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The Bridegroom
by Ha JinThese twelve short stories vividly bring to life the daily dramas of Chinese men and women who are starting to feel the influence of the West while still immersed in a society that attempts to control their every move and thought. As his characters wrestle with the petty injustices and deeper heartbreaks of their constricted lives, Ha Jin celebrates their irrepressible humanity with the understated humour and disarmingly simple narrative voice that have won him widespread acclaim.
Bullies, Tyrants, and Impossible People
by Ronald M. Shapiro Mark A. JankowskiThe impossible people who make life’s journey so difficult are everywhere—at the office, in restaurants, on airplanes, living next door, members of your own family. They’re . . . • your “nothing is ever good enough” boss • the “no price is ever low enough” client • the next-door neighbor who redefines the meaning of paranoia • the maître d’ who looks through you as if you don’t exist • the father-in-law who you know is always thinking about how much better a life his Janey or Joey would have if only married to someone other than you Ron Shapiro and Mark Jankowski give you a simple and highly effective 4-point plan for dealing with all of them and more—N. I. C. E. Their system shows you how to neutralize your emotions so you don’t just react but act purposefully and wisely. It enables you to identify the type of bully, tyrant, or impossible person you’re facing—the situationally difficult (something has happened that turns an otherwise reasonable person into a temporary terror); the strategically difficult (she has empirical evidence that being difficult is a strategy that gets results); or simply difficult (being difficult is his 24/7 M. O. ). Then you’ll learn how to shape the outcome by controlling the encounter and, finally, how to get “unstuck” by exploring your options. Using colorful stories from all walks of life— “He called me the scum of the earth and it went downhill from there,” “First, lock all your vendors in a small room,” and “The boss from hell”—the authors bring their lessons to life, from business life to family life.
Bush Versus the Environment
by Robert S. DevineSince becoming president, George W. Bush has walked away from the Kyoto Protocol, pushed for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, undermined protections for endangered species and wilderness, and retreated from his campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide. But the president’s agenda reaches deeper than these well-known policies. InBush Versus the Environment, Robert Devine shows how the White House is quietly undermining the entire system of environmental safeguards that has developed over the past thirty years. The administration's tactics include: -Encouraging lawsuits against the federal government that challenge existing environmental laws, and then feebly defending the cases in court. -Ignoring science that doesn’t support the president's goals, and pressuring government scientists to produce the results the administration wants. -Using fuzzy math to overestimate the costs and underestimate the benefits of regulations that protect human health and the environment, which can lead to the elimination of much-needed rules. These are just a few of the administration’s strategies, which are being pursued beneath the radar of a public that overwhelmingly supports environmental protections. Bush Versus the Environmentis a compelling and important look at one of the most important issues facing America today, one that will have consequences that last long after Bush has left office. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Centennial Crisis
by William H. RehnquistNear midnight on Election Day in November 1876, the returns coming into Republican National headquarters signaled a victory for the Democratic presidential candidate, Samuel J. Tilden. But alert Republican leaders saw that if all the states still doubtful or disputed went for their candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes would be elected. Word was sent out to four southern states that their returns were crucial for a Hayes victory. Thus Chief Justice William Rehnquist begins this remarkable account of one of American's greatest political dramas, a crisis that was not resolved for nearly four months, on March 2, 1877, only two days before Inauguration Day. In his gripping story, Rehnquist tells how each party maneuvered to buy votes in the southern states, how the country slid into Congressional, judicial and public turmoil, and how the creation in January of an Electoral Commission (comprised of five Democrats, five Republicans and five Supreme Court justices) was opposed by both candidates. When that body's deciding vote was cast by Justice Joseph Bradley, public outcry reached such a fever pitch that the presidential swearing-in had to be held on a Sunday in near secrecry. Reaching beyond the history of a contentious election, the Chief Justice describes the political climate and economy of America in the 1870's, packing his narrative with biographical sketches of the central participants and opening a window on events in that decade that have long been overlooked. In a compelling epilogue we learn the occasions when Presidents, ranging from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, have asked Supreme Court justices to arbitrate disputes, settle treaties or serve on investigating commissions. Almost always the justices were berated and attacked for their decisions. Would it be better for them to have refused the president’s request? The Chief Justice has some surprising answers.
Change of Heart
by Daniel LevyA Change of Heartis a detailed account of the revolutionary Framingham Heart study -- which, over the years, has provided conclusive evidence that cardiovascular disease is largely the result of measurable and modifiable risk factors. First begun in 1948, not long after Franklin Delano Roosevelt succumbed to a massive stroke, the study of over 5,000 citizens of Framingham, Massachusetts, changed the course of medical history. The lessons learned in Framingham allow each of us to control our risk of heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes of death in the United States. Here is a clear-eyed and intriguing assessment of the achievements of this study and of its continuing importance to our health today.
Chess for Success
by Maurice Ashley International Chess GrandmasterMaurice Ashley immigrated to New York from Jamaica at the age of twelve, only to be confronted with the harsh realities of urban life. But he found his inspiration for a better life after stumbling upon a chess book and becoming hypnotized by the game. He would eventually break the chess world's color lines by becoming an International Grandmaster in 1999. Ashley realized that chess strategies could be used as an educational tool to help children avoid the pitfalls often associated with growing up. In this book, he serves up compelling anecdotes about how chess has positively affected young players. He also offers tips on technique, how to make the game fun for children of all ages and levels, and how to overcome the myth that chess isn't cool. Through his guidance, readers will understand how chess strategies can improve a child's mental agility, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Chess for Successis a much-anticipated resource for parents, teachers, counselors, youth workers, and chess lovers.
Chesterton
by Garry Wills"Part of a literary circle that included H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Hillaire Belloc, and Max Beerbohm, G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) wrote essays of social criticism for contemporary journals, literary criticism (including notable books on Browning, Dickens, and Shaw), and works of theology and religious argument, but may have been best known for his Father Brown mysteries. Chesterton's interest in Catholic Christianity, first expressed in Orthodoxy, led to his conversion from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1922. His classic Saint Francis of Assisi and the equally acclaimed Saint Thomas Aquinas confirmed his reputation as a writer with the rare ability to simultaneously entertain, inform, and enlighten readers. This revised edition of Garry Wills's finely crafted biography includes updates to the text and a new Introduction by the author. "--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Christmas Conversation Piece
by Bret Nicholaus Paul LowrieWhat one Christmas tradition would you never want to give up? If you could spend Christmas anywhere in the world, where would you most want to be? If you could have visited the Christ child just as the Three Kings did, what would you have brought as a gift? You've been chosen to host a sensational Christmas celebration on TV: What three guests would you choose to make it the best Christmas special ever? The Christmas Conversation Pieceoffers these and many other questions to pose and ponder during a season of both deep reflection and unabashed merriment. This charming volume--the perfect stocking stuffer--will provide you, your family, and your friends with twelve days of surprising and amusing Yuletide questions. Who would you most like to meet under the mistletoe? Your answer just may change by Christmas Eve!
Christmas in My Soul
by Joe WheelerFrom the man who compiled the cherished Christmas In My Heart series comes Christmas In My Soul -- the perfect gift book for the holiday season.
The Coming Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit From It
by James Turk John RubinoPeriodically, the global economy shifts gears in a fundamental way, turning conventional wisdom on its head and producing new categories of winners and losers among investors.
The Confidence-Man
by Herman MelvillePoorly received when first published in 1857, The Confidence Man is now considered Herman Melville's most nearly perfect work, and one that occupies a central place in the American literary tradition of masquerade and trickery. Set on April Fool's Day aboard a Mississippi steamer, this powerful and engaging novel, through the conversations of the confidence man (who may be looked on as the Devil or God), explores America and American values. Part satire, part hoax, The Confidence Man is also a dark look at the nothingness lurking beneath our beliefs and assumptionsa look at a universe in which neither God nor the Devil exists, and where Christianity is only a comforting fiction little better than an April Fool's prank.
Counterculture Through the Ages
by Ken Goffman Dan JoyAs long as there has been culture, there has been counterculture. At times it moves deep below the surface of things, a stealth mode of being all but invisible to the dominant paradigm; at other times it’s in plain sight, challenging the status quo; and at still other times it erupts in a fiery burst of creative–or destructive–energy to change the world forever. But until now the countercultural phenomenon has been one of history’s great blind spots. Individual countercultures have been explored, but never before has a book set out to demonstrate the recurring nature of counterculturalism across all times and societies, and to illustrate its dynamic role in the continuous evolution of human values and cultures. Countercultural pundit and cyberguru R. U. Sirius brilliantly sets the record straight in this colorful, anecdotal, and wide-ranging study based on ideas developed by the late Timothy Leary with Dan Joy. With a distinctive mix of scholarly erudition and gonzo passion, Sirius and Joy identify the distinguishing characteristics of countercultures, delving into history and myth to establish beyond doubt that, for all their surface differences, countercultures share important underlying principles: individualism, anti-authoritarianism, and a belief in the possibility of personal and social transformation. Ranging from the Socratic counterculture of ancient Athens and the outsider movements of Judaism, which left indelible marks on Western culture, to the Taoist, Sufi, and Zen Buddhist countercultures, which were equally influential in the East, to the famous countercultural moments of the last century–Paris in the twenties, Haight-Ashbury in the sixties, Tropicalismo, women’s liberation, punk rock–to the cutting-edge countercultures of the twenty-first century, which combine science, art, music, technology, politics, and religion in astonishing (and sometimes disturbing) new ways, Counterculture Through the Ages is an indispensable guidebook to where we’ve been . . . and where we’re going.
The Crazed
by Ha JinIn his luminous new novel, the author of Waiting deepens his portrait of Chinese society while exploring the perennial conflicts between convention and individualism, integrity and pragmatism, loyalty and betrayal. Professor Yang, a respected teacher of literature at a provincial university, has had a stroke, and his student Jian Wan -who is also engaged to Yang's daughter -has been assigned to care tor him. What initially seems a simple if burdensome duty becomes more problematic when the professor begins to rave: pleading with invisible tormentors, denouncing his family, his colleagues, and a system in which a scholar is 'just a piece of meat on a cutting board. 'Are these just manifestations of illness, or is Yang spewing up the truth? In a China convulsed by the Tiananmen uprising, those who listen to the truth are as much at risk as those who speak it. At once nuanced and fierce, earthy and humane, The Crazed is further evidence of Ha Jin's prodigious narrative gifts.
Crazy
by Benjamin LebertThis autobiographical coming-of-age novel, written when the author was 16-years-old, tells the story of Benni, who is partially paralyzed and a serial failure, who finds other strange boys to hang with, and together they set out to experience what they can: Girls, booze, sex, and philosophy among other things.
The Darts of Cupid
by Edith TempletonWhen Edith Templeton’s stories began appearing inThe New Yorkerin the late 1950s, she quickly became a favorite of the magazine’s discerning readers. Her finely honed writing, honestly drawn heroines, and distinctive themes secured her reputation. The Dart’s of Cupidcollects seven of Templeton’s stories for the first time and reintroduces one of the truly great writers of the twentieth century. In settings ranging from a decrepit Bohemian castle between the wars to London during World War II to the Italian Riviera in the 1990s, the heroines of these stories often find themselves confronting unfathomable passsions and perplexing actions by others, but they seldom feel regret.
The Death of Innocents
by Helen PrejeanFrom the author of the national bestseller Dead Man Walking comes a brave and fiercely argued new book that tests the moral edge of the debate on capital punishment: What if we're executing innocent men? Two cases in point are Dobie Gillis Williams, an indigent black man with an IQ of 65, and Joseph Roger O'Dell. Both were convicted of murder on flimsy evidence (O'Dell's principal accuser was a jailhouse informant who later recanted his testimony). Both were executed in spite of numerous appeals. Sister Helen Prejean watched both of them die.As she recounts these men's cases and takes us through their terrible last moments, Prejean brilliantly dismantles the legal and religious arguments that have been used to justify the death penalty. Riveting, moving, and ultimately damning, The Death of Innocents is a book we dare not ignore.From the Trade Paperback edition.ng on the forensic evidence, which he claimed would exonerate him, but the courts refused. After his execution on July 23, 1997, the state destroyed the evidence. As a result, its conviction of O'Dell could never be scrutinized. "The reader of this book will be the first 'jury' with access to all the evidence the trial juries never saw," says Prejean, who accompanied both men to their executions. By using the withheld evidence to reconstruct the crimes for which these two men were convicted, Prejean shows how race, prosecutorial ambition, poverty, election cycles, and publicity play far too great a role in determining who dies and who lives.Prejean traces the historical underpinnings of executions in this country, demonstrating that it is no accident that over 80 percent of executions in the past twenty-five years have been carried out in the former slave states. She also raises profound constitutional questions about an appeals system that decides most death cases on procedural grounds without ever examining their merits.To date, 113 wrongfully convicted persons have been freed from death row. If constitutional protections-due process, assistance of counsel, and equal justice under law-are truly being respected, how is it possible that these people were convicted in the first place? And how can we accept a system so rife with error?Sister Helen Prejean takes us with her on her spiritual journey as she accompanies two possibly innocent human beings to their deaths at the hands of the state. Prejean implores us to reflect on what is perhaps the core moral issue of the death penalty debate: Honorable people disagree about the justice of executing the guilty, but can anyone argue about the injustice of executing the innocent?From the Hardcover edition.
Deliberate Acts of Kindness
by Meredith GouldAn indispensable guide to the spiritual and the practical aspects of devoting one’s time and energies to the service of others. Deliberate Acts of Kindnessis for people who are ready to supplement"random acts of kindness" with intentional acts of generosity, decency, and integrity. More than simply a handbook for volunteers, it explores the significance of service as an expression of spirituality and the commitment to something greater than oneself. Meredith Gould guides readers through their journeys, from recognizing when they are ready to answer the call to service to finding the right place to donate their time and talents. She offers invaluable advice on discovering the types of work that best suit their personalities and the areas in which they can make the greatest contributions. There is helpful information on how to get involved, as well as sensible suggestions about what to do when things go wrong in a service situation. An easy-to-read mix of tips, quotations, reflections, and short narrative passages,Deliberate Acts of Kindnesspresents a comprehensive, honest look at what service is like on a day-to-day basis. Its insights will help new volunteers and veterans alike negotiate the practical difficulties that sometimes arise and achieve the spiritual maturity that comes from answering the call to service. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Demon Rumm
by Sandra BrownIt was the publicity stunt from hell as far as Kirsten Rumm was concerned. She may have been writing the book about her late husband, aeronautical daredevil Demon Rumm, but she didn’t see the need to play host to the arrogant bad-boy actor starring in the film version’s title role. Still, for the good of the project, Kirsten agreed to share her beachfront home with the impossibly sexy screen idol. Any other woman would do anything to be in her sandals, but Kirsten wasn’t falling for Rylan North, even if he did play his role of male lead to perfection. His down-home charm, his gentleness and virile charisma, might be seducing her in every sense of the word, but he was an actor, after all. Seducing an audience was his job. Rylan could have any woman he wanted. So why was he so desperately pretending to want her? From the moment he saw her, Rylan North knew that Kirsten Rumm was the woman he’d been waiting all his life to cast as the star in his real-life love story. What did it matter if he was every woman’s fantasy if he couldn’t get Kirsten to so much as glance his way? He’d caught the look of past hurt behind her sky-blue eyes–a dark secret that shadowed the sparkle. Rylan was determined to find out what tragedy held this passionate woman back from a second chance at love even if it cost him his reputation, his career, and his life. But first he’d have to get Kirsten to act on her instincts . . . and to trust the flesh-and-blood man behind the fantasy.
The Devil Is a Gentleman
by J. C. HallmanA hundred years ago, the writer and philosopher William James wrote The Varieties of Religious Experience, a seminal work that has inspired generations of scholars and eccentrics alike. James’s book argues that the religious spirit in man is best understood through the study of its most extreme forms. Varieties was a watershed effort: a bestselling portrait of history’s pluralism and a defense of the spiritual quest, in all its guises, against the era’s increasingly secular sentiments. Today, with all the old tensions between skeptics and believers still in place, J. C. Hallman pays homage to James’s exploration of offbeat religious movements. But where James relied on the testimony and biographies of prophets and mystics, Hallman travels directly to some of America’s newest and most unusual religions, trekking from Druid circles in the mossy hills of northern California to the gleaming mother church of Scientology, from lurid satanic cellars in undisclosed locations to a professional-wrestling ministry in the fundamentalist heart of Texas. Along the way, he participates in a variety of rites and reports on a broad spectrum of beliefs. Eventually Hallman adopts James as his patron saint, spiritual adviser, and intellectual companion on the journey that will culminate in the creation of this book, a compelling combination of adventure and biography, spotted with hair-raising predicaments and rife with poignant portraits of unforgettable characters, including William James himself. The Devil Is a Gentlemanmaps the spiritual contours of modern American pluralism and examines the life and legacy of one of its most profound architects. From the Hardcover edition.
Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic
by Terry JonesIn this thoroughly satisfying and completely disorienting novel based on a story line by Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Terry Jones recounts an unforgettable tale of intergalactic travel and mishap. The saga of "the ship that cannot possibly go wrong" sparkles with wit, danger, and confusion that will keep readers guessing which reality they are in and how, on earth, to find their way out again.At the center of the galaxy, a vast, unknown civilization is preparing for an event of epic proportions: the launching of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced Starship ever built-the Starship Titanic. An earthling would see it as a mixture of the Chrysler Building, the tomb of Tutankhamen, and Venice. But less provincial onlookers would recognize it as the design of Leovinus, the galaxy's most renowned architect. He is an old man now, and the creation of the Starship Titanic is the pinnacle achievement of his twenty-year career. The night before the launch, Leovinus is prowling around the ship having a last little look. With mounting alarm he begins to find things are not right: unfinished workmanship, cybersystems not working correctly, robots colliding with doors. How could this have happened? And how could this have happened without his knowing?Something somewhere is terribly wrong.On the following day, in an artificial event staged for the media, the Starship Titanic will leave its construction dock under autopilot and, a few days later, make its way to the terminal to pick up passengers for its maiden voyage. Although the ship will be deserted during its very first flight, it is nevertheless a major event, watched by all the galaxy's media.Hugely, magnificently, the fabulous ship eases its way forward from the construction dock, picks up speed, sways a bit, wobbles a bit, veers wildly, and just before it can do massive damage to everything around it, appears to undergo SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure).In just ten seconds, the whole, stupendous enterprise is over. And our story has just begun.Somehow three earthlings, one Blerontin journalist, a semideranged parrot, and a shipful of disoriented robots must overcome their differences. It's the only way to save the Starship Titanic ("The Ship That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong") from certain destruction and rescue the economy of an entire planet-not to mention to survive the latest threat, an attack by a swarm of hostile shipbuilders. . . .From the Hardcover edition.
Dream Stuff
by David MaloufHere are nine haunting stories from the award-winning author of "Remembering Babylon," in which history and geography, as well as the past and the present, combine and often collide, illuminating the landscape and revealing the character of Australia. An eleven-year-old boy sees his father in his own elongated shadow only to realize that he will not return from the war. In a parting moment, a young woman hired to "marry" vacationing soldiers, grasps the weight of the word "woe. " When a failing farmer senselessly murders a wandering aborigine, he imperils his son but discovers in the spring of sympathy that follows the power to influence others. Wise and moving, startling and lyrical, " "Dream Stuff reverberates with the unpredictability of human experience, revealing people who are shaped by the mysterious rhythms of nature as well as the ghosts of their own pasts.
Drinking: A Love Story
by Caroline KnappFifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor," a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.
Echoes from the Dead
by Johan TheorinOn a gray September day, on an island off the coast of Sweden, six -year -old Jens Davidsson ventured out of his backyard, walked out into a fog, and vanished…. Now twenty years have passed, and in this magnificent debut novel of suspense—a runaway bestseller in Sweden—the boy’s mother returns to the place where her son disappeared, drawn by a chilling package sent in the mail… In it, lovingly wrapped, is one of Jens’ sandals—sandals Julia Davidsson put on her son’s feet that very last morning. Now, with only a handful of clues, Julia and her father are questioning islanders who were present the day Jens vanished—and making a shocking connection to Öland’s most notorious murder case: the killing spree of a wealthy young man who fled the island and died years before Jens was even born. Suddenly the island that once seemed so achingly familiar turns strange and dangerous… Until Julia finds herself facing truths she never imagined—about what really happened on that September day twenty years ago, about who may have crossed paths with little Jens in the fog, and how a child could truly vanish without a trace…until now.
Elements of Style
by Wendy WassersteinElements of Style, the Pulitzer Prize—winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein’s first novel,is a scathing comedy about New York's high society facing the post—9/11 world. Francesca Weissman, an Upper East Side pediatrician rated number one byManhattanmagazine, floats on the fringes of the upper strata of privilege and aspiration. Through her bemused eyes we meet the thoroughbred socialite Samantha Acton; relentless social climber Judy Tremont; Barry Santorini, an Oscar-winning moviemaker accustomed to having his way; his supermarket heiress wife, Clarice; and more, tossed together in a frothy stew of outrageous conspicuous consumption and adulterous affairs that play out on Page Six. But when Wasserstein’s madcap tour of the social lives and mores of twenty-first-century Manhattan veers into tragedy, we finally see the true cost of her characters’ choices, and the beating heart of this dazzling novel.
Enough About Love
by Herve Le TellierAny man--or woman--who wants to hear nothing--or no more--about love should put this book down. Anna and Louise could be sisters, but they don't know each other. They are both married with children, and for the most part, they are happy. On almost the same day, Anna, a psychiatrist, crosses paths with Yves, a writer, while Louise, a lawyer, meets Anna's analyst, Thomas. Love at first sight is still possible for those into their forties and long-married. But when you have already mapped out a life path, a passionate affair can come at a high price. For our four characters, their lives are unexpectedly turned upside down by the deliciously inconvenient arrival of love. For Anna, meeting Yves has brought a flurry of excitement to her life and made her question her values, her reliable husband, and her responsibilities to her children. For Louise, a successful career woman in a stable and comfortable marriage, her routine is uprooted by the youthful passion she feels for Thomas. Thought-provoking, sophisticated, and, above all, amusing, Enough About Love captures the euphoria of desire through tender and unflinching portraits of husbands, wives, and lovers.