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America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag

2010-12-13T04:04:00.000-08:00

Sarah Palin (Author) :America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag

Since the publication of her bestselling memoir, Going Rogue, in 2009, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has traveled the country extensively. She has visited cities and towns in almost every state, dropped in on military bases, given talks and speeches to small groups and at massive rallies. Throughout her travels, she has had the privilege of meeting thousands of Americans—ordinary men and women who have shared with her their hopes and dreams, their love of country, and their fears about what lies ahead. Governor Palin, inspired by these encounters, celebrates in her new book the enduring strengths and virtues that have made this country a beacon of liberty and hope for the rest of the world.

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America by Heart is a highly personal testament to her deep love of country, her strong roots in faith, and her profound appreciation of family. Ranging widely over American history, culture, and current affairs, Governor Palin reflects on the key values that have been such an essential part of her own life and that continue to inform her vision of America's future.

Decision Points

2010-12-13T03:56:00.000-08:00

George W. Bush (Author) :Decision Points

In this candid and gripping account, President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions that shaped his presidency and personal life.

George W. Bush served as president of the United States during eight of the most consequential years in American history. The decisions that reached his desk impacted people around the world and defined the times in which we live.

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Decision Points brings readers inside the Texas governor's mansion on the night of the 2000 election, aboard Air Force One during the harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic presidential decisions.

For the first time, we learn President Bush's perspective and insights on:

1. His decision to quit drinking and the journey that led him to his Christian faith
2. The selection of the vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, Supreme Court justices, and other key officials
3. His relationships with his wife, daughters, and parents, including heartfelt letters between the president and his father on the eve of the Iraq War
4. His administration's counterterrorism programs, including the CIA's enhanced interrogations and the Terrorist Surveillance Program
5. Why the worst moment of the presidency was hearing accusations that race played a role in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and a critical assessment of what he would have done differently during the crisis
6. His deep concern that Iraq could turn into a defeat costlier than Vietnam, and how he decided to defy public opinion by ordering the troop surge
7. His legislative achievements, including tax cuts and reforming education and Medicare, as well as his setbacks, including Social Security and immigration reform
8. The relationships he forged with other world leaders, including an honest assessment of those he did and didn’t trust
9. Why the failure to bring Osama bin Laden to justice ranks as his biggest disappointment and why his success in denying the terrorists their fondest wish—attacking America again—is among his proudest achievements

A groundbreaking new brand of presidential memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on eight remarkable years in American history—and on the man at the center of events.

Since leaving office, President George W. Bush has led the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The center includes an active policy institute working to advance initiatives in the fields of education reform, global health, economic growth, and human freedom, with a special emphasis on promoting social entrepreneurship and creating opportunities for women around the world. It will also house an official government archive and a state-of-the-art museum that will open in 2013.
About the Author
George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

2010-12-13T03:50:00.000-08:00

Jason Beaird(Author) :The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

This second edition of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is the ideal book for people who can build websites, but are seeking the skills and knowledge to visually enhance their sites.

This book will teach you how to:

a. Understand the process of what makes "good design," from discovery through to implementation
b. Use color effectively, develop color schemes, and create a palette
c. Create pleasing layouts using grids, the rule of thirds, and symmetry
d.
e. Apply typography to make ordinary designs look great
f. Choose, edit, and position effective imagery

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And lots more...

This revised, easy-to-follow guide is illustrated with beautiful, full-color examples, and leads readers through the process of creating great designs from start to finish.

It also features:

a. Updated information about grid-based design
b. How to design for mobile resolutions
c. Information about the future of web fonts including @font-face
d. Common user-interface patterns and resources

About the Author
Jason Beaird is a designer & front-end developer with over ten years of experience working on a wide range of award-winning web projects. With a background in in graphic design and a passion for web standards, he's always looking for accessible ways to make the Web a more beautiful place. When he's not pushing pixels in Photoshop or tinkering with markup, Jason loves sharing his passion for the web with others.

The Web Designer's Idea Book, Vol. 2: More of the Best Themes, Trends and Styles in Website Design

2010-12-13T03:27:00.000-08:00

Patrick McNeil (Author) :The Web Designer's Idea Book, Vol. 2: More of the Best Themes, Trends and Styles in Website Design

Web Design Inspiration at a Glance

Volume 2 of The Web Designer's Idea Book includes more than 650 new websites arranged thematically, so you can easily find inspiration for your work. Author Patrick McNeil, creator of the popular web design blog designmeltdown.com and author of the original bestselling Web Designer's Idea Book, has cataloged thousands of sites, and showcases the latest and best examples in this book.

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The web is the most rapidly changing design medium, and this book offers an organized overview of what's happening right now. Sites are categorized by type, design element, styles and themes, structural styles, and structural elements. This new volume also includes a helpful chapter explaining basic design principles and how they can be applied online. Whether you're brainstorming with a coworker or explaining your ideas to a client, this book provides a powerful communication tool you can use to jump start your next project.

About the Author
Patrick McNeil is a web designer and programmer. His blog, designmeltdown.com, presents trends and problems in web design and provides inspiration for web designers through numerous samples of design styles and trends. His site has become a standard reference for web designers of all skill levels.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest [Hardcover]

2010-04-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

Stieg Larsson (Author) :The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest [Hardcover]

The exhilarating conclusion to bestseller Larsson's Millennium trilogy (after The Girl Who Played with Fire) finds Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant computer hacker who was shot in the head in the final pages of Fire, alive, though still the prime suspect in three murders in Stockholm. While she convalesces under armed guard, journalist Mikael Blomkvist works to unravel the decades-old coverup surrounding the man who shot Salander: her father, Alexander Zalachenko, a Soviet intelligence defector and longtime secret asset to Säpo, Sweden's security police. Estranged throughout Fire, Blomkvist and Salander communicate primarily online, but their lack of physical interaction in no way diminishes the intensity of their unconventional relationship. Though Larsson (1954–2004) tends toward narrative excess, his was an undeniably powerful voice in crime fiction that will be sorely missed. 500,000 first printing. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Product Features

*Starred Review* When we last saw Lisbeth Salander, she was teetering between life and death. And who wouldn’t be after having been shot by her father and buried alive by her brother? Salander was rescued, at the end of The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009), by journalist Mikael Blomkvist. She’s now in a Swedish hospital, slowly mending and awaiting trial for three murders she didn’t commit. Meanwhile, her father, a former Soviet spy, is down the hall, recovering from the injuries he sustained when Lisbeth stuck an ax in his head. Blomkvist, Salander’s loyal friend, sets out to prove her innocence, but to do so he must expose a decades-old conspiracy within the Swedish secret service that has resulted in, among other travesties, a lifetime of abuse heaped upon Salander, whose very life threatens to expose the deadly charade. The late Larsson (this third novel in his Millennium Trilogy is his final book) can be accused of heaping too much plot between two covers—in addition to the Salander story, there is an elaborate subplot involving Blomkvist’s lover, Erica, and her travails as the first female editor of a major Stockholm newspaper—but he is remarkably agile at keeping multiple balls in the air. But it wouldn’t really matter if he weren’t a skilled craftsman because Salander is such a bravura heroine—steel will and piercing intelligence veiling a heartbreaking vulnerability—that we’d willingly follow her through any bramble bush of a plot. She spends more than half of this novel in a hospital bed, but orchestrating the action from her Palm computer, she dominates the stage like Lear. There are few characters as formidable as Lisbeth Salander in contemporary fiction of any kind. She will be sorely missed. --Bill Ott

Payback Time: Making Big Money Is the Best Revenge! (Hardcover)

2010-03-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

Phil Town (Author) :Payback Time: Making Big Money Is the Best Revenge! (Hardcover)

Editorial Reviews
Review
“Finally, an investment book that’s easy to understand and actually works in the real world. PAYBACK TIME will make a lot of people very, very rich!”
--T. Harv Eker, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, SECRETS OF THE MILLIONAIRE MIND

“There's never been a better time then now to start over and finish rich! Recessions make millionaires and Phil Town's strategy for stockpiling wealth in the stock market is a fantastic vehicle for achieving that goal. You'll realize when you read this that it’s still possible to recapture your dreams of a richer, better future.”
--David Bach, #1 New York Times bestselling author of START OVER, FINISH RICH and THE AUTOMATIC MILLIONAIRE

“Masterful in its insights...brilliant in its simplicity and practicality! With uncompromising clarity, Phil Town exposes the truth about how poorly mutual fund managers perform, then proceeds to teach a very precise methodology for finding, evaluating, and investing in valuable businesses. PAYBACK TIME is a must read for everyone who's ready to take complete control of their financial freedom, and wants to do so with confidence, safety, and sound investment principles.”
--Tony Martinez, Founding Partner, Wealth Without Risk, LLC

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Phil Town’s first book, the #1 New York Times bestseller Rule #1, was a guide to stock trading for people who believe they lack the knowledge to trade. But because many people aren’t ready to go from mutual funds directly into trading without understanding investing—for the long term – he created Payback Time.

Too often, people see long-term investing as “mutual fund contributing” – otherwise known as “long-term hoping.” But the sad truth is that mutual fund investors are, to a stunning degree, pinning their hopes on an institution that is hopeless. It turns out that only 4% of fund managers consistently beat the S&P 500 index over the long term, which means that 96% of fund investors see a smaller return on their nest egg than a chimpanzee who simply buys stocks in the 500 biggest companies in America and watches what happens.

But it’s worse than that. The net effect of hitching your wagon to mutual funds is that over a lifetime they’ll fritter away as much 60% of your nest egg in fees. Once you understand how funds engineer this, you’ll rush to invest on your own.

Payback Time’s risk-free approach is called “stockpiling” and it’s how billionaires get rich in bad markets. It’s a set of rules for investing (not trading but investing) in the right businesses at the right time -- rules that will ensure you make the big money.

House Rules: A Novel (Hardcover)

2010-03-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

Jodi Picoult (Author) :House Rules: A Novel (Hardcover)

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Perennial bestseller Picoult (Handle with Care) has a rough time in this Picoult-esque blend of medical and courtroom drama that lacks her usual storytelling finesse. Eighteen-year old Jacob Hunt has Asperger's syndrome, and his devoted single mother, Emma, has built their family's life around Jacob's needs, sacrificing her career to act as his caregiver and all but ignoring a younger son, Theo. But when Jacob is accused of murder, that carefully crafted life comes apart, and all of the hallmarks of Jacob's diagnosis begin to make him look guilty. Emma hires a young attorney whose attachment to Jacob brings him close to the family as he struggles to mount a defense for Jacob, whose inability to read social cues makes him less than an ideal client. While Picoult's research is impeccable and she deals intelligently with charged questions about autism and Asperger's, the whodunit is stretched sitcom-thin and handled poorly, with characters withholding information from the reader throughout. Picoult's writing, line by line, is as smooth as ever, and she does a great job of getting into Jacob's head, but the wobbly plotting is a massive detriment. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Description

The astonishing new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult about a family torn apart by an accusation of murder.

They tell me I'm lucky to have a son who's so verbal, who is blisteringly intelligent, who can take apart the broken microwave and have it working again an hour later. They think there is no greater hell than having a son who is locked in his own world, unaware that there's a wider one to explore. But try having a son who is locked in his own world, and still wants to make a connection. A son who tries to be like everyone else, but truly doesn't know how.

Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject -- in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do...and he's usually right. But then his town is rocked by a terrible murder and, for a change, the police come to Jacob with questions. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's -- not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, flat affect -- can look a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel. Suddenly, Jacob and his family, who only want to fit in, feel the spotlight shining directly on them. For his mother, Emma, it's a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it's another indication of why nothing is normal because of Jacob. And over this small family the soul-searing question looms: Did Jacob commit murder?

Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History (Hardcover)

2010-03-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

Andrew P. Napolitano (Author) :Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History (Hardcover)

Product Description

What new crisis will the federal government manufacture in order to acquire more power over individuals? What new lies will it tell?

Throughout our history, the federal government has lied to send our children off to war, lied to take our money, lied to steal our property, lied to gain our trust, and lied to enhance its power over us. Not only does the government lie to us, we lie to ourselves. We won't admit that each time we let the government get away with misleading us, we are allowing it to increase in size and power and decrease our personal liberty.

In acquiescing to the government's continuous fraudulent behavior, we bear partial responsibility for the erosion of our individual liberties and the ever-expanding federal regulation of private behavior. This book attacks the culture in government that facilitates lying, and it challenges readers to recognize that culture, to confront it, and to be rid of it.

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About the Author

Andrew P. Napolitano graduated from Princeton University and the University of Notre Dame Law School and is the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of the State of New Jersey. Judge Napolitano returned to private practice in 1995 and has been the Senior Judicial Analyst for Fox News since 1998. He broadcasts nationwide on “The Big Story”, he co-hosts “Fox & Friends”, is a regular on “The O’Reilly Factor” and co-hosts “Brian and the Judge”. Napolitano also lectures nationally, and has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many more. He is the author of Constitutional Chaos, the New York Times bestseller The Constitution in Exile, A Nation of Sheep, and Dred Scott's Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom.
--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices (Hardcover)

2010-03-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

~ Mosab Hassan Yousef
Mosab Hassan Yousef (Author),Ron Brackin (Contributor) :Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices (Hardcover)

Product Description
Since he was a small boy, Mosab Hassan Yousef has had an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of Hamas and its most popular leader, young Mosab assisted his father for years in his political activities while being groomed to assume his legacy, politics, status . . . and power. But everything changed when Mosab turned away from terror and violence, and embraced instead the teachings of another famous Middle East leader. In Son of Hamas, Mosab Yousef--now called "Joseph"--reveals new information about the world's most dangerous terrorist organization and unveils the truth about his own role, his agonizing separation from family and homeland, the dangerous decision to make his newfound faith public, and his belief that the Christian mandate to "love your enemies" is the only way to peace in the Middle East.

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From the Inside Flap
Before the age of twenty-one, Mosab Hassan Yousef saw things no one should ever see: abject poverty, abuse of power, torture, and death. He witnessed the behind-the-scenes dealings of top Middle Eastern leaders who make headlines around the world. He was trusted at the highest levels of Hamas and participated in the Intifada. He was held captive deep inside Israel's most feared prison facility. His dangerous choices and unlikely journey through dark places made him a traitor in the eyes of people he loves--and gave him access to extraordinary secrets. On the pages of this book, he exposes events and processes that to this point have been known only by a handful of individuals... Mosab Hassan ("Joseph") Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding leader of Hamas, internationally recognized as a terrorist organization and responsible for countless suicide bombings and other deadly attacks against Israel. An integral part of the movement, Mosab was imprisoned several times by the Israeli internal intelligence service. After a chance encounter with a British tourist, he started a six-year quest that jeopardized Hamas, endangered his family, and threatened his life. He has since embraced the teachings of Jesus and sought political asylum in America. Ron Brackin has traveled extensively in the Middle East as an investigative journalist. He was in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Gaza, and Jerusalem during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. He was on assignment in Baghdad after the fall of Iraq and more recently with the rebels and refugees of southern Sudan and Darfur. He has contributed articles and columns to many publications, including USA Today and the Washington Times. Ron served as a broadcast journalist and a congressional press secretary in Washington after graduating from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted (Hardcover)

2010-03-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

Daniel G. Amen M.D. (Author) :Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted (Hardcover)

Product Description
THE KEY TO A BETTER BODY—in shape, energized, and youthful—is a healthy brain. Based on the latest medical research, as well as on Dr. Amen’s two decades of clinical practice at the renowned Amen Clinics, where Dr. Amen and his associates pioneered the use of the most advanced brain imaging technology, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body shows you how to take the very best care of your brain.

With fifteen practical, easy-to-implement solutions involving nutritious foods, natural supplements and vitamins, positive-thinking habits, and, when necessary, highly targeted medications, Dr. Amen shows you how to:

* Reach and maintain your ideal weight
* Soothe and smooth your skin at any age
* Reduce the stress that can impair your immune system
* Sharpen your memory
* Increase willpower and eliminate the cravings that keep you from achieving your exercise and diet goals
* Enhance sexual desire and performance
* Lower your blood pressure without medication
* Avoid depression and elevate the enjoyment you take in life’s pleasures.
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Review
“Come on, people, the health of our society is going the wrong way! We can do so much better. Dr. Amen’s groundbreaking work gives us a blueprint for a better brain and a better body. I highly recommend it.”
—BILL COSBY

“Daniel Amen continually demonstrates why he is truly one of the most original thinkers in medicine today. As he correctly points out in his newest book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, the brain is the integration center that ultimately controls not only the way we think and feel but also the way we look. More important, he provides the dietary advice that has been clinically demonstrated to improve brain function. If you want to optimize your life, this book is a must-read.”
—BARRY SEARS, Ph.D., author of The Zone

“Buy Change Your Brain, Change Your Body for yourself, the people you love, and your physician. . . . This book can save your life, improve the quality of your life, and motivate you in helping those people that you love!”
—EARL R. HENSLIN, Psy.D., author of This Is Your Brain on Joy

“Change Your Brain, Change Your Body is a marvelous book. . . . Highly readable and hard to put down, it is packed with insight, information, and practical tools for the care of both adults and children.”
—MICHAEL GURIAN, author of The Wonder of Girls and The Wonder of Boys

“Dr. Amen has been my source for a better brain for a long time. I have been a student and a fan, but this is new. If a ‘brain boost’ can give me a better body, I say bring it on!”
—LEEZA GIBBONS

New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) (Kindle Edition)

2008-10-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) (Kindle Edition)
by Stephenie Meyer (Author)

Book Reviews

Grade 9 Up–Recovered from the vampire attack that hospitalized her in the conclusion of Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005), Bella celebrates her birthday with her boyfriend Edward and his family, a unique clan of vampires that has sworn off human blood. But the celebration abruptly ends when the teen accidentally cuts her arm on broken glass. The sight and smell of her blood trickling away forces the Cullen family to retreat lest they be tempted to make a meal of her. After all is mended, Edward, realizing the danger that he and his family create for Bella, sees no option for her safety but to leave. Mourning his departure, she slips into a downward spiral of depression that penetrates and lingers over her every step. Vampire fans will appreciate the subsequently dour mood that permeates the novel, and it's not until Bella befriends Jacob, a sophomore from her school with a penchant for motorcycles, that both the pace and her disposition begin to take off. Their adventures are wild, dare-devilish, and teeter on the brink of romance, but memories of Edward pervade Bella's emotions, and soon their fun quickly morphs into danger, especially when she uncovers the true identities of Jacob and his pack of friends. Less streamlined than Twilight yet just as exciting, New Moon will more than feed the bloodthirsty hankerings of fans of the first volume and leave them breathless for the third.

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Readers will thrill to Ilyana Kadushin's elegant narration of NEW MOON, sequel to TWILIGHT. Her performance captures the emotional upheaval of mortal Bella's desperate love for vampire Edward and the obstacles to their perilous reunion. Like Romeo and Juliet, Edward and Bella suffer from their own folly, as well as the disapproval of their families. Kadushin's silvery, feminine voice delivers the unfolding events with precise, consistent timing, showcasing Meyer's story without overwhelming it. While the male characters could be slightly more distinct, the dialogue is clear as are Bella's numerous internal monologues. Kadushin ably succeeds at creating an addictive listen from Meyer's tumultuous story of star-crossed lovers.

Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) (Kindle Edition)

2008-10-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
by Stephenie Meyer (Author)

Book Reviews

The book that started the phenomenon is now available in a deluxe collector's edition! Featuring a ribbon bookmark, cloth cover, ragged edges, new chapter opener designs, and a beautiful protective slipcase, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

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Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

Brisingr (Kindle Edition)

2008-10-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

Brisingr (Kindle Edition)
by Christopher Paolini (Author)

Book Reviews

Following the colossal battle against the Empire-s warriors on the Burning Plains, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have narrowly escaped with their lives. Still there is more at hand for the Rider and his dragon, as Eragon finds himself bound by a tangle of promises he may not be able to keep.

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First is Eragon-s oath to his cousin Roran: to help rescue Roran-s beloved, Katrina, from King Galbatorix-s clutches. But Eragon owes his loyalty to others, too. The Varden are in desperate need of his talents and strength-as are the elves and dwarves. When unrest claims the rebels and danger strikes from every corner, Eragon must make choices- choices that take him across the Empire and beyond, choices that may lead to unimagined sacrifice.

Eragon is the greatest hope to rid the land of tyranny. Can this once-simple farm boy unite the rebel forces and defeat the king?

Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach

2008-10-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

Integrated Marketing Communication: An Integrated Approach
by Paul Russell Smith (Author), Jonathan Taylor (Author)

Book Reviews

Paul Smith is firmly established as one of Europe's leading marketing authors and is now a senior examiner for the CIM's new eMarketing Award. The CEO of Multimedia Marketing.com, the successful online e-business and e-marketing course providers, he is much sought after as an international speaker and contributor to the marketing press. His other books are: Strategic Marketing Communications and Great Answers to Tough Marketing Questions.

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Integrated Marketing Communication: Creative Strategy from Idea to Implementation

2008-05-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Integrated Marketing Communication: Creative Strategy from Idea to Implementation
by Robyn Blakeman (Author)

Book Reviews

Robyn Blakeman's Integrated Marketing Communication offers a classroom-tested approach that lays out creative processes and strategies for effective IMC. Blakeman covers key areas, from marketing plans, branding and positioning, and creative briefs to copywriting, design, and media format considerations. She also looks at visual and verbal tactics and business theory and practices in relation to the creative message. IMC trends require students to become well-rounded professionals, understanding not only advertising but also marketing, public relations, sales promotion, and direct marketing.

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The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly

2008-05-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
by David Meerman Scott
David M. Scott "David Meerman Scott" sent the following posts to customers
who purchased The New Rules of Marketing
and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting,
Viral Marketing and Online Media
to Reach Buyers Directly

Book Reviews

Though it may not yet have affected the value of 30 seconds of Super Bowl advertising, PR insider Scott argues that understanding the growing irrelevance of marketing's "old rules" is vital to thriving in the new media jungle. Already apparent in newspapers and magazines (with sharp downturns in circulation and ads), radio (on the losing end of the iPod revolution) and direct mail (digitally replaced by spam), the imminent fall of traditional mass media marketing means new opportunities for legions of smaller companies and independent professionals who need to reach niche markets cheaply and effectively. The way Scott sees it, this is also good news for consumers: the online culture of integrity and information tends to produce quality content for less, as opposed to the vapid, one-sided and pricey advertising of print media and television.

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Scott provides the technical novice a thoughtful and accessible guide to cutting-edge media arenas and formats such as RSS, vodcasts and viral marketing, without neglecting the fact that technological wizardry can't substitute for a well-thought out marketing program. Besides emphasizing fundamentals like defining one's audience, Scott also drills home the ethos and etiquette of the web, encouraging content that's both useful and unobtrusive. This excellent look at the basics of new-millennial marketing should find use in the hands of any serious PR professional making the transition.

Duma Key: A Novel

2008-05-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

Duma Key: A Novel
by Stephen King

Book Reviews

In bestseller King's well-crafted tale of possession and redemption, Edgar Freemantle, a successful Minnesota contractor, barely survives after the Dodge Ram he's driving collides with a 12-story crane on a job site. While Freemantle suffers the loss of an arm and a fractured skull, among other serious injuries, he makes impressive gains in rehabilitation. Personality changes that include uncontrollable rages, however, hasten the end of his 20-year-plus marriage. On his psychiatrist's advice, Freemantle decides to start anew on a remote island in the Florida Keys.

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To his astonishment, he becomes consumed with making art—first pencil sketches, then paintings—that soon earns him a devoted following. Freemantle's artwork has the power both to destroy life and to cure ailments, but soon the Lovecraftian menace that haunts Duma Key begins to assert itself and torment those dear to him. The transition from the initial psychological suspense to the supernatural may disappoint some, but even those few who haven't read King (Lisey's Story) should appreciate his ability to create fully realized characters and conjure horrors that are purely manmade. (Jan. 22)
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Believe

2008-05-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

Believe
by Daniel Oran

Book Reviews

Late December is a season of miracles, from the return of longer days to the commemoration of a long-ago birth that continues to inspire the faithful.

This short novel is set at that wondrous time of the year.

On December 25, a man with amnesia -- and surprising talents -- appears at a Manhattan hospital.

A struggling young doctor befriends the man, and together they search for the truth.

It's a story about friendship and faith. And it's also a story about ripples: how the actions of one person can affect so many others.

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The Book Thief (Readers Circle) By Markus Zusak

2008-04-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Book Thief (Readers Circle)
By Markus Zusak

Book Reviews

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands.

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The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Death, it turns out, is not proud.

The narrator of The Book Thief is many things -- sardonic, wry, darkly humorous, compassionate -- but not especially proud. As author Marcus Zusak channels him, Death -- who doesn't carry a scythe but gets a kick out of the idea -- is as afraid of humans as humans are of him.

Knopf is blitz-marketing this 550-page book set in Nazi Germany as a young-adult novel, though it was published in the author's native Australia for grown-ups. (Zusak, 30, has written several books for kids, including the award-winning I Am the Messenger.) The book's length, subject matter and approach might give early teen readers pause, but those who can get beyond the rather confusing first pages will find an absorbing and searing narrative.

Death meets the book thief, a 9-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger, when he comes to take her little brother, and she becomes an enduring force in his life, despite his efforts to resist her. "I traveled the globe . . . handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity," Death writes. "I warned myself that I should keep a good distance from the burial of Liesel Meminger's brother. I did not heed my advice." As Death lingers at the burial, he watches the girl, who can't yet read, steal a gravedigger's instruction manual. Thus Liesel is touched first by Death, then by words, as if she knows she'll need their comfort during the hardships ahead.

The Last Lecture (Hardcover) by Randy Pausch

2008-04-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

The Last Lecture (Hardcover)
by Randy Pausch

Book Reviews

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

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When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

We were shy about barging in on Randy Pausch's valuable time to ask him a few questions about his expansion of his famous Last Lecture into the book by the same name, but he was gracious enough to take a moment to answer. (See Randy to the right with his kids, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe.) As anyone who has watched the lecture or read the book will understand, the really crucial question is the last one, and we weren't surprised to learn that the "secret" to winning giant stuffed animals on the midway, like most anything else, is sheer persistence.

A book allows me to cover many, many more stories from my life and the attendant lessons I hope my kids can take from them. Also, much of my lecture at Carnegie Mellon focused on the professional side of my life--my students, colleagues and career. The book is a far more personal look at my childhood dreams and all the lessons I've learned. Putting words on paper, I've found, was a better way for me to share all the yearnings I have regarding my wife, children and other loved ones. I knew I couldn't have gone into those subjects on stage without getting emotional.

Publisher: Hyperion (April 8, 2008)

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61) by : Eckhart Tolle

2008-04-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61)
by : Eckhart Tolle

Book Reviews

The highly anticipated follow-up to the 2,000,000 copy bestselling inspirational book, The Power of Now

With his bestselling spiritual guide The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived "in the now." In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.

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The Power of Now was a question-and-answer handbook. A New Earth has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for building a better world.

About the Author

ECKHART TOLLE is a contemporary spiritual teacher who is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. In his writing and seminars, he conveys a simple yet profound message with the timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual masters: There is a way out of suffering and into peace. Eckhart travels extensively, taking his teachings throughout the world.

Publisher: Penguin (January 30, 2008).

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) (Paperback) By J.K. Rowling

2008-04-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) (Paperback)
by J.K. Rowling

Book Reviews

The long-awaited, eagerly anticipated, arguably over-hyped Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has arrived, and the question on the minds of kids, adults, fans, and skeptics alike is, "Is it worth the hype?" The answer, luckily, is simple: yep. A magnificent spectacle more than worth the price of admission, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will blow you away. However, given that so much has gone into protecting the secrets of the book (including armored trucks and injunctions), don't expect any spoilers in this review. It's much more fun not knowing what's coming--and in the case of Rowling's delicious sixth book, you don't want to know. Just sit tight, despite the earth-shattering revelations that will have your head in your hands as you hope the words will rearrange themselves into a different story. But take one warning to heart: do not open Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince until you have first found a secluded spot, safe from curious eyes, where you can tuck in for a good long read. Because once you start, you won't stop until you reach the very last page.

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A darker book than any in the series thus far with a level of sophistication belying its genre, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince moves the series into murkier waters and marks the arrival of Rowling onto the adult literary scene. While she has long been praised for her cleverness and wit, the strength of Book 6 lies in her subtle development of key characters, as well as her carefully nuanced depiction of a community at war. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, no one and nothing is safe, including preconceived notions of good and evil and of right and wrong. With each book in her increasingly remarkable series, fans have nervously watched J.K. Rowling raise the stakes; gone are the simple delights of butterbeer and enchanted candy, and days when the worst ailment could be cured by a bite of chocolate

A series that began as a colorful lark full of magic and discovery has become a dark and deadly war zone. But this should not come as a shock to loyal readers. Rowling readied fans with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by killing off popular characters and engaging the young students in battle. Still, there is an unexpected bleakness from the start of Book 6 that casts a mean shadow over Quidditch games, silly flirtations, and mountains of homework. Ready or not, the tremendous ending of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will leave stunned fans wondering what great and terrible events await in Book 7 if this sinister darkness is meant to light the way.

Scholastic Paperbacks

Beginning JavaScript

2008-04-17T01:27:00.002-07:00

by Paul Wilton

Book Reviews

Suitable for learning basic programming for Web browsers, Beginning JavaScript is a patient, introductory tutorial on writing scripts successfully. It teaches you how to create client-side scripts (including full coverage of fundamentals like variables and flow control, plus plenty of screen shots.)

JavaScript is a good way to learn programming. It's powerful, of course, but the book takes small steps, using scripts that work with string and time data first, and then moving to manipulating browser objects like forms and windows. A running case study for a trivia game helps anchor the steps with a practical (and fun) example. There are plenty of tips on debugging your scripts (including how to use the Microsoft Script Debugger tool), and each section includes sample questions. (The book also offers extensive answers in over 80 pages at the end of the book.)

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There's plenty of material on the differences between Internet Explorer and Netscape, especially when it comes to Dynamic HTML (DHTML). Coverage of the Document Object Model (DOM) for browsers helps bring the text up to date on some of the latest standards in Web browsers (including the new Netscape 6).

While the focus of Beginning JavaScript clearly is on the client, later sections turn to server-side ASP development (in which the sample trivia game is enhanced with ASPs written in JavaScript using ADO and Microsoft Access.) Reference sections on JavaScript and the browser object model for Internet Explorer and Netscape (through version 4.x) round out the material.

In all, with its approachable style and clearly rendered code examples, Beginning JavaScript makes for a worthwhile first book of programming for today's browsers. Even if you haven't programmed before, this text can give you the tools you need to bring your static Web pages to life. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

a. Introduction to JavaScript
b. Cross-browser compatibility issues
c. JavaScript data types and variables
d. Displaying errors
e. Calculations
f. Operators
g. String handling
h. Flow control statements
i. Loops
j. Introduction to using objects
k. The browser object model
l. HTML forms (including types of input controls)
m. Frames and windows
n. Tutorial for regular expressions
o. Advanced string methods
p. Date, time, and timer objects
q. Common errors
r. The Microsoft Script Debugger
s. Cookies
t. Dynamic HTML (DHTML) on Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape Navigator 4.x
u. The Document Object Model (DOM)
v. ActiveX controls and plug-ins used with JavaScript
w. Server-scripting
x. Introduction to ASP and databases (including SQL basics and database design with Microsoft Access)
y. Sample case study for a trivia game
z. Sample exercises and answers
a.1. References to JavaScript
b.1. Internet Explorer 4 and 5 and Netscape Navigator 4 objects
c.1. ASP object model reference

Product Description
What is this book about?

JavaScript is the preferred programming language for Web page applications, letting you enhance your sites with interactive, dynamic, and personalized pages. This fully updated guide shows you how to take advantage of JavaScript’s client-side scripting techniques for the newest versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, even if you’ve never programmed before.

You begin with basic syntax and learn about data types and how to structure code for decision-making. Then you learn to use dates, strings, and other basic objects of JavaScript. Next, you see how to use JavaScript to manipulate objects provided by the browser, such as forms and windows. From there, you move into advanced topics like using cookies and dynamic HTML.

After you have a solid foundation, you explore dynamic generation of Web content using server-side scripting and back-end databases. And you practice what you learn by building a sample application as you go.

What does this book cover?

Here are some of the things you'll find in this book:

1. What types of data are used in JavaScript
2. How to identify and correct flaws in your code
3. Techniques for programming the browser
4. How to use Microsoft Script Debugger and Netscape Script Debugger
5. Ways to manage cross-browser issues
6. How JavaScript interacts with XML and HTML

Beginning CSS: Cascading Style Sheets for Web Design (Programmer to Programmer)

2008-04-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

Book Reviews

This book is the perfect introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the Web markup standard that allows Web designers and developers to easily make a style change to one CSS template and then change formatting across hundreds-or thousands-of pages Covers the current CSS standard versions (CSS 1 and CSS 2) with notes and comments where appropriate on the CSS 3 standard in development Includes quick reference on CSS at the end of the book as well as integrated reference coverage throughout Teaches by using an example-oriented approach and includes exercises at the end of each chapter, with sample solutions provided in the appendix

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Product Description

1. This book is the perfect introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the Web markup standard that allows Web designers and developers to easily make a style change to one CSS template and then change formatting across hundreds-or thousands-of pages
2. Covers the current CSS standard versions (CSS 1 and CSS 2) with notes and comments where appropriate on the CSS 3 standard in development
3. Includes quick reference on CSS at the end of the book as well as integrated reference coverage throughout
4. Teaches by using an example-oriented approach and includes exercises at the end of each chapter, with sample solutions provided in the appendix

Peony in Love: A Novel

2008-04-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

Book Reviews

Set in 17th-century China, See's fifth novel is a coming-of-age story, a ghost story, a family saga and a work of musical and social history. As Peony, the 15-year-old daughter of the wealthy Chen family, approaches an arranged marriage, she commits an unthinkable breach of etiquette when she accidentally comes upon a man who has entered the family garden. Unusually for a girl of her time, Peony has been educated and revels in studying The Peony Pavilion, a real opera published in 1598, as the repercussions of the meeting unfold. The novel's plot mirrors that of the opera, and eternal themes abound: an intelligent girl chafing against the restrictions of expected behavior; fiction's educative powers; the rocky path of love between lovers and in families. It figures into the plot that generations of young Chinese women, known as the lovesick maidens, became obsessed with The Peony Pavilion, and, in a Werther-like passion, many starved themselves to death. See (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, etc.) offers meticulous depiction of women's roles in Qing and Ming dynasty China (including horrifying foot-binding scenes) and vivid descriptions of daily Qing life, festivals and rituals. Peony's vibrant voice, perfectly pitched between the novel's historical and passionate depths, carries her story beautifully—in life and afterlife.

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Lisa See's new novel continues her exploration of the Chinese past. Peony in Love is in no formal sense related to her bestselling Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, or her memoir On Gold Mountain, but it profits from the same sensibility and comes from the same pen. This book has a three-part structure ("In the Garden," "Roaming with the Wind," and "Under the Plum Tree") and is deeply rooted in such texts as Tang Xianzu's opera "The Peony Pavilion," first produced and published in 1598. Importantly, too, it derives from The Three Wives Commentary of 1694, "the first book of its kind to have been published anywhere in the world to have been written by women -- three wives, no less." As historical fiction, Peony in Love attempts -- almost entirely successfully -- to immerse the reader in a world both strange and distant; whereas Snow Flower dealt with 19th-century China, the action of this book transpires two centuries before.

See's love story takes as its narrator a girl dead at 16 and doomed to be a "hungry ghost" for decades until she can be "transformed into an ancestor." That narrator, young Peony, is a beguiling mix of innocence and experience; we watch her both as the pampered and studious daughter of a wealthy family and as a starveling wisp of air who cannot negotiate corners and must avoid mirrors and swords. There's a prodigious amount of information here digested and conveyed.

"I thought of the gifts my father would send with the pieces of pig," Peony tells us, "sprigs of artemisia to expel evil influences before my arrival, pomegranates to symbolize my fertility, jujubes because the word sounded like having children quickly, and the seven grains, because the character for kernel was identical in writing and sound to offspring." This comes as preparation for marriage. Peony dies before that ceremony can be consummated, however, and here is part of how -- still conscious, still serving as our narrator -- she is prepared for death: "Mama placed a thin sliver of jade in my mouth to safeguard my body.

Second Aunt tucked coins and rice in my pockets so I might soothe the rabid dogs I'd meet on my way to the afterworld. Third Aunt covered my face with a thin piece of white silk. Fourth Aunt tied colored string around my waist to prevent me from carrying away any of our family's children and around my feet to restrain my body from leaping about should I be tormented by evil spirits on my journey."

That journey does seem strange. These characters cannot bear too much scrutiny; it's never clear, for example, why the poet Wu Ren fails to declare himself to her on their "three nights of love." That the girl should not know him makes sense; she's been protected all her life and forbidden to meet men. But he's her father's chess-playing companion, familiar with the great Chen house, and would know by her dress and deportment that she's his bride-to-be. Also, the behavior of the 9-year-old Tan Ze, who becomes Wu's second wife, is capricious to the point of caricature.

The last line of the first paragraph of the book, though true enough, strikes a discordant note, "It was going to be amazing," and often there's a romantic breathiness to the prose that feels like poor translation: "Grandmother laughed. The sound was so foreign that it jarred me from my tragic circumstances. I turned to her and her face practically danced with mirth and mischievousness. I had never seen that before, but I was too heartbroken to be hurt by that old woman's amusement at my desperate circumstances."

Finally, there can be inadvertent humor in the fantastical aspects: " 'We asked the netherworld bureaucrats and received one time return-to-earth permits,' Grandmother explained. More pearls filled my heart." But these objections belong to another tradition than the one See is writing about. She manages, with great dexterity, to make them seem irrelevant. A novel whose protagonist hangs, after death, from a room's rafters and climbs inside a rival's womb to untangle a child's umbilical cord, who dies of self-starvation and communes with the ghosts of her mother and grandmother, who pens a major commentary on a seemingly seditious text and ends up reconciled with both of her successor-wives -- well, suffice it to say that the pleasures of Peony in Love are neither those of logic nor chronology. Years pass in a paragraph; realms are traversed in a line. This reader felt, from time to time, almost literally transported and commends the willing suspension of Western disbelief. There's much here to be savored and a great deal to be learned.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.