families and for themselves. Monica Samuels and J.C. Conklin show what to do when you’re ready to leave work to be a full-time mother, how to maintain contacts while away from the job, and then how to execute a successful reentry into the workforce anywhere from one to twenty years after you've left. Comeback Moms is filled with anecdotes and advice from economists, career counselors, employers and, of course, mothers who have made the transition from the career track to the mommy track and back again. The authors distill the wisdom of the experts and many high profile women--including Ambassador Karen Hughes, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, and former Texas Governor Ann Richards--into a three-tiered battle plan to help any woman get through this life-changing process and come out ahead.“You can’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to do it all or can do it all. You have to take advantage of opportunities when they’re offered.”— Anne Richards, former Governor of TexasMillions of educated, professional women are quitting their jobs to stay home and raise their children.That would never be you, right? You worked hard for your degree and even harder to get to this point in your career. Quitting now, even for a few years, would kill your career. Right?That’s what Monica Samuels thought when she found out she was pregnant and boy, was she wrong. Once you have a baby, your life changes in ways you’d never imagine. Some of your friends and family members may think you’ve gone a little crazy—crazy enough to leave a salary and paid vacations to stay home with your child. Before you go storming into your boss’s office to announce your departure, read this book. There’s more to quitting than saying the words. There’s strategy involved.Over sixty percent of professional women who leave work to raise children want to go back into the workforce someday. If you even think you might want to go back to work, be it in one year or twenty, you need to lay the groundwork now for a successful reentry or your options will be limited. If you do a little planning, you can reposition yourself professionally and have the choice to one day get back on the same career track, shift gears, accelerate, or change careers entirely. And, if you’ve already been out of the workplace for several years and never thought you’d go back, you’ll learn about the best strategies and resources for jumping back in.Comeback Moms is a practical, commonsense approach to career planning for all mothers. Monica Samuels and J.C. Conklin examine every conceivable angle and obstacle to help you make the best decisions possible before leaving your job, during your time at home, and once you decide to return to work. They offer advice on how to keep one foot in the professional pool, when and if it’s best to go back to school, setting realistic expectations when re-entering an old career, helping your children adjust when you do go back, and on the logistics of rebalancing marital power when a spouse leaves or re-enters the work force. It's all here in an invaluable guide for every woman who wants it all.


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"If you suspect you might have the itch to make a mark anywhere in the hospitality industry, this is your book. It's chockfull of genuine insights, accurate information, and thoughtful advice from real people who have already walked in your shoes—or the ones you've been contemplating trying on."<br />-Danny Meyer, restaurateur and author of _Setting the Table<br />_<br />“Smilow’s book is recommended for readers seeking a thorough introductory exposure to today’s professional possibilities in the culinary world.”<br />—Eric Peterson, The Library Journal  </p><p>“Thank Goodness Rick Smilow &amp; Anne E. McBride have written Culinary Careers”<br />—Gail Ciampa, Providence Journal  </p><p>“Smilow leaves no refrigerator unopened in this guide that is excellent for everyone from new grads to those contemplating a major career shift”—Lisa Messenger, Cooks Books  </p><p><em>“Culinary Careers </em>does a great job laying out road maps for a career in the food world. And through its eighty-nine interviews, the book also conveys the passion and dedication that I see amongst my fellow chefs and restaurant professionals, around the nation.”<br />--Marcus Samuelsson  </p><p>“For anyone in the food service business, or even thinking about it, this is a must have guide.”—Tim Zagat, Zagat Survey  </p><p>“Culinary Careers is a refreshingly unbiased introduction to the range of educational opportunities and careersavailable to those who see the world through the lens of food and cooking.”—Bob delGrosso, A Hunger Artist  </p><p>"A heaping plate of solid, first-hand advice from real people in the business." --- The Sacramento Bee </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Recommended for readers seeking a thorough introductory exposure to today's professional possibilities in the culinary world.<em></em>—Eric Petersen, Kansas City P.L., MO, Library Journal<br /><em></em><br />Turn a passion for food into the job of a lifetime with the insider advice in <em>Culinary Careers</em>.   </p><p>Working in food can mean cooking on the line in a restaurant, of course, but there are so many more career paths available. No one knows this better than Rick Smilow—president of the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), the award-winning culinary school in New York City—who has seen ICE graduates go on to prime jobs both in and out of professional kitchens. Tapping into that vast alumni network and beyond, <em>Culinary Careers</em> is the only career book to offer candid portraits of dozens and dozens of coveted jobs at all levels to help you find your dream job. <br />     Instead of giving glossed-over, general descriptions of various jobs, <em>Culinary Careers</em> features exclusive interviews with both food-world luminaries and those on their way up, to help you discover what a day in the life is really like in your desired field.  </p><p>• Get the ultimate in advice from those at the very pinnacle of the industry, including Lidia Bastianich, Thomas Keller, and Ruth Reichl. <br />• Figure out whether you need to go to cooking school or not in order to land the job you want.<br />• Read about the inspiring—and sometimes unconventional—paths individuals took to reach their current positions.<br />• Find out what employers look for, and how you can put your best foot forward in interviews. <br />• Learn what a food stylist’s day on the set of a major motion picture is like, how a top New York City restaurant publicity firm got off the ground, what to look for in a yacht crew before jumping on board as the chef, and so much more.  </p><p>With information on educational programs and a bird’s-eye view of the industry, <em>Culinary Careers</em> is a must-have resource for anyone looking to break into the food world, whether you’re a first-time job seeker or a career changer looking for your next step. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Weiland's lively, vernacular memoir tells the sadly wasted but ultimately self-directed tale of her meteoric rise as a model from impoverished, half-Mexican roots to a precipitous plunge into drug addiction. Growing up in a broken Southern California home in the 1980s, where she lived mostly with her working Mexican mother in near poverty, the author, née Forsberg, found autonomy and financial independence early on in modeling; by age 14 she was a finalist for a <em>Seventeen</em> magazine modeling contest and traveling to New York; by 16, she had quit school, been legally emancipated and booked overseas jobs. She also became infatuated with aspiring rock and roller Scott Weiland, who was briefly her driver, and as he became hugely successful with his band, Stone Temple Pilots, he slid into heroin addiction and dragged her along with him. He was also involved with another woman, and the author's account is a painful re-enactment of her youthful abasement. From partying scene to junkie desperation to psychiatrist's office, jail and rehab, Forsberg Weiland battled her demons, learning with some surprise that she suffered from bipolar disorder. Having two children with Scott turned her around, though her marriage crumbled when he didn't change. Weiland's forthright, resilient can-do spirit injects this sad story with a healthy moral. <em>(Dec.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>“For all the death and devastation detailed in its pages, this book is surprisingly funny.” (Reuters )  </p><p>“A brutally honest and compelling account of Mary Weiland’s struggles with addiction and mental illness. Brave, bold and unfiltered, Mary’s writing injects humor and levity in a way that is both entertaining and necessary. I have no doubt that this important book will help save many lives.” (Dave Navarro )  </p><p>“Mary Weiland describes the depths of madness and addiction with surprising clarity. Fall to Pieces is a wild, gripping story, told with intense emotional honesty.” (Terri Cheney, New York Times bestselling author of Manic )  </p><p>“A worthy addition to the rock canon.” (New York Post )  </p><p>“A harrowing story of addiction and mental illness.” (People )  </p><p>“Weiland’s lively, vernacular memoir tells the sadly wasted but ultimately self-directed tale of her meteoric rise as a model from impoverished, half-Mexican roots to a precipitous plunge into drug addiction....Weiland’s forthright, resilient can-do spirit injects this sad story with a healthy moral.” (Publishers Weekly )  </p><p>“Mary Weiland’s beautifully crafted memoir takes the reader through the journey that is so very common today, the slow drift into addiction and mental illness. Honest, clear, and accurate, Fall to Pieces is perhaps the most vivid rendition of this experience I have ever come across.” (Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of Loveline and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, author of The Mirror Effect and Cracked ) </p>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Peter Bogdanovich Reviews <em>Frank: The Voice</em></strong></p><p><strong>Peter Bogdanovich is an acclaimed director, producer, writer, actor, film critic, and author. He has directed over 25 feature films, including international award winners <em>Frank: The Voice</em>:</strong></p><p>There has never been a book of this kind or quality about Frank Sinatra. Like the formidable novelist he is, James Kaplan has somehow managed to get inside the man and the legend, to such a degree that you feel you are living Sinatra’s life with him, almost day by day. Yet it is the fastest read.</p><p>From his violent, deforming, traumatic birth, through his Hoboken childhood with a super-dominating mother and a weak father, through the heady, unprecedented bobby-sox years, his young marriage to the virtually saint-like Nancy, their three kids, his numerous--almost serial--infidelities, through the tumultuous affair with Ava Gardner--detailed as never before--through the much-frowned-on divorce, the suicide attempts, rivetingly onward through the near total collapse of his career, and right up through the miraculous comeback with the Oscar for </p><p>Sinatra the musician has never been taken as seriously or chronicled with such sensitivity and depth; it has never been as clear how very much the singer had to do with all aspects of his recordings and performances. This is a warts-and-all work, with a staggering amount of research to back everything up, revealing Nancy Sr. in all her grace, and Frank in all his moods, but it is never salacious or malicious, only honest, forthright and civilized. Nobody can be prepared for the life of a phenomenon--which Sinatra was--the first show business phenomenon of the 20th century, long before Elvis or the Beatles, and far more complicated and multi-layered. Being very human, Frank did the best he could with it all, and James Kaplan has done a magnificently resonant chronicle of the first half of an incredible journey. It leaves you hungering for the second volume!</p><hr><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Starred Review. In this riveting and fast-paced biography, Kaplan, coauthor with Jerry Lewis of Dean and Me, chronicles Sinatra's somewhat unlikely meteoric ascent to success, his failures, and his rebirth as a star of song and screen. With exhaustive, and sometimes exhausting, detail, Kaplan engagingly re-creates the young Sinatra's childhood in Hoboken, N.J., where young Frank was born, in 1915. By the time he was 12, Sinatra was singing for quarters on top of the piano in the bar in his father's tavern. At 21, Frankie joined a group that became known as the Hoboken Four, and everyone soon recognized Sinatra's great vocal gift. Kaplan expertly conducts us on a journey through Sinatra's early years with Tommy Dorsey and his long solo career; Sinatra's first marriage to Nancy Barbato and his more famous marriage to Ava Gardner; and through Sinatra's movie career and his rebirth in the early 1950s. Although Sinatra's career often faltered in the late 1940s, his partnership with Nelson Riddle and the release of the song "Young at Heart" in 1953 began Sinatra's comeback. Kaplan's enthralling tale of an American icon serves as an introduction of "old blue eyes" to a new generation of listeners while winning the hearts of Sinatra's diehard fans. (Nov.) (c) <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>WHERE THE ADVENTURE BEGAN... </p><p>CAPTAIN'S LOG, STARDATE 41254.7: The <em>U.S.S. Enterprise™</em> is en route to Cygnus IV -- the edge of the known galaxy. There, we will rendezvous with the ship's new first officer and the other command personnel and proceed with out mission: discover the truth about Farpoint Station, a starbase facility built by the inhabitants of Cygnus IV, a starbase of unparalleled size and complexity...and infinite mystery. </p><p>And the success or failure of this, our first mission together, may well determine the course of human exploration across the galaxy for centuries to come... </p><h3>From the Publisher</h3><p>The U.S.S. <em>Enterprise</em>TM is en route to Cygnus IV, home of the technologically illiterate Bandi and their mysteriously advanced Farpoint Station. After adding to its crew complement from Deneb IV they are harassed and prosecuted by an omnipotent being named Q, who claims that humanity has not progressed beyond barbarism. Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise must defend themselves by solving the mystery of Farpoint Station in a manner satisfactory to their newest judge and nemesis. </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In 1995, a Russian aircraft carrier is destroyed by a mysterious creature that just as mysteriously disappears thereafter. Three hundred years later, Counsellor Deanna Troi awakens in her quarters from a nightmare in which she senses the voices of the crew of that Russian ship, whose life-essences were somehow absorbed by the creature that destroyed them. And the nightmare heralds a danger to the <em>Enterprise</em>TM itself, for if Picard can't discover a way to communicate with the creature, it could absorb his crew just as it did the Russians. </p><h3>From the Publisher</h3><p>In 1995, a Russian aircraft carrier is destroyed by a mysterious creature that just as mysteriously disappears thereafter. Three hundred years later, Counsellor Deanna Troi awakens in her quarters from a nightmare in which she senses the voices of the crew of that Russian ship, whose life-essences were somehow absorbed by the creature that destroyed them. And the nightmare heralds a danger to the <em>Enterprise</em>TM itself, for if Picard can't discover a way to communicate with the creature, it could absorb his crew just as it did the Russians. </p>

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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Exploring a deserted alien spaceship, Lt. Commander Data and Lt. Geordi LaForge suddenly find themselves transported light-years away -- into the middle of a deadly conflict! </p><p>While Captain Picard and the crew of the <em>U.S.S. Enterprise™</em> search feverishly for the missing crewmen, Data and LaForge discover they are in a station almost identical to the one they were exploring, high in orbit around an earth-type world. Years before, the occupants of that planet accidentally stumbled onto the ship and its advanced technology -- and since then have used its weapons to keep the nations on the planet below disarmed, and at peace. </p><p>Now their own arrival has precipitated a crisis on the station. Somehow, data and LaForge must find a way to restore trust between the planet below and the station's guardians up above -- before a final, destructive war breaks out! </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The Hamlin Massacre -- every Starfleet officer knows the tale. The tiny Federation outpost of hamlin was destroyed, its entire adult population ruthlessly slaughtered, before the first defense shield could be raised. Even worse, the colony's children disappeared without a trace, abducted by the aliens who attacked with a ferocity and speed that outmatched their Starfleet pursuers.  Now, fifty years later, the Choraii ships have appeared again. But this time the Federation is ready; this time the Choraii must pay for what they need. The precious metals can only be bought with the Hamlin children still living with their captors.  This time, the Choraii must face Captain Jean-Luc Picard -- and the crew of the starship Enterprise...</p>


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Treva is an isolated human colony on the fringes of known space on the verge of becoming a true interstellar community, a full fledged menber of the Federation. But now the <em>U.S.S. Enterprise</em>TM has received a distress signal for Treva is in the throes of a violent revolution, a revolution led by a merciless warlord who has committed countless atrocities in the name of freedom. </p><p>Data and Lt. Tasha Yar are dispatched to investigate. Once they reach Treva, they discover the truth, and any possible solution may be far more complex than a simple rebellion. Treva's president wants more then Starfleet's good words in her fight against the rebels, she wants their weapons technology. And before the battle is over, she means to get them. Over Data's and Yar's dead bodies, if necessary. </p><h3>From the Publisher</h3><p>Treva is an isolated human colony on the fringes of known space on the verge of becoming a true interstellar community, a full fledged menber of the Federation. But now the <em>U.S.S. Enterprise</em>TM has received a distress signal for Treva is in the throes of a violent revolution, a revolution led by a merciless warlord who has committed countless atrocities in the name of freedom. </p><p>Data and Lt. Tasha Yar are dispatched to investigate. Once they reach Treva, they discover the truth, and any possible solution may be far more complex than a simple rebellion. Treva's president wants more then Starfleet's good words in her fight against the rebels, she wants their weapons technology. </p>

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