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[ "The biography which traces the events and circumstances that have shaped Depp's career." ]

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[ "Books", "Biographies & Memoirs", "Leaders & Notable People" ]

[ "Drew pursues Christ in the history, wisdom, law, prophecy, and poetry of the Old Testament. This work makes a persuasive case for the continuing relevance of the Old Testament to modern Christians’ faith and lives." ]

[ "Review", "\". . . a well-written and persuasive case for the continuing relevance of the Old Testament. . . . Drew pursues Christ in the history, wisdom, law, prophecy, and poetry of the Old Testament, and in the process we are invited to a lifelong meditation on what constitutes more than three-quarters of God’s Word.", "Ancient Love Song", "deserves wide circulation because it can enrich every believer’s relationship to the Bible.\" --", "Tremper Longman III", "\". . . an extremely helpful aid to the pastor who wants to avoid the moralizing of much older preaching and the psychologizing of much modern preaching. This shows the way to preach the gospel of Christ from every part of the Bible. Drew’s book is warm, builds on solid biblical theology, and is vastly more practical than other books on ‘preaching Christ.’ I love it.\" --", "Timothy Keller", "\"", "The Ancient Love Song", "is splendid! This is the way biblical theology should be done, always pointing us to Christ. I found Drew’s work to be passionate, perceptive, and pointed.\" --", "Bruce K. Waltke", "About the Author", "Charles D. Drew", "(BA, Harvard University; MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia) serves as the Senior Pastor at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, Manhattan." ]

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[ "Books", "Christian Books & Bibles", "Bible Study & Reference" ]

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[ "Clock Wise Cuisine" ]

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[ "Books", "Cookbooks, Food & Wine" ]

[ "On May 21, 2013, the new novel from Khaled Hosseini", "Khaled Hosseini, the #1", "New York Times-", "bestselling author of", "The Kite Runner", "and", "A Thousand Splendid Suns", ", has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Genre Fiction" ]

[ "Cotton Puffs, Q-tips®, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha showcases Ed Ruscha's singular vision and his wide range of highly personal mediums and techniques -- from pastels and gunpowder to blood, coffee, and tobacco stains. Ed Ruscha's work includes paintings, photographs, prints, books, and films, but his unique works on paper are perhaps his richest vein. Through his interpretations of cultural icons and vernacular subjects such as the Hollywood sign, trademarks, and gas stations, as well as his renderings of words and phrases in countless stylistic variations, Ruscha proposes a modern landscape based on keen observation and wry humor." ]

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[ "Books", "Arts & Photography", "Photography & Video" ]

[ "This widely used and respected book presents an active, multi-sensory approach to group leading, focusing heavily on group leadership skills. While written with the counselor in mind, this book also provides an outstanding discussion of group dynamics for professionals in group leadership positions. The authors discuss the many facets of group counseling and provide examples that show how each skill can be applied in a wide range of group settings to produce efficient working groups." ]

[ "Review", "\"Clear presentation of group counseling concepts. Clear explanation of group techniques including how to set up groups.\"\"I will definitely use GROUP COUNSELING the next time I teach the course. Strengths include the basic hands-on approach, the clear examples, and the clarity of writing.\"", "About the Author", "Ed Jacobs is the coordinator of the master's program in the Counseling, Counseling Psychology, and Rehabilitation Counseling Department at West Virginia University. He is also the founder and director of Impact Therapy Associates. He teaches courses in techniques, theories, group, and addictions and conducts workshops throughout the United States and Canada on group counseling and Impact Therapy. Ed has written five other counseling books: HOW TO SELECT AND APPLY CHANGE STRATEGIES IN GROUPS, IMPACT THERAPY: THE COURAGE TO COUNSEL, LEADING GROUPS IN CORRECTIONS, IMPACT THERAPY, and CREATIVE COUNSELING TECHNIQUES: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. In the past few years, Ed has traveled worldwide, introducing counselors to his group counseling and impact therapy ideas.Bob Masson is Professor Emeritus at West Virginia University and remains active in the counseling field by teaching courses at Florida Gulf Coast University in Ft. Myers, Florida. Bob was a professor for more than 30 years at West Virginia University in the Department of Counseling, Counseling Psychology, and Rehabilitation Counseling. He also served on the State of West Virginia Board of Examiners in Counseling and remains a Licensed Profession Counselor. He has taught courses in counseling techniques, theories, group counseling, and rehabilitation counseling.Riley Harvill is the president of The HarBeck Company, a leadership training and consulting firm located in Dallas, Texas. Over the past several years, his work has focused on individual and team coaching with U.S. and Canadian police and fire departments. Before co-founding The HarBeck Company, Riley was an associate professor at University of North Texas in the Counselor Education Department, where he taught courses in individual and group counseling." ]

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[ "Books", "New, Used & Rental Textbooks", "Social Sciences" ]

[ "This book is the story of the men who were elected to the first American governing body for the state of California, and examines the role each played in developing legal, military,and financial systems. It is a co-publication of the California History Center Foundation and the State of California in commemoration of the 150th annivesary of the first session of the California Legislature. With a forward by Kevin Starr, California State Librarian" ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Humor" ]

[ "Put on your apron and goggles! The stories in the Bible are not always nice and happy. Some are messy and dangerous. Some are about foolish, strange, or awful things. This collection of short, funny poems is sure to capture the attention of any reader. Each poem shows that God works in the ugly, icky, gross world we live in and helps us out of our messes. This resource intersperses poems with paraphrases of biblical wisdom. Fun illustrations and shockingly gross stories are just right for inquisitive children. The Bible is terrifically funny at times, and we should not be afraid to explore and enjoy it." ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Religions" ]

[ "Windows/Macintosh" ]

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[ "Kawaii Aesthetic Frog College Ruled Lined Composition NotebookPerfect for school, college, university or using it as a diary or journal.Original cover illustration of a frog playing banjo, mushroom and butterfly.Unique gift idea for kawaii style and cottagecore aesthetic fans. Perfect for teen girls and boys, young adults or any frog lover out there.", "110 college ruled pages", "110 college ruled pages", "white paper", "white paper", "soft matt cover", "soft matt cover", "7.5x9.25 dimensions", "7.5x9.25 dimensions" ]

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[ "This is the only comprehensive text that discusses the aesthetics of sound design for the stage. It is a practical and comprehensive guide to the field of sound design, covering the designer's relationships within the theatre community and detailing the process of sound design. The focus is on design approaches and techniques, rather than equipment operation. For every phase of theatrical production, Sound and Music for the Theatre traces the entire process of sound design from initial concept through finished plan. The book discusses the early evolution of a sound design that supports the play. It discusses how to research sources for music and effects, devise a sound plot, and negotiate in a contract. It explains how to plan the gathering and construction of the sound design elements; how the designer operates in a rehearsal; and how to set up and train an operator to run sound equipment for a theatrical production. The instructive information is interspersed with \"war stories\" describing real-life problems and solutions that sound designers or composers will be able to apply in similar situations that they may encounter. Also included are two highly informative roundtable discussions with well-respected directors, playwrights, composers and sound designers focusing on sound in the theatre. Comprehensive text that addresses sound design for theatreUpdated to include digital technology in theatrical productionsIncludes new \"roundtable discussion\" with leading sound designers and composers" ]

[ "Review", "An excellent look inside the sound designer's process. finally, a book unencumbered by complex diagrams of equipment & focusing on design. I thank you, and my students thank you.\"An excellent book! A great breakdown of the art of sound design and how it fits in today's theatre.\"-William Liotta, Tulane University-i like the specific comments on cues-good, practical information-\"Running the Show\" seems confusing-wish it spoke to speaker placement in auditoriums-nice material in the \"Approaches and Techniques\" chaptergreat design booknice to have a resource book for sound that does not include equipment specs\"I have used the first edition of this book for years and I am very happy with the new edition. The inclusion of CD/MD and computer technology is great fro students and old hands alike.\"-Michael Oncle, University of Memphis\"great book...i appreciate its focus on design and process not technology\"\"Every phase of the production process is covered in detail, along with a host of anecdotal examples from the personal experiences of the authors. In all, it's ideal reading for those involved in the creative aspect of theatre sound rather than the practical operation.\"Lighting & Sound", "From the Publisher", "For every phase of theatrical production, Sound and Music for the Theatre traces the entire process of sound design from initial concept through finished plan. The book discusses the early evolution of a sound design that supports the play. It discusses how to research sources for music and effects, devise a sound plot, and negotiate in a contract. It explains how to plan the gathering and construction of the sound design elements; how the designer operates in a rehearsal; and how to set up and train an operator to run sound equipment for a theatrical production. The instructive information is interspersed with \"war stories\" describing real-life problems and solutions that sound designers or composers will be able to apply in similar situations that they may encounter. Also included are two highly informative roundtable discussions with well respected directors, playwrights, composers and sound designers focusing on sound in the theatre.", "About the Author", "Deena Kaye is a private audition and vocal coach and an independent sound designer", "James LeBrecht is President of Berkeley Sound Artists", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "New, Used & Rental Textbooks", "Humanities" ]

[ "A magisterial work of narrative history, hailed in Britain as “the best one-volume account of the British Empire” and “an outstanding book”", "(The Times Literary Supplement)", ".After the American Revolution, the British Empire appeared to be doomed. But over the next 150 years it grew to become the greatest and most diverse empire the world has ever seen—ranging from Canada to Australia to China, India, and Egypt—seven times larger than the Roman Empire at its apogee. Britannia ruled the waves and a quarter of the earth.Yet it was also a fundamentally weak empire, as Piers Brendon shows in this vivid and sweeping chronicle. Run from a tiny island base, the British Empire operated on a shoestring with the help of local elites. It enshrined a belief in freedom that would fatally undermine its authority. Spread too thin, and facing wars, economic crises, and domestic discord, the empire would vanish almost as quickly as it appeared.Within a generation, the mighty structure collapsed, sometimes amid bloodshed. This rapid demise left unfinished business in Rhodesia, the Falklands, and Hong Kong. It left an array of dependencies and a ghost of an empire overshadowed by a rising America. Above all, it left a contested legacy: at best, a sporting spirit, a legal code, and a near-universal language; at worst, failed states and internecine strife.Brendon tells this story with brio and brilliance; covering a vast canvas, he fills it with vivid firsthand accounts of life in the colonies and intimate portraits of the sometimes eccentric British officials who administered them. It is all here—from brief lives to telling anecdotes to comic episodes to symbolic moments. Panoramic in scope and riveting in detail, this is narrative history at its finest." ]

[ "From", "Booklist", "*Starred Review* The title, taken from Gibbon’s immortal work on imperial Rome, was chosen since British imperialists consciously compared their empire to the Roman imperium. Despite the title, this is no dreary tale of imperial decay and collapse. Instead, Brendon, a fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, has written a colorful and often brilliant examination of the imperial experience from the American Revolution to the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. He combines the genres of narrative history, travelogue, and biographical sketch to capture the richness, majesty, squalor, and injustice that created and maintained a vast edifice that has left an indelible imprint on the contemporary world. The narrative ranges across imperial settings in a successful effort to illustrate how both ordinary and extraordinary people lived, thrived, and often suffered under the British flag. Of course, decline and ultimate fall is part of the story. As a liberal empire based (in spirit if not always in practice) on the ideals of political liberty and even equality, it was an empire that contained the seeds of its own destruction, as citizens from America to India took those ideals to heart. The breadth, diversity, greatness, and failures of the British Empire have rarely been portrayed as well. --Jay Freeman", "Review", "“Splendid . . . Graphically narrated . . . [Brendon’s] book is history with the nasty bits left in . . . Provides a cautionary text for a new administration that will inherit autocratic allies, penal colonies, reliance on coercive power, and pervasive cynicism about America’s declared global arms.”–Karl E. Meyer,", "Washington Post Book World", "“Complex . . . Lucid . . . Every page is consistently readable and stimulating.”–Geoffrey Wheatcroft,", "The New York Times Book Review", "“The author is such a lively writer that I’d be hard pressed to find dull patches in this whooper of a book . . . Brendon’s narrative is wonderfully stocked with generals, politicians, rugged adventurers, consuls, eccentrics, administrators, and famous imperial hands.”–Matthew Price,", "Boston Globe", "“A richly detailed, lucid account of how the British Empire grew and grew–and then, not quite inexorably, fell apart.”--", "Kirkus", "\"A book of enormous range and complexity and leavened with a splendid sense of wit and irony. It takes courage to emulate the great Gibbon, but Brendon succeeds magnificently. And while there may be many books on the British Empire, this is undoubtedly the most entertaining and the best.\"--Dominic Sandbrook,", "The Evening Standard", "\"A masterpiece of a historical narrative. No review can hope to do justice to the depth of Brendon's research, the balance and originality of his conclusions, or the quality and humor of his prose. Our imperial story has been crying out for a top-flight historian who can write. Now it has one.\"--Saul David,", "Literary Review", "\"Brilliant . . . An enthralling mini-series of colonial adventure . . . [Brendon's] book is stuffed with a myriad spectacular examples of human vanity, folly, depravity and greed--and is all the better for it.\" --Robert McCrum,", "The Observer", "\"[A] sumptuous chronicle of the British empire. . . . A compelling and spectacularly detailed retelling of imperial \"rise\" as well as fall . . . A glittering panoply of decadence, folly, farce and devastation.\" --Maya Jasanoff,", "Saturday Guardian", "\"A narrative masterpiece. The settings are exotic, the cast of thousands full of the most eccentric, egotistical, paranoid, swashbuckling players you are likely to meet in any history.... An endlessly engrossing and disturbing stream of anecdotes and vignettes that Brendon tells with extraordinary flair and sympathy, warts and all.\" --Richard Overy,", "Sunday Telegraph", "About the Author", "Piers Brendon is the author of", "The Dark Valley,", "among other histories and biographies. He is the", "former Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He lives in Cambridge, England.", "From The Washington Post", "From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Karl E. Meyer Somewhere in the celestial academy where such matters are decreed, it was long since decided that the Roman Empire was the model for all its Western successors. Russia's czars borrowed their title from the Caesars and designated Moscow as a Third Rome (Constantinople being the second). Germany's kaisers donned the same robes, as 19th-century Berlin evolved into a facsimile of classical Rome. The Roman shadow is even more pervasive in Washington, with its many-pillared temples and equestrian warriors, its senators on Capitol Hill reciting sonorous Latinisms (quorum, sine die, casus belli, to the point that weary auditors sometimes murmur ad nauseam). Yet nobody has surpassed the British in their fixation with the empire to which their island was once a barbarous lesser appendage. Their monarchs are profiled on coins as if they were Caesars, and for generations the image of Britannia, armed with spear, defended the copper penny. Small wonder their fascination with Edward Gibbon's magisterial History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Among the merits of Piers Brendon's splendid work -- which the author stresses is not meant to rival its forebear -- is its persuasive demonstration that Britons have repeatedly searched for omens in the pages of Gibbon. Was it only chance, pessimists wondered, that the first volume of Decline and Fall appeared in the revolutionary year 1776, and that the fifth and final one reached readers in 1787, heralding the imminent and ignoble British surrender at Yorktown? Humiliated by ragged American rebels, some \"almost barefoot,\" British officers behaved there like \"whipped schoolboys\" (as Brendon relates), while their commander, Gen. Charles Cornwallis, abjectly pleaded illness to avoid showing up. As former colonials watched in stony silence, a British military band played a dirge titled \"The World Turned Upside Down.\" To be sure, in succeeding decades the world turned right side up for Great Britain. By conquest and/or cash, the East India Company devoured much of India (partly under Cornwallis as governor-general). British forces reached deep into the Pacific to humble the Chinese, seize Australia and New Zealand, and subdue Malaya. In the Mediterranean, having crucially secured Gilbraltar, Britain absorbed Malta, Corfu and Cyprus. Imperial strategists wisely heeded the lessons of Yorktown and pragmatically conceded substantial self-rule to Canada and other white-settler dominions. In an 1875 coup, the British acquired control of the French-built Suez Canal and, to protect it, invaded and occupied Egypt in 1882 -- the prelude to a thrust deep into Africa that inspired dreams of British dominance from Cape to Cairo. By the time Queen Victoria celebrated her diamond jubilee in 1897, her overseas realm was the largest known to history, encompassing nearly a fourth of the world's population and its habitable lands. In a final spurt after World War I, much of the Middle East (and its oil) also fell to Britain, as did entire slabs of formerly German-ruled Africa; thus at its territorial peak, the empire was seven times bigger than Rome's. And yet . . . and yet, in half a century, a mere wink in historical time, the great empire was but a memory, as foreshadowed by Gibbon. Once India attained its independence in 1947, nearly every other colony that mattered followed suit. Such is the story graphically narrated by Brendon, a Cambridge University scholar and former keeper of the Churchill archives. His book is in no sense an apologia; it is history with the nasty bits left in. Not one massacre, civil war, famine, racist outrage, covert trick or egregious human-rights abuse is passed over. His chronicle thus serves as a useful counterpoint to the generally upbeat accounts of Britain's imperial era, notably Harvard professor Niall Ferguson's well-written yet almost nostalgic encomiums. Brendon supplements but does not supplant Jan Morris's irresistibly readable Pax Britannica trilogy, published in the 1970s, the critical yet fair-minded standard by which new entries should be judged. This Decline And Fall is strongest in its details; the author seemingly has scoured every available memoir for devastating quips, nicknames, anecdotes, rumors and shrewd assessments. Consider his description of Prime Minister Anthony Eden, prime mover of the 1956 Suez fiasco: \"The son of a half-mad baronet and an exceedingly beautiful woman, Eden was said to be a bit of both. He veered between consuming vanity and crippling self-doubt. . . . After succeeding the octogenarian Churchill in April 1955, he writhed at charges that he was inclined to dither and scuttle, that he was incapable of administering the smack of firm government. One journalist wrote that when he made the emphatic gesture of punching his fist into the palm of his hand, no sound was heard. Another said that his words of command had all the dynamism of a radio 'talk on the place of the potato in British folklore.' \" One wishes that Brendon had more clearly spelled out the implications of the empire's fall for Americans. As he stresses, it was not simply a war-weakened economy that sped the empire's demise after 1945: \"At its heart was a betrayal of the civilized values which the British claimed to espouse,\" an increasing reliance on coercion even as the empire's paladins extolled rule of law and fair play. This has an obvious resonance for Americans who believe they are on a providential mission to lead and reform an incorrigible world. The British, too, were convinced of their exceptional gift of governance, with a hint of divine approbation. And, as detailed in these pages, there were indeed mitigating benefits for the ruled. But white dominions aside, the final exit was commonly messy and often tragic. In India/Pakistan, Malaya, Ceylon, Singapore, Burma, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Cyprus, Aden, Kenya, Uganda, Rhodesia, Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria and Ireland, the end of British rule proved a prelude to civil strife, violent partition, military coups, autocracy and virulent racism. This happened to an imperial power whose sons and daughters willingly settled overseas, learned local languages and endured disease on behalf of a shared creed. Brendon's account, especially of the Middle East, provides a cautionary text for a new administration that will inherit autocratic allies, penal colonies, reliance on coercive air power, and pervasive cynicism about America's declared global aims. Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "The World Turned Upside DownThe American Revolution and the Slave TradeAt about ten o’clock in the bright morning of 17 October 1781, a lone drummer boy dressed in shabby bearskin and red coat scrambled on to the ruined earthworks outside Yorktown and beat for a parley. From their trenches, which encircled the little tobacco port like a noose, George Washington’s forces could see him through the smoke of battle. But they could not hear him because of the thunder of their hundred guns. Firing incessantly were 24-pound siege pieces which smashed the fortifications, 8-inch howitzers which dismembered their defenders, lighter cannon whose balls splintered the clapboard houses along the bluff overlooking Chesapeake Bay and sometimes skipped over the water like flat stones, and heavy French mortars whose 200-pound projectiles—black bombshells clearly visible in daylight, blazing meteors after dark—made the whole peninsula shake. Then, behind the boy, a British officer appeared, waving a white handkerchief. He bore a message from Lord Cornwallis, whose battered army had no means of escape, proposing to end the bloodshed. The barrage ceased, the emissary was blindfolded and the terms of the British surrender were negotiated. Washington, unbending in his role as the noblest republican of them all, administered a severe blow to imperial pride. Cornwallis’s 7,200 troops were to become prisoners of war. They were to march, flags furled, between the ranks of their foes drawn up along the road from Yorktown, which passed through fields white with ripe cotton bolls, and lay down their arms.It was a “humiliating scene,” watched in dead silence by the Americans, clad in ragged homespun, some “almost barefoot,” and their French allies, plumed and often mustachioed, immaculate in white uniforms and black gaiters, their pastel silk banners decorated with silver fleurs-de-lis. King George III’s German mercenaries marched past steadily but the British “lobsters” (as the Americans called them) were less dignified. Some were the worse for rum—the largest single item of expenditure borne by the British Army during the war. Others were disdainful, others defiant. A few flung down their heavy, smooth-bored Brown Bess muskets as though to smash them. Lieutenant-Colonel Abercromby, who had led the only serious sortie from Yorktown, chewed his sword in impotent rage. According to an American witness, the British officers behaved like whipped schoolboys. “Some bit their lips, some pouted, others cried,” hiding such emotions beneath their round, broad-brimmed hats. Cornwallis himself remained in Yorktown, pleading indisposition but perhaps unable to face the triumph of revolution. Meanwhile, the bandsmen of his captive army played a “melancholy” tune on drums and fifes. It was the dirge of the British Empire in America, “The World Turned Upside Down.”The Old World did regard the New World’s victory as an ominous inversion of the established order. It was an unbeaten revolt of children against parental authority—the first successful rebellion of colonial subjects against sovereign power in modern history. How could a rabble of farmers in thirteen poor appendages, with a population of only 2.5 million, defeat the trained might of the mother country? Americans were divided among themselves and thinly spread along an underdeveloped eastern seaboard which shaded gradually into isolated pioneer settlements and virgin wilderness. They were opposed not only by white loyalists but by black slaves and “Red Indians.” Washington’s recruits, in a spirit of democratic “licentiousness” (his word), were disinclined to take orders without discussion: as one senior officer complained, “The privates are all generals.” Their auxiliaries, until the advent of the French, were wholly undisciplined. The militia consisted of summer foot soldiers on furlough from the plough and, wrote one witness, a cavalry of round-wigged tailors and apothecaries mounted on “bad nags” who looked “like a flock of ducks in cross-belts.” These were supported at times by tattooed and buckskinned frontiersmen with tomahawks in their belts, bear grease in their hair and coonskin hats on their heads.Yet this motley array often proved effective, particularly in guerrilla fighting. After the “shot heard round the world” which had opened hostilities at Lexington in 1775, the redcoats made such a “vigorous retreat,” quipped Benjamin Franklin, that the “feeble Americans could scarce keep up with them.”On other occasions British generals proved dauntlessly incompetent. “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne distinguished himself less as a professional soldier than an amateur dramatist—when his play", "The Bloodbath of Boston", "was performed the audience at first thought that American shelling was part of the show—and in 1777 his histrionic recklessness led to the British capitulation at Saratoga. By contrast, George Washington, though by no means a military genius, was a great leader. Tall and stately in his familiar buff and blue uniform, with a long pallid face dominated by a jutting nose, a broad mouth and steely grey-blue eyes, he looked the part. And he played it with courage and canniness. Formidably self-possessed, ruthlessly single-minded, incomparably tenacious, he made small gains and avoided large losses, staving off defeat until he could achieve victory.Before Yorktown, after six years of war, that outcome still appeared remote, despite the support of Spain and Holland as well as France, which the Earl of Chatham described as a “vulture hovering over the British Empire.” Redcoat bayonets dominated the battlefield and Britannia still ruled the waves. General Clinton had an iron grip on New York. From there he wrote to Cornwallis in March 1781:Discontent runs high in Connecticut. In short, my Lord, there seems little wanting to give a mortal stab to Rebellion but a proper Reinforcement, and a permanent superiority at Sea for the next Campaign without which any Enterprize depending on Water Movements must certainly run great Risk.Cornwallis himself was subjugating the south. He was assisted by Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who boasted of having “butchered more men and lain with more women than anybody”—he should have said", "ravished", ", remarked the playwright Sheridan, since “rapes are the relaxation of murder.” Washington’s forces had scarcely recovered from their winter agonies at Valley Forge and Morristown, where, as one soldier wrote, “It has been amazing cold to such a Degree that I who never flinched to old Boreas had t’other day one of my Ears froze as hard as a Pine gnut.” In the spring of 1781 Washington wrote,our Troops are approaching fast to nakedness and . . . we have nothing to cloath them with . . . our hospitals are without medicines, and our Sick without Nutriment . . . all our public works are at a stand . . . we are at the end of our tether . . . now or never our deliverance must come.It came with French men-of-war.In August, Washington heard that Admiral de Grasse was sailing with a fleet of twenty-eight ships of the line and bringing three thousand more regular soldiers to reinforce the five thousand commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau. Washington seized his opportunity. In great secrecy he disengaged from Clinton and marched his army south through New Jersey. When he heard that de Grasse had reached Chesapeake Bay, cutting Cornwallis off from outside help, Washington abandoned his usual reserve. He capered about on the quay at Chester, waving his hat and his handkerchief, and embraced Rochambeau as he arrived. The young Marquis de Lafayette was even more effusive when he met Washington at Williamsburg. He leapt off his horse, “caught the General round his body, hugged him as close as it was possible and absolutely kissed him from ear to ear.” The news was a tonic to the whole army—it even cured General Steuben’s gout. For everyone except the British believed that Cornwallis would be “completely Burgoyned.” “We have got him handsomely in a pudding bag,” wrote General Weedon. “I am all on fire. By the Great God of War, I think we may all hand up our swords by the last of the year in perfect peace and security!”Washington personally ensured that his “mouse-trap” snapped shut. He made meticulous preparations, even going so far as to pay his troops (with French gold). He surveyed Yorktown’s defences from an exposed position where “shot seemed flying almost as thick as hail.” With a pickaxe he broke the ground for the opening trench and he put a match to the first gun in the cannonade. Washington pressed forward fast, puzzled by the sluggishness of the enemy. Although erratic, Cornwallis was an able commander. He was brave, tactically adept and adored by his men, whose hardships he shared. But apart from shooting starving horses and expelling hungry slaves (many of them ill with malaria, smallpox and dysentery), he took few initiatives at Yorktown. This was because, as he told Clinton, his army could only be saved by a successful naval action. However, de Grasse had seen off the British fleet in an indecisive battle on 5 September and Washington persuaded him to remain on guard. By the end of the month Clinton informed Cornwallis: “I am doing everything in my power to relieve you by a direct move and I have reason to hope from the assurance given me this day by Admiral Graves that we may pass the Bar by the 12 October if the winds permit and no unforeseen accident happens.” But the Royal Navy was in no state to break the French hold on Chesapeake Bay.It was ill led by Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, who, the philosopher David Hume complained, spent several weeks trout-fi...", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "History", "Europe" ]

[ "One of the nation's great food writers offers his own uncompromising take on international food and cooking, from the Irish potato famine to the shores of India. 15,000 first printing." ]

[ "From Publishers Weekly", "How to come up with yet more laudatory adjectives to describe the continuing excellence and inventiveness of America's premier philosopher of food? If the sustained historical reckonings of Thorne's last book, the ambitious Serious Pig, overwhelmed some readers, this one will gladden the hearts of fans of the looser IACP/Julia Child Award-winning Outlaw Cook. Thorne, who has relocated from the northerly reaches of Maine to Northampton, Mass., here abandons his forages into dour Puritan food culture and throws himself joyfully into the pursuit of, among other things, the perfect pizza, the ideal savory breakfast and the quintessential Vietnamese sandwich. As usual, Thorne's exploratory approach to cooking leads to the debunking of much conventional wisdom. He discovers, for example, that risotto, theoretically a finicky dish, is in fact simple and forgiving; that homemade bread, so often coveted in its fresh-baked state, is perhaps more breadlike two days later. \"Knowing Nothing about Wine\" reveals more in 17 pages about wine drinking (and wine anxiety) in this country than any number of full-length books. Illuminating disquisitions on pot-cooks vs. knife-cooks, the Irish potato famine and the legacy of Richard Olney divert Thorne from practical experimentation, but he always ends up back in the kitchen. Such is his giftDthe ability to range back and forth from armchair to stove top, inspiring cooks and readers alike. (Nov. 14) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.", "From Library Journal", "Part memoir, part cookbook, part rambling discourse on why we cook things the way we do, the Thornes' (Serious Pig) new book is a change of pace from many recent cookbooks, which put too much stress on ingredients. The authors also emphasize ingredientsDfresh, seasonal, variedDbut in this book at least, technique is paramount. It is technique, they argue, that validates your cooking, that gives you the right to handle quality ingredients in the first place. Consequently, there are chapters on seemingly simple operations, such as boiling plain rice or making toast. Intriguing, insightful, and wide-ranging, this book can also be overly self-indulgent (offering, for example, a whole chapter on what John Thorne likes to eat for breakfast). This is not for the casual cookbook reader. But for people who like to ponder the deeper meaning of food and explore ever better ways of preparing it, there is much matter here. Recommended for larger public libraries and those with good culinary collections.DTom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., MO Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.", "Review", "\"...He comes across as an iconoclast without a mean streak, an amusing but serious searcher after eclectic culinary truths.\" --", "William Rice, Chicago Tribune", "\"...He observes so well, writes so well, eats so well, and, I have to imagine, cooks so well...\" --", "Arthur Schwartz, author of", "What to Cook When You Think There's Nothing in the House to Eat", "\"...Thorne's work has spiraled upward into the 'must read', far above the frivolity of nearly all of the food world.\" --", "Jim Harrison, author of", "Legends of the Fall", "and", "The Beast God Forgot to Invent", "\"John Thorne is simply the best writer about food in the country.\" --", "Leo Lerman,", "Gourmet", "\"The Thornes…will bring out the culinary adventurer in you, whether or not you ever leave home.\" --", "Sylvia Carter, Newsday", "\"To think of Thorne as only a food writer is the same as considering Raymond Chandler just a mystery writer.\" --", "Jim Harrison, Esquire", "\"With every collection [Thorne's] accounts...make richer reading.\" --", "Corby Kummer, The New York Times Book Review", "About the Author", "Matt Lewis Thorne", "and", "John Thorne", "currently live in Northampton, Massachusetts. They are the authors of", "Serious Pig", ", which was nominated for an IACP/Julia Child Award, and", "Outlaw Cook", ", which won it. They also write and publish the", "Simple Cooking", "food letter, now in its twentieth year, which was named as one of the", "Saveur", "One Hundred in 1999. John Thorne has contributed to", "Gourmet", ",", "Saveur", ",", "Down East", ", the", "Los Angeles Times", ", and other publications.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Cookbooks, Food & Wine", "Cooking Education & Reference" ]

[ "A new English version of Rabindranath Tagore's classic Gitanjali first published in 1912 and winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. These 103 poems have touched generations with their lyrical beauty and spiritual depth. This new English version offers the 21st Century reader access to the exquisite beauty of Tagore's timeless classic with contemporary language that will continue to move and inspire." ]

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[ "Books", "Biographies & Memoirs", "Memoirs" ]

[ "Today, yachts are often equipped with electrical windlasses, autopilot, bow thrusters, etc. This equipment has also become much more reliable, making it possible to make long offshore passages without much knowledge of seamanship. However, as the coastguards in many countries can confirm, more and more yachts require assistance, even when they should be able to reach harbour on their own. In this book you will be shown the traditional techniques you should be familiar with – regarding rope handling, manoeuvring and anchoring – in order to make long or short passages safely. Each element is clearly explained alongside detailed illustrations, combining to make a straightforward and easy-to-follow guide. Although yacht gear is becoming more and more reliable, you can be almost sure that, sooner or later, it will fail or you will be out of electrical power to use it. Learning the traditional techniques may not only be necessary but is also both interesting and fun. Instead of waking up the entire harbour in the early hours with the noise of your bow thruster, you may, alternatively, use a spring line to get safely moored to or leave the pontoon quietly.", "Table of Contents", "IntroductionContentsROPEWORK: The basics, Clove hitch, Bowline, Sheet bend, Reef knot, Stopper knots, Rolling hitch, Coiling ropes, Cleats, Whipping, Splicing, Lashings, Winch handling, Making fast on a bollard, Swigging (sweating), Various useful knots, Special knots / hitchesBOAT HANDLING: The basics, The propeller, The rudder, Wind impact on the hull, The boat’s turning circle, Getting to know your boat, Turning in confined spaces, Engine handling, Leaving / entering a berth, Coming alongside, Making fast, Using a bow spring, Using a stern spring, Mooring techniques, Tides, Currents, Using slip linesANCHORING: The basics, The anchor rode, Ground tackle, Foredeck arrangements, Anchoring techniques, Anchor buoy / signals, Anchoring under sail, Using snubbers, Using anchor chums, Weighing anchor, Using two bow anchors, A special anchor setup, Using a dinghy, The Scandinavian moor, Anchoring examples, Miscellany, Summary." ]

[ "Review", "\"If you're new to sailing, this book will teach you almost everything you'll ever need to know about ropework, boathandling and anchoring. Even if you've been sailing for years, there are still a few boathandling manoeuvres and anchoring techniques that you probably won't have tried.\"", "Yachting Monthly", "About the Author", "Ivar Dedekam, of Dedekam Design, specialises in uniquely illustrated nautical manuals which are easy to understand and remember. Ivar has been sailing for over 30 years and has logged more than 50,000 nautical miles, including three Atlantic crossings. His book Illustrated Sail & Rig Tuning is an international success and has been published in 19 languages." ]

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[ "Books", "Engineering & Transportation", "Transportation" ]

[ "This is a great book about insulin resistance. The most shocking is the chapter \"Save The Children\". This presents the latest statistical information (when the book was published) about children who are developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. About one in three will go on to develop type 2 diabetes and in some ethnicities, as high as one in every two children. It looks like every other type 2 diabetes case diagnosed may involve a child, in the near future!" ]

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[ "rain shadow (n.) an area that receives relatively little rain because of its landscape and local weather patterns rain shadow hike (n.) a scenic hike through an area promising less rain and more sunshine", "Sick of hiking in drizzle? Best Rain Shadow Hikes in Western Washington reveals places where an almost magical blend of geography and meteorology seems to raise an invisible umbrella over valley and mountainside.", "50 hikes in \"rain shadow\" zones to the east of the Olympics and just over the crest of the Cascades", "A variety of hikes rated from easy to more difficult Extends your hiking season beyond the summer months A map, elevation profile, and photo for each hike Tips on how to forecast the weather before you choose a hike" ]

[ "Review", "For the best chance of seeing sunshine instead of spring showers, follow Best Rain Shadow Hikes: Western Washington. --", "Vancouver Columbian, May 2003", "Good-looking elevation graphics, sharper-than-usual photographs, and an informative section on weather are pluses...Fagin's weather information is priceless --", "Sports, Etc., May 2003", "If there's anyone who can keep you dry on the trail this year, it's Fagin and Card. --", "Bremerton Sun, May 2003", "In a comfortable style, it gets right to what is special or notable about each hike --", "Greg Johnston, Seattle P-I", "About the Author", "Michael Fagin is owner and lead forecaster for Washington Online Weather; he also has given weekly hiking tips on Northwest Cable News. Skip Card is an outdoor reporter for The News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington." ]

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[ "Books", "Sports & Outdoors", "Mountaineering" ]

[ "“Paper Hearts” is Lauren Jarvis-Gibson’s debut poetry collection. Through her delicate yet incredibly honest words, she skillfully navigates the experience of what it’s like to slowly build one’s self back up after being broken. “Paper Hearts” effortlessly weaves you through an intimate journey of love, loss, growth, and self-discovery." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Poetry" ]

[ "Rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip with", "Day Trips from Houston.", "This guide is packed with hundreds of exciting things for locals and vacationers to do, see, and discover within a two-hour drive of the Dallas metro area." ]

[ "From the Back Cover", "Need a day away to relax, refresh, renew? Just get in your car and go!", "Day Trips from Houston", "is your guide to hundreds of exciting things to do, see, and discover in your own backyard. With full trip-planning information and tips on where to eat, shop, and stop along the way, you can make the most of your time off and rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip. Explore places you never knew existed, many free of charge, and most within a two-hour drive of Houston.Do something historical: Experience Lone Star First Saturday in Montgomery, walk in General Sam Houston’s footsteps in Huntsville, or admire the Victorian architecture and the museums of Galveston.Do something natural: Discover the botanical gardens of Orange, splash around in the Gulf of Mexico, or gaze at the myriad bird species in Freeport.Do something kid-approved: See exotic creatures at the Bayou Wildlife Park in Alvin, visit Space Center Houston, or climb a hay mountain at Dewberry Farms in Brookshire.", "About the Author", "Laura Nathan-Garner was born and raised in Houston, where she currently lives with her family. A big-city girl at heart, she's discovered that some of Texas's true gems and most charming characters can be found outside the city limits. She is the author of Insiders' Guide to Houston (Globe Pequot Press)." ]

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[ "Books", "Travel", "United States" ]

[ "Giambologna (1529-1608) was the foremost sculptor of the age of Mannerism, his work recognizable by means of his seductive and strongly distinctive style, who worked in the half-century following the death of Michelangelo in 1564. Charles Avery's major critical study covers the whole range of Giambologna's work in a fluent yet scholarly narrative and emphasizes his wide and long-lasting influence on the development of European sculpture.", "A profound artist, as revealed by his combined energy and subtlety, Giambologna's work as a whole displays a fascinating evolution throughout his own career and, in turn, signifies a turning-point for sculpture across Europe in the following centuries. The eloquent, extensive and erudite text is supported by outstanding photographic images of the sculptor's work captured by David Finn, whose own sense of aesthetic harmony and rhythm show the sculptures in their most revealing light. Setting out an exhaustive scope, the volume concludes with an invaluable checklist of all Giambologna's known works." ]

[ "Review", "'An outstanding book.'", "(Daily Telegraph)", "'A lucid and subtle account … complemented by superb photographs.'", "(The Times)", "About the Author", "Charles Avery is a historian of sculpture and a consultant in the field of fine art. Formerly Deputy Keeper of Sculpture at the Victoria & Albert Museum, he was appointed Director of the Department of European Sculpture at Christie's, London, in 1979.", "David Finn is an acclaimed photographer whose images have illustrated numerous important monographs and books on the subject of sculpture." ]

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[ "Books", "Arts & Photography", "History & Criticism" ]

[ "Enjoy a spring-themed story with a cute bunny finger puppet included." ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Animals" ]

[ "Unabridged CDs, 10 CDs, 12 hours", "Read by TBA The Left Behind series was a publishing phenomenon, with more than 65 million copies sold. Now the authors bring to life the glorious, dramatic story of Jesus Christ, told through the eyes of the Gospel writers." ]

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[ "Books", "Christian Books & Bibles", "Literature & Fiction" ]

[ "Commissaire Dupin is back i", "n", "The Fleur de Sel Murders", ",", "this Brittany mystery from international bestselling author Jean-Luc Bannalec.", "The old salt farmers have always said that the violet scent of the Fleur de Sel at harvest time on the salt marshes of the Guérande Peninsula has been known to cause hallucinations. Commissaire Dupin also starts to believe this when he’s attacked out of the blue in the salt works. He had actually been looking forward to escaping his endless paperwork and taking a trip to the “white country” between the raging Atlantic Ocean and idyllic rivers. But when he starts snooping around mysterious barrels on behalf of Lilou Breval, a journalist friend, he finds himself unexpectedly under attack. The offender remains a mystery, and a short time later, Breval disappears without a trace. It is thanks to his secretary Nolwenn and the ambition of the prefect that Dupin is assigned to the case. But he won’t be working alone because Sylvaine Rose is the investigator responsible for the department—and she lives up to her name… What’s going on in the salt works? Dupin and Rose search feverishly for clues and stumble upon false alibis, massive conflicts of interest, personal feuds—and ancient Breton legends." ]

[ "Review", "\"Enchanting.\"―", "The New York Times", "\"Bannelec's Breton adventures are some of the best French local color going, with a deft blend of puzzle, personality, and description of the indescribable.\"―", "Kirkus Reviews", "\"Intriguing...Well-drawn, complex characters, the lovingly described countryside, and the area’s culinary bounty make this a winner. Some fans will be inspired to take their next vacation in Brittany.\"―", "Publishers Weekly\"", "The Commissaire comes across as a likeable sleuth of the old school, stubborn about sticking to a clue, perpetually running on caffeine, preferring solo excursions over the collegial system. Dupin is the man on the authentically baffling case, and he’s an entirely welcome presence in his lone-wolf and highly caffeinated style.\"", "―Toronto Star", "--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "The Fleur de Sel Murders", "A Brittany Mystery", "By Jean-Luc Bannalec, Sorcha McDonagh", "St. Martin's Press", "Copyright © 2012 Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne/GermanyAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-250-07190-3", "Contents", "Title Page, Copyright Notice, Dedication, Epigraph, The First Day, The Second Day, The Third Day, Acknowledgments, Also by Jean-Luc Bannalec, About the Author, Copyright, CHAPTER 1", "The First Day", "The", "fleur de sel", "gave off a curious fragrance of violets in the days after the harvest; it mingled with the smell of rich clay and the salt and iodine in the air that people here in the middle of the White Land — the Gwenn Rann, the far-reaching salt marshes of the Guérande — smelled and tasted more strongly with every breath than anywhere else on the coast. Now, at the end of the summer, the distinctive scent filled the salt gardens. The old", "paludiers,", "the salt farmers, used to say that it made people faint sometimes, that it caused mirages and hallucinations.", "It was a breathtaking, bizarre landscape. A landscape of the four elements needed for the alchemy of the salt: sea, sun, earth, and wind. Once a large bay, then a lagoon, a mudflat, a marsh put to good use by skilled hands, it was situated on a peninsula created by the raging Atlantic Ocean between the Loire and the Vilaine. The majestic little medieval town of Guérande, from which the area took its name, marked the northerly reaches of the salt gardens. In the south the gardens tailed off into the remaining part of the lagoon, and beyond that lay Le Croisic, with its enchanting port. You could see it from there, that impressive spectacle: with its mighty tidal rhythm, the Atlantic filled the lagoon with water, carrying it right into the delicate capillaries of the salt gardens. Especially on days when the \"", "grande marée", "\" happened, the spring tide following the full moon.", "The White Land was completely flat, without a hint of a slope. For more than twelve centuries, it had been broken up into countless large, small, and very small rectangular salt ponds, laid out with mathematical precision and in turn bordered by random-looking fluid shapes made up of ground and water. An endlessly branching, elaborate system of canals, reservoir pools, preheating pools, evaporating pools, and harvesting pools. A system with just one purpose: to keep the sea moving as slowly as possible using sluice gates so that the sun and the wind made it evaporate almost entirely, until the first crystals formed. Salt was the purest essence of the sea. \"Child of the sun and wind,\" people called it. The pools had poetic names:", "vasières, cobiers, fares, adernes, oeillets.", "One of the", "oeillets,", "the harvest pools, had been in use since Charlemagne's time. The harvest pools were sacred to the", "paludiers", "— everything depended on them, on their \"character\": the floors of the pools, the different types of clay and the various mineral compositions. Lazy, generous, cheerful, feverish, sensitive, harsh, contrary — the", "paludiers", "talked about them as if they were people. That's where the salt was cultivated and harvested in the open air. White gold.", "Incredibly narrow, unpaved paths meandered between the pools, creating inextricable labyrinths, generally accessible only on foot. The salt marshes may have been flat, but you still couldn't see very far. Overgrown earthen walls of varying heights ran alongside the pools and pathways. Scraggy bushes, shrubs, tall grasses crooked and bleached strawlike by the sun. A gnarled tree here and there. And the", "cabanes,", "the salt farmers' huts made from stone or wood or metal sheeting, were scattered about.", "Now that it was September, that dazzlingly bright white was all around. The white of the salt that had been piling up into impressive mounds over the summer. It lay in careful heaps, narrowing to peaks like volcanoes and sometimes two or three meters high.", "Commissaire Georges Dupin from the Commissariat de Police Concarneau couldn't help smiling. This landscape was surreal. Amazing scenery. The atmosphere was heightened by the overabundance of color in the sky and the water — an extravagant display of every shade of violet, pink, orange, and red — caused by the setting sun. And as the late-summer evening slowly closed in, a refreshingly brisk breeze picked up at the end of another baking-hot day. Commissaire Dupin locked the car, one of the force's official blue, white, and red cars. The impressively old and problematically small Peugeot 106 served as the commissariat's general backup car. Dupin's own dearly beloved, equally ancient Citroën XM had been at the garage for ten days. It was the hydropneumatic suspension, for the umpteenth time.", "Dupin had parked at the side of the road, half on the grass. He'd walk from here.", "It was a narrow little road that meandered through the salt marshes, but at least it was paved. It had not been easy to find. Branching off the Route des Marais, it was one of only three winding roads between Le Croisic and Guérande town that cut across the Salt Land.", "Dupin looked around. There was nobody in sight. He hadn't met a single car on the entire Route des Marais. In the salt marshes, it seemed the day had come to a close.", "He had only a hand-drawn sketch of the place he was trying to get to. It showed a hut near one of the salt marshes, toward the open lagoon, about three hundred meters away. He would search the salt mine in question and the huts linked to it, keeping an eye out for \"anything suspicious\" — he had to admit it was all a bit vague.", "Once he had taken a look around, he'd head straight for Le Croisic. Dupin figured this was how it would go: after a brief and likely fruitless inspection of the area, he would be in Le Grand Large a quarter of an hour from now, eating Breton sole fried a golden brown in salted butter. And over a glass of cold Quincy he would be looking out at the water, the pale sand and turquoise of the lagoon, watching the last of the light gradually disappear in the west. He had been in Le Croisic once before, last year, with his friend Henri, and had great memories of the little town (and of the sole).", "Regardless of the fact that the reasons he was here were extremely vague, dubious, and downright ridiculous, Commissaire Dupin was in a decidedly good mood this evening. In fact, he had had an overwhelming urge to get outdoors again at last. He had spent five weeks — more or less every single day — in his stuffy, airless office. Five weeks! Kept busy with mind-numbing desk work, official paperwork, the usual trappings of bureaucracy — the tasks that, unlike in books and films, filled the life of a real commissaire over and over again: new patrol cars for his two inspectors were accompanied by new \"Regulations for the Use of Vehicles Allocated for the Fulfillment of Police Duty,\" eight hundred pages long, with nine-point type and practically no line spacing, it was \"extremely important,\" with a \"number of crucial reforms\" according to the prefecture; a raise for his ever-patient secretary Nolwenn (finally!) — he had been fighting for it two years and nine months; painstaking filing for two old, trivial cases. This was a record for him since he had been \"relocated\" from Paris to the middle of nowhere: five weeks of office work during these magical late-summer days, when September's enchanting light outshone every other month yet again. Weeks of a settled, spectacular Azores high, like something out of a picture book, not a drop of rain —", "\"La Bretagne fait la cure du soleil,\"", "Brittany is getting the sunshine treatment, the newspapers reported. Five weeks in which Dupin's bad mood had worsened on an almost daily basis. It had become unbearable for everyone.", "Lilou Breval's request that he take a look round the salt marshes — although he had absolutely no connection with this area — had been a welcome excuse to really get out and about. Dupin didn't mind what excuse it was in the end. And much more important: he had owed Lilou Breval a favor for a long time now. The journalist from the", "Ouest-France", "stayed away from police officers on principle — not least because she came into conflict with police and legal regulations on a less than infrequent basis with her largely unorthodox methods — but somehow she had come to trust him. Dupin respected and liked her.", "Lilou Breval had provided him with \"certain information\" from time to time. She had last \"helped\" him two years ago during the case of the murdered hotelier in Pont-Aven that had ended up capturing France's attention. Lilou Breval was not that involved with everyday journalistic work, specializing instead in large-scale research and stories, mostly very Breton stories. Investigative ones. Two years ago she had played quite a significant role in uncovering a colossal case of cigarette smuggling: 1.3 million cigarettes had been hidden in an enormous concrete pillar that had supposedly been built for an oil rig off the coast.", "Lilou Breval had called Dupin the night before and — something she'd never done before — asked him to do something: to take a look at \"a particular salt pond and a hut nearby.\" Look out for \"suspicious barrels\" there, \"blue plastic barrels.\" Apparently she couldn't say what this was about yet, but she was \"reasonably certain\" that \"something very fishy\" was going on. She said she would drop in to the commissariat as soon as possible after he had inspected the area so that she could explain everything she knew so far. Dupin hadn't even begun to understand what this was all about, but after asking some questions that went unanswered he had eventually murmured \"fine, okay\" and Lilou Breval had faxed him a sketch of the paths and the area that morning. Of course Dupin knew that he was contravening every possible regulation, and on his way here he had felt a tiny bit uneasy, which was not usually his style. Officially, he wasn't even allowed to be here — he ought to have asked the local police to look into the issue. Not least because the Département Loire-Atlantique, where the salt marshes were located, was not even, from an administrative point of view, part of Brittany anymore — let alone \"his patch\"— ever since it had been snatched away from the Bretons \"with legalized violence\" during the much-maligned \"Reform of Administrative Structure\" in the sixties. Culturally, in daily life and in the consciousness of the French, however — and also in the rest of the world — the", "département", "was still Breton through and through to this day.", "But his brief moment of doubt was soon forgotten.", "Dupin owed Lilou Breval, and he took that very seriously. A good police officer depended on someone doing them a favor now and again.", "* * *", "Dupin stood next to his patrol car, towering over it with his generally sturdy build and broad shoulders. To be on the safe side, he glanced at the sketch again. Then he walked across the road and started down the grassy path. After just a few meters the first salt pools appeared to his right and left, the path falling sharply away right to the edges of the pools. A meter or a meter and a half deep, Dupin reckoned. The pools were all kinds of colors — pale beige, pale grayish, grayish blue, others were an earthy brown, reddish, all crisscrossed by narrow clay footbridges and dams. Birds strutted about round the edges, looking like they were on a silent search for food. Dupin had no idea what they were called; his ornithological knowledge was lacking.", "The landscape was truly extraordinary. The White Land, it seemed, belonged to people only during the day, belonging entirely to nature again in the evening and nighttime. It was quiet, not a sound to be heard apart from an odd kind of chirping in the background, and Dupin couldn't tell whether it was coming from birds or crickets. It verged on the eerie. Every so often, a cranky gull screeched, an emissary from the nearby sea.", "Perhaps coming here had been an idiotic idea after all. Even if he were to see something suspicious — which he wouldn't — he would have to let his local colleagues know immediately anyway. Dupin stopped walking. Maybe he should drive straight to Le Croisic and forget this cryptic mission. But — he had given Lilou Breval his word.", "Dupin's deliberations were interrupted by his mobile ringing. It seemed even louder than usual in this meditative silence. He fished his small phone out of his pocket, his face brightening when he saw Nolwenn's number.", "\"Yes?\"", "\"", "Bonj", "— aire. — there?\" There was a small pause, then: \"— air — And have — trip — kang — roo —?\"", "There was a terrible clicking sound on the line.", "\"I can't hear you, Nolwenn. I'm already at the salt marshes, I ...\"", "\"They — between the — I know — ly — kangar —\"", "Dupin could have sworn he had heard the word \"kangaroo\" for the second time. But he might have been mistaken. He spoke much more loudly this time.", "\"I — honestly — cannot — understand — a — word. I'll — call — you later.\"", "\"— just — ay — ter,\" and the connection seemed to drop altogether.", "\"Hello?\"", "No response.", "Dupin didn't have a clue why Nolwenn was going on about an Australian marsupial. It sounded preposterous. But he didn't agonize over it any longer. Out here in the back of beyond, Nolwenn was undoubtedly the most important person to him. And although he felt a little bit \"Bretonized\" by now, he would still be lost without her. In fact, Nolwenn's scheme was called \"Bretonization,\" and came with the motto: \"Brittany: Love it — or leave it!\"", "He thought highly of Nolwenn's practical and social intelligence as well as her inexhaustible regional and local knowledge. And her passion for oddities and \"good stories.\" The kangaroo must be one of them.", "Dupin had just started to refocus on the task at hand when his phone rang again. He answered automatically. \"Can you hear me now, Nolwenn?\" For a few moments he couldn't hear anything apart from some more loud clicks.", "Then suddenly there were a few reasonably comprehensible words: \"I'm looking forward — morning, Georges. Really.\"", "Claire. It was Claire. The line went bad again almost immediately.", "\"— aurant — ure — ning.\"", "\"I'm — I'm coming tomorrow evening. Yes, of course!\"", "There was a pause. Which was followed without warning by an earsplitting hiss. Tomorrow was Claire's birthday. He had booked a table in La Palette, her favorite restaurant in the Sixth Arrondissement in Paris. A great big boeuf Bourguignon with hearty bacon and young mushrooms, braised in the finest red wine for several hours, the meat so tender you could eat it with a spoon. It was meant to be a surprise, although he assumed that Claire had long since cottoned on because he had dropped far too many hints, as usual. He was going to catch a train at one o'clock and be in Paris at six.", "\"Did it seem — to come — betwee — ! Is — ways — unclear?\"", "\"No. No. Not at all. Nothing is unclear! I'll be there at six. I already have my ticket.\"", "\"I — barely hear —\"", "\"Same here. I just wanted to say that I'm really looking forward to it. To tomorrow evening, I mean.\"", "\"— just — dinner.\"", "\"I've arranged everything, don't worry.\"", "Dupin was speaking too loudly again.", "\"— fish — later.\"", "This was pointless.", "\"I'll — call — you — later — Claire.\"", "\"— maybe — later — work — better —\"", "\"Okay.\"", "He hung up.", "After meeting last year in those late-August days in Paris, which had been so wonderful, they began to speak on the phone every day and see a great deal of each other. It was mostly spontaneous, they just got on the TGV. Yes, they were back together. Although they hadn't said it out loud and it was still far from official. Although Dupin had made the awful mistake of mentioning it vaguely in an unguarded moment to his mother, who was immediately delighted, in a far from vague way, that she might now get to have that long-awaited daughter-in-law after all.", "Claire had just been in the U.S., at a cardiac surgery training course at the famous Mayo Clinic. So they hadn't seen each other for seven weeks, although they had spoken on the phone a lot. That was definitely another reason why Dupin had been in such a bad mood recently. Claire had only been back two days now. And that was a large part of the reason for Dupin's good mood today. But he was a bit nervous. In general. He didn't want to mess up what he had with Claire again, not like he had done the first time round. He had even bought the train ticket three weeks ago to make sure that nothing could get in the way.", "He would call Claire back from Le Croisic very soon. And talk to her again about tomorrow in peace and quiet. Right after the sole.", "He would be quick here.", "Commissaire Dupin was pretty sure he had seen someone close to the wooden hut. Only briefly, for a split second. More of a shadow really; it had disappeared again instantly.", "The commissaire slowed his pace. He scanned his surroundings. He was about twenty meters away from the hut. The path ran past it and looked like it plunged headlong into a salt pond.", "Dupin came to a stop. He ran a hand roughly down the back of his head.", "His instinct told him something wasn't right. He did not like this situation one bit.", "(Continues...)", "Excerpted from", "The Fleur de Sel Murders", "by", "Jean-Luc Bannalec, Sorcha McDonagh", ". Copyright © 2012 Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne/Germany. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.", "--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.", "About the Author", "Jean-Luc Bannalec", "is a pseudonym. The author divides his time between Germany and coastal Brittany in northwestern France.", "Death in Brittany", ", the first case for Commissaire Dupin, was published in Germany in 2012, where it sold six hundred thousand copies, spending many months on the bestseller list. It has been sold in over a dozen countries.", "--This text refers to the", "audioCD", "edition.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "World Literature" ]

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[ "Books", "Deals in Books" ]

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[ "Books", "Romance", "LGBTQ+ Romance" ]

[ "This overall look at bass fishing in America is more than just a coffee table book. From early experts like Dr. James Henshall to modern pioneers like Ray Scott, it explores the history of bass fishing equipment, lakes, tournaments and more. To top it all off, it s filled with historic photos and graphics, as well as dozens of pockets filled with hands-on replicas of bass fishing memorabilia." ]

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[ "Books", "Sports & Outdoors", "Hunting & Fishing" ]

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[ "Join T. Rex and his friends as they try to find the perfect scary costume for Halloween trick-or-treating. Is it a bat? Or a cat? Or maybe a jack-o'-lantern? Or maybe T. Rex should just wear his big, toothy grin.", "Lois G. Grambling and Jack E. Davis's delightful, frightful tale teaches that, sometimes, what you need just might be in the last place you look—yourself." ]

[ "Review", "“A tongue–in–cheek crowd pleaser” —", "Publishers Weekly", "(starred review)", "“Here’s a holiday tale sure to leave young audiences with toothy grins of their own.” —", "Kirkus Reviews", "“A fun addition to Halloween collections.” —", "School Library Journal", "“Grambling’s mouth–tickling adjectives are right on target for her audience.” —", "Booklist", "About the Author", "Lois G. Grambling has written numerous award-winning picture books, including", "Can I Have a Stegosaurus, Mom? Can I? Please!?", ", illustrated by H. B. Lewis;", "The Witch Who Wanted to be a Princess", ", illustrated by Judy Love; and", "Daddy Will be There", ", illustrated by Walter G. Kessel. She lives in upstate New York with her husband, Arthur.", "Jack E. Davis has illustrated two picture books by Daniel Pinkwater:", "The Picture of Morty and Ray", "and", "Yo-yo Man", ". Other books he has illustrated include the", "New York Times", "bestseller", "Marsupial Sue", "by John Lithgow. He is a recipient of the New York Society of Illustrators Gold Medal Award for Humor. He lives and paints goofy pictures in Port Townsend, Washington." ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Growing Up & Facts of Life" ]

[ "One of the greatest spiritual teachers of the twentieth century shares his philosophy on self-discovery, free will, and the search for a place and purpose in life.", "“I myself am a question. I know not who I am. What to do? Where to go?”—Osho", "Destiny, Freedom, and the Soul: What Is the Meaning of Life?", "explores deeply human questions, such as: Is there really such a thing as “soul,” and if so, what is it? Where does the concept of karma fit in? Does my life have a special meaning or purpose?", "Osho challenges readers to examine and break free of the conditioned belief systems and prejudices that limit their capacity to enjoy life in all its richness. He has been described by the", "Sunday Times", "of London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by", "Sunday Mid-Day", "(India) as one of the ten people—along with Gandhi, Nehru, and Buddha—who have changed the destiny of India. Since his death in 1990, the influence of his teachings continues to expand, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world." ]

[ "About the Author", "Osho", "is one of the most provocative and inspiring spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. Known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, the influence of his teachings continues to grow, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world. He is the author of many books, including", "Love, Freedom, Aloneness", ";", "The Book of Secrets", "; and", "Innocence, Knowledge, and Wonder", ".", "--This text refers to an alternate", "kindle_edition", "edition." ]

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[ "Books", "Politics & Social Sciences", "Philosophy" ]

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[ "Books", "Calendars", "Foreign Language" ]

[ "From the ancient Greeks to Jung, people have worked with archetypes to transform themselves, access inner wisdom, and expand their vision of the world. Celebrate the Divine Feminine – Hecate: Queen of the Witches or Wise Crone provides information and techniques for connecting with the Goddess Hecate. Divine Feminine Deity archetypes offer powerful insights into what it means to be a woman in full possession of her strength, beauty and sensuality. Access the ancient wisdom of this goddess, and uncover tools for personal growth and transformation. As a Transformational Life Coach, Certified Clinical Alchemical Hypnotherapist, Spiritual Counselor and with a Master's in Women's Spirituality, Joy Reichard empowers her clients through coaching, hypnotherapy, spiritual guidance and Reiki at her office in San Mateo, CA. Joy is also the creator of \"In Her Name\" Circles which celebrate the many manifestations of the Divine Feminine through monthly women gatherings in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014 “Joy launched Persephone’s Journey, A Wisdom School for Awakening Women.” To attend one of Joy’s classes visit http://joyreichard.com." ]

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[ "Books", "Self-Help", "Spiritual" ]

[ "Private detective Michael Kelly is hired by his former partner to solve an eight-year old rape and battery case long gone cold. But when the partner turns up dead, Kelly enlists a team of his savviest colleagues to connect the dots between the recent murder and the cold case it revived: a television reporter whose relationship with Kelly is not strictly professional; his best friend from childhood, a forensic DNA expert; and an old ally from the DA's office. To close the case, Kelly will have to face the mob, a serial killer, his own double-crossing friends, and the mean streets of the city he loves." ]

[ "Review", "“A magnificent debut that should be read by all.” —John Grisham“An intricate, fast-paced crime thriller.” —", "The Chicago Sun-Times", "“ A smart, stylish debut.” —", "The Boston Globe", "“This book harkens the arrival of a major new voice.” —Michael Connelly“Gritty and witty,", "The Chicago Way", "is done the classic Raymond Chandler Way.” —Kathy Reichs", "About the Author", "Michael Harvey", "is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the television series", "Cold Case Files", ", as well as an Academy Award-nominee for his documentary", "Eyewitness", ", and is a former investigative reporter for CBS. He earned a law degree at Duke and a masters in journalism from Northwestern. He alsoowns a bar in Chicago", ".", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "Chapter 1", "I was on the second floor of a three-story walk-up on Chicago’s North Side. Outside the Hawk blew hard off the lake and flattened itself against the bay windows. I didn’t care. I had my feet up, a cup of Earl Grey, and my own list of the ten greatest moments in Cubs history.For the first half hour I was stuck on number one. Then I realized the greatest moments at Clark and Addison are always about to be. With that I settled in and mapped out the starting rotation for next year’s world champions. That’s when I saw him.Actually, I sensed John Gibbons before I saw him. But that’s just how it was with Gibbons. From waist to shoulders he was of one dimension, that being massive. His head sat on a bulldog neck, with short ears and gray hair clipped close. His nose showed the back rooms of Chicago’s alleys. His eyes were still clear, cool, and blue. He cornered me with a look and smiled.“Hello, Michael.”Gibbons had been retired from the force five years now. I hadn’t seen him in four, but it didn’t matter. We had some history. He shook off the rain and threw a chair toward my desk. He sat down as if he belonged there and always had. I put the Cubs away, pulled open the bottom drawer, and found a bottle of Powers Irish. John took it straight. Just to be sociable, I gave Sir Earl a jolt.“What’s up, John?”He hesitated. For the first time I noticed his suit, uncomfortably cheap, and his tie, a clip-on. In his hands he twisted a soft felt hat.“Got a case for you, Michael.”He always called me Michael, which was okay since that was my name. I didn’t want to derail him, but my curiosity held sway.“Jesus, John, who’s dressing you these days?”The big man reddened a bit and looked down at the outfit.“Pretty bad, huh? The wife. Did you know the wife, Michael?”I shook my head. I didn’t know anything about John that wasn’t three years old. His personal file at that time read widower. His first wife, an Irishwoman from Donegal, got a message from her doctor one day about an X-ray. Two weeks later, she was gone. I had sent a card and given John a call.“The wife, the second wife that is, she left about a year ago,” Gibbons said. “She was a younger type, you know.”John always had a weakness for them. Women, that is. It’s been my experience if you have that sort of weakness, the younger ones tend only to aggravate the situation.“So you been dressing yourself?” I said.“For some time.”“And you get all dressed up to come here?”A nod.“To see me?”Another nod.“I got a case, Michael.”“So I gather.”I freshened his drink and poured a bit more hot water into my mug.“You remember 1997.”“Before my time,” I said.“Not by much. Anyway, it was Christmas Eve. I had the windows rolled down. You remember I used to keep the windows down. Even when it was cold. Well, I’m driving the squad by myself. Down in South Chicago.”I knew South Chicago. A collection of warehouses and whorehouses. Dry docks and rough trade. A nasty bit of Chicago, crumbling at the edges and blending into Indiana gray.“I hear a shot,” John said. “Roll around a corner and see this girl running down the middle of the street. Head-to-toe blood. The guy is right behind her. He’s got a .38 in one hand and a knife in the other. Sticking her as they run.”John closed his eyes for a moment and left the room. When he opened them, he was back. I didn’t feel so comfortable anymore.“Couple decades on the job, Michael. Never saw anything close to it. I get out of the car, she’s coming right at me. I just catch the both of them. He’s on top and I can still hear that knife. Made like a suction noise. I reach around with my piece and put it to his head. For the first time he registers me and stops.”“None of this is ringing a bell, John.”“It should ring a bell, huh?”I nodded.“Well, let me finish. So we are all three on the ground. Me with the gun to his head and the girl in between us. Her face was about six inches from mine. I could smell the death on her, you know?”I knew.“So we untangle. I put the guy on the ground and cuff him. He says nothing. I slap him around a bit. Still nothing. I look at the girl. She’s cut up pretty good, stabbed more than once in the chest. I get a pulse and call for the medics.”John got up and walked across to the window.“Hot in here, isn’t it?”John cracked the window.“It’s thirty-five outside with freezing rain and gusts,” I said.“Gusts?” His shoulders turned my way and the rest followed.“That’s what they called them,” I said. “Gusts. Gusts ain’t good.”John left the window open and walked back to the chair.“So we get this girl into an ambulance. She was a looker, Michael. Did I tell you that?”I was waiting for that part. “Let me guess. You fell for her.”“Jesus, Michael. She was covered in blood and half-dead. Besides, she was just a kid.”“Go on.”“Anyway, I find out she was running from his car. It’s a shitbox Chevy idling in the middle of the street. I pop the trunk and what do I find?”“Tell me.”“Sheets of plastic. Rolls of the stuff. And rope. Lots of rope. I open the driver’s door. There’s plenty of blood. Under both seats, I find custom-made carriers. In one, he’s got a bulldog shotgun. In the other, he’s got a machete strapped up there. Over both visors, two more leather fittings. One for the gun he had. The other for the knife.”“Not the guy’s first dance?”“No sir,” John said. “So I take him downtown and throw him in the slam. It’s past midnight, I figure I can sort him out tomorrow.”“And?”“I come in the next day. He’s gone.”“Gone?”“The chief then. You didn’t know him. Dave Belmont.”“Heard the name,” I said.“Nice guy, career cop. Dead now. Didn’t ever want any beefs. Just keep your mouth shut and put your time in. That kind of guy. Anyway, he takes me into the office. Says forget about it. Says the guy is gone and it’s over. Never happened. Then he gives me this.”From his pocket John Gibbons took out a piece of green velvet. Clipped inside was a silver Police Medal. The highest award a Chicago cop can get. Score one and your career is made.“Those are hard to come by, John.”“Part of the deal. I get the medal, a pay raise, and promotion. In return . . . ”“You forget about it.”“That’s right. So I did.”“And nine years later you want to do what?”“Well, I really don’t want to do anything. But then I got this.”From his other pocket John Gibbons pulled a letter.“And what is that?”“It’s a letter.”“I can see that.”“From the girl. The girl from that night.”“From nine years ago?”“Yeah.”“She didn’t die, I take it.”“We need to help her, Michael.”“We . . . ”“I poked around a bit.“ Gibbons shrugged. “Didn’t really get anywhere.”As a detective, my old partner was a good piece of muscle. Someone to break down doors, even if he had no idea what might be on the other side.“You’re the best I ever worked with,” Gibbons continued. “You know it. I know it. Everyone on the force knew it. If you can help out, I’d be grateful.”The Irishman threw an envelope across the table. I opened it up and enjoyed the warm feeling money can sometimes give a person. Then I looked up and across the desk.”Tell me about the girl,” I said.Gibbons began to talk. I picked up the letter and, reluctantly, began to read.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Mystery, Thriller & Suspense", "Mystery" ]

[ "Acceptance is the story of human turmoil and involves two families living on opposite sides of the world during World War 2. In America, siblings learn to survive with weak parents. Jean has difficulty establishing relationships. Why doesn’t her classmates like her? In Latvia, Milda and her two sons must escape to war-torn Germany or face the threat of communism. What was it like for them during those years, fleeing from one refugee camp to another? Coming to America without knowing the language and wanting to be accepted. An emotional battle begins when the two families connect. Valdis becomes involved with Jean, much to the distress of his mother, Milda. Jean faces the challenge of trying to build a relationship with her Latvian mother-in-law who does not want her son to marry an American girl. But is that the real reason? Jean doesn’t find out until they have a terrible argument. In 1991, Latvia regained its independence. Valdis’ brother travels to Latvia and returns with startling news." ]

[ "About the Author", "Constance Stepe has short stories published in Angels on Earth, Downstate Story and Cikagas Zinas magazine. This is her first published book." ]

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[ "Books", "Biographies & Memoirs", "Historical" ]

[ "The brushes are back! Join Reese, Estelle and the rest of the gang in the art studio in another adventure as they learn the value of kindness and understanding.", "When Clay comes to visit from the other side of the art studio, the brushes are excited to welcome their friend. But when a few of the brushes start acting differently, Clay needs to be reminded that it's important to be accepting:", "\"Some brushes are different, so we like to remind, it's kind to be caring, so take care to be kind.”", "Will Clay leave the brushes in frustration, or will he learn to mold his thinking as he comes to understand and accept that brushes have different abilities and challenges? Without ever mentioning autism or any particular disability,", "The Molding of Clay", "helps introduce children to the behavioral differences of their autistic peers, creating an opportunity for discussion. It helps teachers and parents impress upon them the importance of understanding, acceptance and kindness, through a fun, lighthearted story with quirky and colorful characters.", "Written in verse,", "The Molding of Clay", "combines the lyrical rhythm of Dr. Seuss, with the playfulness of Mo Willems, in a bright, colorful fantasy world where all people, regardless of their differences, prove to be an important part of the community canvas. Ideal for children ages 3-9 and Pre K-3rd grade.", "Kids ages: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9" ]

[ "About the Author", "Mr. Jay is a reformed marketing entrepreneur who has shifted his focus to the far more challenging and exciting world of children’s book writing. He is the best-selling author of", "Ricky, the Rock that Couldn’t Roll", ",", "The Bear and the Fern", ",", "The Masterpiece", "and others. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Amanda, daughter Bria and son Oakland, who are the inspirations behind his books." ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Arts, Music & Photography" ]

[ "Poor Jacob Two-Two, only two plus two plus two years old and already a prisoner of The Hooded Fang. What had he done to deserve such terrible punishment? Why, the worst crime of all – insulting a grown-up." ]

[ "Review", "Selection 2018 – BookRiot 50 Must-Read Canadian Children’s and YA Books", "“Mordecai Richler is a funny man, a good writer, and everyone should go out tomorrow morning and beat his local bookseller into submission if he hasn’t got a nice plump display of books titled", "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang", "…. It is ghastly and funny…an unbelievably believable unbelievable place with no artificial sweeteners or preservatives.” –", "The New York Times Book Review", "About the Author", "Mordecai Richler", "was born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1931. Raised there in the working-class Jewish neighbourhood around St. Urbain Street, he attended Sir George Williams College (now a part of Concordia University). In 1951 he left Canada for Europe, settling in London, England, in 1954. Eighteen years later, he moved back to Montreal.Novelist and journalist, screenwriter and editor, Richler, one of the most acclaimed contemporary writers, has spent much of his career chronicling, celebrating, and criticizing the Montreal and the Canada of his upbringing. Whether the settings of his fiction are St. Urbain Street or European capitals, his major characters never forsake the Montreal world that shaped them. His most frequent voice is that of the satirist, rendering an honest account of his times with care and humour.Richler’s many honours include two Governor General’s Awards and innumerable other awards for fiction, journalism, and screenwriting.Mordecai Richler died in Montreal, Quebec, in 2001." ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Growing Up & Facts of Life" ]

[ "[Read by Bahni Turpin] A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. ''", "Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink -- all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read", "Vogue", ", and I'm not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.", "'' In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking listeners on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society but also one of our culture.", "Bad Feminist", "is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better." ]

[ "Review", "''(Audiobook narrator) Bahni Turpin crisply delivers this expansive collection of essays. Author Gay covers an array of political, feminist, and culturally charged topics. Turpin sounds like she's giving a well-informed speech with the right inflections to emphasize specific points. Her tone is clear and deliberate, forcing one to focus on the content. As she recounts personal stories and numerous critiques of films and books, she draws listeners in with a matter-of-fact tone. Both humorous and raw moments are delivered with sharp clarity. Whether the topic is Gay's nemesis when playing in a Scrabble championship or deconstructing rape jokes, Turpin delivers with an assertiveness that will catch listeners' attention.'' --", "AudioFile", "''Smart readers cannot afford to miss these essays, which range from socially significant art (Girls, Django in Chains) and feminist issues (abortion) to politics (Chris Brown) and why Gay likes pink.'' --Library Journal ''With prodigious bravery and eviscerating humor, Roxane Gay takes on culture and politics in Bad Feminist -- and gets it right, time and time again. We should all be lucky enough to be such a bad feminist.'' --Ayelet Waldman, author of", "Love and Treasure", "and", "Bad Mother", "''Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there.'' --Sheila Heti, author of", "How Should a Person Be?", "''Gay's essays are consistently smart and provocative…Her essay collection will give you dinner-party conversation through September.'' --", "USA Today", "''A trenchant collection…Whatever her topic, Gay's provocative essays stand out for their bravery, wit, and emotional honesty.'' --", "Publishers Weekly", "(starred review)''A strikingly fresh cultural critic.'' --", "Washington Post" ]

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[ "Books", "Humor & Entertainment", "Humor" ]

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[ "As part of the Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures series, this edition contains exclusive bonus materials!", "Macon Fallon had never needed more than a deck of cards, a fast horse, and a ready gun; he was counting on those things now as he led an unsuspecting group of settlers to an abandoned mining town. But while Fallon prepared to pass the ghost town off as a gold mine in the making, a funny thing happened: a real-life community started to take shape in the town he’d christened Red Horse. So when a band of vicious outlaws and a kid who fancied himself a gunslinger threatened to rip Red Horse apart, Fallon found himself caught in one predicament he’d never gambled on. He had come to Red Horse to make a quick fortune, but now he might have to pick up a gun and risk his life for a place he never wanted to call home.", "Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures is a project created to release some of the author’s more unconventional manuscripts from the family archives.", "In", "Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volumes 1,", "Beau L’Amour takes the reader on a guided tour through many of the finished and unfinished short stories, novels, and treatments that his father was never able to publish during his lifetime. L’Amour’s never-before-seen first novel,", "No Traveller Returns,", "faithfully completed for this program, is a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas. These exciting publications will be followed by", "Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volume 2", ".", "Additionally, many beloved classics will be rereleased with an exclusive Lost Treasures postscript featuring previously unpublished material, including outlines, plot notes, and alternate drafts. These postscripts tell the story behind the stories that millions of readers have come to know and cherish." ]

[ "About the Author", "Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West,", "Louis L'Amour", "has thrilled a nation by chronicling the adventures of the brave men and women who settled the American frontier. There are more than 300 million copies of his books in print around the world.", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "CHAPTER 1Macon Fallon was a stranger to the town of Seven Pines, and fortunately for him he was a stranger with a fast ­horse.In the course of an eventful life, Macon Fallon had become a connoisseur of western hospitality, and knew when a limit had been reached.Hence, when an escorting party, complete with rope, arranged to conduct him to the vicinity of a large cotton­wood where the eve­ning’s festivities would be concluded, he wasted no time on formalities, but promptly departed the premises.The moment chosen was, of course, appropriate to the situation. The ­self-­appointed posse ­were as confident as a few drinks could make them, but ­were totally unaware of the quality of the man they escorted.One of the riders had lagged a little, and at that moment they came abreast of an opening in the brush that walled the trail. Fallon rode an excellent cutting ­horse that could turn on a dime.The black ­horse went through the opening with a bound and, sensing the urgency of its rider, took off on a dead run.No ­horse Fallon had ever seen could catch that black of his in under half a mile, and by the time that distance lay behind, Fallon was prepared to resort to evasive tactics. The black had staying quality as well as an initial burst of speed; and the posse, less superbly mounted, fell rapidly behind.Unfortunately, by the time the opportunity for escape was offered, only one direction remained to Fallon . . . and westward lay a waterless waste . . . or one that was relatively so.The nearest water hole was thirty miles off, but on Fallon’s one previous visit the water there had been plentiful and good. With a safe lead, and some tracks purposely left to indicate that he had circled the town, he settled down for a long ­ride.At thirty miles, with his throat parched for a drink, the water hole proved to be a bed of dried, cracked mud.At ­forty-­two miles, with his ­horse stumbling, the creek was a dusty trough, and Macon Fallon was a man in trouble.Somewhere behind was a posse of irate citizens who had by this time found his trail. They would be coming along with filled canteens and could afford to ignore the water holes.To the best of his knowledge, which admittedly was not thorough, the next seventy miles offered no water.Dust sifted over him, and sweat ­etched a fine pattern of lines upon his lean, ruggedly handsome if somewhat saturnine features. He dismounted, talked to the ­horse to reassure it, then walked on, leading the ­horse.He was a man naturally considerate of ­horses, but he also knew that in this country if his ­horse should die, his own death was only a matter of time.THE TROUBLE IN Seven Pines had been none of his own making. It has been written that while Man proposes, God disposes; but when Macon Fallon joined that poker game he had no idea he was sitting in on an invitation to death.He had money, a good ­horse, and time for a leisurely ­ride south. The poker game was merely a means to endure a dull eve­ning in a strange town; whether he won or lost was unimportant.His mood was pleasant, his prospects excellent, and the future looked good indeed, yet when he drew back that chair at the poker table, he sat down to trouble.The game began innocently enough. He won a small pot, lost two. . . . As the eve­ning progressed he drew no very interesting cards. By midnight he was winner to the tune of six silver dollars, and was ready to turn in. At that moment, destiny took a hand.Now, Fallon was a man who could do things with cards. He could, while shuffling, run up a top stock or a bottom stock; he could shift the cut, deal from the top or the bottom, or ­second-­deal; and he knew all about slick aces, marked or trimmed cards, shiners, mirrors in ­pipe-­ bowls or match boxes, and the tiny pricks on finger rings for the purpose of marking cards.Sleeve and belt holdouts ­were no mystery to him, and he knew all about the man who brings drinks or sandwiches to the table with a cold deck held underneath the tray ready for a switch. In short, Macon Fallon was a professional; and although usually honest, he was not above cheating the cheaters if they invited it.On this night he was playing a fair game, and was not especially interested in winning.Suddenly he was dealt an ace, another ace, and a third one. He discarded two indifferent cards, and was rewarded with two queens. The pot was very satisfactory, and no comment was made.The following hand he received two sevens and a pair of jacks, then drew a third seven. Once more the pot was a pleasant one; and a player named Collins, a pop­u­lar man locally, gave him a long, careful look and commented, “You are lucky to­night.”“I think I’ll turn in,” Fallon said, stifling a yawn. “I’ve a long ­ride tomorrow.”Collins glanced at him. “You have a good deal of our money. Better give us a chance to win it back.”“Two more hands then,” Fallon agreed. “I’m dead tired.”Instinct warned that he should get out while the getting was good, but even as he spoke the deal was progressing. It was with relief that he picked up two fours. He would lose this hand, then he would quit.He contributed liberally to the pot, and on the draw he picked up the other two fours.Four of a kind . . .Recognizing his dismay, they misunderstood its reason. Promptly, they began to raise, and Macon Fallon was not a man to look gift ­horses in the teeth, nor will any gambler in his right mind betray his luck.Besides, there was a poem he recalled, a poem that went something like this:If he play, being young and unskillful,For shekels of silver and gold—Take his money, my son, praising Allah,The kid was ordained to be sold.Unfortunately, that drawing of fours was followed by the drawing of sixes, and Collins lost on that draw also. He started to take action, and Fallon, forced to deal, placed two aces of lead, neatly spaced over the heart of Collins, where they might have been covered by a blue chip.The shooting was fair, and nobody had seen anything wrong with the play, but Collins had been a pop­u­lar man and nobody wanted to see all that money leave Seven Pines.A ­self-­appointed committee convened and it was decided to hang Fallon, whereupon the committee repaired to the bar to drink to their decision. Several drinks later Macon Fallon was led to his ­horse and started along the road toward the selected cottonwood.Befuddled by too many toasts to the occasion, and exhilarated by the prospect of excitement in town, they ne­glected to search Fallon’s ­saddle­bags or even to remove the rifle from its scabbard. After all, his hands ­were bound behind him and they had only half a mile to go.It could not be said that Macon Fallon was a man who missed opportunities, or was laggard in putting time to use. No sooner was he seated in the saddle than he began straining his fingers to reach the knots that bound his wrists, a proceeding considerably facilitated by the fact that he had taken the precaution of tensing his muscles as they bound him, which permitted a little slack.He had, on a couple of previous occasions, been witness to hangings, and the proceedings had filled him with distaste. The prospect of being the central figure in such a ceremony attracted him not at all.Yet dying of thirst was scarcely preferable, and that appeared to be the alternative he had chosen. Walking and riding with these thoughts in his mind, Fallon covered ten miles more.He was now devoid of any illusions as to the outcome. He simply was not going to make it, and neither was his ­horse. The blazing sun had taken its toll, as had the stifling dust.He might have tried to seek out shade and wait for the cooler hours, but the posse was somewhere behind him and they would not lack for water.Fallon remounted, and the black ­horse started gamely on. They would be fortunate to last another three miles.At that moment he saw the wagons. They ­were no mirage.Two covered wagons, two teams of six oxen each, two saddle ­horses, a milk cow, and half a dozen people. One wagon was canted sharply over, a condition he diagnosed as a broken wheel. Oxen and ­horses ­were gaunt, the people drawn and tired.Hastily, in the moment before they sighted him, Fallon beat the dust from his clothing, straightened his tie, pulled his ­horse’s head up, and straightened up himself. He would approach them as a man of means, a man of spirit, a man who could take command. Once people felt pity for a man, he would never be able to have the upper hand. The thing to do was take command and keep them moving.Macon Fallon was alive to opportunity, and opportunity was what he needed now. Every bit of his cash except for a few dollars had been left behind in Seven Pines. He needed not only a stake before going on, but a chance for his ­horse and himself to recover strength.And these ­were the people who would provide it. Did not the good Lord send the lambs to be sheared?" ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Action & Adventure" ]

[ "Two is better than one!Join twin sharks, Ella and Ethan, on their counting adventure through the deep blue sea." ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Animals" ]

[ "This is the revised 3rd Edition of the", "Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game", ", a rules-light game system based on the d20 SRD v3.5, but heavily rewritten with inspiration from early RPG game systems. It is suitable for those who are fans of \"old-school\" game mechanics, and it's simple enough for children in perhaps second or third grade to play, yet still having enough depth for adults as well.", "Starting a new campaign? Look for our beginner adventure modules", "Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign", "and", "The Chaotic Caves", ", which may be used separately or combined to provide many hours of Old School adventuring fun!" ]

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[ "Books", "Science Fiction & Fantasy", "Gaming" ]

[ "This comprehensive resource provides practical information, proven management tips, and over 100 specially selected art projects to help new and veteran K-8 art teachers implement an effective art education program and make art appreciation and activities fun. For easy use, materials are printed in a big 8 ?\" x 11\" format with lay-flat binding for photocopying of various management aids and student project handouts, and organized into two main parts. Part 1, The Art Program, offers tested guidelines and reproducible tools for building and managing the program. Part 2, The Art Curriculum, presents 102 exciting art projects organized by medium into nine units: (1) Exploring the Elements & Principles of Design, (2) Paper, (3) Painting, (4) Drawing with Pencil, Pastels, Crayons & Markers, (5) Painting, (6) Printmaking, (7) Three-Dimensional Design, (8) Architecture, and (9) Technology: Computer, Photography, Video." ]

[ "From the Back Cover", "This comprehensive \"survival kit\" gives new and experienced art specialists and classroom teachers practical advice and ready-to-use tools for implementing an effective K-8 art education program plus over 125 exciting, illustrated art projects with reproducible student handouts in a variety of creative media. For easy use, all materials are printed in a big 8-1/4\" x 11\" lay-flat binding that folds flat for photocopying of the student project handouts and organized into two major parts.", "Part I, The Art Program", ", provides tested guidelines and reproducibles for building the program and making art appreciation and activities fun. Included are tips for writing art lesson plans, creating bulletin boards, and assessing artwork as well as the developmental characteristics of students as they apply to art at each grade level, K through 8, discipline suggestions, safety precautions, and more.", "Part II, The Art Curriculum", ", presents more than 100 specially selected art projects organized by medium into nine units. Each project is illustrated, complete and ready for use, and includes adaptations for younger students, alternative project(s) and interdisciplinary and multicultural connection. Here's an overview of the projects you'll find in each curriculum unit:", "Exploring the Elements & Principles of Design. Unit 1 features 12 stimulating projects to help students understand the basic elements and principles of art, such as Costumes & Color (color)...Collage Cityscape (space)...Mexican Sun (texture)...and Black & White Makes It Right (contrast).", "Exploring the Elements & Principles of Design", ". Unit 1 features 12 stimulating projects to help students understand the basic elements and principles of art, such as", "Costumes & Color", "(color)...", "Collage Cityscape", "(space)...", "Mexican Sun", "(texture)...and", "Black & White Makes It Right", "(contrast).", "Paper. The 10 projects in Unit 2 include a paper-making activity, Handmade Paper, and introduce various techniques for creating with paper in activities like Story Quilt and Pop-Up Greeting Cards.", "Paper.", "The 10 projects in Unit 2 include a paper-making activity,", "Handmade Paper", ", and introduce various techniques for creating with paper in activities like", "Story Quilt", "and", "Pop-Up Greeting Cards", ".", "Drawing with Pencil, Pastels, Crayons & Markers. Unit 3 offers 14 projects exploring new ways to work with unfamiliar materials. In The Bestiary, Animal Drawings, for example, students draw an imaginary creature by combining parts of familiar animals.", "Drawing with Pencil, Pastels, Crayons & Markers.", "Unit 3 offers 14 projects exploring new ways to work with unfamiliar materials. In", "The Bestiary, Animal Drawings", ", for example, students draw an imaginary creature by combining parts of familiar animals.", "Painting. The 15 projects in Unit 4 introduce painting in tempera, acrylics, watercolor, and ink. For example, in Open the Door! Students study different examples of historical doors and arches then paint their own doorway.", "Painting.", "The 15 projects in Unit 4 introduce painting in tempera, acrylics, watercolor, and ink. For example, in", "Open the Door!", "Students study different examples of historical doors and arches then paint their own doorway.", "Printmaking. Unit 5 presents 11 methods of printmaking with how-to tips for each process, plus 7 stimulating printmaking projects such as Colorful Tiles, Relief Prints, and Japanese Fish Printing.", "Printmaking.", "Unit 5 presents 11 methods of printmaking with how-to tips for each process, plus 7 stimulating printmaking projects such as", "Colorful Tiles", ",", "Relief Prints", ", and", "Japanese Fish Printing", ".", "Three-Dimensional Design. In Unit 6, you'll find 16 projects that give students the chance to assemble, carve or create masks with paper, wood, metal, soap and other materials, including Rolled Paper-Tube Sculpture, 3-D Sports Heroes, and Assemblage.", "Three-Dimensional Design", ". In Unit 6, you'll find 16 projects that give students the chance to assemble, carve or create masks with paper, wood, metal, soap and other materials, including", "Rolled Paper-Tube Sculpture", ",", "3-D Sports Heroes", ", and", "Assemblage", ".", "Ceramics. The 8 popular projects in Unit 7 involve students in working with clay. Examples include Double Pinch Pot, Architectural Birdhouse, and Mural: Ceramic, Cement, Marbles, Noodle and Glass.", "Ceramics.", "The 8 popular projects in Unit 7 involve students in working with clay. Examples include", "Double Pinch Pot", ",", "Architectural Birdhouse", ", and", "Mural: Ceramic, Cement, Marbles, Noodle and Glass", ".", "Architecture: The Built Environment. Unit 8 features 10 architecture-based research activities, such as City Planning...Victorian Houses...Design a Chair...and Paint Your Dream House.", "Architecture: The Built Environment.", "Unit 8 features 10 architecture-based research activities, such as", "City Planning", "...", "Victorian Houses", "...", "Design a Chair", "...and", "Paint Your Dream House", ".", "Technology: Computer, Photography, Video. All 7 projects in Unit 9 utilize a computer. Students learns how to produce different typefaces, add texture, transform black and white copies, manipulate photos and more in activities such as Graphic Design: A Public Service Flyer, Line Drawing with a Flashlight, and Video Production.", "Technology: Computer, Photography, Video.", "All 7 projects in Unit 9 utilize a computer. Students learns how to produce different typefaces, add texture, transform black and white copies, manipulate photos and more in activities such as", "Graphic Design: A Public Service Flyer", ",", "Line Drawing with a Flashlight", ", and", "Video Production", ".", "Written by a master educator with more than 30 years of classroom experience,", "A Survival Kit for the Elementary/Middle School Art Teacher", "places in your hands a ready source of practical information, seasoned management advice and exciting content activities that might otherwise take many years and much effort to compile.", "About the Author", "Helen D. Hume", "taught art for more than 30 years in St. Louis, Missouri, and is currently a teacher-trainer for elementary art teachers and a board member of the St. Louis Artists' Guild. She is the author of The Art Teacher's Book of Lists, American Art Appreciation Activities Kit, Art History & Appreciation Activities Kit, and A Survival Kit for the Secondary Art Teacher, all published by Prentice Hall and The Center for Applied Research in Education." ]

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[ "Books", "Education & Teaching", "Schools & Teaching" ]

[ "A delightful story of Santa Claus who loves to have fun instead of focusing on what needs to get done. What could possibly go wrong when Santa goes sledding on Christmas Eve?About the author:Rox Siles was born in Bolivia and moved at a young age to the United States. She grew up in Michigan where she got married and attended medical school. She currently works as a physician in Ohio. She developed a passion for writing children’s books after reading bedtime stories with her son. One night, they couldn’t agree on which book to read. It was at that moment they created “Charlie the Turtle and the Muddy Birthday Cake” and the rest is history. In her free time, Rox enjoys spending time with her family and their two dogs, Tika and Jazz, which you may find in some of her books. Her stories are often influenced by their family adventures and her Spanish heritage. Rox’s goal is to share positive messages with children through her bilingual books.You can follow her on Facebook and Instagram @silesreadsThis book is also available in Spanish. Papá Noel Pasea en Trineo en la Víspera de Navidad." ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Holidays & Celebrations" ]

[ "When the wayward lady Imogen Swain summons journalist Jemima Shore to her home, Jemima once again finds herself in the thick of love affairs--old and new--intrigue, and betrayal. For the colorful Lady Imogen kept diaries documenting her passionate affair with a rising young politician who has since risen to high ranks in the government. Increasingly eccentric as the years have passed, Lady Imogen now threatens to reveal details of the affair, and of the subsequent and unsolved disappearance of a young journalist. Jemima's meeting with Lady Imogen is the first step in a sinister series of events which will remind the reader why Antonia Fraser is the reigning queen of murder--British style!" ]

[ "From the Inside Flap", "When the wayward lady Imogen Swain summons journalist Jemima Shore to her home, Jemima once again finds herself in the thick of love affairs--old and new--intrigue, and betrayal. For the colorful Lady Imogen kept diaries documenting her passionate affair with a rising young politician who has since risen to high ranks in the government. Increasingly eccentric as the years have passed, Lady Imogen now threatens to reveal details of the affair, and of the subsequent and unsolved disappearance of a young journalist. Jemima's meeting with Lady Imogen is the first step in a sinister series of events which will remind the reader why Antonia Fraser is the reigning queen of murder--British style!", "About the Author", "Antonia Fraser", "is the author of many internationally bestselling historical works, including", "Love and Louis XIV", ",", "Mary Queen of Scots", ", and", "Marie Antoinette", ", which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola. She is also the author of two memoirs,", "Must You Go?", "and", "My History.", "She has received the Wolfson History Prize, the 2000 Norton Medlicott Medal from Britain's Historical Association, and the Enid McLeod Franco-British Society Literary Prize. Fraser was made a Dame for services to literature in 2011.", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "CHAPTER 1   A RADICAL SOLUTION   Millie Swain was in her dressing-room reading the evening paper and thinking how rotten the government was, when the telephone rang. With a sinking heart, she knew that it was her sister. Olga was married to a Conservative MP, known to his sister-in-law as Holy Harry, but Millie did not imagine that Olga was calling her to discuss politics. If only she were! Millie would bait her about the government’s record, and how they deserved to lose the election, which would be enjoyable. As it was, Millie Swain was filled with dread.   “She’s done it again. Madre of course. Today of all days. I could kill her. And so could Harry.” Olga’s voice was crisp, but even so Millie could detect the note of resentment towards herself. “Your turn, Millie,” Olga’s voice was saying to her.   “Where?”—defensively—“You know I’m just about to—it’s the last preview—”   “I know. I looked it up in the paper. To get the number.” More resentment. This time the voice was saying: “You haven’t arranged for tickets for us for the first night. And I had to look up your telephone number.”   In the large mirror opposite her chair, Millie could see herself already dressed in the velvet trouser suit and frilly shirt in which she was about to play a sixties Viola. She had grown her short dark hair so that it could be cut to resemble that of a fashionable young man of the period, curls brushing the collar of her shirt. An enormous plastic Pop mackintosh and hat for the opening scene hung on a hook in her open cupboard. She must not let herself be distracted by Olga.   To stop that unspoken voice of complaint, Millie decided on a policy of sisterly warmth. “Where, darling? Yes, it does matter. Perhaps I can help this time. You know I want to. This Twelfth Night is not a long version,” she went on, “many, many cuts, I’m happy to tell you. That means you and Holy Harry—all right, Harry then—will love it, won’t you? It starts at seven thirty. And I can be out of the theatre pretty sharply. At least the West End, if a desert, is a convenient desert.” Millie hesitated. “Olga, you say this time it was worse …”   But could anything be worse than last time, Millie wondered. “Last time” referred to the occasion when Madre had gone to Harrods, bearing an ancient evening dress, shell-pink and heavily beaded, in a Safeways bag. She had then decided to exchange it for a new one on the grounds that there was a stain on it—true enough, there were in fact a good many stains. She must have pulled it out of one of her terrible cupboards. With a kind of dreadful plausibility, the precise dress Madre wanted in exchange—Versace, Christian Lacroix, that sort of thing, costing thousands—had similar bead-work to the remnants on the ragged pink object on the chair beside her.   “Actually it did have a very dirty label in it, something like ‘Christian Dior–Harrods’,” reported Olga. “No doubt that was what aroused the manager’s respect.” It was naturally Olga who’d had to cope with all this. (Millie was in rehearsal and could not be reached.) Olga found herself summoned to Harrods by a house manager or some such functionary who was, under the circumstances, amazingly polite. Perhaps that was part of the Harrods’ training course: how to pacify middle-aged ladies bringing in ancient dresses to exchange them for something new?   “Lady Imogen was rather distressed,” he began, “but fortunately she had your number written in her diary under the words ‘Next of kin’.” The manager coughed discreetly at what such a phrase might otherwise suggest. “So it seemed wise to summon you.”   Olga tried to match the manager’s own delicacy. “I’m afraid my mother does get a little distressed from time to time. Confused is probably the right word.” Olga thought she had better broach the unpleasant subject. “Did she by any chance try to pay for the dress by putting it on her account?”   “I don’t think you quite understand.” The first hint of something less bland beneath the manager’s composed surface. “Lady Imogen didn’t try to pay for it at all—”   “Yes, yes,” stumbled Olga, “how stupid of me.” Just as well, she thought, since the account had long ago been closed: one of the many facts her mother found impossible to accept.   “As a matter of fact Lady Imogen seemed to think that the original dress had been a present,” went on the manager with a tactful cough, blandness restored. But Olga knew better than to pursue that one. She knew from experience that this could be lethal. She could imagine only too well who was supposed to have given her mother the dress, probably had given it to her, dammit.   “Come along, Madre,” Olga said bracingly—but not too bracingly, she hoped. Past experience again: too much bossiness, the nanny’s touch, tended to make things worse. “Let’s go home.”   “But my pretty dress.” Lady Imogen spoke up suddenly in that breathy little-girl voice which became that much breathier on these occasions. “I need it for tonight. The Barracloughs’ ball. Teresa is coming up from the country. As you can imagine, rather a fraught occasion. But Burgo has promised, you know, my Burgo—” More coughs but this time from Olga, as she resolutely interrupted her mother. She simply could not allow Madre to keep introducing that name. It was so terribly recognisable! The manager sounded nice and was certainly helpful, but the Press were everywhere. With the election coming (it had finally been announced for March 18) politicians were more in the news than ever, and if the story got repeated … what on earth would poor Harry do about it?   Her mother was sitting quite docilely on a gilt chair brought by the thoughtful manager; she had the unhappy air of an abandoned child. It was indeed extremely irritating to Olga that her mother, a woman in her sixties, for heaven’s sake, could from a distance be mistaken for a girl. It was partly the sheer littleness of her. Imogen Swain was no more than five foot one, a tiny fairy of a woman, and even the absurd high heels she insisted on wearing, on which she balanced so precariously, hardly took her to average height. Both Olga and Millie had inherited the more robust physical appearance of the father they could not remember.   Of course when you saw Madre close, no slimness could make up for the fact that here was a wrinkled, no, an extremely wrinkled woman, who would never see sixty again—might indeed be seeing seventy quite soon. The huge blue eyes (Olga and Millie both had eyes like black olives) were surrounded by lines, which the spiky mascara on the sparse eyelashes only emphasised, and lines dragged down the wide mouth with its slightly-too-bright lipstick. Raddled was probably the right word for Madre’s appearance. Olga’s daughter Elfi, an only child with an unfortunate gift for accuracy, had once observed, “Nonna looks like a very old doll, doesn’t she, like a doll you find in the garden when it’s been left out in the rain?” It was still true that neither Olga nor Millie could be mistaken for dolls.   Now, as Millie Swain sat in her dressing-room in her velvet suit, waiting for the latest report from the distressing maternal front, her gaze fell again on the evening paper. It would happen that there was a picture of the Right Honourable Burgo Smyth at Heathrow beneath a report of the latest poll on the outcome of the election (still a dead-heat). That in itself was hardly unusual: a Foreign Secretary was always at some airport or other, BURGO FLIES OUT was a familiar headline as the photogenic Foreign Secretary headed towards the latest crisis. In this case Burgo was flying in: he was calling, she noted, for a radical solution to something or other, some place or other. Millie had long ago trained herself not to tremble with agitation every time she saw a picture of Burgo or caught sight of him on TV. But this afternoon’s picture was different.   By a fluke of shadow as he bent down, Burgo’s magnificent head of silvery hair—his most characteristic feature—looked black again. This was once more the young man who—but Millie would not let herself continue. She had to think of Madre now, not Madre then, not Burgo at all. For a long time as children they had not been allowed to mention his name. The topic had been cut off, just like that, with bewildering suddenness. In the same way Burgo himself—marvellous generous teasing huggable bear-like Burgo—had vanished mysteriously and suddenly from their lives. Questions to Madre had met with a blank stare of those huge wide-open blue eyes, so famously beautiful, so free from lines around them. And there would be silence as though the question had simply not been asked. Questions to Nanny Forrester had met with a sharp reproof and, if repeated, a sharp slap. So Millie had learnt to divorce the public image of Burgo Smyth, politician, from the private man she had once known. Most of the time she genuinely felt nothing.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Mystery, Thriller & Suspense", "Thrillers & Suspense" ]

[ "Interviews with more than sixty people--from booksellers to sidewalk vendors to prostitutes--shed light on everyday life as well as the great upheavals, of contemporary China" ]

[ "From Publishers Weekly", "Interviewing people throughout China in 1984, the authors, a journalist and a novelist, have compiled an unprecedented look at the People's Republic. The speakers range from an entrepreneurial street urchin selling popcorn, to a convict, a hippie-type young man hiking and biking around the country and a rehabilitated prostitute. One portrait is of a bookstore manager who earnestly defends the country's policy of controlling what books are sold. In his store, he says, to help guard public morality, when customers purchase a copy of Sex Information and What Newlyweds Need to Know \" . . . we also make them take a copy of How to Repair Electrical Appliances.\" Many of the interviewees are survivors of the Cultural Revolution andare scrambling hard to succeed in China's new climate of materialism; nearly all speak informally and candidly. The result is an appealing, patchwork-quilt portrayal of contemporary life in a nation famed in the West for its inscrutability. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.", "From Library Journal", "This book consists of 70-odd short interviews with Chinese people in every walk of life. The pieces, which created a sensation when serialized in China in 1985, present their life stories and attitudes much more realistically than most Chinese reportage or fiction. Part of the original's charm lay in its ear for jargon and idioms from different regions of China, an element lost in this British-supervised translation. Otherwise, the interviews are original, enlightening, and fun to readexcept when one detects the obligatory notes of obeisance to current political and economic reforms. The authors' Chinese Profiles ( LJ 1/87) contains a different selection, in different translations, from the same body of material. Ed. Andrew J. Nathan, Columbia Univ.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc." ]

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[ "Books", "History", "Asia" ]

[ "Disclaimer: This is a work of poetry intended for a mature audience. All characters are over 18. This is a collection of poems about hope, love, despair and joy. And the occasional dragon. The Art of Losing arguing with a beautiful girl is like gambling against a stacked deck the question isn't whether you'll lose but with how much grace Irrational Curves and Meaningless Straights Cthulhu may be cruel and evil monstrous and soul consuming but that doesn’t mean he can’t have poker night inviting Dagon and Nyarlathotep Azaroth and the gang to a card table formed by flattening a mountain with his fist and the stakes are high souls and planets the occasional galaxy the snacks are strange beholders dipped in buffalo sauce but when it comes to gambling with Cthulhu the worst part isn't that he's stacked the deck but that non-Euclidean geometries make straights meaningless For Rachel if the darkness is depression and despair you are the dawn lifting the edge of night blunting it's power radiant and unstinting" ]

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[ "Books", "Humor & Entertainment", "Humor" ]

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[ "A disgraced hero, an impossible mission, an object of desire.", "Saul Davis, fresh out of a stint in prison, wants to rebuild his karma. But this scam artist has found himself working as a psychic consultant for LAPD detectives. When a woman painted in gold is found murdered at a luxury home in Benedict Canyon, the police look to Saul for answers. It's a ritual murder, but signifying what? Is this Saul's chance to redeem himself, or will he fall into his old hustling ways?", "This is the first fascicle of the Zodiac Rising serial novella." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Genre Fiction" ]

[ "Kept prisoner in a children's psychiatric ward due to her powerful special ability, young Sarah, who is no ordinary girl, is about to turn the tables on the scientists who have tried to mold her power into something evil. Original." ]

[ "From Publishers Weekly", "Starred Review. Kenyon (", "Bloodstone", ") shifts smoothly between '80s-style supernatural horror and modern-day science thriller in this superb sophomore effort. Sarah Voorsanger's birth was so explosive that the hospital burned down. Her grandparents attempted to raise her, but after several episodes of psychokinesis, they decided she was the Antichrist and turned her over to the state. Now 10 years old, Sarah is virtually imprisoned in a Boston institution, where agents of Helix Pharmaceuticals experiment on her with drugs designed to activate psychic abilities. When psychology grad student Jess Chambers bonds with Sarah, first outraged by her condition and then shocked by her extraordinary paranormal talents, she knows she must rescue the child from Helix before the company awakens her most deadly powers. Readers, left breathless, will hope Kenyon makes good on hints of a sequel.", "(Dec.)", "Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Genre Fiction" ]

[ "Named A Book of the Year by NPR,", "The Dallas Morning News", ",", "Kirkus Reviews", ", and", "Booklist", "Instant", "New York Times", "Bestseller", "An", "Entertainment Weekly", "'Must List' Pick", "“I really loved this book... I can't praise it enough.”—Anne Rice", "It was the summer everything changed.…", "My Sunshine Away", "unfolds in a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate football fandom. But in the summer of 1989, when fifteen-year-old Lindy Simpson—free spirit, track star, and belle of the block—experiences a horrible crime late one evening near her home, it becomes apparent that this idyllic stretch of Southern suburbia has a dark side, too. In", "My Sunshine Away", ", M.O. Walsh brilliantly juxtaposes the enchantment of a charmed childhood with the gripping story of a violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love. Acutely wise and deeply honest, it is an astonishing and page-turning debut about the meaning of family, the power of memory, and our ability to forgive." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Genre Fiction" ]

[ "Born an ocean apart--one in Peru, Indiana, to great wealth, the other in Teddington, England, to an itinerant piano salesman--Cole Porter and Noel Coward have come to represent the ultimate in sophistication and urbanity. \"You Do Something to Me,\"", "Gay Divorce", ", \"I Get a Kick Out of You,\" \"JustOne of Those Things,\"", "Anything Goes", ", \"Begin the Beguine,\"", "Private Lives", ", \"Night and Day,\"", "Blithe Spirit", ", \"Let's Do It,\"", "Hay Fever", ", \"It's De-Lovely\"--the list of witty and irreverent songs and plays goes on and on. It is a body of work that was tremendously exciting when it first appeared and remainsremarkably popular today. Based on access to previously unpublished manuscripts, lyrics, scores and letters, plus dozens of interviews,", "Noel and Cole", "presents a fresh and often surprising portrait of these two geniuses and their work, packed with numerous photographs, some of which have never been published before.Stephen Citron interweaves the biographical strands with consummate skill, providing insight into both men's private lives--including a frank discussion of their homosexuality--while illuminating their musical achievements. Indeed Citron, a composer and lyricist himself, excels at musical analysis,and throughout the volume he sheds considerable light on Porter's and Coward's art. He tells us, for instance, that in composing the melody of \"Night and Day,\" Cole Porter restricted himself to mid-range notes, with hardly any vocal leaps that would betray a breathless dancer, especially as thedancer was Fred Astaire, who had never studied singing seriously, and was just launching his solo career. (Citron also tells us that Astaire wanted \"Night and Day\" dropped from the show, because he feared that with its long-held notes, especially on the word \"day,\" his voice would crack.) Citronalso shows how fast a worker Noel Coward could be: Coward wrote", "Hay Fever", "in three days, for instance, and his finest play,", "Private Lives", ", took him four days (while he was laid low with a bout of influenza in Shanghai). Packed with information, including a quintuple chronology and a fifty-page section devoted to the analysis of selected songs,", "Noel and Cole", "will be an essential reference as well as a fascinating dual biography of two men who brought style and dazzle to the art of popular entertainment." ]

[ "From Library Journal", "Noel and Cole is a courageous and highly successful chronicle of two great legends of the theater, music, and film worlds during the first half of the 20th century. Citron carefully documents the pair's parallel careers and frequent collaboration. No book currently available is as comprehensive in its treatment of these two greats.The history is made engaging through a generous blend of facts, photographs, scores, and interviews. The dynamism of Porter and Coward, whether working together or separately, is made abundantly clear and appealing for readers at all levels. As a reference work, the volume is well indexed, and the useful bibliography directs readers to other useful resources. For most serious music collections.", "- Richard Lornzen, Univ. of Washington", "Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.", "From Kirkus Reviews", "Witty, urbane, and enormously gifted, Noel Coward and Cole Porter were both born in small towns and encouraged by strong mothers. Both were gay, died in their 73rd year, and, in a field dominated by collaborators (Rogers and Hart, etc.), wrote the music as well as the lyrics to their own songs. Here, Citron (The Musical from the Inside Out, 1992, etc.--not reviewed), himself a professional songwriter, anchors the pair in a tradition that reflects their restless times and analyzes the qualities that made each man an original. In alternating chapters that cover the composers in turn, Citron--who offers incisive analyses of their hit songs-- successfully traces the trajectories of the two musical stars. Born in 1891 to a wealthy but uncultured Indiana family, Porter was sent east for schooling. At Yale, he wrote undergraduate reviews, made important lifelong connections, and acquired his lavish way of life. Never dependent on songwriting for a livelihood (in addition to his own fortune, he married a wealthy divorc‚e), he was late in finding the limelight. By contrast, Coward, born in 1899 to an impecunious middle-class English family, bypassed a formal education and was on the stage by age 14. The more versatile of the two, he wrote fiction, plays, songs, operettas, and musical reviews, and acted and starred in many of his own productions-- while Porter wrote only complex harmonies, lilting melodies, and inimitable lyrics, many of them risqu‚. Porter emerges here as the colder personality, always a bit remote and, in his final, pain- ridden years (a leg, injured in a horse-racing accident 21 years earlier, had to be amputated), a semi-recluse. The two musical lions admired each other, Citron says, and they shared many friends and theatrical associates. A thorough introduction--featuring much original song interpretation--that's a valuable addition to existing memoirs and biographies (e.g., Coward's own Future Indefinite, 1986, and Charles Schwartz's Cole Porter, 1977). (Thirty halftones) --", "Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.", "About the Author", "About the Author:", "Stephen Citron", "is a composer, lyricist, and lecturer. His recent work includes writing scores for", "One More Song", "(the Judy Garland musical), and", "Laura", "(a murder mystery musical). He is the author of", "Songwriting", ", the standard reference work on the subject, and the recently published", "The Musical From", "Inside Out.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Biographies & Memoirs", "Arts & Literature" ]

[ "From its modest beginnings in Forest Park with a few animals in a pen, the Saint Louis Zoo has become a world-class zoological park. Along the way, it has spawned many enchanting stories. In this fond collection of animal tales, Patricia Corrigan reveals all the charm of the Zoo's \"wild things\" and the people who care for them." ]

[ "About the Author", "Patricia Corrigan is the author of Convertible Dreams: Saturday Morning Musings on Life, Lunch & Matters of the Heart; The Whale Watcher's Guide; and six children's nature books published by NorthWord Press.", "Corrigan has also written \"zoo stories\" over the years for the old Globe-Democrat and the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, where she works as a feature writer." ]

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[ "Books", "History", "Americas" ]

[ "Download NOW and CHANGE YOUR LIFE!", "Do you wish you knew what people were really thinking but not saying?", "Do you wish you could understand people more quickly and on a deeper level? Would you like to know people better than they know themselves?", "If you answered yes to any of those questions,", "this is the book you've been waiting for!", "DOWNLOAD TODAY AND GET A BONUS EBOOK FREE!", "Learn the secrets of analyzing people using their body language, speech, facial expressions, and other non-verbal communication. Learning how to read and analyze those around you will give you a unique insight into their psychology, fears, desires, and emotions. You can use this insider information to your advantage regardless of the situation. Learn to be a better salesman, cultivate more friends and personal relationships, or just help others to understand themselves. The possibilities are endless when you know how to analyze people.", "Those who are successful in business, money, love, and life already understand the critical, life-altering power that comes with being able to confidently analyze other people. But analyzing body language and nonverbal communication can be challenging. It is not intuitive and it does not come naturally for most of us.", "The good news is that anyone can learn the skills, tricks, and hacks necessary to become an expert at analyzing and reading people. The amazing power that comes with being able to see inside a person's mind and understand what he or she is really thinking", "is available to anyone who knows a few simple secrets about how to analyze people!", "The keys to unlock happiness, success, and an uncanny ability to truly connect with others are yours for the taking once you learn a few simple facts about human psychology and nonverbal communication.", "You can break free of the limits of verbal communication. Even complete beginners who have taken the time to go through this how-to self-help guide will have the power to read people at first sight with ease.", "Don't let your inability to analyze people limit your social potential anymore!", "Author, researcher, and life enthusiast Brian Masters has boiled down the essentials of analyzing people using body language, how they talk, social cues, and other subtle non verbal communication! This", "proven self help guide", "will work for", "absolutely anyone!", "Men, women, beginner, expert, children, teens, and adults can all benefit from cultivating an analytical skillset aimed at reading and understanding the people they interact with.", "This book is a", "practical how-to self-help guide", "written for the trenches of life. It is not just some psychology professor's \"theory\" that he learned reading text books in his ivory tower!", "If you are interested in learning how to analyze anyone you meet, grab this book now!", "Grab your copy of", "How To Analyze People: Analyzing and Reading People using Proven Methods of Human Psychology, Body Language, People Skills, Social Skills, Nonverbal Communication, Personality Patterns and Human Needs", "today and learn:", "How to read non-verbal communication", "How to read non-verbal communication", "Detect the meaning behind certain unconscious and subconscious language", "Detect the meaning behind certain unconscious and subconscious language", "The importance of subtle gestures", "The importance of subtle gestures", "What are clusters and how can you analyze them", "What are clusters and how can you analyze them", "The difference between cold reading and hot reading and how to employ both techniques to your advantage", "The difference between cold reading and hot reading and how to employ both techniques to your advantage", "Simple psychological tricks you can learn in minutes that will immediately make you better at analyzing people!", "Simple psychological tricks you can learn in minutes that will immediately make you better at analyzing people!", "Don't let life pass you by! Every day you put off taking action is another day that is lost forever.", "ACT NOW!", "Scroll up, click purchase, and learn to analyze people today. Make a small investment in yourself today that will pay off big!" ]

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[ "Books", "Religion & Spirituality", "Occult & Paranormal" ]

[ "**This deluxe collection contains five complete novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, including the original illustrations!**Barsoom, a name that has inspired the imaginations of readers for a century. Edgar Rice Burroughs created his vision of a dying Mars to serve as a backdrop for the adventures of John Carter, one time Earthman. These tales of swashbuckling intrigue, war, and romance have served as the foundation of such diverse careers as those of Carl Sagan and George Lucas. Resurrected Press has collected the first five of these tales, A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, The Warlord of Mars, Thuvia, Maid of Mars, and The Chessmen of Mars in one volume to entertain yet another generation with these marvelous stories." ]

[ "About the Author", "Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875-March 19, 1950) was born in Chicago. After failing to secure an appointment to West Point, he enlisted in the 7th Cavalry. After being discharged for medical reasons he turned to writing as a career. He was the creator of some of the best known heroes of all times, Tarzan and John Carter, as well as the author of numerous other works of fiction. During World War II he served as a war correspondent though he was in his sixties at the time. As recognition of the influence he had on many of the scientists and engineers of the space age, he was honored by having a crater named for him on the planet Mars, scene of some of his most memorable works." ]

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[ "Books", "Science Fiction & Fantasy", "Science Fiction" ]

[ "Unique & personalized gift for Dad !", "With over 30 unique prompts and pages for fun drawings, creative writing, sketching, photos, stickers or anything.", "Book size is 8.25 by 6 inches / 20.96 x 15.24 cm.", "Prompts are fun and easy to fill by kids. A few are", "You are special because ____________", "You are special because ____________", "I love it when you ____________", "I love it when you ____________", "You make me laugh when ____________", "You make me laugh when ____________", "You are good at ____________", "You are good at ____________", "And many more !", "And many more !", "This fill in book for Dad is perfect for:", "Father's Day", "Father's Day", "Grandparent's Day", "Grandparent's Day", "Birthday, Valentine or Christmas gift", "Birthday, Valentine or Christmas gift", "Appreciation gift for any day", "Appreciation gift for any day", "Order Today and give your Dad a gift he'll love!" ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Growing Up & Facts of Life" ]

[ "An adventurer sets out on a three-year journey to three continents to research, locate, and paint each of the nine great cats of the world--the cougar, jaguar, Siberian tiger, lion, clouded leopard, cheetah, Bengal tiger, African leopard, and snow leopard." ]

[ "Amazon.com Review", "Great Cats", "is a beautifully illustrated travelogue of one man's unusual adventure. In 1993, soldier-turned-award-winning-artist Simon Combes set out to observe and paint the nine great cats of the world in their natural habitats. Combes circled the globe to accomplish this feat, braving blizzards and blowguns. He breaks his account down into three three-cat sections: Cats of the Jungle (Thailand's Clouded Leopard, Venezuela's Jaguar, and India's Bengal Tiger), Cats of the Snow (Siberia's Siberian Tiger, Mongolia's Snow Leopard, North America's Cougar), and Cats of the Plains (Kenya's Cheetah and Tanzania's Leopard and Lion).", "Combes's skillful sketches and photographic paintings are matched only by his fresh and engaging commentary. As a gifted artist, Combes is very perceptive, and he employs this talent both on and off the canvas, making wry and sometimes hysterical observations of the human subjects he encounters. The cats, however, are given only reverent scrutiny, and anyone who is drawn to the power and beauty of these regal creatures will find Combes a kindred spirit and capable guide. One of the most thoughtful additions to the book is an information box for each cat, detailing its behavior, habitat, population status, and principal threats. Combes gravely notes that the most serious threat to each of the cats is human encroachment on its dwindling habitat.", "--Paul Hughes", "From", "Booklist", "Combes (one of this reviewer's favorite wildlife artists) is a master at portraying the gestalt of wild cats, and the big cats he turns his attention to in this book are no exception to his usual level of excellence. The book's text is a record of the research and travels Combes undertook when he fulfilled a dream to paint the nine largest cats (including two subspecies of tiger). The ensuing three-and-a-half-year quest makes for interesting reading as we are taken along on journeys to the cats' wilderness homes, visits with big cats in zoos, and discussions with scientists studying the cats. The basic biological data are provided in sidebars to the stories of the creation of the paintings of each species, and we learn more about them in the reporting of meetings with researchers. This melding of travelogue, cat love, funny stories, and beautiful illustrations (the study sketches alone are worth the price of the book) makes for an irresistible package that will be popular in all libraries.", "Nancy Bent", "About the Author", "Simon Combes was born in England and moved at the age of six to a farm in Kenya's Great Rift Valley. Later, he attended The Duke of York School in Nairobi, and spent free time wandering Lord Delamere's 50,000 acre ranch at Elementeita where his father was a cattle manager. Here he developed an early love and knowledge of wilderness and wildlife. In 1958 he was drafted into the Kenyan army, and after completing his service, applied for a commission in the Kings African Rifles, a local army commanded and administered by the British colonial regime. In 1960 he was accepted for the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, but was first assigned to \"training\" in Uganda's 4th KAR, where his primary responsibility became grooming one of the battalion's future leaders: Idi Amin. For five years following his Sandhurst training, (and Kenya's independence,) Combes served with the Kenyan army in the guerrilla war with neighboring Somalia. In 1969, a near sell-out of his paintings at the New Stanley Art Gallery in Nairobi planted a glimmer of an idea that art could be an alternative career. A full-time artist since 1974, Simon lives England, but returns to his beloved Kenya for three months each winter as (photographic) safari guide. He sits on the boards of several wildlife conservation organizations, and has raised, through his art, many thousands of dollars for their causes. He has won numerous fine art awards, and his paintings are in collections around the globe.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Reference", "Writing, Research & Publishing Guides" ]

[ "Chilling True Tales of Haunted Places and Legends in Pennsylvania's Historic Montgomery County." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Genre Fiction" ]

[ "St. Patrick's Day, New York City. Everyone is celebrating, but everyone is in for the shock of his life. Born into the heat and hatred of the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA man Brian Flynn has masterminded a brilliant terrorist act the seizure of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Among his hostages: the woman Brian Flynn once loved, a former terrorist turned peace activist. Among his enemies: an Irish-American police lieutenant fighting against a traitor inside his own ranks and a shadowy British intelligence officer pursuing his own cynical, bloody plan. The cops face a booby-trapped, perfectly laid out killing zone inside the church. The hostages face death. Flynn faces his own demons, in an electrifying duel of nerves, honor, and betrayal." ]

[ "Review", "\"A HOME-RUN THRILLER\". -- Chicago Tribune", "--This text refers to an alternate", "kindle_edition", "edition.", "Review", "'As tense and tight as today's headlines' Los Angeles Times 'A home-run thriller' - Chicago Tribune", "--This text refers to an alternate", "kindle_edition", "edition.", "From the Back Cover", "St. Patrick's Day, New York City. Everyone is celebrating, but everyone is in for the shock of his life. Born into the heat and hatred of the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA man Brian Flynn has masterminded a brilliant terrorist act -- the seizure of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Among his hostages: the woman Brian Flynn once loved, a former terrorist turned peace activist. Among his enemies: an Irish-American police lieutenant fighting against a traitor inside his own ranks and a shadowy British intelligence officer pursuing his own cynical, bloody plan. The cops face a booby-trapped, perfectly laid out killing zone inside the church. The hostages face death. Flynn faces his own demons, in an electrifying duel of nerves, honor, and betrayal....", "--This text refers to an alternate", "kindle_edition", "edition.", "From the Inside Flap", "The same 3-hour, quality performance for less!2 cassettes / 3 hoursOnly $8.99Read by Michael MurphyFrom the bestselling author of", "Plum Island", "and", "The Gold Coast", "- a thrilling story of a city under siege.The festivity of St. Patrick's Day explodes into a nightmare of bloody violence when an extremist offshoot of the IRA takes New York City by siege.  They've kidnapped four of the city's most prominent citizens and are threatening to end their lives - and demolish the beautiful St. Patrick's Cathedral - unless their fanatical demands are met.  Now the hostages - and the world - must wait painstakingly for dawn to learn their fate . . .", "--This text refers to an alternate", "kindle_edition", "edition.", "About the Author", "Nelson DeMille is a former U.S. Army lieutenant who served in Vietnam and is the author of nineteen acclaimed novels, including the #1", "New York Times", "bestsellers", "Night Fall, Plum Island, The Gate House, The Lion", ",", "The Panther", "and", "Radiant Angel", ". His other", "New York Times", "bestsellers include", "The Charm School, Word of Honor, The Gold Coast, Spencerville, The Lion's Game, Up Country, Wild Fire", ", and", "The General's Daughter", ", the last of which was a major motion picture. For more information, you can visit NelsonDeMille.net.", "--This text refers to an alternate", "kindle_edition", "edition.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Mystery, Thriller & Suspense", "Thrillers & Suspense" ]

[ "Former Hell's Angel Jake “Bonecrusher” Sawyer takes us on a no-holds-barred-go-for-the-gusto-every-time joy ride through a life filled with wanton sex, shocking violence, and raucous good humor, all the while showing us how to live life to its fullest ... and be happy as hell all the way through our golden years!", "A prep school sports star, U.S. Army para- trooper, Kentucky rum-runner, a less than model prisoner at San Quentin and Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, and a champion body-builder and fitness guru to the elite and not so elite, Jake is the kind of life coach we've all been looking for!" ]

[ "Review", "\"Jake and I grew up in the same neighborhood, and I can tell you that he's a very talented and intelligent guy with a great sense of fairness and an undying loyalty to his friends about him.\"", "-Harold Pachios, Associated Press Secretary under Lyndon Johnson and prominent Portland attorney." ]

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[ "Books", "History", "Americas" ]

[ "The How To Keep Him (After You've Caught Him) Cookbook [hardcover] Kragen, Jinx [Jan 01, 1968]" ]

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[ "The art of using pressed and dried flower materials to create pictures and designs has been popular throughout history in cultures around the world. Acclaimed artist W. Eugene Burkhart Jr. passes the craft on in this handy, full-color how-to guide, sharing information on tools and materials, detailed step-by-step instructions and photographs, and an assortment of projects, patterns, and design ideas for making botanicals, whole flower designs, and intricate cutwork pictures." ]

[ "From the Publisher", "Hidden spiral binding allows book to lay flat. 382 color photos, 16 patterns.", "About the Author", "W. Eugene Burkhart Jr. is an internationally known floral designer, lecturer, and pressed flower artist who maintains a studio at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading, Pennsylvania. He has won more than 1,500 prizes for his work, including several Best of Show and 11 Artistic Sweepstakes awards at the prestigious Philadelphia Flower Show. His pressed flower art is in collections throughout the United States and the world." ]

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[ "Books", "Crafts, Hobbies & Home", "Crafts & Hobbies" ]

[ "Gore Vidal’s Burr meets Neal Stephenson’s", "Snow Crash", "in this blazingly original alt- history that weaves twenty-first century technology into a saddle-punk retelling of the American Revolution.", "It is 1777, in a colonial America where the internet, social media, and ubiquitous electronic communications are fully woven into the fabric of society. Hours after a top-secret Congressional sub-committee uploads the Articles of Confederation, a mysterious internet plague breaks loose in the cloud, killing any user who accesses a networked device. Seven in ten Americans are dead, the internet is abandoned. Seizing the moment, the British take control of New York and Philadelphia, scattering what little remains of the rebellion. Just when all seems lost, George Washington reappears from off-the-grid to pin the British army at Yorktown. Independence is won, but with the countryside in ruins and internet commerce impossible, the former colonies teeter on the brink of collapse. Meeting in secret, a faction of the Founding Fathers code a new error-proof operating system designed to stabilize the cloud and ensure everlasting American prosperity. Not everyone is happy with the new format. Believing the draconian regulations of the new OS a betrayal of the hard-fought revolution, Thomas Jefferson organizes a feisty, small-government opposition to fight the overreach of Washington's Federalist administration. Their most valuable weapon is Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America, a new open-source social networking portal which will revolutionize representative government, return power to the people, and make Congress and the Presidency irrelevant . . ." ]

[ "Review", "Praise for", "Doctor Benjamin Franklin’s Dream America", "“An elaborate reimagination of history . . . wildly imaginative.”—", "Publishers Weekly", "“One of the most bizarre novels I’ve ever read, and one of the most original. . . . brings together history, technology, and dream logic; the end result is something wholly familiar and utterly unsettling, a trip into the past that simultaneously rewires the future.”—", "Vol.1 Brooklyn", ", reviewed by Tobias Carroll “This debut alternate history offers an intriguing look at our country’s founding through the lens of technology. The twists will keep readers engrossed to the end.” —", "Library Journal", "“Perhaps the best recommendation anyone can make for the book is this: in the tradition of the best science fiction writing, Ober’s work forces the reader to think. . . . It also begs the audience to dwell upon the future course of an experiment in democracy of which they are very much a part—if they choose.”—Jim Higgins,", "American Book Review", "“Damien Ober gives us a new kind of fictional history here, one that is as fanciful and exuberant as a Garcia-Marquez novel.”—T.C. Boyle, author of", "The Harder They Come", "and", "Road to Wellville", "“Not sure if I read a book or had a manic episode while watching the History Channel, but either way, it was incredible and I feel absolutely amazing.”—Ben Loory, author of", "Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day", "“", "Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America", "is as original as they come—an audacious, exuberantly imaginative novel about freedom and technology and the sacrifices each take from the other. Damien Ober is a writer to be reckoned with.”—Scott O’Connor, author of", "Half World", "and", "Untouchable", "“American writers working on such a grand canvas are as scarce as hen's teeth. For sheer mischief, erudition and inventiveness", "Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America", "sits quite comfortably on the shelf alongside David Foster Wallace, William Vollmann, Thomas Pynchon, the Barthelme brothers . . . all the terrible children of Swift and Stearne. It makes me laugh. It makes me sympathetic to people I despise, even though I still despise them. While many of the characters would cry sedition, I like to think Dr. Franklin is somewhere having a chuckle.”—Robert Olmstead, author of", "Coal Black Hors", "e “", "Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America", "is a new kind of literary SF. It takes aspects of two historical moments, centuries apart, and overlays them, energizing history and making us question our notions of what America is. Add to that aliens, sea monsters, and we have a quirky, funny, but ultimately sobering nightmare.”—Brian Evenson, author of the Dead Space series “Ober's mix of heady ideas and gorgeous prose make this a uniquely compelling debut.", "Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America", "is nothing less than an alternate history of the birth of the United States that hints at our coming demise.”—Jim Ruland, author of", "Forest of Fortune", "“Strangely moving and hugely compelling. . . .", "Doctor Benjamin Franklin’s Dream America", "shattered my thinking as to what a novel can be and do.”—Jim Ruland, author of", "Forest of Fortune", "“A brilliant, wackadoo novel about our founding fathers and the internet, with some aliens and witches and a vampiric sea monster thrown in for good measure. Ambitious, strange, death-stamped, and hilarious—-this is the kind of book that makes you realize how rare it is to read something entirely new and unique.”—Stephanie Cha, author of", "Dead Soon Enough", "“Ober has mapped the modern superstitious US onto the nation’s beginnings complete with vituperative two-party system controlled by plutocrats (now corporations), history replaced by acceptable mythos (sometimes dependent on choice of party), and with modern communications systems providing impossible forms of social networking in which people live without having to experience reality first hand.”—Jim Chaffee, The Drill Press “", "Doctor Benjamin Franklin’s Dream America", "is no political tract or history lesson or moralist dystopia or media analysis; or, rather, it is all of these and more – it is fiction writing at its best. And what remains after the excitement of the storyline and the provocation of the thinking have subsided, is the simple poignancy of the fifty-six death-scenes, all the more moving for their simplicity and matter-of-factness.”—David Vichnar, Equus Press", "About the Author", "Damien Lincoln Ober is a novelist and screenwriter. His work has appeared in The Rumpus, NOON, B O D Y Literature, The Baltimore City Paper, VLAK, and port.man.teau. He was a co-winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award, was nominated for a 2012 Pushcart Prize and his screenplay Randle is Benign was selected for the 2013 Black List. Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America is his debut novel." ]

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[ "Books", "Humor & Entertainment", "Humor" ]

[ "This edition includes the most recent Chemistry Regents tests through June 2011. These ever popular guides contain study tips, test-taking strategies, score analysis charts, and other valuable features. They are an ideal source of practice and test preparation. The detailed answer explanations make each exam a practical learning experience." ]

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[ "Books", "Science & Math", "Chemistry" ]

[ "Special Note: Videos are available on Lisa's YouTube Channel that will cover chapters of the book. You. Are. Loved. by the next-to-you Jesus and God the Father. No other truth can impact the life of a believing woman more than God’s abiding and tender love. We should be living out our lives with boldness and passion-filled faith, seeing the world through the lens of God’s ever-present love. Why then have many failed to grasp that love and draw it into their belief system?You. Are. Loved. Live the Love Song will help you first explore your own heart and how you relate to God, especially in how you view His love for you. Next, you will journey through stand-alone topics that will offer insight, invite you to go deeper, and help you learn to dance to the love song God sings over your life.- God’s love is the music; the lyrics, His Word. Your faith walk is the dance you live out in relationship with Jesus. - Author and speaker Lisa Heaton remains true to style in her first nonfiction work. Stories told with honesty and vulnerability set the tone for each chapter, inviting the reader to journey with her through relatable successes, near misses, and flat-out failures. “The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)" ]

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[ "Books", "Religion & Spirituality", "Worship & Devotion" ]

[ "Devoted to the serious depictions of anthropomorphic characters,", "Freaks!", "covers the entire range of animal people and explores all its possibilities. Hundreds of illustrations depict subjects that include basic human and animal anatomies, cat people, dog people, wolf people, feathered freaks, bat people, reptilian creatures, predators of the deep, primates, insect people, elephant man, rhino man, hippo lady, and much more. This drawing guide demonstrates the wide range of this popular genre of illustrative art and the techniques needed to create these fantastic fantasy creatures. Artists will find inspiration for creating such characters as creatures from Tolkien's", "The Lord of the Rings", ", A. A. Milne's", "Winnie the Pooh", ", C. S. Lewis'", "Narnia Chronicles", ", or the characters from", "Planet of the Apes", "and", "Creature from the Black Lagoon", "." ]

[ "About the Author", "Steve Miller", "is the author of", "Freaks! How to Draw Fantastic Fantasy Creatures", ";", "Hi-Yah! How to Draw Fantastic Martial Arts Comics", ";", "Gung-Ho! How to Draw Fantastic Military Comics", ": and several other drawing titles. He lives in Canal Winchester, Ohio." ]

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[ "Books", "Comics & Graphic Novels", "How To Create Comics & Manga" ]

[ "The killer’s identity has been revealed.", "It’s a win for Ava but as the killer realises that he is on borrowed time, he decides to go all out and take matters into his own hands.", "As the tech specialist figures out the inner workings of the killer’s app, the team is forced to play a game of cat and mouse, full of leads and different turns. Ava and the team are a few steps closer to finding the killer’s identity. However, with information this big, comes consequences.", "Ava must now figure out how to prevent another murder from happening while also holding on to her last thread of sanity. Will she ever win the battle against time and track the killer?" ]

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[ "Books", "Mystery, Thriller & Suspense", "Thrillers & Suspense" ]

[ "Described as 'nostalgic, dark and enchanting', Scars is a unique narrative-in-verse from an accomplished fiction and essay writer. It is the story of a year in the life of a fictional family in the 1960's told through a series of poems 'written' by the 15-year-old poet-daughter, Hope. Madden's themes of loss, betrayal, and family role reversals are engrained in the text; we begin to recognize the voice of each of the family members, as the narrator relates the events of a dark year in their lives. The scars are literal, figurative and emotional. They form a sort of bond of intimacy which binds these characters beneath family tragedy and dysfunction. Deceptively simple in presentation, Scars is clever, unpretentious and moving. As a bassist Amy Madden has been a longtime presence on the New York City music scene. A member of the NY Blues Hall of Fame, her songwriting is acclaimed for its cinematic story-telling and unusual lyrics. As 'Writerless' she maintains a blogsite of essays, and as Amy Madden Taylor she previously published a novel, Losing My Accent." ]

[ "About the Author", "Amy Madden Taylor was born in New York City, earned a degree in Art History from Princeton University, and studied further at the Institute of Fine Arts. A New York Blues Hall of Fame bassist, Amy Madden has been a constant presence on the music scene, playing in and writing for bands both above and below ground, in Europe as well as the US. As Amy Madden Taylor, she is an acclaimed writer, with a published novel (Losing My Accent) available on Amazon/Kindle and a constantly evolving website of essays (www.writerless.blogspot.com). Following on her two all-original cd releases, Scars-- a unique 'narrative-in-verse'-- is her first book of poetry from the Belpid/Sweden label." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Poetry" ]

[ "☢☣ For fans who loved Divergent comes an action-packed love story celebrating Autism and Neurodivergence that you won't want to put down. ☢☣", "\"An addictive adventure story with a Jekyll and Hyde flavour.\" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\"A riveting YA dystopian romance that hits all the familiar beats in fresh ways, and does a great job with neurodiversity.\" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\"The author's diverse characters in this well-written story are all perfectly developed. I was thoroughly entertained on all levels of this fast-paced novel. Irrelevant, leaves you wanting more at the end with a cliffhanger that reminded me of Terry Brooks. I'm hooked. Brava!\" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐", "Mallory's been hiding who she is for 18 years...", "But now her terrible secret has been exposed.Branded Irrelevant, Mallory is cut off from everything she knows. Irrelevants are criminals, banished to live in the old city. But in the wasteland between the new city and the old, she stumbles on Cristan.He's bitter, paranoid, and possibly crazy...He may also be right about everything.To survive, Mallory must figure out who to trust, and embrace the behaviour she's been taught to deny. The answers may lie in a place even the most rebellious Irrelevants won't go." ]

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[ "Books", "Mystery, Thriller & Suspense", "Thrillers & Suspense", "Suspense" ]

[ "\"Incredible amount of detail about all those kickers from the past, including an appendix with comprehensive model-year information.\"", "­­", "WoodenBoat", "\"This book is the one to buy if you are interested in collecting antique outboard motors.\"", "­­", "Boating" ]

[ "From the Publisher", "Peter Hunn", "began collecting old outboards after receiving a 1928 Johnson for his tenth birthday, and since then he has acquired several hundred. Hunn is a outboard curator for the Thousand Islands Antique Boat Museum and is a regular contributor to", "Antique Outboarder", "magazine. The former owner of two upstate New York radio stations, he currently teaches communication studies at the State University of New York, Oswego.", "From the Back Cover", "\"This book is the one to buy if you are interested in collecting antique outboard motors.\"--", "Boating", "The only complete guide to finding and identifying vintage outboard engines", "Antique outboard motors have a mystique much like vintage cars, and they're much more affordable. Plus, once restored, they can be put to good use again, providing power for putt-putting around, fishing, waterskiing, or even racing.", "The Old Outboard Book", "tells the story of the outboard motor, from the earliest days near the end of the nineteenth century through the dawn of the modern outboard era in the 1960s. Virtually every outboard motor ever built is here: Caille, Champion, Evinrude, Flambeau, Johnson, Martin, Mercury, Scott-Atwater, Waterwitch--the Big List chapter covers them all. The book also includes comprehensive oil-mix and spark plug charts for most old outboards.", "The third edition of Peter Hunn's classic continues the story of the outboard motor, extending the coverage of U.S. and Canadian motors up to the mid-1970s and adding motors from Australia and Great Britain. In addition, the pricing and rarity guide and the complete model-year list have been updated.", "If you're a buff of old outboard motors, you need this book.", "\"Love old outboard motors? Check out", "The Old Outboard Book", ".\"--", "Motor Boating & Sailing", "\"Incredible amount of detail about all those kickers from the past.\"--", "WoodenBoat", "About the Author", "Peter Hunn", "began collecting old outboards after receiving a 1928 Johnson for his tenth birthday, and since then he has acquired several hundred. Hunn is a outboard curator for the Thousand Islands Antique Boat Museum and is a regular contributor to", "Antique Outboarder", "magazine. The former owner of two upstate New York radio stations, he currently teaches communication studies at the State University of New York, Oswego.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Crafts, Hobbies & Home", "Antiques & Collectibles" ]

[ "We know each other quite well by now and I think you won't find any surprise in me telling you that I'm not the holiday cheer kind of guy. I'm only doing this to give the kid one more nice Christmas because I think she deserves it. I extended an invitation to some of her favorite friends—all special monsters you've met elsewhere before. I don't know why she gets such a kick out of them but whatever. It makes her happy and gives me a moment of peace. Tis the season, right? Anyway, I'm kind of hoping you won't leave before the party really gets going because I'm sure there will be some surprises along the way. Presents for the kid. Dinner for the rest of us. Maybe even shake a couple of these bastards loose from the shit they carry every day before we all go our separate ways again.I can tell that this is going to be a bad idea in the long run, but what baby girl wants, baby girl gets. And in the end? Eventually so do I." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Genre Fiction" ]

[ "A Mexican road novel of love, hate, drugs, and the Mexican Revolution.", "The Trace", "is a masterful, poetic novel about a journey through Mexico taken by a couple recovering from a world shattered. Driving through the Chihuahua Desert, they retrace the route of nineteenth-century American writer Ambrose Bierce (who disappeared during the Mexican Revolution) and try to piece together their lives after a devastating incident involving their adolescent son. With tenderness and precision, Gander explores the intimacies of their relationship as they travel through Mexican towns, through picturesque canyons and desertcapes, on a journey through the the heart of the Mexican landscape. Taking a shortcut through the brutally hot desert home, their car overheats miles from nowhere, the novel spinning out of control, with devastating consequences. . . . Poet Forrest Gander’s first novel", "As a Friend", "was acclaimed as “profound and relentlessly beautiful (Rikki Ducornet). With", "The Trace", ", Gander has accomplished another brilliant work, containing unforgettable poetic descriptions of Mexico and a story both violent and tender." ]

[ "Review", "\"Gander's poetic writing lends this story a dense, brooding atmosphere; a carefully crafted novel of intimacy and isolation.\" ―", "The New Yorker", "\"Gander shows he is keenly aware of the loneliness that imbues human suffering and sets grief alight using beautiful, tense, haunting prose. As the well-paced plot creeps ever forward, the mysterious events at the beginning of the book are slowly revealed, resulting in an incendiary denouement that comes as a relief, but one not without each character’s sacrifices.\" ―", "Publishers Weekly, (starred review)", "\"I haven’t read many novels as spooky and sublime and psychologically acute as Forrest Gander’s The Trace. It’s the portrait of a couple in crisis and their misguided road trip through the Chihuahua desert, on the tracks of the writer Ambrose Bierce. Gander’s landscapes are lyrical and precise (‘raw gashed mountains, gnarly buttes of andesite’), and his study of a marriage on the rocks is as empathetic as it is unsparing.\" ―", "Robyn Creswell,", "The Paris Review", "\"", "The Trace", "is a rule-breaking work of fierce imagination and rich, associative thinking. Love, landscape, poetry, pain―these draw Gander’s characters to the edge of the void. Paying attention to detail―its accumulation and its demands―is what keeps them from toppling in.\" ―", "John McElwee,", "The Oxford American", "\"Gander's novel surges. No other writer that I know of has so accurately and carefully depicted the tiny internecine battles of two lovers on an interminable drive as Gander does in this book.\" ―", "Lowry Pressly,", "Los Angeles Review of Books", "\"His work burrows into the particularities of disparate places and cultures in order to sound the differences between them.\" ―", "The Boston Review", "\"A moving elegy. It is also proof that language has magical potential.\" ―", "Joanna Scott", "\"The clarity of his artistic vision, formal innovation, and emotional honesty are enviable.\" ―", "The Harvard Review", "\"", "The Trace", "is a tense, propulsive thriller, which keeps on building until the very last page.\" ―", "Hari Kunzru", "\"In this strange and beautiful novel as in life, love is part of what is sacred.\" ―", "Jeanette Winterson,", "New York Times Book Review", "About the Author", "FORREST GANDER", "lives in northern California and has published books of poems, translations, and essays. He has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for", "Be With", ", and the Best Translated Book Award, as well as fellowships from the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Foundation, and United States Artists." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "United States" ]

[ "This book is for you if you own or manage a brokerage business, whether sales are $1 million a year or $75 million, and anywhere in between.You already know the basics covered in other resources out there. I won't need to explain the difference between LTL and truckload freight. You know the difference between a lumper and a fifth-wheel.For four decades I've been where you are. I’m offering some ideas and insight here to help you take your business where you want it to go, or maybe just figure out where you want it to go." ]

[ "About the Author", "Steve Fernlund is an executive coach and consultant to companies in the freight brokerage business. Over the better part of four decades he has started and grown two brokerage firms. In addition, he and his wife Becky had success owning, operating, and exiting a newspaper publishing firm and retail coffee shop business. For the past ten years he has worked as a coach and consultant with a number of brokers in start-up or turnaround situations to help those companies increase margins and profit. Originally from Minneapolis, MN, Steve now resides in southwestern Illinois. He is a Senior Associate at TranStrategy Partners, an executive coaching and consulting firm based in Vancouver, WA." ]

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[ "Books", "Engineering & Transportation", "Engineering" ]

[ "Claculus 6e" ]

[ "About the Author", "The late James Stewart received his M.S. from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He did research at the University of London and was influenced by the famous mathematician George Polya at Stanford University. Stewart was most recently Professor of Mathematics at McMaster University, and his research field was harmonic analysis. Stewart was the author of a best-selling calculus textbook series published by Cengage Learning, including CALCULUS, CALCULUS: EARLY TRANSCENDENTALS, and CALCULUS: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS, as well as a series of precalculus texts." ]

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[ "Books", "Science & Math", "Mathematics" ]

[ "“The novel uses the empty storefronts and windy beaches of autumn to explore loss, confusion and love.” —The New York Times Book Review. It's off-season at the Jersey shore. The boardwalk belongs to the locals—including Rosie and Skate, sisters who are a year apart in age but couldn't be more different. Rosie's fifteen, shy, and waiting for her life to begin. Skate, sixteen, is tougher and knows what she wants. Readers will be totally caught up as the sisters' story plays out within the embrace of their quirky, warmhearted community." ]

[ "Review", "Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2009:", "\"The novel expertly captures the ever-hopeful ache of adolescents longing for love, stability, and certainty.\"", "Starred Review, Booklist, October 1, 2009:", "\"This is a novel as brisk and refreshing as an ocean breeze.\"", "Review, New York Times Books Review, January 17, 2010:", "\"In capturing the miscues of first love and shifting family dynamics,", "Rosie and Skate", "is as sharp as a splinter on the boardwalk.\"", "About the Author", "Beth Ann Bauman is the author of a short story collection for adults,", "Beautiful Girls,", "and a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship. Growing up, she spent summers on the Jersey shore. She lives in New York City.", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "RosieMy dad's a nice drunk. There is such a thing. I know how that sounds, but honestly he's a good person. My sister, Skate, is going to give you a different story, but I want you to hear my side too.Before our dad went to jail three weeks ago, one of his favorite places was the old faded couch on the sun porch, where he'd lie with sandy feet, clutching his bottle of Old Crow whiskey, gurgling to himself with a dreamy smile. If he saw me standing above him, staring down at him, he'd give me a little finger wave. \"Lovely to see ya, Rosie girl.\" Or sometimes he'd look at me and not see me at all, but he'd smile all the same. You see what I mean? Screwed-up, but nice.Of course this isn't true of every drunk. This is what I've learned from coming to these meetings for the past three weeks: some drunks have a mean streak. The guy sitting across from me once had his nose broken when his dad blew a fuse. And some drunks are crybabies, I learned from a girl with a nose ring whose mom schleps around the house in a dirty bathrobe, moaning about the past. And some are hopeless, like the dad who gets out of rehab and then starts drinking the very next day. My dad--nice drunk that he is--is also hopeless, Skate says. Last time he went to rehab for six weeks and started drinking again the very same afternoon he came home. And some are sneaky; they go to work, pay the mortgage and gas bills, make spaghetti and meatballs, but they live in a boozy fog, hiding their bottles in the toilet tank, the hamper, the fireplace.Skate hates these meetings. Drama Queen, she calls them. \"Please,\" she says. \"All that yakking. All that whining.\" That's why she isn't here yet. I'm worried she won't come. I just come. I show up here in the basement of St. Joseph By the Sea and sit on a folding chair and eat Gus's cookies out of a shoe box lined with foil. Skechers, size 12. Gus is in college and runs the meetings. He makes butter cookies in the shapes of moons and stars. His mom gave him the cookie cutters, he told me. The cookies are dented and crumbly but sweet, and we all wind up wearing crumbs down the front of our shirts. So I come here every week and eat cookies and wear crumbs and listen to other kids whose parents are drunks.Gus drags a chair over to the circle and starts the meeting. But I can barely pay attention to what he's saying. I sip a cup of cherry cola and stare at the door, willing it to swing open and blow in my sister--with her long wild hair and her skateboard under her arm. She's always late, if she comes at all. She thinks our dad is a big loser.\"My dad guzzles vodka down the bay,\" Nick says. \"Drinks it in a teacup. Like he's some regular guy.\" Nick is a quiet kid from my homeroom, tall and slouchy with hair falling into his face. \"The old dude sits there sipping vodka, getting up and down to refill his cup from the bottle he keeps hidden in cattails. Drinks till he passes out. Tips right over into the sand. Happens between nine and nine-thirty every night, like clockwork.\" Nick looks out at the room with a little frown and hooks his stringy hair behind his ears. He has the daintiest pink ears I've ever seen on a person. \"So we head down there. My brothers grab his arms and my sister and I each grab a leg and we hoist him into a wheelbarrow and wheel him home.\"\"Why do you do that?\" Gus asks.\"Why?\" Nick says.\"Why?\" Gus says calmly. Nothing ever rattles Gus. He has a nice sad smile, like he expects stuff to be totally screwed-up, even though he wishes it weren't. Gus is built like a wrestler--short but muscle-y, and he's got this spiky crew cut he runs his hand over when he's thinking hard.\"But we can't leave him there!\" Nick blurts out, his little ears turning pinker.\"Why not?\" Gus says.And while I'm listening and not staring at the door, it opens. And here is Skate, carrying her board. She flashes a smile at the room and drops into the seat next to me. \"Hey, Ro,\" she whispers, reaching for a cookie. She's wearing torn Levi's, fishnets, Keds, and a washed-out black T-shirt decorated with a tiny strawberry. Her long hair is beaded with drops of water.\"Where were you?\" I whisper back, reaching for a cookie too.\"Let me get this straight,\" Nick says. \"You think we should leave him there? Lying in the sand? Stupid drunk? For all the neighbors to see?\"\"Yes,\" Gus says.Nick stares at him. \"Are you crazy?\"Gus smiles. \"Occasionally. But really, why not leave him there?\"\"Well, it's embarrassing!\" A few of us nod in agreement.\"But it's your dad's problem, not yours,\" Gus says.\"But he's my dad, and I don't want the whole frickin' neighborhood to see him passed out on the sand.\"\"They probably see you loading him into the wheelbarrow.\"\"Maybe not,\" Nick mumbles. \"Maybe not.\"\"If it happens almost every night, they probably know,\" Gus says.Poor Nick. If I were him I'd probably hoist my dad into a wheelbarrow too. I smile at him, but he's staring at the floor, his stringy hair falling into his face.Our dad didn't pass out in the yard or at the beach or anything like that, but even so, drinking wrecked him. He went to Walgreens in his raincoat and slippers and shuffled down the aisles, loading the lining of his coat with crazy stuff: a can opener, coconut tanning oil, nail clippers, panty hose, potpourri. Then he stood in line, and when the cashier cracked a roll of quarters against the side of the register, he reached in and grabbed a stack of twenties. \"Thank you, my dear,\" he said. There was no security guard working that day, and when the police caught up to him, he was sitting on the curb a block away, having just trimmed his toenails, rubbing tanning oil onto his face.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Teen & Young Adult", "Literature & Fiction" ]

[ "192 full color pages and 500 images" ]

[ "Review", "\"Hello. I am writing this e-mail as i am in Bonaire for vacation and i just bought your wonderful book 'Bonaire Point to Point. I am an underwater photographer (hobby) and i am really amazed with your publish. You have created a real masterpiece with this book! First of all, the quality of paper and cover- superb. Second, brilliant photos. It must be hard work to get such a great pictures, 2 years of photogrpahing. Third, text: descriptions of dive sites is breathtaking, really. It is an enormous pleaseure to have this book in my hands. My biggest respect to The Author.\" Thomas", "From the Author", "Though many have spoken of it, the idea of diving, photographing and documenting all of Bonaire’s more than ninety official dive sites has long been considered overwhelmingly ambitious. Today, you are holding an impossible book in your hands!This labour of love contains over 500 photographs, and signifies almost two years of constant work. Starting at the north end of the island, at Washington Slagbaai National Park, it takes readers by the hand and guides them through each official site on the Main Island, and Klein Bonaire. It should be noted here that new dive sites are regularly discovered. Those officially recognised by the Bonaire Tourist Board are marked with a yellow rock; at the time of printing, this book contains images captured at every single one of these official sites.Though not a technical guide, this book conveys, though photographs, and with the help of short texts, that which is special and unique about each location. Bonaire is truly a magical place, both above the waterline, and below it. Here’s hoping that you enjoy perusing these photographs as much as I enjoyed taking them!", "About the Author", "Federico Cabello first visited Bonaire over twenty years ago. At the time he was a freelance graphic designer with a nascent love for underwater photography. Despite his amateur status, he participated in the internationally renowned Nikonos Shootout, a competition overwhelmingly dominated by professionals. He didn’t win, but it was here that he began, tentatively, to dream about changing his career and immersing himself in his newfound passion.Federico went on to compete in the Nikonos Shootout four more times and, in 1997, he unexpectedly took first prize in Cayman Brac. He credits this success with giving him the confidence to pursue his dream.Ten years later, in 2007, he published his first book of underwater photography: a collection of photographs from Los Roques Archipelago National Park, in his native Venezuela. Two other books on Los Roques followed, in 2011 and 2013.Then, seduced by the siren song of the place where he first dreamed of becoming a professional photographer, he returned to Bonaire and made it his home. Twenty years ago the publication of this book didn’t even qualify as one of Federico Cabello’s wildest dreams. Today, it is a dream come true.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Arts & Photography", "Photography & Video" ]

[ "\"Observant, musical, coheres to nature; it's been a pleasure to read Joseph Massey for some years now. A poetry pared down to the essential inside the world where language interacts with itself and becomes the landscape it emerges from. Musically tipped-in to a vigilant consciousness. Cool clear eye and careful ear make for distilled moments of the real. Making a whole from fragments: keeping the now always new.\" --Tom Pickard" ]

[ "About the Author", "Joseph Massey has previously authored Areas of Fog (Shearsman Books, 2009), At the Point (Shearsman Books, 2011), To Keep Time (Omnidawn, 2014) and Illocality (Wave Books, 2015; 2nd, revised edition, Hollyridge Press, 2018) as well as 16 chapbooks and various limited-edition broadsides and folios. Massey's work has also appeared in many journals and magazines, including The Nation, A Public Space, American Poet: The Journal of the Academy of American Poets, Verse, Western Humanities Review, Quarterly West; and in the anthologies Visiting Dr. Williams: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams (University of Iowa Press, 2011), Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton, 2013), and Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poems for the Next Generation (Viking Penguin, 2015)." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Poetry" ]

[ "This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ <title> Antiquities Of The State Of New York: Being The Results Of Extensive Original Surveys And Explorations, With A Supplement On The Antiquities Of The West ; Illustrated By Fourteen Quarte Plates And Eighty Engravings On Wood<author> Ephraim George Squier<publisher> Geo. H. Derby and Co., 1851<subjects> History; United States; State & Local; Middle Atlantic; America; History / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic; Mississippi River Valley; New York (State)" ]

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[ "Books", "History" ]

[ "A negotiable golf swing is a compatible arrangement of the many permissible alternatives that, while not conforming to the computer models of the perfect golf swing, can still function very well to get the job done. By identifying and organizing these negotiable swing components,", "The Negotiable Golf Swing", "will show you how you can use basic swing components and their permissible permutations to negotiate a better game of golf.", "In other words, you can learn how to play a better game of golf with a lot of what you're already bringing to the table. Few swings need a complete overhaul, a total retooling from setup to finish position. It's more likely that you, like thousands of erstwhile golfers, just need to learn what's negotiable with the golf swing and what's not.", "The Negotiable Golf Swing", "covers the nonnegotiable as well, that is, all those immutable laws of ball flight, which are determined as the clubhead moves through the impact area making contact with the ball.", "The Negotiable Golf Swing", "will provide you with an understanding of how basic human skills are learned and how to apply them to your game, how to grasp and meld the negotiable with the nonnegotiable, which will help you build an effective golf swing, and ultimately, improve your game. This eye-opening tutorial will empower golfers from beginners to seasoned to single-digit handicap players.", "Many swing gurus try to convince golfers that they must have perfect form - even a model swing - in order to play better. This is simply not true, and in", "The Negotiable Golf Swing", "you won't find any \"one size fits all.\" Rather you will learn not only how a negotiable golf swing can work for you, but also why it's the best and fastest route to success." ]

[ "From the Back Cover", "\"Respected cognitive-science research into the nature of learning anything, even golf, has shown that a teaching, fixing, get-it-right approach to progress is less effective than a learning, developing approach. This reality is at the core of Joe Laurentino's approach to golf instruction and The Negotiable Golf Swing, which suggests that golfers stop spending time fixing their golf and start investing time learning to play and learn golf in their own unique way. This can improve a golfer's learning potential, which then improves performance. Joe Laurentino's love of the game of golf and passion for helping golfers can be felt on every page of The Negotiable Golf Swing.\" - Michael Hebron, PGA, MP, CI, Golf Magazine and Golf Digest Top 50 Instructors, author of Golf Swing Secrets and Lies; Six Timeless Lessons.", "\"I have known Joe Laurentino for over 30 years. We grew up at the same public golf course. We both love this game. His passion for his craft shows through in this wonderful book, in which he's clearly done his homework. If you're interested in clear, concise and fundamentally sound information that will in fact make you a better player, The Negotiable Golf Swing is the read for you.\" - Tom Patri, PGA, Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructor, author of The Six-Spoke Approach to Golf: A Blueprint for Success.", "\"Read this book, it will help you understand what the clubface is doing while in motion, what's important in hitting a golf ball, and why the golf ball flies the way it does. The explanation in The Negotiable Golf Swing of the movement of the right arm and right shoulder in the downswing is the best I've ever read.\" - David Glenz, PGA, Golf Digest Top 50 and Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructor, author of Lowdown from the Lesson Tee: Correcting 40 of Golf's Most Misunderstood Teaching Tips.", "About the Author", "Joseph Laurentino", "is the Head Golf Professional at the Indian Hills Country Club on Long Island. He has been a member of the Professional Golf Association of America since 1997, and has studied the mechanics of the golf swing under the tutelage of Top 100 PGA teachers such as Mike Hebron, David Glenz, Tom Patri, Darell Kestner, Ben Doyle, Martin Hall, and Dr. Jim Suttie as well as the mental game under Dr. Bob Rotella, the renowned author of Golf Isn't a Game of Perfect. Joseph's weekly television golf show, which regularly features elements of the negotiable golf swing, airs in the homes of several hundred thousand cable television subscribers on Long Island. He also writes for local and regional golf magazines." ]

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[ "Books", "Sports & Outdoors", "Golf" ]

[ "If you've been thinking about investing in Florida Tax Deeds or if you've been wanting to improve your Florida Tax Deed investment strategy, this book is a must-read. In this guide, Florida attorney Natalia Ouellette will use her decade of experience with Tax Deeds to teach you: The origins of Tax Deeds and how delinquencies and other liens impact starting bid amounts. How to distinguish Tax Deeds from warranty, special, and quit claim deeds to better assess value. What liens survive and don't survive a Tax Deed auction to accurately predict profitability in your flip or rental. How to master due diligence and overcome the competition. Why selecting the right title company partner keeps your title marketable and your reputation pristine.How to recover your costs and maybe even profit if your Tax Deed gets undone. And much more..." ]

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[ "Books", "Law", "Business" ]

[ "a classic" ]

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[ "Spectacle", "is a YA murder mystery from debut author Jodie Lynn Zdrok in which a young reporter must use her supernatural visions to help track down a killer targeting the young women of Paris.", "Paris, 1887. Sixteen-year-old Nathalie Baudin writes the daily morgue column for Le Petit Journal. Her job is to summarize each day’s new arrivals, a task she finds both fascinating and routine. That is, until the day she has a vision of the newest body, a young woman, being murdered―from the perspective of the murderer himself.When the body of another woman is retrieved from the Seine days later, Paris begins to buzz with rumors that this victim may not be the last. Nathalie's search for answers sends her down a long, twisty road involving her mentally ill aunt, a brilliant but deluded scientist, and eventually into the Parisian Catacombs. As the killer continues to haunt the streets of Paris, it becomes clear that Nathalie's strange new ability may make her the only one who can discover the killer’s identity--and she'll have to do it before she becomes a target herself." ]

[ "Review", "\"Clever and full of murder, Jodie Lynn Zdrok's", "Spectacle", "had my eyes glued to the pages as the body count rose, and mystery stacked upon mystery as our heroine closed in on a killer who seemed miles ahead of the Parisian authorities. Fans of serial killers and criminal investigations will find much to love, and fascinating passages about morgue tours will appeal to the morbid rubbernecker in us all.\"―Kendare Blake, #1", "New York Times", "bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series“With a fierce heroine, grisly 19th-century murders, and a mystery that left me on the edge of my seat,", "Spectacle", "is an immersive, Parisian, YA", "From Hell", "that I absolutely devoured!\"―Gretchen McNeil, author of", "Ten", "and", "#MurderTrending", "\"Zdrok explores the universal fascination with death, set among the darker corners of 1887 Paris, and the very idea of the morgue viewings (to which parents brought their children) is chilling...Grisly, plot driven―and very creepy. Fans of historical thrillers that invoke the enduring spirit of Jack the Ripper will have fun.\"―", "Kirkus Reviews", "“Hints of the murderer’s identity are subtly and intriguingly folded into the story, and unresolved plot threads pave the way for future cases, during which Nathalie can discover more about her powers. The blend of history, mystery, and fantasy makes this debut novel a good pick for fans of Libba Bray’s Diviners series or William Ritter’s Jackaby books.\"―", "Booklist", "“The book seamlessly brings several threads together: the mystery of the murder and the horrors of the killings themselves; the beauty, bustle, and darkness of nineteenth-century Paris (the killer’s pursuit of Nathalie through the catacombs is thrillingly described); the bizarre but historically based practices of morgue viewing and blood transfusions for magic; and the destructive nature of family secrets and their generational effects. ...the tension amps up to a gasp-worthy climax.", "”―", "Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books", "“Zdrok has concocted an ambitious Victorian-era story. ...Intricately plotted, the story's pace burns slow before racing ahead to set up and topple assumptions about the true identity of the Dark Artist.", "”―", "School Library Journal", "About the Author", "Jodie Lynn Zdrok", "holds two MAs in European History and an MBA. In addition to being an author, she's a marketing professional, a freelancer, and an unapologetic Boston sports fan. She enjoys traveling, being a foodie, doing sprint triathlons, and enabling cats.", "Spectacle", "is her debut." ]

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[ "Books", "Teen & Young Adult", "Science Fiction & Fantasy" ]

[ "Oscar Wilde was already one of the best-known literary figures in Britain when he was persuaded to turn his extraordinary talents to the theatre. Between 1891 and 1895 he produced a sequence of distinctive plays which spearheaded the dramatic renaissance of the 1890s and retain their power today. This collection offers newly edited texts of", "Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, Salome, An Ideal Husband", ", and, arguably the greatest farcical comedy in English,", "The Importance of Being Earnest.", "Under the General Editorship of Dr Michael Cordner of the University of York, the texts of the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. In addition, there is a scholarly introduction and detailed annotation.", "About the Series:", "For over 100 years", "Oxford World's Classics", "has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more." ]

[ "Review", "'the man had style and wit and was a great influence on the theatre of his time' Hamish Coghill, Evening News", "About the Author", "Peter Raby is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Drama Department at Homerton College, Cambridge." ]

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[ "Books", "New, Used & Rental Textbooks", "Humanities" ]

[ "On January 22, 1994, two-year old Renee Goode played happily with her sisters and cousin, as the four of them enjoyed an impromptu \"slumber party\" at the home of her father, Shane Goode. The next day she was dead.", "The local medical examiner could not determine the cause of little Renee's death. But her mother Annette and grandmother Sharon were convinced she'd been murdered--and that they knew the identity of Renee's killer: her handsome father, Shane Goode, a manipulative, emotionally abusive man who displayed virtually no interest in Renee--until he took out a $50,000 insurance policy on her life.", "With the help of a courageous female police investigator and Assistant DA, Sharon launched a case against Shane and had Renee's tiny coffin, lovingly filled with her favorite stuffed animals, exhumed from its final resting place. And her small corpse revealed what her grandmother had suspected all along: cold, calculating Shane Goode had murdered his own daughter to cash in on her death.", "To the Last Breath", "is the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime." ]

[ "From the Publisher", "This book, To the Last Breath by Carlton Stowers, won the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.", "About the Author", "Carlton Stowers", "is the author of more than two dozen works of nonfiction, including the Edgar Award-winning", "Careless Whispers", ", the Pulitzer Prize-nominated", "Innocence Lost", ", and", "Open Secrets", ". He and his wife live in Cedar Hill, Texas." ]

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[ "Books", "Biographies & Memoirs", "True Crime" ]

[ "This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Classics" ]

[ "A home greenhouse is an enchanted place where you can shut the door on a winter storm or a frenzied world and quietly putter amid lush greenery, earthy aromas, and a peaceful hush. This book introduces you to that world." ]

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[ "memoirs of an active obstetrician" ]

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[ "Books", "Medical Books", "Medicine" ]

[ "A reclusive English botanist helps a woman search for the truth about her missing orchid enthusiast sister in southwestern France in this “moody and elegant suspense story” (", "The Washington Post Book World", ").", "Nearly twenty years have passed since Mara Dunn’s sister Bedie, an orchid enthusiast, disappeared while on a hiking holiday in southwestern France. Mara remains determined to find out what happened—but her only real clue is a sequence of wild orchids, including a mysterious, previously unknown Lady’s Slipper, captured on a roll of film found in Bedie’s long-lost camera. With the help of Julian Wood, a reclusive English botanist, Mara begins her search…stumbling into decades’ worth of local secrets and putting herself in danger. Rich in lush descriptions of the Dordogne, and laden with savory details of French cooking, Deadly Slipper is rife with surprising twists and turns." ]

[ "Review", "“Laden with local color.... A moody and elegant suspense story.”—", "The Washington Post Book World", "“Transporting....  A cross between Peter Mayle and", "The Orchid Thief", ".” —", "Los Angeles Times Book Review", "“Turn down the AC before you start this spooky thriller—it’ll give you chills.” —", "Cosmopolitan", "“", "Deadly Slipper", "is full of vicarious thrills, offering sensory indulgences of the floral and culinary kind, with a dash of romance as spice. Lovingly written, with a sensuous style that lingers over the enticing or mouthwatering detail.... The real drama is on the dinner plate.” —", "San Francisco Chronicle", "From the Back Cover", "The first in a new mystery series that has it all -- a tragic puzzle, fabulous French food, and a peek into the fascinating world of wild orchids. In 1984, a young Canadian woman vanished while on a hiking holiday in the Dordogne region of France. Was Bedie Dunn the victim of an accident? Or could she have been murdered? Haunted for years by the disappearance of her twin sister, Mara Dunn has moved to France to try to answer these questions. Mara's amateur investigations finally begin to show progress when she discovers a camera she is convinced belonged to Bedie in a second-hand store. In it is an old roll of film, whose exposures turn out to be mostly of wild terrestial orchids. Mara turns to Julian Wood, an expatriate English orchidologist, for help with the impossible: can they use two-decade-old photos of flowers to trace Bedie's last route, and find the end of her journey? Julian is reluctant to get drawn into this seemingly hopeless quest, but the last exposure on the film is irresistible to him -- an unknown species of Lady's Slipper Orchid. If discovered, it might be the key to botanical fame -- or it could be the marker to a shallow grave.", "\"From the Hardcover edition.", "About the Author", "MICHELLE WAN was born in Kunming, China, grew up in the United States, and has lived in India, England, France, and Brazil. She and her husband, a tropical horticulturalist, visit the Dordogne annually to photograph and chart wild orchids. They live in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "1MARCH 2003\"Maradonne,\" repeated the telephone voice. \"I've been referred to you by someone who knows you, or knows of you--Monsieur La Pouge.\"The accent was what he called straight-up American. Not a laid-back southern drawl. Not in-your-face New Yorkese, where \"talk\" rhymed with \"squawk.\" But neutral, the tone slightly urgent.\"Ah,\" said Julian Wood, pushing his glasses up onto his forehead. He did not know any Maradonne. Or any La Pouge person, either.\"Because of your knowledge of wildflowers.\"Julian thought hard. A fellow member of the Societe Jeannette--Daffodil Society--the local wildflower amateurs' club? Or an enthusiast who had come across his book,", "Wildflowers of the Dordogne/Fleurs sauvages de la Dordogne", ", what he liked to think of as the bilingual bible on local flora?He was standing in his slippers on the stone floor of his kitchen, which, since it was the best-lit and largest room of his ancient cottage, also served as his workshop. He fiddled with a sprig of dry-pressed pepperwort that he had been in the process of framing. He wanted to get back to it.\"I have a problem,\" continued the voice, \"and I need your advice. That is, your expertise. I wonder if I could ask for an hour of your time? On a consulting basis, of course.\"Consulting? Well, he could consult with the best of them, but what on earth was this woman on about?\"I'm afraid--what--um--exactly is it that you want?\"There was a pause. \"I just need a little botanical information. Look,\" she insisted, \"can I come out to see you now? You live in Grissac?\"\"Just outside, actually,\" he admitted weakly. He belonged to that species of middle-aged Englishman made nervous by pushy females.\"I can be there by--shall we say four?\"Turning his head, he looked out the window at rain, a cold March rain slanting out of an ugly sky that had hung for weeks over this region of southwestern France. A sudden gust rattled his windowpanes (in need of recaulking). He wondered, not for the first time, where Edith had got to.\"All right,\" he heard himself say, and told this Maradonne person how to find him.Julian took one look at her and had a premonition of trouble. She was small, coming below his shoulder, with straight, black brows, a pointed chin, and an air of determination. Her face brought on a rush of uneasy associations with other determined women, dimly remembered, whom he had known. She was also soaking wet. That was because she had run through the downpour from the road, where she had been obliged to leave her car. She stood, hair plastered to her head, water coursing off her onto the flagstones of his gloomy vestibule.\"Mara,\" she seized his hand damply but firmly. \"Mara Dunn.\"\"Julian Wood.\"Reluctantly, he helped her out of her raincoat and hung it on his wobbly tripod rack. She scrubbed vigorously at her short, dark hair, flicking water everywhere. The action left it upstanding and spiky, making her look oddly like a hedgehog and younger than she probably was. Forty? Forty-five? He wasn't good with women's ages.\"Well,\" he said with a stab at heartiness, \"may as well come through. Awful day. Tea? Coffee?\"\"Oh, tea, thanks, if it's not too much trouble.\" Her brisk voice grated already on his nerves.She ignored his invitation to be seated in his front room. Just as well. Since he lived with no one but Edith, whose habits were bohemian at best, housekeeping was not a strong point with Julian. He had tried to make a fire, which was smoking unpleasantly on the hearth.Instead, she followed him right into his kitchen where her attention was immediately seized by a contraption standing at one end of the room:\"What is that?\" she laughed, waving at a series of bulky, rectangular frames fastened together with immense wooden screws. \"Some kind of medieval instrument of torture?\"\"Floral press, actually,\" he replied stiffly and slapped an aluminum kettle on the burner. \"Nineteenth-century. I still use it. For preparing herbarium samples.\"\"Herb--what?\" Her eyebrows arched.\"Dry-pressed flora. Once the only means of providing type specimens for horticultural classification and botanical study.\" The hedgehog had asked for his expertise--by god, she was going to get it.She looked perplexed. He relented a little. \"For drying plant material. In fact a microwave does just as well for most things, but I find the old-fashioned method gives a more antique finish. It's a simple process, really. Clamp the plants in the press. It's lined with blotting paper to take up the moisture. Tighten the screws from time to time. Whole thing takes about six weeks. Thick bits like stalks and flower heads have to be pressed separately from petals and leaves and reassembled later. Then I mount and frame everything for sale.\"He waved at an arrangement of flattened flowers and leaves laid out on a sheet of corkboard on his kitchen table. \"It's my off-season trade. In summer\"--he rinsed out a couple of mugs--\"I'm a landscape gardener.\"He eyed her warily as she approached his worktable to pick up a stiff cluster of pale-yellow blossoms.\"Cowslips,\" he told her. \"What the locals call", "coucous", ". An early-spring bloomer found along hedgerows and shady footpaths.\"\"Oh!\" Dark eyes swiveled to fix him intently. \"Can you identify it like that? Where certain kinds of flowers grow, I mean?\"He cocked an eyebrow. \"Well, yes and no. Most plants are habitat-specific. However, there are lots of hedgerows and footpaths around here. What do you have in mind?\"She took a deep breath, a diver about to plunge.\"Mr. Wood--\"\"Julian.\"\"Julian. I'll get right to the point. If I showed you some photos of flowers, could you tell me--would you have any idea where they were taken?\"For a moment he entertained a suspicion that this was some crazy kind of test.Quickly, she dug into her handbag and pulled out a thick brown envelope. \"Please.\" She held it out to him.With a sigh he slid his glasses down onto his nose and took it from her. It contained colored prints.\"But this is Beynac Castle,\" he objected, as the first shot revealed a fortified hulk perched on a cliff. It was a well-known local tourist site. \"A few years ago, from the look of the cars.\"\"Yes. I left that in because it comes at the beginning of the roll. I thought it might give a general indication. There's also a", "pigeonnier", ".\" She fingered through to a print of a tall stone dovecote standing like a gaunt tower in the middle of a field. \"But the rest of the photos are all flowers.\"He frowned and flipped through them.\"Well,\" he said finally, \"they're field orchids.\"She waited, watching him tensely.He shrugged. \"Temperate species. Cousins to the more dramatic tropical varieties most people think of when you mention orchids. These are more modest plants, but every bit as beautiful, in a smaller way. And damned easy to miss unless you know how to spot them. But look here, these photos are in terrible condition. Some are almost impossible to make out. You want me to tell you where these things grow?\"\"If you can.\" She had moved close enough for him to feel the dampness rising out of her hair and clothing, to catch a faint scent of sandalwood. He found the proximity slightly disturbing. He cleared his throat.\"Well, I can't. That is, not specifically. I mean, most of these, from what I can make out, are pretty widespread throughout the region. Beyond the fact that some like shade, others sun, and most grow in calcareous soils, it would be hard for anyone to tell you exactly", "where", ".\"\"But,\" she insisted, \"you just said a certain kind of soil. Couldn't that be a clue?\" She was not going to be put off.\"Calcareous?\" He gave a harsh laugh. \"Chalk. Pretty well describes the entire Dordogne Valley, certainly all of the middle reach, which is entirely underlain by chalky limestone.\"The look of determination drained from her face, to be replaced by something like desperation. \"You're absolutely sure there's no way?\"\"Look,\" he said dryly, \"I'm not a psychic.\" He returned the photographs. Her insistence was becoming irritating.\"No. Of course not.\" She slumped heavily into a chair.Julian saw that, whatever her reasons, his visitor had placed a lot of hope in him. Now she was disappointed. More than disappointed. Crushed.The kettle rattled on the burner. He turned away to make the tea, feeling mystified and thrown off by their exchange.\"Milk? Sugar?\"She did not answer. He put the teapot down and eyed her again. \"Or something stronger?\"She stirred, looked up dully. \"No. Thanks. Look, if you don't mind, I think I'll pass on tea. Anyway, I'm interrupting your work.\" She rose jerkily, dropped her bag, picked it up, and fumbled in it. \"Can I--can I pay you something for your time?\"\"Good god, no.\" He felt insulted.\"Well, if you're sure . . . ?\" She regarded him uncertainly. \"Then I'll be on my way.\"She did not wait for him to help her with her coat. He stood by as she struggled into it, feeling somehow that he had failed this odd, impulsive woman with her unreasonable expectations. She shook his hand stiffly.\"Thank you. You've been very kind.\"Through the bull's-eye window in the vestibule Julian could see rain sheeting off the overhanging roof.\"Er--do you want an umbrella?\"She forced a brittle smile. \"I'll sprint.\"He opened the door for her. She pulled up her collar and stepped out. In the next instant something struck her full in the chest. With a scream, she skidded backward, threw up her arms. Her handbag flew, hitting the ground for the second time. Before Julian could catch her, she landed hard on the wet flagstones. A large, writhing form straddled her while a vigorous lash repeatedly struck the rickety coatrack, knocking it from side to side until it, too, went over with a splintering crash.Julian waded in, lunging and grabbing.\"Dammit Edith,\" roared Julian Wood, finally getting a hand on the collar of a large, very wet, exuberant dog. \"Get off, you bloody beast! Get off!\"She had twisted her right ankle and had to be helped, carried by him really, back into his front room. It was an awkward, bumpy trip, and Mara was intimately aware of Julian's long, angular body, his thick pullover smelling slightly of damp wool, his rough, badly trimmed facial hair. She recalled his look of dismay--or was it shock?--when she had first entered his house, dripping water, mascara undoubtedly running down her face, and acknowledged with embarrassment that her attempted exit was even less graceful.He deposited her on the sofa. Edith, a black-and-white short-haired pointer, was dragged away and shut up. Mara could hear her barks, whines, and frantic scrabbling from the back of the cottage.\"Better get that up.\" Julian swept away several days' accumulation of newspapers from the sofa so that she could raise her leg. Then he was gone again, retrieving her bag, placing it beside her, darting away into the kitchen, calling as he went, \"Sorry about the dog. She just wanted to get inside. She hates the rain. I was wondering when she'd turn up.\"He reappeared moments later with ice cubes wrapped lumpily in a tea towel. \"Here. Get the swelling down. Nothing broken? Do you want a doctor?\"\"No, no, I'm fine,\" Mara lied. Her ankle throbbed. Edith's howls were making the pain worse. \"You ought to do something about her, you know.\"\"What? Let her out?\"\"I meant, get her under control,\" Mara told him severely. \"She's a liability.\"He grinned, a sudden, attractive, boyish grin that illuminated his saturnine features. \"Not guilty. Not my dog. Belongs to a farmer down the road, old Hilaire. Lets her run loose. She lives with me when she feels like it, and when she doesn't she buggers off somewhere else.\"He shot away again. Mara closed her eyes. His comings and goings were making her dizzy.However, the improvised cold pack was dulling the sharpness of the pain. She adjusted it around her ankle and looked about her: a low, small room full of mismatched furniture, threadbare carpets, and lots of litter. Pots of flowering plants crammed the window ledges. The walls were entirely taken up with books. Their worn spines suggested that all were well read.He was back with a mug of tea and a couple of aspirins. \"Here. Take these. When you feel better, if you can't drive, I'll run you back wherever you want to go.\"Mara managed a smile. \"Thanks. I'll be okay.\"\"No problem, really. Where are you staying?\"\"Ecoute-la-Pluie.\" She opened her bag and gave him her card:", "Mara Dunn--Interior Designer/Decoratrice ensembliare", ".Julian looked surprised. \"You're not a tourist?\"She shook her head. \"I'm sorry. I should have made that clear. I'm Canadian, but I live here.\"\"Ah,\" he said, as if that explained something. \"Of course.\" He lowered himself into a leather easy chair--obviously his favorite since the arms and seat were badly worn. \"And the photographs? Look,\" he said, against his better judgment, \"don't you think you'd better tell me what this is all about?\"Wearily Mara let her head fall against the sofa back so that she gazed past him at an indeterminate spot on the ceiling. \"Yes,\" she said at last. \"The photos.\" Briefly she closed her eyes. \"You see, nineteen years ago, my sister Bedie--Beatrice Dunn--I think my sister may have taken those pictures.\"He stared at her blankly, waiting for her to go on.\"In 1984, my sister, Bedie, disappeared in the Dordogne.\" Mara had told this story many times. With each telling, the recital became bleaker, more mechanical, reducing the people in it to mere essential facts. \"She'd come over with her boyfriend, Scott Barrow, for a hiking holiday. They were camping not too far from here at a place called Les Gabarres. It was early May, and they'd had a lot of rain. Scott wanted to push on. Bedie wanted to stay. They had a fight about it, and Scott packed up and took off.\" Mara was silent for a moment. \"When he came back to the campsite a couple of days later, Bedie was gone. Scott waited around for a few more days. He was sure she'd be back because, although she'd taken her backpack and camera, a Michelin guide, and a book on flowers, the rest of her things were still in the tent. We--none of us--ever saw her again.\"Her eyes wandered to the windows. Darkness, the early darkness of remnant winter days, was closing in, but the rain was letting up. \"The police launched a massive search. It was in all the papers. They questioned everyone in the area and followed up with campers who'd left during the critical period, anyone who might have seen her or given her a ride. A German family said they saw her go out of the campsite the morning after Scott left. Alone and on foot. No one else knew anything.\"", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Mystery, Thriller & Suspense", "Thrillers & Suspense" ]

[ "Tarot Card Notebooks", "The High Priestess: 120 Blank Lined Pages, 6 X 9 College Ruled Notebook, The High Priestess Tarot Card - Antique Vintage Style Journal, Diary, Notebook (Tarot Card Notebooks)", "The Tarot Cards", "are steeped in myth, mystery and magic. The full story of their origin remains unknown to this day. What is known however, is the power that lies within the symbols on these cards. These symbols give the tarot a power that can be used for divination, as a way to connect to the collective unconscious in search of higher wisdom, or for fortune telling, to gain insight into the past, present or future. There also is a secret story in the symbols of these cards. Will this story reveal itself to you? And what stories will reveal to yourself as you are guided by the energy of the card you choose? This beautiful", "The High Priestess Tarot Card Notebook", "is carefully designed with this in mind. The High Priestess Tarot Card Note Book makes a great personal journal or a perfect Birthday gift or Christmas gift for your loved ones. Be sure to check our other Tarot Card designs and styles on the", "Tarot Card Notebooks", "author page.", "Features of The High Priestess Tarot Card Notebook:", "Soft sturdy beautiful matte softcover", "Soft sturdy beautiful matte softcover", "Measurements: 6”x9”", "Measurements: 6”x9”", "120 pages", "120 pages", "College ruled lined pages perfect for writing, journaling or taking notes", "College ruled lined pages perfect for writing, journaling or taking notes" ]

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[ "Books", "Stationery, Journals & Notebooks", "Journals" ]

[ "This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins.While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are \"Albion's Seed,\" no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations." ]

[ "From Library Journal", "This cultural history explains the European settlement of the United States as voluntary migrations from four English cultural centers. Families of zealous, literate Puritan yeomen and artisans from urbanized East Anglia established a religious community in Massachusetts (1629-40); royalist cavaliers headed by Sir William Berkeley and young, male indentured servants from the south and west of England built a highly stratified agrarian way of life in Virginia (1640-70); egalitarian Quakers of modest social standing from the North Midlands resettled in the Delaware Valley and promoted a social pluralism (1675-1715); and, in by far the largest migration (1717-75), poor borderland families of English, Scots, and Irish fled a violent environment to seek a better life in a similarly uncertain American backcountry. These four cultures, reflected in regional patterns of language, architecture, literacy, dress, sport, social structure, religious beliefs, and familial ways, persisted in the American settlements. The final chapter shows the significance of these regional cultures for American history up to the present. Insightful, fresh, interesting, and well-written, this synthesis of traditional and more current historical scholarship provides a model for interpretations of the American character. Subsequent volumes of this promised multivolume work will be eagerly awaited. Highly recommended for the general reader and the scholar.", "- David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle", "Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.", "Review", "\"Professor Fischer's careful research and analysis opens a much needed discussion of cultural character and origins in North America. The variety and complexity of historical sources will inform the work of other cultural historians and analysts.\"--Nadesan Permaul, UC Berkeley", "\"This is history at a lively pace, peppered with curious details about the origins of families...The author makes a convincing case.\"--Dolores and Roger Flaherty,", "Chicago Sun-Times", "\"A pleasure to read, for it is written with Fischer's characteristic perspicuity. Moreover, the numerous drawings by Jennifer Brody and maps by Andrew Mudryk are a visual treat.\"--Raymond A. Mohl,", "Review Essay", "\"The kind of book one can open to almost any page and immediately become engrossed...[R]eaders will enjoy and benefit from this book...We eagerly await volume two.\"--Neil R. Stout,", "Vermont History", "\"Holds up to readers a mirror in which they can discover in themselves and in their own world the persistence of their heritage...An engrossing work that will whet the appetite for more.\"--", "The National Genealogical Society Quarterly", "\"Ingenious and provocative...Raises matters of cardinal interest.\"--", "The Times Literary Supplement", "\"A splendid work of historical scholarship. . . . based on an original conception of cultural history which I find extremely usable. Eminently readable.\"--Omer Hadziselimovic,", "Earlham College", "[SEE REVIEW CARD FOR ACCENTS ON LAST NAME]", "\"[A] sprightly analysis....This is history at a lively pace, peppered with curious details about the origins of familiar words and practices....The author makes a convincing case for his claim that `in a cultural sense most Americans are Albion's seed.\"--", "Chicago Sun-Times", "\"One of the most interesting, important, and ambitious books about American cultural and social origins ever written....A richly rewarding book, and one of great significance....It blends the best of new and old scholarship in lucid language designed to attract laymen and students alike. Very simply,", "Albion's Seed", "is a splendid achievement.\"--Michael Kammen,", "New York Newsday", "\"David Hackett Fischer's book could not be much bigger or more ambitious. It is the first in a series of volumes that he hopes will eventually constitute a cultural history of the United States....This book starts his series with a bang--a big bang....Remarkable....A revisionist blockbuster.\"--Gordon Wood,", "The New Republic", "\"Beautifully produced, this work should popularize the discoveries of a generation of scholars in the new social history. Anyone interested in these four cultures of the Anglo-American colonists will find here population data, family life, community mores, and achetypical individuals, portrayed in a clear and often lively text, thoughtfully analyzed illustrations, and wonderful maps.\"--Stephen Saunders Webb,", "Washington Post Book World", "From the Back Cover", "This book is the first in a series, which will hopefully comprise a cultural history of the United States. It is cultural in an anthropological rather than an aesthetic sense--a history of American folkways as they have changed through time.", "About the Author", "David Hackett Fischer", "is Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University. He is the author of numerous books, including", "Paul Revere's Ride", "and", "Growing Old in America", ".", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "History", "Americas" ]

[ "Create your very own workout book, your style, your rules!!! You can even WRITE YOUR NAME on the front cover!!!", "*Use Sharpie marker.", "(Ex. 'Kathy's' Book of Workouts)", "Also Included:", "-Create your own", "30-Day Challenge", "(i.e. Ab Challenge, Booty Challenge, etc)", "Perfect for gym rats, fitness gurus, personal trainers, coaches, exercise classes/groups, YOU !!!!!!" ]

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[ "Books", "Health, Fitness & Dieting", "Women's Health" ]

[ "A fun, flashy, and sassy book for beginner and expert crafters alike—with more than 150 new projects that will add pizzazz to everything from jewelry to tote bags!", "All that glitters doesn’t have to be gold...and diamonds (even the fake ones!) can be a girl’s—or anyone's—best friend. With Mark Montano’s step-by-step guidance you, too, can let loose your inner fashionista and make fabulous, unique accessories to complement your entire wardrobe! Think outside the box when it comes to materials, and check through your recycling to find treasures In the Bin. Show people your New Mexico style, and make a papier-mâché Zigzag Turquoise Cuff out of newspaper. When the plastic store bags start crawling out from under the sink, tame them with a Fused Plastic Flower Cuff. Make the tree-mendous Nature’s Bling Bag decorated with branches sliced thin. Or Twine Not try the hardware store for some colored twine—and pick up some aluminum flashing to find out why Tin Is “In”? From punk to retro, from bobby pins to safety pins, with more than 150 projects there’s something for everyone, whether you want to glam it up Hollywood-style or go ultra-sophisticated like a newly crowned princess." ]

[ "About the Author", "Mark Montano is part of the design team for TLC’s", "While You Were Out", "and the host of TLC’s", "Ten Years Younger", ", as well as co-host of the Style network’s", "My Celebrity Home", ". He is a contributing editor to", "CosmoGIRL!", "magazine, and his weekly column, “Make Your Mark,” appears in more than seventy newspapers across the country. Mark is the author of", "Super Suite", "and", "Dollar Store Décor", "and co-author of", "Window Treatments and Slipcovers for Dummies", "." ]

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[ "Books", "Crafts, Hobbies & Home", "Crafts & Hobbies" ]

[ "Delaney Collins doesn't believe in fairy tales. And why should she? Her mom is dead, her best friend is across the country, and she's stuck in California with \"Dr. Hank,\" her famous life-coach father—a man she barely knows. Happily ever after? Yeah, right.Then Dr. Hank tells her an outrageous secret: he's a fairy godmother—an f.g.—and he can prove it. And by the way? The f.g. gene is hereditary. Meaning there's a good chance that New Jersey tough girl Delaney is someone's fairy godmother. But what happens when a fairy godmother needs a wish of her own?" ]

[ "About the Author", "If KATHY McCULLOUGH had one wish, it would be for world peace—or a continuously self-replenishing bar of chocolate. A graduate of Cornell University, she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as a novelist and screenwriter. This is her first book. Visit Kathy online at kathymcculloughbooks.com or follow her on Twitter @kathymccullough.", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "Chapter One Of course I’m cursed with the most uncomfortable seat on the plane. The cushion’s deflated in this bizarrely lopsided way, like somebody with one butt cheek exponentially bigger than the other sat there before me and crushed it. My overhead light’s burned out and the bald guy in front of me dropped his diet Dr Pepper, splashing sticky soda all over my backpack, which I had wedged under the seat. It shouldn’t be called Murphy’s Law, it should be called Delaney Collins’s Law, because I’m living it. If something can go wrong, it does, and anything bad just gets worse. I don’t even want to be on this plane. But I have no choice. For now, anyway. I turn up the volume on my iPod and scroll to the heavy metal playlist Mom downloaded for me: all of her favorite songs for scrambling the brain and numbing the mind. We used to blast it whenever we were angry or depressed or frustrated with the world--which was a lot toward the end. But tonight my brain cells are staying stubbornly unscrambled and unnumbed. I stare out at the itch-black night, but the grimy little window just reflects my face back at me. The dim cabin lighting casts weird shadows that make me look like a girl out of a manga book: long black pen strokes for hair, eyes circled in dark ink, face flat and expressionless. Maybe it’s a true reflection. Maybe everything that’s happened has drained the human part out of me and left just a two-dimensional drawing. I wish. I’ve tried sketching. I’ve been working on a new design: thigh-highs with spikes on the backs of the heels, chains around the ankles and slashes up and down the sides like they’ve been hacked at with a switchblade. I call them Shredded Death. The idea’s finished in my head but only halfway done on the page, because my mind keeps getting yanked back to . . . “I like your boots.” I turn away from the window. Next to me in the middle seat is a little girl around four years old. She’s in a pink fairy princess outfit, complete with plastic tiara and a magic wand made out of a chopstick with a glitter-covered construction-paper star taped to the end of it. Her overhead light hits her like a spotlight so that she practically shimmers. On her other side, her mother snores softly in the shadows. I could ignore her. That usually works, but kids and old people can be a problem. There’s something abnormal about them--they can’t take a hint. What the hell, I think. Maybe having a pointless conversation with a delusional preschooler will provide the distraction I’m desperate for. It’s worth a try. I remove one earbud but keep the other one in, so I’m still getting a regular flow of screeching guitar--an emotional IV. “Huh?” I say. It’s important to start aloof, in case I have to cut it off abruptly. I don’t want to lead anyone on, make them think I might actually be friendly. “I like your boots,” the girl says again, and points her lame wand toward my feet. I’m wearing a design I created back in less bleak times. I got the originals from the consignment shop I worked at after school. The boots were too big around the calf, so I slit the leather in the back and then attached brass snaps, with matching ones across the front. I remember, faintly, the rush of joy I felt painting on the blue and yellow swirls. Mom had wanted me to make her a matching pair. But I never got around to it. “Thanks.” “Do you like my shoes?” The girl swings out her tiny legs, displaying a pair of sparkly pink flip-flops. Hideous. I shrug. “They’re magic,” she says. “Uh-huh.” Time to turn up the frost. This conversation isn’t going anywhere good. I grab the earbud from my lap. “Can you read my book to me?” The girl holds up the picture book resting on her tray table. She does that sad wide-eyed thing little kids do to get their way. It never works with me. “Pleeease?” She thrusts the book in my face. Annoying. Even more annoying, I hear myself say, “Sure, whatever.” I sigh. Stuck. I open the book to its first cheery page and predict that this is not going to be a story that sweeps me away. Sure enough, it’s one of those sappy girl-lost-in-the-woods, helped-by-the-friendly-talking-animals, magic-spells-broken, evil-ogre-defeated stories. With the traditional but irritating and most dishonest final sentence ever created in the history of literature: “And she lived happily ever after.” I do my best to inject sarcasm and disapproval into my voice as I read these last words, because even if I’m not going to get anything out of the experience, at least I’ll have passed on some wisdom to the younger generation. But the girl just smiles the satisfied smile of one who is hearing the same beloved story for the billionth time. Clearly, I’m going to have to spell it out for her. “It doesn’t really work like that, you know,” I tell her. “Things don’t end happily.” “Yes, they do.” I shrug and hand the book back to her. “You’ll learn,” I say. I tried. Someday she’ll look back on this conversation and remember she was warned. “It wouldn’t be in the book if it wasn’t true,” she says firmly, like she’s teaching me some lesson. I don’t answer. Some people would rather live in a fairy tale." ]

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[ "Books", "Teen & Young Adult", "Literature & Fiction" ]

[ "Dr. Martha Howard has put together an informative, persuasive guide that empowers us to take control of our own health. Alive and Well: Your Survival Guide for the Health Care Apocalypse lifts the veil on what Dr. Howard calls the “Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse”—the major players in our nation’s health care system. Not only does her book reveal the systems and policies that are making us sick, it is filled with scientific evidence and clinical examples about effective strategies for making ourselves well. This book could impact generations to come. ~Ruth Buczynski, PhD, licensed psychologist, president of The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine Alive and Well has three parts. Part 1 describes in detail how and why the healthcare, food, pharmaceutical, agricultural industries and the political system have caused a steep decline in American health over the last 60 years, making us fatter, more diabetic and making chronic illness “the new normal.” Part 2 presents a different perspective for chronic and common illnesses, allowing you to understand that the key to many chronic illnesses can be inflammatory reactions to common foods. It is filled with “clinical pearls” that can help you reduce your chronic illness, or maybe even get rid of it entirely. Part 3 teaches strategies on how you can keep yourself from getting sick, including adapting a paleo-based diet, getting started on exercise, reducing and managing stress, as well as developing emotional intelligence, resilience, and community support. As a bonus, you will also find delicious \"alive and well\" recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert." ]

[ "About the Author", "At the age of 30, I was teaching Chinese history and theater, and taking classes in social work. On my way to a class, I was sitting at a stop light with my turn signal on, and a drunk driver plowed into my car at 55 miles an hour! The accident broke my neck. In the process of recovering, I got very little help from the health care industry. Their first action was to misread my x-ray and send me out of the emergency room with a soft cervical collar and a broken neck. I was in constant pain. I went back to get help but was told I just had to \"live with it\" and take pain pills. Fortunately, in a few years, I did get help from an acupuncturist. After three months of treatment, my constant pain was almost gone, and I was sold on acupuncture! I studied for two years in an apprenticeship with the acupuncturist who had helped me, and then was surprised to learn that although acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine had become board-certified specialties in California in 1974, the practice of acupuncture was in a legal \"gray area\" in Illinois. It turned out I would have to be an M.D., D.O. or chiropractor to practice acupuncture legally in Illinois in 1978. I decided to become an M.D. (Acupuncture was not officially a licensed specialty in Illinois until 20 year later, so as the years went by, and the fight to get acupuncture licensed here dragged on, I was happy that I had made that decision!) I was lucky enough to get accepted to Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine at the age of 38 and graduated in 1982. After medical school, I did a three-year residency in Family Practice, and then worked for four years in the National Health Service Corps. Then I started an integrative practice, Wellness Associates of Chicago, and I am still working in that practice. Along the way, I have served on the boards of the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) and the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine. I have earned national board certification in Acupuncture from the National Commission on Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine 129, have maintained my board-eligible status in Family Practice, and have been certified as a practitioner of EFT. I live in Chicago with my husband Gene. We have five children and eight grandchildren." ]

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[ "Books", "Medical Books", "Administration & Medicine Economics" ]

[ "In the tradition of John Berendt's", "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", "and Erik Larson's", "The Devil in the White City", ", Douglas Preston weaves a captivating account of crime and punishment in the lush hills of Florence, Italy. Douglas Preston fulfilled a lifelong dream when he moved with his family to a villa in Florence. Upon meeting celebrated journalist Mario Spezi, Preston was stunned to learn that the olive grove next to his home had been the scene of a horrific double murder committed by one of the most infamous figures in Italian history. A serial killer who ritually murdered fourteen young lovers, he has never been caught. He is known as the Monster of Florence. Fascinated by the tale, Preston began to work with Spezi on the case. Here is the true story of their search to uncover and confront the man they believe is the Monster. In an ironic twist of fate that echoes the dark traditions of the city's bloody history, Preston and Spezi themselves became targets of a bizarre police investigation. With the gripping suspense of Preston's bestselling novels, THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE tells a remarkable and harrowing chronicle of murder, mutilation, suicide, and vengeance-with Preston and Spezi caught in the middle." ]

[ "Review", "\"Remarkable true-crime story...passionately describes the investigations gone wrong....Preston knows how to load his storytelling with intriguing evidence and damning details. His feverish style keeps the reader turning with the hope of uncovering the killer's identity.\"—", "USA TODAY", "\"Preston's account of the crimes is lucid and mesmerizing.\"—", "TIME Magazine", "\"Suspenseful...reveals much about the dogged writing team as well as the motives of the killers....this bit of real-life Florence bloodletting makes you sweat and think, and presses relentlessly on the nerves.\"—", "PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)", "\"As taut and tense as any of the author's bestselling thrillers...fascinating, stomach-churning...nerve-tingling action and vivid writing...", "The Monster of Florence", "is a gripping tale, filled with shocking crimes, boldly drawn characters, and the careening suspense of the ultimate whodunit.\"—", "DALLAS MORNING NEWS", "\"The co-authors expertly and entertainingly guide the reader though an epic, colorful cast of characters and the stranger-than-fiction machinations of a Byzantine Italian judicial system.\"—", "Washington Post", "About the Author", "The thrillers of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child \"stand head and shoulders above their rivals\" (", "Publishers Weekly", "). Preston and Child's", "Relic", "and", "The Cabinet of Curiosities", "were chosen by readers in a National Public Radio poll as being among the one hundred greatest thrillers ever written, and", "Relic", "was made into a number-one box office hit movie. They are coauthors of the famed Pendergast series and their recent novels include", "Fever Dream", ",", "Cold Vengeance", ",", "Two Graves", ", and", "Gideon's Corpse", ". Preston's acclaimed nonfiction book,", "The Monster of Florence", ", is being made into a movie starring George Clooney. Lincoln Child is a former book editor who has published five novels of his own, including the huge bestseller", "Deep Storm", ". Readers can sign up for The Pendergast File, a monthly \"strangely entertaining note\" from the authors, at their website, www.PrestonChild.com. The authors welcome visitors to their alarmingly active Facebook page, where they post regularly." ]

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[ "Books", "Biographies & Memoirs", "True Crime" ]

[ "Leah was so young when her sister Rachel was born that she could not remember a time when Rachel was not the darling of the family- pretty, clever, and cute, whereas Leah plugged along being obedient, hard-working, and responsible. Then one day a good-looking marriageable kinsman named Jacob showed up, looking for a haven from his brother's rage, and Leah fell in love at once. It didn't surprise her at all that Jacob saw only Rachel. But surely, as the two sisters worked and lived alongside Jacob for seven years, he would come to realize that Leah was the one he ought to marry..." ]

[ "About the Author", "Orson Scott Card, an internationally acclaimed writer, is the author of Ender's Game, The Tales of Alvin Maker, and two novels in the Women of Genesis collection, Sarah and Rebekah, as well as many other novels, stories, essays, and plays. He is the first author to win both the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel two years in a row. Scott and his wife, Kristine, are the parents of five children and live in Greensboro, North Carolina." ]

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[ "Books", "Literature & Fiction", "Genre Fiction" ]

[ "Fourteen-year-old Gracie Wright escapes her impoverished and unconventional life by impersonating her rich cousin at an exclusive summer camp, until a series of weird events convinces her that her mother's delusions about being the deposed queen of a distant planet just might be true." ]

[ "From School Library Journal", "Grade 5-7–Gracie Wright is a lot like any other 14-year-old girl–except that her mother insists that she is the deposed queen of the distant planet Pannadeau. Gracie lives a decidedly less-than-regal life, residing in a run-down trailer and working in her family's antique shop. Although her younger brother is enamored with the idea of being a prince, and her father humors his wife's eccentricities, Gracie finds her mother's behavior embarrassing and her claim of royalty complete lunacy. When the evil alien Maluxziads descend on the picturesque town of Beachswept intending to kidnap the Wright family, Gracie must have faith in her mother's teachings in order to thwart the diabolical plan. Although parts of the plot are somewhat confusing, fans of such lighthearted alien romps as Kathy Mackel's", "Can of Worms", "(Avon, 1999) and Stephanie Spinner and Terry Bisson's", "Be First in the Universe", "(Delacorte, 2000) will enjoy this playful adventure. However, the age of the protagonist is at odds with the rather frivolous and childish tone, making one question the intended audience. More discerning sci-fi aficionados may find the ending predictable and just a tad too tidy.", "–Debbie Lewis O'Donnell, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, FL", "Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.", "From", "Booklist", "Gr. 5-8. \"My mother believes that she's the queen of Pannadeau . . . a planet on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy.\" She is also convinced that 14-year-old Gracie and her brother are royalty. Is her odd belief a demonstration of mental illness or simply a rarefied view of reality? The question is only one aspect of this debut novel, which is also part slapstick and part", "Prince and the Pauper.", "Gracie's oddball parents can barely make ends meet. Her cousin Wren, who is also her best friend, has money but is a shy bookworm with a pushy mother. The girls pull a switch, allowing Gracie to attend a ritzy horse camp and Wren to stay happily at home. The change is eventually discovered, but that's just about the time space aliens show up, and Gracie goes toe-to-toe with them on the battlefield of the horse camp. With a wacky plot and mostly likable characters, this novel is an easy read, but it also has enough substance to start kids thinking about society's definition of mental illness.", "Francisca Goldsmith", "Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved", "About the Author", "Mindy Schanback is a freelance writer who also reviews middle grade and young adult fiction and works as a freelance story analyst for a children’s production company, assessing children’s fiction for television and features. Her own queenly mother prompted her to ask herself, \"What if she really was royalty?\" and thus the Queen of Pannadeau was born, at least in Mindy Schanback’s imagination, where even she herself might be a princess. Back on Earth, Mindy Schanback lives in New York, New York.", "Read more" ]

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[ "Books", "Children's Books", "Growing Up & Facts of Life" ]

[ "Learn the names of fruits & veggies with this simple cute and beautiful book. Great for learning and homeschooling." ]

[]

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[ "Books", "Education & Teaching", "Schools & Teaching" ]

[ "Alan Lapidus's life has been a Zelig-like romp through most of the cultural and political highlights of the recent past. He has popped up as architect for or observer of many of our era's most iconic figures, including Donald Trump, various Mafia big shots, mayors, Aristotle and Jackie Onassis, Bob Guccione, pit bosses, real estate legends, and spies.", "Everything by Design", "takes us behind the scenes in Las Vegas, Disney World, Havana, Atlantic City, Moscow, the Amazon rainforest, and New York. Along the way we learn why Mickey Mouse never seems to use the restroom, why the baccarat tables in casinos are always far away from the dice tables, why the CIA wanted him to redesign Havana's main synagogue, and why the tunnels under the Hotel Moskva can't be touched.", "Everything by Design", "is a keenly observed social and cultural history of modern  America by one of its key shapers." ]

[ "From", "Booklist", "Books about architecture can be overly technical, theoretical, and often boring—everything that this delightfully breezy and yet seriously informative memoir is not. Lapidus, the son of the designer of Miami's Fontainebleau Hotel, is perhaps best known as \"Donald Trump's architect,\" designing several of the developer's hotels and casinos in Atlantic City and elsewhere. It's natural, then, that much of the book is an affectionate but clear-eyed portrait of Trump, who comes off as a wily showman, shrewd businessman, and, finally, loyal friend. Lapidus says little about the process of designing buildings except as it relates to the key issue of understanding the clients, who have included everyone from mobsters to Disney. His insider's view of the brass-knuckled world of real estate is both funny and matter-of-fact, given his preference for realpolitik over aesthetic philosophizing. The most poignant parts of the book are about his oedipal rivalry with his father, Morris Lapidus, who suffered critical drubbings and, with one striking exception, could not appreciate his son's success. Nance, Kevin", "Review", "“Alan knows what he’s writing about. He and his father designed for both me and my father, and his knowledge is comprehensive. He’s also a total pro. Pay attention to what he has to say—he is very good!”—", "Donald J. Trump", "About the Author", "ALAN LAPIDUS is the award-winning architect of many buildings ranging from Donald Trump s towers to the Crowne Plaza in New York City. His father, Morris Lapidus, designed the Fountainebleau in Miami. He lives in Maine with his wife, concert cellist Caroline Worthington.", "Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.", "Everything by Design1.Donald Trump's ArchitectThe voice on the phone had a tone of easy familiarity: \"Hey, Alan, howyadoin', it's been a while.\"It had indeed been a while since I last talked to Donald Trump. His call would lead to me becoming \"Donald Trump's Architect,\" to quote The Wall Street Journal, and being intimately involved in the design and construction of Trump Plaza, his first casino in Atlantic City or, for that matter, his first anywhere. It amounted to my having the opportunity to see Donald in action before he was The Donald, to watch him evolve from his first persona into his second, like a moth into a butterfly. Or, perhaps more to the point, from a run-of-the-mill butterfly into a spectacular creature.During the late 1950s, a man named Fred Trump vacationed at one of my father's early and smaller Miami Beach hotels, the Sans Souci. Trump fell in love with the design of the lobby. He felt that if he added a \"classy\" lobby to the otherwise drab middle-income high-rise apartments he was planning to build on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn (still known as Trump Village), he could beat the competition. Trump called our office, only to have Morris turn him down cold: \"I don't do lobbies!\"Fred Trump was a man who got what he wanted--a family trait his son Donald inherited and of course perfected. This apartment complex was to contain more than three thousand units, and if Morris would design the lobby, well, then Fred would hire him as architect for thewhole complex. It was an offer my father couldn't refuse. Fred specified that the structures were being built under a federally subsidized housing program, meaning that by necessity and regulation, they had to be plain boxes with punched windows. We could choose any brick we wanted, as long as it was red, unglazed Hudson Valley brick. But the lobbies--they would be terrific! And the generous fees for such bland and mindless work were irresistible. Trump Village was a smash hit, immediately filled with eager renters and later successfully converted to condos.At that time I was just starting to work in the firm, and I occasionally accompanied Morris on his site visits, where we encountered Fred Trump. Fred was tall and lean, with high cheekbones and piercing eyes set in an angular face. He was gruff and yet very likable at the same time. He had a relatively modest office on Avenue Z in Brooklyn (our home had been on Avenue J), and it reflected his down-to-earth, outer-borough persona: The sole decoration in the place was a large wooden cigar store Indian.Fred believed in maintaining political connections and using them to access programs that subsidized the production of sensible, solid apartments for working-class people. He also believed in avoiding anything having to do with Manhattan--a trait his son would not share, of course. It was during one of these visits that Fred introduced me to one of his sons, a cocky fourteen-year-old lad ten years my junior with sandy blond hair and a round face. The kid, who was watering down a pile of dusty construction rubble, was Donald. During the early stages of my relationship with the Trump family, I became friendly not with Donald but with his older brother, Fred Jr., a pilot for American Airlines. Since I was a newly minted pilot, he and I talked flying, not real estate.Many years later, in the early 1980s, the grown-up Donald acquired a parcel on Atlantic City's Boardwalk, next to the Convention Hall, a site that I had worked on for another developer who had been unable to secure funding. But Donald had gone my former client one step better by assembling the rest of the block. Having seen my name on the plans for the initial attempt, he learned that I had already designed two other Atlantic City casinos that had won full approvals and that I was very much involved in the whole scene there. I of course had been following his meteoric rise in Manhattan real estate circles.Now he spoke to me as an old family friend. Explaining that he hadbecome owner of the site and seen my work, he felt it would be ideal for us two old \"buddies\" to work together. After all, we were both second generation, and each of us was going to show his father a thing or two. And, by the way, he added, because we were practically \"family,\" I couldn't charge him the fancy fees that I charged my other clients.I was charmed.Donald had put together several notable packages by then, but he had never been the sole principal. One such deal was the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which he created out of the old Commodore, in a brilliant piece of brinkmanship. During the mid-1970s, New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy, thanks in part to the ineptitude of his father's old political cronies, and Forty-second Street was starting to look like a thirdworld thoroughfare. The boarded-up Commodore Hotel, once one of the city's finest, was now a deserted eyesore that greeted passengers leaving Grand Central Station. Public confidence in the city had reached an all-time low.Donald walked the neighborhood and noticed that on the opposite side of Forty-second was the headquarters of the Dime Savings Bank. Never afraid to go fishing in troubled waters, he brashly informed Dime executives that the value of their real estate was down the tubes, facing the derelict Commodore as it was. But, he promised, if they backed him he would transform their location from a quickly devaluating pit into the centerpiece of the city's renaissance. They bought into the idea. Trump eventually was able to win spectacular concessions from a desperate municipality, and even better terms from the state. The reborn hotel, the Grand Hyatt, did indeed accomplish all that Donald had promised. It was the shot in the arm the city needed, a sign that someone was still willing to bet that there was a future. In the annals of municipal chutzpah, if not municipal planning, it was pure genius. But it was the state's superagency, the Empire State Development Corporation, not Donald Trump, that actually owned the building. That arrangement was a necessary formality in order to obtain state subsidies, but it was Donald who made the big bucks. Likewise, Trump Tower, another thoroughly audacious development, was done under the aegis of the Equitable Insurance Company.By the time he approached me about his Atlantic City property, Donald hungered for a deal that would be his very own. When I asked whyhe was planning to do a development in Atlantic City, since all his financial and political connections were in New York City, his reply was the same as the one given by noted bank robber Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks: \"That's where the money is.\"Donald and I made a date to go down to A.C., and I offered to fly him in my airplane. This was before the days of his private jets, helicopters, and yachts, and he was delighted. My airplane was a solid, reliable, single-engine propeller craft, which, although mechanically perfect, left something to be desired in the cosmetics department. We met at Teterborough Airport, my home base, and headed south. Donald sat next to me in the right seat, and his COO, Harvey Freeman, sat in back working on The New York Times crossword puzzle. Donald chattered away as we flew down the Atlantic coast. Navigating from the outskirts of New York City to A.C. is quite simple: Fly to nearest ocean, turn right, keep going until you see a bunch of high-rise buildings, land. So his conversation didn't distract me at all. In the midst of talking, he became aware of the less than pristine upholstery, then looked over at me and inquired, \"Hey, Alan, is this plane safe?\"My reply amused him: \"Donald, my epitaph is not going to be 'Donald Trump and two others die in plane crash.'\"  As the months went by, I began to fully appreciate why Donald was such a force to be reckoned with. He was street smart in a way that distinguished him from other developers I had worked with. Donald was a young WASP in a field dominated by aged Jews. Not just Jews, but German Jews. New York's real estate dynasties were not founded by turn-of-the-century immigrants from Eastern Europe. That group landed on our shores for the most part religious, penniless, and, except for their Hebrew education, illiterate. The German Jews had arrived much earlier and were mostly coming to something rather than fleeing from something. Polished and urbane, they and their descendants used their education and drive to found enduring businesses. The Tishmans, the Zeckendorfs, and the Silversteins (all my clients or to be my clients) were prime examples. In his book Our Crowd, Stephen Birmingham did a brilliant study of these folks. Temple Emanu-El, the temple of this set, was such an Episcopalwannabe that for a long time few if any bar mitzvahs (disdained as a trashy Eastern European custom) were performed there. A standing joke, at least among all of us \"Johnny-come-lately\" Jews, was that at Temple Emanu-El they were so WASP that they were closed on Shabbos (the Jewish Sabbath).At that time, the established real estate guys kept an extremely low profile. Relatively unknown to the public, they wanted to maintain their ability to fly below the radar and generally avoided publicity. The reason was straightforward: Big real estate deals were dependent on the proper political allies. There were government subsidy programs, subtle shifts of zoning entitlements, and myriad other ways that a politician could smooth the path of a real estate transaction. Bear in mind that during this era before Watergate and \"open government,\" meaningful public forums, rights of disclosure, and investigative reporters were comparatively rare; the fabled \"smoke-filled back rooms\" were no fable.Then along came this kid from Queens who had been raised by a low-key, in fact damn near invisible, WASP developer of a father and steeped in the timeless tradition of political patronage and rock-solid developer smarts. Young Donald Trump was brash, smart, driven, and, above all, clever. He did not give a fiddler's fart for the aloof old boys' world of Manhattan developers. He had a feel for the times he lived in. He knew that his future customers would have the same sensibilities he did. Donald instinctively understood that regardless of how much people professed admiration for \"culture\" and the refined taste of the ads in The New Yorker, what they really wanted was glitz and glamour.At least his market did. And, as history has shown, his market is quite large.The old guard reacted with loathing and derision. Harry Helmsley, one of the leading Manhattan developers, was publicly scornful: \"The kid can talk, but he can't build.\" Ironically, Helmsley's own membership in the old guard was threatened during the years before his death in 1997, as he became somewhat marginalized socially after his 1972 marriage to Leona Helmsley, \"the Queen of Mean.\" I met her at a couple of social occasions and found it easy to see why she was so widely disliked.Donald was really the first to grasp the sea change in how Americans bought real estate. It wasn't only about getting solid value for yourmoney--it was also about celebrity. He understood that if he made himself a star or, in our world of hyperbole, a", "superstar", ", he could enhance the value of anything he had to sell, including himself. Circular logic, perhaps, but, oh, so true!Years later, when he owned three Atlantic City casinos, Trump's enterprises did quite well because people wanted to associate with a star, hoping some of the glamour would rub off on them. I once walked with him across the gaming floor of his Taj Mahal, watching in amazement as hordes literally flocked around him, hoping to be acknowledged as they heaped adulation upon his meticulously coiffed head. As the two of us moved along, Donald with his signature black cashmere overcoat draped over his shoulders like an Italian movie director, and I practically invisible, I realized that for him it was a case of mission accomplished.Yes, Donald had actually succeeded in turning his name into a brand!By sheer coincidence, I had two groups of clients named Trump during the mid-1980s. One pair was Donald and his brother Robert. The other pair, unrelated to Donald and Robert, was a Jewish brother duo named Julius and Eddie Trump. Each team of brothers was developing real estate on a grand scale. Moreover, their Manhattan offices were a scant half block apart; the offices of Julius and Eddie were at 9 West Fifty-seventh, while Donald's headquarters were at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue between Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh. Julius and Eddie were building a complex in north Miami Beach called Williams Island. Full-page ads for this venture appeared frequently in The New York Times, stating that it was a project of the Trump Group.The result was almost inevitable: Donald sued Julius and Eddie for using his name. To be sure, Julius and Eddie, in contrast to Donald, were Orthodox Jews of South African descent; their name was either Afrikaner or Dutch and had been theirs for many generations.Donald won.All of Julius and Eddie's subsequent advertising had to display the disclaimer that they were not a part of the Trump Organization. Donald, aware that I was architect for the other Trumps as well, confided in me, \"Hell, if I liked their stuff I would claim it was my project, but it's too low-class for my name.\"Donald was also quick to grasp the idea that if you embellished a storyenough times, loudly enough, and with squinty eye and furrowed brow, and if you had the best publicist in New York (Howard Rubenstein) to make sure you were quoted in the popular press almost daily--all the while repeatedly denying that you had a publicist--you were whatever you said you were. Truth was a self-fulfilling prophecy. As the Cary Grant character, an ad executive in one of my favorite movies, North by Northwest, declared, \"In the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie. There's only expedient exaggeration.\"The same holds true in real estate, and condemning a real estate developer for exaggeration, hyperbole, and even outright lies is like condemning a fish for swimming. Such is the nature of the business--as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. That's how Atlantic City started as a resort, created by developers using absurd claims from medical doctors about the ability of Absecon Island's sea breezes to cure everything from cancer to dropsy. Likewise, America's West was settled by pioneers lured to the frontier by developers and land salesmen claiming that the cold, dangerous, and forbidding prairie was the Garden of Eden. Compared to those statements and countless other similar ones, Donald's claims seem modest indeed.  A developer's objective is to sell what he or she develops. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that that's how developers make their money, often tons of money. Developers are not in the business of improving the human condition or elevating the masses. The biggest difference between Donald Trump and other developers is that Donald has carried the business to its logical conclusion. If his name is on a project, it sells; he has literally and officially morphed into a franchise. He may not quite be McDonald's, but many of his most recent deals do amount to him \"selling\" his name to other people's developments for millions of dollars and a cut of the take. He doesn't own, and never has owned, the Trump International Hotel, Trump Place, and other big \"T\" icons. His lucrative type of no-investment, no-risk business deal has earned him a hallowed niche in the developers' hall of fame.One example: Trump Place on the Upper West Side. It opened in 1998, and most of the tenants were young women. Quite a few were juststarting their careers in New York City and were supported or at least subsidized in part by their parents. As she was moving her daughter into an apartment there, one lady explained to me why she chose this particular building. To her, the name Trump meant that it was safe, clean, and secure, and offered prestige they could be proud of. \"When I tell my friends that Cindy lives in Trump Place, they don't think we're being reckless by letting her live in New York City.\" Again, it's called \"branding.\"I was there because I was renting one of the apartments myself, after my second marriage broke up. My business setbacks had forced me to declare bankruptcy in 1992, which made me an untouchable in the eyes of leasing agents. I called Donald and he quickly fixed that problem and ordered his people to rent me an apartment. I paid him full freight--and on time every month.And so it was that I attended and was singled out at the 1998 Christmas party Donald hosted there, about two months after the building opened and quickly filled to capacity. In one of his patented PR coups, Donald had announced that his soiree for the tenants would feature food, wine, music, and, last but definitely not least, The Donald. In person.Several hundred tenants gathered in the beautifully decorated lobby to feast on endless platters of sushi and other delicacies, drink imported champagne, and listen to a string quartet featuring performers from the nearby Juilliard School of Music. Finally, coat draped over shoulders, He (that's not a typo) arrived and shared with the adoring throng details of his painful, heroic, uphill battle, lasting more than a decade, to transform a rusting, rotting, rail yard into this splendid statement of sophisticated urban living.Then, noticing that his audience was mostly young and female, Donald pointed at me and bellowed, \"And another thing--living in this building is one of America's greatest architects. His wife just threw him out, so, ladies, let me present the newly single Alan Lapidus.\" Totally blown away, I turned red, waved, took a bow--and wound up receiving about a dozen business cards from young lovelies over the course of the evening.Donald's attempt to help with my love life pretty much made us even. I helped him out once by escorting Marla Maples to a retirement dinner in honor of Andy Goldman, whose wife, Susan Heilbron, was Trump's general counsel. The affair was at the Winter Garden in the World TradeCenter, and after the main event Marla and I and a few others went to a small, chic bistro in Little Italy. When I arrived in the limo Donald had provided, accompanied by Marla wearing a short purple dress that somehow looked both sedate and very sexy, and we made our grand entrance, it was as if the whole world had come to a stop. The women at the restaurant seemed to wish to have Marla cut into little pieces and then have all the parts burned, while the kitchen crew pushed open the kitchen door, the better for them to stare and gape. The waiter brought us a complimentary bottle of wine, and when, trying to appear cosmopolitan, I said, \"Grazie!\" Marla turned to me and said, \"I'm impressed. I only speak two languages, Yankee and Southern.\" She was absolutely delightful, down-to-earth, and with no pretensions whatsoever. One of the stories she told me that night was about an evening when she and Donald were at his Mar-a-Largo estate in Palm Beach, walking on the sand, and she looked at Donald and asked him to give her his shoes. When he asked why, she just repeated her demand. He reluctantly took off his wingtips and handed them to her, and she threw them into the sea, telling him, \"It's a beautiful night, we're walking on the beach, so for God's sake, just relax!\"By the way, when I called my then (second) wife that day to tell her I wouldn't be home for dinner because I was taking out Marla Maples, her answer was, \"That's nice. See you later.\"  As the Atlantic City project started to take shape, Donald and I found ourselves spending more and more time together. When it became apparent that the project was a \"go,\" he asked me to submit a contract for my services so we could negotiate the terms. A couple of weeks later I received the call I was expecting. But it wasn't from the person I anticipated. Fred Trump was on the line. He invited me to Donald's office so we could talk about my contract.Fred had aged very gracefully. He still had his great shock of hair, bristling mustache, and ready smile. As we sat down at a spare desk in a small office, he reached into his briefcase and brought out an architectural contract but not the one I had sent to his son. It was the one he had signed with my father for Trump Village back in 1957.\"Alan,\" Fred said, \"just take this contract--you remember this one, don't you?--and put Donald's hotel project in the job description, with the same financial terms that you sent to him, and we'll sign it tomorrow. This contract worked for your father and me, and it should work just as well for the two of you.\" It must be said of Fred that he was a man whose simple values worked quite well.Fred and I went on to chat about how my father was doing, and we reminisced at length about the \"good old days.\" We also had a long talk about Donald, although it was mainly Fred doing the talking. He was obviously proud of his son, although he was mystified as to why he wanted to do all these buildings in Manhattan. Fred mentioned in particular the glass-sheathed Grand Hyatt, along with the new Trump Tower that was then under construction across the street, also with a glass curtain wall. At one point Fred looked at me and asked earnestly, \"Alan, can you suggest to Donald that good old redbrick is much more efficient, less expensive, and doesn't leak?\"I said I would.I never did.Later that year I got a call from Fred, who seemed to regard me as a bridge between the old guard and \"the kids.\" Fred asked if I could hint to Donald that he didn't have to waste electricity by leaving Trump Tower's Christmas tree lights on during the day.I said I would.I never did.Two years after we executed the contracts, when the building, ultimately to be known as Trump Plaza, was under construction, I got an irate call from Donald demanding that I come over to his office at once. When I arrived, he was fuming about how I had been overcharging him for the \"reimbursables.\"Reimbursable expenses in an architectural contract are those costs that the architect pays for and the client later repays him for. These include the price of blueprinting and reproduction, postage, travel expenses, and the like. On a project of this size, the reimbursable expenses will run several hundred thousand dollars. Donald had noticed that I had been adding a 10 percent surcharge to these items. Such a surcharge is commonly added to cover the cost of all the bookkeeping andaccounting and billing that my office has to do to keep track of all these items.How dare I try and \"cheat\" him by adding this 10 percent, he fumed. Never, he declared, would he agree to such an arrangement.Trying to look as innocent as I felt, I answered, \"Donald, it's in the contract that your father signed with me, because it was in the contract my father signed with him twenty-five years ago. Your father insisted on the exact same contract.\"For what may have been the first and last time, Donald Trump had been trumped.EVERYTHING BY DESIGN. Copyright © 2007 by Alan Lapidus. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.", "Read more" ]

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