A practical culinary primer for the novice cook presents more than one hundred easy-to-prepare recipes for desserts, appetizers, salads, breakfasts, snacks, and main courses, accompanied by humorous anecdotes about the art of cooking. Original."

A Book Sense Pick for May 2005, this is the humorous tale of how the author moved— against his will and his better judgment—to Italy with his wife, only to rediscover himself, his marriage, and the importance of getting in touch with his inner Italian.

After years of working on a string of sitcoms, Phil Doran found himself on the outside looking in. Just as he and his peers had replaced the older guys when he was coming up the ranks, it was now happening to him. And it was freaking him out. He came home every night angry, burned- out, and exhausted. After twenty-five years of losing her husband to Hollywood, Doran’s wife decided it was finally time for a change—so on one of her many solo trips to Italy she surprised her husband by purchasing a broken-down 300-year-old farmhouse for them to restore. The Reluctant Tuscan is about the author’s transition from being a successful but overworked writer-producer in Hollywood to rediscovering himself and his wife while in Italy, and finding happiness in the last place he expected.

In the witty tone that made him a success as a writer in Hollywood, The Reluctant Tuscan captivates those who simply love a good travel narrative as well as anyone who loves the quirky humor of Bill Bryson, Dave Barry, and Jerry Seinfeld.

The best adolescent fiction offers more than an escape from teenage turmoil; it instructs as it entertains, giving young readers a view into lives—fictional though they may be—outside their own. Without sentimentality or preachiness but with clear awareness of this power, Michael Dorris tells the story of Walnut, a young Native American boy. Because Walnut can't see well, he has difficulty meeting the challenges, especially feats of skill with bow and arrow, that prove he is ready to receive a new name and become an adult. When a sympathetic uncle invents a new contest to "see what can't be seen," the boy's other senses bring success and earn him the name Sees Behind Trees. Dorris could easily stop there, but he nudges the youngster onward through a series of trials that show adulthood is about more than getting there. (Ages 8 and up)

Why is the Torah central to the Jewish faith? How did the Talmud originate? What do Jewish holidays celebrate? What goes on a synagogue worship service? How to kosher dietary laws work? Why is the land of Israel so important for Jews? These are just a few of the questions Rabbi Wayne Dosick answers in this masterly overview of Jewish faith and tradition, now available in a handsome paperback edition. Writing in short, accessible chapers that cover Jewish beliefs, people, literature, holidays, worship, and living, he captures the essence of Judaism, honoring and explicating the diversity of Jewish thought and observance, from Reform and Conservation to Orthodox. With a timeline of Jewish history and thought-provoking essys on the Jewish idea of God, good and evil, the messiah, believing in the Bible, prayer, right and wrong, the Holocaust, and Israel, Living Judaism is the definitive introduction to one of the world's great religions.

Teen star Morgan Carter’s mom is trying to kill her. At least, that’s what Morgan thinks when she’s sent to Ft.Wayne, Indiana after a near overdose outside LA’s Viper Room.

Morgan’s going to recover out of the spotlight.Way out. She’s given a major make-under, a new name, and a completely different identity. Morgan’s plan? To write a tell-all book about her experience and stage a comeback. But when this LA girl finds love and a new life in Middle America, will she abandon it for another shot at superstardom?

An insightful, witty, and well-written analysis of the effects of mass-media on women in late 20th-century American culture. Douglas cuts through the fluff that spews from the tube with a finely-honed sense of the absurd that can forever change (or minimally, inform) how you perceive the changing portrayals of women by the media. The only book I know of that has been given highest recommendations by Gloria Steinem, The McLaughlin Group, and Amazon.com.

A small but surprisingly comprehensive dictionary defining over 5,000 terms. The sturdy binding will hold up to a great deal of travel. A very practical and inexpensive gift for any business person or anyone interested in finance and investment.

The subterranean world of zines uncovered in words and pictures Slug & Lettuce, Pathetic Life, I Hate Brenda, Dishwasher, Punk and Destroy, Sweet Jesus, Scrambled Eggs, Maximunrocknroll — these are among the thousands of publications which circulate in a subterranean world rarely illu-minated by the searchlights of mainstream media commentary. In this multifarious underground, Pynchonesque misfits rant and rave, fans eulogize, hobbyists obsess. Together they form a low-tech publishing network of extraordinary richness and variety. Welcome to the realm of zines. In this, the first comprehensive study of zine publishing, Stephen Duncombe describes their origins in early-twentieth-century science fiction cults, their more proximate roots in 60s counter-culture and their rapid proliferation in the wake of punk rock. While Notes from Underground pays full due to the political importance of zines as a vital web of popular culture, it also notes the shortcomings of their utopian and escapist outlook in achieving fundamental social change. Packed with extracts and illustrations from a wide array of publications, past and present, Notes from Underground is the first book to explore the full range of zine culture and provides a definitive portrait of the contemporary underground in all its splendor and misery.

A wild, often horrifying, novel about freaks, geeks and other aberrancies of the human condition who travel together (a whole family of them) as a circus. It's a solipsistic funhouse world that makes "normal" people seem bland and pitiful. Arturo the Aqua-Boy, who has flippers and an enormous need to be loved. A museum of sacred monsters that didn't make it. An endearing "little beetle" of a heroine. Sort of like Tod Browning's Freaks crossed with David Lynch and John Irving and perhaps George Eliot — the latter for the power of the emotions evoked.

Peace—the issue of our times—affects everyone, but especially children, whodeserve and wish for a peaceful future. Now over 30 of the best-loved authorsand illustrators for children have combined their talents in a big, wonderfulbook for and about peace.

Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman and went underground. With the help of a Christian friend, she emerged in Munich as Grete Denner. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member who fell in love with her. Despite Edith's protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity a secret.

In wrenching detail, Edith recalls a life of constant, almost paralyzing fear. She tells of German officials who casually questioned the lineage of her parents; of how, when giving birth to her daughter, she refused all painkillers, afraid that in an altered state of mind she might reveal something of her past; and of how, after her husband was captured by the Soviet army, she was bombed out of her house and had to hide while drunken Russian soldiers raped women on the street.

Yet despite the risk it posed to her life, Edith created a remarkable record of survival. She saved every document and set of papers issued to her, as well as photographs she managed to take inside labor camps. Now part of the permanent collection at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., these hundreds of documents, several of which are included in this volume, form the fabric of a gripping new chapter in the history of the Holocaust — complex, troubling, and ultimately triumphant.

Barbie is an American icon. But does Barbie become a problem when the adult fantasy collides with the child's fantasy? All that misplaced Barbie angst of our youth, all the childhood conditioning, and the adult results of nine inches of injection molded plastic are revealed at last in "Mondo Barbie".