01 Sep 10 The Postcard Killers [Hardcover] chapter summaries
The Postcard Killers [Hardcover] chapter Summaries:
Review
APPLAUSE FOR JAMES PATTERSON:
“The Man Who Can’t Miss.” (Time Lev Grossman )
“Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves the plot along. It’s what fires off the movie projector in the reader’s mind.” (Michael Connelly )
“Patterson’s novels are sleek entertainment machines, the Porsches of commercial fiction, expertly engineered and lightning fast.” (Publishers Weekly )
Product Description
Paris is stunning in the summer
NYPD detective Jacob Kanon is on a tour of Europe’s most gorgeous cities. But the sights aren’t what draw him–he sees each museum, each cathedral, and each cafe through the eyes of his daughter’s killer.
The killing is simply marvelous
Kanon’s daughter, Kimmy, and her boyfriend were murdered while on vacation in Rome. Since then, young couples in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Stockholm have been found dead. Little connects the murders, other than a postcard to the local newspaper that precedes each new victim.
Wish you were here
Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter, Dessie Larsson, who has just received a postcard in Stockholm–and they think they know where the next victims will be. With relentless logic and unstoppable action, The Postcard Killers may be James Patterson’s most vivid and compelling thriller yet.
See all Editorial Reviews
Tags: Bestsellers
01 Sep 10 Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, orMooching off My Parents [Paperback] chapter summaries
Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, orMooching off My Parents [Paperback] chapter Summaries:
Review
“Let Zac Bissonnette help you plan for college-where to go, what to study, and how to pay for it-and you will finish rich”
-David Bach #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Automatic Millionaire and Start Late, Finish Rich
“In the new economy, your college choice is critical. Zac Bissonnette’s Debt- Free U is the one book you need to make this life-changing decision– thoroughly researched, smart, and funny. Grade: A+.”
-Ali Rogers, CBS Moneywatch. Author, Diary of a Real Estate Rookie
“With Bissonnette, college-bound students and their parents finally have an unbiased source to help make an educated decision about choosing and affording college. Not to mention, his advice can help you pocket tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Want to make a smart investment in this economy? Buy Debt-Free U.”
-Farnoosh Torabi, financial expert and author of Psych Yourself Rich
Product Description
This book can save you over $100,000
These days, most people assume you need to pay a boatload of money for a quality college education. As a result, students and their parents are willing to go into years of debt and potentially sabotage their entire financial futures just to get a fancy name on their diploma.
But Zac Bissonnette is walking proof that this assumption is not only false, but dangerous-a class con game designed to rip you off and doom your student to a post-graduation life of near poverty . From his unique double perspective-he’s a personal finance expert (at Daily Finance) AND a current senior at the University of Massachusetts-Zac figured out how to get an outstanding education at a public college, without bankrupting his parents or taking on massive loans.
Armed with his personal knowledge, the latest data, and smart analysis, Zac takes on the sacred cows of the higher education establishment. He reveals why a lot of the conventional wisdom about choosing and financing college is not only wrong but hazardous to you and your child’s financial future. You’ll discover, for instance, that:
* Student loans are NOT a necessary evil. Ordinary middle class families can- and must-find ways to avoid them, even without scholarships.
* College “rankings” are useless-designed to sell magazines and generate hype. If you trust one of the major guides when picking a college, you face a potential financial disaster.
* The elite graduate programs accept lots of people with non-elite bachelors degrees. So do America’s most selective employers. The name on a diploma ultimately won’t help your child have a more successful career or earn more money.
Zac can prove every one of those bold assertions – and more. No matter what your current financial situation, he has a simple message for parents: “RELAX! Your kid will be able to get a champagne education on a beer budget!”
See all Editorial Reviews
Tags: Bestsellers
01 Sep 10 The Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd edition [Paperback] chapter summaries
The Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd edition [Paperback] chapter Summaries:
Product Description
The Official SAT Study Guide™ —with more than two million sold—just got better! Now offering 10 practice tests, The Official SAT Study Guide: Second Edition™ is the only book that features official SAT® practice tests created by the test maker. With over 1,000 pages and more than 20 chapters, it’s packed with the most up-to-date information students need to get ready for the test.
Students will gain valuable experience and raise their confidence by taking practice tests, by reviewing critical concepts, test-taking approaches, and focused sets of practice questions just like those on the actual SAT.
The Official SAT Study Guide: Second Edition will help students get ready for the SAT with
- 10 official SAT practice tests, including 3 new recent exams
- detailed descriptions of math, critical reading, and writing sections of the SAT
- targeted practice questions for each SAT question type
- practice essay questions, along with sample essays and annotations
- a review of math concepts tested in the exam
- test-taking approaches and suggestions that underscore important points
- free online score reports
- exclusive access to online answers and explanations at collegeboard.com
- $10 discount on The Official SAT Online Course to all book owners
There’s also a complete chapter on the PSAT/NMSQT®.
About the Author
The College Board, a not-for-profit membership association, connects students to college success and opportunity through major programs and services in college admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Among its best-known programs are the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT®, and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®). Students, parents, educators, and librarians recognize the College Board as a source of expertise on SAT and CLEP® test preparation, college admissions, and financial aid. The College Board publishes the bestselling The Official SAT Study Guide™, the College Handbook, the Book of Majors, and other books that help students prepare for college, research their options, and succeed in higher education. It also maintains the popular collegeboard.com Web site, which is visited by more than 4.5 million unique visitors per month.
Buy ‘The Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd edition [Paperback]‘ online
Tags: Bestsellers
01 Sep 10 A Pocket Style Manual with 2009 MLA and 2010 APA Updates [Spiral-bound] chapter summaries
A Pocket Style Manual with 2009 MLA and 2010 APA Updates [Spiral-bound] chapter Summaries:
Product Description
Click here to find out more about the 2009 MLA Updates and the 2010 APA Updates. The first of its kind, A Pocket Style Manual continues to help student writers get answers to their writing and research questions. Its concise and straightforward content is flexible enough to suit the needs of writers in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, health professions, business courses, fine arts, teacher training courses, and beyond. Its slim format, brief length, and spiral binding make it a portable and practical tool. With its signature Diana Hacker quick-reference features, A Pocket Style Manual has always provided quick solutions to writing problems. Supplemented by the best free and open Web resources, A Pocket Style Manual offers the best value for students.
In the Hacker tradition, the new contributing authors — Nancy Sommers, Tom Jehn, Jane Rosenzweig, and Marcy Carbajal Van Horn — have crafted solutions for the challenges today’s college students face. Together they give us a new edition that provides more help with research writing and one that works better for a wider range of students.
About the Author
DIANA HACKER personally class-tested her handbooks with nearly four thousand students over 35 years at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland, where she was a member of the English faculty. Hacker handbooks, built on innovation and on a keen understanding of the challenges facing student writers, are the most widely adopted in America. Other Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, include The Bedford Handbook, Seventh Edition (2006); A Writer’s Reference, Sixth Edition (2007); and A Pocket Style Manual, Fifth Edition (2008).
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
NANCY SOMMERS, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches writing in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well-known for her research and publications on student writing. Her recent work involves a longitudinal study of undergraduate writing. Nancy Sommers is co-author of Fields of Reading, Ninth Edition (2010) for Bedford/St. Martin’s.
TOM JEHN teaches composition and directs the Writing Across the Disciplines program at Harvard University. A recipient of numerous teaching awards both at Harvard and at the University of Virginia, he also leads professional development seminars on writing instruction for public high school teachers.
JANE ROSENZWEIG teaches composition and directs the writing center at Harvard University. She has also taught writing at Yale University and the University of Iowa.
MARCY CARBAJAL VAN HORN, Assistant Professor of English and ESL at Santa Fe Community College (FL), teaches composition to native and nonnative speakers of English and teaches the Advanced ESL Writing course.
Buy ‘A Pocket Style Manual with 2009 MLA and 2010 APA Updates [Spiral-bound]‘ online
Tags: Bestsellers
01 Sep 10 Clockwork Angel [Hardcover] chapter summaries
Clockwork Angel [Hardcover] chapter Summaries:
Amazon.com Review
Product Description
Magic is dangerous–but love is more dangerous still.When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos. Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own. Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by–and torn between–two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length…everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world…and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.
Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Cassandra Clare, Author of Clockwork Angel Q: How does your new series, The Infernal Devices, relate to your previous series, The Mortal Instruments? Do new readers need to read The Mortal Instruments before they read the new series? A: The Infernal Devices take place in the same universe as The Mortal Instruments, but a hundred and fifty years before the events of the Mortal series. You absolutely don’t have to read The Mortal Instruments first; I’ve gotten very enthusiastic feedback from people who started with Clockwork Angel. However, if you are a fan of the Mortal Instruments, you’ll see familiar family names–Lightwood, Wayland–and get to see what the ancestors of the characters you already know were up to in the Victorian age. There is at least one character who crosses over both series: the immortal warlock Magnus Bane. For those familiar with the Mortal books, it should be fun to meet him again; for those who haven’t read them, it should be fun to meet him for the first time! Q: Do you have a favorite character in Clockwork Angel? A: Like Tessa, I’m torn between Jem and Will! They were both so wonderfully fun to write. Despite having a close brotherly bond, they’re really opposites in personality. Will is a character who hides almost everything about himself; Jem is a character who is almost unendingly open and kind. Of course, when either kind of character reaches their breaking point, you have those moments of high drama and intensity that are catnip to writers! Q: What characteristic or personality trait does Tessa possess that you most admire? A: She is extremely persistent and unwilling to give up. When she’s imprisoned, she doesn’t stop trying to escape; she never stops trying learn new information; she never stops looking for her brother. She never fades quietly into the background; she plants her feet and asks questions–and gets answers, often from the unlikeliest of sources. Q: How much research did you do for Clockwork Angel? What was the most interesting thing that you learned? A: Starting in January of 2009 I took a six-month period of reading only books written during, or set in, the Victorian era–both fiction and nonfiction. I have an entire bookshelf now dedicated just to Victoriana. I also hired a research assistant who dug through primary source materials to find me letters and diaries written at the time. I was especially keen to find diaries of Americans traveling abroad, since Tessa is an American in London. I wanted to get a sense of what her impression as a foreigner would have been. One of the creepiest things I learned about was Victorian death photos, where they would prop up corpses to seem alive and take photos of them for their loved ones to have as keepsakes. Q: Which type of character is the most fun for you to write–the hero or the villain? A: There’s a huge appeal to writing both, but there’s something special about creating a really good villain. The villain stands outside society. He or she can say or do anything without fear of what the consequences will be for his/her relationships with the other characters. Sometimes the villain is the only one who can speak a vicious or painful truth and get away with it.
Review
"A century before the events of Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy . . . this crowdpleaser’s tension-filled conclusion ratchets toward a new set of mysteries." - Kirkus Reviews
“Mysteries, misdirection, and riddles abound. . . . Fans of the Mortal Instruments series and newcomers alike won’t be disappointed.” – Publishers Weekly
“Compulsively readable . . . Packed with battles, romantic entanglements, and tantalizing foreshadowing, this will have readers clamoring for the next installment.” – Booklist
“Top Pick! Readers will be thrilled and amazed with this prequel to The Mortal Instruments, tearing their way through a beautifully constructed story of action, magic, mayhem, and romance. Fans and newcomers alike will be enchanted by Clare’s fantastical world and left begging for more!” – Romantic Times Book Reviews
See all Editorial Reviews
Tags: Bestsellers
01 Sep 10 Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God [Paperback] chapter summaries
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God [Paperback] chapter Summaries:
From Publishers Weekly
Chan, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, Calif., offers a radical call for evangelicals to consider and emulate in this debut guide to living crazy for God. Chan’s own life compels him to live with urgency, and with good reason. His mother died giving birth to him, his stepmother died when he was nine, and his dad when he was 12. As a pastor, Chan says that conducting weekly funerals for people younger than himself has likewise sobered him to life’s unexpectedness and frailty. Chan writes with infectious exuberance, challenging Christians to take the Bible seriously. He describes at length the sorry state of lukewarm Christians who strive for a life characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering. In stark contrast, the book offers real-life accounts of believers who have given all—time, money, health, even their lives—in obedience to Christ’s call.Chan also recounts his own attempts to live crazy by significantly downsizing his home and giving away his resources to the poor.Earnest Christians will find valuable take-home lessons from Chan’s excellent book. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
God is love. Crazy, relentless, all-powerful love. Have you ever wondered if we’re missing it? It’s crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe—the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor—loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. Whether you’ve verbalized it yet or not…we all know somethings wrong. Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn’t working harder at a list of do’s and don’ts—it’s falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same. Because when you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.
See all Editorial Reviews
Buy ‘Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God [Paperback]‘ online
Tags: Bestsellers
01 Sep 10 The Corrections: A Novel [Paperback] chapter summaries
The Corrections: A Novel [Paperback] chapter Summaries:
Amazon.com Review
Jonathan Franzen’s exhilarating novel The Corrections tells a spellbinding story with sexy comic brio, and evokes a quirky family akin to Anne Tyler’s, only bitter. Franzen’s great at describing Christmas homecomings gone awry, cruise-ship follies, self-deluded academics, breast-obsessed screenwriters, stodgy old farts and edgy Tribeca bohemians equally at sea in their lives, and the mad, bad, dangerous worlds of the Internet boom and the fissioning post-Soviet East. All five members of the Lambert family get their due, as everybody’s lives swirl out of control. Paterfamilias Alfred is slipping into dementia, even as one of his inventions inspires a pharmaceutical giant to revolutionize treatment of his disease. His stubborn wife, Enid, specializes in denial; so do their kids, each in an idiosyncratic way. Their hepcat son, Chip, lost a college sinecure by seducing a student, and his new career as a screenwriter is in peril. Chip’s sister, Denise, is a chic chef perpetually in hot water, romantically speaking; banker brother Gary wonders if his stifling marriage is driving him nuts. We inhabit these troubled minds in turn, sinking into sorrow punctuated by laughter, reveling in Franzen’s satirical eye:
Gary in recent years had observed, with plate tectonically cumulative anxiety, that population was continuing to flow out of the Midwest and toward the cooler coasts…. Gary wished that all further migration [could] be banned and all Midwesterners encouraged to revert to eating pasty foods and wearing dowdy clothes and playing board games, in order that a strategic national reserve of cluelessness might be maintained, a wilderness of taste which would enable people of privilege, like himself, to feel extremely civilized in perpetuity.
Franzen is funny and on the money. This book puts him on the literary map. –Tim Appelo
From Publishers Weekly
If some authors are masters of suspense, others postmodern verbal acrobats, and still others complex-character pointillists, few excel in all three arenas. In his long-awaited third novel, Franzen does. Unlike his previous works, The 27th City (1988) and Strong Motion (1992), which tackled St. Louis and Boston, respectively, this one skips from city to city (New York; St. Jude; Philadelphia; Vilnius, Lithuania) as it follows the delamination of the Lambert family Alfred, once a rigid disciplinarian, flounders against Parkinson’s-induced dementia; Enid, his loyal and embittered wife, lusts for the perfect Midwestern Christmas; Denise, their daughter, launches the hippest restaurant in Philly; and Gary, their oldest son, grapples with depression, while Chip, his brother, attempts to shore his eroding self-confidence by joining forces with a self-mocking, Eastern-Bloc politician. As in his other novels, Franzen blends these personal dramas with expert technical cartwheels and savage commentary on larger social issues, such as the imbecility of laissez-faire parenting and the farcical nature of U.S.-Third World relations. The result is a book made of equal parts fury and humor, one that takes a dry-eyed look at our culture, at our pains and insecurities, while offering hope that, occasionally at least, we can reach some kind of understanding. This is, simply, a masterpiece. Agent, Susan Golomb. (Sept.)Forecast: Franzen has always been a writer’s writer and his previous novels have earned critical admiration, but his sales haven’t yet reached the level of, say, Don DeLillo at his hottest. Still, if the ancillary rights sales and the buzz at BEA are any indication, The Corrections should be his breakout book. Its varied subject matter will endear it to a genre-crossing section of fans (both David Foster Wallace and Michael Cunningham contributed rave blurbs) and FSG’s publicity campaign will guarantee plenty of press. QPB main, BOMC alternate. Foreign rights sold in the U.K., Denmark, Holland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Spain. Nine-city author tour.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
Tags: Bestsellers
01 Sep 10 Little Bee: A Novel [Paperback] chapter summaries
Little Bee: A Novel [Paperback] chapter Summaries:
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, February 2009: The publishers of Chris Cleave’s new novel “don’t want to spoil” the story by revealing too much about it, and there’s good reason not to tell too much about the plot’s pivot point. All you should know going in to Little Bee is that what happens on the beach is brutal, and that it braids the fates of a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan (who calls herself Little Bee) and a well-off British couple–journalists trying to repair their strained marriage with a free holiday–who should have stayed behind their resort’s walls. The tide of that event carries Little Bee back to their world, which she claims she couldn’t explain to the girls from her village because they’d have no context for its abundance and calm. But she shows us the infinite rifts in a globalized world, where any distance can be crossed in a day–with the right papers–and “no one likes each other, but everyone likes U2.” Where you have to give up the safety you’d assumed as your birthright if you decide to save the girl gazing at you through razor wire, left to the wolves of a failing state. –Mari Malcolm
From Bookmarks Magazine
Chris Cleave’s Little Bee works because the unflinching, brutal story balances an outwardly political motive with rich, deep character development (and even some welcome humor), focusing narrowly on events before broadening to reveal some larger truths. Cleave’s firm grasp of human nature and his unsparing disdain for injustice allow him to articulate lives as different as those of Little Bee and the less-likeable Sarah; both characters, though, are unforgettable. Comparisons between Cleave and fellow Brits Ian McEwan and John Banville are apt. The only dissent came from the San Francisco Chronicle, which took issue with the narrative voices and the rushed pace of the story. All others agreed, however, that Cleave’s sophomore effort is, as the Chicago Sun-Times succinctly put it, “a loud shout of talent.”Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC
See all Editorial Reviews
Tags: Bestsellers
