Into the woods : tales from the Hollows and beyond

by Kim Harrison   (Get the Book)
For the first time, all of Harrison's shorter pieces are gathered together in one volume. Several have been previously published. Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel, an early story about teenage Rachel Morgan's first encounter with Pierce, originally appeared in the anthology Holidays Are Hell (2007), and Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil, written entirely from Ivy's point of view, appeared in Dates from Hell (2006). As only the most determined readers would have tracked down all these stories, this collection should be a treat for the majority of Harrison's teen and adult fans. Most highly anticipated will be the several completely new stories, notably the novella Million Dollar Baby, about Trent and Jenks' retrieval of baby Lucy, which was only briefly alluded to in the recent Pale Demon (2011). Readers concerned about the coming end of Harrison's Hollows series should be pleased with the last section, Beyond the Hollows, four stories that show that something completely new and equally good may be on the way. A must read for Harrison fans. --Booklist

Master class : living longer, stronger, and happier

by Peter Spiers     (Get the Book)
Retirement-aged baby boomers get schooled in achieving the "Master Way of Life" by balancing four key dimensions-socializing, moving, thinking, and creating. Posed as a "road map for the next phase of your life," this model curriculum offers a holistic approach to blending these four dimensions through 31 engaging-and realistic-activities (e.g., participating in a book club, dancing, educational travel). Senior v-p of the nonprofit Road Scholar organization, Spiers thoroughly explains how each activity embodies the four key elements and offers ways to get "extra credit" by making the most out of each activity, such as recording your travels through a diary, photos, or blog. Charts and exercises assist in advancing participants through four syllabi, culminating in eventual graduation to the "Master Class." The book's curriculum format, though gimmicky at times, is always constructive and instructive. But the highest grade goes to the commentary of numerous Masters, scattered throughout each section, which emphasize how certain activities have enriched their lives. According to Spiers, the goal of the program is to lead a life of "happiness, optimism, and physical and cognitive health." Or as one Master remarks in reference to writing: "The rewards are in the activity." --Publishers Weekly

Lionel Asbo : state of England

by Martin Amis   (Get the Book)
Amis' phenomenal vim and versatility, anchoring roots in English literature, and gift for satire power this hilariously Dickensian, nerve-racking, crafty, bull's-eye tale of a monster and a mensch. Lionel, a volatile and brutal thug much feared in his destitute Liverpool neighborhood, proudly changed his last name to Asbo, the English acronym for anti-social behavior order. Loyal to blood, Lionel has taken in his orphaned teenage nephew, Desmond. Gentle, smart, bookish, and half-black, Des nimbly if fearfully navigates Lionel's wrath and psychopathic pit bulls while anxiously harboring a potentially fatal family secret. While Lionel is in and out of prison, Des goes to college, becomes a journalist, and marries. Then Lionel wins the lottery and becomes the tabloids' favorite target as he struggles to transform himself and burns through a huge sum of money with mad desperation. In a wicked twist on the rags-to-riches motif, Amis exults in mocking the cheap dreams of the lottery and the rapacious British press while affirming the toxic conflicts of class, race, and gender. Even more caustically diabolical is the way Amis toys with our trust in love. This deliciously shivery, sly, and taunting page-turner provokes a fresh assessment of the poverty of place, mind, and spirit and the wondrous blossoming of against-all-odds goodness. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With praise still in the air for Amis' last novel, The Pregnant Widow (2010), readers will flock to this rapidly devoured, fiendishly comedic, and telling fable. --Booklist

Barefoot Contessa foolproof : recipes you can trust

by Ina Garten     Get the Book
How many magazine, newspaper, and book recipes have resulted in major dining disasters, or at least less-than-optimum visual and tasty delights? Not content to rely on titles alone, nationally known cook and TV host Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, carefully counsels reader-chefs on turning out perfect dishes and menus every time. Each page, if not featuring a list of foolproof techniques and tips, includes all the right directions as well as photographs. Just a sampling of the ideas that make her 100 dishes work: freeze cookie dough but not already baked cookies; when a dish specifies fleur de sel, don't use kosher salt; avoid serving appetizers on Thanksgiving, but do cook in abundance, so that guests go home with leftovers. Her treats, as always are stomach pleasers: mustard and gruyere batons, lobster mac and cheese, salted caramel brownies, and cinnamon baked donuts, among others.

Mean girls at work :how to stay professional when things get personal

by Katherine Crowley Get The Book

*Starred Review* Years ago, it was called the Queen Bee Syndrome, denoting the propensity of female bosses to overdo their authority in the workplace. Now, psychotherapist-consultant team and multibook authors (including Working with You Is Killing Me, 2006) Crowley and Elster more precisely define the mean bee, segmenting bad female behaviors into seven categories: meanest of the mean, very mean, passively mean, doesn't mean to be mean, doesn't know she's mean, brings out your mean, and group mean. Not enough differentiation among these personalities, you fear? Relax; perhaps the most critical part of the book is when the authors first describe the specific variations of meanness, then detail not only particular actions but also your feelings and what to do (as well as what not to do). 

100 ways to motivate yourself : change your life forever /

by Steve Chandler  (Get The Book)

Steve Chandler helps you create an action plan for living your vision, in business and in life. It features 100 proven methods to positively change the way you think and act--methods based on feedback from the hundreds of thousands of corporate and public seminar attendees Chandler speaks to each year. The book now also includes techniques and breakthroughs he has created for individual coaching clients. 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself will help you break through the negative barriers and banish the pessimistic thoughts that are preventing you from fulfilling your lifelong goals and dreams. This edition also contains new mental and spiritual techniques that give readers more immediate access to action and results in their lives.If you're ready to finally make a change and reach your goals, Steve Chandler challenges you to turn your defeatist attitude into energetic, optimistic, enthusiastic accomplishments.

A fistful of collars : a Chet and Bernie mystery

by Spencer Quinn    (Get the Book)
In their fifth outing, Chet, the pooch narrator, and Bernie, the human PI, have a brush with fame after they agree to do babysitting duty for a notoriously difficult movie star, Thad Perry, and his cat, Brando, as a favor to the mayor, who's working hard to promote the Valley as a movie-filming destination. But both Chet and Bernie suspect something deeper is going on with Thad's cousin and personal bodyguard and the mayor's head of security (an old acquaintance from the police force), especially after the pair is found sniffing around a murder scene. Nor does Chet like the drugs he often smells on Thad (Chet did really well at the drug-sniffing part of K-9 school; well, until there was that incident with the cat . . .). Quinn's ability to get inside Chet's head continues to be what gives this series its spark. Between Chet's insightful and humorous takes on human events, the fast-paced plot, and the wealth of fascinating secondary characters, this is a fine entry in a not-to-be-missed series. --Booklist

The next always

by Nora Roberts         (Get the Book)
Beckett has no trouble whatsoever talking to women. It's just Claire who has him at a loss for words. It all began when Beckett fell hard and fast for Claire in high school, but Claire wound up marrying Beckett's best friend, Clint. Now, more than a decade later, Claire, a war widow, is back in Boonsboro, building a new life for herself and her sons as the owner of the town's bookstore. Even though renovating the local inn keeps Beckett busy, he still manages to bump into Claire at least once a day, and he still finds himself surprisingly tongue-tied. Finally, when Beckett offers Claire an early tour of the inn, it leads to an unexpected kiss. With the first impeccably written and richly emotional installment in her new contemporary romantic trilogy, Roberts delivers all the elements her readers enjoy, including a perfectly matched pair of protagonists and a plot spiced with danger, a touch of the paranormal, and deliciously tart humor. Readers will also relish the autobiographical dimension. The novel is set in Roberts' hometown, Boonsboro, Maryland, in which she owns a restored inn and is the proprietor of Turn the Page bookstore. --Booklist

The story of ain't : America, its language, and the most controversial dictionary ever published

by David Skinner     (Get the Book)
The editors of the New York Times breathed fire when they saw the word ain't in Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961). However, Skinner brushes aside the Times' outrage to recover the story of how one brave editor, Philip Gove, dared to publish a dictionary documenting how language actually worked in twentieth-century America, not a carefully trimmed guide to linguistic etiquette. Chronicling the thinking that emboldened Gove, Skinner revisits early twentieth-century America to examine the tensions separating the genteel novelist Henry James, who deplored the slovenliness of American speech, from the populist Mark Twain, who relished the lawless energy of that speech. As a work championing Twain's perspective, H. L. Mencken's 1919 The American Language receives particular attention as an overdue recognition of the generative powers that informed the unvarnished rhetoric of Lincoln and the iconoclastic fiction of Theodore Dreiser. Skinner also limns the growing lexical impact of linguistics as an empirical science, not a set of regulatory grammar rules. Schooled in such science, Gove risked the publication of a revolutionary lexicon though Skinner allows readers to hear the howls of protest that the dictionary provoked before it finally won general acceptance. A compelling reminder of the cultural significance of words and word-making. --Booklist