When the U.S. military invaded Iraq, it  lacked a common understanding of the problems inherent in counterinsurgency campaigns. It had neither studied them, nor developed doctrine and tactics to deal with them. It is fair to say that in 2003, most Army officers knew more about the U.S. Civil War than they did about counterinsurgency.

The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual was written to fill that void. The result of unprecedented collaboration among top U.S. military experts, scholars, and practitioners in the field, the manual espouses an approach to combat that emphasizes constant adaptation and learning, the importance of decentralized decision-making, the need to understand local politics and customs, and the key role of intelligence in winning the support of the population. The manual also emphasizes the paradoxical and often counterintuitive nature of counterinsurgency operations: sometimes the more you protect your forces, the less secure you are; sometimes the more force you use, the less effective it is; sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction. 

An new introduction by Sarah Sewall, director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, places the manual in critical and historical perspective, explaining the significance and potential impact of this revolutionary challenge to conventional U.S. military doctrine.
An attempt by our military to redefine itself in the aftermath of 9/11 and the new world of international terrorism, The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual will play a vital role in American military campaigns for years to come.
 
The University of Chicago Press will donate a portion of the proceeds from this book to the Fisher House Foundation, a private-public partnership that supports the families of America’s injured servicemen. To learn more about the Fisher House Foundation, visit www.fisherhouse.org.
  (20070713)

Edward Abbey Ed Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a "comic extravaganza." Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it's true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief. The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to the desert to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. On a rafting trip down the Colorado River, Hayduke joins forces with feminist saboteur Bonnie Abbzug, wilderness guide Seldom Seen Smith, and billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., and together they wander off to wage war on the big yellow machines, on dam builders and road builders and strip miners. As they do, his characters voice Abbey's concerns about wilderness preservation ("Hell of a place to lose a cow," Smith thinks to himself while roaming through the canyonlands of southern Utah. "Hell of a place to lose your heart. Hell of a place... to lose. Period"). Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime, the motley gang puts fear into the hearts of their enemies, laughing all the while. It's comic, yes, and required reading for anyone who has come to love the desert. —Gregory McNamee

Ansel Adams This beautifully reproduced, affordable paperback collects Ansel Adams' finest images of the place closest to his heart: Yosemite National Park. It presents the essence of Adams' long association with Yosemite㬾 memorable photographs of glacial lakes and craggy peaks, cascading waterfalls and granite monoliths, lone trees and sylvan streams. Here are photographs such as Moon and Half Dome, Clearing Winter Storm, and El Capitan that have become veritable icons of the American wilderness.

Selections from Adams' writings about the park and its environment, and an introductory essay by Michael L. Fischer (president of the Yosemite Restoration Trust) that reveals the prescience of Adams' views on park management issues, enhance this in-depth photographic portrait of Yosemite National Park by America's foremost landscape photographer.

Ansel Adams, Mary Street Alinder This popularly priced edition of Adams' acclaimed 1985 autobiography preserves all the text but reproduces fewer photographs than the original. With characteristic warmth, vigor, and wit, America's most beloved photographer-environmentalist recalls his extraordinary six-decade career. "A warm, discursive, and salty document."—The New Yorker. of photos.

Scott Adams Hot on the heels of Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless, this new Dilbert collection will be widely welcomed by fans of that attention-grabbing comic which appears in 175 newspapers nationwide. Don't miss incompetent, socially inept technohead Dilbert and his megalomaniac pet Dogbert as they try to not only survive in but rule the world.

Scott Adams This book is freedom for those who feel imprisoned in a cubicle. Called "the cartoon hero of the workplace" by the San Francisco Examiner, Dilbert is revered by technology and computer workers, engineers, white-collar types, scientists and everyone who works these days (in cubicles or not). This collection captures it all, from clueless management decrees to near revolts among the cubicly confined.

Scott Adams You loved the comic strip; now read the business advice.

Or should that be anti-business advice? Scott Adams provides the hapless victim of re-engineering, rightsizing and Total Quality Management some strategies for fighting back, er, coping. Forced to work long hours, with no hope of a raise? Adams offers tips on maintaining parity in compensation. Along the way, Adams explains what ISO 9000 really is and assesses the irresistibility of female engineers.

The breath-taking cynicism of the strip should prepare readers for the author's no-holds-barred attack on management fads, large organizations, pointless bureaucracy and sadistic rule-makers who glory in control of office supplies. Readers of the on-line Dilbert Newsletter are familiar with the kind of e-mail Adams receives from his readers — and may even have sent a few of those missives themselves. Along with illustrative strips, e-mail messages provide excruciating examples of corporate behavior which compel the reader to agree with Adams when he insists that "People are idiots".

The final chapter offers a model for would-be successful businesses to follow: the OA5 model. It's introduced with little fanfare, no outrageous promises and just the right amount of self-deprecation.

Scott Adams Everyone who reads DILBERT" and works in an office will appreciate this newest collection, Dilbert Gives You the Business. Creator Scott Adams tells it like it is through the insane business world inhabited by Dilbert. If frustration and lunacy are an inevitable part of your workday, appropriate measures must be taken immediately. Andrews McMeel has the perfect antidote to your workplace stress. After 10 years of syndication, Dilbert is universally recognized as the definitive source of office humor. What makes this 14th Dilbert book so unique is that it is a collection of the most popular strips requested by fans for reprints and downloads from Dilbert.com gathered together for the first time. Arranged by topics for quick reference, this hilarious book is the comprehensive Dilbert source book, sure to alleviate work burnout. Packed within these colorful pages, fans will find all their favorite characters, including Dilbert, as he encounters daily issues from delegating to decision-making, trade shows to telecommuting, and downsizing to annoying coworkers. It's business as usual for the Dilbert clan. . . . Dilbert is continually updating his rÂ,sumÂ,, Dogbert continues his pursuit of world domination, Wally strives to do the least amount of work possible, and Alice is eternally frustrated by the Boss. Welcome to the all-too-familiar world of Dilbert-the lowly engineer who has become an icon for oppressed and burntout workers everywhere! The most popular business-oriented cartoon in the world, Dilbert speaks to millions of fans who toil in the corporate trenches. No matter how outrageous a tale he spins, Dilbert creator Scott Adams inserts sufficient nuggets of truth in every strip to keep his believers laughing. In part, that's because Dilbert is based on his own former corporate experiences-and is kept current by culling inspiration from the 350-plus E-mails he receives each day. Keep Dilbert Gives You the Business close at hand-as you would your phone book, Internet diversion tool.browser, and any other work .

Scott Adams Scott Adams's latest work is not a collection of Dilbert cartoons (though recycled strips are liberally sprinkled throughout); it's a dialogue between the man and his fans disguised as a tongue-in-cheek guide to surviving the corporate life. There are chapters on "Office Pranks," "Surviving Meetings," and "Managing Your Co-Workers," with enough weird stories and practical jokes to make any middle manager nervous, especially as many of the tricks and tips come from e-mails sent to Adams by his fans (one tip: never let anyone else use your computer). If these messages are any indication, the creative tide has turned, and now the corporate world is following Dilbert's lead. In the office blocks of America, life is imitating art imitating life, creating a pleasantly postmodern working environment. The final chapter of The Joy of Work, "Handling Criticism," includes a response to Norman Solomon's The Trouble with Dilbert, which accuses Adams of selling out and supporting the corporate hierarchy that he claims to satirize. Adams's response is thorough and convincing, with just enough nastiness (jokes about Solomon's hair, for example) to demonstrate that although Dilbert may not have a mouth, he certainly has teeth. —Simon Leake

Matthew Aid In the first complete history of the National Security Agency, America’s most powerful and secretive intelligence organization.

In February 2006, while researching this book, Matthew Aid uncovered a massive and secret document reclassification program—a revelation that made the front page of the New York Times. This was only one of the discoveries Aid has made during two decades of research in formerly top-secret documents. In The Secret Sentry, Aid provides the first-ever full history of America’s largest security apparatus, the National Security Agency.

This comprehensive account traces the growth of the agency from 1945 to the present through critical moments in its history, from the cold war up to its ongoing involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Aid explores the agency’s involvement in the Iraqi weapons intelligence disaster, where evidence that NSA officials called “ambiguous” was used as proof of Iraqi WMD capacity, and details the intense debate within the NSA over its unprecedented role, pressed by the Bush-Cheney administration, in spying on U.S. citizens.

Today, the NSA has become the most important source of intelligence for the U.S. government, providing 60 percent of the president’s daily intelligence briefing. While James Bamford’s New York Times bestseller The Shadow Factory covered the NSA since 9/11, The Secret Sentry contains new information about every period since World War II . It provides a shadow history of global affairs, from the creation of I srael to the War on Terror.

Brian W. Aldiss, Harry Harrison Story list: The Secret Place by Richard McKenna; Light of Other Days by Bob Shaw; Who Needs Insurance? by Robin S. Scott; Among the Hairy Earthmen by R. A. Lafferty; The Last Castle by Jack Vance; Day Million by Frederik Pohl; When I was Miss Dow by Sonya Dorman; Call Him Lord by Gordon R. Dickson; In the Imagicon by George Henry Smith; We Can Remember it for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick; Man in His Time by Brian W. Aldiss.

Edward Porter Alexander Originally published by UNC Press in 1989, Fighting for the Confederacy is one of the richest personal accounts in all of the vast literature on the Civil War. Alexander was involved in nearly all of the great battles of the East, from First Manassas through Appomattox, and his duties brought him into frequent contact with most of the high command of the Army of Northern Virginia, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and James Longstreet. No other Civil War veteran of his stature matched Alexander's ability to discuss operations in penetrating detail—this is especially true of his description of Gettysburg. His narrative is also remarkable for its utterly candid appraisals of leaders on both sides.

Ahmed Ali In one of the most popular English versions of the Qur'an, Ahmed Ali has succeeded in bringing all of the subtlety, depth, and spiritual power of Islam into his translation of this peerless scripture. Without distorting the English, Ali, a highly regarded author in his own right, renders the poetry of the original Arabic into lines of elegance and rhythm. And not wanting to leave the reader with a false belief in the ability of one language to fully capture another, Ali retains the Arabic side by side with the English, exhorts the reader to refer to it, and offers explanatory notes where necessary. For the curious, the convert, or the devout, Ahmed Ali's Al-Qur'an will bring all readers closer to the glory of God. —Brian Bruya

Margot Anand, M. E. Naslednikov This landmark book on human sexuality makes the sacred lovemaking techniques of the East fully comprehensible to Western readers. Elegantly illustrated, it helps the reader acquire new attitudes and broaden his or her range of experience, to revitalize and strengthen relationships.

Tom Ang It's easy to see why digital photography has overtaken analog in popularity-it's affordable, convenient, versatile, and, above all, it makes photography more fun than ever before. Tom Ang's latest book is an in-depth, inspirational, and uniquely practical guide to every aspect of digital photography. There are assignments and analysis spreads, and step-by-step tutorials to help you hone your skills. He teaches you to look at the world with a photographer's "eye" and shows you how to get great shots every time. In short, this book shows you how to master your camera to ensure the best results in every situation and how to push the computer to keep up with your vision.

Philippe Ariès Aries traces Western man's attitudes toward mortality from the early medieval conception of death as the familiar collective destiny of the human race to the modern tendency, so pronounced in industrial societies, to hide death as if it were an embarrassing family secret." — Newsweek

Lance Armstrong In the opening of Lance Armstrong's memoir, Every Second Counts (co-authored by Sally Jenkins), he reflects: "Generally, one of the hardest things in the world to do is something twice." While he is talking here about his preparation for what would prove to be his second consecutive Tour de France victory in 2000, the sentiment could equally be applied to the book itself. And just as Armstrong managed to repeat his incredible 1999 tour victory, Every Second Counts repeats—and, in some ways exceeds—the success of his bestselling first memoir, It's Not About the Bike.

Every Second Counts confronts the challenge of moving beyond his cancer experience, his first Tour victory, and his celebrity status. Few of Armstrong's readers will ever compete in the Tour de France (though cyclists will relish Armstrong's detailed recounting of his 2000-2003 tour victories), but all will relate to his discussions of loss and disappointment in his personal and professional life since 1999. They will relate to his battles with petty bureaucracies, like the French court system during the doping scandal that almost halted his career. And they will especially relate to constant struggles with work/life balance.

In the face of September 11—which arrives halfway through the narrative (just before the fifth anniversary of his diagnosis)—Armstrong draws from his experiences to show that suffering, fear, and death are the essential human condition. In so openly using his own life to illustrate how to face this reality, he proves that he truly is a hero—and not just because of the bike. In Every Second Counts he is to be admired as a human being, a man who sees every day as a challenge to live richly and well, no matter what hardships may come. —Patrick O'Kelley

Reza Aslan Though it is the fastest-growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded in ignorance and fear for much of the West. In No god but God, Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed scholar of religions, explains this faith in all its beauty and complexity. Beginning with a vivid account of the social and religious milieu in which the Prophet Muhammad forged his message, Aslan paints a portrait of the first Muslim community as a radical experiment in religious pluralism and social egalitarianism. He demonstrates how, after the Prophet’s death, his successors attempted to interpret his message for future generations–an overwhelming task that fractured the Muslim community into competing sects. Finally, Aslan examines how, in the shadow of European colonialism, Muslims developed conflicting strategies to reconcile traditional Islamic values with the realities of the modern world, thus launching what Aslan terms the Islamic Reformation. Timely and persuasive, No god but God is an elegantly written account of a magnificent yet misunderstood faith.

Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith 'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.' So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

Jane Austen, Ben H. Winters From the publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Wallpaper Illustrations from Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (Right-click on the image and select "Set As Desktop Background")

Herbert R. Axelrod, Warren E. Burgess by Axelrod and others. The most comprehensive book ever published on the identification of freshwater aquarium fish. This book covers the common and the oddballs. Food requirements, lighting, temperment, water chemistry needs and more are covered for ever

Herbert R. Axelrod, Leonard P. Schultz

David Bacon "When we finally arrived at my brother's house in the United States, I thought about how far I was from home in Mexico. I looked back, saw the sun setting, and thought about my father and what he might be doing. I thought, 'Why did I come so far, and how am I going to return?' Before I left my father asked me why I wanted to leave. He said he thought we would never see each other again. My brother told him not to worry and that he would return me in a year. . . . He was right, because we never did."-Irma Luna recalls her experience of migration, from Communities without Borders

In his stunning work of photojournalism and oral history, David Bacon documents the new reality of migrant experience: the creation of transnational communities. Today's indigenous migrants don't simply move from one point to another but create new communities all along the northern road from Guatemala through Mexico into the United States, connected by common culture and history. Drawing on his experience as a photographer and a journalist and also as a former labor organizer, Bacon portrays the lives of the people who migrate between Guatemala and Mexico and the United States. He takes us inside these communities and illuminates the ties that bind them together, the influence of their working conditions on their families and health, and their struggle for better lives.

Bacon portrays in photographs and their own words Mixtec and Triqui migrants in Oaxaca, Baja California, and California; Guatemalan migrants in Huehuetenango and Nebraska; miners and indigenous communities in Sonora and Arizona; and veterans of the bracero program of the 1940s and 1950s. Bacon's interviews with this first wave of guest workers are especially relevant in light of the current political focus on guest-worker programs as a model for reforming immigration, an approach with which Bacon strongly disagrees.

Throughout Communities without Borders, Bacon emphasizes the social movements migrants organize to improve their own working conditions and the well-being of their enclaves. U.S. border policy treats undocumented immigrants as an aggregation of individuals, ignoring the social pressures that force whole communities to move and the networks of families and hometowns that sustain them on their journeys. Communities without Borders makes an urgent appeal for understanding the human reality that should inform our national debate over immigration.

J. G. Ballard First published in 1978, this collection of nineteen of Ballard's best short stories is as timely and informed as ever. His tales of the human psyche and its relationship to nature and technology, as viewed through a strong microscope, were eerily prescient and now provide greater perspective on our computer-dominated culture. Ballard's voice and vision have long served as a font of inspiration for today's cyber-punks, the authors and futurist who brought the information age into the mainstream.

Julian Barnes Just what sort of book is Flaubert's Parrot, anyway? A literary biography of 19th-century French novelist, radical, and intellectual impresario Gustave Flaubert? A meditation on the uses and misuses of language? A novel of obsession, denial, irritation, and underhanded connivery? A thriller complete with disguises, sleuthing, mysterious meetings, and unknowing targets? An extended essay on the nature of fiction itself?

On the surface, at first, Julian Barnes's book is the tale of an elderly English doctor's search for some intriguing details of Flaubert's life. Geoffrey Braithwaite seems to be involved in an attempt to establish whether a particularly fine, lovely, and ancient stuffed parrot is in fact one originally "borrowed by G. Flaubert from the Museum of Rouen and placed on his worktable during the writing of Un coeur simple, where it is called Loulou, the parrot of Felicité, the principal character of the tale."

What begins as a droll and intriguing excursion into the minutiae of Flaubert's life and intellect, along with an attempt to solve the small puzzle of the parrot—or rather parrots, for there are two competing for the title of Gustave's avian confrere—soon devolves into something obscure and worrisome, the exploration of an arcane Braithwaite obsession that is perhaps even pathological. The first hint we have that all is not as it seems comes almost halfway into the book, when after a humorously cantankerous account of the inadequacies of literary critics, Braithwaite closes a chapter by saying, "Now do you understand why I hate critics? I could try and describe to you the expression in my eyes at this moment; but they are far too discoloured with rage." And from that point, things just get more and more curious, until they end in the most unexpected bang.

One passage perhaps best describes the overall effect of this extraordinary story: "You can define a net in one of two ways, depending on your point of view. Normally, you would say that it is a meshed instrument designed to catch fish. But you could, with no great injury to logic, reverse the image and define the net as a jocular lexicographer once did: he called it a collection of holes tied together with string." Julian Barnes demonstrates that it is possible to catch quite an interesting fish no matter how you define the net. —Andrew Himes

George Barr This book is for the photographer who strives to achieve a higher level of results in their work. "Take Your Photography to the Next Level" is based on a series of essays originally featured on the popular Luminous Landscape website. Barr tackles some of the rarely discussed, yet essential aspects of successful photography. Here is where photographers will learn what is required in order to grow in their creativity and to gain a deeper understanding of their craft.

With a foreward by Michael Reichmann.

Topics include: Creativity Dealing with disappointment Developing an "eye" Making stronger images What photographs well Where to go looking for the best photographic subjects How to approach subject material A great image is just around the corner Dealing with failure Mind games Becoming a self-aware photographer Framing, cropping, & manipulating prints to create mood and transmit your message

Josh Bartok One of the basic practices of Buddhism is to remain mindful, and one way this is achieved is simply through reminders. Josh Bartok, a publishing-house editor and practitioner of Zen Buddhism, has mined the literature for a yearlong collection of daily reminders. Ranging in length from a sentence to a short page, these reminders include poetry,meditation instruction, practical advice, and thoughts on the way things are. A cynic might notice that all of the selections are from books published by the editor's own press, and therefore dismiss the book as a sly attempt at self-promotion, but when the selections are brilliant quotes from the likes of Ayya Khema, Alan Wallace, Milarepa, Henepola Gunaratana, Martine Batchelor, and the Dalai Lama, one wishes to read them rather than dismiss them. In beautiful verse, the Chinese poet Chia Tao tells of a bell heard during a stroll in the mountains at daybreak. The monk Henepola Gunaratana reminds us that "pain is inevitable, suffering is not." Retain this kind of inspiration throughout the day, and peace will be yours. —Brian Bruya

James Bassil The Style Bible is an indispensable handbook filled with fundamentals that every man can use to improve his dress sense and lifestyle. Divided into 11 rules, The Style Bible helps you build a versatile wardrobe; coordinate different colors, patterns, and accessories; learn which clothes flatter your body type; and navigate the worlds of shoes, jeans, and watches. You'll also learn how to dress appropriately for any occasion or environment, from meetings at the office to first dates and nights on the town. With instructive illustrations and loads of tips, The Style Bible is essential reading for every man who wants to dress to impress.

Stephen Batchelor Those with an interest in Buddhism will welcome this new book by Stephen Batchelor, former monk and author of Alone With Others and The Awakening of the West. But those who are just discovering this increasingly popular practice will have much to gain as well-for Buddhism Without Beliefs serves as a solid, straightforward introduction that demystifies Buddhism and explains simply and plainly how its practice can enrich our lives. Avoiding jargon and theory, Batchelor concentrates on the concrete, making Buddhism accessible and compelling and showing how anyone can embark on this path-regardless of their religious background.

Stephen Batchelor Written with the same brilliance and boldness that made Buddhism Without Beliefs a classic in its field, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist is Stephen Batchelor’s account of his journey through Buddhism, which culminates in a groundbreaking new portrait of the historical Buddha.

Stephen Batchelor grew up outside London and came of age in the 1960s. Like other seekers of his time, instead of going to college he set off to explore the world. Settling in India, he eventually became a Buddhist monk in Dharamsala, the Tibetan capital-in-exile, and entered the inner circle of monks around the Dalai Lama. He later moved to a monastery in South Korea to pursue intensive training in Zen Buddhism. Yet the more Batchelor read about the Buddha, the more he came to believe that the way Buddhism was being taught and practiced was at odds with the actual teachings of the Buddha himself. 

Charting his journey from hippie to monk to lay practitioner, teacher, and interpreter of Buddhist thought, Batchelor reconstructs the historical Buddha’s life, locating him within the social and political context of his world. In examining the ancient texts of the Pali Canon, the earliest record of the Buddha’s life and teachings, Batchelor argues that the Buddha was a man who looked at human life in a radically new way for his time, more interested in the question of how human beings should live in this world than in notions of karma and the afterlife.  According to Batchelor, the outlook of the Buddha was far removed from the piety and religiosity that has come to define much of Buddhism as we know it today. 

Both controversial and deeply personal, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist is a fascinating exploration of a religion that continues to engage the West. Batchelor’s insightful, deeply knowledgeable, and persuasive account will be an essential book for anyone interested in Buddhism.

Jean Baudrillard The first full-length translation in English of an essential work of postmodernist thought.

COLIN BEAVAN The thrilling inside story of the secret "special operations" mission that paved the way for D- Day—and changed the way America waged war

On D-Day, three hundred young American and Allied soldiers were dropped behind enemy lines to launch a secret sabotage mission code-named Jedburgh. Working with the French Resistance, the "Jeds" launched a stunningly effective guerrilla campaign against the German war machine. In this compelling narrative, Colin Beavan, whose grandfather Gerry Miller helped direct the operation for the OSS, tells the incredible story of the rowdy daredevils who carried out America’s first special-forces mission.

Drawing on scores of interviews with Jeds, Beavan’s history reads like a spy thriller. Dodging Gestapo spies, the Jeds armed and trained fighters who liberated Paris, snarled German transport throughout France, and provided essential cover to the invading Allied forces. Beavan focuses on key figures like William Colby, Stewart Alsop, and John Singlaub—all of whom went on to high-profile postwar careers—and shows how Jedburgh pioneered the specialforces procedures still used in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

This gripping history of the original special ops mission makes a major contribution to the literature of American warfare.

Shannon D. Beebe, Mary H. Kaldor The twenty-first century has seen millions unemployed. It has seen livelihoods undermined by environmental degradation. Middle-class cities in Europe, Asia, and Africa have become cauldrons of violence and resentment. Tribalism, ethnic nationalism, and religious fundamentalism have flared dangerously, from Russia to Spain. The use of force is unlikely to help. What works when counter-insurgency has run its course: in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond?

In this book, two authors brought together from distant points on the political spectrum by their concerns about the repercussions of violent political conflict on human lives, explain and explore a new idea for stabilizing the dangerous neighborhoods of the world. They challenge head-on Condoleezza Rice’s declaration that “it is not the job of the 82nd Airborne Division to escort kids to kindergarten” contending that, in fact, it should be. When marginalized populations are trapped in poverty and lawlessness and denied political power and justice brutality, and fascism thrive. Human security is a new concept for clarifying what peace requires and the policies and priorities by which to achieve it.

Loren B. Belker, Gary S. Topchik A true management classic with 200,000 copies sold, this new, expanded edition is still the ultimate guide for every new manager.

Since its original publication, The First-Time Manager has helped many thousands of rookie managers handle their new responsibilities...and now it can help you! Clear and concise, the book covers all the fundamentals you need for success, with indispensable advice on topics including hiring and firing, leadership, motivation, and managing time and stress. In addition, the completely updated fifth edition shows you how to build trust and confidence, be an active listener, manage a diverse group of individuals, conduct performance appraisals, and address many other challenges that come with the manager's job.

Written in an inviting and accessible style, this classic skill-building book is an essential tool for becoming an effective, confident new manager.

Chip R. Bell, Ron Zemke A crash course in caring for customers teaches managers how to find and retain quality people, know their customers, focus their unit on a specific organizational purpose, train and support employees, and more. Original.

Gary Bennett, Brad Lees, Mitchell Fisher It seems as if everyone is writing applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, but how do they all do it? It’s best to learn Objective-C, the native language of both the iOSand Mac OS X, but where to begin? Right here, even if you’ve never programmed before!

Objective-C for Absolute Beginners will teach you how to write software for your Mac, iPhone,or iPad using Objective-C, an elegant and powerful language with a rich set of developer tools. Using a hands-on approach, you’ll learn to think in programming terms, how to use Objective-C to build program logic, and how to write your own applications and apps.

With over 50 collective years in software development and based on an approach pioneered at Carnegie Mellon University, the authors have developed a remarkably effective approach to learning Objective-C. Since the introduction of Apple’s iPhone, the authors have taught hundreds of absolute beginners how to develop Mac, iPhone,and iPad apps, including many that became popular apps in the iTunes App Store. What you’ll learn The fundamentals of computer programming: how to understand variables,design data structures, and work with file systemsThe logic of object-oriented programming: how to use Classes, Objects, and MethodsThe flexibility of Apple's developer tools: how to install Xcode and write programs in Objective-CThe power of Cocoa and Cocoa touch: how to make Mac OS X applications or iOS apps that do cool stuffWho this book is for

Everyone! This book is for anyone who wants to learn to develop applications for the Mac or apps for the iPhone and iPad using the Objective-C programming language. No previous programming experience is necessary. Table of Contents  Becoming a Great iPhone/iPad or Mac Programmer  Programming Basics   It’s All About the Data   Making Decisions About...and Planning Program Flow   Object Oriented Programming with Objective-C   Introducing Objective-C and Xcode  Objective-C Classes, Objects, and Methods  Programming Basics in Objective-C   Comparing Data   Creating User Interfaces with Interface Builder   Memory, Addresses, and Pointers   Debugging Programs with Xcode   Storing Information Protocols and Delegates

Samuel Bercholz, Sherab Chödzin Kohn An introduction to the teachings of Buddhism includes essential readings, basic teachings, a life of the Buddha, and a concise historical survey. Original. 30,000 first printing. Movie tie-in.

Ambrose Bierce Adapted and illustrated by Gahan Wilson, The Devil's Dictionary is a hilarious satire from one of the most brilliant and incisive writers of all time—Ambrose Bierce. Gahan Wilson's work appears regularly in The New Yorker and Playboy; he illustrated the Classics Illustrated version of Poe's The Raven and Other Stories.

Reverend Billy The companion book to What Would Jesus Buy?, the forthcoming feature-length documentary produced by Morgan Spurlock, creator of Super Size Me!

Reverend Billy's revival tour across America is the subject of the upcoming Morgan Spurlock film What Would Jesus Buy?, his first movie since the national hit Super Size Me! The book is an inspiring—love-a-lujah!—compendium of the reverend in full flow, from his exhortations from the pulpit to his reflections on why lesbian marriage will save the Spotted Owl. Reverend Billy believes big box brainless consumerism is destroying our culture and our planet.

Reverend Billy first began preaching in Times Square and has since been incessantly spreading the word at major retail stores from San Francisco to New York City. He has been regularly featured in the national media, most recently in the New York Times, and was arrested with great panache as he led prayers against consumerism in Disneyland. What Would Jesus Buy? Will entertain, convince, convert, and give readers actions they can take to become a member of the Church of Stop Shopping.

John Bingham, Jenny Hadfield Weekly advice and support from a nationally renowned running guru.

John "The Penguin" Bingham is a nationally renowned running guru. His columns in Runner's World magazine (circulation 550,000) inspire slow and mid-pack runners to take pride in their running, to know that all running is good running. He has been instrumental in the "Second Running Boom." As his fame grows, his books sell faster. The Courage to Start and No Need for Speed have sold more than a hundred thousand copies.

This weekly logbook is a complete updating of its first edition — new layout, essays, advice and photos. It's still full of the Penguin spirit, which hundreds of thousands of runners embrace. Co-author Jenny Hadfield is John's personal coach, and she adds her excellent training advice to John's Penguin wisdom. Waddle on!

John "The Penguin" Bingham "The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."

Take your first step toward fitness and a happier, healthier life.

Has the idea of running crossed your mind, but you haven't acted on it because you don't think you have the body of a runner? Have you thought about running but quit before you started because you knew that you would be breathless at the end of your driveway? Well, put aside those fears because you can do it. John Bingham, author of the popular Runner's World column "The Penguin Chronicles," transformed himself from an overweight couch potato who smoked into a runner who has completed eleven marathons and hundreds of road races.

Forget about the image of a perfect body in skintight clothes, and don't worry about how fast or how far you go. Bingham shows how anyone can embrace running as a life-enhancing activity — rather than as a competition you will never win. In an entertaining blend of his own success story and practical advice, Bingham provides reasonable guidelines for establishing a program of achievable goals; offers tips on clothing, running shoes, and other equipment; and explains how anyone can prepare for and run distances ranging from a few miles to marathons.

After all, in running and in life, the difference between success and failure sometimes comes down to a single step. Waddle on, friends.

Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.

Jonah Blank The three-thousand-year-old epic Ramayana chronicles Lord Rama's physical voyage from one end of the Indian subcontinent to the other and his spiritual voyage from Man to God. In Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, anthropologist and journalist Jonah Blank gives a new perspective to this Hindu classic — retelling the ancient tale while following the course of Rama's journey through present-day India and Sri Lanka. Ultimately, Blank's journey — like that of Lord Rama — evolves into a quest: to understand the chimerical essence of India itself, in all its overwhelming beauty and paradox. "Quite possibly the most perceptive book that I have come across on India since the British Raj ended." — Pranay Gupte Washington Post; "What Hollywood attempted on the big screen with casts of thousands in Gandhi and A Passage to India, Jonah Blank has achieved in 350 stylistically rich pages." — Los Angeles Times; "This informative and entertaining book is something to be thankful for." — The New York Times Book Review.

Stewart Brand An icon of the environmental movement outlines a provocative approach for reclaiming our planet

According to Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist who sees everything in terms of solvable design problems, three profound transformations are under way on Earth right now. Climate change is real and is pushing us toward managing the planet as a whole. Urbanization-half the world's population now lives in cities, and eighty percent will by midcentury-is altering humanity's land impact and wealth. And biotechnology is becoming the world's dominant engineering tool. In light of these changes, Brand suggests that environmentalists are going to have to reverse some longheld opinions and embrace tools that they have traditionally distrusted. Only a radical rethinking of traditional green pieties will allow us to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of the earth's resources.

Whole Earth Discipline shatters a number of myths and presents counterintuitive observations on why cities are actually greener than countryside, how nuclear power is the future of energy, and why genetic engineering is the key to crop and land management. With a combination of scientific rigor and passionate advocacy, Brand shows us exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offers a bold and inventive set of policies and solutions for creating a more sustainable society.

In the end, says Brand, the environmental movement must become newly responsive to fast-moving science and take up the tools and discipline of engineering. We have to learn how to manage the planet's global-scale natural infrastructure with as light a touch as possible and as much intervention as necessary.

Eric Brende What is the least we need to achieve the most? With this question in mind, MIT graduate Eric Brende flipped the switch on technology. He and his wife, Mary, ditched their car, electric stove, refrigerator, running water, and everything else motorized or "hooked to the grid," and spent eighteen months living in a remote community so primitive in its technology that even the Amish consider it antiquated.

Better Off is the story of their real-life experiment to see whether our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier — or whether life would be preferable without them. This smart, funny, and enlightening book mingles scientific analysis with the human story to demonstrate how a world free of technological excess can shrink stress — and waistlines — and expand happiness, health, and leisure. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Lisa Brenneis Here to ensure that users start taking advantage of Final Cut Express 4's powerful editing capabilities immediately is a thoroughly updated task-based guide to the program from best-selling author and digital video expert Lisa Brenneis. Users who are eager to make effective, compelling videos but don't want to invest heavily in training or equipment will welcome Lisa's simple step-by-step instructions, strong visual approach, and sound professional advice. In short order, they'll find themselves editing video; applying special effects and transitions; mastering the program's compositing, titling, and audio tools; and outputting their finished work. Readers will also learn about all that's new in this major upgrade: importing iMovie 08 projects, open format Timeline, built-in AVCHD and more.

H. Jackson Brown Jr. Read years ago that it was not the responsibility of parents to pave the road for their children, but to provide a road map. That's how I hoped he or she would use these mind and heart reflections.

Dee Brown First published in 1970, this extraordinary book changed the way Americans think about the original inhabitants of their country. Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos in 1860 and ending 30 years later with the massacre of Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, it tells how the American Indians lost their land and lives to a dynamically expanding white society. During these three decades, America's population doubled from 31 million to 62 million. Again and again, promises made to the Indians fell victim to the ruthlessness and greed of settlers pushing westward to make new lives. The Indians were herded off their ancestral lands into ever-shrinking reservations, and were starved and killed if they resisted. It is a truism that "history is written by the victors"; for the first time, this book described the opening of the West from the Indians' viewpoint. Accustomed to stereotypes of Indians as red savages, white Americans were shocked to read the reasoned eloquence of Indian leaders and learn of the bravery with which they and their peoples endured suffering. With meticulous research and in measured language overlaying brutal narrative, Dee Brown focused attention on a national disgrace. Still controversial but with many of its premises now accepted, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee has sold 5 million copies around the world. Thirty years after it first broke onto the national conscience, it has lost none of its importance or emotional impact. —John Stevenson

Jr. H. Jackson Brown The author's followup to Life's Little Instruction Book advises readers to jump in a pile of leaves with someone you love and never drive while holding a cup of coffee between your knees, among other pithy, practical tips. Original.

Tom Brown

Deborah Cadbury One of the most exhilarating true adventures in history, the race into space was marked by courage, duplicity, political paranoia, astonishing technological feats, and unbelievable triumphs in the face of overwhelming adversity. It is the story of an unparalleled rivalry between superpowers and of the two remarkable men at the center of the conflict. On the American side was Wernher von Braun, the camera-friendly former Nazi scientist, who was granted hero status and almost unlimited resources by a government panicked at the thought of the Cold War enemy taking the lead. The Soviet program was headed by Sergei Korolev, a former political prisoner whose identity was a closely guarded state secret. Korolev was expected to—and did—work miracles on a shoestring budget, his cooperation assured through intimidation and threats of possible disgrace or death. These rivals were opposite in every way, save for one: each was obsessed with the idea of launching a man to the Moon.

Deborah Cadbury's extraordinary history combines action and suspense with a moving portrayal of the space race's human dimension. Using source materials never before available, she tells a riveting story of the espionage, ambition, ingenuity, and passion behind humankind's mind-bending voyage beyond the bounds of Earth.

Julian Calder, John Garrett More than a million copies sold worldwide—newly expanded and revised

This classic guide to 35mm photography tells you everything you need to know to take great pictures.
        
A comprehensive and easy-to-understand resource, The New 35MM Photographer's Handbook walks you through the basics of photography, including selecting the right camera for your needs, using filters and fills, choosing the right lens for a specific shot, and approaching a wide range of specialty photography.
        
And it doesn't just stop with the basics — it brings you right up to date with the most advanced and cutting edge photographic technologies to help you move your craft to the next level. With thorough step-by-step explanations of the Advantix System, electronic cameras, E-6 film, dry darkroom techniques, and more, The New 35MM Photographer's Handbook is the rarest of guidebooks: a valuable tool for the beginner and a valued reference for the seasoned professional.

Orson Scott Card Winer of the Hugo and Nebula Awards

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

John Cassidy, B. C. Rimbeaux Klutz Klutz: Juggling By Klutz

Bruce Catton This history of the American Civil War chronicles the entire war to preserve the Union - from the Northern point of view, but in terms of the men from both sides who lived and died in glory on the fields.

LaReine Chabut Did you long ago learn to fear and dread stretching because of overbearing P.E. teachers who forced you to touch your toes? It doesn't have to be that way anymore. Stretching is a powerful tool that can bring you new ease of movement, an increase in your physical capabilities, and deep composure that requires you to do nothing more than breathe. You can always have access to it—and best of all, it's free!

Stretching for Dummies shows you that stretching is actually easy to do—and reveals how you can reap the amazing benefits of stretching anywhere, anytime. It explains in simple terms how you can stand taller, look thinner, keep stress from getting the best of you, keep your muscles from feeling achy, and nip injuries in the bud. You'll discover: The why’s, where’s, when’s, and how’s of letting loose and snapping back How to keep from hurting yourself The benefits of stretching with a partner How to target specific areas: such as head, shoulders, knees, and toes The art of breathing correctly How to use stretching to sooth lower back pain Stretches to start and end your day right Stretches you can do at your desk Stretches for various stages of life—including stretches for kids and seniors

This easy-to-use reference also includes a list of ten surprising around-the house stretching accessories, along with ten common aches and pain that stretching can help. Regardless of how old or young you are, Stretching for Dummies will introduce you to a kinder and gentler form of flexibility that will reduce that nagging tension and tenderness in your muscles and truly make you feel good all over.

Harry Chambers, Harry E. Chambers For technical professionals in all fields, a practical guide to enhancing communication, interpersonal, and managerial skills

Flatter, more collaborative organizational structures, combined with the pressure to translate innovative ideas into action quickly, are increasing the need by technical professionals-such as computer programmers, design specialists, engineers, and R&D scientists-to expand their repertoire of communication and managerial skills. In this highly accessible and practical book, Harry Chambers offers a wealth of strategies and tactics for building these skills, to the benefit of individuals, teams, and companies. In his trademark shoot-from-the-hip style, Chambers identifies specific real-world challenges that technical professionals face in the workplace, and offers definitive guidelines for enhancing their communication skills-from making presentations to giving and receiving criticism to navigating office politics. Featuring interviews with people in the trenches, as well as self-assessment tools and exercises, Effective Communication Skills will become a valued resource for technical professionals and their colleagues, trainers, and HR departments in all industries.

Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Bob McCabe Python fans will need to clear a large space on their bookshelf or coffee table for The Pythons—a big, vital autobiography of the comedy troupe. This is an oral history by the six members (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) from birth to—in the case of Chapman—death. We get reminisces about childhood, university days, early successes, and rich details about the landmark Flying Circus TV series and subsequent films. The voices are fresh (with expectation of Michael Palin's insightful diary entries), not just complied from earlier publications. "Due to his insistence of being inconveniently dead," Chapham's voice is heard through his longtime partner David Sherlock, his brother and sister-in-law (and some archival materials). As a whole, the six impart a refreshing ability to deal honestly with the frustrations that arose over the years and it comes out in the text even when events are recalled differently. The book is not a light read (figuratively and literally), perhaps a smaller size would have been better for the amount of text; a cursory glance at the coffee table is tough. What does fill the book is an abundance of photos (over 1,000), most never published and many from the troupe's private collections. Along with concept sketches, Gilliam's drawings and doodles, and a few correspondences, this is a keepsake memento of the legendary group. —Doug Thomas

Victor Tan Chen, Katherine S. Newman Named one of the Best Business Books of 2007 by Library Journal

The Missing Class gives voice to the 54 million Americans, including 21 percent of the nation’s children, who are sandwiched between poor and middle class. While government programs help the needy and politicians woo the more fortunate, the “Missing Class” is largely invisible and ignored. Through the experiences of nine families, Katherine Newman and Victor Tan Chen trace the unique problems faced by individuals in this large and growing demographic—the “near poor.” The question for the Missing Class is not whether they’re doing better than the truly poor—they are. The question is whether these individuals, on the razor’s edge of subsistence, are safely ensconced in the Missing Class or in danger of losing it all. The Missing Class has much to tell us about whether the American dream still exists for those who are sacrificing daily to achieve it.

“In this compassionate and clear-eyed analysis . . . Newman and Chen contribute significantly to the dialogue on America’s widening inequities.” —Publishers Weekly

“The Missing Class is a call to action to change America.” —Senator John Edwards

“At last, a focus on people who struggle from month to month with housing, health care and education costs but don’t fit into the government’s comfortingly minimalist definition of poverty. Newman and Chen give us a vivid, close-up, and often moving look at the urban ‘near poor.’ An excellent follow-up to Newman’s essential body of work on America’s economic anxieties.” —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

“Just above the artificial ‘poverty line,’ millions of hard-working people struggle invisibly to gain a foothold on the promise of the American Dream. Their raw hardships and persistent hopes, collected in this book of unflinching portraits, ought to sound the alarm for an America grown complacent.” —David Shipler, author of The Working Poor: Invisible in America

Thubten Chodron

Louis Chunovic In the late '50s and early '60s, the most subversive show ever to hit the airwaves enchanted millions of American grade-schoolers. The kiddies tuned in to watch Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, indulge in cartoon acrobatics and rattle off a series of unbelievable puns. This encyclopedic volume details their every adventure, from chasing the wailing whale Maybe Dick to joining the football team at Wossamotta U. The sinister Pottsylvanian spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale sneak into a goodly share of the pages, along with Dudley Do-Right, the square-jawed Mountie; Snidely Whiplash, the luxuriantly mustachioed villain; Mr. Peabody, the beagle who knows everything; and his boy Sherman. It's a loving, cleverly-illustrated tribute to these saviors of the free world and an admiring paean to the twisted, hilarious genius of Jay Ward, their modest creator, who set the standard for TV animation for generations to come.

Patricia Smith Churchland Honorable Mention in the category of Psychology in the 1986 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc.

Neurophilosophy is a rich interdisciplinary study of the prospects for a unified cognitive neurobiology. Contemporary research in the empirical neurosciences, and recent research in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of science, are used to illuminate fundamental questions concerning the relation between abstract cognitive theory and substantive neuroscience.

Patricia Smith Churchland is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. A Bradford Book.

Andy Clarke, Molly E. Holzschlag As the Web evolves to incorporate new standards and the latest browsers offer new possibilities for creative design, the art of creating Web sites is also changing. Few Web designers are experiences programmers, and as a result, working with semantic markup and CSS can create roadblocks to achieving truly beautiful designs using all the resources available. Add to this the pressures of presenting exceptional design to clients and employers, without compromising efficient workflow, and the challenge deepens for those working in a fast-paced environment. As someone who understands these complexities firsthand, author and designer Andy Clarke offers visual designers a progressive approach to creating artistic, usable, and accessible sites using transcendent CSS.

In this groundbreaking book, you’ll discover how to implement highly original designs through visual demonstrations of the creative possibilities using markup and CSS. You’ll learn to use a new design workflow, build prototypes that work well for designers and all team members, use grids effectively, visualize markup, and discover every phase of the transcendent design process, from working with the latest browsers to incorporating CSS3 to collaborating with team members effectively.

Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design:

Uses a visual approach to help you learn coding techniques

Includes numerous examples of world-class Web sites, photography, and other inspirations that give designers ideas for visualizing their code Offers early previews of technical advances in new Web browsers and of the emerging CSS3 specification

Andre Comte-Sponville The perfect antidote to the fiery rhetoric that dominates our current national debate over religion, The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality is the ideal companion to such bestsellers as The God Delusion and God Is Not Great. I n this inspiring book, bestselling author and philosopher André Comte-Sponville offers a new perspective on the question of God’s existence, acknowledging the good that has come of religion while advocating tolerance from both believers and non-believers. Through clear, concise, and often humorous prose, Comte-Sponville offers a convincing appeal for a new form of spiritual life—one that at its heart celebrates the human need to connect to one another and the universe.

David Cordingly Though literature, films, and folklore have romanticized pirates as gallant seaman who hunted for treasure in exotic locales, David Cordingly, a former curator at the National Maritime Museum in England, reveals the facts behind the legends of such outlaws as Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, and Calico Jack. Even stories about buried treasure are fictitious, he says, yet still the myth remains. Though pirate captains were often sadistic villains and crews endured barbarous tortures, were constantly threatened with the possibility of death by hanging, drowning in a storm, or surviving a shipwreck on a hostile coast, pirates are still idealized. Cordingly examines why the myth of the romance of piratehood endures and why so few lived out their days in luxury on the riches they had plundered.

Quest C. Couch Maximize the potential of your flash with an understanding of how to manipulate light and shadows. FLASH The MOST Available Light is an easy reference for creating natural light with flash for DIGITAL and FILM photography. The book is designed to be a quick read, initially providing an easy to understand working overview to the reader. More in-depth explanations are offered in an Etc. section. By reading this book you will learn how to work with a variety of situations on location to obtain natural results and understand the factors that affect your flash photography and how to use them to your advantage. IS THIS THE BOOK FOR YOU? -Are you considering a detachable flash for your digital or film camera but are concerned about the equipment and results? -Are you currently dissatisfied with the results of your flash photography? -Are you interested in maximizing the potential of your flash? -Do you wish to avoid the "FLASHED" look and create more natural images? -Do you want the process to be simple, fast and fun? FLASH The MOST Available Light contains over 90 photographs, charts and illustrations to explain and demonstrate how your flash is an indispensable tool with a variety of applications. This book is the result of several decades of flash photography, designing the LumiQuest line of photo accessories, and thousands of conversations with both novice and experienced photographers. -Learn how to work with a variety of situations on location to obtain more natural results with your flash; -Understand the factors that effect your flash photographs and how to use them to your advantage; -Dispel myths and avoid common flash mistakes; -Utilize the power of the automatic features through an understanding of their purpose and function; -Learn to appreciate your flash as an indispensable tool with a variety of applications.

Douglas Coupland Generation X is a field guide to and for the vast generation born in the late 1950s and the 1960s—a generation that has been erroneously labelled "postponed" and "indifferent." This is facto-fiction about a wildly accelerating subculture waiting in the corridor.

Douglas Coupland Chronicles six months in the life of Tyler Johnson, an ambitious, conservative twenty year old who was raised in a hippie commune. By the author of Generation X. Reprint. PW.

Douglas Coupland Offering spiritual guidelines for a modern generation that has broken away from organized religion, a collection of inspirational stories seeks to reintroduce God as a supportive figure in a fast-paced society. Reprint. Tour.

Douglas Coupland Microserfs is not about Microsoft—it's about programmers who are searching for lives. A hilarious but frighteningly real look at geek life in the '90's, Coupland's book manifests a peculiar sense of how technology affects the human race and how it will continue to affect all of us. Microserfs is the hilarious journal of Dan, an ex-Microsoft programmer who, with his coder comrades, is on a quest to find purpose in life. This isn't just fodder for techies. The thoughts and fears of the not-so-stereotypical characters are easy for any of us to relate to, and their witty conversations and quirky view of the world make this a surprisingly thought-provoking book.

" ... just think about the way high-tech cultures purposefully protract out the adolescence of their employees well into their late 20s, if not their early 30s," muses one programmer. "I mean, all those Nerf toys and free beverages! And the way tech firms won't even call work 'the office,' but instead, 'the campus.' It's sick and evil."

Sloane Crosley Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions-or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character that's aiming for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. I Was Told There'd Be Cake introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.

Sloane Crosley From the author of the sensational bestseller I Was Told There'd Be Cake comes a new book of personal essays brimming with all the charm and wit that have earned Sloane Crosley widespread acclaim, award nominations, and an ever-growing cadre of loyal fans. In Cake readers were introduced to the foibles of Crosley's life in New York City-always teetering between the glamour of Manhattan parties, the indignity of entry-level work, and the special joy of suburban nostalgia-and to a literary voice that mixed Dorothy Parker with David Sedaris and became something all its own.

Crosley still lives and works in New York City, but she's no longer the newcomer for whom a trip beyond the Upper West Side is a big adventure. She can pack up her sensibility and takes us with her to Paris, to Portugal (having picked it by spinning a globe and putting down her finger, and finally falling in with a group of Portuguese clowns), and even to Alaska, where the "bear bells" on her fellow bridesmaids' ponytails seemed silly until a grizzly cub dramatically intrudes. Meanwhile, back in New York, where new apartments beckon and taxi rides go awry, her sense of the city has become more layered, her relationships with friends and family more complicated.

As always, Crosley's voice is fueled by the perfect witticism, buoyant optimism, flair for drama, and easy charm in the face of minor suffering or potential drudgery. But in How Did You Get This Number it has also become increasingly sophisticated, quicker and sharper to the point, more complex and lasting in the emotions it explores. And yet, Crosley remains the unfailingly hilarious young Everywoman, healthily equipped with intelligence and poise to fend off any potential mundanity in maturity.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Part psychological study, part self-help book, Finding Flow is a prescriptive guide that helps us reclaim ownership of our lives. Based on a far-reaching study of thousands of individuals, Finding Flow contends that we often walk through our days unaware and out of touch with our emotional lives. Our inattention makes us constantly bounce between two extremes: during much of the day we live filled with the anxiety and pressures of our work and obligations, while during our leisure moments, we tend to live in passive boredom. The key, according to Csikszentmihalyi, is to challenge ourselves with tasks requiring a high degree of skill and commitment. Instead of watching television, play the piano. Transform a routine task by taking a different approach. In short, learn the joy of complete engagement. Thought they appear simple, the lessons in Finding Flow are life-altering.

David Cunningham In the 1960s, on the heels of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision and in the midst of the growing Civil Rights Movement, Ku Klux Klan activity boomed, reaching an intensity not seen since the 1920s, when the KKK boasted over 4 million members. Most surprisingly, the state with the largest Klan membership-more than the rest of the South combined-was North Carolina, a supposed bastion of southern-style progressivism.

Klansville, U.S.A. is the first substantial history of the civil rights-era KKK's astounding rise and fall, focusing on the under-explored case of the United Klans of America (UKA) in North Carolina. Why the UKA flourished in the Tar Heel state presents a fascinating puzzle and a window into the complex appeal of the Klan as a whole. Drawing on a range of new archival sources and interviews with Klan members, including state and national leaders, the book uncovers the complex logic of KKK activity. David Cunningham demonstrates that the Klan organized most successfully where whites perceived civil rights reforms to be a significant threat to their status, where mainstream outlets for segregationist resistance were lacking, and where the policing of the Klan's activities was lax. Moreover, by connecting the Klan to the more mainstream segregationist and anti-communist groups across the South, Cunningham provides valuable insight into southern conservatism, its resistance to civil rights, and the region's subsequent dramatic shift to the Republican Party.

Klansville, U.S.A. illuminates a period of Klan history that has been largely ignored, shedding new light on organized racism and on how political extremism can intersect with mainstream institutions and ideals.

Drew Curtis From the creator of Fark.com, an exposé on the media gone awry, revealing the hysterical, often outrageous non-news that passes for newsworthy today

Have you ever found yourself noticing certain patterns in the news you see and read each day? Perhaps it’s the blatant fear-mongering in the absence of facts on your local 6 o’clock news ("Tsunami could hit the Atlantic any day!" EVERYBODY PANIC), or the seasonal articles that appear year after year like clockwork ("Roads will be crowded this holiday season." Thanks AAA.). IT’S NOT NEWS, IT’S FARK is Drew Curtis’ clever examination of the state of the media today and a hilarious look at the go-to stories mass media uses when there's just not enough hard news to fill a newspaper or a news broadcast. Who is to blame for non-news in the media? Is it the media, or the media consumer and their website-clicking habits? Or does the answer lie somewhere in between? IT'S NOT NEWS, IT'S FARK takes a crack at why

Drew exposes eight stranger-than-fiction media patterns that prove just how little reporting is going on in the world of reporters today. Regardless of whether it’s a slow news day, mainstream media still has to deliver. IT’S NOT NEWS, IT’S FARK examines all the "news" that was never fit for print in the first place, and promises to have you laughing (with the media, mind you, not at them...) along the way. Let the hilarity ensue.

Amy Dacyczyn Having discovered that frugality is good for the bank account and the environment, Amy Dacyczyn started a newsletter for skinflints in 1989. Within a year, 50,000 cheapskates had subscribed to The Tightwad Gazette. Now Amy has collected all her wisdom into a book, and it's as good a deal as you'll find in these inflationary times. Line drawings.

Amy Dacyczyn The Tightwad Gazette II

The Perfect — and Cheap — Home Chili Recipe! New Uses for Old Blue Jeans!

Make a Quilt for Ninety-five Cents!

In 1993, Amy Dacyczyn's first book featured advice from the pages of her two-year-old newsletter The Tightwad Gazette. Over 250,000 copies were sold, inspiring millions of people to profit through thrift. Now, The Tightwad Gazette II serves up all-new help and hints from the newsletter's third and fourth years, yielding still more savings for millions of converts to tightwaddery.

Save More Money! Save More Time! Save More Resources!

Some of the Exciting, Money-Saving Topics Include:

A Reader's Guide to The Tightwad Gazette
— Penny Pinching Pizza
— Car Maintenance Tips
— Calculate Your Cost Per Muffin
— How to Make a Solar Box Cooker
— Store-Brand Common Sense
— Think Small to Save Big
— Where to Get Insurance Information
— Breakfast Breakthrough
— Picture-Framing for Less
— Gas Versus Electric
— Reupholstery Savings
— Army Surplus Bargains
— The Tightwad A to Z
— Saving Space to Save Money
— How to Stop Flushing Money Down the Toilet
— Frugality and the Economy
— Whoopie Pies
— How to Fix Up a House
— Should We Use Used Shoes?
— Where to Get Something for Nothing
— What to Do with Old Blue Jeans
— Warehouse Clubs and Savings
— Cheap Holiday Accommodations
— The Femme Frugal
— Shared-Housing Programs
— How to Work Out How Much You're Saving
— Mail-Order Eye Care
— Budgeting and Keeping Records
— Dumpster Diving
— How to Shop Thriftily
— Money-Saving Recipes
— Homemade Goo
— Coupon or Not Coupon?
— Splitting Pills to Cut Costs
— Stained-Glass Cookies
— The Tightwad Christmas
— Candles and Decorations
— Practical Gift-Giving
— Synthetic Motor Oil
— Bartering and Exchange
— Detergents Determined
— CDs Versus LPs
— Long-Distance Phone Call Charges
— Moving for Less —

Just Look Inside For Much, Much More...

Antonio Damasio Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world’s leading neurologists" (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior.

Ram Dass, Rameshwar Das Ram Dass, one of America's most beloved spiritual teachers, sparked a revolution forty years ago with the publication of Be Here Now. This landmark classic inspired an entire generation to see the world in a different light. Over the past four decades Ram Dass has been a beacon for seekers worldwide, challenging us to find new sources of meaning and purpose in our lives.

Be Love Now is the third book in a trilogy that began with Be Here Now and was followed by Still Here, Ram Dass's acclaimed work on aging, changing, and dying. In Be Love Now, Ram Dass shares what he has learned in his remarkable four-decade-long spiritual journey. Through timeless teaching stories, compelling and often humorous personal anecdotes, and soul-stirring insights, Ram Dass tracks the stages of his own awakening in his trademark down-to-earth style. Starting with his days as Harvard psychologist and psychedelic inventurer, continuing through his profound encounters with his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, and moving beyond the reawakening brought on by his near-fatal stroke, Ram Dass shares his life experiences while offering a timeless teaching on love and the path of the heart.

Guiding us through the pitfalls and perils of our own spiritual path, Be Love Now is both a deeply personal and wonderfully universal exploration that will open hearts and minds. Ram Dass once again blazes a new trail, inviting all to join him on this next stage of the journey.

Kenneth C. Davis Historian Kenneth C. Davis brings his remarkable ability for making the past vital and entertaining to this in-depth study of the United States' bloodiest conflict. Not content to rehash the one-dimensional accounts that traditional history textbooks have foisted upon students, Davis reexamines with a fresh, critical eye the situations leading up to and the key events that shaped the Civil War. He begins by reaching back to the earliest days of American history to understand the political, economic, and social conditions that allowed a nation founded upon the notion that "all men are created equal" to enslave and degrade 12 million human souls. In his detailed account of the war's battles and political power struggles, he introduces us to the personalities—from Abraham Lincoln, General Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglas to common soldiers and war widows—whose vision, compromises, determination, and powerlessness together made history. Davis also brings to light little-known facts and episodes that for generations were ignored or swept under the rug of the American conscience—including the role of women in the war effort and the massacre of blacks at the hands of Union civilians. All Americans would do well to take a new look at this period of history that "shaped the country's political landscape like the great glaciers had once carved America" because, as Davis explains, its effects linger today. "The Civil War," he says, "remains at the core of our greatest national problem: the great racial divide that grew from slavery." Few programs speak with such intelligence and eloquence about how far the United States has come in terms of what the war taught—and how far it still has to go. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) —Uma Kukathas

William C. Davis William C. Davis, "one of the best and most prolific historians of the American Civil War" (James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom), offers a definitive portrait of the Confederacy unlike any other.

Drawing on decades of writing and research among an unprecedented number of archives, ranging from the 800-odd newspapers in operation during the war to the personal writings of more than 100 leaders and common citizens, Davis reveals the Confederacy through the words of the Confederates themselves. Look Away! recounts all the epic sagas — as well as those little-known and long-forgotten — about a desperate government that socialized the salt industry, rangers and marauders who preyed on their fellow Confederates, and the systematic breakdown of law and order in some states. A dramatic, definitive account of one of our nation's most searing episodes, Look Away! shows us a South divided against itself, unable to stand.

Richard Dawkins In his sensational international bestseller, the preeminent scientist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins delivers a hard-hitting, impassioned, but humorous rebuttal of religious belief. With rigor and wit, Dawkins eviscerates the arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of the existence of a supreme being. He makes a compelling case that faith is not just irrational, but potentially deadly. In a preface written for the paperback edition, Dawkins responds to some of the controversies the book has incited. This brilliantly argued, provocative book challenges all of us to test our beliefs, no matter what beliefs we hold.

Don DeLillo Nick Shay and Klara Sax knew each other once, intimately, and they meet again in the American desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life; she is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence.

Underworld is a story of men and women together and apart, seen in deep, clear detail and in stadium-sized panoramas, shadowed throughout by the overarching conflict of the Cold War. It is a novel that accepts every challenge of these extraordinary times — Don DeLillo's greatest and most powerful work of fiction.

Daniel C. Dennett For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why—and how—it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from "wild" folk belief to "domesticated" dogma. Not an antireligious screed but an unblinking look beneath the veil of orthodoxy, Breaking the Spell will be read and debated by believers and skeptics alike.

Amadou Diallo The very nature of black and white photography places a premium on creative interpretation of the image. Advances in digital technology have expanded both the precision of imaging techniques and the interpretive possibilities for black and white imagery. Never before has such a wide array of tools been available to photographers who have a passion for black and white. Mastering Digital Black and White is written for these photographers. It serves not only as a comprehensive guide for creating black and white images and prints, but also examines the role of artistic craft in the imaging process. Learn how to employ your digital tools as extensions of your photographic vision. Read in-depth interviews with, and view images from, five accomplished photographers as they discuss their process and inspirations. Prepare to indulge your passion for gallery-quality black-and-white images in the digital darkroom. Additional supporting content for this book and a discussion forum for photographers and printmakers with a passion for black and white can be accessed at: www.masteringdigitalbwbook.com

Jared Diamond In his runaway bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond brilliantly examined the circumstances that allowed Western civilizations to dominate much of the world. Now he probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to fall into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates? Using a vast historical and geographical perspective ranging from Easter Island and the Maya to Viking Greenland and modern Montana, Diamond traces a fundamental pattern of environmental catastrophe—one whose warning signs can be seen in our modern world and that we ignore at our peril. Blending the most recent scientific advances into a narrative that is impossible to put down, Collapse exposes the deepest mysteries of the past even as it offers hope for the future.

Jared M. Diamond Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye—and his heart—belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.

Danny Dreyer More than 24 million people run in the United States alone, but 65 percent will have to stop at least once this year because of injury. Still others will choose to run through the pain. But in this groundbreaking book, ultramarathoner Danny Dreyer teaches us the running technique he created to heal and prevent injuries and also to run faster, farther, and with much less effort at any age.

ChiRunning employs the deep power reserves in the core muscles of the trunk, an approach that grows out of such disciplines as yoga, Pilates, and t'ai chi. This excellent step-by-step program offers training principles and is easily learned.

Dramatically reduce your potential for injury Make knee pain and shin splints a thing of the past Greatly reduce post-run recovery time Create a safe and effective training program Make running any distance enjoyable whether you're a beginning runner or a seasoned competitor

David duChemin For those who want to make the transition into the world of vocational photography—staying true to your craft and vision, while fusing that craft with commerce VisionMongers is a great place to begin your journey. With a voice equally realistic and encouraging, photographer David duChemin discusses the experiences he’s had, the lessons he’s learned, and the practices he’s adopted in his own winding journey to becoming a successful working photographer.

When it comes to this personal, honest combination of craft and commerce, there is no single path to success. Everyone’s goals are different, as is everyone’s definition of success. As such, VisionMongers does not prescribe a one size-fits-all program. Instead, duChemin candidly shares ideas, wisdom, and inspiration to introduce you to, and help you navigate, the many aspects of transforming your passion into your vocation. He addresses everything from the anxiety-riddled question “Am I good enough?” to the basics—and beyond—of marketing, business, and finance, as well as the core assumption that your product is great and your craft is always improving.

Along the way, duChemin features the stories of nine other photographers—including Chase Jarvis, Gavin Gough, and Zack Arias—whose paths, while unique, have all shared a commitment and passion for bringing their own vision to market. With VisionMongers, you’ll learn what paths have been taken—what has worked for these photographers—and you’ll be equipped to begin the process of forging your own.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Bart D. Ehrman For almost 1,500 years, the New Testament manuscripts were copied by hand––and mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions. Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself are the results of both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes.

In this compelling and fascinating book, Ehrman shows where and why changes were made in our earliest surviving manuscripts, explaining for the first time how the many variations of our cherished biblical stories came to be, and why only certain versions of the stories qualify for publication in the Bibles we read today. Ehrman frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultra–conservative views of the Bible.

Bart D. Ehrman Picking up where Bible expert Bart Ehrman's New York Times bestseller Misquoting Jesus left off, Jesus, Interrupted addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches—and it's not what most people think. Here Ehrman reveals what scholars have unearthed:

The authors of the New Testament have diverging views about who Jesus was and how salvation works

The New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later

Jesus, Paul, Matthew, and John all represented fundamentally different religions

Established Christian doctrines—such as the suffering messiah, the divinity of Jesus, and the trinity—were the inventions of still later theologians

These are not idiosyncratic perspectives of just one modern scholar. As Ehrman skillfully demonstrates, they have been the standard and widespread views of critical scholars across a full spectrum of denominations and traditions. Why is it most people have never heard such things? This is the book that pastors, educators, and anyone interested in the Bible have been waiting for—a clear and compelling account of the central challenges we face when attempting to reconstruct the life and message of Jesus.

Bret Easton Ellis The controversial novel about a handsome serial killer who moves among the young and trendy in 1980s New York.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger The international best-seller that makes mathematics a thrilling exploration.

In twelve dreams, Robert, a boy who hates math, meets a Number Devil, who leads him to discover the amazing world of numbers: infinite numbers, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, numbers that magically appear in triangles, and numbers that expand without . As we dream with him, we are taken further and further into mathematical theory, where ideas eventually take flight, until everyone-from those who fumble over fractions to those who solve complex equations in their heads-winds up marveling at what numbers can do.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger is a true polymath, the kind of superb intellectual who loves thinking and marshals all of his charm and wit to share his passions with the world. In The Number Devil, he brings together the surreal logic of Alice in Wonderland and the existential geometry of Flatland with the kind of math everyone would love, if only they had a number devil to teach it to them.

Walker Evans, James Agee In the summer of 1936, James Agee and Walker Evans set out on assignment for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when in 1941 LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN was first published to enormous critical acclaim. This unsparing record of place, of the people who shaped the land, and of the rhythm of their lives was called intensely moving and unrelentingly honest, and is "renowned for its fusion of social conscience and artistic radicality" (New York Times). Today it stands as a poetic tract of its time, recognized by the New York Public Library as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. With an elegant new design as well as a sixty-four-page photographic prologue of Evans's classic images, reproduced from archival negatives, this sixtieth anniversary edition reintroduces the legendary author and photographer to a new generation.

Gabriele Fahr-Becker

Sandi Fellman

Tim Fitzharris A master photographer's guide to capturing the natural landscape — written for hobbyists and pros.

Step-by-step instructions, pictograms, and before-and-after comparisons provide a complete course in capturing a landscape's natural beauty. Renowned photographer Tim Fitzharris reveals foolproof techniques he has used through decades of fieldwork in a wide variety of settings. His own outstanding examples are accompanied by detailed information on the equipment, exposure, film, shutter speed and filters used.

The book is designed for use with the latest digital as well as traditional cameras. Fitzharris encourages photographers to rise above technology and remain sensitive to a landscape's changing moods. Everything needed to achieve professional results is covered, including: The best equipment and how to use itDigital camera considerationsDetailed field techniques for a wide variety of natural settingsUsing filtersFine art composition, simplified and diagrammedA step-by-step guide to recognizing and finding great scenic shooting sitesGetting a correct exposure every timeRecording mirror-like reflections in lakes and shooting postcard-perfect sunrises and sunsetsCreating high-quality panorama imagesPost-production basics, including image selection and color correction.

Filled with tips and strategies, this outstanding guide includes all that's required for taking professional-caliber photographs of great landscapes. (20071115)

Shelby Foote Foote's comprehensive history of the Civil War includes three compelling volumes: Fort Sumter to Perryville, Fredericksburg to Meridian, and Red River to Appomattox. Collected together in a handsome boxed set, this is the perfect gift for any Civil War buff.

Fort Sumter to Perryville
"Here, for a certainty, is one of the great historical narratives of our century, a unique and brilliant achievement, one that must be firmly placed in the ranks of the masters." —Van Allen Bradley, Chicago Daily News

"Anyone who wants to relive the Civil War, as thousands of Americans apparently do, will go through this volume with pleasure.... Years from now, Foote's monumental narrative most likely will continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind." —New York Herald Tribune Book Review

Fredericksburg to Meridian
"This, then, is narrative history—a kind of history that goes back to an older literary tradition.... The writing is superb...one of the historical and literary achievements of our time." —The Washington Post Book World

"Gettysburg...is described with such meticulous attention to action, terrain, time, and the characters of the various commanders that I understand, at last, what happened in that battle.... Mr. Foote has an acute sense of the relative importance of events and a novelist's skill in directing the reader's attention to the men and the episodes that will influence the course of the whole war, without omitting items which are of momentary interest. His organization of facts could hardly be bettered." —Atlantic

Red River to Appomattox
"An unparalleled achievement, an American Iliad, a unique work uniting the scholarship of the historian and the high readability of the first-class novelist." —Walker Percy

"I have never read a better, more vivid, more understandable account of the savage battling between Grant's and Lee's armies.... Foote stays with the human strife and suffering, and unlike most Southern commentators, he does not take sides. In objectivity, in range, in mastery of detail in beauty of language and feeling for the people involved, this work surpasses anything else on the subject.... It stands alongside the work of the best of them." —New Republic

E M Forster Margaret Schlegel, engaged to the much older, widowed Henry Wilcox, meets her intended the morning after accepting his proposal and realizes that he is a man who has lived without introspection or true self-knowledge. As she contemplates the state of Wilcox's soul, her remedy for what ails him has become one of the most oft-quoted passages in literature:Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Like all of Forster's work, Howards End concerns itself with class, nationality, economic status, and how each of these affects personal relationships. It follows the intertwined fortunes of the Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, and the Wilcox family over the course of several years. The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes, on the other hand, can't be bothered with the life of the mind or the heart, leading, instead, outer lives of "telegrams and anger" that foster "such virtues as neatness, decision, and obedience, virtues of the second rank, no doubt, but they have formed our civilization." Helen, after a brief flirtation with one of the Wilcox sons, has developed an antipathy for the family; Margaret, however, forms a brief but intense friendship with Mrs. Wilcox, which is cut short by the older woman's death. When her family discovers a scrap of paper requesting that Henry give their home, Howards End, to Margaret, it precipitates a spiritual crisis among them that will take years to resolve.

Forster's 1910 novel begins as a collection of seemingly unrelated events—Helen's impulsive engagement to Paul Wilcox; a chance meeting between the Schlegel sisters and an impoverished clerk named Leonard Bast at a concert; a casual conversation between the sisters and Henry Wilcox in London one night. But as it moves along, these disparate threads gradually knit into a tightly woven fabric of tragic misunderstandings, impulsive actions, and irreparable consequences, and, eventually, connection. Though set in the early years of the 20th century, Howards End seems even more suited to our own fragmented era of e-mails and anger. For readers living in such an age, the exhortation to "only connect" resonates ever more profoundly. —Alix Wilber

Ben Forta Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes has established itself as the gold standard for introductory SQL books, offering a fast-paced accessible tutorial to the major themes and techniques involved in applying the SQL language. Forta's examples are clear and his writing style is crisp and concise. As with earlier editions, this revision includes coverage of current versions of all major commercial SQL platforms. New this time around is coverage of MySQL, and PostgreSQL. All examples have been tested against each SQL platform, with incompatibilities or platform distinctives called out and explained.

William A. Frassanito A unique example of photographic detective work in which the famous battle is re-created almost as if it were a contemporary news event. The reader is transported to the battlefield by the photographs and through the analysis of the photographs to the battle itself. We watch it unfold, action by action. In meticulous close-up fashion, with documentary force, we see the terrible encounters of men at war.

Charles Frazier This unabridged audio version of Cold Mountain, read by author Charles Frazier, deserves at least as much acclaim as the bestselling print edition, which won the National Book Award. The tale chronicles a Confederate army deserter's search for home and love in the last days of the Civil War.

Much has been made of the story's homage to The Odyssey, the origins of which are found in an oral tradition. One can't help but hear echoes of Homer when listening to Frazier's soft, deliberate voice give life to his lyrical writing and to his understated, yet convincing rendering of the overwhelming events of war. Both Frazier's prose and reading are leisurely, recalling a slow foot pace. His delivery is uniquely suited to Innman's arduous, adventure-filled walk toward home and to the possibility of a reunion with Ada, the woman he loves. The author's reading does equal justice to Ada, who is being transformed by her struggle for survival on her father's farm. There is precious little dialogue, and Frazier makes no effort at acting out the characters.

One small irritation in the production is a beeping noise at the end of each side. Another minor complaint is that the tapes don't have individual boxes, which was perhaps an attempt to make the overall package appear more booklike. The recording does, however, make deft use of two brief musical interludes. In a subtle twist, the fiddle music that opens the first cassette, when repeated as an accompaniment to the epilogue, carries a bittersweet and unexpected resonance. By all means, forgive Random House Audio the tiny glitches, pass over that slender abridged version, and take home the real thing. This audiocassette is a journey that will leave few listeners unchanged by the experience. (Running time: 14.5 hours, 12 cassettes) —Naomi J. Cohn

Dolly Freed In the 1970s Dolly Freed lived of the land dirt cheap and plum easy. Living in their own house on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia for almost five years, Dolly and her father produced their own food and drink and spent roughly $700 each per year. Thirty years later Dolly Freed's Possum Living is as fascinating and pertinent as it was in 1978. Tin House is reissuing the survivalist classic with a foreword by David Gates and an afterword by the author. After discussing reasons why you should or shouldn't give up your job, Possum Living gives you details about the cheapest ways with the best results to buy and maintain your home, dress well, cope with the law, stay healthy, and keep up a middle-class facade — whether you live in the city, in the suburbs, or in a small town. In a delightful, straightforward style Dolly Freed explains how to be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, live well and enjoy leisure. She shares her knowledge for what you doneed — your own home, for example — and what you don't need — such as doctors, lawyers, and insurance. Through her own example, Dolly hopes to inspire you to do some independent thinking about how economics affect the course of your life now and may do so in the coming "age of shortages." If you ever wondered what it would be like to be in greater control of your own life, Possum Living will show you — and help you do it for yourself.

Joe Friel "Periodization," nutrition, stretching, peaking—who knew that so much went into riding a bike? Joe Friel's The Cyclist's Training Bible is jam-packed with information, easily the most authoritative book on cycling to date. Friel, a lauded coach and masters athlete from Colorado, adopts the principles of Dr. Tudor Bompa, whose periodization training methods were used first by the dominant Eastern European athletes of the 1960s before becoming popular in the United States.

Frank Furedi In this urgent and passionate book, Frank Furedi explains the essential contribution of intellectuals both to culture and to democracy - and why we need to recreate a public sphere in which intellectuals and the general public can talk to each other again.

Tim Furniss, David J. Shayler, Michael D. Shayler Praxis Log of Manned Spaceflight 1961-2006 will open with a section entitled: Quest for Space, which will provide an explanation of the methods employed to get in and out of orbit and brief overviews of the different international space programmes. It will be a complete chronological log of all attempted orbital manned spaceflights, including the X-15 "astroflights" of the 1960s that only achieved an altitude of c. 50 miles and the two 1961 Mercury and Redstone missions which were non-orbital. There will be an image depicting each manned spaceflight, and data boxes containing brief biographies of all the space travellers and basic flight data. The main text will be a narrative of each mission, its highlights and accomplishments, including those strange facts and humorous stories that are connected to every mission. By targeting publication in September 2006, the return to flight of the Shuttle, two more Soyuz TMA launches and, quite possibly, a second Chinese manned mission. The resulting book will be a handy reference to all manned spaceflights, the names astronauts and cosmonauts who flew on each mission, and their roles and accomplishments. Recent announcements of a return to the Moon and eventual manned flights to Mars, as new hardware and procedures are developed to support these long-range programs, emphasizes the case for future updates of this book.

Peter Galassi, Jean Clair, Claude Cookman, Robert Delpire, Jean-Noel Jeanneney, Jean Leymarie, Serge Toubiana Henri Cartier-Bresson spent four decades traveling the world as a photojournalist in search of what he called "the decisive moment"—the instant when visual harmony and human significance coalesce. Published in honor of his 95th birthday, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image & The World is a handsome volume that reproduces more than 600 photographs, film stills, and drawings and includes essays by art, photography, and film experts. Trained as a painter in his native France, Cartier-Bresson began his photography career during a trip to the Ivory Coast in 1931. After shooting his way through Europe, Mexico and the U.S., he became an assistant to filmmaker Jean Renoir and directed documentaries in support of the Spanish Civil War. Imprisoned by the Germans during World War II, he escaped to document the liberation of Paris. More than a quarter-century of magazine photography followed—-including vivid glimpses of modern life in India, China and the Soviet Union—-before he put aside his camera in favor of his sketchbook. Cartier-Bresson's ability to capture peak moments resulted in unforgettable single photographs, like that of a woman in a group of former concentration camp prisoners who suddenly recognizes her Gestapo informer and reaches out to hit her. His constant watchfulness led to images that capture fleeting emotion—-lust, pride, despair, expectation, glee—-on the faces of people going about their daily lives in grim cities, sleepy villages, and vast landscapes. Shaped by compassion and a self-effacing absence of personal judgment, these photographs reflect a worldview no longer fashionable but forever relevant to human understanding. —Cathy Curtis

Mark Galer Digital Photography in Available Light is an inspirational guide as well as a structured learning tool for mastering the essential techniques. Learn how to choose the most appropriate digital camera for your workflow, manage your image files and process images using camera RAW. Try key capture techniques including exposure, framing the image and how to work with the available light in all situations. Explore different styles: panoramas, landscapes, environmental portraits and photo journalism. Understand ethics and law, how to plan a shoot and sell your work. Throughout you'll learn the importance of image design, communication of content and essential techniques for competent and consistent image capture and creation. Includes a full glossary of terms.

* Everything you need to know to photograph in available light using a digital camera
* Learn all the essential skills and try out the invaluable activities and assignments
* Covers the whole workflow, including choosing a camera, asset management and camera RAW, shooting techniques, ethics and law and selling your work

Gary W. Gallagher Was Robert E. Lee a gifted soldier whose only weaknesses lay in the depth of his loyalty to his troops, affection for his lieutenants, and dedication to the cause of the Confederacy? Or was he an ineffective leader and poor tactician whose reputation was drastically inflated by early biographers and Lost Cause apologists? These divergent characterizations represent the poles between which scholarly and popular opinion on Lee has swung over time. Now, in eight essays, Gary Gallagher offers his own refined thinking on Lee, exploring the relationship between Lee's operations and Confederate morale, the quality of his generalship, and the question of how best to handle his legacy in light of the many distortions that grew out of Lost Cause historiography.

Using a host of contemporary sources, Gallagher demonstrates the remarkable faith that soldiers and citizens maintained in Lee's leadership even after his army's fortunes had begun to erode. Gallagher also engages aspects of the Lee myth with an eye toward how admirers have insisted that their hero's faults as a general represented exaggerations of his personal virtues. Finally, Gallagher considers whether it is useful—or desirable—to separate legitimate Lost Cause arguments from the transparently false ones relating to slavery and secession.

Better Homes and Gardens The largest home improvement manual on the market, includes 600 pages, 500 projects, and more than 3,000 full-color illustrations for home repairs and improvements.

Organized in four large sections of subject matter to make the information easy to find, including: Inside Your Home, Outside Your Home, Your Home's Systems, and Basics You Should Know.

This book is designed so readers can scan each page and quickly understand the scope of each project.

Color bars located on the outer edge of each page designate each section to make it easy for readers to see where they are in the book.

You'll Need boxes list the skills, time, and tools required to complete each project shown in the book.

Material Matters features educate the reader about the pros and cons of different types of materials to use for the job.

Helpful Hints features highlight the how-to wisdom of the Better Homes and Gardens(r) team of experts.

Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Michael R. Genesereth, Nils J. Nilsson Intended both as a text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, and as a key reference work for AI researchers and developers, Logical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence is a lucid, rigorous, and comprehensive account of the fundamentals of artificial intelligence from the standpoint of logic.

The first section of the book introduces the logicist approach to AI—discussing the representation of declarative knowledge and featuring an introduction to the process of conceptualization, the syntax and semantics of predicate calculus, and the basics of other declarative representations such as frames and semantic nets. This section also provides a simple but powerful inference procedure, resolution, and shows how it can be used in a reasoning system.

The next several chapters discuss nonmonotonic reasoning, induction, and reasoning under uncertainty, broadening the logical approach to deal with the inadequacies of strict logical deduction. The third section introduces modal operators that facilitate representing and reasoning about knowledge. This section also develops the process of writing predicate calculus sentences to the metalevel—to permit sentences about sentences and about reasoning processes. The final three chapters discuss the representation of knowledge about states and actions, planning, and intelligent system architecture.

End-of-chapter bibliographic and historical comments provide background and point to other works of interest and research. Each chapter also contains numerous student exercises (with solutions provided in an appendix) to reinforce concepts and challenge the learner. A bibliography and index complete this comprehensive work.

Ghalil Professional Dreamer: 6 Simple Steps That Turn Dreams Into Reality: is an energetic manifesting masterpiece - the book that sets in print the powerful insights that have helped people worldwide experience the remarkable power within; yet, even more importantly, it's the remarkably effective book that teaches, through real-life example and real-world methods, how to connect with and apply this power day-in-and-day-out. Professional Dreamer is based on a very simple concept- your thoughts, whether positive or negative- influence your life and the events which occur in it. By changing how we think and directing our thought energy towards our desired goals, we can achieve anything we desire. In Professional Dreamer this process of changing your thoughts and using thought energy is clearly outlined in six steps: One-Pointed Thought, Desire, Trueprint, Visualization, Demonstration, Manifestation. Each step is broken down into two parts, Principles and Method, allowing the reader to understand what each step is, how it works and why, as well as provide clear and practical steps to applying the theory to your day to day life. Interspersed with inspirational poetry and inspiring testimonials, Professional Dreamer is an easy read, beautifully laid out with life changing potential.

William Gibson Case was the best interface cowboy who ever ran in earth's computer matrix. Then he doublecrossed the wrong people...

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards.

William Gibson The award-winning William Gibson goes beyond science fiction to the broader mainstream fiction audience. His unique world features multinational corporations and high-tech outlaws vying for power, traveling the computer-generated universe. HC: Bantam.

William Gibson 2005: Welcome to NoCal and SoCal, the uneasy sister-states of what used to be California. Here the millenium has come and gone, leaving in its wake only stunned survivors. In Los Angeles, Berry Rydell is a former armed-response rentacop now working for a bounty hunter. Chevette Washington is a bicycle messenger turned pickpocket who impulsively snatches a pair of innocent-looking sunglasses. But these are no ordinary shades. What you can see through these high-tech specs can make you rich—or get you killed. Now Berry and Chevette are on the run, zeroing in on the digitalized heart of DatAmerica, where pure information is the greatest high. And a mind can be a terrible thing to crash...

William Gibson In twenty-first century Tokyo, Rez, one of the world's biggest rock stars, prepares to marry Rei Toe, Japan's biggest media star, who is known as the Idoru and who exists only in virtual reality. Reprint."

William Gibson Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce's client. But when her borrowed apartment is burgled and her computer hacked, she realizes there's more to this project than she had expected.

Still, Cayce is her father's daughter, and the danger makes her stubborn. Win Pollard, ex-security expert, probably ex-CIA, took a taxi in the direction of the World Trade Center on September 11 one year ago, and is presumed dead. Win taught Cayce a bit about the way agents work. She is still numb at his loss, and, as much for him as for any other reason, she refuses to give up this newly weird job, which will take her to Tokyo and on to Russia. With help and betrayal from equally unlikely quarters, Cayce will follow the trail of the mysterious film to its source, and in the process will learn something about her father's life and death.

William Gibson Rydell is on his way back to near-future San Francisco. A stint as a security man in an all-night Los Angeles convenience store has convinced him his career is going nowhere, but his friend Laney, phoning from Tokyo, says there's more interesting work for him in Northern California. And there is, although it will eventually involve his former girlfriend, a Taoist assassin, the secrets Laney has been hacking out of the depths of DatAmerica, the CEO of the PR firm that secretly runs the world and the apocalyptic technological transformation of, well, everything. William Gibson's new novel, set in the soon-to-be-fact world of "Virtual Light" and "Idoru", completes a stunning, brilliantly imagined trilogy about the post-Net world.

William Gibson A corporate mercenary wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him, for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: to get a defecting chief of R&D-and the biochip he's perfected-out intact. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties-some of whom aren't remotely human.

William Gibson The New York Times bestseller from “one of the most astute and entertaining commentators on our astonishing, chaotic present.”( Washington Post Book World)

Hollis Henry is a journalist on investigative assignment for a magazine called Node, which doesn’t exist yet. Bobby Chombo is a producer working on cutting-edge art installations. In his day job, Bobby is a trouble-shooter for military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one.

Hollis Henry has been told to find him.

Elizabeth Gilbert In this rousing examination of contemporary American male identity, acclaimed author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert explores the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway. In 1977, at the age of seventeen, Conway left his family's comfortable suburban home to move to the Appalachian Mountains. For more than two decades he has lived there, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he has trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. To Gilbert, Conway's mythical character challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be a modern man in America; he is a symbol of much we feel how our men should be, but rarely are.

Malcolm Gladwell Amazon Best of the Month, November 2008: Now that he's gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."

Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots' culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. But there's more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples—and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps—Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential. —Mari Malcolm

Barry Glassner In late 2002, Barry Glassner appeared in Michael Moore's Academy Award-winning movie, Bowling for Columbine, to discuss The Culture of Fear. The reaction to Glassner's appearance, and the message of his book, were overwhelming.

As Glassner describes, the American public remains fascinated by the specter of fear in their lives. Be it the proverbial dark-faced bogeyman, or a more recent epidemic of child snatchings, Americans allow their lives to be affected by a perceived and recurrent onslaught of tragedy, death, and fear.

A national bestseller, The Culture of Fear explains why Americans are afraid, exposing the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit off our anxieties: politicians who attempt to win elections by heightening concerns about drug use and crime; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; and finally and perhaps most perniciously, the media that peddle new scares each week in desperate attempts to garner ratings.

Written in a vivid, entertaining style, The Culture of Fear does more than debunk prevalent myths of impending doom, it also asks us to reconsider our participation in the national charade of fear and suspicion which, according to Glassner, is eroding the trust necessary to truly ensure safety in the public square.

Joseph Glatthaar "You would be surprised to see what men we have in the ranks," Virginia cavalryman Thomas Rowland informed his mother in May 1861, just after joining the Army of Northern Virginia. His army — General Robert E. Lee's army — was a surprise to almost everyone: With daring early victories and an invasion into the North, they nearly managed to convince the North to give up the fight. Even in 1865, facing certain defeat after the loss of 30,000 men, a Louisiana private fighting in Lee's army still had hope. "I must not despair," he scribbled in his diary. "Lee will bring order out of chaos, and with the help of our Heavenly Father, all will be well."

Astonishingly, after 150 years of scholarship, there are still some major surprises about the Army of Northern Virginia. In General Lee's Army, renowned historian Joseph T. Glatthaar draws on an impressive range of sources assembled over two decades — from letters and diaries, to official war records, to a new, definitive database of statistics — to rewrite the history of the Civil War's most important army and, indeed, of the war itself. Glatthaar takes readers from the home front to the heart of the most famous battles of the war: Manassas, the Peninsula campaign, Antietam, Gettysburg, all the way to the final surrender at Appomattox. General Lee's Army penetrates headquarters tents and winter shanties, eliciting the officers' plans, wishes, and prayers; it portrays a world of life, death, healing, and hardship; it investigates the South's commitment to the war and its gradual erosion; and it depicts and analyzes Lee's men in triumph and defeat.

The history of Lee's army is a powerful lens on the entire war. The fate of Lee's army explains why the South almost won — and why it lost. The story of his men — their reasons for fighting, their cohesion, mounting casualties, diseases, supply problems, and discipline problems — tells it all.

Glatthaar's definitive account settles many historical arguments. The Rebels were fighting above all to defend slavery. More than half of Lee's men were killed, wounded, or captured — a staggering statistic. Their leader, Robert E. Lee, though far from perfect, held an exalted place in his men's eyes despite a number of mistakes and despite a range of problems among some of his key lieutenants.

General Lee's Army is a masterpiece of scholarship and vivid storytelling, narrated as much as possible in the words of the enlisted men and their officers.

David Goldsmith Have you ever thought about the fact that a craftsman has more and better tools to solve challenges on the job than the leader of a business or organization does? Leadership “tools” are usually defined as computers, spreadsheets, data, and even experience, but in reality, leaders need thinking tools that are hard to come by, so they find themselves hunting and pecking for answers in books, at seminars, through on-the-job training programs, from mentors, and at business schools, and still, they’re left with gaps. Surely, most leaders are good at what they do, but the daily challenges of their jobs, like accelerating growth, increasing productivity, driving innovation, doing more with less, and balancing work with life don’t come with some sort of leadership toolkit...until now.

In Paid to Think, international consultant David Goldsmith presents his groundbreaking approach to leadership and management based on research revealing the twelve specific activities that all leaders perform on a daily basis, and he provides you with each activity’s accompanying tools and instructions proven to boost your performance and that of your entire organization.

Take the uncertainty out of everyday leading, convert ideas to realities, and maximize your intellectual value. Learn how decision makers at some of the world’s most successful organizations have already used Paid to Think’s universal and easily transferable tools—regardless of their industries, sectors, geographic locations, or management levels—as their greatest advantages in achieving more, earning more, and living more.

Neal Goldstein Learn the primary programming language for creating iPhone and Mac apps

The only thing hotter than the iPhone right now is new apps for the iPhone. Objective-C is the primary language for programming iPhone and Mac OS X applications, and this book makes it easy to learn Objective-C.

Even if you have no programming experience, Objective-C For Dummies will teach you what you need to know to start creating iPhone apps. It provides an understanding of object-oriented programming in an entertaining way that helps you learn. iPhone and Mac apps are hot, and most are created with Objective-CCovers Xcode 3.2, which is included in Mac OS X Snow LeopardExplains object-oriented programming concepts in a straightforward but fun style that makes learning easyIdeal for those with no programming experience as well as those who may know other languages but are new to Objective-CPrepares you to start creating iPhone and Mac OS X appsUnderstand Mac programming concepts and patterns, and why to use themBonus CD includes all code samples used in the book

Objective-C For Dummies gives you the tools to turn your idea for an iPhone app into reality.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Neal Goldstein, Tony Bove One-stop shopping for every aspect of iPhone development!

Whether you're a beginning programmer who wants to build an application for your iPhone or you're a professional developer looking to leverage the marketing power of the open iPhone SDK, this helpful guide has your needs covered. iPhone enthusiast and developer Neal Goldstein shows you the ins and outs of developing applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch and explains how to get your apps into the AppStore and market and sell them.

You'll learn the basics of getting started, download the SDK, context-based design, and fill your toolbox. Clear, easy-to-understand steps walk you through programming with Objective C or Cocoa and show you how to develop games and graphics. Plus, you'll discover how to design specifically for mobile apps. Aimed at both novice and seasoned developers who are interested in developing iPhone and iPod Touch applicationsShows you how to get started, download the SDK, and fill your toolboxWalks you through developing games and graphicsExplains how to gets your apps into the AppStore and sell them

Getting started developing your own applications today with this fun and friendly guide.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Note: Apple's iOS SDK tools are only accessible on Intel-powered Mac and MacBook devices.

Peter Golenbock Book Description
In Peter Golenbock's shocking and revealing first novel, Mickey Mantle tells the hidden story of his life as a baseball hero, and asks for forgiveness from his friends and family. If the revelations in Jim Bouton's Ball Four were the first crack in the Mantle legend, then 7 smashes the myth to reveal the human being within.

Bestselling sportswriter Peter Golenbock knew Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Jim Bouton, Joe Pepitone, and many of Mantle's friends, family, and teammates. While Mickey was a good person at heart, he had a dark side that went far beyond his well-known alcoholism and infidelities. In this fictional portrait, Mickey—now in heaven—realizes that he's carrying a huge weight on his shoulders, as he did throughout his life. He needs to unburden himself of all the horrible things he did and understand for himself why he did them. He wants to make amends to the people he hurt, especially those dear to him; the fans he ignored and alienated; and the public who made him into a hero. Mickey never felt he deserved the adulation, could never live up to it, and tried his damnedest to prove it to everyone. The fact that he was human made the public love him that much more.

This Mickey Mantle is revealed as a man who lived in fear—fear of failure, of success, of life beyond baseball, and of commitment. His was a life filled with sex, yet devoid of deeper satisfactions. From the alcohol-fueled good times and bad, to the emptiness when the party was finally over, 7 has it all.

Through the recounting of his exploits on and off the field, some of them side-splittingly hilarious, some disturbing, and others that will make your head shake in sympathy, Mickey comes clean in this novel in the way he never could in real life. 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel puts you inside the locker room and bedroom with an American Icon every bit as flawed and human as we are.
How Mickey Mantle Wound Up in Heaven
An Exclusive Essay by Peter Golenbock
I met Mickey Mantle for the first time in 1974 when I was writing my first book, Dynasty. He had asked me to meet him at his home in Dallas, but when I arrived, I was informed he had flown to New York and I could meet him in the clubhouse of Yankee Stadium the next day. Back on the plane I went.

During an hour-long interview which I conducted in the Yankee clubhouse, Mickey talked about his career, his love of the game, and the nightmares that woke him up almost every night. During the middle of the interview New York Times reporter John Drebinger entered the clubhouse, and Mickey then told me that Drebby had a hearing aid and that Mickey would move his mouth, pretending to talk so Drebby would turn the hearing aid up, and when he got it up all the way, he'd scream at the top of his lungs. Mickey, myself, and everyone standing around listening roared with laughter.

That was Mickey, irreverent, complex, funny and sad.

Continue reading the essay

7 Second Interview: At Bat with Peter Golenbock

Q: You've been writing bestsellers for years, you saw the response to your friend Jim Bouton's Ball Four, and you even wrote a book (with Graig Nettles) called Balls. And you've already been through this once, with a controversial book being dropped by a major publisher and picked up by a smaller press, with Personal Fouls, your book on Jim Valvano. Were you surprised at what's happened so far with 7?

A: When I saw the outrage over the O.J. Simpson book, my immediate reaction was, Uh oh. Judith Regan became the focal point of the controversy, and since she was also my publisher, I was fully aware of what seemed sure to follow. I was hoping against hope, but unfortunately my instincts were correct.

Q: Mickey Mantle was your childhood hero. In the opening to the book, you recount the last conversation you had with him, when you try to explain to him what he meant to you. Do you still think of him as a hero?

A: He is more of a hero to me that ever. What most people refuse to accept is that alcoholism is a disease, and too often a deadly one. Mickey suffered with all the ills—both physical and social—of alcoholism for most of his life. In the end, he faced up to his problem. For a macho guy like Mickey, that took a lot of guts. To us, he was a hero. To himself he was a failure. How he must have suffered. That's what this book is all about.

Q: You've written books with and about Billy Martin, and he's a big figure in this book too. What was Mantle's relationship with him like?

A: They were best friends, drinking buddies, soul mates. They loved each other like brothers. They were also enablers. Both were alcoholics, but neither would admit it.

Q: You've talked to hundreds of old ballplayers for your books over the years. Was Mantle typical in the way he handled the time after he was done as a player, or the exception?

A: Mantle was an extreme example of an athlete who died inside the day he retired. Some athletes can smoothly make the transformation into the real world, but not most. In the days before the mega-salaries (when the athlete had to find a job after baseball) plenty of the players I interviewed felt lost and abandoned. Selling insurance or cars just didn’t excite them. But they had to do if they wanted to feed their families. Mickey was one of the few athletes who could sell his autograph and make his living that way. And he felt bad about having to do that.

Q: Mickey has a line in the book: "I'm only sorry camcorders didn't exist way back then. We'd-a made a fortune." Do you think things were different "way back then," or was the difference just that everybody didn't have camcorders?

A: Things were different back then. There wasn't the constant scrutiny of the athletes' actions like there is now. There was no SportsCenter or talk radio, no Internet blogging or YouTube. The sportswriters rarely wrote about what happened off the field. The players had a lot more privacy.

Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson How can we give animals the best life— for them? What does an animal need to be happy?   In her groundbreaking, best-selling book Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin drew on her own experience with autism as well as her experience as an animal scientist to deliver extraordinary insights into how animals think, act, and feel. Now she builds on those insights to show us how to give our animals the best and happiest life— on their terms, not ours.   Knowing what causes animals physical pain is usually easy, but pinpointing emotional distress is much harder. Drawing on the latest research and her own work, Grandin identifies the core emotional needs of animals and then explains how to fulfill the specific needs of dogs and cats, horses, farm animals, zoo animals, and even wildlife. Whether it’s how to make the healthiest environment for the dog you must leave alone most of the day, how to keep pigs from being bored, or how to know if the lion pacing in the zoo is miserable or just exercising, Grandin teaches us to challenge our assumptions about animal contentment and honor our bond with our fellow creatures.
Animals Make Us Human is the culmination of almost thirty years of research, experimentation, and experience. This is essential reading for anyone who’s ever owned, cared for, or simply cared about an animal.

Gunter Grass Starusch, a 40-year-old teacher of German and history, undergoes protracted dental treatment in an office where TV is used to distract the patients. Under local anesthesia, the patient projects onto the screen his past and present with the fluidity and visual quality of the movies. A satirical portrait of social confusions. Translated by Ralph Manheim. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Gunter Grass In this extraordinary memoir, Nobel Prize–winning author Günter Grass remembers his early life, from his boyhood in a cramped two-room apartment in Danzig through the late 1950s, when The Tin Drum was published.

During the Second World War, Grass volunteered for the submarine corps at the age of fifteen but was rejected; two years later, in 1944, he was instead drafted into the Waffen-SS. Taken prisoner by American forces as he was recovering from shrapnel wounds, he spent the final weeks of the war in an American POW camp. After the war, Grass resolved to become an artist and moved with his first wife to Paris, where he began to write the novel that would make him famous.

Full of the bravado of youth, the rubble of postwar Germany, the thrill of wild love affairs, and the exhilaration of Paris in the early fifties, Peeling the Onion—which caused great controversy when it was published in Germany—reveals Grass at his most intimate.

Stephen Grey On June 10th, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that the US had captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to explode a "dirty bomb" on American soil.  That alleged terrorist was José Padilla who was finally charged in 2005 with conspiracy to murder.  What Ashcroft didn't talk about was how information against him was obtained – by the relentless torture of one man— Binyam Mohamed, in the name of the United States.  Arrested at Karachi Airport before Padilla’s arrest on April 10, 2002, Mohamed was put on a luxury executive jet and flown to an interrogation center in Morocco.  For over 18 months, he was subjected to one torture after another: Beating followed beating and, then, his guards produced razor blades and began to split the skin all over his body, including on his genitals.  Since 1997, hundreds of people, many of whom have no ties to terrorist organizations, have been abducted from foreign airports or street corners on suspicions based at times on the flimsiest of evidence courtesy of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.  In Ghost Plane, Stephen Grey tells the true story of the CIA's torture program known by the euphemism "extraordinary rendition" and the airplanes that make the program run.  Begun during the Clinton administration, but taking a decidedly more voracious turn after 9/11, the rendition system has seen the transfer of more than 1000 prisoners into jails stretching from Guantanamo to Syria, from Kabul to Bangkok and beyond.  Grey had access to the thousands of CIA flight records and has interviewed dozens of sources from the most senior levels of the National Security Council to the CIA.  In Ghost Plane, he paints a disturbing picture of the War on Terror that reaches to the highest levels of power in Washington, D.C. and exposes the extreme ethical corruption at the heart of this US government program, a program finally acknowledged by President George Bush in September 2006, undertaken in the name of the citizens of the United States..

John Gribbin Part history book and part remedial physics text for those who lost interest when the equations started getting unintuitive, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat explains quantum physics in a way that's not only clear, but also enjoyable.

Gribbin opens with the subjects that most physics professors have just started to examine at the end of the semester: The mysterious character of light, the valence concept in Nils Bohr's atomic model, radioactive decay, and the physics of life-defining DNA all get clear, comprehensive, and witty coverage. This book reveals the beauty and mystery that underlies everything in the universe.

Does this book claim to explain quantum physics without math? No. Math is too central to physics to be bypassed. But if you can do basic algebra, you can understand the equations in In Search of Schrödinger's Cat. Gribbin is the physics teacher everyone should have in high school or college: kind without being a pushover, knowledgeable without being condescending, and clearly expressive without being boring. Gribbin's book belongs on the shelf of every pre-calculus student. It also deserves a place in the library of everyone who was scared away from advanced physics prematurely.

John Howard Griffin In the Deep South of the 1950s, journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross the color line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity-that in this new millennium still has something important to say to every American.

Tom Grill, Mark Scanlon The aim of this practical guide is to teach readers how to use composition as a tool for improving their photographic technique. The authors demonstrate various compositional devices common to all the visual arts, emphasizing those techniques which will help to create successful photographs.

Pierre Grimal, Stephen Kershaw This concise, abridged edition of Pierre Grimal's celebrated "Dictionary of Classical Mythology" brilliantly distils and captures the essence of Greek and Roman mythology. It is the ideal reference tool for anyone with an interest in the Classics or those seeking to explore the many allusions to its mythology that abound in later literature.

Woody Guthrie The original road novel—even though it takes the form of autobiography. If Guthrie didn't actually invent the footloose, no- strings-attached American hero (remember this guy Twain who wrote something about lighting out for the territory?), he certainly solidified the 20th-century version. Guitar slung over the shoulder as he sprinted to boost himself aboard freight trains, a man of the people equally at home with urban intellectuals, Guthrie incarnated for generations of Americans the artist as free spirit. This is the book that created the legend.

Thich Nhat Hanh Anger can be one of the most frustrating emotions, carrying us headlong away from ourselves and depositing us into separation and dismay. Vietnamese monk and world teacher Thich Nhat Hanh tackles this most difficult of emotions in Anger. A master at putting complex ideas into simple, colorful packages, Nhat Hanh tells us that, fundamentally, to be angry is to suffer, and that it is our responsibility to alleviate our own suffering. The way to do this is not to fight our emotions or to "let it all out" but to transform ourselves through mindfulness. Emphasizing our basic interdependence, he teaches us how to help others through deep listening and how to water the positive seeds in those around us while starving the negative seeds. Serious though lighthearted, Anger is a handbook not only for transforming anger but for living each moment beautifully. —Brian Bruya

Cyrill Harnischmacher The serious amateur photographer often faces the problem that even after all the dollars spent on camera, lenses, computer gear, and software, the spending never seems to end. More gear is needed for studio photography, tabletop photography, flash photography, and for accessories here and there. And in many cases, the right accessories are not even available. That is where this book comes in. Low Budget Shooting is the one-stop source where you will find instructions and a shopping list on how to build an array of useful and inexpensive photographic tools.

Filled with full-color images and easy-to-follow text, this book shows how to build essential lighting and studio equipment; how to make the perfect light-table for shooting small objects; and how to build reflectors, soft-boxes, and light-tents that really work. It also tells where to get some of the little helpers that make a photographer's life so much easier. This clever little book is a creative and valuable resource for most any photographer.

M.J. Harper "The most outrageous book I have ever read, and one of the funniest."-The Oldie

"Unusual, funny, and provocative. . . . This fascinating book is a useful investigation into the ways in which history is constructed and the dangers of 'unassailable' academic truths."- New Statesman

"The best rewriting of history since 1066 And All That."-Fortean Times

"Mind-blowing, incredibly entertaining stuff. . . . A well-written and funny book."-Daily Mail

In a hugely enjoyable read, not to mention gloriously corrosive prose, M.J. Harper slashes and burns through the whole of accepted academic thought about the history of the English language. According to Harper: The English language does not derive from an Anglo-Saxon language.French, Italian, and Spanish did not descend from Latin.Middle English is a wholly imaginary language created by well-meaning but deluded academics.Most of the entries in the Oxford English Dictionary are wrong.

And that's just the beginning. Part revisionist history, part treatise on the real origins of the English language, and part impassioned argument against academia, The Secret History of the English Language is essential reading for language lovers, history buffs, Anglophiles, and anyone who anyone who has ever thought twice about what they've learned in school.

M.J. Harper is an applied epistemologist. He lives in London.

Sam Harris From the new afterword by the author:

Humanity has had a long fascination with blood sacrifice. In fact, it has been by no means uncommon for a child to be born into this world only to be patiently and lovingly reared by religious maniacs, who believe that the best way to keep the sun on its course or to ensure a rich harvest is to lead him by tender hand into a field or to a mountaintop and bury, butcher, or burn him alive as offering to an invisible God. The notion that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that his death constitutes a successful propitiation of a “loving” God is a direct and undisguised inheritance of the superstitious bloodletting that has plagued bewildered people throughout history. . .

Allen De Hart

Russell Hart, Dan Richards The inimitable Dummies format, which has distilled everything from the Internet to Italian cooking, is an excellent way to organize information for photographers. The chapters cover single topics like film, flash, and composition, and are easy to both access and understand. Icons (which are defined in the introduction) call out "tips," "technical stuff," and "bloopers." This layout is designed for quick reference while you're shooting, providing, of course, that you care to lug the book with you.

Writer Russell Hart, who is the technology editor for American Photo magazine and an exhibiting photographer, takes readers from the very basics of loading film and batteries into a camera, through such invaluable technical and practical information as how best to photograph kids and choose the right photofinisher (including scoop on the Advanced Photo System), right up to a glossary of "photo jargon" so that even neophyte photographers (or those readers who've only scanned the book) can at least sound like they know what they're doing. Chapter 10, in which Hart waxes somewhat poetic on the value of a photograph—documents of family history, insurance evidence, etc.—and disputes "ten lame excuses for not taking along your camera," can turn even the most reluctant camera operator into a rampant shutterbug. —Jordana Moskowitz

David G. Hartwell Experience New Realms

Acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell returns with this fifth annual collection of the year's most imaginative, entertaining, and mind-expanding science fiction.

Here are works from some of today's most acclaimed authors, as well as visionary new talents, that will introduce you to new ideas, offer unusual perspectives, and take you to places beyond your wildest imaginings. Contributors to The Year's Best SF 5 include: Brian Aldiss
Stephen Baxter
Michael Bishop
Terry Bisson
Greg Egan
Robert Reed
Kim Stanley Robinson
Hiroe Suga
Michael Swanwick
Gene Wolfe
and many more...

Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." —Therese Littleton

Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow From One of the Most Brilliant Minds of Our Time
Comes a Book that Clarifies His Most Important Ideas

Stephen Hawking’s worldwide bestseller, A Brief History of Time, remains one of the landmark volumes in scientific writing of our time. But for years readers have asked for a more accessible formulation of its key concepts—the nature of space and time, the role of God in creation, and the history and future of the universe.

Professor Hawking’s response is this new work that will guide nonscientists everywhere in the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space.…

Although “briefer,” this book is much more than a mere explanation of Hawking’s earlier work. A Briefer History of Time both clarifies and expands on the great subjects of the original, and records the latest developments in the field—from string theory to the search for a unified theory of all the forces of physics. Thirty-seven full-color illustrations enhance the text and make A Briefer History of Time an exhilarating and must-have addition in its own right to the great literature of science and ideas.

Seamus Heaney In Beowulf warriors must back up their mead-hall boasts with instant action, monsters abound, and fights are always to the death. The Anglo-Saxon epic, composed between the 7th and 10th centuries, has long been accorded its place in literature, though its hold on our imagination has been less secure. In the introduction to his translation, Seamus Heaney argues that Beowulf's role as a required text for many English students obscured its mysteries and "mythic potency." Now, thanks to the Irish poet's marvelous recreation (in both senses of the word) under Alfred David's watch, this dark, doom-ridden work gets its day in the sun.

There are endless pleasures in Heaney's analysis, but readers should head straight for the poem and then to the prose. (Some will also take advantage of the dual-language edition and do some linguistic teasing out of their own.) The epic's outlines seem simple, depicting Beowulf's three key battles with the scaliest brutes in all of art: Grendel, Grendel's mother (who's in a suitably monstrous snit after her son's dismemberment and death), and then, 50 years later, a gold-hoarding dragon "threatening the night sky / with streamers of fire." Along the way, however, we are treated to flashes back and forward and to a world view in which a thane's allegiance to his lord and to God is absolute. In the first fight, the man from Geatland must travel to Denmark to take on the "shadow-stalker" terrorizing Heorot Hall. Here Beowulf and company set sail: Men climbed eagerly up the gangplank,
sand churned in the surf, warriors loaded
a cargo of weapons, shining war-gear
in the vessel's hold, then heaved out,
away with a will in their wood-wreathed ship.
Over the waves, with the wind behind her
and foam at her neck, she flew like a bird... After a fearsome night victory over march-haunting and heath-marauding Grendel, our high-born hero is suitably strewn with gold and praise, the queen declaring: "Your sway is wide as the wind's home, / as the sea around cliffs." Few will disagree. And remember, Beowulf has two more trials to undergo.

Heaney claims that when he began his translation it all too often seemed "like trying to bring down a megalith with a toy hammer." The poem's challenges are many: its strong four-stress line, heavy alliteration, and profusion of kennings could have been daunting. (The sea is, among other things, "the whale-road," the sun is "the world's candle," and Beowulf's third opponent is a "vile sky-winger." When it came to over-the-top compound phrases, the temptations must have been endless, but for the most part, Heaney smiles, he "called a sword a sword.") Yet there are few signs of effort in the poet's Englishing. Heaney varies his lines with ease, offering up stirring dialogue, action, and description while not stinting on the epic's mix of fate and fear. After Grendel's misbegotten mother comes to call, the king's evocation of her haunted home may strike dread into the hearts of men and beasts, but it's a gift to the reader: A few miles from here
a frost-stiffened wood waits and keeps watch
above a mere; the overhanging bank
is a maze of tree-roots mirrored in its surface.
At night there, something uncanny happens:
the water burns. And the mere bottom
has never been sounded by the sons of men.
On its bank, the heather-stepper halts:
the hart in flight from pursuing hounds
will turn to face them with firm-set horns
and die in the wood rather than dive
beneath its surface. That is no good place. In Heaney's hands, the poem's apparent archaisms and Anglo-Saxon attitudes—its formality, blood-feuds, and insane courage—turn the art of an ancient island nation into world literature. —Kerry Fried

John Hedgecoe The most up-to-date, comprehensive, and practical guide to the art of good photography, this book teaches every skill a photographer needs to take great pictures, from the most basic to the most advanced. Authoritative and easy-to-understand, John Hedgecoe's New Manual of Photography features practical advice on every element of the photographic process, from how to choose the right equipment and specialist techniques to inspirational guidance on the art of creative composition.

Michael J. Hernandez, John L. Viescas To the people who are accomplished in its use, Structured Query Language (SQL) is a highly capable, eminently flexible, even beautiful way of describing the data that you want from a database, or the changes that you want to make to a database. For the rest of us, however, SQL is a first-class nuisance that we do our best to avoid by relying on relatively user-friendly—but usually less powerful—tools. SQL Queries for Mere Mortals aims to bring SQL-phobes closer to the first camp by tutoring them carefully in what SQL can do.

The authors recognize that SQL queries usually come about as a result of questions from human beings, and so usefully spend a fair bit of time showing how to convert, say, "In what cities do our customers live?" into, "Select city from the customers table" and, finally, "SELECT city FROM customers" in SQL. They call this the "translation and clean up" process, and it's a fine approach. They don't press it too far, however, and are equally adept at presenting straight explanations of SQL syntax elements in prose. They spend a lot of energy graphically diagramming aspects of SQL syntax in a format that requires some up-front study. A particular reader might prefer text capsules to this arrow-intensive format, but other learners might like the graphical syntax diagrams. —David Wall

Topics covered: ANSI SQL/92 for people who need to use it to make queries against business databases. The authors introduce one or two syntax elements at a time—SELECT, WHERE, JOIN, UNION, and so on—and cover data extraction, data insertion, filtering, joins, calculations, and other capabilities of generic SQL.

Christopher Hilton In this meaty paperback, published to mark the tenth anniversary of Ayrton Senna's death, Christopher Hilton marries and updates four of his earlier titles about the legendary driver into one volume of more than 100,000 words. He chronicles Senna's entire story, from the wealthy childhood in Brazil to his fatal crash in 1994.

It is a fast-moving and comprehensive account of an extraordinary life that will appeal to the wider public as well as to Senna fans.

Pekka Himanen You may be a hacker and not even know it. Being a hacker has nothing to do with cyberterrorism, and it doesn’t even necessarily relate to the open-source movement. Being a hacker has more to do with your underlying assumptions about stress, time management, work, and play. It’s about harmonizing the rhythms of your creative work with the rhythms of the rest of your life so that they amplify each other. It is a fundamentally new work ethic that is revolutionizing the way business is being done around the world.

Without hackers there would be no universal access to e-mail, no Internet, no World Wide Web, but the hacker ethic has spread far beyond the world of computers. It is a mind-set, a philosophy, based on the values of play, passion, sharing, and creativity, that has the potential to enhance every individual’s and company’s productivity and competitiveness. Now there is a greater need than ever for entrepreneurial versatility of the sort that has made hackers the most important innovators of our day. Pekka Himanen shows how we all can make use of this ongoing transformation in the way we approach our working lives.

Christopher Hitchens Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, feted by Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and the House of Windsor, and eulogized throughout the world's media, Mother Teresa of Calcutta has entered that most select of sanctums: the house of living saints. But, as Christopher Hitchens argues, all is not as it seems in the canonization of Saint Teresa. In a searching examination of the Teresa cult, Hitchens recasts our relationship with Mother. He recounts her cosy relations with unsavoury oligarchies throughout the Third World, from the Duvalier dynasty in Haiti to Union Carbide in India. He reports on her consistent mission to the rich, including corrupt tycoons and convicted frauds. He spotlights her role as a propagandist for the most extreme views on abortion and contraception, details her dubious "special relationship" with claims of miraculous and supernatural apparitions, exposes her authoritarian rule over her acolytes, and outlines her megalomaniacal plans to found a new religious order, The Missionary Multinational. Hitchens's concludes that, far from being heaven's agent on Earth, Mother Teresa is one of hell's angels. Christopher Hitchens is the author of "Hostage to History: Cyprus from Ottoman to Kissinger", "Prepared for the Worst", "Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo American Ironies", "International Territory: Official Utopia and the United Nations" (with Adam Bartos) and "For The Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports".

Christopher Hitchens In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case
against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and
reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry
of the double helix.

Christopher Hitchens From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages—with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices—past and present—that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you'll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they're all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens—"political and literary journalist extraordinaire" (Los Angeles Times)—can.

Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.

Christopher Hitchens "All first-rate criticism first defines what we are confronting," the late, great jazz critic Whitney Balliett once wrote. By that measure, the essays of Christopher Hitchens are in the first tier. For nearly four decades, Hitchens has been telling us, in pitch-perfect prose, what we confront when we grapple with first principles-the principles of reason and tolerance and skepticism that define and inform the foundations of our civilization-principles that, to endure, must be defended anew by every generation.

"A short list of the greatest living conversationalists in English," said The Economist, "would probably have to include Christopher Hitchens, Sir Patrick Leigh-Fermor, and Sir Tom Stoppard. Great brilliance, fantastic powers of recall, and quick wit are clearly valuable in sustaining conversation at these cosmic levels. Charm may be helpful, too." Hitchens-who staunchly declines all offers of knighthood-hereby invites you to take a seat at a democratic conversation, to be engaged, and to be reasoned with. His knowledge is formidable, an encyclopedic treasure, and yet one has the feeling, reading him, of hearing a person thinking out loud, following the inexorable logic of his thought, wherever it might lead, unafraid to expose fraudulence, denounce injustice, and excoriate hypocrisy. Legions of readers, admirers and detractors alike, have learned to read Hitchens with something approaching awe at his felicity of language, the oxygen in every sentence, the enviable wit and his readiness, even eagerness, to fight a foe or mount the ramparts.

Here, he supplies fresh perceptions of such figures as varied as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Rebecca West, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, and Philip Larkin are matched in brilliance by his pungent discussions and intrepid observations, gathered from a lifetime of traveling and reporting from such destinations as Iran, China, and Pakistan.

Hitchens's directness, elegance, lightly carried erudition, critical and psychological insight, humor, and sympathy-applied as they are here to a dazzling variety of subjects-all set a standard for the essayist that has rarely been matched in our time. What emerges from this indispensable volume is an intellectual self-portrait of a writer with an exemplary steadiness of purpose and a love affair with the delights and seductions of the English language, a man anchored in a profound and humane vision of the human longing for reason and justice.

Benjamin Hoff Is there such thing as a Western Taoist? Benjamin Hoff says there is, and this Taoist's favorite food is honey. Through brilliant and witty dialogue with the beloved Pooh-bear and his companions, the author of this smash bestseller explains with ease and aplomb that rather than being a distant and mysterious concept, Taoism is as near and practical to us as our morning breakfast bowl. Romp through the enchanting world of Winnie-the-Pooh while soaking up invaluable lessons on simplicity and natural living.

Benjamin Hoff In The Te of Piglet, a good deal of Taoist wisdom is revealed through the character and actions of A. A. Milne's Piglet. Piglet herein demonstrates a very important principle of Taoism: The Te-a Chinese word meaning Virtue-of the Small.

Douglas Hofstadter A bestselling collection of brilliant and quirky essays, on subjects ranging from biology to grammar to artificial intelligence, that are unified by one primary concern: the way people perceive and think.

Douglas Hofstadter Everything is a symbol, and symbols can combine to form patterns. Patterns are beautiful and revelatory of larger truths. These are the central ideas in the thinking of Kurt Gödel, M.C. Escher, and Johann Sebastian Bach, perhaps the three greatest minds of the past quarter-millennium. In a stunning work of humanism, Hofstadter ties together the work of mathematician Gödel, graphic artist Escher, and composer Bach.

Gödel, Escher, Bach, a Pulitzer prize-winning treatise on genius, explores the workings of brilliant people's brains with the help of historical examples and brainteaser puzzles. Not for the dim or the lazy, this book shows you, more clearly than most any other, what it means to see symbols and patterns where others see only the universe. Touching on math, computers, literature, music, and artificial intelligence, Gödel, Escher, Bach is a challenging and potentially life-changing piece of writing.

Douglas R. Hofstadter Douglas Hofstadter's long-awaited return to the themes of Gödel, Escher, Bach—an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity.

Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, a soul, a consciousness, an "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here?

I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop"—a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one called "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.

How can a mysterious abstraction be real—or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction? Does an "I" exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics?

These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter's many readers have been waiting for.

Richard Holloway Richard Holloway's highly acclaimed analysis of contemporary morality has met with great success in the U.K., while causing a great deal of controversy with its broadminded and refreshingly unhypocritical and honest views on life in modern society. Godless Morality tackles issues that affect us all — it is a book with which every member of our society should engage. "Holloway's language and style are engaging, his research conscientious and his conclusions thoughtful and frequently wise." — The Sunday Times (London) "A passionate, provocative and commonsense challenge to easy cant." — The Observer (London) "A Book of Morals for our brave new world, by a very wise man indeed. Inspiring. Fascinating. Full of hope." — Fay Weldon "This is a courageous book for a bishop to write, and everything it says about morality is right...." — Literary Review

Jane Hope An introduction to the Buddhist life—from Enlightenment to meditation. B/W illustrations throughout.

Tony Horwitz When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
        Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance.
        In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of 'hardcore' reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison's commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book's climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the 'Civil Wargasm.'
        Written with Horwitz's signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and new ones 'classrooms, courts, country bars' where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways. Poignant and picaresque, haunting and hilarious, it speaks to anyone who has ever felt drawn to the mythic South and to the dark romance of the Civil War.

Neil Howe, William Strauss In commentary and quotations, computer dumps and cartoons, 13TH GEN is a multimedia anthem to the American post-boomer generation,our country's thirteenth generation since the founding fathers.

Shintaro Ishihara The author, a leading Japanese statesman, asserts in this book that the balance of power has shifted and that Japan will no longer play polite sister to the US in world affairs. He claims that Japan could instantly overturn US military superiority by selling its crucial computer missile chip to the USSR. He therefore stresses that it is time for the US corporations to listen to Japanese advice on achieving long-term economic strength instead of relying on trade sanctions to bale them out. He is also convinced that America's racial prejudice, which resulted in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan and not Germany, remains rampant and is a persistent cause of friction between the two countries. This book therefore helps the reader to understand a changing world in which Japan moves towards economic and technological supremacy. A long-time member of the Japanese Parliament, Shintaro Ishihara is the award-winning author of several literary novels and the President of PEN Japan.

Madhur Jaffrey Written especially for Americans, this book demonstrates how varied, exciting, and inexpensive Indian cooking can be. Offering more than 200 recipes, Invitation to Indian Cooking shows how easily you can produce authentic dishes at home.

Madhur Jaffrey Take a culinary tour of India. Visit each of India's 16 main culinary regions through anecdotes and recipes.

Elaine St. James For everyone who is overwhelmed by the increasing demands in their lives, here is the ideal guide for slowing down and finding peace of mind. In separate chapters covering career, household, health, social, finance, and personal affairs, this thought-provoking book offers one hundred proven, practical steps for creating a simple but elegant lifestyle.

Penn Jillette What kid of any age can resist a book guaranteed to make fellow diners blanch at restaurants or at the family dinner table? Mean, disgusting, vile, hilarious. The book that makes CRUEL TRICKS look like an etiquette guide. 35 black-and-white photos.

Penn Jillette, Teller While Star Trek fans, role-playing game fans, and even comic book fans eventually find each other and develop something like social groups, teenage magicians are, due to the rarity of their particular geek kink, more likely to remain socially retarded than any other group. That isolation and talent for magic allowed Penn & Teller a great deal of time to devote to revenge, mayhem, and making others look foolish. Now they share their techniques, as well as the wisdom one gains from acquiring happiness only after being ostracized and ridiculed, in Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic. A mixture of tricks you can do in hotel rooms, cars, and planes, some ill-advised methods for screwing with the minds of airport security personnel, and a series of memoirs of the unusual people they've met on their B-venue journeys around the world, How to Play in Traffic is not only funny (as one would expect from Penn & Teller) but also oddly insightful.

James G. Jones A+ Exam Cram provides an excellent way for certification candidates to study for both A+ exams. This book details all of the relevant aspects of IBM-compatible PC hardware, plus the tested details of MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 95. With a careful explanation of all terms, concepts, and techniques that A+ technicians need to understand, Exam Cram: A+ lends itself to both leisurely study and quick review.

This book does have one shortcoming: it is almost devoid of illustrations—unusual in a book largely about manipulating the physical things that make up a computer. Of the handful of photographs and line drawings that are included, many are blurry or otherwise difficult to interpret.

Exam Cram: A+ deserves kudos for the practice questions that appear at the end of each of its chapters. The answers (which really ought to be separated from the questions to make it harder to accidentally cheat) include brief discussions that substantiate why the answer is correct. This approach integrates exam preparation with the accumulation of reasoned knowledge that will be valuable after the test. The authors use a similar approach (with separate answers) for a full practice test. —David Wall

William Jones WE ARE ADRIFT IN A SEA OF INFORMATION. We need information to make good decisions, to get things done, to learn, and to gain better mastery of the world around us. But we do not always have good control of our information - not even in the "home waters" of an office or on the hard drive of a computer. Instead, information may be controlling us - keeping us from doing the things we need to do, getting us to waste money and precious time. The growth of available information, plus the technologies for its creation, storage, retrieval, distribution and use, is astonishing and sometimes bewildering. Can there be a similar growth in our understanding for how best to manage information and informational tools?

This book provides a comprehensive overview of personal information management (PIM) as both a study and a practice of the activities people do and need to be doing so that information can work for them in their daily lives.

Introductory chapters of Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management provide an overview of PIM and a sense for its many facets. The next chapters look more closely at the essential challenges of PIM, including finding, keeping, organizing, maintaining, managing privacy, and managing information flow. The book also contains chapters on search, email, mobile PIM, web-based support, and other technologies relevant to PIM.

*For more information and author blog visit http://www.keepingthingsfound.com/.

* Focuses exclusively on one of the most interesting and challenging problems in today's world
* Explores what good and better PIM looks like, and how to measure improvements
* Presents key questions to consider when evaluating any new PIM informational tools or systems

Jon Kabat-Zinn Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, is perhaps the best-known proponent of using meditation to help patients deal with illness. (The somewhat confusing title is from a line in Zorba the Greek in which the title character refers to the ups and downs of family life as "the full catastrophe.") But this book is also a terrific introduction for anyone who has considered meditating but was afraid it would be too difficult or would include religious practices they found foreign. Kabat-Zinn focuses on "mindfulness," a concept that involves living in the moment, paying attention, and simply "being" rather than "doing." While you can practice anything "mindfully," from taking a walk to cleaning your house, Kabat-Zinn presents several meditation techniques that focus the attention most clearly, whether it's on a simple phrase, your breathing, or various parts of your body. The book goes into detail about how hospital patients have either improved their health or simply come to feel better despite their illness by using these techniques, but these meditations can help anyone deal with stress and gain a calmer outlook on life. "When we use the word healing to describe the experiences of people in the stress clinic, what we mean above all is that they are undergoing a profound transformation of view," Kabat-Zinn writes. "Out of this shift in perspective comes an ability to act with greater balance and inner security in the world." —Ben Kallen

Jon Kabat-Zinn Featured on the PBS series, Healing and the Mind, with Bill Moyers, a best-seller explains the principles of mindfulness—a Buddhist method of achieving fulfillment and inner peace—through a blend of anecdotes, instructions, and meditations. Reprint. Tour.

William Kalush, Larry Sloman Handcuff King. Escape Artist. International Superstar. Since his death eighty years ago, Harry Houdini's life has been chronicled in books, in film, and on television. Now, in this groundbreaking biography, renowned magic expert William Kalush and bestselling writer Larry Sloman team up to find the man behind the myth. Drawing from millions of pages of research, they describe in vivid detail the passions that drove Houdini to perform ever-more-dangerous feats, his secret life as a spy, and a pernicious plot to subvert his legacy.

The Secret Life of Houdini traces the arc of the master magician's life from desperate poverty to worldwide fame — his legacy later threatened by a group of fanatical Spiritualists led by esteemed British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Initiating the reader along the way into the arcane world of professional magic, Kalush and Sloman decode a life based on deception, providing an intimate and riveting portrayal of Houdini, the man and the legend.

Katrina Karkazis What happens when a baby is born with "ambiguous" genitalia or a combination of "male" and "female" body parts? Clinicians and parents in these situations are confronted with complicated questions such as whether a girl can have XY chromosomes, or whether some penises are "too small" for a male sex assignment. Since the 1950s, standard treatment has involved determining a sex for these infants and performing surgery to normalize the infant's genitalia. Over the past decade intersex advocates have mounted unprecedented challenges to treatment, offering alternative perspectives about the meaning and appropriate medical response to intersexuality and driving the field of those who treat intersex conditions into a deep crisis. Katrina Karkazis offers a nuanced, compassionate picture of these charged issues in Fixing Sex, the first book to examine contemporary controversies over the medical management of intersexuality in the United States from the multiple perspectives of those most intimately involved.

Drawing extensively on interviews with adults with intersex conditions, parents, and physicians, Karkazis moves beyond the heated rhetoric to reveal the complex reality of how intersexuality is understood, treated, and experienced today. As she unravels the historical, technological, social, and political forces that have culminated in debates surrounding intersexuality, Karkazis exposes the contentious disagreements among theorists, physicians, intersex adults, activists, and parents—and all that those debates imply about gender and the changing landscape of intersex management. She argues that by viewing intersexuality exclusively through a narrow medical lens we avoid much more difficult questions. Do gender atypical bodies require treatment? Should physicians intervene to control the "sex" of the body? As this illuminating book reveals, debates over treatment for intersexuality force reassessment of the seemingly natural connections between gender, biology, and the body.

John Keegan The acclaimed author of The Face of Battle examines centures of conflict in a variety of diverse societies and cultures. "Keegan is at once the most readable and the most original of living military historians . . . A History of Warfare is perhaps the most remarkable study of warfare that has yet been written."—The New York Times Book Review.

Scott Kelby Scott Kelby, the man who changed the "digital darkroom" forever with his groundbreaking, #1 bestselling, award-winning book The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, now tackles the most important side of digital photography—how to take pro-quality shots using the same tricks today's top digital pros use (and it's easier than you'd think).

This entire book is written with a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: "If you and I were out on a shoot, and you asked me, 'Hey, how do I get this flower to be in focus, but I want the background out of focus?' I wouldn't stand there and give you a lecture about aperture, exposure, and depth of field. In real life, I'd just say, 'Get out your telephoto lens, set your f/stop to f/2.8, focus on the flower, and fire away.' You d say, 'OK,' and you'd get the shot. That's what this book is all about. A book of you and I shooting, and I answer the questions, give you advice, and share the secrets I've learned just like I would with a friend, without all the technical explanations and without all the techno-photo-speak."

This isn't a book of theory—it isn't full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts: this is a book of which button to push, which setting to use, when to use them, and nearly two hundred of the most closely guarded photographic "tricks of the trade" to get you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos with your digital camera every time you press the shutter button.

Here's another thing that makes this book different: each page covers just one trick, just one single concept that makes your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you'll learn another pro setting, another pro tool, another pro trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. There's never been a book like it, and if you're tired of taking shots that look "OK," and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, "Why don't my shots look like that?" then this is the book for you.

Scott Kelby Scott Kelby, author of the groundbreaking bestseller “The Digital Photography Book, Vol. 1” is back with an entirely new book that picks up right where Vol. 1 left off. It’s more of that “Ah ha—so that’s how they do it,” straight-to-the-point, skip the techno jargon; packed with stuff you can really use today, that made Vol. 1 the world’s bestselling book on digital photography.

In Volume 2, Scott adds entirely new chapters packed with Plain English tips on using flash, shooting close up photography, travel photography, shooting people, and even how to build a studio from scratch, where he demystifies the process so anyone can start taking pro-quality portraits today! Plus, he's got full chapters on his most requested topics, including loads of tips for landscape photographers, wedding photographers, and there's an entire chapter devoted to sharing some of the pro's secrets for making your photos look more professional, no matter what you're shooting.

This book truly has a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: “If you and I were out on a shoot, and you asked me, ‘When I use my flash, the background behind the person I’m shooting turns black. How do I fix that?’ I wouldn’t give you a lecture on flash ratios, or start a discussion on flash synchronization and rear curtain sync. I’d just say “Lower your shutter speed to 1/60 of a second. That should do it” Well, that’s what this book is all about: you and I out shooting where I answer questions, give you advice, and share the secrets I’ve learned just like I would with a friend—without all the technical explanations and techie photo speak.”

Each page covers a single concept on how to make your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, tool, or trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. If you’re tired of taking shots that look “okay,” and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, “Why don’t my shots look like that?” then this is the book for you.

This isn’t a book of theory—full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts. This is a book on which button to push, which setting to use, and when to use it. With nearly another 200 of the most closely guarded photographic “tricks of the trade,” this book gets you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos every time.

Scott Kelby Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book, volume 1 (the world’s best-selling digital photography book of all time), is back with a follow-up to his volume 2 smash best seller, with an entirely new book that picks up right where he left off. It’s even more of that “Ah ha—so that’s how they do it,” straight-to-the-point, skip-the-techno-jargon stuff you can really use today to make your shots even better.

This book truly has a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: “If you and I were out on a shoot and you asked me, ‘Hey Scott, I want the light for this portrait to look really soft and flattering. How far back should I put this softbox?’ I wouldn’t give you a lecture about lighting ratios, or flash modifiers. In real life, I’d just turn to you and say, ‘Move it in as close to your subject as you possibly can, without it actually showing up in the shot.’ Well, that’s what this book is all about: you and I out shooting where I answer questions, give you advice, and share the secrets I’ve learned, just like I would with a friend—without all the technical explanations and techie photo speak.”

Each page covers a single concept on how to make your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, tool, or trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. If you’re tired of taking shots that look “okay,” and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, “Why don’t my shots look like that?” then this is the book for you.

This isn’t a book of theory—full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts. This is a book on which button to push, which setting to use, and when to use it. With nearly 200 more of the most closely guarded photographic “tricks of the trade,” this book gets you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos every time.

Scott Kelby Since Lightroom first launched, Scott Kelby's The Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers has been the world's #1 best-selling Lightroom book. In this latest version for Lightroom 3, Scott uses his same step-by-step, plain-English style and layout to make learning Lightroom easy and fun. Scott doesn't just show you which sliders do what. Instead, by using the following three simple, yet brilliant, techniques that make it just an incredible learning tool, this book shows you how to create your own photography workflow using Lightroom:

1) Scott shares his own personal settings and studio-tested techniques.  He trains thousands of Lightroom users at his "Lightroom Live!" tour and knows first hand what really works and what doesn't.

2) The entire book is laid out in a real workflow order with everything step by step, so you can begin using Lightroom like a pro from the start.

3) What really sets this book apart are the last two chapters. This is where Scott dramatically answers his #1 most-asked Lightroom question, which is: "Exactly what order am I supposed to do things in, and where does Photoshop fit in?" Plus, this is the first version of the book that includes his famous "7-Point System for Lightroom," which lets you focus on mastering just the seven most important editing techniques.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers is the first and only book to bring the whole process together in such a clear, concise, and visual way.

Joe Klein Before he became Anonymous, author of the political novel Primary Colors, Joe Klein wrote this intelligent biography of America's legendary folksinger-activist. Klein's first book may not have created the fuss that Primary Colors did, but it attracted the attention of no less a celebrity than Bruce Springsteen, who used to cite it with respect during concerts before singing Guthrie's most famous lyric, "This Land Is Your Land." Klein's unearthing of two politically radical verses usually omitted from that song is just one instance of the solid research underpinning his vivid narrative of Guthrie's often tragic life (1912-67). Before Woody turned 15, his sister died in a fire and his mother was committed to an Oklahoma insane asylum with a mysterious disease he later learned he inherited; Klein's chilling description of Huntington's chorea is one of the book's strong points. Its heart is a full rendering of Guthrie's restless wanderings across Depression-era America, which fired his lifelong radicalism, and a scrupulously unsentimental account of Woody's oft-sentimentalized personality. He may have been a genius and a staunch advocate of the common people, but Guthrie was also a bad husband, neglectful father, and difficult friend, as Klein shows. He pays Woody's life and music the tribute of assuming they need no sanitizing, and this biography is all the more interesting because of it. —Wendy Smith

Kazuo Koike

Kazuo Koike

Kazuo Koike, Ryoichi Ikegami He is Yo Himomura, deadly assassin for the 108 Dragons, the Chinese Mafia. But to the criminal underworld who fear him, he is known as Crying Freeman, the killer who sheds tears at the fate of his victims. A young, handsome, sensitive artist, Yo has been hypnotically programmed by his Dragon masters to kill on command: he cannot resists his masters' commands to kill; his masters cannot stop his tears of remorse. Written by the legendary Kazuo Koike, creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, and illustrated by the incomparable Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman is adult manga at its most challenging: dark, violent, morally complex, erotically charged and regarded worldwide as one of the classics of adult graphic fiction. Dark Horse Manga is proud to present Crying Freeman, yet another of the jewels in the crown of manga classics, presented in its original right-to-left reading orientation.

Kazuo Koike, Ryoichi Ikegami Crying Freeman, the deadliest assassin of the 108 Dragons clan of the Chinese mafia has taken a bride, and she has passed the harsh tests of the Dragons and been given a new name, Fu Ching Lan, "Tiger Orchid." And despite Freeman's Japanese heritage, he has been chosen to become the eventual leader of the Dragons. But someone inside the Dragons wants Freeman dead, and Tiger Orchid should make a fine hostage to draw Freeman into the open... where a monstrous killer awaits! Written by manga legend Kazuo Koike, creator of Lone Wolf and Cub and Samurai Executioner, and illustrated by the acclaimed Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman is manga at its most adult: intensely violent, morally ambiguous, boldly erotic. Presented in its original right-to-left reading orientation.

Kazuo Koike, Ryoichi Ikegami A failed assassination attempt brings into Freeman's possession Muramasa, the Devil's Sword, an ancient samurai blade that brings misfortune and death to any who possess it. Wishing to spare Freeman and tame the sword's malevolent spirit, Tiger Orchid, Freeman's wife, takes the blade to Kowloon to train with a legendary swordmaster. But she'll need to find him in Kowloon Castle, a slum so riddled with crime and destitution that it does not officially exist. But its dangers are all too real, and even a possessed sword may not be enough to stop a gun-toting criminal army bent on selling Tiger Orchid into slavery! Written by the legendary Kazuo Koike, creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, and illustrated by the incomparable Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman is adult manga at its most challenging: dark, violent, morally complex, erotically charged and regarded worldwide as one of the classics of adult graphic fiction.

Kazuo Koike, Ryoichi Ikegami Cult leader Naiji Kumaga is poised for a hostile takeover of Japan. He has the tools - 1000 submachine guns in a land with few firearms - but needs expert hands to wield them, and the assassins of the 108 Dragons definitely have what it takes. Kumaga's plan: capture the Dragons' leader, Crying Freeman, and replace him with a trained double. Snatching the world's deadliest killer is a tall order, but maybe not too tall for the merciless giant, Tohgoku Oshu! Written by the legendary creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, Kazuo Koike, and spectacularly illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman is adult manga pushed to the limits: breathtakingly violent, morally ambiguous, graphically sexual and regarded worldwide as one of the jewels in the the crown of manga.

Kazuo Koike, Ryoichi Ikegami Once a humble ceramics artist, the infamous assassin known as Crying Freeman has risen in power to become the head of the 108 Dragons, the most powerful criminal organization on earth. But power has its price, and there is no end to the number of rival groups gunning for 108 Dragons turf - and for Freeman's head. Faced with an army of kidnappers and a host of assassins, each more deadly than the last, how long can Freeman's luck hold out? Will the Dragons be torn apart by warring rivals or poisoned by betrayal from within? Will Freeman's sensitive, compassionate heart be the Dragons' redemption or its downfall? Can Freeman and his loved ones survive the painful realities that come with living in a world of vicious gangland warfare? All questions will be answered in this, the final volume of Crying Freeman!

Joan Konner "All thinking men are atheists," Ernest Hemingway famously wrote. True? Here are quips, quotes, and questions from a distinguished assortment of geniuses and jokers, giving readers a chance to decide for themselves....

When I think of all the harm [the bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.
Oscar Wilde

SAINT, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
Ambrose Bierce

There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.
Gertrude Stein

Do not let yourself be deceived: great intellects are skeptical.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Susan Ertz

God is love, but get it in writing.
Gypsy Rose Lee

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw

Jack Kornfield Just as the serene beauty of the lotus blossom grows out of muddy water, Buddha's simple instructions have helped people to find wholeness and peace amid life's crisis and distractions for more than 2,500 years. For this small handbook, a well-known American Buddhist teacher and psychologist has distilled and adapted an ancient teaching for the needs of contemporary life. Its practical reminders and six meditations can infuse smallest everyday action with insight and joy.

Tim Krabbe THE RIDER describes one 150-kilometre race in just 150 pages. In the course of the narrative, we get to know the forceful, bumbling Lebusque, the aesthete Barthelemy, the young Turk Reilhan and the mysterious 'rider from Cycles Goff'. Krabbe battles with and against each of them in turn, failing on the descents, shining on the climbs, suffering on the (false) flats. The outcome of the race is, in fact, merely the last stanza of an exciting and too-brief paean to stamina, suffering and the redeeming power of humour. This is not a history of road racing, a hagiography of the European greats or even a factual account of his own amateur cycling career. Instead, Krabbe allows us to race with him, inside his skull as it were, during a mythical Tour de Mont Aigoual.

Dalai Lama, Howard C Cutler In their 1998 book The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and co-author Howard C. Cutler, M.D., explored how inner development contributes to overall happiness. In their second collaboration, the authors considered how they could best follow their highly successful first book. They chose a subject that affects millions of people around the world and produced. In this very readable, useful book, the authors attempt to discover the following: "Where does work fit in to our overall quest for happiness?" and "To what degree does work satisfaction affect our overall life satisfaction and happiness?"

The Art of Happiness at Work is a modern-day Socratic dialogue in which Cutler asks the Dalai Lama about the difficulties and rewards we might encounter in the workplace. The authors explore issues such as work and identity, making money, the Buddhist concept of "right livelihood," and transforming dissatisfaction at work. The discussion appears simple, if not obvious, at first, but upon closer scrutiny, the Dalai Lama's profound wisdom and sensitivity emerges. For the Dalai Lama, basic human values such as kindness, tolerance, compassion, honesty, and forgiveness are the source of human happiness. Throughout the book, he illustrates with clear examples how bringing those qualities to bear on work-related challenges can help us tolerate or overcome the most thorny situations. Recognizing that not all problems can be solved, the Dalai Lama provides very sound advice. The authors urge balance and self-awareness and wisely state, "No matter how satisfying our work is, it is a mistake to rely on work as our only source of satisfaction." —Silvana Tropea

His Holiness the Dalai Lama In Becoming Enlightened, His Holiness the Dalai Lama powerfully explores the foundation of Buddhism, laying out an accessible and practical approach to age-old questions: How can we live free from suffering? How can we achieve lasting happiness and peace?

Drawing from traditional Buddhist meditative practices as well as penetrating examples from today's troubled planet, he presents step-by-step exercises designed to expand the reader's capacity for spiritual growth, along with clear milestones to mark the reader's progress. By following the spiritual practices outlined in Becoming Enlightened, we can learn how to replace troublesome feelings with positive attitudes and embark on a path to achieving an exalted state — within ourselves and within the larger world.

Full of personal anecdotes and intimate accounts of the Dalai Lama's experiences as a lifelong student, thinker, political leader, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Becoming Enlightened gives readers all the wisdom, support, guidance, and inspiration they need to become successful and fulfilled in their spiritual lives.

This is a remarkable and empowering book that can be read and enjoyed by seekers of all faiths. Readers at every stage of their spiritual development will be captivated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama's loving and direct teaching style.

Brigitte Lardinois “A blockbuster . . . an education as well as an entertainment and unlike anything else in the field.” —San Francisco Chronicle Since its founding in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David “Chim” Seymour, Magnum Photos, the legendary cooperative, has powerfully chronicled the peoples, cultures, events, and issues of the time.

Magnum Magnum brings together the best work, celebrating the vision, imagination, and brilliance of Magnum photographers, both the acknowledged greats of photography in the twentieth century—among them, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Eve Arnold, Marc Riboud, and Werner Bischof—and the modern masters and rising stars of our time, such as Martin Parr, Susan Meiselas, Alex Webb, and Donovan Wylie.

Organized by photographer, the book harks back to the agency’s earlier days and the spirit that made it such a unique and creative environment, one in which each of the four founding members picture-edited the others’ photographs. Here a current Magnum photographer has selected and critiqued six key works by a Magnum cohort, with a commentary explaining the rationale behind the choice.

This new paperback edition provides a permanent record of iconic images from the last sixty years and an insight, as seen through the critical eyes and minds of Magnum photographers, into what makes a memorable photograph. 413 color illustrations.

Gary Larson Hot on the paws of the howling success of Wiener Dog Art comes the new Far Side masterpiece Unnatural Selections. Including more than 100 cartoons in their book debut, it also unearths an original four-color insert created by Gary Larson especially for this twelfth collection. Journey back in time as Larson does for evolution what he previously did for art.

Gary Larson A new compendium of humor from the creator of The Far Side and author of Unnatural Selections presents 150 cartoons, as well as a full-color fold-out of the cows of the planet. Original.

Daniel Lee This is the story of what it takes for young Americans to make it in professional cycling. Only thirty-six Americans have competed in the Tour de France since the world's greatest bicycle race began in 1903. That's not too many more than the twelve Americans who have walked on the moon. It's far fewer than the hundreds of Americans who have reached the summit of Mount Everest.

But rising stars such as Lawson Craddock of Texas, Benjamin King of Virginia, Taylor Phinney of Colorado, Daniel Holloway of California, and Tyler Farrar of Washington state are doing just that as they endure crashes, cold rain, cobblestones, crosswinds, and culture shock on their road to cycling stardom, which starts in Belgium.

This is the story of the next generation—of riders not yet tainted by drug scandals, of riders still bursting with hope and potential. This is the story American cycling fans need right now.

Daniel Lee is a passionate journalist and cyclist. In his early twenties, Lee raced his bike across Kentucky horse country, through mountains in Germany and over cobblestones in Belgium. He was even a professional cyclist—for one race—in 1991. He has worked as a reporter with the Indianapolis Star.

Steven Levy If the National Security Agency (NSA) had wanted to make sure that strong encryption would reach the masses, it couldn't have done much better than to tell the cranky geniuses of the world not to do it. Author Steven Levy, deservedly famous for his enlightening Hackers, tells the story of the cypherpunks, their foes, and their allies in Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government. From the determined research of Whitfield Diffie and Marty Hellman, in the face of the NSA's decades-old security lock, to the commercial world's turn-of-the-century embrace of encrypted e-commerce, Levy finds drama and intellectual challenge everywhere he looks. Although he writes, "Behind every great cryptographer, it seems, there is a driving pathology," his respect for the mathematicians and programmers who spearheaded public key encryption as the solution to Information Age privacy invasion shines throughout. Even the governmental bad guys are presented more as hapless control fetishists who lack the prescience to see the inevitability of strong encryption as more than a conspiracy of evil.

Each cryptological advance that was made outside the confines of the NSA's Fort Meade complex was met with increasing legislative and judicial resistance. Levy's storytelling acumen tugs the reader along through mathematical and legal hassles that would stop most narratives in their tracks—his words make even the depressingly silly Clipper chip fiasco vibrant. Hardcore privacy nerds will value Crypto as a review of 30 years of wrangling; those readers with less familiarity with the subject will find it a terrific and well-documented launching pad for further research. From notables like Phil Zimmerman to obscure but important figures like James Ellis, Crypto dishes the dirt on folks who know how to keep a secret. —Rob Lightner

Steven Levy, Steven Levy Today, technology is cool. Owning the most powerful computer, the latest high-tech gadget, and the whizziest web site is a status symbol on a par with having a flashy car or a designer suit. And a media obsessed with the digital explosion has reappropriated the term "computer nerd" so that it's practically synonymous with "entrepreneur." Yet, a mere fifteen years ago, wireheads hooked on tweaking endless lines of code were seen as marginal weirdos, outsiders whose world would never resonate with the mainstream. That was before one pioneering work documented the underground computer revolution that was about to change our world forever. With groundbreaking profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT's tech Model Railroad Club, and more, Steven Levy's Hackers brilliantly captures a seminal moment when the risk takers and explorers were poised to conquer twentieth-century America's last great frontier. And in the Internet age, "the hacker ethic"—first espoused here—is alive an well.

Amy Liang “With 288 color pages, Liang’s is one of the best [books on the subject]. Her book includes a breath-taking photo gallery of bonsai, basic styles, group planting, plant physiology, cultivation, propagation, transplanting and repotting, and training and dwarfing—in other words, everything the bonsai grower needs to know.”—Booklist.

New York Public Library The New York Public Library's fine volume on American history is both scholarly and easy to use. The history is divided into topical chapters ("Territorial Expansion," "Immigration and Minorities," "Military History," and so on), wherein each subject is treated chronologically and comprehensively within its boundaries. "Indigenous Peoples," for example, covers their history from the last great ice age to the 1989 court case of Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, and is followed by an explanation of Indian religion and a short biography of Native Americans in American history. A variety of subjects get the same full treatment. This excellent reference book provides you with detailed and chronological views of religion and science, as well as a unique perspective on American culture.

Ken Light "Everything in the world must be shown and people around the world must have an idea of what's happening to the other people around the world. I believe this is a function of the vector that the documentary photographer must have, to show one person's existence to another."—Sebastião Salgado

Illustrated with a compelling image from each photographer, Witness in Our Time traces the recent history of social documentary photography in the words of twenty-two of the genre's best photographers, editors, and curators, showing that the profession remains vital, innovative, and committed to social change. Featuring interviews with Hansel Mieth, Walter Rosenblum, Michelle Vignes, Wayne Miller, Peter Magubane, Matt Herron, Jill Freedman, Mary Ellen Mark, Earl Dotter, Eugene Richards, Susan Meiselas, Sebastião Salgado, Graciela Iturbide, Antonin Kratochvil, Donna Ferrato, Joseph Rodriguez, Dayanita Singh, Fazal Sheikh, Gifford Hampshire, Peter Howe, Colin Jacobson, and Ann Wilkes Tucker

Ronan Loaec The one book that any photographer needs to become an expert in the art of portraying nature close-up, Macrophotography invites readers to explore a magical world in which miniature landscapes are magnified in all their radiant splendor, capturing flora and fauna in exquisite detail. In these pages, in remarkably clear, larger-than-life stop-action images, we see the delicate stamen of an orchid, the intricate pattern of a butterfly's wings, snails climbing on mushrooms, and the eye of a gecko. This splendid how-to manual not only reproduces these images in glorious full-color photographs, but also provides technical information of immense value to nature photographers, both amateur and professional.

Topics covered in this outstanding guide range from practical advice about basic equipment and more sophisticated accessories to aesthetic concerns such as composition and color. After explaining how to proceed in the variety of terrains nature photographers may encounter in their travels, the book examines macrophotography in the studio, discussing how animal and plant life can be shot in aquariums and vivariums and using studio backdrops.

Barbara London, John Upton A picture tells a thousand stories, but the one it doesn't tell is how the shot was made. Barbara London and John Upton's Photography is an all-inclusive look at the craft of photography. This book will help any amateur move up a few notches, and it serves as a refresher course for professionals as well. The sixth edition of this classic work (the first was published in 1976) includes a companion Web site with interactive activities, Web resources, and a learning archive. Amply illustrated with at least one photograph or diagram on almost every page, Photography is the one reference work every student of photography must have—even those who will never set foot in a classroom. —Brenda Pittsley

H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, S. T. Joshi An unparalleled selection of fiction from H. P. Lovecraft, master of the American horror tale

Long after his death, H. P. Lovecraft continues to enthrall readers with his gripping tales of madness and cosmic terror, and his effect on modern horror fiction continues to be felt— Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker have acknowledged his influence. His unique contribution to American literature was a melding of Poe's traditional supernaturalism with the emerging genre of science fiction. Originally appearing in pulp magazines like Weird Tales in the 1920s and 1930s, Lovecraft's work is now being regarded as the most important supernatural fiction of the twentieth century.

Lovecraft's biographer and preeminent interpreter, S. T. Joshi, has prepared this volume of eighteen stories—from the early classics like "The Outsider" and "Rats in the Wall" to his mature masterworks, "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." The first paperback to include the definitive corrected texts, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories reveals the development of Lovecraft's mesmerizing narrative style, and establishes him as a canonical—and visionary—American writer.

"I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." —Stephen King

Richard A. Lovett This unique, fully illustrated guide to the art of bicycle touring tells how to hit the road with confidence and panache.

Niccolò Machiavelli The Handbook for Leaders

The Prince is often regarded as the first true leadership book. It shocked contemporary readers with its ruthless call for fearless and effective action. With simple prose and straightforward logic, Machiavelli's guide still has the power to surprise and inform anyone hoping to make their way in the world.

This keepsake edition includes an introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon, drawing out lessons for managers and business leaders, and showing how The Prince remains vital reading for anyone in the realm of business or politics.

Ben Macintyre He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.
He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city.
He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. . . .
—Sherlock Holmes on Professor Moriarty in "The Final Problem"

The Victorian era's most infamous thief, Adam Worth was the original Napoleon of crime.  Suave, cunning Worth learned early that the best way to succeed was to steal.  And steal he did.

Following a strict code of honor, Worth won the respect of Victorian society.  He also aroused its fear by becoming a chilling phantom, mingling undetected with the upper classes, whose valuables he brazenly stole.  His most celebrated heist: Gainsborough's grand portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire—ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales—a painting Worth adored and often slept with for twenty years.

With a brilliant gang that included "Piano" Charley, a jewel thief, train robber, and playboy, and "the Scratch" Becker, master forger, Worth secretly ran operations from New York to London, Paris, and South Africa—until betrayal and a Pinkerton man finally brought him down.

In a decadent age, Worth was an icon.  His biography is a grand, dazzling tour into the gaslit underworld of the last century.  .  .  and into the doomed genius of a criminal mastermind.

Hugh MacLeod Hugh MacLeod's acclaimed blog Gaping Void draws 1.5 million visitors a month, and his ebook, How to Be Creative, has been downloaded more than a million times. In Ignore Everybody, he expands his thoughts about unleashing creativity in a world that often thwarts it.

Bicycling Magazine

Mike Magnuson Take one very large guy. Add booze, cigarettes, and an extreme amount of junk food. Mix in a wry, self-effacing wit. Throw in a bike. The result? Heft on Wheels, a potently funny look at turning your life around, one insanely unrealistic goal at a time.

Not that long ago, Mike Magnuson was a self-described lummox with a bicycle. In the space of three months, he lost seventy-five pounds, quit smoking, stopped drinking, and morphed from the big guy at the back of the pack into a lean, mean cycling machine. Today, Mike is a 175-pound athlete competing in some of the most difficult one-day racing events in America. This irreverent and inspiring memoir charts every hilarious detail of his transformation, from the horrors of skin-tight XXL biking shorts to the miseries of nicotine withdrawal.

Heft on Wheels is an unforgettable book about getting from one place to another, in more ways than one.

Gregory Maguire When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

Gregory Maguire Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful retelling of Cinderella is a study in contrasts. Love and hate, beauty and ugliness, cruelty and charity—each idea is stripped of its ethical trappings, smashed up against its opposite number, and laid bare for our examination. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister begins in 17th-century Holland, where the two Fisher sisters and their mother have fled to escape a hostile England. Maguire's characters are at once more human and more fanciful than their fairy-tale originals. Plain but smart Iris and her sister, Ruth, a hulking simpleton, are dazed and terrified as their mother, Margarethe, urges them into the strange Dutch streets. Within days, purposeful Margarethe has secured the family a place in the home of an aspiring painter, where for a short time, they find happiness.

But this is Cinderella, after all, and tragedy is inevitable. When a wealthy tulip speculator commissions the painter to capture his blindingly lovely daughter, Clara, on canvas, Margarethe jumps at the chance to better their lot. "Give me room to cast my eel spear, and let follow what may," she crows, and the Fisher family abandons the artist for the upper-crust Van den Meers.

When Van den Meer's wife dies during childbirth, the stage is set for Margarethe to take over the household and for Clara to adopt the role of "Cinderling" in order to survive. What follows is a changeling adventure, and of course a ball, a handsome prince, a lost slipper, and what might even be a fairy godmother. In a single magic night, the exquisite and the ugly swirl around in a heated mix: Everything about this moment hovers, trembles, all their sweet, unreasonable hopes on view before anything has had the chance to go wrong. A stepsister spins on black and white tiles, in glass slippers and a gold gown, and two stepsisters watch with unrelieved admiration. The light pours in, strengthening in its golden hue as the sun sinks and the evening approaches. Clara is as otherworldly as the Donkeywoman, the Girl-Boy. Extreme beauty is an affliction... But beyond these familiar elements, Maguire's second novel becomes something else altogether—a morality play, a psychological study, a feminist manifesto, or perhaps a plain explanation of what it is to be human. Villains turn out to be heroes, and heroes disappoint. The story's narrator wryly observes, "In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats." —Therese Littleton

Gregory Maguire Ten years after the publication of Wicked, beloved novelist Gregory Maguire returns at last to the land of Oz. There he introduces us to Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully, Liir is shattered in spirit as well as in form. But he is tended to at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by the silent novice called Candle, who wills him back to life with her musical gifts. What dark force left Liir in this condition? Is he really Elphaba's son? He has her broom and her cape—but what of her powers? Can he find his supposed half-sister, Nor, last seen in the forbidding prison, Southstairs? Can he fulfill the last wishes of a dying princess? In an Oz that, since the Wizard's departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enough to grow up?

For the countless fans who have been dazzled and entranced by Maguire's Oz, Son of a Witch is the rich reward they have awaited so long.

Gregory Maguire Since the publication of Wicked, millions of readers have discovered Gregory Maguire's fantastically encyclopedic Oz, a world filled with characters both familiar and new, darkly conceived and daringly reimagined. In the third volume of the Wicked Years, we return to Oz, seen now through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion.

At once a portrait of a would-be survivor and a panoramic glimpse of a world gone shrill with war fever, Gregory Maguire's A Lion Among Men is written with the sympathy and power that have made his books contemporary classics.

Kee Malesky For the bestselling miscellany market, an NPR librarian's compendium of fascinating facts on history, science, and the arts

How much water do the Great Lakes contain? Who were the first and last men killed in the Civil War? How long is a New York minute? What are the lost plays of Shakespeare? What building did Elvis leave last? Get the answers to these and countless other vexing questions in a All Facts Considered. Guaranteed to enlighten even the most seasoned trivia buff, this treasure trove of "who knew?" factoids spans a wide range of intriguing subjects. Written by noted NPR librarian Kee Malesky, whom Scott Simon has called the "source of all human knowledge"Answers questions on history, natural history, science, religion, language, and the artsPacked with valuable nuggets of information, from the useful to the downright bizarre

The perfect gift for every inquiring mind that wants to know, All Facts Considered will put you at the center of the conversation as you show off your essential store of inessential yet irresistible knowledge.

A. T. Mann This book takes a rational, no-nonsense approach to learning the basics of SQL Server Reporting Services, which is available for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and later. In only 160 pages, you'll quickly learn the basics of creating, managing, deploying, and using Microsoft's new innovative reporting platform. The Rational Guide To: SQL Server Reporting Services discusses specific concepts and then shows you how to accomplish each task step-by-step. This book comes with free applications and source code to manage images in your databases, view SQL Server Reporting Services log files, and begin programming with the SQL Server Reporting Services Web Service interface.Technical accuracy is assured by Jason Carlson, Product Unit Manager, SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft Corporation.

Karl Marlantes Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever. 

Written by a highly decorated Marine veteran over the course of thirty years, Matterhorn is a spellbinding and unforgettable novel that brings to life an entire world—both its horrors and its thrills—and seems destined to become a classic of combat literature.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez One of the most influential literary works of our time, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women — brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul — this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.

Robert Masello Delving into the unexplored territory of infamous angels and evil beings, gripping accounts of the exploits of fallen angels, demons, werewolves, witches and warlocks, vampires, poltergeists, and ghosts are highlighted with spells and incantations, legends, and verse.

Alessandra Mauro Their names are Lewis Hine, Sebastião Salgado, Eugene Smith, Tom Stoddart, and Igor Kostin. They tackled hunger, drought, ecological catastrophes, HIV. They are documentary photographers, authors, and journalists who decided to aim their cameras at a series of unknown stories that had to be revealed, told, understood, and denounced.

Our Brothers' keepers gathers twenty protagonists and twenty exemplary stories of documentary photography. Each one is presented by an introductory text, and a selection of photographs conveys the sense and value of these extremely important reports. It is a peculiar way to track the history of our days, as well as the one of photography, of those concerned authors who wanted to show things that had to be corrected, who wanted to show things that had to be appreciated.

Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera The New York Times bestseller hailed as "the best business book of 2010" (Huffington Post).

As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers?

According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant. Almost everyone has missed the big picture. Almost no one has put all the pieces together.

All the Devils Are Here goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature.

Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore, Jerome Agel Millions of "global villagers" connected by the communications revolution Marshall McLuhan foresaw, have never read the most influential, prophetic, and entertaining book ever written on the subject—The Medium is the Message (originally published in 1967). The authors have selected excerpts from McLuhan's most electrifying theories and insights. By linking text with images, they created this mesmerizing, first-of-its kind book. Photos and illustrations.

Joe McNally THE FIRST BOOK WITH ONE FOOT ON THE COFFEE TABLE, AND ONE FOOT IN THE
CLASSROOM
Joe McNally, one of the world’s top pro digital photographers, whose celebrated work has graced the pages of Sports Illustrated, Time, and National Geographic (to name a few), breaks new ground by doing something no photography book has ever done—blending the rich, stunning images and elegant layout of a coffee-table book with the invaluable training, no-nonsense insights, and photography secrets usually found only in those rare, best-of-breed educational books.

When Joe’s not on assignment for the biggest-name magazines and Fortune 500 clients, he’s in the classroom teaching location lighting, environmental portraiture, and how to “get the shot” at workshops around the world. These on-location workshops are usually reserved for a handful of photographers each year, but now you can learn the same techniques that Joe shares in his seminars and lectures in a book that brings Joe’s sessions to life.

What makes the book so unique is the “triangle of learning” where (1) Joe distills the concept down to one brief sentence. It usually starts with something like, “An editor at National Geographic once told me…” and then he shares one of those hard-earned tricks of the trade that you only get from spending a lifetime behind the lens. Then, (2) on the facing page is one of Joe’s brilliant images that perfectly illustrates the technique (you’ll recognize many of his photos from magazine covers). And (3) you get the inside story of how that shot was taken, including which equipment he used (lens, f/stop, lighting, accessories, etc.), along with the challenges that type of project brings, and how to set up a shot like that of your own.

This book also gives you something more. It inspires. It challenges. It informs. But perhaps most importantly, it will help you understand photography and the art of making great photos at a level you never thought possible. This book is packed with those “Ah ha!” moments—those clever insights that make it all come together for you. It brings you that wonderful moment when it suddenly all makes sense—that “moment it clicks.”

Joe McNally When it comes to photography, it’s all about the light.

After spending more than thirty years behind the lens—working for National Geographic, Time, Life, and Sports Illustrated—Joe McNally knows about light. He knows how to talk about it, shape it, color it, control it, and direct it. Most importantly, he knows how to create it...using small hot shoe flashes.

In The Hot Shoe Diaries, Joe brings you behind the scenes to candidly share his lighting solutions for a ton of great images. Using Nikon Speedlights, Joe lets you in on his uncensored thought process—often funny, sometimes serious, always fascinating—to demonstrate how he makes his pictures with these small flashes. Whether he’s photographing a gymnast on the Great Wall, an alligator in a swamp, or a fire truck careening through Times Square, Joe uses these flashes to create great light that makes his pictures sing.

John McPhee A classic of reportage, Oranges was first conceived as a short magazine article about oranges and orange juice, but the author kept encountering so much irresistible information that he eventually found that he had in fact written a book. It contains sketches of orange growers, orange botanists, orange pickers, orange packers, early settlers on Florida’s Indian River, the first orange barons, modern concentrate makers, and a fascinating profile of Ben Hill Griffin of Frostproof, Florida who may be the last of the individual orange barons. McPhee’s astonishing book has an almost narrative progression, is immensely readable, and is frequently amusing. Louis XIV hung tapestries of oranges in the halls of Versailles, because oranges and orange trees were the symbols of his nature and his reign. This book, in a sense, is a tapestry of oranges, too—with elements in it that range from the great orangeries of European monarchs to a custom of people in the modern Caribbean who split oranges and clean floors with them, one half in each hand.

Jon Meacham Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this remarkable book about the man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson’s election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad. To tell the saga of Jackson’s presidency, acclaimed author Jon Meacham goes inside the Jackson White House. Drawing on newly discovered family letters and papers, he details the human drama–the family, the women, and the inner circle of advisers–that shaped Jackson’s private world through years of storm and victory.

One of our most significant yet dimly recalled presidents, Jackson was a battle-hardened warrior, the founder of the Democratic Party, and the architect of the presidency as we know it. His story is one of violence, sex, courage, and tragedy. With his powerful persona, his evident bravery, and his mystical connection to the people, Jackson moved the White House from the periphery of government to the center of national action, articulating a vision of change that challenged entrenched interests to heed the popular will–or face his formidable wrath. The greatest of the presidents who have followed Jackson in the White House–from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to FDR to Truman–have found inspiration in his example, and virtue in his vision.

Jackson was the most contradictory of men. The architect of the removal of Indians from their native lands, he was warmly sentimental and risked everything to give more power to ordinary citizens. He was, in short, a lot like his country: alternately kind and vicious, brilliant and blind; and a man who fought a lifelong war to keep the republic safe–no matter what it took.

Jon Meacham in American Lion has delivered the definitive human portrait of a pivotal president who forever changed the American presidency–and America itself.

Exclusive Amazon.com Q&A with Jon Meacham and H.W. Brands

On the eve of the historic 2008 presidential election, we were fortunate to chat with historians Jon Meacham and H.W. Brands (author of Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt) on the similarities of their presidential subjects and how the legacies of FDR and Jackson continue to shape the political world we see today.

Amazon.com: One of Andrew Jackson's childhood friends once remarked that when they wrestled, "I could throw him three times out of four, but he never stayed throwed." How emblematic is this of Jackson's career?

Meacham: Utterly emblematic. Jackson was resilient, tough, and wily, rising from nothing to become the dominant political figure of the age. He was crushed by his loss in 1824, when, despite carrying the popular vote, he was defeated in the House of Representatives. But, tellingly, he began his campaign for 1828 almost immediately, on the way home to Tennessee. And he won the next time.

Amazon.com: What would Jackson think of Franklin Delano Roosevelt?

Meacham: I think they would have gotten along famously. It is difficult to imagine men from more starkly different backgrounds—to take just one example, Jackson lost his mother early, and FDR was long shaped by his mother—but they both viewed the presidency the same way: they both believed they should be in it, wielding power on behalf of the masses against entrenched interests.

Amazon.com: How important was Jackson's legacy to FDR's Presidency?

Brands: Jackson was FDR’s favorite president, and Jackson’s presidency was the one Roosevelt initially modeled his own after. FDR saw Jackson as the champion of the ordinary people of America; he saw himself the same way. He compared Jackson’s battle with the Bank of the United States to his own battle with entrenched economic interests. And just as Jackson had reveled in the enmity of the rich, so did Roosevelt.

Amazon.com: Although both were regarded as champions of the people, their backgrounds were drastically different. FDR hailed from a wealthy and politically-connected family, while Jackson was an orphaned son of immigrants. How did each manage to endear themselves to the voters of their day?

Meacham: Jackson was in many ways the first great popular candidate. He had “Hickory Clubs,” and there were torchlit parades and barbecues—lots and lots of barbecues. Jackson helped mastermind the means of campaigning that would become commonplace. He also intuitively understood the power of image, and kept a portrait painter, Ralph Earl, near to hand in the White House.

Brands: FDR combined noblesse oblige with felt concern for the plight of the poor. His polio had something to do with this—it introduced him to personal suffering, and it also introduced him, in Georgia, where he went for rehabilitation, to poor farmers unlike any he had spent time with before. He came to know them and to feel the problems they faced. He took people in trouble seriously and communicated that seriousness to them.

Continue reading this Q&A

Ramesh Menon The great Indian epic rendered in modern prose

India's most beloved and enduring legend, the Ramayana is widely acknowledged to be one of the world's great literary masterpieces. Still an integral part of India's cultural and religious expression, the Ramayana was originally composed by the Sanskrit poet Valmiki around 300 b.c. The epic of Prince Rama's betrayal, exile, and struggle to rescue his faithful wife, Sita, from the clutches of a demon and to reclaim his throne has profoundly affected the literature, art, and culture of South and Southeast Asia-an influence most likely unparalleled in the history of world literature, except, possibly, for the Bible. Throughout the centuries, countless versions of the epic have been produced in numerous formats and languages. But previous English versions have been either too short to capture the magnitude of the original; too secular in presenting what is, in effect, scripture; or dry, line-by-line translations. Now novelist Ramesh Menon has rendered the tale in lyrical prose that conveys all the beauty and excitement of the original, while making this spiritual and literary classic accessible to a new generation of readers.

Walter M. Miller Jr. Walter M. Miller's acclaimed SF classic A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels—bring home for Emma." To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. As 1984 cautioned against Stalinism, so 1959's A Canticle for Leibowitz warns of the threat and implications of nuclear annihilation. Following a cloister of monks in their Utah abbey over some six or seven hundred years, the funny but bleak Canticle tackles the sociological and religious implications of the cyclical rise and fall of civilization, questioning whether humanity can hope for more than repeating its own history. Divided into three sections—Fiat Homo (Let There Be Man), Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light), and Fiat Voluntas Tua (Thy Will Be Done)—Canticle is steeped in Catholicism and Latin, exploring the fascinating, seemingly capricious process of how and why a person is canonized. —Paul Hughes

Marvin Minsky Marvin Minsky — one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT — gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?"

Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter — on a self-contained page — corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, The Society of Mind is an adventure in imagination.

Stephen Mitchell An elegant, two-color, pocket-size edition of the bestselling spiritual classic in its finest translation.

Michael Moore Stupid White Men, Michael Moore's screed against "Thief-in-Chief" George Bush's power elite, hit No. 1 at Amazon.com within days of publication. Why? It's as fulminating and crammed with infuriating facts as any right-wing bestseller, as irreverent as The Onion, and as noisily entertaining as a wrestling smackdown. Moore offers a more interesting critique of the 2000 election than Ralph Nader's Crashing the Party (he argued with Nader, his old boss, who sacked him), and he's serious when he advocates ousting Bush. But Moore's rage is outrageous, couched in shameless gags and madcap comedy: "Old white men wielding martinis and wearing dickies have occupied our nation's capital.... Launch the SCUD missiles! Bring us the head of Antonin Scalia!... We are no longer [able] to hold free and fair elections. We need U.N. observers, U.N. troops." Moore's ideas range from on-the-money (Arafat should beat Sharon with Gandhi's nonviolent shame tactics) to over-the-top: blacks should put inflatable white dolls in their cars so racist cops will think they're chauffeurs; the ever-more-Republicanesque Democratic Party should be sued for fraud; "no contributions toward advancing our civilization ever came out of the South [except Faulkner, Hellman, and R.J. Reynolds]," because it's too hot to think straight there; Korean dictator Kim Jong-il "has got to broaden himself beyond porn and John Wayne" by watching better movies, like Dude, Where's My Car? (which contains "all you need to know about America"). Whatever your politics, Stupid White Men should make you blow your stack. —Tim Appelo

Robin Morgan The religious right is gaining enormous power in the United States, thanks to a well-organized, media-savvy movement with powerful friends in high places. Yet many Americans — both observant and secular — are alarmed by this trend, especially by the religious right's attempts to erase the boundary between church and state and re-make the U.S. into a Christian nation. But most Americans lack the tools for arguing with the religious right, especially when fundamentalist conservatives claim their tradition started with the Framers of The Constitution. Fighting Words is a a tool-kit for arguing, especially for those of us who haven't read the founding documents of this nation since grade school. Robin Morgan has assembled a lively, accessible, eye-opening primer and reference tool, a "verbal karate" guide, revealing what the Framers and many other leading Americans really believed — in their own words — rescuing the Founders from images of dusty, pompous old men in powdered wigs, and resurrecting them as the revolutionaries they truly were: a hodgepodge of freethinkers, Deists, agnostics, Christians, atheists, and Freemasons — and they were radicals as well.

Avi Muchnick If you've ever found yourself looking at funny images and thinking "Hey, how’d they do that?", this is the book that will give you the answer! Learn how to have fun with photos— swapping pictures of historical inventions with modern-day appliances or combining images of animals to produce unrealistic characters. "When Pancakes Go Bad" is infused with humor and behind-the-scenes tutorials that impart useful, easy-to-understand tips in a lighthearted manner. Organized into chapters by the general theme of the images, this book is packed with fun and interesting photos that will keep you entertained until the end.

Perfect for anyone with an interest in learning Adobe Photoshop and have fun with it at the same time.

Written by the founder of Worth1000.com, a highly popular Photoshop gallery and content Web site with over 100,000 registered members.

Highly entertaining and educational, this book is filled with funny images as well as useful tutorials.

Companion Web site contains many images that readers can download and work with.

Stefan Mumaw, Wendy Lee Oldfield Packed Full of 15-Minute Creativity Sparking Exercises

*Chock-full of useful exercises designed to help readers tap into a daily creative buzz
*Features an edgy sketchbook design (by the authors) for visual allure
*Appeals to anyone looking for easy ways to jump start their creativity

For any designer or creative type who wants to quickly limber up their imagination on a daily basis, Wired helps readers get into the creative zone, from which all their best work springs. Packed with 15-minute simple and conceptual exercises, this guide will have readers reaching for markers, pencils, digital cameras, and more in order to develop a working and productive creative mindset.

Susan J. Napier With the popularity of Pokémon still far from waning, Japanese animation, known as anime to its fans, has a firm hold on American pop culture. However, anime is much more than children's cartoons. It runs the gamut from historical epics to sci-fi sexual thrillers. Often dismissed as fanciful entertainment, anime is actually quite adept at portraying important social and cultural issues such as alienation, gender inequality, and teenage angst. This book investigates the ways that anime presents these issues in an in-depth and sophisticated manner, uncovering the identity conflicts, fears over rapid technological advancement, and other key themes present in much of Japanese animation.

John G. Neihardt The most famous Native American book ever written, Black Elk Speaks is the acclaimed story of Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and his people during the momentous, twilight years of the nineteenth century. Black Elk grew up in a time when white settlers were invading the Lakotas’ homeland, decimating buffalo herds and threatening to extinguish their way of life. Black Elk and other Lakotas fought back, a dogged resistance that resulted in a remarkable victory at the Little Bighorn and an unspeakable tragedy at Wounded Knee.

Beautifully told through the celebrated poet and writer John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks offers much more than a life story. Black Elk’s profound and arresting religious visions of the unity of humanity and the world around him have transformed his account into a venerated spiritual classic. Whether appreciated as a collaborative autobiography, a history of a Native American nation, or an enduring spiritual testament for all humankind, Black Elk Speaks is unforgettable.

This special edition features all three prefaces to Black Elk Speaks that John G. Neihardt wrote at different points in his life, a map of Black Elk’s world, a reset text with Lakota words reproduced using the latest orthographic standards, and color paintings by Lakota artist Standing Bear that have not been widely available for decades.

Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman In Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die, Willie Nelson muses about his greatest influences and the things that are most important to him, and celebrates the family, friends, and colleagues who have blessed his remarkable journey. Willie riffs on everything, from music to poker, Texas to Nashville, and more. He shares the outlaw wisdom he has acquired over the course of eight decades, along with favorite jokes and insights from family, bandmates, and close friends. Rare family pictures, beautiful artwork created by his son, Micah Nelson, and lyrics to classic songs punctuate these charming and poignant memories.

A road journal written in Willie Nelson's inimitable, homespun voice and a fitting tribute to America’s greatest traveling bard, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die—introduced by another favorite son of Texas, Kinky Friedman—is a deeply personal look into the heart and soul of a unique man and one of the greatest artists of our time, a songwriter and performer whose legacy will endure for generations to come.

Neil van Niekerk With this guidebook, photographers learn how to create stunning, professional images while avoiding the common pitfalls of using an on-camera flash. Techniques for using simple accessories—such as bounce cards and diffusers as well as how to improve a lighting scenario by enhancing it rather than overwhelming it—show photographers how to master this challenging aspect of portraiture. For wedding and environmental portrait photographers who must work in ever-changing lighting scenarios, executing these tips to evade flat, lifeless images with harsh shadows, washed-out skin tones, cavernous black backgrounds, and other unappealing visual characteristics results in not only better images, but happier clients and more sales.

Donald Norman The Director of the Institute for Cognitive Science at the University of California hails excellence of design as the most important key to regaining the competitive edge in influencing consumer behavior.

Wendy Northcutt, Christopher M. Kelly Over 1.5 million copies sold in this New York Times bestselling humor series

With over 1.5 million copies sold, the Darwin Awards series is the alpha chimp of humorous human mishaps. Despite being an international bestseller, and inspiring a movie—The Darwin Awards—these cautionary chronicles have failed to stop another generation of Darwin Award winners from steering motorcycles with their feet, heating lava lamps on stoves, using liquid soap as brake fluid, and drowning themselves in the kitchen sink.

Filled with more than 100 new tales of evolution in action, plus science essays and a parody research paper supporting Intelligent Design, The Darwin Awards 4 shows that when it comes to common sense, natural selection still has a long, long way to go.

Jenn Visocky O'Grady, Ken Visocky O'Grady Features an inspirational gallery of designs that illustrate how to communicate at a glance, logically, effectively, and with maximum benefit.

Includes milestones from the history of information design that illustrate and explain breakthroughs and trends.

The best information design often goes "unnoticed" by the viewer because it conveys information so quickly and effectively. The Information Design Handbook celebrates graphics that are exemplars of communication and esthetics, and reveals the thought processes and design skills behind them. This comprehensive guide to creating information graphics is packed with essential design principles, case studies, color palettes, trouble-shooting tips, and much more. Designers will learn to achieve graphics that are visually striking yet concise and supremely funcitional with this must-have resource.

Camille Paglia A collection of twenty of Paglia's out-spoken essays on contemporary issues in America's ongoing cultural debate such as Anita Hill, Robert Mapplethorpe, the beauty myth, and the decline of education in America.

Chuck Palahniuk From the author of the cult sensation Fight Club (now a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter) comes Survivor.

"A turbo-charged, deliciously manic satire of contemporary American life." —Newsday

"The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage," according to the "been there, done that" wisdom of Tender Branson, last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult. At the opening of Chuck Palahniuk's hilariously unnerving second novel, Tender is cruising on autopilot, 39,000 feet up, dictating the whole of his life story into Flight 2039's "black box" in the final moments before crashing into the vast Australian outback.

Not since Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night has there been as dark and telling a satire on the wages of fame and the bedrock lunacy of the modern world. Wickedly incisive and mesmerizing, Survivor is Chuck Palahniuk at his deadpan peak.

Richard B. Perelman The cigar authority. This annual all-in-one reference is recognized as the most comprehensive and complete cigar guide on the market today. Over 800 pages featuring 1,443 brands of cigars marketed nationally in the United States. Details provided include the country of origin of the wrapper, filler and binder; shapes and sizes; brand facts; and the proverbial favorite, "births and deaths."

Paul Perry The former editor of Running magazine who bravely shepherded Gonzo journalist Thompson through his 1980 comeback piece on the Honolulu Marathon presents a sharp and savvy profile of one of the most provocative voices and distinctive personalities of our time. Photos.

Bryan Peterson For serious amateur photographers who already shoot perfectly focused, accurately exposed images but want to be more creative with a camera, here’s the book to consult. More than seventy techniques, both popular and less-familiar approaches, are covered in detail, including advanced exposure, bounced flash and candlelight, infrared, multiple images, soft-focus effects, unusual vantage points, zooming, and other carefully chosen ways to enhance photographs. The A-Z format make sit easy for readers to find a specific technique, and each one is explained in jargon-free language. Top Tips for each technique help readers achieve superb results, even on the first attempt.

D. Phinney With more than 30 combined years of experience in competitive cycling, Phinney and Carpenter have written an insightful and informative training handbook for cyclists of all abilities. It teaches cyclists everything they need to know to improve handling skills, raise confidence, and increase competitiveness. 50 photographs.

Alexander Piatigorsky

Bertrand Piccard, Brian Jones "Dr. Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones sailed into history today when their Breitling Orbiter 3 completed the first nonstop balloon trip around the world - a goal many had sought but never achieved." -The New York Times, March 21, 1999

On Monday, March 1st, 1999, adventurers Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones took off in the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon from Switzerland and landed 20 perilous days and 29,000 miles later in Egypt.Here is their firsthand account of the dangerous and exciting first-ever round-the-world flight in a hot-air balloon.In gripping, nail-biting detail, pilots Piccard and Jones recount the many unexpected challenges and near-disasters they faced, including a harrowing six-and-a-half-day trip across the Pacific.With life vests ever-ready by their sides, the pilots worked together with an inspiring sense of mission and unity, graced by what they describe as an invisible hand that guided them throughout their fantastic journey.Twenty-four pages of stunning full-color photographs and diary excerpts from the trip bring to life the moment-to-moment drama of this history-making flight.

Robert M. Pirsig One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear — of growth, discovery, and acceptance — that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence . . . and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.

Bernard Pomerance

Vasantha Prasad Recipes include:
 ¸  Cucumber Pirogue
 ¸  Spicy Potato Soup
 ¸  Fruit Salad with Yogurt Cheese Dressing
 ¸  Sautéed Eggplant and Bell Pepper Curry
 ¸  Spinach with Homemade Cheese (Saag Paneer)
 ¸  Mixed Vegetable Korma (Navarathna Korma)
 ¸  Rice Pilaf with Cashews, Black Pepper,
and Coconut
 ¸  Vegetable Biryani
 ¸  Basic Toovar Dal
 ¸  Spicy Black-eyed Pea Curry
 ¸  Chapatis (Whole Wheat Flat Breads)
 ¸  Parathas (Whole Wheat Flaky
Griddle Breads)
 ¸  Aloo Parathas (Potato-stuffed Breads)
 ¸  Masala Dosa
 ¸  Rava Idli
 ¸  Minty Yogurt Drink
 ¸  Sweet Vermicelli Pudding
 ¸  Almond Milk Fudge

David Präkel The first book in the series, Lighting, is essentially about how you see. Artists paint with oils or watercolors, photographers paint with light. It is the fundamental ingredient of every photo. How a shot is lit can greatly change the feeling it gives the viewer. Whether bright and happy or dark and moody, light is a very useful tool, but it is not always possible to control (unless you can afford a studio) and so this book aims to teach readers how to make the best with what they have. It is split into five sections, which will study the basics: natural light, controlled light, artificial light, and capturing light. The final section uncovers different methods of capturing images using light in a creative way, like camera-less images known as photo grams, or holding sparklers in front of an open shutter. The final section will inspire both students and those wising to push their creative boundaries.

Brian Proffitt Windows XP Professional combines the ease of use of the consumer-oriented versions of Windows with the stability of NT and is geared specifically for the business user. It is designed to lower system downtime offering heightened security, management, and networking features. Using this handy reference, you will quickly learn how to take advantage of Windows XP's new hardware and software support features. It is ideal for the corporate user who wants to migrate to Windows XP and use it daily. Written in a solutions-oriented format, the book focuses on configuring, connecting and networking, using, optimizing, and troubleshooting Windows XP Professional. You'll also discover how to cost-effectively manage your Windows XP installations remotely. The book covers Windows XP's additional customization capabilities, plus networking tools for establishing powerful networks for small- and mid-size businesses. You will also learn to effectively manage software application installations with the new Windows Installer.

Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon In the mid-1960s, the publication of Pynchon's V and The Crying of Lot 49 introduced a brilliant new voice to American literature. Gravity's Rainbow, his convoluted, allusive novel about a metaphysical quest, published in 1973, further confirmed Pynchon's reputation as one of the greatest writers of the century.

Ayn Rand The story of a man who said he would stop the motor of the world—and did. This novel is the setting for the author's philosophy of Objectivism.

William Reich

Lewis Richmond A guide to developing and maintaining a spiritual life on the job, drawn from the teachings and practices of Buddhist tradition.

Most people associate Buddhism with developing calmness, kindness, and compassion through meditation. Lewis Richmond's Work as a Spiritual Practice shows us another aspect of Buddhism: the active, engaged side that allows us to find creativity, inspiration, and accomplishment in our work lives. With over forty spiritual exercises that can be practiced in the middle of a busy workday, Work as a Spiritual Practice is based on the principle that "regardless of your rank and title at work, you are always the chief executive of your inner life."

Drawn from the author's diverse professional experience—as a Buddhist meditation teacher, business executive, musician, and high-tech entrepreneur—Work as a Spiritual Practice addresses a wide variety of on-the-job problems. Here you'll learn how to:

perform spiritual practices while commuting to and from work
meditate while sitting, walking, or standing—a minute at a time
understand ambition, money, and power from a spiritual perspective

Work as a Spiritual Practice is an essential guide for anyone who wants to bring his or her spiritual life and work life together.

Jasper Ridley For many centuries, since their founding as a guild comprising the master builders of the great castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages, the freemasons have enjoyed a dual reputation: powerfulóoften munificentórulers, politicians, and artists whose works have enhanced our world; and members of a dread secret society bent on evil. Here, the eminent historian Jasper Ridley offers a thoughtful, rounded assessment of freemasonry throughout the ages, from its origins up to the present day. Not a mason himself, Ridley nonetheless refutes many of the outrageous allegations made against the order and puts into proper perspective its many contributions to civilization over the centuries.

Kenton Robinson

George Rodrigue, Lawrence S. Freundlich A paperback gift edition of the best-selling art book tells how the artist-author's late terrier, Tiffany, called him from the grave on a quest for belonging, and features the artist's famous dog paintings. Reprint. 75,000 first printing. Tour."

Paul Rogers The attacks in New York and Washington on 11th September 2001 took most of the world by surprise. It showed that, for those living in the West, the threat of terrorist attack is now very real. Maintaining control of global security has become a matter of paramount importance to all Western governments. As the war against "terrorism" widens into a war against particular states who may have played little part in the disaster, the idea that we can maintain global security by desperately clinging to our current security paradigm becomes increasingly improbable.

In "Losing Control", Paul Rogers calls for a radical rethinking of Western perceptions of security that embraces a willingness to address the core issues of global insecurity. This acclaimed book has already become an essential guide for anyone who wishes to understand the current crisis, with the first edition even predicting acurately how the United States would respond to a major attack.

This updated edition contains a new preface and a new chapter which address the specific problems that have arisen since the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Drawing on examples from around the world, Rogers analyzes the legacy of the Cold War's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; the impact of human activity on the global ecosystem; the growth of hypercapitalism and resulting poverty and insecurity; the competition for energy resources and strategic minerals; biological warfare programs; and paramilitary actions against centers of power.

Bob Roll This new collection from cyclist Bob Roll reflects his unique perspective on the professional racing circuit and his own brand of dry humor. Straightforward yet sly, funny but perhaps a little crazy, Roll calls it like he sees it. Here are anecdotes about the Tour de France, international mountain-bike tournaments, training struggles, heart-stopping crashes, and personal vendettas, all of which provide a fascinating inside look at the world of championship cycling.

Bob Roll With the popularity of Lance Armstrong and the Tour outstripping our knowledge of bicycle racing, here is THE TOUR DE FRANCE, a fully illustrated primer that explains the strategies, ground rules, history, personalities, techniques and technology behind one of the world’s most spectacular and brutal sporting events. It’s all clear: How teams work together. How their bikes are different from our bikes. What it takes to be a racer – the rare combination of slow-and fast-twitch muscles, a huge cardiovascular system, and an extraordinary toughness that allows you to endure more pain that your rivals. The jerseys: yellow, green, polka-dot, white, and the "combativity prize" to the rider who tries the hardest (look for the red race number.) The complicated timing structure, including why it’s so difficult to finish a tour – every rider must finish within ten percent or so of the fastest guy every single day, or head for home. Even what happens when the leader needs to make a rest stop – no, contenders don’t zoom off into the sunset. Includes a glossary, stats, historic timeline, 2004 tour map, and more.

A. N. Roquelaure Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure.

In the traditional folk tale "Sleeping Beauty," the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. Anne Rice's retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire.

Julee Rosso Julee Rosso, the co-author of The Silver Palate Cookbook brings us the cookbook for the '90s, focusing on today's number-one food-health concern: reducing fat. Rosso offers a broad collection of more than 800 delicious and easy, new recipes and a treasure trove of nutritional information, gardening and shopping tips, seasonal and international menus, and food history and lore. Illustrations.

Julee Rosso, Sheila Lukins In one spectacular volume, Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins celebrate the tastes, ingredients, techniques, and dishes that comprise the best of our cuisine, in all its abundant pleasure and variety. Over 30 chapters include 875 recipes, techniques, charts and tips, microwave miracles, and illustrations. "The basic kitchen handbook for the '90s."—Philadelphia Inquirer. Illustrations throughout.

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

With a new Afterword by the author for the 25th Anniversary edition.

Galen Rowell “Photographs as timeless, as stunning, and as powerful as nature itself.”—Tom BrokawIn this renowned guide to capturing the outdoor world on film, Galen Rowell, the master of nature and adventure photography, reveals the art, craft, and philosophy behind his world-famous images. Now available in paperback for the first time, this groundbreaking work remains both an inspired manual to taking better pictures and an inspiring journey of discovery into the creative process. In more than 140 color photographs and 66 essays, Rowell shows how he transformed the world around him into vivid, memorable works of art. Both the artist and his unique talent come alive in these pages, a tribute to the ways in which his photographs, philosophy, and vision immeasurably enrich those who view his work. 140 color photographs

Theo Rudman With cigar bars and restaurants opening in all major cities, the number of new aficionados continues to grow. For this growing number of cigar smokers, expert Theo Rudman provides an incredible range of information, including directories, indexes, cross-references on cigars, ratings, and much more. Full-color illus.

Anneli Rufus Isaac Newton. Michelangelo. Anne Rice. Barry Bonds. Haruki Murakami. They and countless others belong to a subculture that will never join hands, a group whose voices, by nature, will never form a chorus. They are loners—and they have at least one thing in common: They keep to themselves. And they like it that way.

Self-reliant, each loner swims alone through a social world—a world of teams, troops and groups—that scorns and misunderstands those who stand apart. Everywhere from newspapers to playgrounds, loners are accused of being crazy, cold, stuck-up, standoffish, selfish, sad, bad, secretive and lonely—and, of course, serial killers. Loners, however, know better than anyone how to entertain themselves—and how to contemplate and to create. They have a knack for imagination, concentration, inner discipline, and invention—a talent for not being bored.

Too often, loners buy into society’s messages and strive to change, making themselves miserable in the process by hiding their true nature—and hiding from it. In Party of One, Anneli Rufus delivers a long-overdue argument in praise of loners. Assembling evidence from diverse arenas of culture, Rufus recognizes loners as a vital force in world civilization rather than damaged goods who need to be "fixed." A compelling, morally urgent tour de force, Party of One rebuts the prevailing notion that aloneness is indistinguishable from loneliness, and that the only experiences that matter are shared ones.

Jalal al-Din Rumi From the premier interpreter of Rumi comes the first definitive one-volume collection of the enduringly popular spiritual poetry by the extraordinary thirteenth-century Sufi mystic.

Douglas Rushkoff Cursed by older generations, Generations X means a lot of things to a lot of people. They are a culture, a demographic, an outlook, a style, an economy, a scene, a literature, a political ideology, an aesthetic, an age, a decade, and a way of life.

Here is a collage of the most revered voices of Generation X, demonstrating that while twentysomethings may, indeed, have dropped out of American culture (as it is traditionally defined), they also stand as a testament to American ingenuity, optimism, instinct, and intelligence.

Bertrand Russell, Paul Edwards Dedicated as few men have been to the life of reason, Bertrand Russell has always been concerned with the basic questions to which religion also addresses itself — questions about man's place in the universe and the nature of the good life, questions that involve life after death, morality, freedom, education, and sexual ethics. He brings to his treatment of these questions the same courage, scrupulous logic, and lofty wisdom for which his other work as philosopher, writer, and teacher has been famous. These qualities make the essays included in this book perhaps the most graceful and moving presentation of the freethinker's position since the days of Hume and Voltaire.

"I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue," Russell declares in his Preface, and his reasoned opposition to any system or dogma which he feels may shackle man's mind runs through all the essays in this book, whether they were written as early as 1899 or as late as 1954.

The book has been edited, with Lord Russell's full approval and cooperation, by Professor Paul Edwards of the Philosophy Department of New York University. In an Appendix, Professor Edwards contributes a full account of the highly controversial "Bertrand Russell Case" of 1940, in which Russell was judicially declared "unfit" to teach philosophy at the College of the City of New York.

Whether the reader shares or rejects Bertrand Russell's views, he will find this book an invigorating challenge to set notions, a masterly statement of a philosophical position, and a pure joy to read.

Oliver Sacks The works of neurologist Oliver Sacks have a special place in the swarm of mind-brain studies. He has done as much as anyone to make nonspecialists aware of how much diversity gets lumped under the heading of "the human mind."

The stories in An Anthropologist on Mars are medical case reports not unlike the classic tales of Berton Roueché in The Medical Detectives. Sacks's stories are of "differently brained" people, and they have the intrinsic human interest that spurred his book Awakenings to be re-created as a Robin Williams movie.

The title story in Anthropologist is that of autistic Temple Grandin, whose own book Thinking in Pictures gives her version of how she feels—as unlike other humans as a cow or a Martian. The other minds Sacks describes are equally remarkable: a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome, a painter who loses color vision, a blind man given the ambiguous gift of sight, artists with memories that overwhelm "real life," the autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire, and a man with memory damage for whom it is always 1968.

Oliver Sacks is the Carl Sagan or Stephen Jay Gould of his field; his books are true classics of medical writing, of the breadth of human mentality, and of the inner lives of the disabled. —Mary Ellen Curtin

Oliver W. Sacks A major bestseller and already acclaimed as a science classic, this collection of 20 true tales of individuals stricken with astonishing neurological disorders has sold over 70,000 copies. (Pscyhology)

Aaron Santos How many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop? How many people are having sex at this moment? How long would it take a monkey on a typewriter to produce the plays of Shakespeare? For all those questions that keep you up at night, here’s the way to answer them. And the beauty of it is that it’s all approximate!

Using Enrico Fermi’s theory of approximation, Santos brings the world of numbers into perspective. For puzzle junkies and trivia fanatics, these 70 word puzzles will show the reader how to take a bit of information, add what they already know, and extrapolate an answer.

Santos has done the impossible: make math and the multiple possibilities of numbers fun and informative. Can you really cry a river? Is it possible to dig your way out of jail with just a teaspoon and before your life sentence is up?

Taking an academic subject and using it as the prism to view everyday off-the-wall questions as math problems to be solved is a natural step for the lovers of sudoku, cryptograms, word puzzles, and other thought-provoking games.

Marc Sautet The unorthodox life and ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche come alive in this documentary history. Here is a clear picture of the time in which this revolutionary philosopher lived and worked. We meet the luminaries of the age: Richard Wagner, Bismark, Freud and Darwin. We learn of Nietzsche’s famous love affairs, his theories of the Superman, the Antichrist and nihilism, as well as his impact on Twentieth Century thinking. And we see how the Nazi’s annexed and deformed Nietzsche’s thought to serve their purposes. Nietzsche For Beginners is an important introduction to modern philosophy. Plato, Kant, Hegel and Schopenhaur are all evaluated in light of their influence on Nietzsche’s work. Discover why this great thinker defiantly declared, “God is Dead.”

Jeremy Scahill On September 16, 2007, machine gun fire erupted in Baghdad's Nisour Square leaving seventeen Iraqi civilians dead, among them women and children. The shooting spree, labeled "Baghdad's Bloody Sunday," was neither the work of Iraqi insurgents nor U.S. soldiers. The shooters were private forces working for the secretive mercenary company, Blackwater Worldwide.

This is the explosive story of a company that rose a decade ago from Moyock, North Carolina, to become one of the most powerful players in the "War on Terror." In his gripping bestseller, awardwinning journalist Jeremy Scahill takes us from the bloodied streets of Iraq to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to the chambers of power in Washington, to expose Blackwater as the frightening new face of the U.S. war machine.

* Winner of the George Polk Book Award
* Alternet Best Book of the Year
* Barnes & Noble one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007
* Amazon one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007

Eric Schlosser Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.

Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from California's subdivisions, where the business was born, to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike, where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths — from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate.

John Schubert GET FIT! There's no better exercise than bicycling. It provides excellent aerobic conditioning, isn't hard on muscles and joints, and can be done by anyone, in any shape, at any age.
HAVE FUN! Biking is the only sport that lets you explore your world while you get in shape. On a pleasure ride with friends or alone on an adventure, you'll discover that exercise was never like this!
HERE'S HOW! CYCLING FOR FITNESS is a comprehensive, authoritative guide to bicycles, accessories, techniques, and training programs that will put you in the rider's seat and send you wheeling away toward good times and good health!

Barry Schwartz In the spirit of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. This paperback includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested readings, and more.

Whether we’re buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—both big and small—have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.

We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice—the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.

By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counterintuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on the important ones and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.

Deanna Sclar Most of us don’t know the first thing about the machines we’re licensed to drive – and this can turn a ticket to freedom into a ticket to trouble. If you’re like most people, you probably tend to drive around until something goes wrong with the car. You then incur the expense of replacing worn and burnt-out parts (or the entire engine) when low-cost, regular maintenance could have kept your wheels turning for a long time.

Auto Repair For Dummies is indispensable for anyone who is tired of nodding and smiling at the incomprehensible mutterings of your mechanic, only to end up shelling out money for repairs that you neither fully understand nor always need. This easy-to-understand guide is also for you if you Don't have the vaguest idea of how a car works.Can't identify anything you see under the hood of your vehicle.Are tired of other people assuming (especially if you’re a teenager or a woman) that you aren’t capable of handling repairs yourself.Don't want to feel helpless in an emergency.Are tired of being ripped off because of your own ignorance.

This book shows you how your car works; what it needs in the way of tender loving care; and how to keep from being overcharged if you need to entrust repairs to someone else. Auto Repair For Dummies also gives you the scoop on these topics and more: What makes your vehicle go (and how and why)A program of "preventive medicine" to avoid troubleShopping for tools and knowing how to use themDiesel engines and alternatively powered carsHow to keep your car looking its bestDealing with on-road emergenciesChecking your tires, alignment, and steering

By handling the simple maintenance and tune-ups and being able to diagnose trouble and perform the less complex repairs yourself, you’ll save some serious money. Once you break the ice (or crack open the hood), the heady sense of power will carry you through basic car repair and maintenance with confidence and ease.

David Scott

Keith Scott The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show featured some of the wittiest, most inspired, and relentlessly hilarious animation ever created. The legendary Jay Ward and Bill Scott produced the gleeful wonder and cumulative joy that transcended the crude drawings and occasionally muddy sound. Jay Ward was the magnificent visionary, the outrageous showman, while Bill Scott was the genial, brilliant head writer, coproducer, and all-purpose creative whirlwind. With exclusive interviews, original scripts, artwork, story notes, letters and memos, Keith Scott has written the definitive history of Jay Ward Productions.

The Moose That Roared tells the story of a rare and magical relationship between two artists wildly, exuberantly ahead of their time, and a fascinating account of the struggle to bring their vision of bad puns and talking animals to unforgettable life.

Tony Seddon, Jane Waterhouse Not a graphic designer? Not a problem! Whether the project's a birthday card, a poster, or a flier, Graphic Design for Nondesigners is here to help. Twenty step-by-step projects for designing everything from Web sites to business cards to T-shirts are accompanied by a clear and concise initiation into the basic principles of graphic design—including the effective use of space, color, and type—presented in a way that's easy for anyone to start applying right away. Armed with this essential primer, nondesigners will have everything they need to go forth and create effective design with polish, panache, and grace.

Chris Seibold Bigger in size, longer in length, broader in scope, and even more useful than our original Mac OS X Hacks, the new Big Book of Apple Hacks offers a grab bag of tips, tricks and hacks to get the most out of Mac OS X Leopard, as well as the new line of iPods, iPhone, and Apple TV.

With 125 entirely new hacks presented in step-by-step fashion, this practical book is for serious Apple computer and gadget users who really want to take control of these systems. Many of the hacks take you under the hood and show you how to tweak system preferences, alter or add keyboard shortcuts, mount drives and devices, and generally do things with your operating system and gadgets that Apple doesn't expect you to do. The Big Book of Apple Hacks gives you:Hacks for both Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger, their related applications, and the hardware they run on or connect toExpanded tutorials and lots of background material, including informative sidebars"Quick Hacks" for tweaking system and gadget settings in minutesFull-blown hacks for adjusting Mac OS X applications such as Mail, Safari, iCal, Front Row, or the iLife suitePlenty of hacks and tips for the Mac mini, the MacBook laptops, and new Intel desktopsTricks for running Windows on the Mac, under emulation in Parallels or as a standalone OS with BootcampThe Big Book of Apple Hacks is not only perfect for Mac fans and power users, but also for recent — and aspiring — "switchers" new to the Apple experience. Hacks are arranged by topic for quick and easy lookup, and each one stands on its own so you can jump around and tweak whatever system or gadget strikes your fancy. Pick up this book and take control of Mac OS X and your favorite Apple gadget today!

Chris Seibold Whether you're new to the Mac or a longtime user, this handy book is the quickest way to get up to speed on Snow Leopard. Packed with concise information in an easy-to-read format, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide covers what you need to know and is an ideal resource for problem-solving on the fly.

This book goes right to the heart of Snow Leopard, with details on system preferences, built-in applications, and utilities. You'll also find configuration tips, keyboard shortcuts, guides for troubleshooting, lots of step-by-step instructions, and more.

Learn about new features and changes since the original Leopard releaseGet quick tips for setting up and customizing your Mac's configurationSolve problems with the handy reference to the fundamentals of the Finder, Dock, and moreUnderstand how to manage user accountsWork more efficiently using keyboard shortcutsTake advantage of MobileMe, Apple's online suite of services and tools

Jeff Shaara The heartbreaking saga of the years preceding The Killer Angels

"SHAARA'S BEAUTIFULLY SENSITIVE NOVEL DELVES DEEPLY in the empathetic realm of psycho-history, where enemies do not exist—just mortal men forced to make crucial decisions and survive on the same battlefield. . . . [He] succeeds with his historical novel through fully realized characters who were forced to decide their loyalties amid the horrors of their dividing nation."
—San Francisco Chronicle

Jeff Shaara In the Pulitzer prize-winning classic The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara created the finest Civil War novel of our time, an enduring bestseller that has sold more than two million copies. In the bestselling Gods and Generals, Shaara's son, Jeff, brilliantly sustained his father's vision, telling the epic story of the events culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg. Now, Jeff Shaara brings this legendary father-son trilogy to its stunning conclusion in a novel that brings to life the final two years of the Civil War.

As The Last Full Measure opens, Gettysburg is past and the war advances to its third brutal year. On the Union side, the gulf between the politicians in Washington and the generals in the field yawns ever wider. Never has the cumbersome Union Army so desperately needed a decisive, hard-nosed leader. It is at this critical moment that Lincoln places Ulysses S. Grant in command—and turns the tide of war.

For Robert E. Lee, Gettysburg was an unspeakable disaster—compounded by the shattering loss of the fiery Stonewall Jackson two months before. Lee knows better than anyone that the South cannot survive a war of attrition. But with the total devotion of his generals—Longstreet, Hill, Stuart—and his unswerving faith in God, Lee is determined to fight to the bitter end.

Here too is Joshua Chamberlain, the college professor who emerged as the Union hero of Gettysburg—and who will rise to become one of the greatest figures of the Civil War.

Battle by staggering battle, Shaara dramatizes the escalating confrontation between Lee and Grant—complicated, heroic, deeply troubled men. From the costly Battle of the Wilderness to the agonizing siege of Petersburg to Lee's epoch-making surrender at Appomattox, Shaara portrays the riveting conclusion of the Civil War through the minds and hearts of the individuals who gave their last full measure.

Full of human passion and the spellbinding truth of history, The Last Full Measure is the fitting capstone to a magnificent literary trilogy.

From the Hardcover edition.

Michael Shaara "MY FAVORITE HISTORICAL NOVEL . . . A superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant."
—James M. McPherson, Author of Battle Cry of Freedom

In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life.

Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Shattered futures, forgotten innocence, and crippled beauty were also the casualties of war.

The Killer Angels is unique, sweeping, unforgettable—a dramatic re-creation of the battleground for America's destiny.

"REMARKABLE. . . A BOOK THAT CHANGED MY LIFE . . . I had never visited Gettysburg, knew almost nothing about that battle before I read the book, but here it all came alive."
—Ken Burns, Filmmaker, The Civil War

William Shakespeare, Stanley Wells, Gary Taylor, John Jowett, William Montgomery, S. Schoenbaum The Oxford Shakespeare brings the modern reader closer to Shakespeare's plays as originally performed than has ever before been possible. Based on eight years of full-time research by a team of distinguished British and American scholars, this monumental volume offers many remarkable innovations, including a new chronological order, revised stage directions, two full versions of King Lear—as originally written and as revised later for performance—and the complete text of The Two Noble Kinsmen.
The Compact Edition packs all these features into a portable and inexpensive single volume. In addition, a lucid General Introduction by Stanley Wells and brief introductions to each play provide a wealth of background information. Hailed by The Washington Post as "a definitive synthesis of the best editions of recent decades" and by The Times of London as "a monument to Shakespearian scholarship," it is an ideal travel companion on vacations or trips and a perfect gift for literature lovers young and old.

Jeff Sharlet They insist they are just a group of friends, yet they funnel millions of dollars through tax-free corporations. They claim to disdain politics, but congressmen of both parties describe them as the most influential religious organization in Washington. They say they are not Christians, but simply believers.

Behind the scenes at every National Prayer Breakfast since 1953 has been the Family, an elite network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful. Their goal is "Jesus plus nothing." Their method is backroom diplomacy. The Family is the startling story of how their faith—part free-market fundamentalism, part imperial ambition—has come to be interwoven with the affairs of nations around the world.

Jeff Sharlet C Street - where piety, politics, and corruption meet

Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside the C Street House, the Fellowship residence known simply by its Washington, DC address. The house has lately been the scene of notorious political scandal, but more crucially it is home to efforts to transform the very fabric of American democracy. And now, after laying bare its tenants' past in The Family, Sharlet reports from deep within fundamentalism in today's world, revealing that the previous efforts of religious fundamentalists in America pale in comparison with their long-term ambitions.

When Barack Obama entered the White House, headlines declared the age of culture wars over. In C Street, Sharlet shows why these conflicts endure and why they matter now - from the sensationalism of Washington sex scandals to fundamentalism's long shadow in Africa, where Ugandan culture warriors determined to eradicate homosexuality have set genocide on simmer.

We've reached a point where piety and corruption are not at odds but one and the same. Reporting with exclusive sources and explosive documents from C Street, the war on gays in Uganda, and the battle for the soul of America's armed forces - waged by a 15,000-strong movement of officers intent on "reclaiming territory for Christ in the military" - Sharlet reveals not the last gasp of old-time religion but the new front lines of fundamentalism.

Jeff Sharlet, Peter Manseau "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

The ninth-century sage Lin Chi gave this advice to one of his monks, admonishing him that this Buddha would only be a reflection of his unexamined beliefs and desires. Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet took Lin Chi's advice to heart and set out on a car trip around America, looking for Buddhas along the road and the people who meet them: prophets in G-strings dancing to pay the rent, storm chasers hunting for meaning in devastating tornados, gangbangers inking God on their bodies as protection from bullets, cross-dressing terrorist angels looking for a place to sing.

Along the way Manseau and Sharlet began to wonder what the traditional scripture they encountered everywhere — in motels, on billboards, up and down the radio dial — would look like remade for today's world. To find out, they called upon some of today's most intriguing writers to recast books of the Bible by taking them apart, blowing them up with ink and paper.

Rick Moody recasts Jonah as a modern-day gay Jewish man living in Queens. A.L. Kennedy meditates on the absurdity of Genesis. In Samuel, April Reynolds visits a man of tremendous vision in Harlem. Peter Trachtenberg unravels the Gordian logic of Job by way of the Borscht Belt. Haven Kimmel dives into Revelation and comes out in a swoon. Woven through these divine books are Manseau and Sharlet's dispatches from the road, their Psalms of the people.

What emerges from this work of calling is not an attack on any religion, but a many-colored, positively riveting look at the facets of true belief. Together these curious minds tell the strange, funny, sad, and true story of religion in America for the spiritual seeker in all of us: A Heretic's Bible.

John Shaw Shaw explains in exacting detail the intricacies of the close-up, covering exposure, metering, lighting and equipment selection. Delves deep into the topic of extension tubes, focusing racks and lenses.

John Shaw An updated bestseller, this book of extraordinarily beautiful photographs of nature contains state-of-the-art instruction on how any photographer can aim for equally impressive results every time a camera is focused on the great outdoors. Even highly skilled photographers are often baffled by the problems facing them when they work outdoors. But with this exceptional field guide in hand, every photographer-beginner, serious amateur, semi-pro, and pro-can conquer the problems encountered in the field. Using his own exceptional work as examples, the author discusses each type of nature subject and how to approach photographing it. Specific advice and information cover selection of equipment and lenses; how to compose a shot; how to get close ups; and other tips covering a range of techniques to enrich various types of nature photographs.

Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson "The biggest sci-fi cult novel to come along since Dune."—The Village Voice.

Jesse Sheidlower Here, in one convenient, comprehensive volume, is the complete story of the word still considered the most vulgar utterance in the English language. You guessed it—it's the F word.

Ken Silverstein Growing up in suburban Detroit, David Hahn was fascinated by science. While he was working on his Atomic Energy badge for the Boy Scouts, David’s obsessive attention turned to nuclear energy. Throwing caution to the wind, he plunged into a new project: building a model nuclear reactor in his backyard garden shed.

Posing as a physics professor, David solicited information on reactor design from the U.S. government and from industry experts. Following blueprints he found in an outdated physics textbook, David cobbled together a crude device that threw off toxic levels of radiation. His wholly unsupervised project finally sparked an environmental emergency that put his town’s forty thousand suburbanites at risk. The EPA ended up burying his lab at a radioactive dumpsite in Utah. This offbeat account of ambition and, ultimately, hubris has the narrative energy of a first-rate thriller.

Peter Simer, John Sullivan

Simon Singh In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logisitical breakthrough that made Internet commerce secure, The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy.

Throughout the text are clear technological and mathematical explanations, and portrayals of the remarkable personalities who wrote and broke the world's most difficult codes. Accessible, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching, this book will forever alter your view of history, what drives it, and how private that e-mail you just sent really is.

Simon Singh A half century ago, a shocking Washington Post headline claimed that the world began in five cataclysmic minutes rather than having existed for all time; a skeptical scientist dubbed the maverick theory the Big Bang. In this amazingly comprehensible history of the universe, Simon Singh decodes the mystery behind the Big Bang theory, lading us through the development of one of the most extraordinary, important, and awe-inspiring theories in science.

Jean Smith Here is a comprehensive introduction to Zen Buddhism for those who don't know how or where to begin, nor what to expect once they have started practicing. It includes the fundamentals of meditation practice (posture, technique, clothing), descriptions of the basic teachings and major texts, the teacher-student relationship, and what you will find when you visit a zendo, plus a history of Zen from the founding of Buddhism to its major schools in the West. In addition to answering the most frequently asked questions, it offers a listing of American Zen centers and resources, an annotated bibliography, and a glossary.

Jean Smith's enormously practical approach ensures that The Beginner's Guide to Zen Buddhism will become the book teachers and students alike will recommend.

Richard G. Smith "This is a memorable collection of historical legends and folktales from Japan. Nearly all of them are set in a well-defined time and place, instead of 'once upon a time.' Themes include ghosts; unrequited love across social boundaries; Shinto landscape, tree and ocean spirits; and tales driven by Bushido and Buddhist ethics. Not a few of these yarns end up with someone committing Seppuku.

Smith does not try to dress up the language or narrative for westerners, or sentimentalize the stories. Instead, he tells each story very literally, even when they include supernatural elements. The result is an anthology of Japanese 'magical realist' tales which contemporary readers will find appealing.

Each chapter, with one exception, is illustrated by one or more colorful plates done in a typical 19th century Japanese style[.]" (Quote from sacred-texts.com)

About the Author

"Richard Gordon Smith (1858-1918) was an English animal hunter who earlier had spent time in France, Canada, and Norway. He had a falling out from his wife of eighteen years and, as divorce at the time was neither desirable nor respectable, he left to travel full-time, first-class. Throughout his travels he kept a series of eight large leather-bound diaries emblazoned with exotic illustrations and filled with mementoes from all over the world. After Ceylon and Burma, he arrived in Nagasaki harbor on Christmas Eve 1897. He left Japan in February 1900, heading back to England via New Guinea and Fiji, but he came down with a fever and abandoned the trip, returning to Japan instead. Gordon Smith did go back to England briefly in 1903, returning to Japan that year via Singapore and China. Later he left from Kobe, again to England via Ceylon, in early 1905. He was back in Kyoto by the year's end. Transcribing folktales and myths ever more in his diaries, he also collected some mammals fo

NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY For the untrained observer, it can be quite a challenge to sort out the many trees that make up a stand of older forest in, say, New England or the Ozarks. This well-illustrated guidebook, covering 364 species, comes to the rescue with photographs organized in several ways: by, for example, the shape of the leaf or needle, by the fruit, by the flower or cone, and by autumn coloration. Following one visible characteristic or another, the reader can narrow the range of possibilities, then turn to an informative text that describes a tree's physical characteristics, habitat, and range. Many of the species covered are relatively rare, such as the "stinking cedar" of the Georgia-Florida border; others are locally abundant, such as the paper birch of the boreal forest, used to make ice-cream sticks; still others, such as the smooth sumac, are widespread. The guidebook also covers ornamentals introduced from other continents, such as the Chinese privet and Mahaleb cherry. —Gregory McNamee

NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY EASTERN REGION

This fully revised edition brings a new level of beauty, accuracy, and usefulness to the field guide that wildflower enthusiasts have relied upon for more than 20 years.

More than 940 all-new, full-color images show the wildflowers of western North America close-up and in their natural habitats. The guide has been completely revised to make identification in the field easier than ever. Images are grouped by flower color and shape and keyed to clear, concise descriptions that reflect current taxonomy.

Ivan Stang This hysterical hobbyist's guide belongs in every hip library. Coot cat Reverend Ivan Stang, high holy of the Church of the SubGenius, has compiled a bestiary of American creeps and crazies so that you can write to them and receive mail that is weird, horrible, wonderfully absurd, or a combination of all three. Each entry has a paragraph or two and the last known mailing address of some fringe loonies. The book is only current through 1988, though; the only thing wrong with it is that it's high time for an update—with URLs, of course. Let's see ... there are catalogs of perpetual motion machines; brochures from South American flying saucer cults; something called "The Battle Cry of Aggressive Christianity" (Christian, not likely—aggressive, you bet); and bizarre roundups such as "News of the Weird," the Church of Beaver Cleaver, and so on. What makes this book so funny is the author's willingness to list (and ridicule) any group, no matter how repulsive. This means, too, that High Weirdness contains a group to offend everyone; consider yourself warned. In fact, if you aren't offended by some of these groups, you must be pretty offensive yourself. So there.

Gloria Stephens With over 100,000 copies sold to date, Legacy of the Cat is a "must for every cat lover's library" (Cat World International). This completely revised and updated edition offers all new photographs and text, as well as detailed descriptions of new breeds. Scores of beguiling full-color photographs accompany in-depth information on the origin, classification, and temperament (always a surprise) of each of the different breeds. This comprehensive volume chronicles the fascinating evolutionary history of wild and domesticated cats worldwide, including an extensive explanation of feline genetics and the hereditary processes and combinations that determine fur color and patterns in the different breeds. Extensive advice and information on breeding and showing cats, as well as the judging criteria involved in these formal exhibitions, are also offered for interested readers. And for those just recently initiated into the world of cat fancy, the photographs and breed-by-breed descriptions are a thoroughly engaging introduction. This splendid celebration of our bewitching, bewhiskered friends will inform and regale both professionals of the cat world and cat owners alike.

Neal Stephenson Decades into our future, a stone's throw from the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has just broken the
rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neoVictorians. He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer Commissioned by an eccentric duke for his grandchild, stolen for Hackworth's own daughter, the Primer's purpose is to educate and raise a girl capable of thinking for herself. It performs its function superbly. Unfortunately for Hackworth, his smuggled copy has fallen into the wrong hands.

Young Nell and her brother Harv are thetes—members of the poor, tribeless class. Neglected by their mother, Harv looks after Nell. When he and his gang waylay a certain neo-Victorian—John Percival Hackworth— in the seamy streets of their neighborhood, Harv brings Nell something special: the Primer.

Following the discovery of his crime, Hackworth begins an odyssey of his own. Expelled from the neo-Victorian paradise, squeezed by agents of Protocol
Enforcement on one side and a Mandarin underworld crime lord on the other, he searches for an elusive figure known as the Alchemist. His quest and Nell's
will ultimately lead them to another seeker whose fate is bound up with the Primer— a woman who holds the key to a vast, subversive information
network that is destined to decode and reprogram the future of humanity.

Vividly imagined, stunningly prophetic, and epic in scope, The Diamond Age is a major novel from one of the most visionary writers of our time

Neal Stephenson Neal Stephenson, author of the sprawling and engaging Cryptonomicon, has written a manifesto that could be spoken by a character from that brilliant book. Primarily, In the Beginning ... Was the Command Line discusses the past and future of personal computer operating systems. "It is the fate of manufactured goods to slowly and gently depreciate as they get old," he writes, "but it is the fate of operating systems to become free." While others in the computer industry express similarly dogmatic statements, Stephenson charms the reader into his way of thinking, providing anecdotes and examples that turn the pages for you.

Stephenson is a techie, and he's writing for an audience of coders and hackers in Command Line. The idea for this essay began online, when a shortened version of it was posted on Slashdot.org. The book still holds some marks of an e-mail flame gone awry, and some tangents should have been edited to hone his formidable arguments. But unlike similar writers who also discuss technical topics, he doesn't write to exclude; readers who appreciate computing history (like Dealers of Lightning or Fire in the Valley) can easily step into this book.

Stephenson tackles many myths about industry giants in this volume, specifically Apple and Microsoft. By now, every newspaper reader has heard of Microsoft's overbearing business practices, but Stephenson cuts to the heart of new issues for the software giant with a finely sharpened steel blade. Apple fares only a little better as Stephenson (a former Mac user himself) highlights the early steps the company took to prepare for a monopoly within the computer market—and its surprise when this didn't materialize. Linux culture gets a thorough—but fair—skewering, and the strengths of BeOS are touted (although no operating system is nearly close enough to perfection in Stephenson's eyes).

As for the rest of us, who have gladly traded free will and an intellectual understanding of computers for a clutter-free, graphically pleasing interface, Stephenson has thoughts to offer as well. He fully understands the limits nonprogrammers feel in the face of technology (an example being the "blinking 12" problem when your VCR resets itself). Even so, within Command Line he convincingly encourages us as a society to examine the metaphors of technology—simplifications that aren't really much simpler—that we greedily accept. —Jennifer Buckendorff

Neal Stephenson Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison—a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age.

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosaNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about Infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous...you'll recognize it immediately.

Neal Stephenson With this extraordinary first volume in what promises to be an epoch-making masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century.

In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy - is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Watrehouse and Detatchment 2702-commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe-is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy's fabled Enigma code. It is a game, a cryptographic chess match between Waterhouse and his German counterpart, translated into action by the gung-ho Shaftoe and his forces.

Fast-forward to the present, where Waterhouse's crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a "data haven" in Southeast Asia - a place where encrypted data can be stored and exchanged free of repression and scrutiny. As governments and multinationals attack the endeavor, Randy joins forces with Shaftoe's tough-as-nails grandaughter, Amy, to secretly salvage a sunken Nazi sumarine that holds the key to keeping the dream of a data haven afloat. But soon their scheme brings to light a massive conspiracy with its roots in Detachment 2702 linked to an unbreakable Nazi code called Arethusa. And it will represent the path to unimaginable riches and a future of personal and digital liberty...or to universal totalitarianism reborn.

A breathtaking tour de force, and Neal Stephenson's most accomplished and affecting work to date, CRYPTONOMICON is profound and prophetic, hypnotic and hyper-driven, as it leaps forward and back between World War II and the World Wide Web, hinting all the while at a dark day-after-tomorrow. It is a work of great art, thought, and creative daring; the product of a truly icon

Neal Stephenson In Quicksilver, the first volume of the "Baroque Cycle," Neal Stephenson launches his most ambitious work to date. The novel, divided into three books, opens in 1713 with the ageless Enoch Root seeking Daniel Waterhouse on the campus of what passes for MIT in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. Daniel, Enoch's message conveys, is key to resolving an explosive scientific battle of preeminence between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the development of calculus. As Daniel returns to London aboard the Minerva, readers are catapulted back half a century to recall his years at Cambridge with young Isaac. Daniel is a perfect historical witness. Privy to Robert Hooke's early drawings of microscope images and with associates among the English nobility, religious radicals, and the Royal Society, he also befriends Samuel Pepys, risks a cup of coffee, and enjoys a lecture on Belgian waffles and cleavage-—all before the year 1700.

In the second book, Stephenson introduces Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. "Half-Cocked" Jack (also know as the "King of the Vagabonds") recovers the English Eliza from a Turkish harem. Fleeing the siege of Vienna, the two journey across Europe driven by Eliza's lust for fame, fortune, and nobility. Gradually, their circle intertwines with that of Daniel in the third book of the novel.

The book courses with Stephenson's scholarship but is rarely bogged down in its historical detail. Stephenson is especially impressive in his ability to represent dialogue over the evolving worldview of seventeenth-century scientists and enliven the most abstruse explanation of theory. Though replete with science, the novel is as much about the complex struggles for political ascendancy and the workings of financial markets. Further, the novel's literary ambitions match its physical size. Stephenson narrates through epistolary chapters, fragments of plays and poems, journal entries, maps, drawings, genealogic tables, and copious contemporary epigrams. But, caught in this richness, the prose is occasionally neglected and wants editing. Further, anticipating a cycle, the book does not provide a satisfying conclusion to its 900 pages. These are minor quibbles, though. Stephenson has matched ambition to execution, and his faithful, durable readers will be both entertained and richly rewarded with a practicum in Baroque science, cypher, culture, and politics. —Patrick O'Kelley

Neal Stephenson In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves — including one Jack Shaftoe, a.k.a. King of the Vagabonds, a.k.a. Half-Cocked Jack, lately and miraculously cured of the pox — devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues, rife with battles, chases, hairbreadth escapes, swashbuckling, bloodletting, and danger — a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold that will place the intrepid band at odds with the mighty and the mad, with alchemists, Jesuits, great navies, pirate queens, and vengeful despots across vast oceans and around the globe.

Meanwhile, back in Europe ...

The exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, master of markets, pawn and confidante of enemy kings, onetime Turkish harem virgin, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession — her child.

While ...

Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, nobles are beheaded, dastardly plots are set in motion, coins are newly minted (or not) in enemy strongholds, father and sons reunite in faraway lands, priests rise from the dead ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.

Neal Stephenson 'Tis done.

The world is a most confused and unsteady place — especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy — in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.

No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.

Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart — the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm — from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices — as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory.

Everything that was will be changed forever ... The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with Quicksilver and continued in The Confusion.

Neal Stephenson Zodiac, the brilliant second novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the The Baroque Cycle and Snow Crash, is now available from Grove Press. Meet Sangamon Taylor, a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil—all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places. Before long Taylor’s house is bombed, his every move followed, he’s adopted by reservation Indians, moves onto the FBI’s most wanted list, makes up with his girlfriend, and plays a starring role in the near-assassination of a presidential candidate. Closing the case with the aid of his burnout roommate, his tofu-eating comrades, three major networks, and a range of unconventional weaponry, Sangamon Taylor pulls off the most startling caper in Boston Harbor since the Tea Party.

Adrian Streather This book on the Porsche 911 (996) series is the fourth of a planned six. It carries on the tradition established with the author’s first Porsche 911 book on the 964 series. Everything a 996 owner needs to know plus a lot more is contained within the covers of this particular book. Every known model and version is described. The various engines and engine management systems for the many different nations of the world are covered. No matter where on planet earth the owner resides, their version of the 996 is covered. Manual and Tiptronic transmissions including the automatic transmission fitted to the AWD Carrera 4 and Turbo models are explained in detail. The different suspension systems are covered. All the new technology advancements of the 996 of which Ferry Porsche was so proud are written about along with all the advantages and improvements over previous 911 models. With 1300 photos and extensive appendices, this is a fact packed book and a must for any 996 owner.

George Sullivan, Mathew B. Brady More than 350 photographs by Mathew Brady and his corps of cameramen, many of them never seen before, make this the most comprehensive collection of Civil War images ever published.

Mathew Brady is arguably the most widely hailed documentarian of America’s bloodiest conflict: the Civil War. He and his cameramen created an indelible record of bravery, suffering, and sacrifice. Exhibitions of Brady’s photographs helped to introduce Americans to the brutal realities of war, and he was a pioneer in the field of photojournalism by providing his battlefield scenes and portrait photographs to Harper’s and other weekly publications of the time for use as woodcuts.

Arranged by battle site and event, each of which is introduced by a brief explanatory essay, the volume offers carefully researched archival information about each image and its photographer. Photographs by Alexander Gardner, Timothy O’Sullivan, and James Gibson are among those included in this thoroughly documented collection.

Caption material includes Library of Congress digital order numbers; order numbers are also given for images from the National Archives. This information helps to make the volume a valuable resource for anyone interested in Civil War history or nineteenth-century photography.

Shunryu Suzuki A respected Zen master in Japan and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, Shunryu Suzuki has blazed a path in American Buddhism like few others. He is the master who climbs down from the pages of the koan books and answers your questions face to face. If not face to face, you can at least find the answers as recorded in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a transcription of juicy excerpts from his lectures. From diverse topics such as transience of the world, sudden enlightenment, and the nuts and bolts of meditation, Suzuki always returns to the idea of beginner's mind, a recognition that our original nature is our true nature. With beginner's mind, we dedicate ourselves to sincere practice, without the thought of gaining anything special. Day to day life becomes our Zen training, and we discover that "to study Buddhism is to study ourselves." And to know our true selves is to be enlightened. —Brian Bruya

J. Dennis Thomas Use every amazing option your Nikon CLS offers

Light is the essence of photography. The Nikon Creative Lighting System lets you create the same lighting patterns with a portable, detached, wireless system that professionals achieve using cumbersome and expensive studio equipment. This practical guide is like having an expert at your elbow. It's packed with information about the CLS as well as tips, tricks, and recommendations for lighting a dozen different shooting situations. Take it on every shoot and get the most from your CLS.
* Know all about the features and functions of the SB-800 and SB-600
* Get insider tips for creating flawless portrait lighting and staging the best poses
* Set up masters and remotes, flash modes, channels, and groups
* Choose equipment for a wireless studio
* Use the ideal exposure and Speedlight system settings for shooting events, nature, sports, groups, portraits, or products

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks

Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the ne plus ultra of Hunter S. Thompson and the whole gonzo clan he spawned. Written in the lurid afterglow of the 1960s, Fear and Loathing is a loosely connected series of mad dashes across the desert, trashed hotel rooms, and goofs on the brutish, naïve, or merely unhip, perpetrated by Thompson and his mammoth Samoan attorney. The pair start out high on a medicine cabinet's worth of elixirs, powders, and pills, and stay that way for 200 pages. They careen through an unsettling landscape of paranoia and alienation, but that doesn't mean the book isn't a riot. Here's a small taste: "By this time, the drink was beginning to cut the acid and my hallucinations were down to a tolerable level. The room service waiter had a vaguely reptilian cast to his features, but I was no longer seeing huge pterodactyls lumbering around the corridors in pools of fresh blood."

Though somewhat dated (it appeared serially in Rolling Stone throughout November 1971), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a book of real vitality and Rabelaisian wit. A document of the counterculture after it was well past ripe and deep into rot, the book is a wild ride, a paranoid ramble that is thoroughly exhilarating and worth the trip. No pun intended.

Hunter S. Thompson Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling "Gonzo Papers" is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style.

Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, The Great Shark Hunt offers myriad, highly charged entries, including the first Hunter S. Thompson piece to be dubbed "gonzo" — "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970. From this essay a new journalistic movement sprang which would change the shape of American letters. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful '60s and '70s.

James Thurber, Michael J. Rosen The first volume of a series containing previously unpublished Thurber material comprising drawings, cartoons, essays, autobiographical and biographical sketches. This book is arranged primarily by theme, rather than by chronology or genre.

Sallie Tisdale We live in a world in which almost every public image—every interaction—carries an element of sexual desire. And yet it is nearly impossible for us to talk openly and honestly about sex. Talk Dirty to Me is author Sallie Tisdale's frank, funny, and provocative invitation to the conversation we've been waiting for—but have been too afraid to start.

Sallie Tisdale shuns the dry style of academics and takes us on a journey through gender and desire, romance and pornography, prostitution and morality, fantasies and orgasm. She guides us through her field research of peep shows, XXX stores, and even the pornography collection of the British Library. Interweaving her own personal feelings, experiences, and revelations, she presents a brilliant, fascinating, and wholly original portrait of sex and sexuality in America, while encouraging us to explore and create our own "intimate philosophies."

Alexis de Tocqueville From America's call for a free press to its embrace of the capitalist system, Democracy in America—first published in 1835—enlightens, entertains, and endures as a brilliant study of our national government and character. Philosopher John Stuart Mill called it "among the most remarkable productions of our time." Woodrow Wilson wrote that de Tocqueville's ability to illuminate the actual workings of American democracy was "possibly without rival."

For today's readers, de Tocqueville's concern about the effect of majority rule on the rights of individuals remains deeply meaningful. His shrewd observations about the "almost royal prerogatives" of the president and the need for virtue in elected officials are particularly prophetic. His profound insights into the great rewards and responsibilities of democratic government are words every American needs to read, contemplate, and remember.

J.R.R. Tolkien A Christian can almost be forgiven for not reading the Bible, but there's no salvation for a fantasy fan who hasn't read the gospel of the genre, J.R.R. Tolkien's definitive three-book epic, the Lord of the Rings (encompassing The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King), and its charming precursor, The Hobbit. That many (if not most) fantasy works are in some way derivative of Tolkien is understood, but the influence of the Lord of the Rings is so universal that everybody from George Lucas to Led Zeppelin has appropriated it for one purpose or another.

Not just revolutionary because it was groundbreaking, the Lord of the Rings is timeless because it's the product of a truly top-shelf mind. Tolkien was a distinguished linguist and Oxford scholar of dead languages, with strong ideas about the importance of myth and story and a deep appreciation of nature. His epic, 10 years in the making, recounts the Great War of the Ring and the closing of Middle-Earth's Third Age, a time when magic begins to fade from the world and men rise to dominance. Tolkien carefully details this transition with tremendous skill and love, creating in the Lord of the Rings a universal and all-embracing tale, a justly celebrated classic. —Paul Hughes

J.R.R. Tolkien "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

The hobbit-hole in question belongs to one Bilbo Baggins, an upstanding member of a "little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves." He is, like most of his kind, well off, well fed, and best pleased when sitting by his own fire with a pipe, a glass of good beer, and a meal to look forward to. Certainly this particular hobbit is the last person one would expect to see set off on a hazardous journey; indeed, when Gandalf the Grey stops by one morning, "looking for someone to share in an adventure," Baggins fervently wishes the wizard elsewhere. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves have arrived on the hobbit's doorstep in search of a burglar, and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure.

The dwarves' goal is to return to their ancestral home in the Lonely Mountains and reclaim a stolen fortune from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, they and their reluctant companion meet giant spiders, hostile elves, ravening wolves—and, most perilous of all, a subterranean creature named Gollum from whom Bilbo wins a magical ring in a riddling contest. It is from this life-or-death game in the dark that J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, would eventually spring. Though The Hobbit is lighter in tone than the trilogy that follows, it has, like Bilbo Baggins himself, unexpected iron at its core. Don't be fooled by its fairy-tale demeanor; this is very much a story for adults, though older children will enjoy it, too. By the time Bilbo returns to his comfortable hobbit-hole, he is a different person altogether, well primed for the bigger adventures to come—and so is the reader. —Alix Wilber

Gina Trapani Redefine your personal productivity by tweaking, modding, mashing up, and repurposing Web apps, desktop software, and common everyday objects. The 88 "life hacks" — clever shortcuts and lesser-known, faster ways to complete a task — in this book are some of the best in Lifehacker.com's online archive. Every chapter describes an overarching lifehacker principle, then segues into several concrete applications. Each hack includes a step-by-step how-to for setting up and using the solution with cross-platform software, detailed screen shots, and sidebars with additional tips. Order your copy today and increase your productivity!

Chogyam Trungpa, Carolyn Rose Gimian In this practical guide to enlightened living, Chögyam Trungpa offers an inspiring vision for our time, based on the figure of the sacred warrior. In ancient times, the warrior learned to master the challenges of life, both on and off the battlefield. He acquired a sense of personal freedom and power—not through violence or aggression, but through gentleness, courage, and self-knowledge. The Japanese samurai, the warrior-kings of Tibet, the knights of medieval Europe, and the warriors of the Native American tribes are a few examples of this universal tradition of wisdom. With this book the warrior's path is opened to contemporary men and women in search of self-mastery and greater fulfillment. Interpreting the warrior's journey in modern terms, Trungpa discusses such skills as synchronizing mind and body, overcoming habitual behaviors, relaxing within discipline, facing the world with openness and fearlessness, and finding the sacred dimension of everyday life. Above all, Trungpa shows that in discovering the basic goodness or human life, the warrior learns to radiate that goodness out into the world for the peace and sanity of others. The Shambhala teachings—named for a legendary Himalayan kingdom where prosperity and happiness reign—thus point to the potential for enlightened conduct that exists within every human being. "The basic wisdom of Shambhala," Trungpa writes, "is that in this world, as it is, we can find a good and meaningful human life that will also serve others. That is our true richness."

Chih-Chung Tsai Tsai Chih Chung's previous books brilliantly retell the ancient Chinese classic texts of Zen Buddhism and The Art of War. Now, through his enchanting and deliciously entertaining cartoon panels, Tsai recreates the 2,000-year-old text of the Tao Te Ching, the inspiring classic upon which Taoism is based.

Harry Turtledove "It is absolutely unique—without question the most fascinating Civil War novel I have ever read."
Professor James M. McPherson
Pultizer Prize-winning BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
January 1864—General Robert E. Lee faces defeat. The Army of Northern Virginia is ragged and ill-equpped. Gettysburg has broken the back of the Confederacy and decimated its manpower.
Then, Andries Rhoodie, a strange man with an unplaceable accent, approaches Lee with an extraordinary offer. Rhoodie demonstrates an amazing rifle: Its rate of fire is incredible, its lethal efficiency breathtaking—and Rhoodie guarantees unlimited quantitites to the Confederates.
The name of the weapon is the AK-47....
Selected by the Science Fiction Book Club
A Main Selection of the Military Book Club

Harry Turtledove From the master of alternate history comes an epic of the second Civil War. It was an epoch of glory and success, of disaster and despair. In the "Second" War Between the States, the times, the stakes, and the battle lines had changed—and so would history.

Mark Twain, Bernard Augustine De Voto If you're already familiar with Finn and Sawyer, perhaps this collection of fragments, short stories, and essays—assembled posthumously some few decades ago now, but still fresh—will enhance your sense of Twain's true range. A particular favorite: his essay "The Damned Human Race," wherein he proves, rather convincingly, that an anaconda snake is a higher form of life than an English Earl.

Sun Tzu The Art of War is the Swiss army knife of military theory—pop out a different tool for any situation. Folded into this small package are compact views on resourcefulness, momentum, cunning, the profit motive, flexibility, integrity, secrecy, speed, positioning, surprise, deception, manipulation, responsibility, and practicality. Thomas Cleary's translation keeps the package tight, with crisp language and short sections. Commentaries from the Chinese tradition trail Sun-tzu's words, elaborating and picking up on puzzling lines. Take the solitary passage: "Do not eat food for their soldiers." Elsewhere, Sun-tzu has told us to plunder the enemy's stores, but now we're not supposed to eat the food? The Tang dynasty commentator Du Mu solves the puzzle nicely, "If the enemy suddenly abandons their food supplies, they should be tested first before eating, lest they be poisoned." Most passages, however, are the pinnacle of succinct clarity: "Lure them in with the prospect of gain, take them by confusion" or "Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability is in the opponent." Sun-tzu's maxims are widely applicable beyond the military because they speak directly to the exigencies of survival. Your new tools will serve you well, but don't flaunt them. Remember Sun-tzu's advice: "Though effective, appear to be ineffective." —Brian Bruya

Lee Varis Achieving accurate skin tones is one of the most challenging tasks in digital photography. Master this challenge with professional photographer Lee Varis as he covers a range of skin: women and men, young and old, various tones, in-studio and outdoors, tattoos, and more. His step-by-step tutorials and before-and-after illustrations demonstrate various techniques for topics such as digital-specific lighting challenges and what can and cannot be done in post-process.

A free CD-ROM accompanies the book and contains sample image files to use while following the tutorials, plus equipment recommendations and technical reference materials that enhance and reinforce the instruction.

Order your copy of this practical guide today and get a complete start-to-finish approach to integrating everything from posing models to shooting and retouching candid scenes.

William Vollmann A bold allegorical epic that hovers somewhere between the surreal and the incredible. Vollmann tells of the battle for power between the inventors and developers of electricity and the insect world.

William Vollmann Audacious. Wildly ambitious. Prolific. All describe William T. Vollmann, author of the seven- volume nonfiction work Rising Up and Rising Down and the "Seven Dreams" sequence of novels, which the Chicago Tribune hailed as "likely to become one of the masterpieces of the century."

In Europe Central, Vollmann presents a mesmerizing series of intertwined paired stories that compare and contrast the moral decisions made by various figures—some famous, some infamous, some unknown—associated with the warring authoritarian cultures of Germany and the USSR in the twentieth century. He conjures up two generals, one Russian and one German, who collaborate with the enemy for different reasons and with different results. Another pairing tells of two heroes—a female Russian partisan martyred at the beginning of World War II and a young German man who joins the SS in order to reveal its secrets and halt its crimes. Several stories concern the complex and elusive Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich and the Stalinist assaults against his work and life; also explored are the fates of artists and poets such as Käthe Kollwitz, Anna Akhmatova, and the documentary filmmaker Roman Karmen. Europe Central is another high-wire act of fiction by a writer of prodigious talent.

William T. Vollmann Twenty-three years in the making, Rising Up and Rising Down (the original, published by McSweeney's in October 2003, spans seven volumes) is a rich amalgam of historical analysis, contemporary case studies, anecdotes, essays, theory, charts, graphs, photographs and drawings. Convinced that there is "a finite number of excuses" for violence and that some excuses "are more valid than others," Vollmann spent two decades consulting hundreds of sources, scrutinizing the thinking of philosophers, theologians, tyrants, warlords, military strategists, activists and pacifists. He also visited more than a dozen countries and war zones to witness violence firsthand — sometimes barely escaping with his life.

Vollmann makes deft use of these tools and experiences to create his Moral Calculus, a structured decision-making system designed to help the reader decide when violence is justifiable and when it is not.

William T. Vollmann That was the simple yet groundbreaking question William T. Vollmann asked in cities and villages around the globe. The result of Vollmann's fearless inquiry is a view of poverty unlike any previously offered.

Poor People struggles to confront poverty in all its hopelessness and brutality, its pride and abject fear, its fierce misery and quiet resignation, allowing the poor to explain the causes and consequences of their impoverishment in their own cultural, social, and religious terms. With intense compassion and a scrupulously unpatronizing eye, Vollmann invites his readers to recognize in our fellow human beings their full dignity, fallibility, pride, and pain, and the power of their hard-fought resilience.

William T. Vollmann Arelentlessly curious, endlessly sensitive, and unequivocally adventurous examiner of human existence, William T. Vollmann now takes to the rails. In the company of experienced fellow train-hopper Steve, Vollmann trawls the secretive waters of a unique underground lifestyle—subjecting both our national romance with and skepticism about the hobo life to his finely tuned, analytical eye. Carrying on in the footloose tradition of Huckleberry Finn, he offers a moving, strikingly modern vision of the American dream, brilliantly exploring both our deeply ingrained romanticizing of "freedom" and the myriad ways we restrict the very freedoms we profess to admire.

William T. Vollmann, Larry McCaffery, Michael Hemmingson "William T. Vollmann can be ranked among the eight or ten greatest novelists America has produced." —The Washington Post Book World

William T. Vollmann is one of our greatest living writers. Masterworks such as "You Bright and Risen Angels," "The Royal Family," and "Rising Up and Rising Down"—his latest work, a stunning 3,300-page tour-de-force—have launched him into the literary stratosphere. He stands today as one of America's leading contenders for a future Nobel Prize in literature.

Here is his long-awaited "best-of" collection, intended both as an introduction for the curious reader, and as a necessary addition to the existing fan's collection. With excerpts from all of Vollmann's novels (including several not yet published), journalistic pieces, essays, correspondence, and poetry, "Expelled from Eden" creates a unique, kaleidoscopic portrait of one of America's most notorious, protean, devastating, and necessary writers.

M. Mitchell Waldrop While it's true that no one person's vision encompassed all of what we now consider personal computing, we can't help but focus on individual effort as we try to understand how we got here. Science writer M. Mitchell Waldrop carefully balances this hero culture with a historian's mania for completeness in The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal.

"Lick," as his students and colleagues called him, was deeply involved in guiding the evolution of personal and networked computing from the 1950s through the 1980s, after leaving a career in cognitive psychology. Waldrop captures his spirit vividly—contrary to our stereotypical view of computer scientists, Licklider was profoundly interested in his fellow humans, and this interest helped him lead the design of technology adapted to human needs.

Waldrop interviewed dozens of contemporaries and examined reams of notes and primary sources to compose this massive biography of influence that stretches from MIT to the Pentagon to Xerox PARC and far beyond. If it sometimes seems that Licklider was a little too well beloved, especially in comparison to some of the more colorful figures in computing's recent history, it is worth remembering that his patience and humility were the very qualities that helped deliver the home-computing revolution we take for granted today. If we had to choose just one 20th-century computer pioneer that we couldn't do without, it would have to be the man behind the Dream Machine. —Rob Lightner

David Foster Wallace Set in the near future in a addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, a moving novel explores a world of drug abuse, heartbreak, advertising, philosophy, math, humor, and drama as it addresses what happens to a nation of people whose main concern is pleasing themselves. Reprint. NYT.

Roy M. Wallack, Bill Katovsky Do you want to ride to 100? Bike for Life!

Ride a century when you turn a century. That’s the promise offered by nationally-known bicycle journalists Roy M. Wallack and Bill Katovsky in Bike for Life, a blueprint for using cycling to achieve longevity, fitness, and overall well-being. America’s largest participatory sport combines physical and mental challenges, relaxation, achievement, adventure, and social interaction as it unifies different generations and demographics in fitness and fun. To get the most our of your riding time, steer clear of the sport's potholes, and enjoy a long lifetime of fitness, Bike for Life's comprehensive plan includes:

• Cutting-edge training strategies for best-ever fitness at any age • An anti-aging strength plan to revive muscularity and reaction time • An exclusive 10-step cycling-specific yoga routine • How to beat common injuries like Cyclist’s Knee and Biker’s Back • Famous coaches’ climbing, cornering, handling and eating tips • A cure for cycling-related sexual problems in men and women • 16 ways to stop the scary cycling-osteoporosis connection • List of must-do hill climbs, mass city rides, and cross-state events • Rx for Relationships: Reconciling cycling and significant others • How to survive mountain lions, bike-jackers, poison ivy, headwinds, & more

Samuel R. Watkins "Company Aytch is one of my favorite Civil War books, ever."—Ken Burns

Among the plethora of books about the Civil War Company Aytch stands out for its uniquely personal view of the events as related by a most engaging writer—a man with Twain-like talents who served as a foot soldier for four long years in the Confederate army. Originally published in 1881 as a series of articles in the Columbia, Tennessee, Herald, Sam Watkins's account has long been recognized by historians as one of the most lively and witty accounts of the war. Parallels between this text and The Red Badge of Courage suggest that Stephen Crane was also among Private Watkins's readers.

This edition of Company Aytch also contains six previously uncollected articles by Sam Watkins, plus other valuable supplementary materials, including a map and period illustrations, a glossary of technical and military terms, a chronology of events, a concise history of Watkins's regiment, a biographical directory of individuals mentioned in the narrative, and geographic and topical indexes. This new edition of a Civil War classic is bound to become the edition of choice for students, military buffs, and general readers alike.

Bill Watterson In just over five years of syndication, Calvin and Hobbes has become an American comic strip sensation - touching the hearts (and funny bones) of the millions who read the award-winning strip. One look at the new Calvin and Hobbes collection and it is immediately evident that Bill Watterson's imagination, wit, and sense of adventure continue to be unmatched. In this collection, comprised of cartoons never before published in book form, Calvin and his tiger-striped sidekick Hobbes are hilarious whether the two are simply lounging around philosophizing about the future of mankind or plotting their latest money-making scheme. Chock-full of the familiar adventures of Spaceman Spiff, the latest findings of Dad's popularity poll, and time travel to the Jurrassic Age, Scientific Progress Goes "Boink" is guaranteed to set scientific inquiry back an ean - and advance the reading pleasure of all Calvin and Hobbes fans.

Bill Watterson They're back: Calvin, the six-year-old dirty tricksmeister and master of indignation and his warm, cuddly philosopher sidekick, Hobbes, a tiger whose idea of adventure is to lie on his back by the fire and have his stomach rubbed. In six short years this unlikely due has captured the hearts, the minds, and, most of all, the funny bones of America. They are the msot phenomenal success story in syndication - and publishing - history. In only six years, they appear in more than 2,100 newspapers worldwide, and Calvin and Hobbes wins as many readership polls as Calvin has excesses. All seven of Bill Watterson's collections have sold a million copies within a year of publication. This treasury collection contains a never-before-published full-color section, as well as the cartoons appearing in The Revenge of the Baby-Sat and Scientific Progress Goes "Boink." All Sunday cartoons are presented full-page and full-color.

Henry A. Watts Expert Techniques for Autocross and Time Trials. Hands-on info for racing and car prepping. Lists clubs, tracks, rules and more.

Jeffry D. Wert Cavalryman of the Lost Cause is the first major biography in decades of the famous Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart. Based on research in manuscript collections, personal memoirs and reminiscences, and regimental histories, this comprehensive volume reflects outstanding Civil War scholarship.

James Ewell Brown Stuart was the premier cavalry commander of the Confederacy. He gained a reputation for daring early in the war when he rode around the Union army in the Peninsula Campaign, providing valuable intelligence to General Robert E. Lee at the expense of Union commander George B. McClellan. Stuart has long been controversial because of his performance in the critical Gettysburg Campaign, where he was out of touch with Lee for several days; this left Lee uncertain about the size and movement of the Union army, information that would prove decisive when the battle began. In an engagement with the cavalry of Union general Philip Sheridan in spring 1864, Stuart was killed. He was only thirty-one.

Jeffry D. Wert provides new details about Stuart's childhood and youth, and he draws on letters between Stuart and his wife, Flora, to show us the man as he was: eager for glory, daring sometimes to the point of recklessness, but a devoted and loving husband and father. Stuart has long been regarded as the finest Confederate cavalryman and one of the best this country has ever produced. Wert shows how Stuart's friendship with Stonewall Jackson and his relationship with Lee were crucial; at the same time Stuart's relationships with his subordinates were complicated and sometimes troubled.

Cavalryman of the Lost Cause is a riveting biography of a towering figure of the Civil War, a fascinating and colorful work by one of our finest Civil War historians.

David Whitsett, Forrest Dolgener, Tanjala Kole Athlete. Runner. Marathoner. Are these words you wouldn't exactly use to describe yourself? Do you consider yourself too old or too out of shape to run a marathon? But somewhere deep inside have you always admired the people who could reach down and come up with the mental and physical strength to complete such a daunting and rewarding accomplishment? It doesn't have to be somebody else crossing the finish line. You can be a marathoner. The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer is based on the highly successful marathon class offered by the University of Northern Iowa, which was featured in a Runner's World article titled "Marathoning 101." The class has been offered five times over 10 years, and all but one student finished the marathon. That is approximately 200 students — all first time marathoners and many with absolutely no running background. This book follows the same 16-week, four-day-a-week workout plan. What makes the success rate of this program so much higher than any other? The special emphasis on the psychological aspects of endurance activities. You don't have to love to run — you don't even have to like it — but you have to realize that you are capable of more than you have ever thought possible. One participant in the program explained it like this: "I'm doing this for me — not for others or the time clock. I just feel better when I run, plus it helps me to cope with things in general. The skills we've learned in this class don't apply just to marathoning — they apply to life! Just like you never know what the next step in a marathon will bring, so too, you never know what will happen next in life. But if you don't keep going, you're never going to find out. By staying relaxed, centered, and positive you handle just about anything that comes your way." This is marathon running for real people, people with jobs and families and obligations outside of running. The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer has proven successful for men and women of all ages. Now let it work for you.

Jessica Williams Jessica Williams revisits her classic series of snapshots of life in the twenty-first century. Revised and updated with lots of new material, this book is every bit as vital as the first edition. From the inequalities and absurdities of the so-called developed world to the vast scale of suffering wreaked by war, famine, and AIDS in developing countries, it paints a picture of incredible contrasts.

This 2.0 edition again contains an eclectic selection of facts addressing a broad range of global issues, now with added emphasis on climate change, the decline in human rights and democratic freedoms around the world, the unexpected global impact of corporate growth, sports and media madness and inequality, and lots of updated facts and figures. Each is followed by a short essay explaining the story behind the fact, fleshing out the bigger problem lurking behind the numbers. Real-life stories, anecdotes, and case studies help to humanize the figures and make clear the human impact of the bald statistics.

All of the facts remind us that whether we like to think of it or not, the world is interconnected and civilization is a fragile concept. Williams makes us think about some of the hard facts about our civilization, and what we can do about them.

Jessica Williams is a journalist and producer of the BBC's flagship international interview program, HARDTalk with Tim Sebastian, where she has researched and produced interviews with such disparate figures as the political philosopher Noam Chomsky, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Sir David Attenborough, and the academic Edward Said.

Robert A. Wilson Before the X-Files, before alt.conspiracy, there was Robert Anton Wilson and his legendary Illuminatus! Trilogy. Now this avatar of conspiriology, renowned for his razor wit and progressive philosophy, takes you on a fascinating, eclectic ride through what Wilson has termed the "Cultic Twilight" where conspiracy theories flourish.

Everything Is Under Control covers the range of Wilson's kaleidoscopic knowledge, from John Adams to the Voronezh (former Soviet Union) UFO sighting, the Campus Crusade for Cthulhu to the Mothman prophecies, and everything in between. What do the Freemasons, the Kennedys, and Princess Diana have in common? All are at the center of gigantic conspiracy theories with incredibly complex and endlessly multiplying twists, turns, highways and byways. Arranged by alphabetical entries which include cross-references to other entries in the book and also provide addresses to related sites on the Web, this book is truly interactive—you can dip in, read through, or follow one of the URLs from an interesting entry onto the internet.

What some famous people say about Robert Anton Wilson:

"A dazzling barker hawking tickets to the most thrilling tilt-a-whirls and daring loop-o-planes on the midway to higher consciousness."
—Tom Robbins

"Wilson managed to reverse every mental polarity in me, as if I had been pulled through infinity."
—Philip K. Dick

"One of the most important scientific philosophers of his century—scholarly, witty, scientific, hip and hopeful."
—Dr. Timothy Leary

Robert Anton Wilson The sequel to the cult classic The Illuminatus! Trilogy, this is an epic fantasy that offers a twisted look at our modern-day world—a reality that exists in another dimension of time and space that may be closer than we think.

W.H. Wiser

Lawrence Wright National Book Award Finalist

A Time, Newsweek, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year

A gripping narrative that spans five decades, The Looming Tower explains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Lawrence Wright re-creates firsthand the transformation of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri from incompetent and idealistic soldiers in Afghanistan to leaders of the most successful terrorist group in history. He follows FBI counterterrorism chief John O’Neill as he uncovers the emerging danger from al-Qaeda in the 1990s and struggles to track this new threat. Packed with new information and a deep historical perspective, The Looming Tower is the definitive history of the long road to September 11.

Brock Yates In the early 1970s, Brock Yates, senior editor of Car and Driver magazine, created the now infamous Cannonball Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, a flat out, no-holds-barred race from New York City to Redondo Beach, California. Filled with fascinating unpublished stories, nostalgic and modern-day photographs, inside information, and hilarious stories from this outrageous and hedonistic orgy of speed.

Glenn Yeffeth This thought-provoking examination of The Matrix explores the technological challenges, religious symbolism, and philosophical dilemmas the film presents. Essays by renowned scientists, technologists, philosophers, scholars, social commentators, and science fiction authors provide engaging and provocative perspectives. Explored in a highly accessible fashion are issues such as the future of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The symbolism hidden throughout The Matrix and a few glitches in the film are revealed. Discussions include "Finding God in The Matrix," "The Reality Paradox in The Matrix," and "Was Cypher Right?: Why We Stay in Our Matrix." The fascinating issues posed by the film are handled in an intelligent but nonacademic fashion.

Edward Yourdon Death march projects are becoming increasingly common in the software industry. The symptoms are obvious: The project schedule, budget, and staff are about half of what is necessary for completion. The planned feature set is unrealistic. People are working 14 hours a day, six or seven days a week, and stress is taking its toll. The project has a high risk of failure, yet management is either blind to the situation or has no alternative. Why do these irrational projects happen, and what, other than pure idiocy, leads people to get involved in them?

Edward Yourdon has produced a wise and highly readable book on the entire death march phenomenon and the best way to steer through one. He takes a close look at the types of projects that often become death marches and the corporate politics and culture that typically produce them; Yourdon helps you examine your own motivations and those of corporate managers who enable death marches to take shape.

Much of Death March is about the human element of highly stressful projects. The author's plain-spoken observations on the dysfunctional organization—the Machiavellian politics, naive optimism, lust for power, fear, and sheer managerial stupidity that guide so many death marches—make for a refreshing change from other project management books. You'll also find much practical advice to help you survive, everything from negotiating with upper management to breathing life into faltering projects. He'll even help you determine if you should look for another job.

If you've ever worked in a death march situation or been a client of a company addicted to death march management, this book will help you understand what happened. More importantly, it will help you prepare for future encounters with death marches. Death March is highly recommended for anyone involved in software development.

Richard Zacks Forget the history you were taught in school; Richard Zacks's version is crueler and funnier than anything you might have learned in seventh-grade civics—and much more of a gross-out, too. Described on the book jacket as an "autodidact extraordinaire," Zacks is also the author of History Laid Bare, making him something of an expert guide through history's back alleys and side streets. There's no fact too seamy or perverse for Zacks to drag out into the light of day, from matters scatological and sexual to some of history's most truly bizarre episodes. Curious about ancient nose-blowing etiquette? What about the sexual proclivities of Catherine the Great? Throughout chapters such as "The Evolution of Underwear" and "Dentistry Before Novocaine," Zacks proves a tireless debunker of popular myths as well as a muckraker par excellence.

David Zinczenko, Matt Goulding Americans spend more than $500 billion a year eating out, and behind each burger, turkey sandwich, and ice cream sundae is a simple decision that could help you control your weight—and your life. The problem is, restaurant chains and food producers aren't interested in helping you make healthy choices. In fact, they invest $30 billion a year on advertising, much of it aimed at confusing eaters and disguising the fat and calorie counts of their products.   Thankfully Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Survival Guide is here to help. It’s the first book in the Eat This, Not That! series to focus solely on burger shacks, pizza parlors, pasta joints, breakfast diners, Mexican cantinas, Chinese eateries, drive-thrus, and coffee shops. With in-depth coverage of 80 of the biggest restaurant chains in the country, it arms you with the information you need to take control of your diet and sidestep the egregious calorie-landmines that are secretly sabotaging your chances of losing weight. And why would restaurants do such a thing? Because people keep buying. The top brass at any restaurant knows that the more food that goes onto the plate, the more drastically the customers will underestimate the caloric heft. That’s why the average cheeseburger has 136 more calories today than it did in the 1970s and why two-thirds of the country is now overweight or obese.
 
Additional features in Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Survival Guide include:
· Restaurant Report Card: America’s Best and Worst Restaurants
· The Menu Decoder: rules for navigating any menu in the country  
· The Buffet Survival Guide
· The New Rules of Eating Out
· 50 Great Restaurant Meals under 500 Calories
· Money- (and Calorie-) Saving Guide to Making Your Favorite Restaurant Meals—at Home!
Loaded with tips on everything from navigating neighborhood restaurant menus to making smart choices in the drive-thru to cutting cash and calories at the country’s largest chain restaurants, Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Survival Guide is the indispensable encyclopedia to the world of eating out.

Lennard Zinn Velopress Biking How To: By Velopress

Gary Zukav At an Esalen Institute meeting in 1976, tai chi master Al Huang said that the Chinese word for physics is Wu Li, "patterns of organic energy." Journalist Gary Zukav and the others present developed the idea of physics as the dance of the Wu Li Masters—the teachers of physical essence. Zukav explains the concept further:

The Wu Li Master dances with his student. The Wu Li Master does not teach, but the student learns. The Wu Li Master always begins at the center, the heart of the matter.... This book deals not with knowledge, which is always past tense anyway, but with imagination, which is physics come alive, which is Wu Li.... Most people believe that physicists are explaining the world. Some physicists even believe that, but the Wu Li Masters know that they are only dancing with it.

The "new physics" of Zukav's 1979 book comprises quantum theory, particle physics, and relativity. Even as these theories age they haven't percolated all that far into the collective consciousness; they're too far removed from mundane human experience not to need introduction. The Dancing Wu Li Masters remains an engaging, accessible way to meet the most profound and mind-altering insights of 20th-century science. —Mary Ellen Curtin