So Many Books....So Little Time

Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy

2011-12-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

Every year, between one and two million Americans work as interns. They famously shuttle coffee in a thousand newsrooms, congressional offices, and Hollywood studios, but they also deliver aid in Afghanistan, build the human genome, and pick up garbage. They are increasingly of all ages, and their numbers are growing fast from 17 percent of college graduates in 1992 to 50 percent in 2008. A huge and increasing number of internships are illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and this mass exploitation saves firms more than $600 million each year. Interns enjoy no workplace protections and no standing in courts of law let alone benefits like health care. Ross Perlin has written the first expose of this world of drudgery and aspiration. In this witty, astonishing, and serious investigative work, Perlin takes the reader inside both boutique nonprofits and megacorporations such as Disney (which employs 8,000 interns at Disney World alone). He profiles fellow interns, talks to academics and professionals about what unleashed this phenomenon, and explains why the intern boom is perverting workplace practices in locations all around the world. Insightful and humorous, Intern Nation will transform the way we think about the culture of work. (Check Catalog)

The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease, Related Dementias, and Memory Loss

2011-12-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Originally published in 1981, "The 36-Hour Day "was the first book of its kind. Thirty years later, with dozens of other books on the market, " "it remains the definitive guide for people caring for someone with dementia. Now in a new and updated edition, this best-selling book features thoroughly revised chapters on the causes of dementia, managing the early stages of dementia, the prevention of dementia, and finding appropriate living arrangements for the person who has dementia when home care is no longer an option. (Check Catalog)

Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports

2011-12-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

Howard Cosell was one of the most recognizable and controversial figures in American sports history. His colorful bombast, fearless reporting, and courageous stance on civil rights soon captured the attention of listeners everywhere. No mere jock turned "pretty-boy" broadcaster, the Brooklyn-born Cosell began as a lawyer before becoming a radio commentator. "Telling it like it is," he covered nearly every major sports story for three decades, from the travails of Muhammad Ali to the tragedy at Munich. Featuring a sprawling cast of athletes such as Jackie Robinson, Sonny Liston, Don Meredith, and Joe Namath, Howard Cosell also re-creates the behind-the-scenes story of that American institution, Monday Night Football. With more than forty interviews, Mark Ribowsky presents Cosell's life as part of an American panorama, examining racism, anti-Semitism, and alcoholism, among other sensitive themes. Cosell's endless complexities are brilliantly explored in this haunting work that reveals as much about the explosive commercialization of sports as it does about a much-neglected media giant. (Check Catalog)

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks

2011-12-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, "Jeopardy! "legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. "Maphead "recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere.Jennings takes readers on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the "unreal estate" charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. He also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been. From the "Here be dragons" parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, "Maphead "is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you're an inveterate map lover yourself--or even if you're among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket--let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads. (Check Catalog)

CultureShock! France: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette ( Cultureshock France: A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette )

2011-12-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

With over three million copies in print, CultureShock! is a bestselling series of culture and etiquette guides covering countless destinations around the world. For anyone at risk of culture shock, whether a tourist or a longterm resident, CultureShock! provides a sympathetic and fun-filled crash course on the dos and donts in foreign cultures. Fully updated and sporting a fresh new look, the revised editions of these books enlighten and inform through such topics as language, food and entertaining, social customs, festivals, relationships, and business tips. CultureShock! books are packed with useful details on transportation, taxes, finances, accommodation, health, food and drink, clothes, shopping, festivals, and much, much more. (Check Catalog)

CultureShock! USA: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette ( Cultureshock USA: A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette )

2011-12-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities

2011-12-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

Who was worse, Adolf Hitler or Genghis Khan? An odd question, perhaps--but after finishing prolific historian White's compendium, it's one readers will be better prepared to entertain. The answer, of course, is that both were quite terrible. Between the two dictators, something on the order of 100,000,000 people died during their regimes--most of them noncombatants. "War kills more civilians than soldiers," writes the author. "In fact, the army is usually the safest place to be during a war." That said, White patiently works his way through 100 atrocities, examining each with a tone that's sometimes waggish, sometimes even flippant, but never less than smart. He reckons, for instance, that the dreaded Persians, whom the Greeks supposedly kept from destroying Western civilization, really weren't such bad guys, even if their military machine dispatched many a foe. Timur, known to the West as Tamerlane, was similarly a pretty good guy, at least if you were on his good side. By one of history's little ironies, those who were on his bad side were usually co-religionists: "He was a devout Muslim who almost exclusively destroyed Muslim enemies." Stalin? A rotter. Mao? Perhaps worse. Hitler? Well, to the conservatives who insist that we were wrong to ally with Stalin against Hitler, White writes that "the world went to war against Hitler because he was dangerous, not because he was evil," adding, "when you start invading your neighbors, the rest of the world gets jumpy." Observing that nothing will prompt a fight more quickly than a set of numbers, White merrily quantifies the grimmest records humans have set--and if there's any overarching lesson to take from his book, it is that our species is little more than a pack of chimps with guns and murderous intent. Fight or not, White is an equal-opportunity quantifier, showing that if Zulu chief (and sometime hero) Shaka had plenty of innocent blood on his hands, so did the French and British imperialists, to say nothing of Robert McNamara. A strange, brilliant and endlessly arguable book, one every student of history needs to have close at hand. (Check Catalog)

And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life

2011-12-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

A "New York Times" Notable Book for 2011
The first authoritative biography of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., a writer who changed the conversation of American literature.
In 2006, Charles Shields reached out to Kurt Vonnegut in a letter, asking for his endorsement for a planned biography. The first response was no ("A most respectful demurring by me for the excellent writer Charles J. Shields, who offered to be my biographer"). Unwilling to take no for an answer, propelled by a passion for his subject, and already deep into his research, Shields wrote again and this time, to his delight, the answer came back: "O.K." For the next year--a year that ended up being Vonnegut's last--Shields had access to Vonnegut and his letters.
"And So It Goes" is the culmination of five years of research and writing--the first-ever biography of the life of Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut resonates with readers of all generations from the baby boomers who grew up with him to high-school and college students who are discovering his work for the first time. Vonnegut's concise collection of personal essays, "Man Without a Country," published in 2006, spent fifteen weeks on the "New York Times" bestseller list and has sold more than 300,000 copies to date. The twenty-first century has seen interest in and scholarship about Vonnegut's works grow even stronger, and this is the first book to examine in full the life of one of the most influential iconoclasts of his time. (Check Catalog)

Knitting daily TV. / Series 100, episodes 1-13

2011-12-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Knitting Daily TV, a Public Television series, brings you the best of knitting, crochet, stitching, felting, spinning, and other fiber crafts. Hosted by Eunny Jang, Kim Werker, Liz Gipson, and Shay Pendray, Knitting Daily TV welcomes guests to share their fiber expertise, and one-of-a-kind designs using the latest yarns, techniques, and more. (Check Catalog)

Tyrants History's 100 Most Evil Despots & Dictators

2011-12-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

Tyrants: History's 100 Most Evil Despots & Dictators is a study in depravity. It delves into the darkest recesses of the minds of the most vile men and women ever to seize power. With provocative insights into their shameful deeds, committed under a threadbare cloak of spurious legality, Tyrants confronts history's monsters head on. From the gruesome tale of the real-life Dracula, Vlad Tepes, a man who ate his meals surrounded by his impaled victims, to the gory deeds of latter-day cannibal, Idi Amin, Tyrants is a compelling portrait that recounts the strange and grisly stories behind the world's most infamous autocrats. (Check Catalog)

Emily Post's Etiquette : manners for a new world

2011-12-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

Millions of Readers, Eighteen Editions, One Trusted Resource
From social networking to social graces, the name Emily Post has been the definitive source on etiquette for generations of Americans. That tradition continues with the 18th edition of "Etiquette," which welcomes a new generation of Posts--Anna Post, Lizzie Post, and Daniel Post Senning--the great-great grandchildren of Emily Post. Led by Peggy Post, author of the 16th and 17th editions of "Etiquette," this team shows how twenty-first-century manners are a combination of kindness, confidence, and awareness.
New trends, topics, and societal hot zones include: When is it okay to "unfriend" someone on Facebook? If I'm in a middle seat on an airplane, do I automatically get both armrests? A business client is sick with a cold--am I obligated to shake his hand? Is it rude for guests to tweet from a wedding? Do I have to buy a gift if I attend a destination wedding? Can I email a condolence note? Should I cover up my tattoo for a job interview?
The Posts don't stint on classic conundrums, either. "Emily Post's Etiquette" includes advice on names and titles, dress codes, invitations, table manners, workplace frustrations, and weddings.
According to the Posts, though times have changed, the principles of good manners remain constant. Above all, manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. Being considerate, respectful, and honest is more important than knowing which fork to use. Whether it's a handshake or a fist bump, it's the underlying sincerity and good intentions of the action that matter most. (Check Catalog)

The New York Times 36 Hours: 150 Weekends in the USA & Canada

2011-12-08T07:25:00.000-08:00

The ultimate travel guide to the USA and Canada
To travel in North America is to face a delicious quandary: over these vast spaces, with so many riches from glittering cities to eccentric small towns and heart-stoppingly beautiful mountains and plains, how to experience as much as possible in limited time? One answer is the quick hit, a jam-packed adventure that delivers a full sense of a single place's opportunities and personalities over a well-plotted two-night stay.
"The ""New York Times" has been offering up dream weekends with practical itineraries in its popular weekly "36 Hours" column since 2002. The many expert contributors, experienced travelers, and accomplished writers all have brought careful research, insider's knowledge, and a sense of fun to hundreds of cities and destinations, always with an eye to getting the most out of a short trip. Want to read what Sam Sifton suggests in his beloved borough of Brooklyn, or David Carr advises in Minneapolis, Mark Bittman in Death Valley, or Ariel Kaminer in Lower Manhattan? Here is where to do it, with full-color photographs to entice you and handy maps to guide you.
In this book, the "Times" and TASCHEN bring together updated and new versions of "36 Hours" columns in 150 U.S. and Canadian locations, from the great urban centers on everyone's travel list to surprising locales with undiscovered character and charm. The paths lead to fashionable clubs in Manhattan, blues joints in the Mississippi Delta, architectural treasures tucked in the Pennsylvania hills, the French America of Quebec, the seaside cliffs and Hollywood cool of California, and well beyond. For a taste of adventure and a veritable journey throughout the continent, explore 36 Hours in America.
* 150 North American destinations, from metropolitan hot spots to unexpected hideaways
* Practical recommendations for over 600 restaurants and 450 hotels
* Color-coded tabs and ribbons bookmark your favorite cities in each region
* Nearly 1,000 photos, most of them from "The New York Times" archive
* Small enough to throw in your suitcase, big enough to enjoy from your favorite reading chair
* All stories have been updated and adapted for this volume by Barbara Ireland, a veteran "Times" travel editor
* New illustrations by Times illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli of Milan, Italy
* Easy-to-reference indexes
* Detailed city-by-city maps pinpoint every stop on your itinerary (Check Catalog)

The Orchard

2011-12-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

The use of heavy pesticides over decades on Midwestern farms forms the dark, moody leitmotiv of this affecting memoir set largely around a 1970s orchard by thriller writer Weir (aka Anne Frasier). As a 21-year-old from a divorced home who grew up in Miami and Albuquerque, with a talent for art but little prospects to educate herself, Weir gravitated toward the Midwest, where she worked as a waitress in her uncles bar in Henderson County, Ill., just off the Iowa border; farmers dropped in for beer and a secret stash of porn her uncle kept in the back, their arms dusted with the herbicide they used in the fields. Smitten with young, handsome Adrian Curtis, the scion of a large apple orchard that seemed to be under a curse of bad luck, Weir soon married the serious, reticent young farmer and lived with him in a small cabin on his parents farm, although she hadn't a clue about being a farm wife; moreover, her in-laws despised her as an outsider (white trash) and nobody expected her to last long. Nonetheless, the marriage endured happily, two healthy children were born, and Weir improbably managed to start a career as a writer. But then both Adrian and his father were diagnosed with and died from cancer. Afraid of further contaminating themselves, Weir and her two children eventually moved out of the county. Weir, now living in Minneapolis, narrates a truly disquieting tale of familial dislocation and rupture. (Check Catalog)

Unstuck in Time: A Journey Through Kurt Vonnegut's Life and Novels

2011-12-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

In Unstuck in Time, Gregory Sumner guides us, with insight and passion, through a biography of fifteen of Kurt Vonnegut's best known works, his fourteen novels starting with Player Piano (1952) all the way to an epilogue on his last book, A Man Without a Country (2005), to illustrate the quintessential American writer's profound engagement with the "American Dream" in its various forms. Sumner gives us a poignant portrait of Vonnegut and his resistance to celebrating the traditional values associated with the American Dream: grandiose ambition, unbridled material success, rugged individualism, and "winners" over "losers." Instead of a celebration of these values, we read and share Vonnegut's outrage, his brokenhearted empathy for those who struggle under the ethos of survival-of-the-fittest in the frontier mentality--something he once memorably described as "an impossibly tough-minded experiment in loneliness." Heroic and tragic, Vonnegut's novels reflect the pain of his own life's experiences, relieved by small acts of kindness, friendship, and love that exemplify another way of living, another sort of human utopia, an alternative American Dream, and the reason we always return to his books. (Check Catalog)

Stories from the Mohawk Valley: The Painted Rocks, the Good Benedict Arnold and More

2011-10-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Nestled in Upstate New York along the banks of the Mohawk River are the many communities of the Mohawk Valley. These villages, towns and cities have unique histories but are inextricably tied together by the waterways that run through them. The mills, railroads and the Erie Canal sustained early growth; the Painted Rocks beautified the landscape; and tales from the local Mohawk Nation still enrich the folklore. Many remarkable individuals have called the Mohawk Valley home, including psychedelic philosopher Benjamin Paul Blood, Queen Libby, the Daiquiris and actor Kirk Douglas. For over a decade, local native Bob Cudmore has documented the interesting, important and unusual stories from the region's past, and he has compiled the best of them here.(Check Catalog)

Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence

2011-10-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

"The man who revolutionized the way we think about baseball now examines our cultural obsession with murder--delivering a unique, engrossing, brilliant history of tabloid crime in America. "
Celebrated writer and contrarian Bill James has voraciously read true crime throughout his life and has been interested in writing a book on the topic for decades. Now, with "Popular Crime, "James takes readers on an epic journey from Lizzie Borden to the Lindbergh baby, from the Black Dahlia to O. J. Simpson, explaining how crimes have been committed, investigated, prosecuted and written about, and how that has profoundly influenced our culture over the last few centuries-- even if we haven't always taken notice.
Exploring such phenomena as serial murder, the fluctuation of crime rates, the value of evidence, radicalism and crime, prison reform and the hidden ways in which crimes have shaped, or reflected, our society, James chronicles murder and misdeeds from the 1600s to the present day. James pays particular attention to crimes that were sensations during their time but have faded into obscurity, as well as still-famous cases, some that have never been solved, including the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Boston Strangler and JonBenet Ramsey. Satisfyingly sprawling and tremendously entertaining, "Popular Crime "is a professed amateur's powerful examination of the incredible impact crime stories have on our society, culture and history. (Check Catalog)

The Voyage of the Rose City: An Adventure at Sea

2011-10-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

Home on spring break from Wesleyan College in 1980, Moynihan declared to his parents the late senator Patrick Moynihan and his wife, Elizabeth, who lovingly shepherded her sons book into print that he was planning to join the Merchant Marines for the summer; at the end of the spring semester, hes standing in line at the Seafarers International Union to get his papers as an Ordinary Seaman, shipping out on a Merchant Marine ship the next day. From the moment of his induction through the challenging and revealing days and nights at sea aboard the SS Rose, he kept a journal of his daily life, his sometimes frightening dreams, and his reflections on the meaning of life. Entries from his journal are woven through the narrative that is as listless as the sea in calm weather. When his shipmates discover that his fathers connections helped him to his position on the ship (thereby taking away an opportunity from the seaman next in line for the job ticket), they give him the cold shoulder. He feels alone and trapped with no friends, and many of his shipmates go out of their way to remind him that he is not one of them. Moynihan finds solace in the beauty of the sea, in the occasional marijuana joint, and in books, and he achieves his dream of sailing part of the way around the world during the 103-day voyage. Moynihan died in 2004, the result of a reaction to acetaminophen. (Check Catalog)

Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship

2011-10-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

Journalist Ryan shares the heartwarming, surprisingly suspenseful story of his bond (and adventures) with his intrepid and loyal miniature schnauzer, Atticus Maxwell Finch. Mourning a friend who has recently died, Ryan decides to hike all 48 of the 4,000-foot peaks of the White Mountains twice in the 90 days of winter with Atticus. Despite contracting Lyme disease, Ryan and his faithful companion embark on their journey and face a host of dangerous storms, fierce winds, and temperatures registering 30 degrees below zero. Their greatest challenge, however, arises not on a mountain but in the veterinarians office where its discovered that five-year-old Atticus has cataracts and presumed thyroid cancer and requires surgery. Through their love for the mountains they climb and their devotion to each other, along with some good luck, the pair are able to continue doing what they love the most being together. Part adventure story, part memoir, but most important, a love story, this entertaining and joyous book proves that dog really is mans best friend and vice versa. (Check Catalog)

Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961 Contributor(s): Hendrickson, Paul (Author)

2011-10-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

From a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, a brilliantly conceived and illuminating reconsideration of a key period in the life of Ernest Hemingway that will forever change the way he is perceived and understood.
Focusing on the years 1934 to 1961--from Hemingway's pinnacle as the reigning monarch of American letters until his suicide--Paul Hendrickson traces the writer's exultations and despair around the one constant in his life during this time: his beloved boat, "Pilar."
We follow him from Key West to Paris, to New York, Africa, Cuba, and finally Idaho, as he wrestles with his best angels and worst demons. Whenever he could, he returned to his beloved fishing cruiser, to exult in the sea, to fight the biggest fish he could find, to drink, to entertain celebrities and friends and seduce women, to be with his children. But as he began to succumb to the diseases of fame, we see that "Pilar" was also where he cursed his critics, saw marriages and friendships dissolve, and tried, in vain, to escape his increasingly diminished capacities.
Generally thought of as a great writer and an unappealing human being, Hemingway emerges here in a far more benevolent light. Drawing on previously unpublished material, including interviews with Hemingway's sons, Hendrickson shows that for all the writer's boorishness, depression, and alcoholism, and despite his choleric anger, he was capable of remarkable generosity--to struggling writers, to lost souls, to the dying son of a friend.
We see most poignantly his relationship with his youngest son, Gigi, a doctor who lived his adult life mostly as a cross-dresser, and died squalidly and alone in a Miami women's jail. He was the son Hemingway forsook the least, yet the one who disappointed him the most, as Gigi acted out for nearly his whole life so many of the tortured, ambiguous tensions his father felt. Hendrickson's bold and beautiful book strikingly makes the case that both men were braver than we know, struggling all their lives against the complicated, powerful emotions swirling around them. As Hendrickson writes, "Amid so much ruin, still the beauty."
"Hemingway's Boat" is both stunningly original and deeply gripping, an invaluable contribution to our understanding of this great American writer, published fifty years after his death. (Check Catalog)

In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: Confessions of an Accidental Academic

2011-10-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

Professor X, who embarks on teaching literature and composition evening classes at two colleges (one private, one community) as a supplement to his full-time job to avoid foreclosure, describes his time in academia in a slow-going memoir. Taking the reader through the minutiae of teaching how he found his job, what he said to his first class, his grading principles, how he meets plagiarism along the way, he tosses in how his marriage is going and what he thinks of the mortgage crisis. He sprinkles his account with vignettes of literary analysis and reports from professional and media education specialists. The subjects Professor X approaches are the critical ones facing the growth, spread, and direction of American higher education, but his treatment of them is sadly shallow and self-absorbed. A book-length version of a June 2008 Atlantic Monthly article that was much discussed (which he comments on) becomes essentially an extended grouse about the inadequacies of the students and the institutions they attend.(Check Catalog)

Is This Normal?

2011-10-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

Is it normal to forget where you parked your car? Do we really shrink as we grow older? Does everyone experience lower libido as they age?
More than 78 million American adults are nearing the age when unexpected aches and pains, weight gains, sudden illnesses, and confusing mental changes begin to occur. As children, our questions about how our bodies will change are met with knowledge and patience--anything to make the transition as seamless as possible. But at 50 or 60, there's no one to help us figure out whether the changes we're experiencing are a cause for concern or just a normal part of aging.
"""Is This Normal?" is a guidebook that focuses on putting this generation at ease by answering their most common questions. From superficial concerns to everyday aches and pains to more serious medical problems, Dr. John Whyte, chief medical expert at Discovery Channel, cuts through the confusion and provides practical answers for the most common age-related health issues. In "Is This Normal?," he answers a broad range of questions, such as:
- How much weight gain is normal as we age--and why is it so hard to lose?
- Is it normal to need a pair of reading glasses just to decipher a restaurant menu?
- What are the signs of Alzheimer's versus normal memory loss?
With compassion, reassurance, and friendly guidance, Dr. Whyte provides cutting-edge medical advice for the effects of aging we face every day--from gray hair and wrinkles to cardiovascular health. "Is This Normal?" arms readers with the essential knowledge and preventive strategies they need stay healthy and vital for decades to come. (Check Catalog)

What Your Doctor Won't Tell You about Getting Older: An Insider's Survival Manual for Outsmarting the Health-Care System

2011-10-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

Aging well frequently involves feeling your way blindly through a complex medical world: dealing with multiple doctors, facing baffling financial decisions, and figuring out whether you or a parent needs care outside the home. "What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Getting Older" turns the lights on, illuminating potential pitfalls and showing a way around them. This book is an indispensible survival guide, gathering all the information you need to have but that too often doctors just don't give you. Writing with great experience and good humor, renowned geriatrician Mark Lachs explains how to choose your doctors, stay out of the emergency room, plan financially for retirement, outfit your house to stay safe, and, most important, how to have as many healthy years as possible. (Check Catalog)

Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon

2011-10-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

Today he is known as Dr. Q, an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and neuroscientist who leads cutting-edge research to cure brain cancer. But not too long ago, he was Freddy, a nineteen-year-old undocumented migrant worker toiling in the tomato fields of central California. In this gripping memoir, Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa tells his amazing life story--from his impoverished childhood in the tiny village of Palaco, Mexico, to his harrowing border crossing and his transformation from illegal immigrant to American citizen and gifted student at the University of California at Berkeley and at Harvard Medical School. Packed with adventure and adversity--including a few terrifying brushes with death--"Becoming Dr. Q" is a testament to persistence, hard work, the power of hope and imagination, and the pursuit of excellence. It's also a story about the importance of family, of mentors, and of giving people a chance. (Check Catalog)

The Hypnotist

2011-10-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

A "New York Times" Bestseller
In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, Detective Inspector Joona Linna has been assigned to a gruesome triple homicide. The killer is still at large, and there's only one surviving witness---the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. With one hundred knife wounds on his body, the boy lies in a state of shock, scared into silence. Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes. It's the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again---ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl. (Check Catalog)

Nightwoods

2011-10-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

National Book Award recipient Fraziers third novel (after Thirteen Moons) turns around Luce, a beautiful and lonely young woman who has retreated to a vast abandoned lodge in the mountains of Appalachia. Traumatized by negligent parents (Mother a long-gone runaway. Father, a crazy-ass, violent lawman), Luce now lives off the land in relative contentment until her sister Lily is murdered, and Lilys deeply damaged twins, Dolores and Frank, are sent to live with her. We are briefly allowed to hope for happily-ever-after when an old flame of Luces, a thoughtful and kind man by the name of Stubblefield, reenters her life, but he is not the only newcomer to town. Unbeknownst to Luce, her sisters husband and killer, Bud, on the prowl for money he believes Lilys children stole from him, has arrived and will readily perform sudden, cold violence on anyone who stands in his way. Fraziers characters lack nuance (they are either very, very good or very, very bad) and his prose is often self-consciously folksy. But his great strength, as well as presenting us with a fully realized physical backdrop, is the tenderness with which he renders the relationships at the core of this book, creating a compelling meditation on violence and the possibility that human love can heal even the deepest wound. (Check Catalog)

The Language of Flowers

2011-10-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

Diffenbaugh's affecting debut chronicles the first harrowing steps into adulthood taken by a deeply wounded soul who finds her only solace in an all-but-forgotten language. On her 18th birthday, Victoria Jones ages out of the foster care system, a random series of living arrangements around the San Francisco Bay Area the only home she's ever known. Unable to express herself with words, she relies on the Victorian language of flowers to communicate: dahlias for "dignity"; rhododendron for "beware." Released from care with almost nothing, Victoria becomes homeless, stealing food and sleeping in McKinley Square, in San Francisco, where she maintains a small garden. Her secret knowledge soon lands her a job selling flowers, where she meets Grant, a mystery man who not only speaks her language, but also holds a crucial key to her past. Though Victoria is wary of almost everyone, she opens to Grant, and he reconnects her with the only person who has ever mattered in her life. Diffenbaugh's narrator is a hardened survivor and wears her damage on her sleeve. Struggling against all and ultimately reborn, Victoria Jones is hard to love, but very easy to root for. (Check Catalog)

Great Railway Journeys of Europe ( Insight Guide )

2011-09-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

This full-color guide inspires travelers to sample a range of different railway experiences. There are also features on the history and growth of rail travel, railway hotels, feats of engineering, the Channel Tunnel, and much more. (Check Catalog)

Ethan Allen: His Life and Times

2011-09-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

For most Americans familiar with the Hero of Ticonderoga and founding father of Vermonts Revolutionary credentials, Ethan Allen symbolizes rugged American pioneering spirit and candid individualism. In this discerning account, prolific Revolution-era biographer Randall peels away the mythological facade and transports readers to a New England frontier torn by religious divisions and disputed land claims. Drawing on archives from both sides of the Atlantic, Randall convincingly portrays Allen as a character of Machiavellian morality occupying a nebulous position between self-aggrandizing land speculator and latter-day Robin Hood. An acknowledged deist (though admittedly unsure what that was), Allen proved to be a budding intellectual whose controversial Reason, the Only Oracle of Man (1784) predates Tom Paines Age of Reason. In addition to exploring Revolutionary tribunals, debates at the Catamount Tavern, and the exploits of the Green Mountain Boys, Randall discusses Allens lesser-known, harrowing experiences as a POW aboard a notorious British prison ship. Capably constructed and pleasingly told, Randalls hefty tome will definitely appeal to American Revolution enthusiasts and biography buffs. (Check Catalog)

Life

2011-09-11T12:25:00.001-07:00

The long-awaited autobiography of the guitarist, songwriter, singer, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Ladies and gentlemen: Keith Richards.
With The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the songs that roused the world, and he lived the original rock and roll life.
Now, at last, the man himself tells his story of life in the crossfire hurricane. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones's first fame and the notorious drug busts that led to his enduring image as an outlaw folk hero. Creating immortal riffs like the ones in "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women." His relationship with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the U.S., isolation and addiction. Falling in love with Patti Hansen. Estrangement from Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Marriage, family, solo albums and Xpensive Winos, and the road that goes on forever.
With his trademark disarming honesty, Keith Richard brings us the story of a life we have all longed to know more of, unfettered, fearless, and true. (Check Catalog)

The Best American Magazine Writing (2010)

2011-09-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

"The Best American Magazine Writing 2010" proves that print journalism is as vital as ever, offering information, amusement, connection, and perspective to those who love to lose themselves in a good read. This year's selections, chosen from National Magazine Awards finalists and winners, include David Grann's article from the "New Yorker" on the execution of a possibly innocent man; Sheri Fink's report from the "New York Times Magazine" on the alleged euthanization of patients during Hurricane Katrina; and Fareed Zakaria's compelling take from "Newsweek" on Iran's weakening regime.
"The Best American Magazine Writing 2010" also includes absorbing profiles, arresting interviews, personal essays, and entrancing fiction. "Esquire"'s Mike Sager recounts a promising quarterback's shocking descent into drugs; "Vanity Fair"'s Bryan Burrough shares the confessions of the year's other major Ponzi schemer, and, from "McSweeney's Quarterly," Wells Tower weaves a transporting tale of elemental desire. "GQ"'s Tom Carson offers his critique of America's current vampire craze; Mitch Albom rediscovers Detroit's indomitable spirit in "Sports Illustrated"; and Garrison Keillor sings an ode to the homegrown joys of state fairs in "National Geographic." Additional contributors include Atul Gawande, Megan McArdle, and many others commenting on a range of issues, from health care and the national debt to war movies and the controversy over circumcision. Altogether the writing collected here proves the rich pleasures waiting in the best magazines. (Check Catalog)

Life Is a Highway: A Century of Great Automotive Writing

2011-09-11T12:24:00.004-07:00

As a celebration of cars and car ownership, this collection hits all the high spots along the road. Requisite articles from "Road & Track" and "Car and Driver" are included, but so are excerpts from Stephen King's "Christine" and Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". One author writes in 1917 that the popularity of automobiles will expand the gene pool of rural citizens: instead of choosing mates within a five- to ten-mile radius, they may use the automobile to make longer journeys, thus decreasing intermarriage among relatives. P.J. O'Rourke is represented with an essay on winter driving, and Jay Leno, Rowan Atkinson, and pieces from "The Onion" go for the laughs. A profile on driver Phil Hill is touching, and an article about an electric car from 1915 makes the reader sigh with regret. (The absence of E.B. White's classic "Farewell, My Lovely!" is a disappointment.) VERDICT While lacking the big, glossy photographs that car enthusiasts love, this book will appeal to readers who enjoy a bit of history and literature tossed in with articles about their beloved Volvos and Ferraris.—Susan Belsky, Oshkosh P.L., WI Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. (Check Catalog)

Kurt Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963-1973

2011-09-11T12:24:00.003-07:00

Like Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) was a Midwestern everyman steeped in the rhythms of American speech whose anger at the way things are was matched only by his love for the best that we can be. His cunningly relaxed delivery was so original, so finely calibrated, and so profound an articulation of the Sixties' spirit that many critics overlooked the moral seriousness behind the standup-comic craftsmanship.
Capturing Vonnegut in pyrotechnic mid-career, this first volume of a projected three-volume edition gathers four of his most acclaimed novels. "Cat's Cradle "(1963) is a comedy of the end of the world (it ends with ice). "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" (1965) is the tale of a so-called fool, his money, and the lawyer who contrives to part them (it ends with fire). "Slaughterhouse-Five" (1969), Vonnegut's breakout book and one of the iconic masterpieces of twentieth-century American literature, is the tale of Billy Pilgrim, who, being unstuck in time, is doomed to continually relive both the firebombing of Dresden and his abduction by space aliens. And, in a text enhanced by the author's spirited line drawings, "Breakfast of Champions" (1973) describes the fateful meeting of "two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men," one of whom disastrously believes that everyone else is a robot. The volume is rounded out with three brilliant short stories and revealing autobiographical accounts of the bombing of Dresden. (Check Catalog)

Clark Howard's Living Large in Lean Times: 250+ Ways to Buy Smarter, Spend Smarter, and Save Money

2011-09-11T12:24:00.002-07:00

Clark Howard is a media powerhouse and penny-pincher extraordinaire who knows a thing or two about money. A lifelong entrepreneur who is now the hugely popular host of a talk radio program and television show and the bestselling author of several books, Clark consistently delivers expert financial advice to his wide and devoted fan base.
"Living Large in Lean Times" is Clark's ultimate guide to saving money, covering everything from cell phones to student loans, coupon websites to mortgages, investing to electric bills, and beyond. In his candid and friendly next-door-neighbor manner, Clark shares the small, manageable steps everyone can follow to build a path towards independence and wealth. Chock-full of more than 250 invaluable tips, the book outlines how to:
*Locate missing and unclaimed money in your name
*Lower your student loan payment
*Find legitimate work-at-home opportunities
*Get unlimited texting and e-mailing for less than $10 per month
*Know what personal info not to post to social media sites
*Determine the best mortgage rate, and much, much more
As Clark demonstrates, there are myriad ways to reduce debt, buy smarter, and build a future. Follow his lead and he'll get you there. (Check Catalog)

Embassytown

2011-09-11T12:24:00.001-07:00

Miéville (Kraken) adds to the sparse canon of linguistic SF with this deeply detailed story of the ways an alien language might affect not only thought patterns but ways of life. Avice Benner Cho returns to her backwater colony home of Embassytown so her linguist husband, Scile, can study the almost empathic, in-the-present language of the planet's natives, the Hosts. When a Host learns to lie, the resulting massive cultural earthquake in Host society is compounded by two new Ambassadors whose voices have a profound physiological effect on the Hosts. Miéville's brilliant storytelling shines most when Avice works through problems and solutions that develop from the Hosts' unique and convoluted linguistic evolution, and many of the most intriguing characters are the Hosts themselves. The result is a world masterfully wrecked and rebuilt. (Check Catalog)

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading

2011-09-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

"Pleasure on a schedule" is how Sankovitch describes the plan detailed in her memoir. A married, stay-at-home mom with four sons, she decided to create calm in her life by sitting down, sitting still, and reading an entire book each day and completing a journal with her reaction to each book. Sankovitch knew she could read 70 pages an hour; she selected books no more than one inch thick. Other self-imposed rules dictated that she not read more than one book by any author. Nor could she read any book she had previously read. The book's title refers to Sankovitch's favorite author and the old chair she sat in to read each day. Beginning the project on her 46th birthday, Sankovitch entwines her comments about her reading selections with family stories including her parents surviving World War II in Europe, her upbringing in a tight-knit family of five who loved books and reading, and finally, her sister's death from bile-duct cancer. Sankovitch continues to write about her reading on her web site ReadAllDay.org as a way to encourage adults to read each day. VERDICT Sankovitch's frequent comments about unwashed laundry and the repetitive stories of baking Christmas cookies with her step-daughter may try the reader, but these are minor when considering her accomplishment and the appeal of her memoir. (Check Catalog)

The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times

2011-09-11T12:23:00.001-07:00

Known today for their elegant hand-hewn furniture, in the early 19th century the Shakers were a radical religious sect whose members renounced sexuality, property, and family to join a Christian utopian community. And if a father joined the Shakers with his children, as James Chapman did in 1814 in upstate New York, his estranged wife had neither parental rights nor legal recourse. In his smoothly narrative and revealing debut, Woo objectively deciphers this segregated society that, despite its stance in the Chapman case, believed in gender equality and was led by its own "Mother Lucy." Eunice Chapman successfully took her case against the Shakers and her husband to the New York legislature, where she obtained a divorce and regained legal custody of her three children, forcibly taking them back in 1818. Full of information about womens lives and status at the time, the book makes the case that Eunices charisma and obsessive determination helped her overcome the usual rejection of women in the public sphere. Both Eunices struggle and the Shakers story fascinate equally while dispelling romanticized myths of utopian societies in the tumultuous postrevolutionary period. (Check Catalog)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

2011-09-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about faith, science, journalism, and grace. It is also a tale of medical wonders and medical arrogance, racism, poverty and the bond that grows, sometimes painfully, between two very different womenSkloot and Deborah Lackssharing an obsession to learn about Deborahs mother, Henrietta, and her magical, immortal cells. Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black mother of five in Baltimore when she died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors treating her at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix for research. They spawned the first viable, indeed miraculously productive, cell lineknown as HeLa. These cells have aided in medical discoveries from the polio vaccine to AIDS treatments. What Skloot so poignantly portrays is the devastating impact Henriettas death and the eventual importance of her cells had on her husband and children. Skloots portraits of Deborah, her father and brothers are so vibrant and immediate they recall Adrian Nicole LeBlancs "Random Family." Writing in plain, clear prose, Skloot avoids melodrama and makes no judgments. Letting people and events speak for themselves, Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit societys most vulnerable people. (Check Catalog)

GPS For Dummies By Joel McNamara

2011-07-27T17:49:00.000-07:00

"If you have a GPS unit or plan to buy one, "GPS For Dummies, 2nd Edition" helps you compare GPS technologies, units, and uses. You'll find out how to create and use digital maps and learn about waypoints, tracks, coordinate systems, and other key point to using GPS technology.
Get more from your GPS device by learning to use Web-hosted mapping services and even how to turn your cell phone or PDA into a GPS receiver. You'll also discover: Up-to-date information on the capabilities of popular handheld and automotive Global Positioning SystemsHow to read a map and how to get more from the free maps available onlineThe capabilities and limitations of GPS technology, and how satellites and radio systems make GPS workHow to interface your GPS receiver with your computer and what digital mapping software can offerWhy a cell phone with GPS capability isn't the same as a GPS unitWhat can affect your GPS reading and how accurate it will beHow to use Street Atlas USA, TopoFusion, Google Earth, and other toolsFun things to do with GPS, such as exploring topographical maps, aerial imagery, and the sport of geocaching" (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Complete Without Kids; An Insider's Guide To Chlid Free Living By Ellen L. Walker

2011-07-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

"Licensed clinical psychologist Walker, "childfree" at 48, writes not only of her own experiences but interviews a wide range of other childfree adults (one fifth of women born after l975 are predicted to remain childfree, she reports). Walker identifies three types: those who are without children by choice, and those who are childfree by circumstance or by happenstance, placing herself in that third category, and conceding her choice may have been different had she married a man who wanted kids (hers has offspring by a previous marriage). In spite of her philosophical outlook ("life is about choices, and we can't take all paths") Walker explores the ambivalence that she and many other childfree couples feel, but she also discovers that many enjoy their freedom and leisure time, may be healthier and more financially fit, and have happier marriages than couples with kids. Though hoping to approach her topic from a "neutral" perspective, Walker bristles at "our national obsession with motherhood," and while neither antifamily nor antichild, she envisions a growing childfree movement that is shored up by changes in societal attitudes, the environmental crisis, and increasing awareness of the true cost of parenting. Childfree readers will find validation and support in this thought-provoking text." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

What He Can Expect When She's NOT Expecting; How to Support Your Wife, Save Your Marriage and Conquer Infertility

2011-07-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

By Marc Sedaka
"
Marc Sedaka stood by while he and his wife endured endlessrounds of drug therapies, sixteen artificial inseminations, tenin-vitro fertilizations, three miscarriages, and, finally, a gestationalsurrogate ( womb for rent ) who carried their twin girls to term.He was as supportive and loving as he could be, but he really wishedhe d had a book like What He Can Expect When She s Not Expectingduring the process. Most books about dealing with infertility aregeared toward women, leaving the man to his own devices when itcomes to comfort and encouragement (never a good idea).With the help of his own infertility doctor, Sedaka providesstraightforward guy-friendly advice on situations such as: What questions you should ask at the consultations. How to help rather than annoy. What kinds of tests you and your wife should expect. How to console a wife who appears inconsolable. How to enjoy procreation sex.Sedaka s accessible, empathetic voice, combined with the fact thathe experienced everything he writes about, makes this a must-havebook for any infertile couple. (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The Big Book of Adventure Stories

2011-07-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Edited By Otto Penzler
"This doorstopper collection of vintage stories featuring larger-than-life heroes in exotic locales comes just in time for beach reading, and even if you dont finish reading all of it, you can use it for shade. Authors include classic yarn spinners like Rudyard Kipling, O. Henry, H. G. Wells, Jack London, and Saki as well as such more scenery-chewing pulpsters as H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and Sax Rohmer. The stories are sorted into 11 indicatively titled chapters, such as Sword & Sorcery, Man vs. Nature, Megalomania Rules, Future Shock (which includes the ultimate take on cookbooks, Damon Knights To Serve Man), I Spy, and the politically incorrect Yellow Peril. This nostalgic tome is chock-full of swashbuckling, vine-swinging, sword-fighting, and gun-slinging favorites of the past, including the Scarlet Pimpernel, Tarzan, Hopalong Cassidy, Conan the Barbarian, the Cisco Kid, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and even King Kong. Recommended for all popular fiction collections, not least because of its browsability." (BookList) Check Our Catalog

Bullfighting By Roddy Doyle

2011-07-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

By Roddy Doyle
"Man Booker Prize winner for "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha", Doyle here offers his second collection of short stories, which presents a panorama of contemporary Ireland by presenting ordinary men making their ordinary way through life. Eight of the 13 stories appeared previously in "The New Yorker". Roddy Doyle rah rah rah; get for all smart readers." (Library Journal) Check Our Catalog

Obstacle Illusions; Transforming Adversity Into Success

2011-07-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

By Stephen J. Hopson
"This fun and fast-moving book is a collection of the truly remarkable experiences - highs, lows, and most embarrassing - of Stephen Hopson, with each story revealing its own life lesson. Some are hilarious while others are profound enough to change your life. Whether your passion is career and business, home and family, or finding yourself spiritually, the power in Obstacle Illusions will inspire you to get up and give your cherished dreams a chance to succeed instead of giving up and wondering "what could have been."Stephen J. Hopson was born deaf but quickly learned to speak and began attending public school. At five years old, he told his parents he would become a pilot and was dismissed as being foolish, but as an adult he made aviation history by becoming the world's first deaf instrument-rated pilot. He also became an award-winning Wall Street stockbroker. He is now a transformational speaker, inspiring thousands of people worldwide to believe in themselves and achieve the impossible." (Publisher Description)

Food Guide For Marathoners

2011-07-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

By Nancy Clark
"In this book Nancy Clark shows you how to complete an entire marathon with energy to spare. This book offers you the best advice on topics such as balancing carbohydrates, carbohydrate loading, protein and fat in your diet, choosing the best snacks and losing weight while staying energetic." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Unnatural Selection :Choosing Boys Over Girls...By Mara Hvistendahl

2011-07-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

"This extraordinary debut from Mara Hvistendahl, award-winning writer and correspondent for Science magazine, reveals the fascinating yet terrifying state of sex ratio imbalance. Drawing on research and her experience living in China, where the one-child policy still holds sway, Hvistendahl nimbly shifts between quantitative data and ethnographic reports. As brides or prostitutes, women in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East are still treated as a commodity. With an estimated 160 million females missing from the Asian population, there is the added crisis of "surplus men," thus causing "rampant demographic masculinization," and carrying with it the possibility of increased social instability and violence. By analyzing sociological trends between affluence and birth, especially amidst the current boom of China and India, and providing sound historical overviews of how cultural traditions and governmental policies have evolved, Hvistendahl reveals the true extent of entrenched ideologies and moreover, the lack of intervention from oblivious officials. Her exposé on prenatal sex selection brims with bold judgments that shed light on a culturally sensitive issue. A definitive text on demographic change and its startling consequences that is both thorough and thoroughly engaging." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

Turn Right At Machu Picchu By Mark Adams

2011-07-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

By Mark Adams
"On July 24, 1911, Yale professor Hiram Bingham famously stumbled upon Machu Picchu while scaling the Andes. Later he was accused of stealing artifacts and, ultimately, of stealing credit for the find. To get to the truth of the matter, Adams, a travel magazine editor who had never actually slept in a tent, decided on an adventure of his own: he would reconstruct Bingham's trip and reassess what Machu Picchu means today. Sounds like fun with some significant insight; for travel and history fans." (Library Journal) Check Our Catalog

The End of Country by Seamus McGraw

2011-07-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

By Seamus McGraw
"In 2006, in a hardscrabble part of Pennsylvania that had long lost its allure as a farming and industrial area, geologists began investigating the Marcellus Shale. It turned out to be the richest deposit of natural gas ever discovered anywhere. When his widowed mother was approached about permitting natural-gas exploration on their farm, journalist McGraw had to weigh their need for money against the future prospects of the farmland. Chronicling the impact of the find on his mother and her neighbors, McGraws research led to this impressively detailed, highly engaging look at issues of energy policy, economics, and sociology that arose when a bucolic town was suddenly faced with the traveling circus of energy exploration. McGraw presents a rich history of the economics and geopolitics of energy as well as a fascinating cast of characters, including Victoria, the newcomer environmentalist and former teacher who signed on early and later had regrets; Ken, a cranky hermit skeptical of all parties who later joined ranks with his neighbors to stand up to the oil companies; and Pennsylvania native son Marshall, the sincere young man who signed the locals to leases but worried about the ultimate impact on the community as poor people suddenly found themselves rich. A completely engaging look at how energy policy affected a quiet, rural town." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

Turn Of Mind

2011-07-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

By Alice LaPlante
"Retired orthopedic surgeon Jennifer White is suffering from dementia. So she doesn't know whether she's responsible for the murder and mutilation of best friend Amanda (the corpse had several fingers removed). But this book is not gory, instead tracking the doctor's escalating frustration with the caretakers she no longer recognizes and with her condition itself." (Library Journal) Check Our Catalog

Sixkill ( Spenser Novels (Hardcover) )

2011-06-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

An intriguing new supporting character and the usual entertaining dialogue lift the 39th and, sadly, last Spenser novel (after Painted Ladies) from MWA Grand Master Parker (19322010). When 20-year-old Dawn Lopata expires of apparent asphyxiation after having sex with megamovie star Jumbo Nelson in his hotel room, Spenser's best friend in the Boston PD, Capt. Martin Quirk, arranges for Nelson's defense attorney to hire Spenser. Though it appears the obnoxious Nelson killed Lopata, Quirk has his doubts. Spenser's initial attempt to get Nelson to talk about what happened ends in mutual threats and insults. While the truth about the fatal night takes a backseat for too long to make the resolution satisfying, the scenes featuring Spenser's longtime love interest, Susan Silverman, are as snappy as ever. Zebulon "Z" Sixkill, the actor's American Indian bodyguard with whom the PI develops an unexpected relationship, would probably have gotten more play in future books had Parker lived to write them. (Check Catalog)

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

2011-06-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

It is truly a shame that Marable passed away just days before this epic masterwork reached stores. This is a book whose reputation preceded itself and would have required little promotion; allegations by Marable that Malcolm both participated in a homosexual encounter with an early patron and was unfaithful to his wife Betty had already raised the ire of two of Malcolm's daughters, as well as others in the black community for whom Malcolm X has been raised to near-sainthood over the 40-odd years since his assassination. But neither claim is based on much evidence, and neither takes away from the overall impact of the work. Indeed the towering achievement of this book, which took Marable almost two decades to complete, is his ability to present Malcolm X as a flawed, struggling human being, as much at odds with his government as with himself. Marable deftly follows the same narrative path as did Haley's autobiography, but filling in the gaps and fine-tuning the exaggerations of that best-selling volume. Combing through FBI and NYPD files, gathering Nation of Islam interviews, and fleshing out Malcolm's post-NOI activities abroad, Marable succeeds spectacularly in painting a broader and more complex portrait of a man constantly in search of himself and his place in America. (Check Catalog)

Townie

2011-06-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

A powerful, haunting memoir from acclaimed novelist Dubus IIIÂ (The Garden of Last Days, 2008, etc.).
The author grew up poor in Massachusetts mill towns, the oldest of four children of the celebrated short-story writer Andre Dubus (1936–1999), who abandoned the family in 1968 to pursue a young student. Beautifully written and bursting with life, the book tells the story of a boy struggling to express his "hurt and rage," first through violence aimed at school and barroom bullies and ultimately through the power of words. Weak and shy as he entered his teens, Dubus III lived with his mother and siblings in run-down houses in crime-ridden neighborhoods, where they ate canned food for dinner and considered occasional "mystery" car rides to nowhere special with their mother a big treat. While his mother was at work, young toughs hung out at his house doing drugs. At 16, he began training with weights and grew strong to fight his tormenters, and he became a vicious brawler in a leather jacket and ponytail. Meanwhile, at nearby Bradford College, his father taught, striding across campus in his neatly trimmed beard and Australian cowboy hats. The elder Dubus sent money home and took the children out on Sundays, but otherwise remained out of touch. He eventually went through many young women and three broken marriages. At Bradford, which he entered as a student, Dubus III was known only as his father's son, "such a townie." Although the author stopped expecting anything from his father, he yearned for the connection that finally came years later when he helped care for the elder Dubus after the 1986 car accident that crushed his legs. By then, Dubus III had found a new way to draw on the anger of the "semi-abandoned," turning his punches into sentences. His compassionate memoir abounds with exquisitely rendered scenes of fighting, cheating, drugging, drinking and loving.
A striking, eloquent account of growing up poor and of the making of a writer. (Check Catalog)

The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe

2011-06-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

In this remarkable look inside Mugabe's isolated yet restive Zimbabwe, journalist Godwin (When a Crocodile Eats the Sun) and his sister, Georgina, return to their childhood home "to dance on Robert Mugabe's political grave"; that is, to observe firsthand the teetering of Africa's (and the world's) oldest tyrant at the critical moment of the 2008 elections. Although the elections promised an end to Mugabe's nearly 30-year dictatorship, even as the 84-year-old president has clung to power in a campaign of widespread terror. The depiction of the heroic (if "prissy") liberation leader against white-minority rule turned brutal power-monger is at once personal, well-informed, and at times, heart-racing. Godwin and Georgina tour the economically devastated and state-terrorized cities, farms, and diamond mines at considerable personal risk, gathering candid interviews with dispossessed farmers, marginalized elites, and former insiders to cast a light on the workings of Mugabe's dictatorship and psychology, and the "fear factor" crucial to his control. Godwin's skills as a journalist and his personal connection to Zimbabwe combine to create an astonishing piece of reportage marked by spare, stirring description, heartrending action, and smart analysis. (Check Catalog)

The Uncoupling

2011-06-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

Wolitzer's new novel, after "The Ten-Year Nap"and "The Position" is another well-written and engrossing tale. And this one is definitely more of a tale than a story. In the town of Stellar Plains, NJ, a new, bohemian drama teacher arrives at the local high school. She selects as the school play "Lysistrata" Aristophanes' comedy in which the women decide to stop having sex with their men to convince them to stop fighting in a war. As the actors rehearse, a cool wind of a spell passes through the women of Stellar Plains. It touches other teachers and students alike. The chill makes the women want to abstain from sex. So what happens when an entire town of women start to push away their men for no apparent reason? Otherwise happy couples break up. The novel flits from English teacher to gym teacher to the lead actress in the play and on and on. It reads and infects like a dreamy fairy tale with beautifully expressive and strangely enticing writing. VERDICTWolitzer again tackles a complicated and provocative subject, female sexuality, with creativity and insight. Her fans and readers of women's fiction that's smart and snappy will want this. (Check Catalog)

Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN

2011-06-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

Miller and Shales present the first complete and never-before-revealed history of ESPN--the worldwide leader and the rowdiest frat house in sports TV. Announcers and analysts as well as sports stars share their stories about the network. (Check Catalog)

The Snowman

2011-06-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbo's antihero police investigator, Harry Hole, is back: in a bone-chilling thriller that will take Hole to the brink of insanity.
Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother's pink scarf.
Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he's received and the disappearance of Jonas's mother--and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised--and constantly revised--by the killer.
Fiercely suspenseful, its characters brilliantly realized, its atmosphere permeated with evil, "The Snowman" is the electrifying work of one of the best crime writers of our time. (Check Catalog)

The Troubled Man

2011-06-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

In Mankell's masterful 11th novel featuring Kurt Wallander (and likely the last in this internationally bestselling series, according to Sonny Mehta's note to the reader), the 60-year-old Swedish detective unofficially pursues a baffling case that's part mystery, part spy thriller. At the 75th birthday party for Håkan von Enke (the "troubled man" of the title), von Enke, a retired Swedish naval commander, tells Wallander about a 1980 incident involving an unidentified submarine that "invaded Swedish territorial waters." Von Enke was about to fire depth charges to bring the sub to the surface when higher-ups ordered him to abort. A few days after von Enke confides in the detective, he disappears; shortly after, his wife goes missing as well. As Wallander's quest for the truth leads him back to the era of cold war espionage, Mankell (Firewall) deftly interweaves the problems of Swedish society with the personal challenges of one man trying to understand what happened and why. 150,000 first printing; 5-city author tour. (Check Catalog)

Railway Maps of the World

2011-06-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

A gorgeously illustrated collection of the world's greatest railway maps and posters, historical and contemporary.
"Transit Maps of the World" was an extraordinary and unexpected success and is now a cult favorite. In his irresistible follow-up Mark Ovenden has produced a mesmerizing compendium of historical and contemporary railway maps and posters from every corner of the world. Hundreds of images, covering two centuries of railway advertising, surveyors' plans, travel posters, satellite photos, and station wall maps, are combined with text brimming with vivid historical details and charming anecdotes.
Part One presents the stunning visual material chronologically, from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway of 1830 to the proposed 2020 high speed networks of China. Part Two is an atlas of maps from more than one hundred countries from Algeria to Argentina to Zambia and Zimbabwe. Appendixes include a trove of factoids, track stats and information about rail operators and rail museums. "Railway Maps of the World" is a visual delight for your eyes, making it a must have for every train fanatic-armchair or ticketed-history buff, and lover of graphic design. (Check Catalog)

The Ancient Guide to Modern Life

2011-06-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

In times as turbulent as these, comedienne Natalie Haynes brings her scholarship, wit, and a deeply insightful eye to the topic of reexamining our classical past to have a richer present. She contends there are few things more encouraging than the realization that the Greeks and Romans lived in much tougher conditions than most of us do--like the thirty-year war in fifth-century BC Athens that almost wiped out two successive generations of young men. Yet the people living through these tumultuous times thrived--they created successful political models, they built empires, they created poetry and art, and they questioned the very nature of man's place in the world.
Haynes bridges the gap between these seemingly archaic pieces of our history and the way our every day lives evolve, in politics, pop culture, history, making comparisons to such popular pieces of culture as the HBO series "The Wire," as well as Obama's election to office--and she does it all with a unique and charming narrative that truly and seamlessly pulls history into the forefront of our lives. Our history doesn't belong in dusty classrooms and dog-eared textbooks, it belongs in our lives, teaching us how to live here and now, and Natalie Haynes makes realizing this important lesson a pleasure. (Check Catalog)

Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects

2011-06-08T14:34:00.000-07:00

In this darkly comical look at the sinister side of our relationship with the natural world, Stewart has tracked down over one hundred of our worst entomological foes creatures that infest, infect, and generally wreak havoc on human affairs. From the world 's most painful hornet, to the flies that transmit deadly diseases, to millipedes that stop traffic, to the bookworms that devour libraries, to the Japanese beetles munching on your roses, Wicked Bugs delves into the extraordinary powers of six- and eight-legged creatures.
With wit, style, and exacting research, Stewart has uncovered the most terrifying and titillating stories of bugs gone wild. It 's an A to Z of insect enemies, interspersed with sections that explore bugs with kinky sex lives ( She 's Just Not That Into You ), creatures lurking in the cupboard ( Fear No Weevil ), insects eating your tomatoes ( Gardener 's Dirty Dozen ), and phobias that feed our (sometimes) irrational responses to bugs ( Have No Fear ).
Intricate and strangely beautiful etchings and drawings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs capture diabolical bugs of all shapes and sizes in this mixture of history, science, murder, and intrigue that begins but doesn t end in your own backyard. (Check Catalog)

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

2011-06-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

They may look sweet and innocent, but anyone who has ever broken out in a rash after picking a hyacinth blossom or burst into violent sneezing after sniffing a chrysanthemum knows that often the most beautiful flowers can pack the nastiest punch. This comes as no secret to mystery writers, who have long taken advantage of the nefarious properties of common garden plants to create the devices by which a deadly dose of poison is administered to an unsuspecting victim. But, as Stewart so entertainingly points out, such fiction is based on pure fact. There are plants that can kill with a drop of nectar, paralyze with the brush of a petal. From bucolic woodland streams choked by invasive purple loosestrife to languid southern fields overrun by kudzu, some plants are just more trouble than they’re worth. Culling legend and citing science, Stewart’s fact-filled, A–Z compendium of nature’s worst offenders offers practical and tantalizing composite views of toxic, irritating, prickly, and all-around ill-mannered plants. (Check Catalog)

What's Gotten Into Us?: Staying Healthy in a Toxic World

2011-06-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Finding a mysterious orange-sized lump in his side after years of healthy living was a warning sign for Jenkins, a journalism professor at the University of Delaware. In the course of being diagnosed, he was grilled about his exposure to a frightening collection of toxins and realized he had no idea what he was inadvertently breathing, ingesting, and absorbing every day. "The more I began to look into it," he writes, "the clearer it became that we have spent our lives virtually marinating in toxic chemicals: in the water that comes through the tap; in the plastics we find in our baby toys or use to store our food; in our soaps and shampoos and cosmetics; in the products we use to clean our homes; in the chemicals we spray on our weeds and apply to turn our toilet paper white." Jenkins argues "that industry uses its clout at both federal and state levels to kill most efforts at increasing what we can know about these toxins.... most chemicals have never been even minimally scrutinized for their toxicity." In this serious exposé that is surprisingly entertaining and positive, Jenkins uncovers the ubiquity and danger of these chemicals and offers some solutions, both personal and political, including the fascinating and inspiring story of a Maine chemical toxins study, and the role played by Hannah Pingree, study volunteer and former Maine state house majority leader, in passing a comprehensive chemical safety bill in Maine. (Check Catalog)

One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking: 600 Recipes from the Nation's Best Home Cooks, Farmers, Fishermen, Pit-Masters, and Chefs

2011-06-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

O'Neill, former New York Times Magazine food writer and author (New York Cookbook), has compiled an informative and heartwarming refutation of the demise of American home cooking. Ten years and many miles in the making, this collection celebrates the nation's culinary diversity, both ethnically and agriculturally, and offers a uniquely intimate look at what home cooking in America is truly like today. O'Neill crossed the country, interviewing home cooks and spending time in the kitchens of recent immigrants. The results are enticing recipes that intertwine family stories, personal histories, and food. From stuffed Danish pancakes in Utah to tamales in Santa Fe and Vietnamese shrimp pancakes in Mississippi, this eclectic collection showcases the best this country has to offer. O'Neill also includes old-style American fare, including black-eyed pea and mustard greens soup, corn chowder, campfire trout, and bluegrass bass with Kentucky caviar. Sidebars abound on everything from black sea bass to Johnny Appleseed, Elvis to shrimp. As engaging in the armchair as it is in the kitchen, this book is an enduring testament to our historic traditions and the new culinary forays being made by American home cooks. (Check Catalog)

Great Railway Journeys of Europe

2011-05-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

Joint Ventures: Inside America's Almost Legal Marijuana Industry

2011-05-12T11:50:00.000-07:00

CNBC anchor Trish Regan takes you behind the scenes of America's thriving pot industry, to show readers things only drug dealers know about this secret world Forget amber waves of grain. Today, it's marijuana plants that blanket the nation from sea to shining sea in homes, in backyards, and even in our national parks. In "Joint Ventures, " Trish Regan takes you behind the scenes to explore every aspect of this flourishing underground economy. Her focus is the so-called Emerald Triangle Northern California's Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties where many small-time, part-time marijuana growers contribute to a trade that generates roughly a billion dollars a year.A fascinating investigation into the inner workings of today's exploding American marijuana industryBased on extensive research and interviews by Trish Regan, whose Emmy nominated documentary "Marijuana, Inc." attracted more viewers than any documentary in CNBC's historyRegan examines all aspects of this new culture. She reveals how small time growers get their start, make (or lose) a fortune, struggle with violence, try to keep up with constantly changing laws and regulations all while walking an increasingly fine line with the FedsRegan reports on the current and potential impact of legalized marijuana on local economies, uncovers the link between marijuana and violent Mexican cartels, questions whether decriminalization would work on a national scale, as it has in Portugal since 2001 As the decriminalization and legalization debates gather steam, "Joint Ventures" arms you with the facts on both sides of the issue. (Check Catalog)

Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education

2011-05-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

Unfair Advantage – The Power of Financial Education

In Unfair Advantage, Robert Kiyosaki, author of the number one best-selling personal finance book of all time, Rich Dad Poor Dad, tells you what schools will never teach you about money.

He challenges people around to world to stop blindly accepting that they are destined to struggle financially all their lives. True financial education is the path to creating the life you want for yourself and your family. Robert encourages you to change the one thing that is within your control: yourself.

This book is about the power of financial education and the five unfair advantages that a real financial education offers:
· The Unfair Advantage of Knowledge
· The Unfair Advantage of Taxes
· The Unfair Advantage of Debt
· The Unfair Advantage of Risk
· The Unfair Advantage of Compensation

Robert’s fresh approach to his time-tested messages underscores the steps that move education into the applied knowledge that delivers measurable results.

In true Rich Dad style, Unfair Advantage challenges readers to appreciate two points of view and experience how the power of real financial education is their unfair advantage. (Check Catalog)

The Natural Navigator: A Watchful Explorer 's Guide to a Nearly Forgotten Skill

2011-05-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

In ancient days, man found his way in the world and over the oceans through solar, lunar, and celestial observation, an art almost lost in a modern world given direction first by compass and cartography and more recently by computer-voiced GPS units. Gooley, a Fellow at the Royal Institute of Navigation, sets out to revive the ancient skills of discerning direction by reading the skyand other forms of natural observationin a book rich with fascinating tips (most tennis courts are aligned north-south to minimize the sun's glare; an outstretched fist doubles as a crude sextant) but freighted with pedantic pedagogy. Determined readers who pass through the thicket of words will be rewarded by a wealth of information. Much of it is commonsensical: pay attention to landmarks; stars in the night sky twinkle, but planets don't. Some of it is informative: moss doesn't always grow on the north side of trees, as many a Boy Scout has been taught. Moments are fascinatingly arcane: the author once determined the direction south by observing a "bird-poo compass." Though too technical for easy reading, Gooley's energetic enthusiasm for the art of natural navigation is just enough compensation. (Mar.) Copyright 2011 Reed Business Information. (Check Catalog)

Cairo: Histories of a City

2011-05-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

Cairo, or Al-Qahira, can be translated as both "the victorious" and "the oppressor," explains AlSayyad in his exceptionally absorbing and astute, cultural and architectural history of one of the world's most captivating cities. Professor of architecture, planning, and urban history at UC-Berkeley, AlSayyad structures his book smartly by place rather than strictly by period: each of the 12 chapters brings the reader to a new section of Cairo in an inviting, informed journey through its development. He introduces readers to the history and architecture of, among others, Coptic Cairo; the noted mosques of al-Azhar and a-Anwar; the Gezira Palace; and medieval Cairo. The final chapters, on the eras of Nasser and Mubarak, are especially gripping; AlSayyad warns that the city has been given to a "new elite" and the preservation of old Cairo for tourists is turning it into a Disney-like theme park. An important second thread of the book sees Cairo as inspiration for artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme and writers Naguib Mahfouz and Alaa Al Aswany. The author's writing is elegantly clear and evocative, drawing the reader into the "messy and difficult" but "vibrant and innovative" city, leaving one wanting to know what he has to say about the politically transformed city's future. 73 color illus. 9 b&w illus.;13 color maps. (Check Catalog)

The Love of My Youth

2011-05-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Thoughtful and moving, Gordon's latest captures the ardor and vulnerability of young love and the cautious circumspection of middle age. Miranda and Adam began a love affair in high school that endured through college only to end in a painful betrayal. When a mutual friend brings them together in present-day Rome, they haven't seen each other in more than three decades. Adam's ambitions to be a concert pianist never came to pass, and Miranda, once convinced that political activism could change the world, is now an epidemiologist. Both have married and raised children, but Rome still holds passionate memories for them. Though wary, they meet for daily walks, and Gordon's vividly detailed descriptions make Rome a palpable presence. Miranda and Adam tentatively reveal to each other the events of their lives, touching on aspirations, disillusionments, ideals, and desires, and these conversations set the pace of Gordon's novel. Only when Miranda is about to leave Rome are they able to fully express their emotions and achieve catharsis. Gordon's (Pearl) restraint is admirable, gradually exposing the differences in character that spelled the inevitable demise of this relationship. An accumulation of detail breathes life into her characters, and the writer's affection for this beloved, eternal city is endearing. (Check Catalog)

Doctor Zhivago

2011-05-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Boris Pasternak's widely acclaimed novel comes gloriously to life in a magnificent new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the award-winning translators of "War and Peace "and" Anna Karenina, "and to whom, " The New York Review of Books" declared, "the English-speaking world is indebted."
" "
First published in Italy in 1957 amid international controversy--the novel was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, and Pasternak declined the Nobel Prize a year later under intense pressure from Soviet authorities--"Doctor Zhivago" is the story of the life and loves of a poet-physician during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Taking his family from Moscow to what he hopes will be shelter in the Ural Mountains, Zhivago finds himself instead embroiled in the battle between the Whites and the Reds. Set against this backdrop of cruelty and strife is Zhivago's love for the tender and beautiful Lara: pursued, found, and lost again, Lara is the very embodiment of the pain and chaos of those cataclysmic times.
Stunningly rendered in the spirit of Pasternak's original--resurrecting his style, rhythms, voicings, and tone--and including an introduction, textual annotations, and a translators' note, this edition of "Doctor Zhivago" is destined to become the definitive English translation of our time. (Check Catalog)

I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections

2011-05-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

Reading these succinct, razor-sharp essays by veteran humorist (I Feel Bad About My Neck), novelist, and screenwriter-director Ephron is to be reminded that she cut her teeth as a New York Post writer in the 1960s, as she recounts in the most substantial selection here, "Journalism: A Love Story." Forthright, frequently wickedly backhanded, these essays cover the gamut of later-life observations (she is 69), from the dourly hilarious title essay about losing her memory, which asserts that her ubiquitous senior moment has now become the requisite Google moment, to several flimsy lists, such as "Twenty-five Things People Have a Shocking Capacity to Be Surprised by Over and Over Again," e.g., "Movies have no political effect whatsoever." Shorts such as the several "I Just Want to Say" pieces feature Ephron's trademark prickly contrariness and are stylistically digestible for the tabloids. Other essays delve into memories of fascinating people she knew, such as the Lillian Hellman of Pentimento, whom she adored until the older woman's egomania rubbed her the wrong way. Most winning, however, are her priceless reflections on her early life, such as growing up in Beverly Hills with her movie-people parents, and how being divorced shaped the bulk of her life, in "The D Word." There's an elegiac quality to many of these pieces, handled with wit and tenderness. (Check Catalog)

America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation

2011-05-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

This sweeping, provocative history of America from the 1830s through Reconstruction has two grand themes. One is the importance of evangelical Protestantism, particularly in the North and within the Republican Party, in changing slavery from a political problem to an intractable moral issue that could only be settled by bloodshed. The second is the Civil War's transformation of America into a modern industrial nation with a powerful government and a commercial, scientific outlook, even as the postwar South stagnated in racism and backward-looking religiosity. UNC-Charlotte historian Goldfield (Still Fighting the Civil War) courts controversy by shifting more responsibility for the conflict to an activist North and away from intransigent slaveholders, whom he likens to Indians, Mexicans, and other targets viewed by white evangelical Northerners as "polluting" the spreading western frontier. Still, he presents a superb, stylishly written historical synthesis that insightfully foregrounds ideology, faith, and public mood The book is, the author writes, "neither pro-southern nor pro-northern," but rather "antiwar." Goldfield's narrative of the war proper is especially good, evoking the horror of the fighting and its impact on soldiers and civilians. The result is an ambitious, engrossing interpretation with new things to say about a much-studied conflagration. Color and b&w illus. (Check Catalog)

Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?: The Net's Impact on Our Minds and Future

2011-05-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

How is the internet changing the way you think? That is one of the dominant questions of our time, one which affects almost every aspect of our life and future. And it's exactly what John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to more than 150 of the world's most influential minds. Brilliant, farsighted, and fascinating, "Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?" is an essential guide to the Net-based world. (Check Catalog)

A Lifetime with Shakespeare: Notes from an American Director of All 38 Plays

2011-05-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

Written by the only American to direct and fight--choreograph all of Shakespeare's plays, this text represents an expert and practical guide to the Bard's oeuvre. From the Henry VI plays through The Tempest, each play is explored in its full theatrical complexity, with particular attention paid to directorial and acting challenges, character quirks and development, and the particularities of Shakespearean language. Directing successes are recounted, but the failures are not shied away from, making this work indispensable for anyone interested in producing plays by Shakespeare. (Check Catalog)

Good Poems, American Places

2011-05-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

Another bestselling anthology from Garison Keillor-beautiful verses rooted in the American landscape.
Garrison Keillor, the editor of "Good Poems" and "Good Poems for Hard Times," host of "The Writer's Almanac," and all-around arbiter of fine American poetry, introduces another inspiring collection by a range of poets, some beloved favorites and others brash unknowns, organized by regions of America.
From Nantucket to Knoxville, Manhattan to Minnesota, the heart can be exalted anywhere. Think of these poems as postcards-from Billy Collins, Nikki Giovanni, William Carlos Williams, Naomi Shihab Nye, Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, and many more.
Like the previous "Good Poems" collections, this volume celebrates the high-spirited, the witty and antic and jazzy voice that in many ways defines the land of the free. Choosing poems full of humor, sharp insight, and warmth, Garrison Keillor once again makes good poetry accessible and immensely enjoyable. (Check Catalog)

Strength Without Compromise: Womanly Influence and Political Identity in Turn-of-the-Twentieth Century Rural Upstate New York

2011-04-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

By Teri Gay
"Inspired by the true story of Lucy Allen, Chloe Sisson, and the Political Equality Club of small-town Easton, New York, this book focuses on the quest for female political equality as carried out by suffragists in the rural areas of upstate New York at the turn of the 20th century. Embracing their womanliess for their noble cause, these ladies organized to educate and inspire each other, their communities, and New York State about the wisdom of including women in the voting electorate." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Postwar: A History Of Europe Since 1945

2011-04-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

By Tony Judt
"In this magnificent, unprecedented history of postwar Europe, esteemed historian Judt covers 34 countries across 60 years in a single integrated narrative, using a great deal of material from newly available sources." (Publisher) Check Our Catalog

The Paris Wife

2011-04-10T13:40:00.004-07:00

By Paula McLain
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, "The Paris Wife" captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. Check Our Catalog

Afghanistan: A Companion and Guide(2ND ed.)

2011-04-10T13:40:00.003-07:00

By Bijan Amrani
"Thanks to 20 years of civil war and its association with terrorism, Afghanistan is often unjustly thought of in the West as a barbarous backwater. This guide dispels that image in a comprehensive introduction to 3,500 years of Afghan culture. Each chapter looks at the major cities and regions, describing their distinctive cultural and ethnic traditions, and their associations with poets, artists, musicians, travelers, and holy men, as well as warriors and conquerors. Wonderfully illustrated, this book also features engravings, paintings, and images of priceless museum artifacts. A number of specialist essays by leading experts present topics such as archeology, architecture, carpets, flora and fauna, miniature painting, and music." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Ireland Unhinged: Encounters with a Wildly Changing Country

2011-04-10T13:40:00.002-07:00

By David Monagan
"American expat Monagan ("Jaywalking with the Irish" rode the Celtic Tiger, the decade of unprecedented Irish prosperity beginning in the mid-1990s, with serious trepidation that traditional Irish culture would be snared in its teeth. Simultaneously modern and ancient, enchanting and coarse, deeply melancholy and wildly exuberant, Monagan's Ireland is a fascinating paradox painted in (sometimes excessively) lyrical prose. Yet it is his bittersweet search for permanence in a changing world rather than his description of a country that gives his book relevance beyond the average travelog. Because Ireland's boom and subsequent bust were more dramatic than those of nearly any other country, it is a perfect microcosm for examining the loss and confusion reverberating around the post-recession globe. VERDICTMonagan's quest for continuity in a land struggling for its identity is a journey all readers, from armchair adventurers to economists, can share. Although the author occasionally gets carried away with melodramatic language and self-indulgent tangents, he presents a timely and humorous perspective on Ireland and the modern world." (Library Journal) Check Our Catalog

Why Unions Matter

2011-04-10T13:40:00.001-07:00

By Michael D. Yates
"Yates (associate editor of Monthly Review) has produced a readable mini-text on a timely topic--labor unions. He updates his first edition (CH, Jul'99, 36-6377) with discussions of the impact on unions of the electronic revolution, the global economy, the Bush administration, and economic troubles. He contends unions still matter because they provide higher total rewards, a democratic voice of workers, and better understanding of legal and political rights. Classic labor relations chapters cover why unions should exist; how unions form; union structures and democracy; collective bargaining strategies; politics; immigration; and discrimination concerning race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Special attention is paid to the development of the Change to Win federation and its differences with the AFL-CIO. The book also includes coverage of the United Farm Workers Union, labor history, the international labor movement, and Barack Obama's support of the Employee Free Choice Act. An appendix contains useful Internet resources about labor unions. James Bennett and Bruce Kaufman's What Do Unions Do?: A Twenty-Year Perspective (CH, Jun'07, 44-5749) provides a more academic and empirical perspective of the role of unions." (Choice) Check Our Catalog

Citizen's Handbook to Influencing Elected Officials: Citizen Advocacy in State Legislatures and Congress: A Guide for Citizen Lobbyists and Grassroots

2011-04-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

By Bradford Fitch
"One part research studies, one part interviews and focus groups, and one part experience, this text provides practical guidance on preparing for and meeting with elected officials and staff, writing effective letters and e-mails to elected officials, and strategies for influencing legislators face to face." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement

2011-04-10T13:39:00.003-07:00

By David Brooks
" From the influential and hugely popular "New York Times" columnist and bestselling author of "Bobos in Paradise" comes a landmark exploration of how human beings and communities succeed." (Publisher) Check Our Catalog

How We Age: A Doctor's Journey Into the Heart of Growing Old

2011-04-10T13:39:00.002-07:00

By Marc Agronin
" A young doctor's reflections on his experiences as a nursing-home psychiatrist--with remarkable stories of vitality and growth that transformed his view of aging.." (Publisher) Check Our Catalog

The City Game: From the Garden to the Playgrounds

2011-04-10T13:39:00.001-07:00

By Pete Axthelm
"Pete Axthelm follows the 1969-70 season of the New York Knicks and provides a parallel focus on basketball as it was then played in the black neighborhoods of New York City. Throughout, he writes clearly, intelligently, and passionately about the game, bringing alive the players' efforts, accomplishments, and failures. " (Publisher) Check Our Catalog

The Memory Chalet

2011-04-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

By Tony Judt
"One of our leading historians, Judt has written extensively about the 20th century. Now he delivers a memoir like no other--each essay charts some experience or remembrance of the past through the sieve of Judt's prodigious mind." (Publisher) Check Our Catalog

The Confessions Of Saint Augustine

2011-04-10T13:38:00.001-07:00

Translated By Garry Wills
" For the first time, Wills's translation of the entire "Confessions" work by Saint Augustine has been compiled into one edition. Removed by time and place but not spiritual relevance, this text continues to influence contemporary religion, language and thought." (Publisher) Check Our Catalog

The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White

2011-04-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

By Doug Merlino
"An instant classic of narrative nonfiction, "The Hustle" paints the lives of teammates from a basketball team created in 1986 against a background of sweeping social and economic change, capturing the ways race, money, and opportunity shape our lives." (Publisher) Check Our Catalog

1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die, Updated Ed

2011-04-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

By Patricia Schultz
"The 1,000 Places to See books are pleasurable, inspiring, wondrous, a best-selling phenomenon and, yes, practical: Announcing the updated edition of "1,000 Places to See in the USA & Canada Before You Die," "The New York Times" No. 1 bestseller. Because USA & Canada is not only a wish book but also a guide, this information, including phone numbers, Web addresses, and more, is now completely revised and updated.
Just in time for travel season, for long summer weekends, for whenever the mood strikes to pack up the car and set out to discover a new piece of America (and Canada!), "1,000 Places to See in the USA & Canada" is a map to all the unique and wonderful places just around the corner: Sail the Maine Windjammers out of Camden. Explore the gold-mining trails in Alaska 's Denali wilderness. Collect exotic shells on the beaches of Captiva. Play tennis the way it was meant to be on grass at the lavish Victorian Newport Casino. Take a barbecue tour of Kansas City Arthur Bryant 's to Gates to Snead s. There 's the ice hotel in Quebec, the stalacpipe organ in Virginia, out-of-the-way Civil War battlefields, dude ranches and cowboy poetry readings, and what to do in Louisville after the Derby 's over.
More than 150 places are highlighted as family-friendly, and indices in the back organize the book by subject wilderness, dining, beaches, world-class museums, sports, festivals, and more." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

2011-03-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

By Richard Hofstadter
"A book which throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The Paranoid Style in American Politics: And Other Essays

2011-03-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

By Richard Hofstadter
"In "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence -- and derail -- the larger agendas of a political party. He investigates the politics of the irrational, shedding light on how the behavior of individuals can seem out of proportion with actual political issues, and how such behavior impacts larger groups. With such other classic essays as "Free Silver and the Mind of 'Coin' Harvey" and "What Happened to the Antitrust Movement?, " "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" remains both a seminal text of political history and a vital analysis of the ways in which political groups function in the United States." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why We Pay What We Do

2011-03-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

By Eduardo Porter
"Business journalist and New York Times editorial writer Porter delivers a popular explication of how supply and demand affect prices. In vignettes about all manner of transactions, from coffee sales to marriage dowries to home values, he disputes notions that prices settle out as rational correlations of supply and demand. All sorts of emotional factors are involved, which enliven Porters stories as he explores divergent behaviors of upper-, middle-, and lower-income consumers in what they will pay for something. If a purchase expresses the pursuit of happiness, Porter chases the idea that money yields joy, concluding it can, though temporarily. What about the price of power? Porter adduces the cost of votes in So Tom' v. the United States, as he does the worth of labor, love, and life itself, practically breaking them down into a schedule of prices. As a book in which nothing, not even religion, seems safe from the crass intrusion of pricing, Porters work ought to ring up the audience for Steven Levitts Freakonomics." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

Burial for a King: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Funeral and the Week That Transformed Atlanta and Rocked the Nation

2011-03-09T15:48:00.000-08:00

By Rebecca Burns
"After King was shot in Memphis on April 4, 1968, riots broke out in cities across the country, and more soldiers and National Guard troops had to be deployed on U.S. soil than at any time since the Civil War. Yet Atlanta, preparing to host King's funeral and thousands of visitors, remained relatively calm--a tribute to the unlikely alliance between the city's progressive mayor, police chief, student activists, business leaders, ministers, and King's inner circle. Drawing on White House transcripts, FBI records, oral histories, and her own interviews, Burns (Rage in the Gate City) recreates that week in dramatic scenes that shift from Coretta Scott King's bedroom (where much of the funeral was planned) to college campuses, churches, and the White House. Though Burns attempts to put the assassination in a broader context by tracing Atlanta's evolving record on civil rights and President Johnson's passage of the Equal Housing Law the day after King's funeral, this engrossing--but narrow--book provides an affecting blow-by-blow of events during a week of national mourning." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives

2011-03-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

By Thomas French

"Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist French goes behind the scenes at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo in this absorbing and balanced account that reveals extinction, conservation, and captivity issues in all their moral complexities and featuring a very memorable cast. The author introduces readers to Herman, the lovable species-confused chimpanzee who has reigned at Lowry Park for three decades; Enshalla, whose family history was like a Greek tragedy, and her mate Eric, Sumatran tigers whose attempts at mating captivate the zoo staff; Ladybug, the black bear who likes oranges and peanut butter; Lex Salisbury, the ambitious CEO who holds the fate of the zoo animals and humans in his hands; and the trainers who witness the circle of life and death among their charges. We are forced to reconsider our notions of freedom and captivity when presented with such scenarios as 11 partially sedated wild South African elephants being moved to U.S. zoos to escape slaughter at home. A thoughtful and moving but unsentimental portrait of life in captivity and a broad introduction to some of its most salient and intractable dilemmas." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

The 100 Best African American Poems [With CD (Audio)]

2011-03-09T15:28:00.000-08:00

Edited By Nikki Giovanni
"Go-to poet and reigning literary activist Giovanni admits in her introduction that she cheated: she just couldnt keep to that nice round number in the title. And who can blame her. As Giovanni enthuses in her peppy introduction, Poems are like . . . two scoops of chocolate ice cream . . . something everyone can enjoy. Her vivid and affecting selections add up to a complexly pleasurable anthology. The delight is in the musical, inventive, and vivid language; the astute insights and humor, passion and tenderness. But these are poems born of suffering and injustice, even as they reach for truth and wisdom. Margaret Walker Alexanders For My People sets the tone in its embrace of African American history, and well-known poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Robert Hayden, and Kevin Young follow, along with many new voices, all treated equally, since no poet biographies are included. Langston Hughes asks, What happens to a dream deferred? Georgia Douglas Johnson answers, Dream your dream anew. Poets and other performers read 36 poems on the accompanying CD." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

Why Photographs Work; 52 Great Images; Who Made Them, What Makes Them Special and Why

2011-03-09T15:18:00.000-08:00

By George Barr
"Every photographer, from weekend enthusiast to professional, can learn by studying the "greats." In Why Photographs Work, author/photographer George Barr analyzes 52 striking images by some of the world's top photographers. Accompanying Barr's analysis of each image is an explanation by the photographer describing the circumstances of making the image, including not only the how, but also the why. Also included is each photographer's biography, a reference to his or her websites and publications, and brief technical descriptions of the equipment used in making each image.
With guidance from Barr, we learn to decipher that certain intangible "something" that makes an image go beyond the ordinary. As we gain an understanding of and appreciation for the elements that make an image truly great, we are bound to improve our own images as well. " (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

J.D. Salinger: A Life

2011-03-09T15:17:00.002-08:00

by Kenneth Slawenski
"After nearly a decades research and Slawenskis obvious empathy with his reclusive subjects search for emotional and philosophical equilibrium, this exemplary biography will be released on the first anniversary of J.D. Salingers death. Its a highly informative effort to assess the arc of Salingers career, the themes of his fiction, and his influence on 20th-century American literature. Born in 1919, indulged by his mother while growing up on Park Avenue, Salinger was a bored and indifferent student. He eventually found a mentor in legendary Columbia professor Whit Burnett, who encouraged him to work on the pieces that became The Catcher in the Rye even while Salinger was serving in WWII Europe. Slawenski emphasizes that Salingers wartime experience, from D-Day to the liberation of Dachau, was the traumatic turning point in his life, influencing the sense of futility that permeates his early work. Salingers salvation, Slawenski demonstrates, came through his acceptance of Vedatic Buddhism, and he argues persuasively that Salinger came to consider writing an aspect of meditation, a task that demanded solitude and perfect control over the presentation of his fiction. The celebrity surrounding the publication of Catcher in the Rye in 1951 activated the split between his striving for asceticism and the demands of the outside world. Slawenski describes Salingers three marriages, records his contentious relationships with his publishers, his special relationship with the New Yorker, and Slawenskis assiduous research allows him to identify and assess many obscure and unpublished stories. In total, an invaluable work that sheds fascinating light on the willfully elusive author." (Publisher Weekly) Check Our Catalog

The Parents’ Guide To Psychological First Aid

2011-03-09T15:17:00.001-08:00

Edited By Gerald P. Koocher
"As any parent can attest, every news cycle brings warnings of the newest threats facing children. Bullying remains a constant problem, with a new front: social networks. Substance abuse trickles down to elementary schools. Students choke each other to near-unconsciousness for the high. All parents struggle with helping children grow up the right way, certain that the decisions they make on a day-to-day basis will forever affect the outcome of a childs life. While there will never be a manual for parents, this guidebook to psychological first aid deserves a place on every parents bookshelf. The range of issues discussed is remarkably comprehensive and usefully organized by categories: health, family, social/peer, school, anxiety, sexuality, adolescent, and unique stressors (which includes a chapter on how to determine whether professional counseling is indicated). All chapters provide clear, constructive information and directions that can help both parents and therapists in family counseling settings. While every single decision wont make or break children, this excellent resource will help many adults navigate parentings difficult decisions."(Booklist) Check Our Catalog

The New Yorker Stories By Ann Beattie

2011-03-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

By Ann Beattie
"In this book of 48 of her short stories published in "The New Yorker"magazine, Beattie captures four decades of relationship difficulties. Beginning in the 1970s, the stories feature characters who have lost their way: pot-smoking, jobless drifters; spacey women in dying marriages; children caught in their parents' breakups. Beattie's staccato prose and abrupt endings leave one to wonder, not unpleasantly, what the future holds for these characters. In her later works, Beattie's voice warms and expands as her stories become richer and fuller, with an added sense of humor. Standout titles in this time period include "The Rabbit Hole as Likely Explanation," which relates a middle-aged woman's struggle to deal with her very funny aging mother; and "That Last Odd Day in L.A.," where a widower's sharp wit ostracizes him from everyone in Hollywood but his rich niece and nephew." (Library Journal) Check Our Catalog

SleepManual; Training Your Mind And Body

2011-03-09T15:16:00.002-08:00

By Wilfred R. Pigeon

"If you have difficulty sleeping, you are not alone--fewer than half of Americans say they get a good night's sleep. But medication is not the only answer. " Sleep Manual " is a comprehensive and reassuring guide to improving your sleep. Drawing on the latest research and incorporating advice from leading experts, it helps you pinpoint the causes of your sleep problems and offers practical, commonsense solutions to encourage relaxing and restorative sleep every night.
Interactive exercises, sleep logs, and checklists combine to create a self-contained sleep workshop.
Step-by-step advice on creating a personalized sleep program that works for you.
Accompanying CD with guided relaxation, soothing music, and problem-solving tip. (Publisher Description)

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20 Under 40; Stories From The New Yorker

2011-03-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

Edited By Deborah Treisman
"In June 2010, the editors of "The New Yorker" announced their selection of "20 Under 40"--the young fiction writers who are, or will be, central to their generation. Those stories are now collected for the first time in one volume." Check Our Catalog