Book News and New Book Reviews
Just a sampling of our new materials (right side)!
by Benjamin Percy (Get the Book)
Doing for werewolves what Justin Cronin's The Passage (2010) did for vampires, this literary horror novel is set in an alternate version of the present day. Everything is pretty much the same, except for one teensy difference: werewolves or lycans, as Percy calls them aren't the stuff of mythology. They're real, and they've existed for centuries: ordinary men and women afflicted with an unusual (and seemingly incurable) disease, lobos, which turns them into another sort of life-form altogether. Lycans and humans have established an uneasy peace, but, as the book opens, lycan terrorists seem determined to spark a bloody war. Percy focuses on a trio of engaging and beautifully drawn characters: Patrick, a boy who survives one of the terrorist attacks; Claire, a girl whose family is murdered for reasons she doesn't clearly understand; and Chase, a governor whose aggressively anti-lycan views are challenged in a tragically ironic way. Parallels to the U.S. in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks are clear and deliberate, but it's the way the author, following in the footsteps of such writers as Glen Duncan (in The Last Werewolf, 2011), humanizes the werewolf, turning him from snarling beast into a creature for whom we feel compassion and affection, that makes the book such a splendid read. Although the novel tells a self-contained story, there is plenty of room for a sequel, which would be most welcome. --Booklist
by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Get the Book)
Lincoln redux. Nevertheless, popular historian Goodwin offers fresh ground by which to judge the almost overdone sixteenth president. She is fascinated by the growth of Lincoln's political genius, which resulted in two rather startling situations having to do with his career. First, that despite coming from nowhere, he won the 1860 Republican nomination, snatching it from the anticipating hands of three chief contenders, all of whom were not only well known but also known to be presidential material: William Seward, senator from New York; Salmon Chase, governor of Ohio; and Edwin Bates, distinguished politician from Missouri. Second, that once Lincoln achieved the nomination and won the election, he brought his rivals into his cabinet and built them into a remarkable team to lead the Union during the Civil War, none of whom overshadowed the prairie lawyer turned president. Goodwin finds meaningful comparisons and differences in not only the four men's careers but also their personal lives and character traits. She extends her purview to the women occupying important space next to them (the wives of Lincoln, Seward, and Bates and the daughter of the widower Chase). The knowledge gained here about these three significant figures who well attended Lincoln gain for the reader an even keener appreciation of the rare individual that he was. --Booklist
by Lauren Graham (Get the Book)
Actor Graham (Gilmore Girls, Parenthood) turns to a new creative outlet with her breezy first novel set in the demoralizing if funny bustle of New York City's 1995 acting world. Twentysomething Franny Banks is destined to act, if she can can actually land a decent audition and an even more decent part. Able to pay her rent since she snagged a coveted comedy-club waitressing job, Franny lives the typical life of a struggling actor as she tries to balance finding a good agent, going to auditions, making a splash in her acting class, and keeping her disliked if much-needed job while fretting over the looming self-imposed deadline of three years to make it on Broadway. Her roommates, good pal Jane and wannabe writer Dan, play her foils as she also deals with family issues and the very enticing James Franklin, from her acting class. A jaunty style and cutesy Filofax entries mark this as light yet enjoyable reading. Recommended for readers interested in a blithe, behind-the-scenes take on aspiring actors and their world. --Booklist
by Brian Castner (Get the Book)
With a degree in electrical engineering, Castner served as an air force officer in Saudi Arabia in 2001, and Iraq in 2005 and 2006, where he earned a Bronze Star. He then trained military Explosive Ordnance Disposal units in tactical bomb procedures. Castner's chilling account of those years is, he feels, "as correct as a story can be from someone with blast-induced memory lapses." He details daily rituals and routines, and the Humvee expeditions, seeking improvised explosive devices (IED) with robots. When robots fail, there is the Long Walk, wearing the bomb suit ("eighty pounds of mailed kevlar"). Castner edges through this world of hidden dangers, suicide bombers, and scattered body parts. Throughout, he splices in scenes of the aftermath-his return to his wife and family in the U.S., where he is told he has post-traumatic stress disorder. Haunted by what he calls "the Crazy" ("it's grey [sic] spidery fingers take the top of my head off to eat my brain and heart. every night"), he sees constant reminders that blur reality ("IEDs on Interstate 90"). The intercutting of these two different narratives effectively conveys how a disturbing mental condition can erupt in the aftermath of nightmarish war horrors. --Publishers Weekly
by Khaled Hosseini (Get the Book)
Saboor, a laborer, pulls his young daughter, Pari, and his son, Abdullah, across the desert in a red wagon, leaving their poor village of Shadbagh for Kabul, where his brother-in-law, Nabi, a chauffeur, will introduce them to a wealthy man and his beautiful, despairing poet wife. So begins the third captivating and affecting novel by the internationally best-selling author of The Kite Runner (2003) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007). An immense, ancient oak stands in Shadbagh, emblematic of the complexly branching stories in Hosseini's vital, profound, and spellbinding saga of family bonds and unlikely pairings forged by chance, choice, and necessity. We meet twin sisters, one beautiful, one plain; one an invalid, the other a caretaker. Two male cousins, one a charismatic wheeler-dealer; the other a cautious, introverted doctor. A disfigured girl of great valor and a boy destined to become a plastic surgeon. Kabul falls and struggles to rise. Shadbagh comes under the rule of a drug lord, and the novel's many limbs reach to Paris, San Francisco, and a Greek island. A masterful and compassionate storyteller, Hosseini traces the traumas and scarring of tyranny, war, crime, lies, and illness in the intricately interconnected, heartbreaking, and extraordinary lives of his vibrantly realized characters to create a grand and encompassing tree of life. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The immense popularity of Hosseini's previous books ensures a high-profile promotional campaign and mounting word-of-mouth excitement in anticipation of the release of his first new novel in six years. --Booklist
by Maggie Oman Shannon (Get the Book)
Shannon (Prayers for Healing), a San Francisco-based interfaith minister, finds spiritual calm through creating, and this collection of stories, journal prompts, inspirational quotes, and craft projects is designed to help others find their own inner peace. The author's focus is on the Christian faith, but she includes anecdotes from crafters from other faith traditions, including Judaism and paganism. The projects are fairly simple, and all focus on bringing spirituality, prayer, or meditation into the mix. Sometimes this works, such as the personal prayer flag; other times, it's a little forced, like the "sacred bath salts." VERDICT The intersection of crafts and spirituality is a popular topic, and Shannon's exploration will inspire crafters of a variety of faiths. --Library Journal
by Gail Goodwin (Get the Book)
Godwin, celebrated for her literary finesse, presents a classic southern tale galvanic with decorous yet stabbing sarcasm and jolting tragedy. Helen, a writer, looks back to the fateful summer of 1945, when she was a precocious, motherless 10-year-old trying to make sense of a complicated and unjust world. Young Helen lives on a hill in North Carolina in an old, rambling, haunted house that was once a sanatorium for folks she calls the Recoverers. Raised by her immaculately turned-out, tart-tongued, and stoic grandmother, whom she worships, Helen is bereft after Nonie's sudden death. Worse yet, her father is summoned to work on the secret military project at Oak Ridge. He recruits a 22-year-old Alabaman cousin to stay in his place. Sweet, emotional, and seemingly guileless Flora is no match for feverishly imaginative, scheming, and condescending Helen. When a polio outbreak keeps them at home, and a war veteran begins delivering their groceries, tension builds. Godwin's under-your-skin characters are perfectly realized, and the held-breath plot is consummately choreographed. But the wonder of this incisive novel of the endless repercussions of loss and remorse at the dawn of the atomic age is how subtly Godwin laces it with exquisite insights into secret family traumas, unspoken sexuality, class and racial divides, and the fallout of war while unveiling the incubating mind of a future writer. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Godwin is always in demand, and with early accolades for this tour de force from the likes of John Irving, requests will multiply. --Booklist
by Temple Grandin (Get the Book)
Grandin is the face of autism. Because of her work, the general public is now aware of what was until fairly recently a strange, disturbing, and essentially unknowable condition. In her latest book, Grandin not only discusses her own experiences with autism but also explains the latest technological advances in the study of the disorder, including the genetics of autism. The symptoms that she displayed at a young age destructive behavior, inability to speak, sensitivity to physical contact, fixation on spinning objects are now considered classic indicators of the disorder, though she was diagnosed as having brain damage. Things have changed since then, of course. She discusses when autism was first diagnosed (in 1943), but she makes clear from the start that her priority here is to encourage an accurate diagnosis for the disorder and promote improved treatments for sensory problems associated with autism, since difficulty in the latter can often be debilitating. She discusses different ways of thinking and even includes lists of potential jobs for those people among us who think differently. An important and ultimately optimistic work. --Booklist
by Stephen Coonts (Get the Book)
After a decade-long absence, Coonts' first and most popular protagonist, Jake Grafton, returns to action, ably assisted by Tommy Carmellini, who in addition to costarring in a few previous Grafton novels has also top-lined a handful of books of his own. When a cruise ship is taken by Somali pirates, Jake and Tommy attack the problem on different fronts, Jake trying to broker a truce with the pirate overlord while Tommy spearheads an undercover mission to rescue the hostages. Full of action and anchored by a pair of strong protagonists (not to mention an equally strong supporting cast, most notably the captain of the cruise ship), this one will definitely appeal to Coonts' legion of fans, who have been eagerly awaiting the return of Grafton and Carmellini. Coonts is one of those writers whose name on the cover pretty much guarantees a certain level of quality, and he doesn't disappoint here. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The track record tells the story: there have been 16 New York Times best-sellers with Coonts' name on the spine. --Booklist
by Jennifer keishin Armstrong (Get the Book)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ran for seven seasons (1970-1977), made it big, and the series remains one of TV's most acclaimed, with 29 Emmys total. Entertainment writer Armstrong's affectionate and meticulous history offers a captivating behind-the-scenes look at all of the personalities who turned the show into a success. Fast-paced and charming, Armstrong's chronicle brings to life writers Treva Silverman (who wrote scripts for The Monkees), Allan Burns (My Mother the Car), and James L. Brooks (Rhoda; Taxi), who labored mightily in 1970 on the scripts for Mary Tyler Moore. The show pulled Moore back from the brink of the career disasters since the end of The Dick Van Dyke Show, and created for her a forceful persona surrounded by actors such as the irascible Ed Asner, the indefatigable Betty White, and the lovably eccentric Valerie Harper. Even more important, Armstrong points out, the show provided significant opportunity for women television writers to establish their careers in an industry in which they were noticeably absent. Armstrong's absorbing cultural history offers the first in-depth look at a series that changed television. --Publishers Weekly
by Richard Paul Evans (Get the Book)
Evans (The Christmas Box) opens this installment of the Walk series with former advertising executive Alan Christoffersen contemplating death and dying. Written as his journal, early pages detail more calamity than most protagonists will encounter in an entire novel. Suffering painful memories, Christoffersen sets out "to take a walk-one that would take me as far away from Seattle as physically possible." About halfway to his Key West destination, Christoffersen discovers he has a serious medical condition. Treatment waylays him for a few weeks, during which time he manages to alienate the few friends and family he has left. With the exception of Christoffersen's encounter with a disturbing cult that consumes two chapters, Evans moves events along at a rapid-fire pace. A few random strangers add to the complexity of the story as they provide physical, emotional, and spiritual assistance throughout the journey. There is also a healthy peppering of historical background for many of the towns visited. Christoffersen's unconventional road trip travels a path of self-discovery and determination. --Publishers Weekly
by John Glatt (Get the Book)
From the provocative opening sentence ("When retired police chief James Scarberry heard in July 2009 that Ben Novack Jr. had been brutally murdered, with his eyes gouged out, he was not surprised."), true-crime veteran Glatt (Love Her to Death) grabs the reader's attention. With a perfect amount of detail, he traces the sad life of Novack-whose father, Ben Sr., founded Miami Beach's legendary Fountainebleau Hotel-from an unhappy childhood to his death in 2009 at the age of 53. This is no whodunit-the path that ended with Novack's savage slaying in a Hilton in Rye, N.Y., was a long one, and he wasn't the only victim; just months before, Novack's wife, Narcy, a former stripper determined to take control of the family's assets (including Novack's warehouse of valuable Batman memorabilia), orchestrated the brutal killing of his mother, Bernice. In fact, it was a medical examiner's incredible ruling that the severe head trauma sustained by Bernice was an accident that allowed Narcy to go free long enough to plan her husband's murder. This gripping account is proof that truth can be stranger-and far more disturbing-than fiction. --Publishers Weekly
by David Bell (Get the Book)
Bell's latest examines the grief, shock, and horror of parents whose child vanishes. Tom and Abby Stuart have no idea what happened to their 12-year-old, Caitlin, four years ago. Did she run away or was she kidnapped? Is she even still alive? With his marriage on the rocks, Tom still can't believe his daughter is dead. Abby wants to hold a funeral for her so she can move on. One day they receive a phone call to come down to the police station. An officer has found Caitlin, alive. The teenager in front of them is definitely their daughter, but she isn't the same little girl they lost. And she doesn't want to talk about what happened to her. Every parent's worst nightmare carries the story on a tense and terrifying journey that brims with emotional authenticity. Bell manages not only to build suspense effectively but also tell a story that goes way beyond simple thrills. Anyone with children who reads this will think twice about security and what is best for young people on the road to adulthood. --Booklist
Leigh Newman (Get the Book)
As a child of divorce, Newman was raised on two coasts: fishing and camping with her father in Anchorage, and navigating museums and private school in Baltimore with her mother. Although she relishes sharing details of her wilderness adventures, it is the emotional turmoil wrought by the demise of her parent's marriage that dominates the book. Newman has crafted a vivid exploration of a broken family, recording episodes of hurt feelings, miscommunication, and more than a few emotional outbursts by a mother who struggled with her own history of parental trauma and a father whose choices did not always include the child from his first marriage. To be certain, there is more than one side to this story, and Newman's is steadfastly her own, full of the pathos all children endure when their lives are upturned. Her pain will resonate strongly with readers, and she vividly brings both Alaska and Maryland to life. She spares herself no mercy, making it clear that wounds from childhood take decades, and deep understanding, to heal. A natural for book clubs. --Booklist
by John Sandford (Get the Book)
Governor Elmer Henderson hands Lucas Davenport a political hot potato in bestseller Sandford's intriguing 23rd thriller featuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent (after 2012's Stolen Prey). Incumbent Republican Sen. Porter Smalls had a slight lead for reelection, until a campaign volunteer accidentally discovered child porn on Smalls's computer. Now Taryn Grant-a wealthy, ambitious, ruthless Democratic newcomer-might pull off an upset. Though Henderson is a Democrat, he believes Smalls has been framed, and tasks Davenport with quietly and quickly investigating. Up against two of Grant's "security" men, both tough ex-military operatives, and the election deadline, Davenport needs all his smarts plus help from fellow BCA agent Virgil Flowers (the star of his own series) and computer genius Kidd. Sandford expertly ratchets up the suspense and delivers some nifty surprises as Davenport deals with political nastiness and paybacks regardless of party affiliations. --Publishers Weekly
by Lew Irwin (Get the Book)
Former Los Angeles TV anchorman and journalist Irwin takes readers to an oft-forgotten era of home-grown terrorism: from 1907 to 1911 violent tensions between businesses and unions prompted more than 200 bombings. General Harrison Clay Otis's Los Angeles Times was outspokenly anti-union, and in the middle of the night on October 1, 1910, an explosion ripped through the paper's headquarters, killing 21 people. The tragedy sparked an immediate manhunt, but it would be months before the culprits turned up. Irwin writes in the preface that the inspiration for the book came from an interview he conducted half a century ago with Irving Stone, author of the popular biographical novel Clarence Darrow for the Defense, and he does his best to mimic Stone's template by offering accurate yet enthralling portraits of the major players in the case, including Otis, private detective William J. Burns, corrupt union boss Herb Hockin, the accused McNamara brothers, and their defense lawyer-Clarence Darrow. Masterfully alternating between the exploits of the main characters, Irwin recreates the devastating blast, the public hysteria, and the sensational trial following the arrest of the bombing brothers. History buffs and scholars of the modern Age of Terror will devour this detailed account. --Publishers weekly
by Claire Messud (Get the Book)
In this acid bath of a novel, the superlative Messud (The Emperor's Children, 2006) immolates an iconic figure the good, quiet, self-sacrificing woman with exhilarating velocity, fury, and wit while taking on the vicissitudes of family life and the paradoxes of art. Nora, our archly funny, venomous, and raging 42-year-old narrator, recounts her thirty-seventh year, when she was living alone and teaching third grade in Boston after the death of her profoundly frustrated mother. Nora longs to make art but hasn't mustered the necessary conviction. Enter the Paris-based Shahids. Reza, her new student, is a magnet for bullies stirred up by post-9/11 xenophobia. His Palestinian Lebanese father, Skandar, is a prominent academic spending a year at Harvard. His Italian mother, Sirena, is an artist in need of a studio and a studio mate. She promptly recruits Nora. A confident and passionate conduit for mythological powers, Sirena creates lush gardens and jungles made out of household items and refuse. Unworldly and lonely Nora, a veritable daughter of Ibsen, builds dollhouses small, painstakingly accurate replicas of the rooms occupied by women artists ranging from Emily Dickinson to Edie Sedgwick. Messud's scorching social anatomy, red-hot psychology, galvanizing story, and incandescent language make for an all-circuits-firing novel about enthrallment, ambition, envy, and betrayal. A tour de force portraying a no longer invisible or silent woman upstairs. --Booklist
by K. Eric Drexler (Get the Book)
K. Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology-the science of engineering on a molecular level. In 'Radical Abundance', he shows how rapid scientific progress is about to change our world. Thanks to atomically precise manufacturing, we will soon have the power to produce radically more of what people want, and at a lower cost. The result will shake the very foundations of our economy and environment.Already, scientists have constructed prototypes for circuit boards built of millions of precisely arranged atoms. The advent of this kind of atomic precision promises to change the way we make things-cleanly, inexpensively, and on a global scale. It allows us to imagine a world where solar arrays cost no more than cardboard and aluminum foil, and laptops cost about the same.A provocative tour of cutting edge science and its implications by the field's founder and master, Radical Abundance offers a mind-expanding vision of a world hurtling toward an unexpected future. (Summary)
by Stephan Talty (Get the Book)
Detective Absalom Kearny of the Buffalo (NY) PD is caring for her aged, adoptive father, John, a legendary, former detective himself. Smart and driven, Abbie is seen by fellow cops as a rising star. But she may be too driven, and the savage torture-murder of Jimmy Ryan, a resident of the city's clannish Irish enclave, the County, drives her toward obsession. More grisly murders occur, and even though Abbie grew up in the County, no one will talk with her, even though many know what is happening; the County avenges its own. Talty, author of several lauded nonfiction books (Agent Garbo, 2012), has produced a suspenseful debut novel with a circuitous plot. Abbie is a wonderfully complex and conflicted character, but it is the County which may exist in Buffalo and certainly exists in other northeastern cities that shines brightest. It's a place where a boy whose people came from Mayo isn't allowed to date a Kilkenny girl, and its residents share an ancestral memory of being oppressed in a country they'd never been to. Economically ravaged Buffalo is portrayed in broader brushstrokes, but the sense of place is palpably evocative. Black Irish is simply a riveting read. --Booklist
by Eric Schmidt (Get the Book)
If prominence correlates with the attention paid to a prognosticator, there will be great interest in the outlook for the Internet, according to Google executive Schmidt. With Cohen, Schmidt addresses incipient trends in an individual's engagement with the Internet to introduce his main subject, how nation-states and businesses will capitalize or cope with the velocity, connectivity, and mutation of the Internet. In the authors' analysis, governments and companies face in the virtual world, as they have in the physical world, an intelligence challenge. Referencing Internet incidents galore, they warn of a perpetual code war between attackers and defenders and expand upon this type of conflict within authoritarian and democratic states. Citing the Arab Spring as an example, Schmidt and Cohen predict that its online propagation presages an easier initiation of future revolutions, which nevertheless face uncertain outcomes when they encounter, as they eventually must, the material powers of a state. Peering forward to the Internet's influence on international affairs, this work of futurology combines optimism and pessimism in an informed and levelheaded presentation. --Booklist
by T. Jefferson Parker (Get the Book)
A steady stream of trouble flows along the Iron River, the gun-trafficking corridor straddling the Mexican-American border from California to Texas. Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Charlie Hood knows the passageway's dark history all too well; he helps monitor it for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In this compelling conclusion to three-time Edgar-winner Parker's best-selling Charlie Hood series (after The Jaguar, 2012), Deputy Hood once again finds himself in the company of unsavory sorts. Shady Los Angeles cop Bradley Jones, son of late L.A. outlaw Suzanne Jones, is still in tight with the Baja Cartel. (Deputy Hood was deeply in love with Bradley's mother and feels a certain bond with her son, despite his wayward ways.) Bradley's wife is pregnant, and Hood hopes the responsibilities of parenthood will force Jones to shape up. Meanwhile, sinister salesman Mike Finnegan continues to snake his way into Hood's life. (This time, he mysteriously surfaces in a House committee hearing in which Hood is testifying.) The sheriff's new and equally nefarious nemesis is Lonnie Rovanna, an unhinged soul with an itchy trigger finger and voices in his head. Parker's knack for intriguing characters and steadily escalating suspense make this a memorable finish to a standout series. --Booklist
by Gary Greenberg (Get the Book)
With the forthcoming fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), psychotherapist Greenberg (The Noble Lie) releases a timely critique of the process for the manual's rewriting. Drawing mainly on personal correspondence with key players working on the revision, he passionately argues that decisions regarding which categories of "illness" and their criteria for diagnosis are changed, dropped from, or added to the manual are not based on sound scientific research. Thus, he argues the primary purpose of the DSM-5 is to provide an economic foundation for the psychiatric profession as well as for pharmaceutical and health-insurance companies. He emphasizes proposed changes in the discussions of Asperger's syndrome, bereavement-related depression, bipolar disorder in children, and personality disorders. VERDICT Greenberg's documentation of the DSM-5 revision process is an essential read for practicing and in-training psychotherapists and psychiatrists and is an important contribution to the history of psychiatry. Those more casually interested in the topic, however, may be satisfied with his Wired article "Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness," which inspired the book. --Booklist
by Herman Koch (Get the Book)
Already a runaway hit throughout Europe, boasting more than a million copies sold, Koch's sixth novel arrives stateside, giving readers here a chance to mull over some rather meaty moral quandaries. But not so fast. First, Koch has a few false paths to lead us down. The story starts off casually and unassumingly with a dinner between two brothers, one running for prime minister of the Netherlands, along with their wives at one of Amsterdam's finest establishments. The other brother, as narrator, sharply ridicules every absurd element of the night to great effect. But just as everything settles in, Koch pivots, and these pointed laughs quickly turn to discussion about their teenage boys and something they've done. And it's at this point when readers will feel two distinct ideologies forming and will face the novel's vital question: which position to side with? Koch's organic style makes for a continuously engaging read that, if anything, leaves readers wanting more. Another 100 pages or so exploring these issues further would have been more than welcome, but what is here will no doubt stir some heady debates. --Booklist
by Mika Brzezinski (Get the Book)
Svelte and fit, Brzezinski is the envy of millions of women who watch her on ÂMSNBC's Morning Joe, a bully pulpit she uses to forcefully admonish viewers about the importance of proper diet and exercise. Few would suspect that her vehemence stems from a personal addiction to junk food and binge eating that has plagued her all her life and that her ironclad willpower actually borders on an unhealthy obsession to stay thin at any cost. Only when she candidly confronted a friend, coauthor Smith, who was morbidly obese, did Brzezinski come to realize that her famously stringent attitudes toward food and fitness were just as harmful as her friend's more indulgent lifestyle. With personal and professional input from celebrities such as Jennifer Hudson and public officials such as Governor Chris Christie, whose weight-loss battles are Âheadline-generating events, Brzezinski and Smith polls the worlds of medicine, media, entertainment, and business to analyze our nation's obesity epidemic and offer advice about adopting healthier habits. --Booklist
by Sophie Kinsella (Get the Book)
Kinsella's latest romantic romp revolves around two sisters with very different notions about love. Impulsive Lottie is expecting her boyfriend, Richard, to propose to her; she's floored when he instead suggests a vacation using his frequent-flier miles. When Richard balks at the idea of marriage, Lottie breaks up with him. She runs straight into the arms of an old flame, Ben, with whom she spent a magical summer at the age of 18 on the island of Ikonos. Ben is more than ready to rekindle their relationship and walk down the aisle with her. When Lottie's practical older sister, Fliss, gets wind of her plan to marry Ben, Fliss is determined to stop the nuptials. Ben's coworker Lorcan seems equally opposed to the wedding, and Fliss thinks they're set, until Lottie and Ben have a hasty ceremony and jet to Ikonos. Fliss decides she has to sabotage the honeymoon in the hopes of getting Lottie to see that she's making a huge mistake. There's plenty of silly fun to be had in this charming comedy of errors. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The kicky new romantic comedy by #1 New York Times best-selling Kinsella of Shopaholic fame will be supported by a major multimedia promotional campaign. --Booklist
In 2001, Classroom Instruction That Works asked a few simple questions and inspired more than a million teachers to refine their approach to teaching. What works in education? How do we know? How can educational research find its way into the classroom? How can we apply it to help individual students? This all-new, completely revised second edition of that classic text draws on the research and developments of the following decade to reanalyze and reevaluate the teaching strategies that have the most positive effect on student learning: • Setting objectives and providing feedback • Reinforcing effort and providing recognition • Cooperative learning • Cues, questions, and advance organizers • Nonlinguistic representations • Summarizing and note taking • Assigning homework and providing practice • Identifying similarities and differences • Generating and testing hypotheses These strategies are organized and presented within a framework that is geared toward instructional planning, which highlights the point that all of the strategies are effective and should be used to complement one another. Each strategy is supported with recommended classroom practices, examples of the strategy in use, tips for teaching, and information about using the strategy with today's learners. Whether you are coming to this book for the first time or are a veritable expert in the nine strategies, this second edition will help you develop your instructional approach, broaden your influence as a teacher, and enhance the learning potential of all your students. We haven't reinvented the wheel. We've taken classroom instruction that works and made it thrive. --Publisher (Get the Book)
