Alpert's extensive scientific knowledge, combined with his love of literature, make his latest novel a truly thrilling and engaging experience. In what can be described as a The Da Vinci Code for Einstein enthusiasts, Alpert twists fact and fiction and takes his readers on a sprawling epic adventure. Sadly, Adam Grupper overplays his narrator role, reading with an almost synthetic urgency in which his voice takes on an annoying, high pitched urgency as if every word were crucial to the plot. His Eastern European dialect is about as realistic as Boris and Natasha from "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show." Grupper seems desperate to capture the reader's attention immediately and put them on the edge of their seats until the very end, but unfortunately it fails. A Touchstone hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 24). Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cohn (Gingerbread) delves into her darker side as she probes a teen's suicide and the painful repercussions for her loved ones. After her best friend and first cousin, Laura, kills herself with an overdose of prescription drugs, 17-year-old Miles is shattered: the person Miles believed would always be there for her has left without even saying goodbye. And when her flaky mother flees town to mourn with her boyfriend in London, Miles is left alone with Laura's father to endure a summer of grief at his D.C. estate. A prescription-drug addict herself, Miles must embark upon a journey of self-discovery if she is to survive. Cohn once again excels at crafting a multidimensional, in-the-moment teenage world, this time without recourse to her usual witty style. There is a bleakness to her language that superbly suits this sad, somber tale. Her work is heartbreaking, at times excruciating to read, but it rings with authenticity. In pursuing Miles's responses, she spares few details, neither the methods via which Miles and Laura procure their pills nor the actual medical causes of Laura's supposedly peaceful death. The tragedy of teen suicide has been the subject of countless novels, yet rarely has it been discussed with such gritty realism. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Thieves, liars, killers, and conspirators—it's a criminal world out there, and someone has got to write about it. An eclectic collection of the year's best reportage, The Best American Crime Reporting 2008 brings together the murderers and the master minds, the mysteries and missteps that make for brilliant stories, told by the aces of the true-crime genre. This latest addition to the highly acclaimed series features guest editor Jonathan Kellerman, bestselling author of more than twenty crime novels, most recently Compulsion and the forthcoming Bones.

T "No one covers technology with more insight or panache than Clive Thompson. I can't imagine anyone better qualified to curate this fascinating series." ---Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine and author of The Long Tail "Editor Clive Thompson suggests we are in a ‘golden age of technology journalism.' Reading this collection, one suspects he is right---it sparkles with beautifully written narratives not only about what technology can do for us but what it does to us as people, to our ways of thinking about ourselves, our relationships, and how we envisage our world." ---Sherry Turkle, Director, MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Best of Technology Writing 2008 proves that technology writing is a bona fide literary genre with some of the most stylish, compelling, and just plain readable work in journalism today. The third volume in this annual series, The Best of Technology Writing 2008 covers a fascinating mix of topics---from a molecular gastronomist's recipe for the perfect gin and tonic; to "the Mechanism," an ancient Greek artifact that might be the world's first laptop computer; to social media, privacy, and what is possibly the biggest generation gap since rock 'n' roll.

The #1 bestselling title in City & Company history with 40,000 copies sold! Beyond the surface noise and chaos is a quiet New York of tranquility and blessed silence. NEW YORK’S 50 BEST PLACES TO FIND PEACE AND QUIET, takes the reader to 50 oases of serenity around the city—from gardens to spas, meditation centers to wildlife refuges—each a revitalizing place of calm amidst the daily bustle and grind of urban life. "If you’re at wit’s end and frantic for tranquility, relax…you can buy [this] sweet little book." The New York Times.

In the waning days of the cold war, when Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down that wall, when the AIDS virus was more rumor than scourge, and when disaffected youth the world over were searching for ways to either disappear or make a difference, a rebellious Australian youth jumps at his sister’s unexpected invitation to visit her in the Soviet Union. Fin promises Darcy she’ll provide the airfare if he agrees to surreptitiously transport a leather money belt through international customs. Despite Fin’s protest that everything is on the up-and-up, Darcy knows his sister has become involved in something nefarious—and quite frankly, it excites the hell out of him. Ignoring her warnings to maintain a low profile while in the country, Darcy embarks on a dangerous liaison with the son of a high-ranking government official. Vibrant with the discordant images of political repression and smoldering sexuality, Francis’ book ethereally transports readers to a preternatural time where nothing and no one are as they seem. --Carol Haggas.

Scenes from the rich, contentious life of a dying Jewish South African country doctor flash before his expatriate daughter’s eyes in Landsman’s frustrating second novel (after The Devil’s Chimney). A skinny boy with a hot-tempered mother and a good-hearted father, Harry Klein grew up in pre-WWII South Africa, where he married a woman from a socially superior Jewish family during medical school and later endured the wartime death of his father from influenza. After his emigration to South Africa, patients of all races revere him as "Doctor God," but he clashes with his artist daughter (who narrates, maddeningly, in the second person) and can’t shake his life-long jealousy of his younger brother, a flashy, respected cardiologist. This novel offers a few insights on death, the frailty of the human body and the ties between parent and child, but the overly lyrical prose tries too hard, and the second-person narration does the mostly opaque narrative few favors. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Casey, a mental health journalist and editor (Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression) has collected a remarkable array of mostly original essays by talented writers on being cared for themselves and caring for parents, children and spouses with illnesses as varied as depression and brain injuries. The writers have faced age-old dilemmas: for instance, novelist Julia Glass grapples with her own mortality and tries to raise two young children while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. Other essays venture into more modern problems: Julia Alvarez and Anne Landsman both struggle to help parents who live in other countries. Many of the essays are beautiful and all are moving, but they are also relentless. The tales of cancer, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's start to blur together, no matter how artfully told. Sam Lipsyte's irreverent portrayal of caring for his mother as she died of breast cancer shortly after he kicked drug addiction provides welcome relief. He describes injecting his mother's medication: I tended to make a grand, nearly cinematic deal of flicking the bubbles away, as though to say, 'Now Mom, aren't you glad I was a junkie?' Other essays are less developed, and Andrew Solomon rehashes territory he covered in The Noonday Demon. Overall, the essays are well worth reading—just not all at once. (Nov. 13) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Providing journalists, humorists and artists the opportunity to weigh in on rivalries across the music spectrum, this compendium from Manning (The Show I'll Never Forget: 50 Writers Relive Their Most Memorable Concertgoing Experience) tackles match-ups obvious (Elton John vs. Billy Joel, Van Halen vs. Van Hagar, Britney Spears vs. Christina Aguilera) and idiosyncratic (Ennio Morricone vs. Bernard Herrmann, Devo vs. Kraftwerk, Michael Jackson vs. Prince), if not downright agenda-driven (former Bob Marley publicist Vivien Goldman pitting her client and friend against Bob Dylan). The impressive range of acts is matched by its variety of styles, from Matt Diehl's academic approach to Radiohead vs. Coldplay, to the rock snobbery of Marc Spitz's The Smiths vs. The Cure, to the stand-up comic ramblings of Russ Meneve on a Bruce Springsteen-Bon Jovi "Battle a da Jerz." Though some essays suffer from overkill (Katy St. Clair's nonsensical Abba vs. The Bee Gees, the graphic novel treatment given The Album vs. The Single by Daphne Carr and Scott Gursky), well-executed pieces like Manning's intimate Phil Collins vs. Sting pick up the slack. Sure to start more arguments than it settles, this is a fun book for music fans with a broad palette. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mainstream media and film theory are based on the ways that media technologies operate in Europe and the United States. In this groundbreaking work, Brian Larkin provides a history and ethnography of media in Nigeria, asking what media theory looks like when Nigeria rather than a European nation or the United States is taken as the starting point. Concentrating on the Muslim city of Kano in the north of Nigeria, Larkin charts how the material qualities of technologies and the cultural ambitions they represent feed into the everyday experiences of urban Nigeria. Media technologies were introduced to Nigeria by colonial regimes as part of an attempt to shape political subjects and create modern, urban Africans. Larkin considers the introduction of media along with electric plants and railroads as part of the wider infrastructural project of colonial and postcolonial urbanism. Focusing on radio networks, mobile cinema units, and the building of cinema theaters, he argues that what media come to be in Kano is the outcome of technology’s encounter with the social formations of northern Nigeria and with norms shaped by colonialism, postcolonial nationalism, and Islam. Larkin examines how media technologies produce the modes of leisure and cultural forms of urban Africa by analyzing the circulation of Hindi films to Muslim Nigeria, the leisure practices of Hausa cinemagoers in Kano, and the dynamic emergence of Nigerian video films. His analysis highlights the diverse, unexpected media forms and practices that thrive in urban Africa. Signal and Noise brings anthropology and media together in an original analysis of media’s place in urban life.

Unable to reconcile herself to the deaths of her husband and her eldest daughter, poet Elizabeth Layton is teetering on the edge of an emotional abyss. To keep her from excessive mourning, her sister and brother pressure Elizabeth into going on a museum sponsored trip to the Aegean. The scenes in the novel are set against the exotic background of Greece, Turkey, Crete, Italy, and the sea. Hounded by memories, by odd, recurring dreams, by profound and disturbing encounters with two men, Elizateth crosses a threshold. Is it another world...or madness?

Erotomania es el absurdo retrato de un dia de romance. Es la historia del principio de la relacion de James y Monica como pareja, hasta que se ven obligados a mudarse a un abandonado bunker a prueba de explosivos nucleares para no molestar a sus vecinos con su atribulada y sonora vida sexual, en su largo camino a consultar a un consejero matrimonial. / Erotomania is an absurdist portrait of a modern-day romance. It follows James and Monica from their early days as couple that is forced to move into a nuclear fall-out bunker so their explosive sex life doesnt physically harm their neighbors, down the long journey to marriage counseling.

"These are my songlines; they helped me to re-connect with the landscape, and with my own life," says Sabra Loomis of the poems which appear in House Held Together by Winds. Winner of the 2007 National Poetry Series Open Competition as selected by James Tate (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award), Sabra's work perpetuates NPS's tradition of promoting exceptional poetry from lesser known poets. For over twenty years, the National Poetry Series has discovered many new and emerging voices and has been instrumental in launching the careers of poets and writers such as Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Denis Johnson, Cole Swensen, Thylias Moss, Mark Levine, and Dionisio Martinez.

Grade 5–8—This installment in the series begins with a two-page retelling of the love story between Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. After her death, the emperor wanted to create a monument to their enduring love and left the world the iconic building that also became a symbol of the period of Mughal reign in India. The blueprints followed the classic Persian charbagh design of quadrilateral garden squares divided by walkways, but Shah Jahan's architectural choices also incorporated Central Asian and Indian influences. Over several pages, the author explains the practical challenges that builders had to overcome during the long construction process, such as protecting the complex from the annual monsoon swelling of the nearby Yamuna River. A double foldout gives an impressive aerial view of the entire complex. Captioned photographs of artifacts and original paintings enhance the well-written text. Beautiful full-page illustrations in the detailed style of Mughal miniature paintings depict scenes of the construction process. A list of important historical dates and dimensions of the building are included. A beautiful book that highlights a stunning accomplishment in architecture.—Monika Schroeder, American Embassy School, New Delhi, India Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved..

Memoirist and editor Matousek (Sex Death Enlightenment) attempts to dissect the relationship between life's harshest tests and the gift of self-discovery and survival in this absorbing compendium of anecdotes. The author, who has AIDS, interviews many survivors of trauma and loss, including writer Joan Didion, mystic Andrew Harvey, poet Stanley Kunitz and Tibetan nun Nawang Sangdrol, among others, to inquire how deepest crisis forces us to re-examine our lives and move forward. After stating that "Transformation is in our wiring," Matousek concludes that the key to our survival is not cheating death but living as passionately, creatively and courageously as possible. Using scientific data, psychological research and his own life experiences, he uncovers the essentials of enduring against all odds while answering his chief question: "What force flips a falling person back on his feet, reconstitutes him after disaster, helps him prevail in the face of great challenges?" Matousek shows an uncanny skill for merging spirituality, science and common sense into practical answers for surviving our own lives. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

When Tony Perrottet heard that Napoleon's "baguette" had been stolen by his disgruntled doctor a few days after the Emperor's death, he rushed out to New Jersey. Why? Because that's where an eccentric American collector who had purchased Napoleon's member at a Parisian auction now kept the actual relic in an old suitcase under his bed. The story of Napoleon's privates triggered Perrottet's quest to research other such exotic sagas from history, to discover the actual evidence behind the most famous age-old mysteries: Did Churchill really send condoms of a surprising size to Stalin? Were champagne glasses really molded upon Marie Antoinette's breasts? What was JFK's real secret service? What were Casanova's best pickup lines? Napoleon's Privates is filled with offbeat, riotously entertaining anecdotes that are guaranteed to amaze, shock, and enliven any dinner party.

Turning the self-help genre on its head, this humorous, tongue-in-cheek guidebook satirizes modern culture as it teaches how best to self-loathe. Beginning with the basics of self-loathing, readers learn to loathe everything about themselves—including body, hair, and character—while also covering such topics as self-loathing in sex, dating, fashion, the workplace, and even death. With unwelcome insights and light-hearted abjection, this invaluable resource features quizzes, sidebars, and appendices to aid the ardent beginner in becoming truly proficient in the art of self-loathing.

Have you ever struggled to dislodge a nostril-bound Cheerio while navigating the interstate at 70 miles an hour? Discovered exactly how many renditions of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” it takes for you to pull the car to the side of the road and weep? Or experienced just what happens when your miniature traveling companion pulls the “manual override” lever on the emergency exit door of a plane? You’re not alone. We all have memories of a hideous yet hilarious family trip. Now you can read about some that make your trip look like a vacation with the Waltons. Edited by Sarah Franklin, How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel is an anthology of outrageous stories about the inherent misadventures that revolve around traveling with kids. Whether the trip is with newborn triplets or with moody teens, a road trip to the beach or a European vacation, each story will resonate with parents who hit the road or the tarmac with kids in tow.

Soussan, a former program associate for the United Nations, provides an insider's perspective on the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal in this absorbing memoir. The author was a 24-year-old idealist when he went to work for the U.N.'s recently launched program to provide aid to Iraqi civilians suffering under the economic sanctions imposed after the Gulf War. He found a "culture of incompetence" where "there is no truth but consensus" and "initiative is highly risky." Amid the turf wars and bureaucratic timidity at the U.N., Saddam Hussein was able to subvert the oil-for-food program with a regimen of bribes and kickbacks. Unable to persuade his superiors to expose the fraud, Soussan resigned in frustration after three years. When the massive fraud surfaced after Saddam's fall, the author published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, which launched an independent investigation that uncovered billions of dollars in bribes and implicated global corporations, sovereign governments and U.N. officials-including Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son. Soussan brings provocative wit, a keen eye for detail and a knack for revealing anecdotes to this important account of the rampant greed, hypocrisy and cynicism festering behind the United Nations' humanitarian credo. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Soussan, a former program associate for the United Nations, provides an insider's perspective on the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal in this absorbing memoir. The author was a 24-year-old idealist when he went to work for the U.N.'s recently launched program to provide aid to Iraqi civilians suffering under the economic sanctions imposed after the Gulf War. He found a "culture of incompetence" where "there is no truth but consensus" and "initiative is highly risky." Amid the turf wars and bureaucratic timidity at the U.N., Saddam Hussein was able to subvert the oil-for-food program with a regimen of bribes and kickbacks. Unable to persuade his superiors to expose the fraud, Soussan resigned in frustration after three years. When the massive fraud surfaced after Saddam's fall, the author published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, which launched an independent investigation that uncovered billions of dollars in bribes and implicated global corporations, sovereign governments and U.N. officials-including Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son. Soussan brings provocative wit, a keen eye for detail and a knack for revealing anecdotes to this important account of the rampant greed, hypocrisy and cynicism festering behind the United Nations' humanitarian credo. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In spare, controlled prose, novelist and poet Svoboda (Tin God) turns to nonfiction to deliver a powerful memoir-turned-political exposé. Svoboda sets out to document the military experiences of her uncle Don, but the Abu Ghraib prison scandal unleashes her uncle's repressed memories, sending him into a deep depression. Before his eventual suicide, Don confesses long-unspoken secrets on cassettes for the author. The tapes reveal more about his service in post-WWII Japan, as well as detailed accounts of human rights abuses. As the book progresses, Svoboda grows increasingly aware of the consequences of Don's words. His stories are interspersed through-and haunt-every chapter "I listen to his tapes several more times. His voice sounds much lower than I remember, it's so gravelly I could walk on it." The raw quality of Svoboda's relationship to her uncle is as captivating as Svoboda's investigations of the postwar period are alarming. Because she tries to include so much, the author occasionally runs into structural problems-though some of her digressions actually help the reader: by including interviews with Japanese citizens, tales of frustration with the National Archives, and conversations with her father, Svoboda illuminates her text. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Told largely in retrospect, this ambitious debut by Indian émigré filmmaker Vachani is narrated by Sweta, who presides over her family history with equal parts passion and uncertainty. Born in 1958, Sweta lives with her grandparents, while her father, Ranjit Ronu Kalra, serves as an Indian air force pilot. The book takes its title from the khadi cloth favored by Gandhi, and it becomes a symbol of the unhappy divide between Sweta's grandfather, a fighter for Indian independence, and her grandmother, a fashion plate. The fight for independence, WWII, border battles with Pakistan, and Vietnam permeate the novel, separating families and dividing the populace along religious and ethnic lines. Sweta darts in and out of the story as, most of the time, an inscrutable, sullen and overweight teenager. Around her swirl the stories of her grandparents' ugly marriage, of her father's childhood as a film star and of his first love. Most moving is the figure of Nanaji, Sweta's grandfather, a tender man committed to principles and making the best of the hand he's dealt. The book opens with his death and frontloads the many characters, but Nanaji and Sweta's poignant relationship pulls the reader through manifold tragedy and serendipity. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lily Rabe throws herself enthusiastically into her narration; she sounds like she's having a ball, and listeners will, too. Rabe especially has fun with over-the-top Brazilian sexpot Adriana, making melodramatic pronouncements and calling everyone "querida" in a sexy, throaty exotic accent. She's also great as Emmy, the marriage-and-family-obsessed member of the trio: Rabe's sobbing, outraged delivery of Emmy's rant about her boyfriend dumping her for his personal trainer is simultaneously touching and hilarious. Leigh is the "straight man" of the group, but Rabe's performance conveys her doubts about her engagement realistically and sympathetically. This fun audio brings out the best in the novel. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 7). (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In the bestselling tradition of The Big Book of IQ Tests and The Big Book of Personality Tests, this entertaining and enlightening collection of "write-in" quizzes is designed to help women of every age and interest assess their hidden potential in all areas of their busy lives. We all yearn for happiness and success, but how do we figure out exactly what we want and how to attain it? The 100 quizzes collected here, designed to help women explore their most basic attributes and desires, are divided into three categories: Inner Life, Relationships, and Career; and they are geared toward issues women really care about, such as Are You in the Right Job? and Could You Marry for Money? and Can You Keep a Secret? Each quiz takes only a few minutes to complete and can be scored easily. The author, an award-winning journalist, provides expert analyses of all possible outcomes, along with tips for making positive, long-lasting life changes. Included in the author's commentary are quotes from leading experts: psychologists, sociologists, MDs, authors, and even celebrities.(June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.