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The Party Forever: Inside China's Modern Communist Elite
by Rowan CallickA century after its underground beginnings, the Chinese Communist Party today exerts far-reaching control over every aspect of private life. Beyond its legendary control of the internet within China's borders, even seemingly non-political domains are subject to its authority: routine business deals require party approval; university courses reflect party doctrine; and party families amass incredible wealth while other enterprises are squeezed out. Experts predicted that the Party leadership would mellow as the country's economic fortunes soar, but the next generation of political heavyweights is keeping a tight grip on the reins of power. Today's huge new class of young professionals, whether they believe in the Party's ideology or not, are as focused as ever on strengthening the Party's role and silencing dissent. In The Party Forever, Rowan Callick goes behind the scenes to reveal the workings of China's political elite, introduce us to its future leaders and explore how prepared it is to meet the challenges of its new role in the twenty-first century. This is an essential and eye-opening account of this poorly understood but hugely influential player in world politics.
Stranded: A Novel
by Bracken MacLeodIn the spirit of John Carpenter's The Thing and Jacob's Ladder comes Stranded -- a terrifying, icebound thriller where nothing is quite what it seems by Bracken MacLeod.Badly battered by an apocalyptic storm, the crew of the Arctic Promise find themselves in increasingly dire circumstances as they sail blindly into unfamiliar waters and an ominously thickening fog. Without functioning navigation or communication equipment, they are lost and completely alone. One by one, the men fall prey to a mysterious illness. Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only person unaffected by the strange force plaguing the ship and her crew, which does little to ease their growing distrust of him. Dismissing Noah's warnings of worsening conditions, the captain of the ship presses on until the sea freezes into ice and they can go no farther. When the men are ordered overboard in an attempt to break the ship free by hand, the fog clears, revealing a faint shape in the distance that may or may not be their destination. Noah leads the last of the able-bodied crew on a journey across the ice and into an uncertain future where they must fight for their lives against the elements, the ghosts of the past and, ultimately, themselves.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa
by Patricia McKissack Fredrick McKissackFor more than a thousand years, from A.D. 500 to 1700, the medieval kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay grew rich on the gold, salt, and slave trade that stretched across Africa. Scraping away hundreds of years of ignorance, prejudice, and mythology, award-winnnig authors Patricia and Fredrick McKissack reveal the glory of these forgotten empires while inviting us to share in the inspiring process of historical recovery that is taking place today.
Border Insecurity: Why Big Money, Fences, and Drones Aren't Making Us Safer
by Sylvia LongmireWhen confronted with the challenges of border security and illegal immigration, government officials are fond of saying that our borders have never been as safe and secure as they are now. But ranchers in the borderlands of Arizona and Texas fear for their lands, their cattle, their homes, and sometimes their lives due to the human and drug smuggling traffic that regularly crosses their property. Who is right? What does a secure border actually look like? More importantly, is a secure border a realistic goal for the United States? Border Insecurity examines all the aspects of the challenge—and thriving industry—of trying to keep terrorists, drug smugglers, and illegal immigrants from entering the United States across our land borders. It looks at on-the-ground issues and controversies like the border fence, the usefulness of technology, shifts in the connection between illegal immigration and drug smuggling, and the potential for terrorists and drug cartels to work together. Border Insecurity also delves into how the border debate itself is part of why the government has failed to improve information sharing and why this is necessary to establish a clear and comprehensive border security strategy.
The Good School: How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education They Deserve
by Peg TyreAward-winning education journalist Peg Tyre mines up-to-the-minute research to equip parents with the tools and knowledge necessary to get their children the best education possibleWe all know that the quality of education served up to our children in U.S. schools ranges from outstanding to shockingly inadequate. How can parents tell the difference? And how do they make sure their kids get what's best? Even the most involved and informed parents can feel overwhelmed and confused when making important decisions about their child's education. And the scary truth is that evaluating a school based on test scores and college admissions data is like selecting a car based on the color of its paint. Synthesizing cutting-edge research and firsthand reporting, Peg Tyre offers parents far smarter and more sophisticated ways to assess a classroom and decide if the school and the teacher have the right stuff. Passionate and persuasive, The Good School empowers parents to make sense of headlines; constructively engage teachers, administrators, and school boards; and figure out the best option for their child—be that a local public school, a magnet program, a charter school, homeschooling, parochial, or private.
King Matt the First
by Janusz KorczakA child king introduces reforms to give children the same rights as adults.
Trees Make the Best Mobiles: Simple Ways to Raise Your Child in a Complex World
by Jessica Teich Brandel France de BravoBooks like Simplify Your Life and Don't Sweat the Small Stuff have encouraged millions of readers to slow down and enjoy life more. Now, Jessica Teich and Brandel France de Bravo help new parents- who barely have time to return a phone call or wash a sock- learn to do less, listen more, and spend focused, fruitful time with their children. Practical and fun to read, Trees Make the Best Mobiles urges parents to treat every task-even diapering and feeding-as a chance to connect with their child, and gives calming advice about hot-button issues from pacifier use to temper tantrums. Parents will be relieved to discover that they don't have to buy lots of stuff-a tree outside a baby's window can serve as a mobile-or shuttle kids from one activity to another. In fact, in today's hectic, high-speed world, children need less "stimulation" and more unhurried interaction with the people who matter most. The authors call their approach "present parenting," because they believe being "present in the moment," without resentment or distraction, is the greatest present any parent can give.
Justice: A Novel (Det. Brian McKenna Novels)
by Dan MahoneyJustice showcases fascinating investigative detail, wild action, and Dan Mahoney's trademark humor in a terrific police thriller.New York City. A wealthy businessman meets a violent fate in his elegant, carefully-secured home in Queens. Two drug dealers are murdered in a Brooklyn no-tell motel room. Several men are found riddled with bullets and nails on a little-traveled road beneath FDR Drive. And soon thereafter, a church, a synagogue, and a mosque find bags of cash waiting at their doorsteps--all from a vigilante who signs himself "Justice."NYPD Detective First Grade Brian McKenna and his partner, Cisco Sanchez (the self-described world's greatest detective), are assigned to find the elusive killer that all of New York City is rooting for, a man of supreme technical skills, physical power, and intelligence, who always seems to know every move the police will make before they make it. Justice is executing drug dealers, helping the police close unsolved cases, providing those in need with stolen drug money, and creating a nightmare for the police commissioner, the mayor, and the two detectives.As McKenna and Sanchez work to try and outsmart the vigilante and discover his next victim, they also must find out who is helping Justice in his quest for revenge.
Tempest: A Novel (The Tempest Trilogy)
by Julie CrossThe year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he's in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it's not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there's no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it's just harmless fun.That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he's stuck in 2007 and can't get back to the future.Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.But it's not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these "Enemies of Time" will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he's willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.
The Year They Fell
by David KreizmanWhen a horrible tragedy unites five very different high school seniors, they discover the worst moment of your life can help determine who you really are in the powerful YA novel, The Year They Fell.Josie, Jack, Archie, Harrison, and Dayana were inseparable as preschoolers. But that was before high school, before parties and football and getting into the right college. Now, as senior year approaches, they're basically strangers to each other.Until they’re pulled back together when their parents die in a plane crash. These former friends are suddenly on their own. And they’re the only people who can really understand how that feels.To survive, the group must face the issues that drove them apart, reveal secrets they’ve kept since childhood, and discover who they’re meant to be. And in the face of public scrutiny, they’ll confront mysteries their parents left behind—betrayals that threaten to break the friendships apart again.A new family is forged in this heartbreaking, funny, and surprising book from award-winning storyteller David Kreizman. It's a deeply felt, complex journey into adulthood, exploring issues of grief, sexual assault, racism, and trauma.An Imprint Book“Teen drama abounds in this story about loss and love.” —Kirkus Reviews“Readers will find the characters relatable as they navigate the challenging time from senior year into adulthood following tragedy.” —School Library Journal
Underland (Renquist Quartet)
by Mick FarrenVictor Renquist, centuries-old master of a small colony of Nosferatu, has been "recruited"-forcibly-by an undercover branch of the National Security Agency, Paranormal Operations and Research. They need his help. It seems that certain members of Hitler's Third Reich escaped to a secret world below Antarctica, taking with them some very advanced technology. Human teams have failed to infiltrate the base, and Renquist is the NSA's last chance.The team is small: Renquist; his right-hand man, Lupo; an extremely unorthodox hardline NSA operative named Jack Coulson; and Thyme Bridewell, a failed NSA brain-control experiment originally intended as Renquist's lunch. What they find in Underland taxes even Renquist's supernormal powers. The quondam Nazis have some very powerful allies -- the Dhrakuh, a race of sentient reptiles from the dawn of time. Their goal is nothing less than the conquest of the entire world.To make matters worse, Renquist is hampered by some throwbacks from his own race and by the unexpected arrival of one of his own colony members, Julia, together with Philipa, a darklost whom Julia has led through the Change into Nosferatu.The future of civilization hangs in the balance.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Yellowlegs
by John Janovy Jr.In Yellowlegs John Janovy again displays his rare talent for making the scientific accessible and the personal universal. The result is a an extraordinary parable of man and technology. It is also an intensely personal account of one man's journey toward an understanding of himself, of his fellow man, and perhaps most important, of the secrets of a single sandpiper–a Tringa flavipes, or lesser yellowlegs.We fly with Janovy's Yellowlegs from its nesting grounds in the Canadian north to South America and back. And along the way we join a slightly crazed biologist who leaves his university position, withdraws his life savings from the bank, and decides to follow the bird on its odyssey. Starting on the sand flats of Nebraska, and progressing across Kansas and down to the Gulf of Mexico (with a brief stop in Oklahoma jail), our migratory route brings us into contact not only with the wild creatures of the American West, but with the people–a few of whom are pretty wild themselves–with whom Janovy talks, drinks, and debates.Seldom has the life of a wild creature been so intimately and vividly described. Seldom have hard science and mysticism been more successfully and lyrically combined. There can be little question that Yellowlegs will take its place a classic of nature writing at its best.
Hickok & Cody
by Matt BraunThe West made legends of two men. Heaven help the fool who dared to risk their wrath.In a windswept campsite of the Fifth Cavalry Regiment, Russia's Grand Duke Alexis has arrived to experience the thrill of the buffalo hunt. His guides are Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody--two heroic deadshots with a flair for showmanship and a thirst for adventure. But a train approaching from the East will provide Alexis a front-row seat to murder and mayhem that will set Hickok and Cody on the trail of cold-blooded killers.The Orphan Train is nothing more than a traveling asylum for young urchins, stolen off the streets of New York's Lower East Side. Across the country they will be sold to the highest bidder--unless stopped in their tracks. Hickok and Cody take on the task, and begin a deadly cross-country journey tat will end in the wilds of Manhattan. Their quest for justice pits them against underworld thugs and raw corruption in a bloodbath that rocks the city. New York will never be the same again...
Go Phish
by Dave ThompsonOn Halloween night 1983, at an ROTC dance on a college campus deep in the heart of Vermont, the band subsequently known as Phish played their very first gig.It was a total disaster.But it was the beginning of an era. Here's the whole story.
Love in the Time of Global Warming
by Francesca Lia BlockSeventeen-year-old Penelope (Pen) has lost everything—her home, her parents, and her ten-year-old brother. Like a female Odysseus in search of home, she navigates a dark world full of strange creatures, gathers companions and loses them, finds love and loses it, and faces her mortal enemy. In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely. At the helm of Love in the Time of Global Warming is Pen, a strong heroine who holds hope and love in her hands and refuses to be defeated.
100 Days: A Novel
by Nicole McInnesAgnes doesn't know it, but she only has one hundred days left to live. When she was just a baby, she was diagnosed with Progeria, a rare disease that causes her body to age at roughly ten times the normal rate. Now nearly sixteen years old, Agnes has already exceeded her life expectancy.Moira has been Agnes’s best friend and protector since they were in elementary school. Due to her disorder, Agnes is still physically small, but Moira is big. Too big for her own liking. So big that people call her names. With her goth makeup and all-black clothes, Moira acts like she doesn’t care. But she does. Boone was friends with both girls in the past, but that was a long time ago—before he did the thing that turned Agnes and Moira against him, before his dad died, before his mom got too sad to leave the house.An unexpected event brings Agnes and Moira back together with Boone, but when romantic feelings start to develop, the trio’s friendship is put to the test.
Rain of the Ghosts
by Greg WeismanRain of the Ghosts is the first in Greg Weisman's series about an adventurous young girl, Rain Cacique, who discovers she has a mystery to solve, a mission to complete and, oh, yes, the ability to see ghosts.Welcome to the Prospero Keys (or as the locals call them: the Ghost Keys), a beautiful chain of tropical islands on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle. Rain Cacique is water-skiing with her two best friends Charlie and Miranda when Rain sees her father waiting for her at the dock. Sebastian Bohique, her maternal grandfather, has passed away. He was the only person who ever made Rain feel special. The only one who believed she could do something important with her life. The only thing she has left to remember him by is the armband he used to wear: two gold snakes intertwined, clasping each other's tails in their mouths. Only the armband . . . and the gift it brings: Rain can see dead people. Starting with the Dark Man: a ghost determined to reveal the Ghost Keys' hidden world of mystery and mysticism, intrigue and adventure.
Last Things (Father Dowling Mysteries)
by Ralph McInernyFather Dowling is used to unsolicited knocks on the rectory door, having done more than his share of counseling and assisting in delicate situations during his long career. So when Eleanor Wygant comes to visit Father Dowling he receives her graciously, though she is a stranger. As it turns out, members of her family are longtime parishioners of St. Hillary's, and it soon becomes clear that with family trouble brewing, Eleanor doesn't know where else to turn. When she enlists Father Dowling's help in persuading her niece Jessica to scrap the tell-all family novel she is writing and concentrate on more earthly pursuits, the venerable priest has little idea how enmeshed he is about to become in the family's edgy interrelations. For in recent years, the family has had its share of melodrama, including a philandering patriarch, a son who left the priesthood to take up with an ex-nun, and an underachieving academic, and it's up to Dowling to piece together their shared history in the hopes of putting their demons-and a vicious, previously unknown murder-to rest. In the hands of Ralph McInerny, one of mystery fiction's most beloved authors, Last Things is as delightful as his legions of fans have come to expect from the charming Father Dowling series.
The Runaway Dragon
by Kate CoombsWhen Meg's dragon, Laddy, flies away from home, she knows she must go on a quest to find him. But she hasn't counted on her parents, the king and queen of Greeve, sending ten guardsmen along. Fortunately, she is also accompanied by her best friends: Dilly, a lady-in-waiting and a cool head in any crisis not involving heights; Cam, a gardener's assistant who knows the exact value of a brick shed filled with sausages; Nort, a skinny guardsman who has never given much thought to crows; and Lex, a young wizard with bad taste in horses, magic carpets, and sorceresses. Of course, Meg's quest goes topsy-turvy once she enters the enchanted forest—and her adventure is just beginning. What's more, meeting up with the dashing bandit Bain again isn't at all what she expected. Will this princess be able to rescue herself, let alone anybody else? In The Runaway Princess, Meg and her friends defeated a pack of princes. Now they're going to need swordplay, magic, and a whole lot of courage to find Laddy and get back home!
Origami Ornaments
by Lew RozelleBased on the design of traditional Japanese Kusudama ceremonial spheres, Origami Ornaments offers step-by-step instructions on how to create colorful paper folding decorations--from disco balls and unique cubes to lovely globe and lantern shapes--while remaining true to origami purist standards. Featuring four basic model designs--base, joiner, clip, and hinge--that can create limitless, unique ornaments, this orgiami book offers do-it-yourself designs small enough to hang on a Christmas tree or large enough to hold aromatic potpourri. As the ornaments rest they will open gently, like flowers, but still not come apart. Additional instructions for incorporating strings and tassels, as well as suggestions for utilizing different wrapping paper colors and patterns, will make these original ornaments dazzle.Origami Ornaments is the perfect book for holiday crafters and origami enthusiasts alike.
The Way to Save: A 10-Step Blueprint for Lifetime Security
by Ginita WallHelping a new generation of nonsavers get back on track, Ginita Wall offers a hands-on approach to achieving lifetime financial security, no matter how modest the income."A disciplined approach to managing personal finances that first recognizes the need to overcome certain common psychological barriers that prevent many people from achieving control of their money. Chapters written in checklist fashion reinforce her advice to become organized." - Library Journal
Let's No One Get Hurt: A Novel
by Jon Pineda“An inventive and powerful coming of age story about the search for community and all the ways our ties to one another come undone. Jon Pineda has a poet’s eye for the details of this vivid, haunting landscape, and he brings it blazingly to life.” —Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of SpeculationWith the cinematic and terrifying beauty of the American South humming behind each line, Jon Pineda’s Let’s No One Get Hurt is a coming-of-age story set equally between real-world issues of race and socioeconomics, and a magical, Huck Finn-esque universe of community and exploration.Fifteen-year-old Pearl is squatting in an abandoned boathouse with her father, a disgraced college professor, and two other grown men, deep in the swamps of the American South. All four live on the fringe, scavenging what they can—catfish, lumber, scraps for their ailing dog. Despite the isolation, Pearl feels at home with her makeshift family: the three men care for Pearl and teach her what they know of the world. Mason Boyd, aka “Main Boy,” is from a nearby affluent neighborhood where he and his raucous friends ride around in tricked-out golf carts, shoot their fathers’ shotguns, and aspire to make Internet pranking videos. While Pearl is out scavenging in the woods, she meets Main Boy, who eventually reveals that his father has purchased the property on which Pearl and the others are squatting. With all the power in Main Boy’s hands, a very unbalanced relationship forms between the two kids, culminating in a devastating scene of violence and humiliation.
London's Thames: The River That Shaped a City and Its History
by Gavin WeightmanWithout the Thames, there would be no London or England. From earliest times, the city's needs--whether for stone, gold, or coal, for hay to feed livestock or food, wine and spices for human beings--were supplied from the river, as the fierce tides brought ships upstream or carried them down again. Only with the age of trunk road and rail did London's global importance as a port diminish. Even after that the tides continued to drive the great power stations.Gavin Weightman's fascinating book London's Thames, a compendium of often surprising information, is the best possible introduction to the water and its ways, the buildings that line the banks, and the people who lived by the river, their customs and ancient knowledge. Everything is to be found here: trade and tide, lightermen, watermen and dockers, bridges, funnels and ferries, frost fairs and regattas, clear water, fish and wildlife, pollution and waste, fortification and defense. Above all, one feels the presence of the great waterway itself, a force of nature in our urban midst.
The $5 Dinner Mom One-Dish Dinners Cookbook
by Erin ChaseErin Chase does it again, ready to warm your heart and your family with $5 One-Dish DinnersWho would turn down a plate of sizzling beef fajitas or a hot and bubbling Swiss Chicken casserole right out of the oven? Who knows how to make all these things easily and for only $5? Erin Chase, The $5 Dinner Mom, that's who! Erin's newest book, The $5 Dinner Mom One-Dish Dinners Cookbook is filled with more than 150 one-dish recipes that don't cost an arm and a leg, are easy to prepare and even easier to clean up after. Here are just a few mouthwatering examples straight from Erin's kitchen:- Bowtie Pasta with Bacon, Corn and Parmesan- Santa Fe Chicken and Rice Casserole- Skillet Taco Pie- Sausage and Black Bean Soup- Spicy Quinoa with Corn, Beans and LimeErin's even included a few $5-and-under deserts like Mango Raspberry Crumble and Pear, Apple and Caramel Crisp to round out a meal on nights when the budget allows. With her new book, Erin Chase shows America that it's not only possible to eat right, eat well and stay on a budget. She also shows us how easy it can be to cook, clean up fast, and spend more time with the family.
Sidewalk
by Mitchell DuneierAn exceptional ethnography marked by clarity and candor, Sidewalk takes us into the socio-cultural environment of those who, though often seen as threatening or unseemly, work day after day on "the blocks" of one of New York's most diverse neighborhoods. Sociologist Duneier, author of Slim's Table, offers an accessible and compelling group portrait of several poor black men who make their livelihoods on the sidewalks of Greenwich Village selling secondhand goods, panhandling, and scavenging books and magazines. Duneier spent five years with these individuals, and in Sidewalk he argues that, contrary to the opinion of various city officials, they actually contribute significantly to the order and well-being of the Village. An important study of the heart and mind of the street, Sidewalk also features an insightful afterword by longtime book vendor Hakim Hasan. This fascinating study reveals today's urban life in all its complexity: its vitality, its conflicts about class and race, and its surprising opportunities for empathy among strangers. Sidewalk is an excellent supplementary text for a range of courses: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY: Shows how to make important links between micro and macro; how a research project works; how sociology can transform common sense.RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS: Untangles race, class, and gender as they work together on the street.URBAN STUDIES: Asks how public space is used and contested by men and women, blacks and whites, rich and poor, and how street life and political economy interact.DEVIANCE: Looks at labeling processes in treatment of the homeless; interrogates the "broken windows" theory of policing.LAW AND SOCIETY: Closely examines the connections between formal and informal systems of social control.METHODS: Shows how ethnography works; includes a detailed methodological appendix and an afterword by research subject Hakim Hasan.CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Sidewalk engages the rich terrain of recent developments regarding representation, writing, and authority; in the tradition of Elliot Liebow and Ulf Hannerz, it deals with age old problems of the social and cultural experience of inequality; this is a telling study of culture on the margins of American society.CULTURAL STUDIES: Breaking down disciplinary boundaries, Sidewalk shows how books and magazines are received and interpreted in discussions among working-class people on the sidewalk; it shows how cultural knowledge is deployed by vendors and scavengers to generate subsistence in public space.SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE:Sidewalk demonstrates the connections between culture and human agency and innovation; it interrogates distinctions between legitimate subcultures and deviant collectivities; it illustrates conflicts over cultural diversity in public space; and, ultimately, it shows how conflicts over meaning are central to social life.