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Hillary's Choice
by Gail SheehyA fascinating portrait of the most intriguing lady in America - The First Lady - by the bestselling author who has revealed more about her than any other. In a real sense,Hillary's Choiceis a love story - one whose rocky moments, rather than remaining private, have been publicized beyond any imagining. What is the real story of the marriage of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton? Gail Sheehy began to discover it seven years ago, when she wrote the first revealing piece about Hillary. Since then, she has followed and recorded this relationship as only she can. Hillary's Choicetakes the Clintons from the moment their eyes met in law school through the humiliation of the Lewinsky affair and the drama of the impeachment battle to reveal the power shifts, the genuine passion, and the ultimate price Hillary has paid for her love and her ambition. Combined with in-depth reporting, Gail Sheehy has brought an acute understanding to the private dynamic of a very public an political partnership.
Hollywood Nation
by James HirsenFrom the bestselling author ofTales from the Left Coast. Now entering Hollywood Nation, where fact blurs with fiction, virtue with vice Now more than ever, stars like Michael Moore, Sean Penn, and Susan Sarandon are acting as self-appointed celebrity pundits, blurring the lines between entertainment and news to force their views onto the rest of the country. With their politically charged films, distorted documentaries, and skewed docudramas, they’re trying to set the agenda with little regard for the truth. Even worse, many so-called journalists are doing the same thing, dangerously mixing information and entertainment in an attempt to ratchet up ratings—and to inject their own views into the news. InHollywood Nation,New York Timesbestselling author and media critic James Hirsen reveals how the New Media are leading the counterattack against the relentless liberal assault from East Coast newsrooms and Left Coast studios. Through his extensive research and exclusive interviews with news and entertainment iconoclasts—including Bill O’Reilly, Mel Gibson, and Ann Coulter—Hirsen shows how liberals are losing their stranglehold on political and cultural debates. With a new chapter full of news about the ongoing Hollywoodization of America, Hirsen’s smart and compellingHollywood Nationgives us ammunition for the battle to reclaim our country and our culture.
Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization
by Pat ChoateAuthor of several books on US society and economics, and running mate of Ross Perot in the 1996 presidential election, Choate examines the roots of conflicts over intellectual property and how the establishment of patent and copyright protections helped propel the US economy. He also traces the emergence of Germany, Japan, and China as rivals to the US through copying, counterfeiting, and underpricing American products and media. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
I Like Being Catholic
by Therese J. Borchard Michael LeachA celebration of the treasured traditions, rituals, and stories that run through the bloodstream of American Catholics For Andrew Greeley, it is the reverence of Christmas night and the exultation of Easter morn. Martin Scorsese, like many others, remains grateful for the nuns who rapped his knuckles but built his self-esteem. Mary Gordon recalls the sense of lightness that follows confession; Vince Lombardi, the strength he derived from Mass; and Christopher Buckley, the role St. Thomas More plays in his writing. I Like Being Catholicbrings together the memories, thought, and hopes of famous Catholics and ordinary parishioners, lapsed and "good-enough" Catholics, and those who have devoted their lives to the faith. It captures their abiding ties to and deep affection for the Church and offers the wide-ranging, sometimes surprising views on the good things that come with being Catholic. This is not a book of theology. It is about the beauty at the heart of Catholicism. It is about what Teilhard de Chardin called "the chosen part of things. " It is about family and community, the value of Catholic education, the significance of sacraments and milestones, and the cultural impact of Catholicism—there are lists of the ten best Catholic novels, the ten best Catholic movies, ten Catholic heroes of the twentieth century, ten good reasons to raise your kids Catholic, fifty things Catholics like best about being Catholic, and much more . . . I Like Being Catholicis a book for all those who have ever called themselves Catholic. It is a book of warmth, affection, humor, and love.
I Like Being Married
by Michael LeachFrom the reflections of famous people and the stories of everyday folk to classic love letters and contemporary "ten best" lists, this delightfully eclectic treasury shines a spotlight on the many joys of marriage. I Like Being Married is the ultimate celebration of the ties that keep loving couples together in good times and bad. With a guest list that includes Paul Newman and Joannne Woodward, Nancy and Ronald Reagan, Queen Victoria, George Burns, and Secretary of State Colin Powell (to name just a few); poetic tributes from Homer, Shakespeare, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning; and wedding readings from the Bible and other religious traditions, it captures the magic and deep-seated sense of commitment at the heart of married life. I Like Being Married shows that the institution of marriage is integral to our common humanity. There are heartwarming stories of courtship–including Mikhail Gorbachev’s charming "Chasing Raisa" and Rosalyn Carter’s story of meeting Jimmy for the first time. Jerry Stiller, Celine Dion, and others who have broken the "rules" describe how they overcame family expectations, age differences, and other obstacles to wed the people they love. In moving and amusing portraits, husbands and wives reveal the qualities and the quirks that make their mates endearing, and vignettes by Ruby Dee, Roy Rogers, and Walter Payton capture the special joys that children bring to a marriage. Long-married couples look back on a lifetime of love–and look forward to the future with hope. Lists of the ten best books, songs, movies, and sitcoms about marriage, along with evocative illustrations, round off this unusual, multifaceted look at marital bliss. Filled with stories, memories, and musings, I Like Being Married is not only an ideal gift for showers, weddings, and anniversaries but is the perfect way to explore the true meaning of marriage. From the Hardcover edition.
Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town
by Chris BohjalianIn March 1986, while living in Brooklyn, Chris Bohjalian and his wife were cab-napped on a Saturday night and taken on a forty-five-minute joy ride in which the driver ignored all traffic lights and stop signs. Around midnight he deposited the young couple on a near-deserted street, where police officers were about to storm a crack house. Bohjalian and his wife were told to hit the ground for their own protection. While lying on the pavement, Bohjalian's wife suggested that perhaps it was time to move to New England. Months later they traded in their co-op in Brooklyn for a century-old Victorian house in Lincoln, Vermont (population 975), and Bohjalian began chronicling life in that town in a wide variety of magazine essays and in his newspaper column, "Idyll Banter. " These pieces, written weekly for twelve years and collected here for the first time, serve as a diary of both this writer's life and how America has been transformed in the last decade. Rich with idiosyncratic universals that come with being a parent, a child, and a spouse, Chris Bohjalian's personal observations are a reflection of our own common experience. "Chris Bohjalian is a terrific columnist—thoughtful and thought-provoking. Just like me! No, really, this guy is good. " —Dave Barry, author ofBoogers Are My Beat “The best book I’ve ever read about life in a contemporary village. There’s no doubt that Chris Bohjalian has established himself as one of America’s finest, most thoughtful, and most humane writers. ” —Howard Frank Mosher From the Hardcover edition.
In Praise of Nepotism
by Adam BellowA wide-ranging, surprising, and eloquently argued book that offers a pragmatic and erudite look at the innate human inclination toward nepotism—from ancient Chinese clans to families like the Gores, Kennedys, and Bushes. • &“Fascinating and well-researched.&” —Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Code Breaker and Steve JobsNepotism is one of those social habits we all claim to deplore in America; it offends our sense of fair play and our pride in living in a meritocracy. But somehow nepotism prevails; we all want to help our own and a quick glance around reveals any number of successful families whose sons and daughters have gone on to accomplish objectively great things, even if they got a little help from their parents.Bellow explores how nepotism has produced both positive and negative effects throughout history. As he argues, nepotism practiced badly or haphazardly is an embarrassment to all (including the incompetent beneficiary), but nepotism practiced well can satisfy a deep biological urge to provide for our children and even benefit society as a whole. In Praise of Nepotism is a judicious look at a controversial but timeless subject that has never been explored with such depth or candor, and a fascinating natural history of how families work.
Intuitive Astrology
by Elizabeth Rose Campbell“Intuitive Astrologyis simply wonderful. I’ve used and studied astrology for many years, and this is one of the most accessible and practical guides ever written. ” — Christiane Northrup, M. D. Author ofWomen’s Bodies, Women’s WisdsomandThe Wisdom of Menopause “A user-friendly gift of intelligence, accessibility, and depth. ” —ELIZABETH LESSER Co-founder of Omega Institute and author ofThe Seeker’s Guide Is astrology destiny?Of course not! Your birth chart does not foresee a future written in stone, and predictive astrology is just a parlor game. The original purpose of astrology was to help you tap into your inner wisdom, ask yourself the right questions, and find your own answers to life’s challenges. Now this unconventional and refreshing guide helps you reconnect with the sea of intuition that flows through each of us—so you can discover your true purpose. Based upon the author’s nearly twenty years of experience as a professional astrologer, this amazing book gives you a secure orientation in the basic principles of astrology and teaches you highly effective techniques for identifying your talent, your passion, your spiritual support, and your connection to community. • Clear instructions on technically reading the planets, signs, and houses in your birth chart as well as a primer on the meaning of each • Easy-to-follow intuitive exercises to connect with your “cosmic database,” a wellspring of creativity that encourages you to trust your potential and to love who you are in the present • Helpful ways to trust your own limits and use them as inner teachers • Twelve true life stories that illustrate the inspiring and uniquely brilliant way in which each of us can bring an astrological script to life If you are drawn to astrology but are intimidated by its apparent complexities, this generous, comprehensive book is the book for you. It presents the basics of astrology with crystal clarity and prepares you to use them with a subtle, finely honed precision that no other source provides. Even if you’re an experienced astrologer, you’ll be enlightened and stimulated by Elizabeth Rose Campbell’s affirmation: When you follow your best instincts, you follow the stars.
La Bella Figura
by Beppe SevergniniJoin the bestselling author ofCiao, America!on a lively tour of modern Italy that takes you behind the seductive face it puts on for visitors—la bella figura—and highlights its maddening, paradoxical true self You won’t need luggage for this hypothetical and hilarious trip into the hearts and minds of Beppe Severgnini’s fellow Italians. In fact, Beppe would prefer if you left behind the baggage his crafty and elegant countrymen have smuggled into your subconscious. To get to hisItalia, you’ll need to forget about your idealized notions of Italy. AlthoughLa Bella Figurawill take you to legendary cities and scenic regions, your real destinations are the places where Italians are at their best, worst, and most authentic: The highway:in America, a red light has only one possible interpretation—Stop! An Italian red light doesn’t warn or order you as much as provide an invitation for reflection. The airport:where Italians prove that one of their virtues (an appreciation for beauty) is really a vice. Who cares if the beautiful girls hawking cell phones in airport kiosks stick you with an outdated model? That’s the price of gazing upon perfection. The small town:which demonstrates the Italian genius for pleasant living: “a congenial barber . . . a well-stocked newsstand . . . professionally made coffee and a proper pizza; bell towers we can recognize in the distance, and people with a kind word and a smile for everyone. ” The chaos of the roads, the anarchy of the office, the theatrical spirit of the hypermarkets, and garrulous train journeys; the sensory reassurance of a church and the importance of the beach; the solitude of the soccer stadium and the crowded Italian bedroom; the vertical fixations of the apartment building and the horizontal democracy of the eat-in kitchen. As you venture to these and many other locations rooted in the Italian psyche, you realize that Beppe has become your Dante and shown you a country that “has too much style to be hell” but is “too disorderly to be heaven. ” Ten days, thirty places. From north to south. From food to politics. From saintliness to sexuality. This ironic, methodical, and sentimental examination will help you understand why Italy—as Beppe says—“can have you fuming and then purring in the space of a hundred meters or ten minutes. ”
La Belle France
by Alistair HorneLa Belle Franceis a sweeping, grand narrative written with all the verve, erudition, and vividness that are the hallmarks of the acclaimed British historian Alistair Horne. It recounts the hugely absorbing story of the country that has contributed to the world so much talent, style, and political innovation. Beginning with Julius Caesar’s division of Gaul into three parts, Horne leads us through the ages from Charlemagne to Chirac, touring battlefields from the Hundred Years’ War to Indochina and Algeria, and giving us luminous portraits of the nation’s leaders, philosophers, writers, artists, and composers. This is a captivating, beautifully illustrated, and comprehensive yet concise history of France. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Life 2.0
by Rich Karlgaard“A delightful, and surprisingly moving, tale” -- Michael Lewis, bestselling author ofMoneyball “Karlgaard flies in with a companion concept to David Brooks’sOn Paradise Drive” -- Tom Wolfe “While counterintuitive to those on the conventional fast-track,Life 2. 0offers great promise to those who are open to personal innovation” -- Clayton Christensen, Professor, Harvard Business School “This fascinating treatise will make you think deeply, and may just give you the impetus to uproot” -- Tom Peters “An original and exhilarating look at options many Americans don’t realize are now open to them. ” -- James Fallows, national correspondent,The Atlantic Monthly “Not only will it widen the horizons of your life, it could also renew your health and wealth. ” -- George Gilder Have You Found the Where of Your Happiness? One of the intriguing things about the United States is the idea of the second chance, that when you feel stuck there is always a frontier you can cross to reinvent yourself. InLife 2. 0, Rich Karlgaard used his own personal and professional midlife crises to look at the state of the American dream—the belief in continuous personal upward mobility—and where it stands in the twenty-first century. At the ripe old age of forty-five, Karlgaard fell in love with flying and mastered the art of lifting up and bringing down a “2,500-pound aluminum box kite”—a four-seat single-engine airplane. As the publisher of Forbes he felt that he was doing too much armchair theorizing and didn’t really understand how Americans were responding to the changes that had started taking place so swiftly over the past few years. So he put together his new flying skills and reportorial mission and flew around America to places like Green Bay, Wisconsin; Bozeman, Montana; Fargo, North Dakota; Des Moines, Iowa; and Lake Placid, New York, to gain some insight into how ordinary Americans are untangling the knotty problems of constant stress, crushing expense, and bewildering hassle that often characterize life in the nation’s urban centers. He discovered their simple solution: they moved. What Karlgaard found on the road are fascinating and inspiring stories about people— those with a nose for entrepreneurship, a faith in technology, and the willingness to take a chance—who are finding the new American dream in places as far from New York City and Silicon Valley as you can imagine. Some of those people include: • A burned-out insurance exec who fled his overworked East Coast life and settled in tranquil (yet dynamic) Des Moines • A tool broker who traded his brick-and-mortar business in sunny California for a life in the Pennsylvania hills, where he relaunched his business on the Internet • A road-warrior democracy specialist who conducts her worldly affairs from the low-key outpost of Bismarck, North Dakota • A self-made millionaire who paid for his financial success with his first marriage and who did things differently the second time around by moving to smaller cities and focusing on family as well as work Adroitly combining analysis of the economic and social trends challenging middle-class people with perceptive advice on how to escape the rat race of the coasts, Karlgaard explores the eye-opening possibilities of that huge tract of land often carelessly dubbed “flyover country. ” Filled with stories of personal reinvention and triumph, Life 2. 0 is the story of those who are living larger lives in smaller places. From the Hardcover edition.
Lifeguarding
by Catherine MccallIn her sharply observed and ultimately redemptive memoir, Catherine McCall paints a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking portrait of growing up in a complicated Southern family, whose perfect façade hides crippling imperfections. There are two parents, three children, and five ghosts in the McCall family. With their preppie clothes and country-club smiles, the McCalls look like all the other East End Louisville families. No one knows there are problems, that an internal gash the size of the Ohio river is flooding the family. All Cathy and her siblings can do is promise to stick together no matter what—and swim. But even though they are fast, the McCall kids can’t outdistance their father’s destructive habits and their mother’s worry. As her family reaches a breaking point and an unexpected love blooms, thirteen-year-old Cathy finds she must keep secrets of her own. Though the love in this family is strong, Cathy must discover if it’s tenacious enough to withstand the truth. Candid, captivating, and infused with compassion,Lifeguardingaffirms the flexible strength of love itself; how family bonds must often bend to the point of breaking . . . and beyond. From the Hardcover edition.
Love, Greg & Lauren
by Greg ManningEarly on the morning of September 11, 2001, Lauren Manning-a wife, the mother of a ten-month-old son, and a senior vice president and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald-came to work, as always, at One World Trade Center. As she stepped into the lobby, a fireball exploded from the elevator shaft, and in that split second her life was changed forever. Lauren was burned over 82. 5 percent of her body. As he watched his wife lie in a drug-induced coma in the ICU of the Burn Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Greg Manning began writing a daily journal. In the form of e-mails to family, friends, and colleagues, he recorded Lauren’s harrowing struggle-and his own tormented efforts to make sense of an act that defies all understanding. This book is that e-mail diary: detailed, intimate, inspiring messages that end, always, as if a prayer for a happy outcome: LOVE, GREG & LAUREN We share this story day by astonishing day. Greg writes of the intricate surgeries, the painful therapies, and the constant risk of infection Lauren endured. Through his eyes we come to know the doctors, nurses, aides, and therapists who cared for her around the clock with untiring devotion and sensitivity. We also come to know the families with whom he shared wrenching hospital vigils for their own loved ones who were waging a battle that some would not win. It was, most of all, Greg’s belief that Lauren would win her brave fight for life that kept him writing. Through his eyes we see what she could not-their toddler’s first steps, the video of his first birthday party, the compassionate messages of hope from around the world. And we are there as Lauren gradually emerges into awareness, signaling first with her eyes, then with smiles, her understanding of the words Greg speaks to her, the poems he recites, the songs he plays. Most miraculously, we are there when Lauren walks out of the Burn Center. The world knows all too well both the nightmare and the heroism that have marked this terrible time in history. But no account of September 11 matches the astonishing personal story Greg Manning records in these spontaneous and heartfelt pages. It is a story that invites us to share, e-mail after e-mail, the perilous course of a mortally wounded woman who by sheer will and courage emerges from near death because she is determined to live for her husband and her son. And it is equally the story of a man who, as he stays by her side through these long weeks and months, discovers anew the depth of his love and admiration for the woman who becomes his hero.
MBA in a Box: Practical Ideas from the Best Brains in Business
by Joel Kurtzman Glenn Rifkind Victoria GriffithThe best minds in business—at your serviceMBA in a Box brings together some of the best brains in business who show how the core curriculum of an MBA program works in the real world. People like Michael Porter, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Adrian J. Slywotzky, Warren Bennis, and Bill George give you a box full of ideas and tools that can boost your career and help you add value to your organization. For example: • Why finance is not just about manipulating numbers but of immense importance in sustaining growth, building widespread wealth, and creating jobs. • The profit zone and how to tell if a business is in one. • The skill of turning an idea or invention into a product that solves a problem for a market. • Merging the need of business to produce and grow with the environment so they are both sustained. • The latest thinking in marketing about branding, pricing, reversing a product’s life cycle, and turning what has become a commodity into a specialty.• And much more.
Malraux: A Life
by Olivier ToddWriter, publisher, war hero, French government minister, André Malraux was renowned as a Renaissance man of the twentieth century. Now, Olivier Todd–author of the acclaimed biographyAlbert Camus–gives us this life, in which fact competes dramatically with his subject’s previously little-known mythomania. We see the adventurous young Malraux move from 1920s literary Paris to colonial Cambodia, Cochin China, and Spain in its civil war. Todd charts the thrilling exploits that would inspire such novels asMan’s Fate,but, just as fascinating, he also traces Malraux’s lifelong pattern of lies: claiming friendship with Mao, he was called to tutor Nixon, despite having met the Great Helmsman only once; a minor injury becomes in recollections a near-mortal battlefield wound; stories of heroism in the French Resistance omit to mention that Malraux joined up just a few weeks before the Allied landings. With meticulous research, Todd separates myth from reality to throw light on a brilliant con man who would become a national hero, but he also lets us see Malraux’s genuine achievements as both writer and man of action. His real life and the one he embroidered come together in this superb biography to reveal how Malraux, the protean genius, became his own greatest character. From the Hardcover edition.
Meditations from a Simple Path
by Mother Teresa Mother Teresa"Works of love are always works of joy.""Do we look at the poor with compassion? They are hungry not only for food, they are hungry to be recognized as human beings.""There is only one God and He is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God."These rich words of wisdom and conviction are among the pearls of thought found in Meditations from A Simple Path. Comprised of luminous selections culled from the New York Times bestseller, this warm and very loving volume is a joyful celebration of prayer, faith, love, service, and peace.Profound and uplifting, this elegant book will provide a tremendous source of inspiration for you or someone you love. It is brimming with timeless messages for us all.From the Hardcover edition.
My Einstein
by John BrockmanIn this fascinating volume, today’s foremost scientists discuss their own versions and visions of Einstein: how he has influenced their worldviews, their ideas, their science, and their professional and personal lives. These twenty-four essays are a testament to the power of scientific legacy and are essential reading for scientist and layperson alike. Contributors include: • Roger Highfield on the Einstein myth • John Archibald Wheeler on his meetings with Einstein • Gino C. Segrè, Lee Smolin, and Anton Zeilinger on Einstein’s difficulties with quantum theory • Leon M. Lederman on the special theory of relativity • Frank J. Tipler on why Einstein should be seen as a scientific reactionary rather than a scientific revolutionary
My Life in France
by Julia Child Alex Prud'hommeNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Julia's story of her transformative years in France in her own words is "captivating ... her marvelously distinctive voice is present on every page.&” (San Francisco Chronicle). Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia&’s unforgettable story—struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe—unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia&’s success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America&’s most endearing personalities.
Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds: The Tragedy and triumph of ASA flight 529
by Gary PomerantzIn August 1995, twenty-six passengers and a crew of three board a commuter plane in Atlanta headed for Gulfport, Mississippi. Shortly after takeoff they hear an explosion and some see a mangled engine lodged against the wing. From that moment, nine minutes and twenty seconds elapse until the crippled plane crashes in a west Georgia hayfield. Gary Pomerantz takes listeners deep into the hearts and minds of the people aboard, each of whom prepares in his or her own way for what may come. Ultimately, nineteen people survive both the crash and its devastating aftermath, all of them profoundly affected by what they have seen and more important, what they have done to help themselves and others. This psychologically illuminating real-life drama about ordinary people and how they behave in extraordinary circumstances is surprisingly optimistic. In telling the remarkable stories of these twenty-nine men and women, Gary Pomerantz has written one of the most compelling books in recent memory. Nine Minutes, Twenty Secondsspeaks as powerfully about our capacity to care for others as it does about the strength of our will to live. This rich and rewarding audiobook will linger in your mind long after you finish listening.
No Secrets No Lies
by Robin D. StoneFor the estimated 3. 2 million African-American survivors of sexual abuse, "No Secrets No Lies" provides much needed healing. Addressing sexual violence from the perspective of black culture, Stone helps readers understand why the silence of this epidemic may be rooted in racism, and how readers can give themselves permission to reach out for help.
Osama
by Jonathan RandalHow is it possible for one middle-aged Saudi millionaire to threaten the world’s only superpower? This is the question at the center of Jonathan Randal’s riveting, timely account of Osama bin Laden’s role in the rise of terrorism in the Middle East. Randal–a journalist whose experience of the Middle East spans the past forty years–makes clear how Osama’s life epitomizes the fatal collision between twenty-first-century Islam and the West, and he describes the course of Osama’s estrangement from both the West and the Saudi petro-monarchy of which his family is a part. He examines Osama’s terrorist activities before September 11, 2001, and shows us how, after the attack on the World Trade Center, Osama presented the West with something new in the annals of contemporary terrorism: an independently wealthy entrepreneur with a seemingly worldwide following ready to do his bidding. Randal explores the possibility that Osama offered the Saudis his Al-Qaeda forces to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991; he traces the current sources of Osama’s money; and he tells us why the Iraq war has played into the hands of the terrorists. With his long-maintained sources in the Middle East and his intimate understanding of the region, Randal gives us a clearer explanation than any we have had of the whys and wherefores of the world’s most prominent and feared terrorist.
Programming the Universe
by Seth LloydThe universe is made of bits. The way in which the universe registers and processes information determines what it is and how it behaves. It has been known for more than a century that every piece of the universe - every electron, atom, and molecule - registers bits of information. It is only in the last ten years, however, with the discovery and development of quantum computers, that scientists have gained a fundamental understanding of just how that information is registered and processed. Seth Lloyd calls this fundamental understanding of the universe in terms of information processing 'the computational universe', and the purpose of this book is to show how the programmed, computational universe works. Starting from basic concepts of physics, Programming the Universe shows how all physical systems register information. It gives an accessible account of how information is stored and processed at the level of electrons, atoms, and molecules. It shows how the information processing power of the universe can be harnessed to build quantum computers and explains how the universe itself behaves like a gigantic computer, transforming and processing information. It traces the history of information processing from the big bang to the present day, and reveals how the computational ability of the universe promotes the evolution of complex structures such as life. Programming the Universe is the story of the universe and the bits it is made of.
Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair
by Anthony ArthurFew American writers have revealed their private as well as their public selves so fully as Upton Sinclair, and virtually none over such a long lifetime (1878—1968). Sinclair’s writing, even at its most poignant or electrifying, blurred the line between politics and art–and, indeed, his life followed a similar arc. In Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, Anthony Arthur weaves the strands of Sinclair’s contentious public career and his often-troubled private life into a compelling personal narrative. An unassuming teetotaler with a fiery streak, called a propagandist by some, the most conservative of revolutionaries by others, Sinclair was such a driving force of history that one could easily mistake his life story for historical fiction. He counted dozens of epochal figures as friends or confidants, including Mark Twain, Jack London, Henry Ford, Thomas Mann, H. G. Wells, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Camus, and Carl Jung. Starting with The Jungle in 1906, Sinclair’s fiction and nonfiction helped to inform and mold American opinions about socialism, labor and industry, religion and philosophy, the excesses of the media, American political isolation and pacifism, civil liberties, and mental and physical health. In his later years, Sinclair twice reinvented himself, first as the Democratic candidate for governor of California in 1934, and later, in his sixties and seventies, as a historical novelist. In 1943 he won a Pulitzer Prize for Dragon’s Teeth, one of eleven novels featuring super-spy Lanny Budd. Outside the literary realm, the ever-restless Sinclair was seemingly everywhere: forming Utopian artists’ colonies, funding and producing Sergei Eisenstein’s film documentaries, and waging consciousness-raising political campaigns. Even when he wasn’t involved in progressive causes or counterculture movements, his name often was invoked by them–an arrangement that frequently embroiled Sinclair in controversy. Sinclair’s passion and optimistic zeal inspired America, but privately he could be a frustrated, petty man who connected better with his readers than with members of his own family. His life with his first wife, Meta, his son David, and various friends and professional acquaintances was a web of conflict and strain. Personally and professionally ambitious, Sinclair engaged in financial speculation, although his wealth-generating schemes often benefited his pet causes–and he lobbied as tirelessly for professional recognition and awards as he did for government reform. As the tenor of his work would suggest, Sinclair was supremely human. In Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, Anthony Arthur offers an engrossing and enlightening account of Sinclair’s life and the country he helped to transform. Taking readers from the Reconstruction South to the rise of American power to the pinnacle of Hollywood culture to the Civil Rights era, this is historical biography at its entertaining and thought-provoking finest. Praise "Lively, unsparing look at the turn-of-the-century muckraker, social critic and novelist who changed the way America did business. . . . Arthur organizes his biography into chapters reflecting Sinclair's various crusading "selves"—e. g. , The Warrior, The Pilgrim of Love, etc. —and uses a deft, light touch. . . An immensely readable biography. "– Kirkus Reviews “. . excellent new biography. ”– USA Today “…a model of good biography. ” –Los Angeles Magazine “Absorbing. ” –The Wall Street Journal "intimate and intellectually astute. &quo
Raw Food Quick & Easy: Over 100 Healthy Recipes
by Mary RydmanWith the simple recipes in Raw Food Quick Easy, you can create healthy, delicious raw meals in less time than you would need to create most traditional recipes. Featuring easy to follow, step by step instructions for each recipe, each meal utilizes specific fruits and vegetables to maximize your energy and vitality. Whether you would like to eat raw food exclusively or are simply looking for a delicious, healthful way to incorporate the range of vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants in fresh produce into your diet, Raw Food Quick Easy makes eating raw simple, tasty and fun.
Remember Me to Harlem
by Emily BernardLangston Hughes is widely remembered as a celebrated star of the Harlem Renaissance -- a writer whose bluesy, lyrical poems and novels still have broad appeal. What's less well known about Hughes is that for much of his life he maintained a friendship with Carl Van Vechten, a flamboyant white critic, writer, and photographer whose ardent support of black artists was peerless. Despite their differences — Van Vechten was forty-four to Hughes twenty-two when they met–Hughes’ and Van Vechten’s shared interest in black culture lead to a deeply-felt, if unconventional friendship that would span some forty years. Between them they knew everyone — from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright, and their letters, lovingly and expertly collected here for the first time, are filled with gossip about the antics of the great and the forgotten, as well as with talk that ranged from race relations to blues lyrics to the nightspots of Harlem, which they both loved to prowl. It’s a correspondence that, as Emily Bernard notes in her introduction, provides “an unusual record of entertainment, politics, and culture as seen through the eyes of two fascinating and irreverent men.