ISBN: 1439130094

 
Author: James L. Kugel

TEN YEARS AGO, Harvard professor James Kugel was diagnosed with an aggressive, likely fatal, form of cancer. “I was, of course, disturbed and worried. But the main change in my state of mind was that the background music had suddenly stopped—the music of daily life that’s constantly going, the music of infinite time and possibilities. Now suddenly it was gone, replaced by nothing, just silence. There you are, one little person, sitting in the late summer sun, with only a few things left to do.”

Despite his illness, Kugel was intrigued by this new state of mind and especially the uncanny feeling of human smallness that came with it. There seemed to be something overwhelmingly true about it—and its starkness reminded him of certain themes and motifs he had encountered in his years of studying ancient religions. “This, I remember thinking, was something I should really look into further—if ever I got the chance.”

In the Valley of the Shadow is the result of that search. In this wide-ranging exploration of different aspects of religion—interspersed with his personal reflections on the course of his own illness—Kugel seeks to uncover what he calls “the starting point of religious consciousness,” an ancient “sense of self” and a way of fitting into the world that is quite at odds with the usual one. He tracks these down in accounts written long ago of human meetings with gods and angels, anthropologists’ descriptions of the lives of hunter-gatherers, the role of witchcraft in African societies, first-person narratives of religious conversions, as well as the experimental data assembled by contemporary neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists.

Though this different sense of how we fit into the world has largely disappeared from our own societies, it can still come back to us as a fleeting state of mind, “when you are just sitting on some park bench somewhere; or at a wedding, while everyone else is dancing and jumping around; or else one day standing in your backyard, as the sun streams down through the trees . . . ” Experienced in its fullness, this different way of seeing opens onto a stark, new landscape ordinarily hidden from human eyes.

Kugel’s look at the whole phenomenon of religious beliefs is a rigorously honest, sometimes skeptical, but ultimately deeply moving affirmation of faith in God. One of our generation’s leading biblical scholars has created a powerful meditation on humanity’s place in the world and all that matters most in our lives. Believers and doubters alike will be struck by its combination of objective scholarship and poetic insight, which makes for a single, beautifully crafted consideration of life’s greatest mystery.

Pages: 256	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press	Year: 2011

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: 1416567445

 
Author: Douglas Waller

He was one of America’s most exciting and secretive generals—the man Franklin Roosevelt made his top spy in World War II. A mythic figure whose legacy is still intensely debated, “Wild Bill” Donovan was director of the Office of Strategic Services (the country’s first national intelligence agency) and the father of today’s CIA. Donovan introduced the nation to the dark arts of covert warfare on a scale it had never seen before. Now, veteran journalist Douglas Waller has mined government and private archives throughout the United States and England, drawn on thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and interviewed scores of Donovan’s relatives, friends, and associates to produce a riveting biography of one of the most powerful men in modern espionage.

William Joseph Donovan’s life was packed with personal drama. The son of poor Irish Catholic parents, he married into Protestant wealth and fought heroically in World War I, where he earned the nickname “Wild Bill” for his intense leadership and the Medal of Honor for his heroism. After the war he made millions as a Republican lawyer on Wall Street until FDR, a Democrat, tapped him to be his strategic intelligence chief. A charismatic leader, Donovan was revered by his secret agents. Yet at times he was reckless—risking his life unnecessarily in war zones, engaging in extramarital affairs that became fodder for his political enemies—and he endured heartbreaking tragedy when family members died at young ages.

Wild Bill Donovan reads like an action-packed spy thriller, with stories of daring young men and women in his OSS sneaking behind enemy lines for sabotage, breaking into Washington embassies to steal secrets, plotting to topple Adolf Hitler, and suffering brutal torture or death when they were captured by the Gestapo. It is also a tale of political intrigue, of infighting at the highest levels of government, of powerful men pitted against one another. Donovan fought enemies at home as often as the Axis abroad. Generals in the Pentagon plotted against him.

J. Edgar Hoover had FBI agents dig up dirt on him. Donovan stole secrets from the Soviets before the dawn of the Cold War and had intense battles with Winston Churchill and British spy chiefs over foreign turf. Separating fact from fiction, Waller investigates the successes and the occasional spectacular failures of Donovan’s intelligence career.

It makes for a gripping and revealing portrait of this most controversial spymaster.

Pages: 480	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press	Year: 2011

ISBN: 1416587241

 
Author: Janet Jackson

ONE OF THE GREATEST ENTERTAINERS OF OUR TIME CANDIDLY REVEALS HER VERY PERSONAL STRUGGLE WITH AN ISSUE SO MANY OF US FACE EVERY DAY: SELF-ESTEEM

Janet Jackson emerged from the shadows of an already famous family to become one of the most beloved, recognizable, and influential performers in the world. But at what cost?

From the age of ten, when she made her acting debut on Good Times, Janet was told by Hollywood that she needed to slim down. Her well-meaning brothers, especially fun-loving Michael, teased her relentlessly until she began to believe that who she was wasn’t good enough. It was an idea that no amount of critical acclaim in television and film or, later, international platinum success in music could change.

Janet turned to food for comfort and escape. She developed a self-destructive pattern familiar to so many of us: fear and uncertainty led to bad feelings about herself and ultimately depression. The depression led to overeating. And her yo-yoing weight was painfully obvious in the bright lights of the entertainment world.

It has taken Janet most of her adult life to come to terms with who she is. But she has finally broken free of the attitudes that brought her down and has embraced realistic goals that help her eat better, exercise better, feel better, and ultimately be better.

This book is about meeting those challenges that face all of us. With candor and courage, Janet shares her painful journey to loving herself. She addresses the crazy rumors that have swirled around her for most of her life, shines an intimate light on her family, and pulls us behind the velvet rope into her unforgettable career. She also shares lessons she has learned through contact with friends and fans and reveals the fitness secrets she has learned from her trainer. Finally, her nutritionist, David Allen, unveils the wholesome, delicious recipes and lifestyle-changing tips that helped Janet get in shape—mind and spirit, heart and soul.

True You is a call to tune in to your own fundamental wisdom, to let go of the ugly comparisons, and to understand that who you are, the true you, is more than enough.

***

“I’m loved, I’m valued, and I’m capable of achieving balance in my life. I can learn to eat well. I can exercise. I can express gratitude for the simple act of being able to breathe in and breathe out. I can move away from darkness and depression to light and hope. I can be happy with who I am, not what I should be, or what I might have been, or what someone tells me I must be.

I am me, the true me; you are you, the true you—and that’s good. That’s beautiful. That’s enough.”

—JANET JACKSON

Pages: 272	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Karen Hunter	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0312659067

 
Author: Judi Dench

ISBN: 0385343736

 
Author: Kurt Vonnegut

Foreword by Dave Eggers

Smart, whimsical, and often scathing, the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut influenced a generation of American writers—including Dave Eggers, author of this volume’s Foreword. In these previously unpublished gems, Vonnegut’s originality infuses a unique landscape of factories, trailers, and bars—and characters who pit their dreams and fears against a cruel and sometimes comically indifferent world.

Here are stories of men and machines, art and artifice, and how ideals of fortune, fame, and love take curious twists in ordinary lives. An ambitious builder of roads, commanding an army of bulldozers, graders, and asphalt spreaders, fritters away his free time with miniature trains—until the women in his life crash his fantasy land. Trapped in a stenography pool, a young dreamer receives a call from a robber on the run, who presents her with a strange proposition. A crusty newspaperman is forced onto a committee to judge Christmas displays—a job that leads him to a suspiciously ostentatious ex-con and then a miracle. A hog farmer’s widow receives cryptic, unsolicited letters from a man in Schenectady about “the indefinable sweet aches of the spirit.” But what will she find when she goes to meet him in the flesh?

These beautifully rendered works are a testament to Vonnegut’s unique blend of observation and imagination. Like a present left behind by a departed loved one, While Mortals Sleep bestows upon us a shimmering Kurt Vonnegut gift: a poignant reflection of our world as it is and as it could be.

Pages: 272	Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Delacorte Press	Year: 2011

ISBN: 0061711527

 
Author: Peggy Orenstein

The acclaimed author of the groundbreaking bestseller Schoolgirls reveals the dark side of pink and pretty: the rise of the girlie-girl, she warns, is not that innocent.

Pink and pretty or predatory and hardened, sexualized girlhood influences our daughters from infancy onward, telling them that how a girl looks matters more than who she is. Somewhere between the exhilarating rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and today, the pursuit of physical perfection has been recast as a source—the source—of female empowerment. And commercialization has spread the message faster and farther, reaching girls at ever-younger ages.

But, realistically, how many times can you say no when your daughter begs for a pint-size wedding gown or the latest Hannah Montana CD? And how dangerous is pink and pretty anyway—especially given girls’ successes in the classroom and on the playing field? Being a princess is just make-believe, after all; eventually they grow out of it. Or do they? Does playing Cinderella shield girls from early sexualization—or prime them for it? Could today’s little princess become tomorrow’s sexting teen? And what if she does? Would that make her in charge of her sexuality—or an unwitting captive to it?

Those questions hit home with Peggy Orenstein, so she went sleuthing. She visited Disneyland and the international toy fair, trolled American Girl Place and Pottery Barn Kids, and met beauty pageant parents with preschoolers tricked out like Vegas showgirls. She dissected the science, created an online avatar, and parsed the original fairy tales. The stakes turn out to be higher than she—or we—ever imagined: nothing less than the health, development, and futures of our girls. From premature sexualization to the risk of depression to rising rates of narcissism, the potential negative impact of this new girlie-girl culture is undeniable—yet armed with awareness and recognition, parents can effectively counterbalance its influence in their daughters’ lives.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter is a must-read for anyone who cares about girls, and for parents helping their daughters navigate the rocky road to adulthood.

ISBN: 0226028569

 
Author: Richard Arum

In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year. A bachelor’s degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they’re born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question posed by Academically Adrift: are undergraduates really learning anything once they get there?

For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s answer to that question is a definitive no. Their extensive research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college. As troubling as their findings are, Arum and Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come as no surprise—instead, they are the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority list.

Academically Adrift holds sobering lessons for students, faculty, administrators, policy makers, and parents—all of whom are implicated in promoting or at least ignoring contemporary campus culture. Higher education faces crises on a number of fronts, but Arum and Roksa’s report that colleges are failing at their most basic mission will demand the attention of us all.

ISBN: 0691147833

 
Author: Daniel W. Drezner

What would happen to international politics if the dead rose from the grave and started to eat the living? Daniel Drezner’s groundbreaking book answers the question that other international relations scholars have been too scared to ask. Addressing timely issues with analytical bite, Drezner looks at how well-known theories from international relations might be applied to a war with zombies. Exploring the plots of popular zombie films, songs, and books, Theories of International Relations and Zombies predicts realistic scenarios for the political stage in the face of a zombie threat and considers how valid–or how rotten–such scenarios might be.Drezner boldly lurches into the breach and “stress tests” the ways that different approaches to world politics would explain policy responses to the living dead. He examines the most prominent international relations theories–including realism, liberalism, constructivism, neoconservatism, and bureaucratic politics–and decomposes their predictions. He digs into prominent zombie films and novels, such as Night of the Living Dead and World War Z, to see where essential theories hold up and where they would stumble and fall. Drezner argues that by thinking about outside-of-the-box threats we get a cognitive grip on what former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to as the “unknown unknowns” in international security. Correcting the zombie gap in international relations thinking and addressing the genuine but publicly unacknowledged fear of the dead rising from the grave, Theories of International Relations and Zombies presents political tactics and strategies accessible enough for any zombie to digest.

Pages: 136	Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Princeton University Press	Year: 2011

ISBN: 055380670X

 
Author: James D. Hornfischer

With The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts, James D. Hornfischer created essential and enduring narratives about America’s World War II Navy, works of unique immediacy distinguished by rich portraits of ordinary men in extremis and exclusive new information. Now he does the same for the deadliest, most pivotal naval campaign of the Pacific war: Guadalcanal.

Neptune’s Inferno is at once the most epic and the most intimate account ever written of the contest for control of the seaways of the Solomon Islands, America’s first concerted offensive against the Imperial Japanese juggernaut and the true turning point of the Pacific conflict. This grim, protracted campaign has long been heralded as a Marine victory. Now, with his powerful portrait of the Navy’s sacrifice—three sailors died at sea for every man lost ashore—Hornfischer tells for the first time the full story of the men who fought in destroyers, cruisers,  and battleships in the narrow, deadly waters of “Ironbottom Sound.” Here, in brilliant cinematic detail, are the seven major naval actions that began in August of 1942, a time when the war seemed unwinnable and America fought on a shoestring, with the outcome always in doubt. But at Guadalcanal the U.S. proved it had the implacable will to match the Imperial war machine blow for violent blow.

Working from new interviews with survivors, unpublished eyewitness accounts, and newly available documents, Hornfischer paints a vivid picture of the officers and enlisted men who took on the Japanese in America’s hour of need: Vice Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, who took command of the faltering South Pacific Area from his aloof, overwhelmed predecessor and became a national hero; the brilliant Rear Admiral Norman Scott, who died even as he showed his command how to fight and win; Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan, the folksy and genteel “Uncle Dan,” lost in the strobe-lit chaos of his burning flagship; Rear Admiral Willis Lee, who took vengeance two nights later in a legendary showdown with the Japanese battleship Kirishima; the five Sullivan brothers, all killed in the shocking destruction of the Juneau; and many others, all vividly brought to life.

The first major work on this essential subject in almost two decades, Neptune’s Inferno does what all great battle narratives do: It cuts through the smoke and fog to tell the gripping human stories behind the momentous events and critical decisions that altered the course of history and shaped so many lives. This is a thrilling achievement from a master historian at the very top of his game.

ISBN: 1455502677

 
Author: Chris McCormack

The Ironman World Championship is one of the most grueling tests of mental and physical endurance and athleticism in the world. Its competitors have 17 hours to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run a full marathon, 26.2 miles. Chris McCormack has dedicated his life to training for-and winning– this race, a feat he has accomplished twice, along with winning the Australian Ironman five years in a row and coming in first at both the Triathlon World Championships and the International Triathlon Union World Cup.

But his journey to athletic greatness is more than one of just physical endurance. I’M HERE TO WIN is McCormack’s account of everything it takes-mind, body and spirit — to become a champion.

In 2010, McCormack silenced his critics when he won the Hawaiian Ironman Championship at 37. He ran the race not just for himself, but for his late mother and the charity he founded in her honor to fight breast cancer. He now had a purpose, a passion, and something to drive him beyond himself.

While Macca gives much credit to his physical performance, he believes his success comes from what he does before and after the race as much as during. In I’M HERE TO WIN he will share some of his most important training tips and Macca-isms, short bits of wisdom such as: Know yourself, listen to your body and mind, do the right thing today and trust the results without worrying about tomorrow.

In addition, Macca’s practical advice will help readers develop their own training routines, diet, exercise programs, and race strategies, sharing his secrets with those training for their first marathon, bike race or triathlon or those who want to achieve their personal best in the next race. From weekend warriors who casually compete, to seasoned veterans who race every weekend, to armchair athletes who need that extra push, I’M HERE TO WIN provides riveting insight into the mind of a great champion with excitement and inspiration on every page.

ISBN: 0765323966

 
Author: Greg Bear

ISBN: 1437716431

 
Author: Carol J. Buck MS CPC CPC-H CCS-P

Take your first step toward a successful career in medical coding with comprehensive coverage from the most trusted source in the field! Step-by-Step Medical Coding is the practical, easy-to-use resource that shows you exactly how to code using all of today’s coding systems, providing an in-depth introduction to essential coding concepts followed by practice exercises that reinforce your understanding. In addition to coverage of reimbursement, ICD-9-CM, CPT, HCPCS, and inpatient coding, the 2011 edition now provides full coverage of the ICD-10-CM diagnosis coding system in preparation for the transition in 2013. No other text on the market so thoroughly prepares you for all coding systems in one source!

• Carol J. Buck’s proven step-by-step approach guides you through difficult concepts in the most direct, straightforward manner to ensure complete understanding.
• Dual coding prepares you for the switch to ICD-10. In Units 3-5, for every exercise and chapter review question with an ICD-9 answer, you are provided with the matching ICD-10 code.
• In-text exercises throughout each chapter reinforce coding rules and concepts and follow the book’s step-by-step approach.
• Quick Check features immediately reinforce key concepts and test your retention and understanding.
• Toolbox features provide additional real world cases for analysis and applying knowledge to specific case elements.
• Concrete “real-life” coding examples allow you to apply important coding principles and practices to actual scenarios from the field.
• Full-color design with over 450 illustrations ensures easy navigation and presents material in a unique, compelling way.
• Coding Shots provide tips for complicated coding scenarios and advice for entering the job market.
• From the Trenches quotes provide valuable, up-to-date insights from instructors and professionals in the medical coding field.
• Stop! notes offer a brief summary of material just covered to help ensure retention and understanding and provide a transition into the next topic.
• Caution! notes warn of common coding mistakes and reinforce the concept of coding as an exact science.
• Check This Out! boxes offer notes on accessing reference information, primarily via the Internet.
• Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting boxes in Units 2 and 5 present the official outpatient and inpatient guidelines alongside text discussions.
• Coder’s Index makes it easy to instantly locate specific codes.
• Practice activities and Coding Guidelines are available on the companion Evolve Resources website to help reinforce key concepts from the text and provide fast, easy access to the most up-to-date content.
• A free 30-day demo of SpeedECoder lets you complete cases using an actual online encoder.

• Updated content reflects the latest coding developments so you can practice with the most current information available.
• New ICD-10-CM chapters prepare you for the upcoming 2013 transition.
• ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting boxes contain excerpts of the actual guidelines, presenting the official wording alongside in-text discussions to help you better understand upcoming changes.

ISBN: 1439177783

 
Author: Portia de Rossi

?I didn?t decide to become anorexic. It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Being as thin as possible was a way to make the job of being an actress easier . . .?

Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role. This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work?first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying.

In this searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and body image take priority over every other human impulse or action. She recounts the elaborate rituals around eating that came to dominate hours of every day, from keeping her daily calorie intake below 300 to eating precisely measured amounts of food out of specific bowls and only with certain utensils. When this wasn?t enough, she resorted to purging and compulsive physical exercise, driving her body and spirit to the breaking point.

Even as she rose to fame as a cast member of the hit television shows Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, Portia alternately starved herself and binged, all the while terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. She reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, a sense of isolation that was only magnified by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner. With the storytelling skills of a great novelist and the eye for detail of a poet, Portia makes transparent as never before the behaviors and emotions of someone living with an eating disorder.

From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to a life of health and honesty, falling in love with and eventually marrying Ellen DeGeneres, and emerging as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and women?s health issues.

In this remarkable and beautifully written work, Portia shines a bright light on a dark subject. A crucial book for all those who might sometimes feel at war with themselves or their bodies, Unbearable Lightness is a story that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit.

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: 1439192561

 
Author: Stephen King

“I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger . . .” writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up “1922,” the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.

In “Big Driver,” a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself.

“Fair Extension,” the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment.

When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It?s a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.

Like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight, which generated such enduring films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, Full Dark, No Stars proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.

ISBN: 1437708250

 
Author: Linda Anne Silvestri RN MSN PhD

There is a reason Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN^? Examination has been called “the best NCLEX exam review book ever.” You’ll find everything you need to review for the NCLEX exam under one cover – complete content review and over 4,500 NCLEX examination-style questions in the book and on the free companion CD! Don’t make the mistake of assuming the quality of the questions is the same in all NCLEX exam review books, because only Silvestri’s Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN^? Examination includes the kind of questions that consistently test the critical thinking skills necessary to pass today’s NCLEX exam. And, what’s even better is that ALL answers include detailed rationales to help you learn from your answer choices, as well as test-taking strategies that provide tips for how to best approach each question. It’s easy to see why Silvestri is THE book of choice for NCLEX examination review. But don’t just take our word for it – read any customer review or ask your classmates to see why Silvestri users believe that there’s nothing else like it!

• Each question includes the correct answer, a complete rationale for all responses, and a test-taking strategy to help you develop techniques for locating the correct response.
• Each question includes a page reference to an Elsevier textbook to allow for further research and study.
• All alternate item-format questions are included, with multiple response, prioritizing, fill-in-the-blank, figure/illustration, chart/exhibit, and audio questions to prepare you for the wide variety of question types on the NCLEX-RN examination.
• Organization by nursing content area provides a logical, effective review to use throughout your nursing program.
• Pyramid Terms define key terms at the beginning of each major unit or chapter.
• Pyramid Points within each chapter highlight content that is important in preparing for the NCLEX-RN examination.
• Pyramid to Success sections provide an overview of major units or chapters and specific content related to the latest NCLEX-RN examination test plan.
• Pharmacology is emphasized with 13 pharmacology chapters, a medication and intravenous calculation chapter, and a pediatric medication calculation chapter to reflect this priority content on the NCLEX exam.
• Introductory chapters cover preparation for the NCLEX-RN exam, test-taking strategies, the NCLEX-RN exam from a student’s perspective, and transitional issues for the foreign-educated nurse.
• A comprehensive exam consists of 265 questions that cover all content areas in the book and mirror the percentages identified in the NCLEX-RN examination test plan.
• A companion CD allows practice in quiz, study, or exam modes, with questions selected from content area, integrated process, category of client need, or alternate item-format type.

• Completely updated content is based on the new NCLEX-RN examination test plan, effective April 2010.
• A total of 4,500 questions ensure that you’re thoroughly prepared for the content covered on the NCLEX-RN Exam.
• New chapter on physical assessment highlights the key components of physical examination and health history often encountered on the NCLEX exam.
• Audio and video questions on the companion CD provide experience with these new types of questions before the exam.
• Unique! Audio review summaries included on the CD cover the three core areas of pharmacology, fluids and electrolytes, and acid-base balance.
• Expanded coverage of prioritization, delegation, and nursing leadership and management provides critical information for these growing areas of nursing.
• Unique! Priority Nursing Actions boxes outline and explain clinical emergent situations requiring immediate action, including detailed rationales and textbook references to help strengthen your prioritizing skills in clinical and testing situations.
• Pyramid Alert boxes highlight important nursing concepts to help you focus on the content that is most frequently tested on the NCLEX examination.
• Automatic software updates on CD make it easy to check for changes and updates throughout the life of the edition.

ISBN: 0451231619

 
Author: Rachel Caine

Get ready for “non-stop vampire action” (Darque Reviews) in the latest Morganville Vampire novel from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine.

While developing a new system to maintain Morganville’s defenses, student Claire Danvers discovers a way to amplify vampire mental powers. Through this, she’s able to re-establish the field around this vampire-infested Texas college town that protects it from outsiders.

But the new upgrades have an unexpected consequence: people inside the town begin to slowly forget who they are-even the vampires. Soon, the town’s little memory problem has turned into a full-on epidemic. Now Claire needs to figure out a way to pull the plug on her experiment- before she forgets how to save Morganville…

ISBN: 0375504877

 
Author: Edmund Morris

Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. When he toured Europe in 1910 as plain ?Colonel Roosevelt,? he was hailed as the most famous man in the world. Crowned heads vied to put him up in their palaces. ?If I see another king,? he joked, ?I think I shall bite him.?

Had TR won his historic ?Bull Moose? campaign in 1912 (when he outpolled the sitting president, William Howard Taft), he might have averted World War I, so great was his international influence. Had he not died in 1919, at the early age of sixty, he would unquestionably have been reelected to a third term in the White House and completed the work he began in 1901 of establishing the United States as a model democracy, militarily strong and socially just.

This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award?winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, is itself the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive. Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, it recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin?s bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?

Colonel Roosevelt begins with a prologue recounting what TR called his ?journey into the Pleistocene??a yearlong safari through East Africa, collecting specimens for the Smithsonian. Some readers will be repulsed by TR?s bloodlust, which this book does not prettify, yet there can be no denying that the Colonel passionately loved and understood every living thing that came his way: The text is rich in quotations from his marvelous nature writing.

Although TR intended to remain out of politics when he returned home in 1910, a fateful decision that spring drew him back into public life. By the end of the summer, in his famous ?New Nationalism? speech, he was the guiding spirit of the Progressive movement, which inspired much of the social agenda of the future New Deal. (TR?s fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt acknowledged that debt, adding that the Colonel ?was the greatest man I ever knew.?)

Then follows a detailed account of TR?s reluctant yet almost successful campaign for the White House in 1912. But unlike other biographers, Edmund Morris does not treat TR mainly as a politician. This volume gives as much consideration to TR?s literary achievements and epic expedition to Brazil in 1913?1914 as to his fatherhood of six astonishingly different children, his spiritual and aesthetic beliefs, and his eager embrace of other cultures?from Arab and Magyar to German and American Indian. It is impossible to read Colonel Roosevelt and not be awed by the man?s universality. The Colonel himself remarked, ?I have enjoyed life as much as any nine men I know.?

Morris does not hesitate, however, to show how pathologically TR turned upon those who inherited the power he craved?the hapless Taft, the adroit Woodrow Wilson. When Wilson declined to bring the United States into World War I in 1915 and 1916, the Colonel blasted him with some of the worst abuse ever uttered by a former chief executive. Yet even Wilson had to admit that behind the Rooseveltian will to rule lay a winning idealism and decency. ?He is just like a big boy?there is a sweetness about him that you can?t resist.? That makes the story of TR?s last year, when the ?boy? in him died, all the sadder in the telling: the conclusion of a life of Aristotelian grandeur.