Lookout: Apr 11, 2011

TWILIGHT OF KERBEROS: NIGHT'S HAUNTING By Matthew Sprange

TWILIGHT OF KERBEROS: NIGHT'S HAUNTING By Matthew SprangeTwilight, a world overshadowed by a vast gas giant, bathing the earth in its otherworldly glow. A world of magic and warriors, zealots and monsters. It is here that the human race cling to a small peninsula, ignorant of what lies beyond the World's Ridge mountains. But there are those amongst this fledgling race with truly extraordinary powers, heroes who would delve deep into the mysteries of the past and bring new light to Twilight. Twilight of Kerberos is a sword and sorcery series, following the adventures of a group of characters with unique talents.Lucius Kane, has found his power in the Turnita underworld growing. His prospects seem boundless, until the Empire of Vos descends upon the city. At the same time a new cleric has taken command of the souls of Turnitia's citizens. He has promised to eradicate the thieves' guild and outlaw unlicensed magic. The Shadowmages are at the top of his list. Lucius will,once again, fight a war in the city streets.

How Can I Get Through to You?: Closing the Intimacy Gap Between Men and Women By Terrence Real

"What happened to the passion we started with?
Why aren't we as close as we used to be?"

PROBLEM: If you are a woman who is unfulfilled in your marriage...if you feel unheard or overburdened...if you quietly live in a state of slow-burn resentment...
PROBLEM: If you are a man unhappy that your partner seems so unhappy with you...if you feel bewildered, unappreciated, or betrayed...

This book offers a solution

Bestselling author and nationally renowned therapist Terrence Real unearths the causes of communication blocks between men and women in this groundbreaking work. Relationships are in trouble; the demand for intimacy today must be met with new skills, and Real -- drawing on his pioneering work on male depression -- gives both men and women those skills, empowering women and connecting men, radically reversing the attitudes and emotional stumbling blocks of the patriarchal culture in which we were raised. Filled with powerful stories of the couples Real treats, no other relationship book is as straight talking or compelling in its innovative approach to healing wounds and reconnecting partners with a new strength and understanding.

Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball By Donald Hall

Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball By Donald HallOne of America's finest poets joins forces with one of baseball's most outrageous pitchers to paint a revealing portrait of our national game. Donald Hall's forceful, yet elegant, prose brings together all the elements of Dock Ellis's story into a seamless whole. The two of them, the pitcher and the poet, give us remarkable insight into the customs and culture of this closed clannish world. Dock's keen vision, filtered through Hall's extraordinary voice, shows us the hardships and problems of the thinking athlete in an unthinking world.

A Corpse By Any Other Name: A Stokes Moran Mystery By Neil Mcgaughey

As Kyle Malachi prepares for impending fatherhood, his growing alienation toward his better known alter ego (the pseudonymous and nationally syndicated mystery critic Stokes Moran) leads him to a rash act -- he decides to kill off his fictitious rival.

Despite vehement protests from his wife Lee Holland, Kyle places a simple announcement of Stokes Moran's death in The New York Times, bringing to an end a ten-year association with his more famous identity. Or so he thinks. Two days later, Lee (as Stokes Moran's literary agent) gets a call from the Manhattan police asking if she would officially identify Stokes Moran's remains. When it becomes obvious that this is not somebody's idea of a grim practical joke, both Lee and Kyle are stunned! How is it possible for a man who never existed to leave behind a flesh-and-bone corpus delicti?

As Kyle struggles to explain to the admittedly skeptical authorities his convoluted relationship with the late Stokes Moran, and what led him to orchestrate Moran's public demise, Kyle quickly realizes that he is not only the police's prime suspect in this real-life murder investigation -- he is their only suspect. Furthermore, Kyle knows that if he wants to stay out of prison for a crime he didn't commit, he must solve the case himself. And fast!

But first, Kyle must put a name on the corpse -- a name other than Stokes Moran. Any other name.

With its comic wit as well as its challenging puzzle, A Corpse by Any Other Name is a fitting and worthy addition to the Stokes Moran mystery series and should attract fans both new and old.

The Ballad of Little River: A Tale of Race and Restless Youth in the Rural South By Paul Hemphill

Except for a massacre of five hundred settlers by renegade Creek Indians in the early 1800s, not much bad had happened during two centuries in Little River, Alabama, an obscure Lost Colony in the swampy woodlands of To Kill a Mockingbird country. "We're stuck down here being poor together" is how one native described the hamlet of about two hundred people, half black and half white. But in 1997, racial violence hit Little River like a thunderclap. A young black man was killed while trying to break into a white family's trailer at night, a beloved white store owner was nearly bludgeoned to death by a black ex-convict, and finally a marauding band of white kids torched a black church and vandalized another during a drunken wilding soon after a Ku Klux Klan rally.

The Ballad of Little River is a narrative of that fateful year, an anatomy of one of the many church arsons across the South in the late 1990s. It is also much more -- a biography of a place that seemed, on the cusp of the millennium, stuck in another time. When veteran journalist Paul Hemphill, the son of an Alabama truck driver who has written extensively on the blue-collar South, moved into Little River, he discovered the flip side of what the natives like to call "God's country": a dot on the map far from the mainstream of American life, a forlorn cluster of poverty and ignorance and dead-end jobs in the dark, snake-infested forests, a world that time forgot.

Living alongside the citizens of Little River, Hemphill discovered a stew of characters right out of fiction -- "Peanut" Ferguson, "Doll" Boone, "Hoss" Mack, Joe Dees, Murray January, a Klansman named "Brother Phil," and his stripper wife known as "Wild Child" -- swirling into a maelstrom of insufferable heat, malicious gossip, ancient grudges, and unresolved racial animosities. His story of how their lives intertwined serves, as well, as a chilling cautionary tale about the price that must be paid for living in virtual isolation

Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy By William Greider

Who Will Tell the People is a passionate, eye-opening challenge to American democracy. Here is a tough-minded exploration of why we're in trouble, starting with the basic issues of who gets heard, who gets ignored, and why. Greider shows us the realities of power in Washington today, uncovering the hidden relationships that link politicians with corporations and the rich, and that subvert the needs of ordinary citizens.

How do we put meaning back into public life? Greider shares the stories of some citizens who have managed to crack Washington's "Grand Bazaar" of influence peddling as he reveals the structures designed to thwart them. Without naiveté or cynicism, Greider shows us how the system can still be made to work for the people, and delineates the lines of battle in the struggle to save democracy. By showing us the reality of how the political decisions that shape our lives are made, William Greider explains how we can begin to take control once more.

Just Curious About History, Jeeves By Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo

Is it true that King Louis XIV never bathed?
Was Doc Holliday really a doctor?
Who were the twelve knights of King Arthur's Round Table?
And what do Scots traditionally wear under their kilts?

You'll get the answers to these fascinating questions and many, many more in the wildly entertaining, un-put-down-able Just Curious About History, Jeeves. Based on the legion of unexpected questions posed at the popular Ask Jeeves Web site, Just Curious tackles all the puzzlers, bafflers, and stumpers that find their way into our everyday lives. What were the Pig Wars and were they actually caused by pigs? Who were the first gangsters? Did Cleopatra really wear makeup? Was Ivan the Terrible that terrible?

Sure curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back. So if you want to know how tall Napoleon was, whether Captain Kidd had any little Kidds, or who the heck Charles the Fat was, look no further than Just Curious About History, Jeeves -- the unequivocal say-all, end-all, be-all authority on history's who, what, where, when, why, and how.

My Early Life By Winston Churchill

Here, in his own words, are the fascinating first thirty years in the life of one of the most provocative and compelling leaders of the twentieth century
Winston Churchill

As a visionary, statesman, and historian, and the most eloquent spokesman against Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill was one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century. In this autobiography, Churchill recalls his childhood, his schooling, his years as a war correspondent in South Africa during the Boer War, and his first forays into politics as a member of Parliament. My Early Life not only gives readers insights into the shaping of a great leader but, as Churchill himself wrote, "a picture of a vanished age."

If you want to fully understand Winston Churchill, My Early Life is essential reading.

Surviving Australia: A Practical Guide to Staying Alive By Sorrel Wilby

Visiting the Australian outback can be a wonderful experience, but it isn't all about boomerangs and koalas, kangaroos and didgeridoos. It can be a wild and dangerous place if you're not prepared. Here is the essential travel companion for enduring the toughest stuff this rugged continent can offer -- a veritable survivor's guide to managing the unexpected when you're Down Under.

Renowned Australian adventurer and bestselling author Sorrel Wilby provides you with the basic lessons on negotiating your way through the bush, across the outback, over the top end, and into the surf and sea. You'll get important lifesaving information on:

where you should and shouldn't be driving your Range Rover
dealing with natural hazards like river crossings, bush fires, storms, and rips
warding off snakes, scorpions, crocs, and sharks
encountering Aboriginal people, Bushies, Eccentrics, and Surfers
finding food and water
treating heatstroke, hypothermia, and tropical infections
identifying proper emergency radio frequencies

and much more!

Crazy English By Richard Lederer

Crazy English By Richard LedererIn what other language, asks Lederer, do people drive on a parkway and park in a driveway, and your nose can run and your feet can smell? In CRAZY ENGLISH, Lederer frolics through the logic-boggling byways of our language, discovering the names for phobias you didn't know you could have, the longest words in our dictionaries, and the shortest sentence containing every letter in the alphabet. You'll take a bird's-eye view of our beastly language, feast on a banquet of mushrooming food metaphors, and meet the self-reflecting Doctor Rotcod, destined to speak only in palindromes.

Myth of the First Three Years: A New Understanding of Early Brain Development and Lifelong Learning By John Bruer

Most parents today have accepted the message that the first three years of a baby's life determine whether or not the child will grow into a successful, thinking person. But is this powerful warning true? Do all the doors shut if baby's brain doesn't get just the right amount of stimulation during the first three years of life? Have discoveries from the new brain science really proved that parents are wholly responsible for their child's intellectual successes and failures alike? Are parents losing the "brain wars"? No, argues national expert John Bruer. In The Myth of the First Three Years he offers parents new hope by debunking our most popular beliefs about the all-or-nothing effects of early experience on a child's brain and development.

Challenging the prevailing myth -- heralded by the national media, Head Start, and the White House -- that the most crucial brain development occurs between birth and age three, Bruer explains why relying on the zero to three standard threatens a child's mental and emotional well-being far more than missing a few sessions of toddler gymnastics. Too many parents, educators, and government funding agencies, he says, see these years as our main opportunity to shape a child's future. Bruer agrees that valid scientific studies do support the existence of critical periods in brain development, but he painstakingly shows that these same brain studies prove that learning and cognitive development occur throughout childhood and, indeed, one's entire life. Making hard science comprehensible for all readers, Bruer marshals the neurological and psychological evidence to show that children and adults have been hardwired for lifelong learning. Parents have been sold a bill of goods that is highly destructive because it overemphasizes infant and toddler nurturing to the detriment of long-term parental and educational responsibilities.

The Myth of the First Three Years is a bold and controversial book because

Winning the Global Game: A Strategy for Linking People and Profits By Jeffrey Rosensweig

In the 21st century global economy, emerging nations will provide almost half of the potential customers for western goods and services, concludes international business expert Jeffrey A. Rosensweig. Drawing on extensive research, Rosensweig contends that firms with truly global strategies will profit from the untapped resources of emerging markets and at the same time improve the living standards of the world?s poor. Dismissing the doomsday scenario that so-called Third World nations will continue to be mired in poverty, he argues persuasively that western executives must break out of the mindset that profitable ventures can only be found within the ?Triad? of the United States, Europe, and Japan. Rosensweig reminds us that American exports to emerging nations have tripled since 1986. He projects that, by the year 2010, the world will contain six great regional economies -- four of them in Asia -- and that three of every eight middle-class consumers will reside in the developing world. In clear, nontechnical language, he explains how executives can identify trends of globalization and apply them to business strategy, particularly to what he calls a ?time-phased? global strategy for synchronizing a firm?s investments with the progress of emerging middle classes.

Winning the Global Game demonstrates that adopting a global perspective now is a win-win strategy that links people and profits. It will be important reading for all multinational executives and managers in firms which are going global. The chapter on 21st century personal career strategy will appeal particularly to the aspiring global executive.

Hugs for Scrapbookers GIFT: Stories, Sayings, and Scriptures to Encourage and Inspire By Stephanie Howard

When you consider that nearly one in four homes in America participate in the photo-friendly art of scrapbooking, a companion gift book targeted at this market is a natural. In this collection of stories, sayings, and scriptures to encourage and inspire, Stephanie Howard offers a multitude of thoughts and design ideas that multiply the joys of scrapbooking. The short stories are straight-to-the-heart reflections sure to bring a smile or tear as they underscore the power that our memories hold...and the value of capturing these memories on pages to be cherished for generations.

Rocking Chair Tales GIFT By John Smith

"Let me tell you a story." What sentence draws us in with more magnetism? In his book, Rocking Chair Tales, author John William Smith seeks to draw in readers with a collection of short stories intended to light up the imagination and spark conversation. Stories short enough to be read aloud will cause the reader to recall fond memories and perhaps share his or her own stories. Smith's tales, mostly drawn from his childhood, are true, yet they serve as parables because "they give truth flavor by attaching names, faces, and geographical locations to abstract notions and emotional realities." His recollections serve as a powerful tool to recapture those magical moments which lay hidden within our cluttered lives.

The Girl Next Door: A Novel By Patricia MacDonald

She's out to clear his father's name...
and caught in killer's sights.

The affluent town of Hoffman, Ney Jersey, was shattered when esteemed doctor Duncan Avery stabbed his wife to death one spring evening. Now, fifteen years later, struggling actress Nina Avery -- who never doubted her father's innocence -- returns to Hoffman when he is paroled and moves home. Not only does Dr. Avery want to repair his relationship with Nina and her two brothers, successful investment banker Patrick and recovering drug addict Jimmy, he wants to find the real killer. But when violence overturns the Averys' lives again, Nina no longer knows who she can trust. Relying only on herself and on the mysterious prison doctor who treated her father, she searches frantically for the truth. But she must dig deep down into the secrets of her family and her town if she stands the chance of catching the killer who has his sight set on the new target: her.

The Itch By Benilde Little

Abra Lewis Dixon is the envy of the fashionable, professional women of her well-heeled social circle. She leads a charmed life -- having attended all the right schools, married the right man, and started a successful film production company with her best friend, Natasha -- and seems like an ambassador from the world of perfection. It is only when her impeccable marriage turns suddenly shaky that her utopia is left in pieces....

A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Selected from the World's Sacred Texts By Leo Tolstoy, Edited By Peter Sekirin

This is the first-ever English-language edition of the book Leo Tolstoy considered to be his most important contribution to humanity, the work of his life's last years. Widely read in prerevolutionary Russia, banned and forgotten under Communism; and recently rediscovered to great excitement, A Calendar of Wisdom is a day-by-day guide that illuminates the path of a life worth living with a brightness undimmed by time. Unjustly censored for nearly a century, it deserves to be placed with the few books in our history that will never cease teaching us the essence of what is important in this world.

Dadisms: What He Says and What He Really Means By Cathy Hamilton

This Parent-to-English guidebook is a hilarious primer on understanding the true meaning of parental communication.

Those who suspect that their fathers took closely guarded secret courses instructing them on "the significance of enigmatic utterances" won't be surprised to learn there are indeed clandestine languages for Dads. And here is the book that deciphers them.

Finally, Dad's ambiguous responses like "Go ask your mother," cryptic commands such as "Don't make me pull this car over," and the puzzling question, "Do you think I'm made of money?" are explained in comic detail in this handy reference. Interpreted for the new century, each one is translated with tongue-in-cheek humor and insight.

Feeding Frenzy By Franklin W. Dixon

Frank and Joe must uncover the truth behind a mysterious death at the first qualifying round for Football Frank's Super Bowl hot dog eating contest. All the contestants know that their next hot dog could be their last - the trouble is, everyone's a suspect. Can the Hardy Boys discover the culprit before it's too late?

The Princess of Pop By Cathy Hopkins

"I have un grando dare for Becca and Cat, " said Squidge. "You know this competition for Pop Princess? Well, I dare you both to enter." He looked pointedly at me. "And I mean both of you. Auditions are next Saturday."

Becca missed the fun of the school production of Grease, and she has a reputation of being fickle and a dreamer. But the Pop Princess challenge makes her determined to try harder than she has ever tried before. She has the voice, but has she got the staying power?

Deviant By Harold Schechter

Deviant By Harold Schechter
The truth behind the twisted crimes that inspired the films Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs...

From "America's principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers" (The Boston Book Review) comes the definitive account of Ed Gein, a mild-mannered Wisconsin farmhand who stunned an unsuspecting nation -- and redefined the meaning of the word "psycho." The year was 1957. The place was an ordinary farmhouse in America's heartland, filled with extraordinary evidence of unthinkable depravity. The man behind the massacre was a slight, unassuming Midwesterner with a strange smile -- and even stranger attachment to his domineering mother. After her death and a failed attempt to dig up his mother's body from the local cemetery, Gein turned to other grave robberies and, ultimately, multiple murders. Driven to commit gruesome and bizarre acts beyond all imagining, Ed Gein remains one of the most deranged minds in the annals of American homicide. This is his story -- recounted in fascinating and chilling detail by Harold Schechter, one of the most acclaimed true-crime storytellers of our time.

The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation: Creating, Protecting, and Repairing Your Most Valuable Asset By Ronald J. Alsop

From Enron and WorldCom to the Catholic Church and Major League Baseball, reputation crises have never been more widespread. Now Ronald J. Alsop, a veteran Wall Street Journal authority on branding and reputation management, explains the dangers -- and gives organizations the eighteen crucial laws to follow in developing and protecting their reputations.

Consider this example of a simple decision made by a low-ranking employee: When rescue workers at the site of the World Trade Center disaster sought bottled water from a nearby Starbucks outlet, they complained that an employee charged them for it. In a matter of hours, the Internet had picked up the story and Starbucks' carefully cultivated worldwide reputation was quickly besmirched.

This is just one instance among many of how the business world, ever more global and competitive, has become increasingly difficult to navigate. Studies have demonstrated the powerful impact of reputation on profits and stock prices, and yet less than half of all companies have a formal system for measuring reputation. Clearly, companies in every industry -- from Dow Chemical to Disney to DaimlerChrystler -- have much more to learn.

It is still the rare company that realizes the full value of its reputation: how corporate reputation can enhance business in good times, become a protective halo in turbulent times, and be destroyed in an instant by people at the lowest or highest levels of the corporate ladder. Mr. Alsop provides eighteen thoroughly documented lessons based on years of experience covering every aspect of corporate reputation, with a clear distillation of the complex principles at the heart of a reputation. He explains:

• How to protect your reputation when the inevitable crisis hits

• How to cope with the many hazards in cyberspace

• How to create a reputation for vision and industry leadership

• How to establish a culture of ethical behavior

• How to measure and mon

Toy Story 3: Together Forever Book and Play Box By Cynthia Stierle, Illustrated by Disney Artistis

Toy Story 3: Together Forever Book and Play Box By Cynthia Stierle, Illustrated by Disney Artistis
The Together Forever Book and Play Set offers both entertaining reading and lots of hands-on play. A 32-page paperback book, Woody Saves the Day, tells the exciting story of Woody and Buzz's latest movie adventure, while the shaped box itself opens to reveal multiple gatefolds, play scenes and settings—almost like a mini-movie set! Using stickers and play pieces, Toy Story fans can use these scenes and settings to recreate and act out the movie action. The box includes 2 sheets of stickers and four sheets of press-out play pieces featuring Woody and Buzz, Slinky Dog, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Rex, Hamm, Jessie the Cowgirl and her Bullseye and brand-new characters from Toy Story 3.

The Hot Box: A Novel By Zane

"Hot Box" is a baseball drill that can be played with three or more players and two to four bases. The players take turns being fielders and runners, ultimately trying to tag the rest of the players out. In The Hot Box, best friends Milena and Lydia are playing the game with Jacour, Yosef, Glenn, and Phil. The only problem: the men do not realize that they are playing. Milena lives a sheltered and dismal existence and has not allowed a man to touch her body in eight years . . . until now. Lydia dreams of getting away from small-town America but, until she can make that happen, she is prepared to do whatever it takes to continue to have her bills paid . . . on time. Good sex always does the trick. Two women. Four men. Two love triangles. Reading has never been this hot because, once again, Zane is taking you outside the box.

Designation Gold Rogue Warrior By Richard Marcinko

Designation Gold Rogue Warrior By Richard Marcinko
The Rogue Warrior has come to Moscow to investigate the assassination of Paul Mahon, U.S. Defense attaché in Russia. Marcinko knows who killed him -- Andrei Yudin, a godfather in the Russian Mafia -- and he wants to know why. Instead, he finds a cabal of corrupt, mob-linked russian politicians. The revelation gets him yanked back to Washington, where orders come down to disband his elite team of SEALs.

But even as the Pentagon's chain of command becomes a noose around his neck, Marcinko begins to cut and slash his way to the truth behind Mahon's death. More about survival than revenge, his mission soon leads him to a black-market network peddling terrorism in Paris, sinister trading in the Middle East, and a devil of a deal that puts American's safety up for sale....

Our Health Our Lives By Eileen Hoffman

Our Health Our Lives By Eileen Hoffman
A complete health-care guide for women combines the latest studies in gynecology, psychology, and nutrition, demonstrating how the medical system can be transformed to serve important needs.

Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing By John Gierach

From the irrepressible author of Trout Bum and The View from Rat Lake comes an engaging, humorous, often profound examination of life's greatest mysteries: sex, death, and fly-fishing.

John Gierach's quest takes us from his quiet home water (an ordinary, run-of-the-mill trout stream where fly-fishing can be a casual affair) to Utah's famous Green River, and to unknown creeks throughout the Western states and Canada. We're introduced to a lively group of fishing buddies, some local "experts" and even an ex-girlfriend, along the way

Contemplative, evocative, and wry, he shares insights on mayflies and men, fishing and sport, life and love, and the meaning (or meaninglessness) of it all.

Wings of Fury By Robert K. Wilcox

They are America's best fighter pilots -- from the Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Heroes who push the envelope with their machines, their bodies, and the will to fight and win on their...

WINGS OF FURY

Here, these airborne warriors reveal themselves as never before. Ride shotgun with TOPGUN pilot Dale "Snort" Snodgrass as he becomes the first student pilot ever to land an F-14 Tomcat on an aircraft carrier. Silver Star winner Rob Graeter recalls a Cold War close call as he flew his F-15 Eagle over Soviet waters -- almost triggering World War III. Feel the adrenaline as Brian "Rocky" Fitzpatrick remembers test-flying the F/A-18 Hornet when it suddenly went haywire, leaving him with a crippled plane, a faulty parachute -- and a very long way down....

From the training grounds of Miramar to combat in Vietnam and Desert Storm, these are the stories of those who defend our skies -- and the dramatic evolution of modern air warfare.

One River By Wade Davis

One River By Wade Davis
In the 1940s, biologist Richard Evans Schultes uncovered many of the secrets of the rain forest, relying not only on his own prodigious investigations, but on the wisdom passed down by local tribes. Thirty years later his student, Wade Davis, followed in his footsteps. Two interwoven tales of scientific adventure bring to life the riches of the Amazon basin and bear witness to the destruction of its indigenous culture and natural wonders over two generations.

Stupid California: Idiots in the Golden State By Leland Gregory

Best-selling author Leland Gregory--who has so entertainingly highlighted humanity's stupidity in the areas of crime, business, love, politics, cruelty, and history--is back with Stupid California.

This time, Gregory builds a case for the common suspicion that Californians, from movie moguls to beach bums, have a special affinity for idiocy. Culled from print, online, and broadcast sources, Stupid California is a hilarious collection of true stories, trivia, and factoids about the Golden State, such as:

* "California's state animal is the California grizzly bear, which is also on the state flag. The bear was honored in 1953, a full 31 years after the last known bear in the state was killed."

* "During the 1980s, in a bold stroke against terrorism, the Chico City Council banned nuclear weapons, enacting a mandatory $500 fine for anyone detonating a nuclear weapon within city limits."

Silly, shocking, weird, and amusing, Stupid California is ideal for both kinds of people--those who love California and those who hate it.

Stay Cool: A Polar Bear's Guide to Life By Jonathan Chester and Patrick Regan

What does it mean to be cool? The quality has always been hard to define, but easy to identify. James Dean. Miles Davis. They were cool. Joe Montana scrambling in the pocket. Steve McQueen riding a motorcycle. Very cool. To that list, you can now add another towering paragon of cool: the mighty polar bear.

In Stay Cool, award-winning polar photographer Jonathan Chester and writer Patrick Regan reveal the uncanny life lessons to be learned from polar bears, those imposing but endlessly appealing kings of the Arctic.

Pithy, clever, and surprisingly heartwarming, Stay Cool illustrates that these wild creatures with a strong sense of self and the ability to rely on their instincts have something useful to teach us all, making this keepsake book a great gift for people of all ages.

Different Drum By M. Scott Peck

Different Drum By M. Scott Peck
'The overall purpose of human communication is - or should be - reconciliation. It should ultimately serve to lower or remove the walls of misunderstanding which unduly separate us human beings, one from another...' Although we have developed the technology to make communication more efficent and to bring people closer together, we have failed to use it to build a true global community. Dr M. Scott Peck believes that if we are to prevent civilization destroying itself, we must urgently rebuild on all levels, local, national and international and that is the first step to spiritual survival. In this radical and challenging book, he describes how the communities work, how group action can be developed on the principles of tolerance and love, and how we can start to transform world society into a true community.

The Ride Together: A Brother and Sister's Memoir of Autism in the Family By Paul Karasik and Judy Karasik

We looked like a cup of human fruit cocktail dumped onto the top of the house, each piece different but all out of the same can.

So begins a book unlike any other, half comics and half text, about a family that lives with autism -- and the strange life that is ordinary to them.

The oldest son, David, recites Superman episodes as he walks around the living room. A late-night family poker game spirals into a fog-driven duel. A thug from an old black-and-white rerun crawls out of the television. A housekeeper transforms into an avenging angel. A broken plate signals a terrible change in the family that none of them can prevent...until it's too late.

This groundbreaking work was excerpted in The New York Times for its ability to honestly, eloquently, and respectfully set forth what life is like with autism in the family. What sets The Ride Together apart is its combination of imagination and realism -- its vision of a family's inner world -- with David at the center.

Counting On Kindness By Wendy Lustbader

Counting On Kindness By Wendy Lustbader
Seattle mental health counselor Lustbader here compells attention to and sympathy for those who must rely on caregivers for their needs. Stories are related by patients themselves. From incapacitated men and women we learn of the humiliations caused by the loss of autonomy, of the frustrations at not being able to manage on one's own. Accounts from widely different sorts of patients and those who begrudgingly or willingly see to their care provide graphic lessons in sensitivity.

From Plato To Nato: The Idea Of The West And Its Opponents By David Gress

From Plato To Nato: The Idea Of The West And Its Opponents By David Gress
An in-depth intellectual history of the Western idea and a passionate defense of its importance to America's future, From Plato to NATO is the first book to make sense of the legacy of the West at a time when it is facing its greatest challenges. Readers of Francis Fukuyama, John Gray, Samuel Huntington, and other analysts of the dilemmas of Western nations in the twenty-first century will find in David Gress's original account a fuller description of what the West really is and how, with the best of intentions, it has been misrepresented. Most important, they will encounter a new vision of Western identity and how it can be recovered.

Early in the twentieth century, American educators put together a story of Western civilization, its origins, history, and promise that for the subsequent fifty years remained at the heart of American college education. The story they told was of a Western civilization that began with the Greeks and continued through 2,500 years of great books and great ideas, culminating in twentieth-century progressive liberal democracy, science, and capitalist prosperity.

In the 1960s, this Grand Narrative of the West came under attack. Over the next thirty years, the critics turned this old story into its opposite: a series of anti-narratives about the evils, the failures, and the betrayals of justice that, so they said, constituted Western history.

The victory of Western values at the end of the cold war, the spread of democracy and capitalism, and the worldwide impact of American popular culture have not revived the Grand Narrative in the European and American heartlands of the West. David Gress explains this paradox, arguing that the Grand Narrative of the West was flawed from the beginning: that the West did not begin in Greece and that, in morality and religion, the Greeks were an alien civilization whose contribution was mediated through Rome and Christianity. Furthermore, in assuming a continuity from the Greeks to modern liber

Lookout

Monday, April 11, 2011