ISBN: 0691147787

 
Author: Richard Crossley

This stunningly illustrated book from acclaimed birder and photographer Richard Crossley revolutionizes field guide design by providing the first real-life approach to identification. Whether you are a beginner, expert, or anywhere in between, The Crossley ID Guide will vastly improve your ability to identify birds. Unlike other guides, which provide isolated individual photographs or illustrations, this is the first book to feature large, lifelike scenes for each species. These scenes–640 in all–are composed from more than 10,000 of the author’s images showing birds in a wide range of views–near and far, from different angles, in various plumages and behaviors, including flight, and in the habitat in which they live. These beautiful compositions show how a bird’s appearance changes with distance, and give equal emphasis to characteristics experts use to identify birds: size, structure and shape, behavior, probability, and color. This is the first book to convey all of these features visually–in a single image–and to reinforce them with accurate, concise text. Each scene provides a wealth of detailed visual information that invites and rewards careful study, but the most important identification features can be grasped instantly by anyone. By making identification easier, more accurate, and more fun than ever before, The Crossley ID Guide will completely redefine how its users look at birds. Essential for all birders, it also promises to make new birders of many people who have despaired of using traditional guides. Revolutionary. This book changes field guide design to make you a better birder A picture says a thousand words. The most comprehensive guide: 640 stunning scenes created from 10,000 of the author’s photographs Reality birding. Lifelike in-focus scenes show birds in their habitats, from near and far, and in all plumages and behaviors Teaching and reference. The first book to accurately portray all the key identification characteristics: size, shape, behavior, probability, and color Practice makes perfect. An interactive learning experience to sharpen and test field identification skills Bird like the experts. The first book to simplify birding and help you understand how to bird like the best An interactive website–www.crossleybirds.com–includes expanded captions for the plates and species updates

Pages: 544	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Princeton University Press	Year: 2011

ISBN: 1599218011

 
Author: Kris Carr

ISBN: 0470930225

 
Author: Andrew Liveris

America used to define itself by the things it built. We designed and produced the world’s most important innovations, and in doing so, created a vibrant manufacturing sector that built the middle class. We manufactured our way to the top and became the undisputed economic leader among all nations. But over the last several decades, and especially in the last ten years, the sector that was America’s great pride has eroded, costing millions of jobs and putting our long-term prosperity at risk. Now, as we struggle to recover from the worst recession in generations, our only chance to turn things around is to revive the American manufacturing sector—and to revolutionize it. In MAKE IT IN AMERICA: The Case for Reinventing the Economy, Andrew Liveris — Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company—offers a thoughtful and passionate argument that America’s future economic growth and prosperity depends on the strength of its manufacturing sector. The book

• Explains how a manufacturing sector creates economic value at a scale unmatched by any other, and how central the sector is to creating jobs both inside and outside the factory.
• Explores how other nations are building their manufacturing sectors to stay competitive in the global economy, and describes how America has failed to keep up.
• Provides an aggressive, practical and comprehensive agenda that will put the U.S. back on track to lead the world.

It’s time to stop accepting as inevitable the shuttering of factories and staggering job losses that have come to define manufacturing. It’s time to acknowledge the cost of inaction. There is no better company to make the case for reviving U.S. manufacturing than the Michigan-based The Dow Chemical Company, one of the world’s largest manufacturers and one of its most global corporations. And there’s no better book to show why it needs to be done and how to do it than MAKE IT IN AMERICA.

Andrew Liveris is Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, one of the largest multinational corporations in the world and a leader in science and technology.

Q&A with Author Andrew Liveris

What is the biggest factor to explain the dramatic loss of U.S. manufacturing sector jobs that began in the 1970s?

Author Michael Burchell

There are a lot of reasons that the U.S. manufacturing sector has lost jobs over the last four decades, but they boil down to this. The world changed, and our policy approach did not change with it.

Think back to the years right after World War II. When it came to economic competitiveness, the United States was the only game in town. But after that, the European economies and Japan, with our help, came back robustly ? both with a strong orientation to manufacturing and quality. Next came the Asian Tigers, followed by Brazil, China, India, and Russia ? the so-called ?BRIC? countries. Other, smaller economies emerged as well.

All of these nations were, and still are, are asking themselves the same thing. ?How can we create jobs? How can we grow our manufacturing base?? And they?re doing everything they can to compete ? tax holidays, low-cost loans, you name it.

Meanwhile, the United States has stood still. We?re still the world?s largest economy, but every day, we are losing ground. Unless American policymakers improve the business climate by addressing everything from taxes to R&D to education reform, the decline of American manufacturing is inevitable and irreversible.

I believe the world is entering a golden age of manufacturing, based in no small part on American innovation and technology. Jobs will be created. Value will be created. The question is, will they be created here or someplace else?

Are there pros to the American economy shifting from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy?
Frankly, no. Manufacturing creates jobs in a way that the service sector simply cannot. A new manufacturing facility supports an entire value chain ? demand for raw materials, construction, energy, supplies and services.

For too many Americans, the word ?manufacturing? has an old-fashioned ring to it. They think of it as a thing of the past. To them, manufacturing means lost jobs, closed factories, and a struggling middle class.

But here?s the truth about manufacturing in the United States. The workforce in this country contains 150 million people, and they can?t all be employed in the service sector. Manufacturing ? and only manufacturing ? can create the multiplier effect that is necessary if we?re going to have anything approaching full employment.

We have to stop pretending that a ?service-based? economy is a viable option. The consequences would be massive unemployment, even greater income inequality, and the gradual obsolescence of our entire economy. I?m not saying that there isn?t a place for service industries, because there absolutely is. But we need to have balance in the economy, and right now, our balance is dangerously off.

Where can the U.S. manufacturing industry look for inspiration right now?
All across the world. I have been in manufacturing for 35 years, and this is absolutely the most exciting time I have ever seen for manufacturing globally. That is why I call this a ?golden age.? The manufacturing sector is rapidly evolving, advancing, before our eyes. It is stunning to watch it unfold.

Look at any of the world?s great challenges, and manufacturing is central to the solution. The world needs semiconductors and microprocessors; wind turbines and solar cells; advanced batteries and state-of-the-art medical devices. Manufacturers make these things, and these things, in turn, will remake our future.

But unless we act, these innovations will be built somewhere else. Other countries are already out-competing the U.S. Take Germany–an excellent example of a high-wage country that has revived its advanced-manufacturing sector. In 1998, Germany had a trade deficit of $5.9 billion. By 2008 it had a trade surplus of $267.1 billion. That?s no accident. The German government invested in advanced manufacturing, and those investments are paying off.

Germany is investing in industries of the future, such as renewable energy, and that puts them in a great position to stay competitive into the future. So the German success story should be both an inspiration and a call to action. U.S. policymakers ignore it at their–and our–peril.

Is your sense that the U.S. government could be doing more to help stimulate the manufacturing sector in the U.S.?
Absolutely. As a businessman, I have great faith in the wisdom of markets. But I recognize that markets cannot replace the long-term strategic framework that only governments can build.

Other countries are out there competing for the same jobs, the same dollars, the same economic growth that we are. Our nation?and especially our government ?must get serious about rising to that challenge. It?s not often that you hear a CEO call for more government action, but my belief is anchored in a basic premise: in order to stay competitive, we need to reinvent the manufacturing sector in the U.S. And for that we need government as a partner.

Make It in America proposes a number of steps the federal government can take to restore American manufacturing?a comprehensive advanced manufacturing policy that would address everything from high corporate tax rates to contradictory regulations to failing schools. Neither the business community nor the government can do these things alone?we need to work together in the best interests of our nation?s economy.

We need to act more boldly than in the past. Take the example of education. Advanced manufacturing jobs require much more education than traditional manufacturing jobs, especially in science, technology, engineering and math. In those fields, the U.S. lags behind our competitors?and it costs us badly. According to McKinsey, the achievement gap between the U.S. and its high-performing competitors cost us $1 to $2 trillion in 2008 alone. If we want to keep our economy growing, we need to reform our education system.

A lot of people see the government as an adversary to business, but when we think about areas like education or R&D investment, it?s clear that is not the case. I see government as an essential partner. I believe the way of the future in this country is in public private partnerships so that we can build the new U.S. economy in a deliberate manner. We need the framework for investors and entrepreneurs to become more certain instead of suffering from the volatility and unpredictability of policies that operate on two-, four- and six-year cycles.

What do you hope will change by your writing this book?
The goal of Make It in America is to change the conversation about the manufacturing sector, to change how the citizen on the street sees and perceives the sector; that manufacturing is not a dinosaur, but a vital part of the U.S. economy. One might say to enable the U.S. economy. We need to change the perception, and make people aware of this when they vote for policies and politicians.

The world has changed, and unless our economic policies change with it, this country will experience a massive long-term economic crisis. High unemployment will become the rule, rather than the exception. The middle class will be, for all intents and purpose, obsolete. And time is running out, because our competitor nations aren?t waiting around to see which direction we?re going to choose. We have to make the right choices, and we have to make them before it?s too late.

That sounds pretty bleak, but to be honest, if I thought decline was inevitable, the book would never have been written. At the end of the day, I am an optimist. Americans have always adapted to the new and often unpredictable challenges of their time, and I believe we will adapt to this one as well.

So I think our leaders?in business and in government?will make the decisions they need to make. They will help usher in a golden age of American manufacturing and we will see the rebirth of a vital American sector. It is not hard to imagine a day when the world?s great inventions aren?t just created here, but are produced here as well. And put people to work here again.

My hope is that Make It in America will bring that day a little bit closer.

ISBN: 1400202078

 
Author: John MacArthur

Best-selling author and pastor Dr. John MacArthur reveals one crucial word that revolutionizes what it means to follow Jesus.

Throughout the Bible, followers of Jesus are commanded to submit to Him as their King. They are told to obey and follow, faithfully and without hesitation. Every time Christians utter the word Lord, they make a subtle yet profound declaration-that God is their Master and that they belong to Him. In fact, the Bible describes believers as His slaves. They have been bought with a price and now live for Christ as a people for His own possession.

But go into most churches today, even flip through most Bible translations, and you won’t see or hear the word slave anywhere. That’s because it has been lost in translation. In this gripping book, Dr. John MacArthur uses deep Bible teaching and historical evaluation to expertly uncover the one forgotten word that restores the Bible’s definition of true Christian freedom.

What does it mean to be a Christian the way Jesus defined it? MacArthur says it all boils down to one word: Slave. “We have been bought with a price. We belong to Christ. We are His own possession.”

Endorsements:

“Dr. John MacArthur is never afraid to tell the truth and in this book he does just that. The Christian’s great privilege is to be the slave of Christ. Dr. MacArthur makes it clear that this is one of the Bible’s most succinct ways of describing our discipleship. This is a powerful exposition of Scripture, a convincing corrective to shallow Christianity, a masterful work of pastoral encouragement…a devotional classic.”  - Dr. R. Albert Mohler, President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“John MacArthur expertly and lucidly explains that Jesus frees us from bondage into a royal slavery that we might be His possession. Those who would be His children must, paradoxically, be willing to be His slaves.”  - Dr. R.C. Sproul

“Dr. John MacArthur’s teaching on ‘slavery’ resonates in the deepest recesses of my ‘inner-man.’ As an African-American pastor, I have been there. That is why the thought of someone writing about slavery as being a ‘God-send’ was the most ludicrous, unconscionable thing that I could have ever imagined…until I read this book. Now I see that becoming a slave is a biblical command, completely redefining the idea of freedom in Christ. I don’t want to simply be a ‘follower’ or even just a ‘servant’…but a ‘slave’.”  - The Rev. Dr. Dallas H. Wilson,  Jr., Vicar, St. John’s Episcopal Chapel, Charleston, SC

ISBN: 0767932773

 
Author: Hal Edward Runkel

Through the best-selling ScreamFree Parenting, Hal Runkel showed thousands of parents how keeping their cool can revolutionize their family life. In his groundbreaking new book, ScreamFree Marriage, Runkel now shows couples how learning to stay calm, in the face of common marital conflicts, is the key to creating and enjoying a deep, lifelong connection.
 
Every committed couple strives to hold on to the marriage they envisioned back when they first said “I do”–before the end of the honeymoon phase, before kids, mortgages, health crises, and all life’s inescapable issues. But the truth is this: conflict is unavoidable–it’s impossible for two people to see every single thing, face every issue, and experience every situation in exactly the same way. What results are couples “screaming” at each other–sometimes literally yelling out loud, sometimes shutting themselves down and shutting their partners out, and sometimes avoiding the issue altogether–none of which leads to the passionate, intimate connection we all crave.
 
In ScreamFree Marriage, Hal introduces some radical new concepts about marriage, teaching couples how to embrace this inevitable conflict as a profound vehicle for strengthening a marriage. Rather than just a source of pain and disagreement, these “Fires of Commitment,” as Hal describes them, can actually be the exact experience needed to grow couples into new levels of maturity and intimacy. By simply learning the ScreamFree formula of Calming Down, Growing Up, and Getting Closer, you too can cross through these fires and end up with a closer and more passionate marriage than ever before.  Using accessible anecdotes and the disarming humor that readers have come to love, Runkel disproves prevailing marital wisdom, puts couples on a path to “intimate independence” and reveals a whole new, fresh approach to marriage.
 

Pages: 304	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown Archetype	Year: 2011

ISBN: 1451602170

 
Author: Kris Gethin

MAKE YOUR DREAM BODY A REALITY

FROM KRIS GETHIN, editor in chief of the world’s leading online fitness site Bodybuilding.com, comes a revolutionary 12-week diet and exercise program—supported by two million members and thousands of real-life success stories. Body by Design is a plan that promotes health from the inside out, starting by breaking down the mental blocks that are holding you back, then by building up the muscles on your body, and finally by adding delicious, healthy food onto your plate.

Rather than subtracting things from your life— cutting out calories, losing weight, banishing your belly—here’s how to add more of the right things: more muscle, more support, and more success. Motivation is the key factor that drives permanent change, and with Body by Design you can finally learn how to activate your inner motivation and with the proper balance of weight training, make fit happen forever. cardiovascular exercise, and nutrition—along with the motivational tools to stick with that program for the long term—even people who have struggled with fitness for their entire lives can achieve spectacular, lasting results. Join the “Transformation Nation” and create your own story that will inspire others—with Body by Design.

In Body by Design, you’ll learn the optimal balance of weight training, cardiovascular exercise, and nutrition—along with the motivational tools to stick with your goals and achieve dramatic results. Rather than subtracting things from your life (cutting calories, losing weight, banishing your belly), here’s how to more muscle, more support, and more success.

Based on the best practices found at Bodybuilding.com (the world’s leading online fitness site), Body by Design shows that amazing things can happen when people get the tools they need to achieve their fitness goals.

***

YOU CAN TRANSFORM YOUR BODY. GET AND STAY MOTIVATED.

Identify your “Transformation Trigger” and create a system of radical accountability in your life—whether your goal is to lose 30 pounds of fat or gain 30 pounds of muscle.

EXERCISE FOR OPTIMUM RESULTS with a fully illustrated, 12-week workout. By changing your routine often, you will “shock” your body into doing more than you ever thought you could.

EAT CLEAN TO GET LEAN with simple, inexpensive, and delicious recipes. Supercharge your metabolism and keep hunger under control.

***

TIFFANY FORNI is a self-professed “fat girl turned fitness nerd” who turned her newfound passion for health into a career as a personal trainer.

ROCHELLE FORD came from a family of unhealthy eaters but eventually lost more than 100 pounds—and converted her family to her good habits in the process.

CLAUDIO RAMOS has more energy than ever after his 135-pound weight loss—“It’s like I’ve been reborn.”

RICKY HOWELL achieved a stronger body and a newfound sense of confidence after his divorce.

PLUS, YOU’LL READ AMAZING STORIES— and see remarkable before-and-after photos— from people just like you who have experienced dramatic, life-changing results.

Pages: 240	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Touchstone	Year: 2010

ISBN: 0307716899

 
Author: Stuart Diamond

Negotiation is part of every human encounter, and most of us do it badly. Whether dealing with family, a business or diplomacy, people often fail to meet their goals in every country and context. They focus on power and “win-win” instead of relationships and perceptions. They don’t find enough things to trade. They think others should be rational when they should be dealing with emotions. They get distracted from their goals.
 
In this revolutionary book, leading negotiation practitioner and professor Stuart Diamond draws on the research and practice of 30,000 people he has taught and advised in 45 countries over two decades to outline specific, practical and better ways to deal with others. They range from country and corporate leaders to administrative assistants, lawyers, housewives, students and laborers. To this he adds his 40-year experience as an executive, Harvard-trained attorney and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.
 
Getting More is based on Professor Diamond’s award-winning negotiations course at The Wharton Business School, where it has been the most sought-after course by students for 13 years. It contains a powerful toolkit that can be used by anyone in any situation: with kids and jobs, travel and shopping, business, politics, relationships, cultures, partners and competitors.
 
The advice is addressed through the insightful stories of hundreds of people who have used Diamond’s tools with great success. A 20% savings on an item already on sale. An extra $300 million profit in a business. A woman from India getting out of her own arranged marriage. A 4 year old willingly brushing his teeth and going to bed.
 
Conventional wisdom is challenged on almost every page. Instead of “win-win,” it sometimes makes more sense lose today to get more tomorrow. The use of power, Diamond cautions,  too often causes retaliation, harms relationships and costs credibility. Walking out is almost never as good as understanding the other person’s perceptions and fixing the problem. Not everything is about money; intangibles such as valuing others will often get you much more in return. Even the hardest bargainers can be tamed by using their own public standards against them.
 
The key to getting more is finding the right tools for each situation; being more flexible, and better understanding the other party. These strategies are invisible, until you learn them. Once you see them, they will always be there to help you get more.

Pages: 416	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown Business	Year: 2010

ISBN: 0684868547

 
Author: Pauline Maier

When the delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, the new Constitution they had written was no more than a proposal. Elected conventions in at least nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify it before it could take effect. There was reason to doubt whether that would happen. The document we revere today as the foundation of our country?s laws, the cornerstone of our legal system, was hotly disputed at the time. Some Americans denounced the Constitution for threatening the liberty that Americans had won at great cost in the Revolutionary War. One group of fiercely patriotic opponents even burned the document in a raucous public demonstration on the Fourth of July.

In this splendid new history, Pauline Maier tells the dramatic story of the yearlong battle over ratification that brought such famous founders as Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and Henry together with less well-known Americans who sometimes eloquently and always passionately expressed their hopes and fears for their new country. Men argued in taverns and coffeehouses; women joined the debate in their parlors; broadsides and newspaper stories advocated various points of view and excoriated others. In small towns and counties across the country people read the document carefully and knew it well. Americans seized the opportunity to play a role in shaping the new nation. Then the ratifying conventions chosen by “We the People” scrutinized and debated the Constitution clause by clause.

Although many books have been written about the Constitutional Convention, this is the first major history of ratification. It draws on a vast new collection of documents and tells the story with masterful attention to detail in a dynamic narrative. Each state?s experience was different, and Maier gives each its due even as she focuses on the four critical states of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York, whose approval of the Constitution was crucial to its success.

The New Yorker Gilbert Livingston called his participation in the ratification convention the greatest transaction of his life. The hundreds of delegates to the ratifying conventions took their responsibility seriously, and their careful inspection of the Constitution can tell us much today about a document whose meaning continues to be subject to interpretation. Ratification is the story of the founding drama of our nation, superbly told in a history that transports readers back more than two centuries to reveal the convictions and aspirations on which our country was built.

ISBN: 0307717860

 
Author: Greg Farrell

The intimate, fly-on-the wall tale of the decline and fall of an America icon
?
With one notable exception, the firms that make up what we know as Wall Street have always been part of an inbred, insular culture that most people only vaguely understand. The exception was Merrill Lynch, a firm that revolutionized the stock market by bringing Wall Street to Main Street, setting up offices in far-flung cities and towns long ignored by the giants of finance. With its ?thundering herd? of financial advisers, perhaps no other business, whether in financial services or elsewhere, so epitomized the American spirit. Merrill Lynch was not only ?bullish on America,? it was a big reason why so many average Americans were able to grow wealthy by investing in the stock market.?

Merrill Lynch was an icon. Its sudden decline, collapse, and sale to Bank of America was a shock. How did it happen? Why did it happen? And what does this story of greed, hubris, and incompetence tell us about the culture of Wall Street that continues to this day even though it came close to destroying the American economy? A culture in which the CEO of a firm losing $28 billion pushes hard to be paid a $25 million bonus. A culture in which two Merrill Lynch executives are guaranteed bonuses of $30 million and $40 million for four months? work, even while the firm is struggling to reduce its losses by firing thousands of employees.

Based on unparalleled sources at both Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, Greg Farrell?s Crash of the Titans is a Shakespearean saga of three flawed masters of the universe. E. Stanley O?Neal, whose inspiring rise from the segregated South to the corner office of Merrill Lynch?where he engineered a successful turnaround?was undone by his belief that a smooth-talking salesman could handle one of the most difficult jobs on Wall Street. Because he enjoyed O?Neal?s support, this executive was allowed to build up an astonishing $30 billion position in CDOs on the firm?s balance sheet, at a time when all other Wall Street firms were desperately trying to exit the business. After O?Neal comes John Thain, the cerebral, MIT-educated technocrat whose rescue of the New York Stock Exchange earned him the nickname ?Super Thain.? He was hired to save Merrill Lynch in late 2007, but his belief that the markets would rebound led him to underestimate the depth of Merrill?s problems. Finally, we meet Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, a street fighter raised barely above the poverty line in rural Georgia, whose ?my way or the highway? management style suffers fools more easily than potential rivals, and who made a $50 billion commitment over a September weekend to buy a business he really didn?t understand, thus jeopardizing his own institution.?

The merger itself turns out to be a bizarre combination of cultures that blend like oil and water, where slick Wall Street bankers suddenly find themselves reporting to a cast of characters straight out of the Beverly Hillbillies. BofA?s inbred culture, which perceived New York banks its enemies, was based on loyalty and a good-ol?-boy network in which competence played second fiddle to blind obedience.

Crash of the Titans is a financial thriller that puts you in the theater as the historic events of the financial crisis unfold and people responsible for billion of dollars of other people?s money gamble recklessly to enhance their power and their paychecks or to save their own skins. Its wealth of never-before-revealed information and focus on two icons of corporate America make it the book that puts together all the pieces of the Wall Street disaster.