In the last thirty years, the big pharmaceutical companies have transformed themselves into marketing machines selling dangerous medicines as if they were Coca-Cola or Cadillacs. They pitch drugs with video games and soft cuddly toys for children; promote them in churches and subways, at NASCAR races and state fairs. They've become experts at promoting fear of disease, just so they can sell us hope.

No question: drugs can save lives. But the relentless marketing that has enriched corporate executives and sent stock prices soaring has come with a dark side. Prescription pills taken as directed by physicians are estimated to kill one American every five minutes. And that figure doesn't reflect the damage done as the overmedicated take to the roads.

Our Daily Meds connects the dots for the first time to show how corporate salesmanship has triumphed over science inside the biggest pharmaceutical companies and, in turn, how this promotion-driven industry has taken over the practice of medicine and is changing American life. It is an ageless story of the battle between good and evil, with potentially life-changing consequences for everyone, not just the 65 percent of Americans who unscrew a prescription cap every day.

An industry with the promise to help so many is now leaving a legacy of needless harm.

Physics of the Impossible is a fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.

One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible, the renowned physicist Michio Kaku explores to what extent the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future.

From teleportation to telekinesis, Kaku uses the world of science fiction to explore the fundamentals—and the limits—of the laws of physics as we know them today. He ranks the impossible technologies by categories—Class I, II, and III, depending on when they might be achieved, within the next century, millennia, or perhaps never.

In a compelling and thought-provoking narrative, he explains:

• How the science of optics and electromagnetism may one day enable us to bend light around an object, like a stream flowing around a boulder, making the object invisible to observers “downstream.”
• How ramjet rockets, laser sails, antimatter engines, and nanorockets may one day take us to the nearby stars.
• How telepathy and psychokinesis, once considered pseudoscience, may one day be possible using advances in MRI, computers, superconductivity, and nanotechnology.
• Why a time machine is apparently consistent with the known laws of quantum physics, although it would take an unbelievably advanced civilization to actually build one.

Kaku uses his discussion of each technology as a jumping-off point to explain the science behind it. An extraordinary scientific adventure, Physics of the Impossible takes readers on an unforgettable, mesmerizing journey into the world of science that both enlightens and entertains.

Last year, Annabel was the girl who has everything — at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf's Department Store.

This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong.

Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help, maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

The Ultimate Death Note Encyclopedia!

Here, in one authoritative volume: everything you need to know about Death Note, the best-selling manga series.

Featuring complete character biographies, detailed storyline summaries, production notes, and behind-the-scenes commentaries, Death Note 13: How to Read also includes exclusive interviews with creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata and a bonus manga chapter of never-before-translated material.

Unless you own your very own death note, it doesn't get any better than this!

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics, and even ardent believers, have about religion. Written by Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, this book provides a thoughtful exploration of faith in a Christian God.

Why is there suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive? Shouldn’t the Christian God be a god of love? How can one religion be “right” and the rest “wrong”? Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God? These are just a few of the questions even believers wrestle with today.

In this book, Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and reasoning to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.

To true believers, he offers a solid platform on which to stand their ground against the backlash to religion created by the Age of Skepticism. And to skeptics, atheists, and agnostics, he provides a challenging argument for pursuing the reason for God.

Surprised by Hope invites readers to rethink the common understanding of heaven, the resurrection, and the mission of the Church. In this thought-provoking exploration, renowned author and Anglican bishop N.T. Wright tackles the profound biblical question of what truly happens after we die.

Contrary to popular belief, we do not simply "go to" heaven. Instead, we are resurrected, and heaven comes down to earth—an insight that fundamentally alters how we live our lives here and now. This book challenges Christians to reconsider their expectations about life after death and to understand the resurrection as the cornerstone of their faith.

Wright passionately argues that if God intends to renew the entire creation—and if this renewal has already begun with Jesus's resurrection—then the Church must move beyond merely "saving souls." We are called to work towards God's kingdom in the present world, bringing healing and hope to our lives today.

This lively and accessible book will surprise and excite anyone interested in the meaning of life, both after death and in the here and now.

With more than 120 photos in full color and the complete screenplay, this book reveals the story behind the making of the movie based on the beloved bestselling novel directed by Marc Forster. Known for his works like Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, and Stranger Than Fiction, Forster brings to life a tale of profound emotion.

The Kite Runner is a moving story of friendship, family, devastating mistakes, and redeeming love. Set in a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, find their lives forever changed by a single act of betrayal. Years later, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban's rule, seeking redemption and a chance to make things right.

This beautifully designed pictorial book includes the complete screenplay, exquisite color photographs, behind-the-scenes stories, and commentaries by novelist Khaled Hosseini and director Marc Forster. It speaks to anyone who has yearned for a second chance to change and find forgiveness.

"Sunshine, you're my baby and I'm your only mother. You must mind the one taking care of you, but she's not your mama." Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes, living by those words.

As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster care system. Painful memories of being taken away from her home quickly become consumed by real-life horrors, where Ashley is juggled between caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, and forced to endure manipulative, humiliating treatment from a very abusive foster family.

In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed - and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice.

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World is a captivating journey by Eric Weiner, who spent a decade as a foreign correspondent. Weiner reported from discontented locales such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Indonesia, where the unhappy people living in profoundly unstable states inspired pathos and made for good stories, but not good karma.

Admitted grump and self-help book aficionado, Weiner undertook a year's research to travel the globe, looking for the "unheralded happy places." The result is a book that is equal parts laugh-out-loud funny and philosophical, a journey into both the definition of and the destination for true contentment.

Apparently, the happiest places on earth include, somewhat unexpectedly, Iceland, Bhutan, and India. Weiner also visits the country deemed most malcontent, Moldova, and finds real merit in the claim. But the question remains: What makes people happy? Is it the freedom of the West or the myriad restrictions of Singapore? The simple ashrams of India or the glittering shopping malls of Qatar?

From the youthful drunkenness of Iceland to the despondency of Slough, a sad but resilient town in Heathrow's flight path, Weiner offers wry yet profound observations about the way people relate to circumstance and fate.

Both revealing and inspirational, perhaps the best thing about this hilarious trip across four continents is that for the reader, the "geography of bliss" is wherever they happen to find themselves while reading it.

Weir has tirelessly made her way through the entire labyrinth of Tudor history to tell the collective story of the six wives of Henry VIII--a vivid, full-blooded portrait of six very different women--in a work of sound and brilliant scholarship. Illustrations.

Full of spleen, this will be a hilarious, invigorating, and informative journey through the world of Bad Science. When Dr. Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water, turning it brown, he thought he'd try the same at home.

'Like some kind of Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General', using his girlfriend's Barbie doll, he gently passed an electrical current through the warm salt water. It turned brown. In his words: 'before my very eyes, the world's first Detox Barbie was sat, with her feet in a pool of brown sludge, purged of a weekend's immorality.'

Dr. Ben Goldacre is the author of the Bad Science column in the Guardian. This book will be about all the 'bad science' we are constantly bombarded with in the media and in advertising. At a time when science is used to prove everything and nothing, everyone has their own 'bad science' moments - from the useless pie-chart on the back of cereal packets to the use of the word 'visibly' in cosmetics ads. This book will help people to quantify their instincts - that a lot of the so-called 'science' which appears in the media and in advertising is just wrong or misleading. It will be satirical and amusing - exposing the ridiculous - but it will also provide the reader with the facts they need.

Michael Pollan's last book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, launched a national conversation about the American way of eating; now In Defense of Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time. Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities.

People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.

In this edition, Dweck offers new insights into her now famous and broadly embraced concept. She introduces a phenomenon she calls false growth mindset and guides people toward adopting a deeper, truer growth mindset. She also expands the mindset concept beyond the individual, applying it to the cultures of groups and organizations. With the right mindset, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love—to transform their lives and your own.

As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, Suetonius gained access to the imperial archives and used them (along with eye-witness accounts) to produce one of the most colorful biographical works in history. The Twelve Caesars chronicles the public careers and private lives of the men who wielded absolute power over Rome, from the foundation of the empire under Julius Caesar and Augustus, to the decline into depravity and civil war under Nero, and the recovery that came with his successors.

A masterpiece of anecdote, wry observation and detailed physical description, The Twelve Caesars presents us with a gallery of vividly drawn — and all too human — individuals.

Joe Sacco's breakthrough novel of graphic journalism has been widely hailed as one of the great graphic novels of all time. This special edition is the definitive hardcover collection of Sacco's landmark of comic journalism.

In addition to the original 288-page graphic novel, introduced by the late Edward Said, this edition includes a host of unique supplemental never-before-published material, including many of Sacco's original background notes, sketches, photographic reference, and a new interview with the author.

How does one young man survive the deaths of his entire family and manage to make something worthwhile of his life? In Things The Grandchildren Should Know, Mark Oliver Everett tells the story of what it's like to grow up as the insecure son of a genius in a wacky Virginia Ice Storm-like family. Left to run wild with his sister, his father off in some parallel universe of his own invention, Everett's upbringing was 'ridiculous, sometimes tragic, and always unsteady'.

But somehow he manages not only to survive his crazy upbringing and ensuing tragedies; he makes something of his life, striking out on a journey to find himself by channelling his experiences into his, eventually, critically acclaimed music with the Eels. But it's not an easy path. Told with surprising candour, Things The Grandchildren Should Know is an inspiring and remarkable story, full of hope, humour, and wry wisdom.

Perhaps one of the most revolutionary works of philosophy ever presented, The Phenomenology of Spirit is Hegel's 1807 work that is in numerous ways extraordinary.

It begins with a Preface, created after the rest of the manuscript was completed, that explains the core of his method and what sets it apart from any preceding philosophy. The Introduction, written before the rest of the work, summarizes and completes Kant's ideas on skepticism by rendering it moot and encouraging idealism and self-realization.

The body of the work is divided into six sections of varying length, entitled "Consciousness," "Self-Consciousness," "Reason," "Spirit," "Religion," and "Absolute Knowledge." A myriad of topics are discussed, and explained in such a harmoniously complex way that the method has been termed Hegelian dialectic.

Ultimately, the work as a whole is a remarkable study of the mind's growth from its direct awareness to scientific philosophy, proving to be a difficult yet highly influential and enduring work.

What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer: "I race motorcycles in Europe." "I ski in the Andes." "I scuba dive in Panama." "I dance tango in Buenos Aires."

He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the "deferred-life plan" and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now.

Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you:

• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want?
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs?
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist?
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent "mini-retirements"?
• What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income?
• How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it's beyond repair?
• What automated cash-flow "muses" are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks?
• How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet?
• What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are?
• How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80% off?
• How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office?

Escape is the dramatic true story of one woman’s life inside the ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, the FLDS, and her courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.

When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage. Born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), Carolyn endured years of psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of other wives locked in a constant battle for supremacy.

Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived, how her children were treated, and controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her.

In 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children, with only $20 to her name. Her escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who deprive followers of the right to make choices, brainwash children in church-run schools, and force women to be totally subservient to men.

Against this background, Carolyn’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, but she also became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS.

Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past.

In this revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in today's climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality and relevance it truly possesses.

Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high school teachers, history buffs, and enlightened citizens across the country.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks explores the intriguing place music occupies in the brain and its profound effects on the human condition. With his trademark compassion and erudition, Sacks presents a variety of what he calls musical misalignments.

Among the fascinating stories are:

• A man struck by lightning who suddenly desires to become a pianist at the age of forty-two.
• An entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth.
• Individuals with amusia, to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans.
• A man whose memory spans only seven seconds—for everything but music.

This illuminating, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable book delves into the mysterious power of music, highlighting its ability to evoke memories, emotions, and sometimes uncontrollable forces within us. Musicophilia is a masterpiece that not only contributes to our understanding of the elusive magic of music but also sheds light on the strange workings, and misfirings, of the human mind.

Congratulations--just by opening the cover of this book you became 25% more patriotic. From Stephen Colbert, the host of television's highest-rated punditry show The Colbert Report, comes the book to fill the other 23½ hours of your day. I Am America (And So Can You!) contains all of the opinions that Stephen doesn't have time to shoehorn into his nightly broadcast.

Dictated directly into a microcassette recorder over a three-day weekend, this book contains Stephen's most deeply held knee-jerk beliefs on The American Family, Race, Religion, Sex, Sports, and many more topics, conveniently arranged in chapter form.

Always controversial and outspoken, Stephen addresses why Hollywood is destroying America by inches, why evolution is a fraud, and why the elderly should be harnessed to millstones. You may not agree with everything Stephen says, but at the very least, you'll understand that your differing opinion is wrong.

I Am America (And So Can You!) showcases Stephen Colbert at his most eloquent and impassioned. He is an unrelenting fighter for the soul of America, and in this book he fights the good fight for the traditional values that have served this country so well for so long.

From the bestselling author of The Know-It-All comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible. Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year.

He vows to follow the Ten Commandments, to be fruitful and multiply, to love his neighbor, but also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers, to play a ten-string harp, to stone adulterers.

The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal, and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes.

Jacobs's quest transforms his life even more radically than the year spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica for The Know-It-All. His beard grows so unruly that he is regularly mistaken for a member of ZZ Top. He immerses himself in prayer, tends sheep in the Israeli desert, battles idolatry, and tells the absolute truth in all situations—much to his wife's chagrin.

Throughout the book, Jacobs also embeds himself in a cross-section of communities that take the Bible literally. He tours a Kentucky-based creationist museum and sings hymns with Pennsylvania Amish, dances with Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn, and does Scripture study with Jehovah's Witnesses. He discovers ancient biblical wisdom of startling relevance and wrestles with seemingly archaic rules that baffle the twenty-first-century brain.

Jacobs's extraordinary undertaking yields unexpected epiphanies and challenges. A book that will charm readers both secular and religious, The Year of Living Biblically is part Cliff Notes to the Bible, part memoir, and part look into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to put it down.

What would it be like to free yourself from limitations and soar beyond your boundaries? What can you do each day to discover inner peace and serenity? The Untethered Soul offers simple yet profound answers to these questions. Whether this is your first exploration of inner space, or you’ve devoted your life to the inward journey, this book will transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you.

You’ll discover what you can do to put an end to the habitual thoughts and emotions that limit your consciousness. By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, author and spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization.

The Untethered Soul begins by walking you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping you uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It then delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness. Finally, with perfect clarity, this book opens the door to a life lived in the freedom of your innermost being.

The Day of Battle is the second volume of Rick Atkinson's epic trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II. This narrative delves into the harrowing story of the campaigns in Sicily and Italy.

Following the events in An Army at Dawn, this book chronicles the strengthening American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943. It captures their relentless, bloody march north toward Rome.

The outcome of the Italian campaign was fraught with uncertainty. Roosevelt, Churchill, and their military advisers engaged in heated debates about the invasion of the so-called soft underbelly of Europe. Yet, the commitment to liberate Italy from the Nazis remained steadfast, despite the high cost.

The battles at Salerno, Anzio, and Monte Cassino were particularly difficult, yet the Allied forces continued to push the Germans up the Italian peninsula. Under the leadership of Lieutenant General Mark Clark, the American forces became increasingly determined and proficient.

With the liberation of Rome in June 1944, ultimate victory began to seem inevitable. Atkinson draws on a wide array of primary sources, providing a narrative history of the first rank.

With this major new volume, Paul Krugman, today's most widely read economist, studies the past eighty years of American history. From the reforms that tamed the harsh inequality of the Gilded Age to the unraveling of that achievement, and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s, Krugman delves deep.

Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a "new New Deal", Krugman has created his finest book to date. This work weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analysis.

This book, written with Krugman's trademark ability to explain complex issues simply, will transform the debate about American social policy. It is a stimulating manifesto offering a compelling historical defense of liberalism and a clarion call for Americans to retake control of their economic destiny.

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened." ―Donald Miller

In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.

For anyone wondering if the Christian faith is still relevant in a postmodern culture.
For anyone thirsting for a genuine encounter with a God who is real.
For anyone yearning for a renewed sense of passion in life.

Blue Like Jazz is a fresh and original perspective on life, love, and redemption.

When we first meet Michael Oher, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write. He takes up football and school after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets.

Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game in which the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.

Halley's Bible Handbook with the New International Version provides an accessible commentary on the Bible. This text explores the cultural, religious, and geographical settings in which the story of the Bible unfolds.

Now in full color, the twenty-fifth edition offers time-tested help for understanding the Bible—not just with the mind, but also with the heart. It includes a concise Bible commentary, important discoveries in archaeology, related historical data, church history, maps, and more.

When Abigail Thomas’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his brain shattered. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations, he must live the rest of his life in an institution. He has no memory of what he did the hour, the day, the year before. This tragedy is the ground on which Abigail had to build a new life.

How she built that life is a story of great courage and great change, of moving to a small country town, of a new family composed of three dogs, knitting, and friendship, of facing down guilt and discovering gratitude. It is also about her relationship with Rich, a man who lives in the eternal present, and the eerie poetry of his often uncanny perceptions.

This wise, plainspoken, beautiful book enacts the truth Abigail discovered in the five years since the accident: You might not find meaning in disaster, but you might, with effort, make something useful of it.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches is a profound collection of fifteen essays by the influential black lesbian poet and feminist writer, Audre Lorde. Written between 1976 and 1984, these essays give clear voice to Lorde's literary and philosophical personae.

In this charged collection, Lorde takes on issues such as sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class. She propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.

These essays explore and illuminate the roots of Lorde's intellectual development and her deep-seated concerns about increasing empowerment among minority women writers. Lorde's works stress the continuity and the geographical and intellectual links between Dahomey, Africa, and her emerging self.

This commemorative edition includes a new foreword by Lorde-scholar and poet Cheryl Clarke, who celebrates the ways in which Lorde's philosophies resonate more than twenty years after they were first published.

Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think offers a unique and insightful look into the minds of leading computer scientists. Through case studies, readers have the opportunity to observe how experts tackle difficult problems in software development, revealing the carefully crafted solutions to high-profile projects. You'll be able to look over the shoulder of major coding and design experts, gaining insight into their thought processes as they navigate through the architecture of their projects, the tradeoffs involved, and the occasions when breaking the rules is necessary.

This book is not your typical design patterns manual or a rigid software engineering doctrine. Instead, it presents a series of narratives that showcase how master coders approach their work. All author royalties from this book will be donated to Amnesty International, making it not just an educational read, but also one that contributes to a global cause.

Five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a God-realized being named Lao-tzu in ancient China dictated 81 verses, which are regarded by many as the ultimate commentary on the nature of our existence. The classic text of these 81 verses, called the Tao Te Ching or the Great Way, offers advice and guidance that is balanced, moral, spiritual, and always concerned with working for the good.

In this book, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer has reviewed hundreds of translations of the Tao Te Ching and has written 81 distinct essays on how to apply the ancient wisdom of Lao-tzu to today’s modern world. This work contains the entire 81 verses of the Tao, compiled from Wayne’s researching of 12 of the most well-respected translations of text that have survived for more than 25 centuries. Each chapter is designed for actually living the Tao or the Great Way today.

Some of the chapter titles are “Living with Flexibility,” “Living Without Enemies,” and “Living by Letting Go.” Each of the 81 brief chapters focuses on living the Tao and concludes with a section called “Doing the Tao Now.”

Wayne spent one entire year reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them each day and ultimately writing down these essays as he felt Lao-tzu wanted you to know them. This is a work to be read slowly, one essay a day. As Wayne says, “This is a book that will forever change the way you look at your life, and the result will be that you’ll live in a new world aligned with nature. Writing this book changed me forever, too. I now live in accord with the natural world and feel the greatest sense of peace I’ve ever experienced.”

India After Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, the struggles, the humiliations, and the glories of the world's largest and least likely democracy. Ramachandra Guha offers a breathtaking chronicle of the brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation and the extraordinary factors that have held it together.

This intricately researched and elegantly written epic history is populated with larger-than-life characters, making it the work of a major scholar at the peak of his abilities. Guha provides fresh insights into the lives and public careers of India's long-serving prime ministers and other significant figures, painting vivid sketches of major "provincial" leaders and lesser-known yet important Indians—peasants, tribals, women, workers, and musicians.

Moving between history and biography, this story of modern India is both a riveting chronicle and a definitive history of a country that has defied numerous prophets of doom.

From the master of literary reportage, whose acclaimed books include Shah of Shahs, The Emperor, and The Shadow of the Sun, comes an intimate account of his first youthful forays beyond the Iron Curtain.

Just out of university in 1955, Kapuscinski told his editor that he’d like to go abroad. Dreaming no farther than Czechoslovakia, the young reporter found himself sent to India. Wide-eyed and captivated, he would discover in those days his life’s work—to understand and describe the world in its remotest reaches, in all its multiplicity.

From the rituals of sunrise at Persepolis to the incongruity of Louis Armstrong performing before a stone-faced crowd in Khartoum, Kapuscinski gives us the non-Western world as he first saw it, through still-virginal Western eyes.

The companion on his travels: a volume of Herodotus, a gift from his first boss. Whether in China, Poland, Iran, or the Congo, it was the “father of history”—and, as Kapuscinski would realize, of globalism—who helped the young correspondent to make sense of events, to find the story where it did not obviously exist.

It is this great forerunner’s spirit—both supremely worldly and innately Occidental—that would continue to whet Kapuscinski’s ravenous appetite for discovering the broader world and that has made him our own indispensable companion on any leg of that perpetual journey.

For anyone who's ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake- and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them).

Acclaimed illustrator Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts—poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, and more—in order to experience the true creative process. Readers discover a new way of art and journal making—and new ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994, her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.

Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers.

The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman’s journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.

Leonard Cohen is one of the great writers, performers, and most consistently daring artists of our time. Book of Longing is Cohen’s eagerly awaited new collection of poems, following his highly acclaimed 1984 title, Book of Mercy, and his hugely successful 1993 publication, Stranger Music.

Book of Longing contains erotic, playful, and provocative line drawings and artwork on every page, by the author, which interact in exciting and unexpected ways on the page with poetry that is timeless, meditative, and at times darkly humorous.

The book brings together all the elements that have brought Leonard Cohen’s artistry with language worldwide recognition.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth-anniversary edition—published in both hardcover and paperback—Brown has contributed an incisive new preface.

Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.

Joe Mackall has lived surrounded by the Swartzentruber Amish community of Ashland County, Ohio, for over sixteen years. They are the most traditional and insular of all the Amish sects: the Swartzentrubers live without gas, electricity, or indoor plumbing; without lights on their buggies or cushioned chairs in their homes; and without rumspringa, the recently popularized "running-around time" that some Amish sects allow their sixteen-year-olds.

Over the years, Mackall has developed a steady relationship with the Shetler family (Samuel and Mary, their nine children, and their extended family). Plain Secrets tells the Shetlers' story over these years, using their lives to paint a portrait of Swartzentruber Amish life and mores. During this time, Samuel's nephew Jonas finally rejects the strictures of the Amish way of life for good, after two failed attempts to leave, and his bright young daughter reaches the end of school for Amish children: the eighth grade.

But Plain Secrets is also the story of the unusual friendship between Samuel and Joe. Samuel is quietly bemused—and, one suspects, secretly delighted—at Joe's ignorance of crops and planting, carpentry and cattle. He knows Joe is planning to write a book about the family, and yet he allows him a glimpse of the tensions inside this intensely private community.

These and other stories from the life of the family reveal the larger questions posed by the Amish way of life. If the continued existence of the Amish in the midst of modern society asks us to consider the appeal of traditional, highly restrictive, and gendered religious communities, it also asks how we romanticize or condemn these communities—and why. Mackall's attempt to parse these questions—to write as honestly as possible about what he has seen of Amish life—tests his relationship with Samuel and reveals the limits of a friendship between "English" and Amish.

Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat. As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.

Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew... and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air.

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom narrates the harrowing true tale of seven escaped Soviet prisoners who desperately marched out of Siberia through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India.

Einstein was a rebel and nonconformist from boyhood days, and these character traits drove both his life and his science. In this narrative, Walter Isaacson explains how his mind worked and the mysteries of the universe that he discovered. The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk-

Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant—in the blink of an eye—that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work—in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

In Blink, we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of blink: the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing"—filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Banksy, Britain's now-legendary "guerilla" street artist, has painted the walls, streets, and bridges of towns and cities throughout the world. Not only did he smuggle his pieces into four of New York City's major art museums, he's also "hung" his work at London's Tate Gallery and adorned Israel's West Bank barrier with satirical images.

Banksy's identity remains unknown, but his work is unmistakable with prints selling for as much as $45,000. His art is witty, subversive, and prolific. Now, he's put together the best of his work in a fully illustrated colour volume.

Using the dramatic scenario of an investigative journalist pursuing his story and leads, Lee Strobel uses his experience as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune to interview experts about the evidence for Christ from the fields of science, philosophy, and history.

Retracing his own spiritual journey from atheism to faith, Lee Strobel, former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, cross-examines a dozen experts with doctorates from schools like Cambridge, Princeton, and Brandeis who are recognized authorities in their own fields. Strobel challenges them with questions like, How reliable is the New Testament? Does evidence for Jesus exist outside the Bible? Is there any reason to believe the resurrection was an actual event?

But it's not fiction. It's a riveting quest for the truth about history's most compelling figure. The new edition includes scores of revisions and additions, including updated material on archaeological and manuscript discoveries, fresh recommendations for further study, and an interview with the author that tells dramatic stories about the book's impact, provides behind-the-scenes information, and responds to critiques of the book by skeptics.

An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed - people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable.

We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed.

Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

Human Action: A Treatise on Economics by Ludwig von Mises is a profound and comprehensive examination of economic principles. Mises delves into the intricacies of market phenomena, presenting them as the results of countless conscious, purposive actions, choices, and preferences of individuals. Each person strives to attain various wants and ends while avoiding undesired consequences.

Individual Choices: It is the subjective value judgments of individuals that ultimately determine market phenomena such as supply and demand, prices, the pattern of production, and even profits and losses. While governments may attempt to set "prices," it is individuals who, through competitive bidding for money, products, and services, actually determine them.

Economics as a Study of Human Actions: Mises presents economics not merely as a study of material goods, services, and products, but as a study of human actions. He introduces the science of praxeology, a discipline grounded in reason and logic, which acknowledges a regularity in the sequence and interrelationships among market phenomena.

The Impact of Free Market Policies: Mises attributes the tremendous technological progress and increased wealth and general welfare in the last two centuries to liberal government policies based on free-market economic teachings. These policies created an environment of freedom and peace, allowing individuals to pursue their respective goals.

The Futility of Government Regulation: Mises explains the futility and counter-productiveness of government attempts to regulate and control individuals' circumstances. He argues that men are born unequal, and it is precisely their inequality that fosters social cooperation and civilization.

Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) was a leading figure of the Austrian School of Economics in the twentieth century. His work continues to be a significant reference in the field of economics.