Books of the World newsletter

NUMBER 014

OCTOBER - 2000

Previous releases:
NEWS AND ARTICLES
  • Closing the Book on Hate Barnes & Noble is joining with the Anti-Defamation League in a campaign against prejudice and discrimination.
  • Harry Potter and the German pirates A group of German Harry Potter fans are facing legal action over their unofficial translation of the latest novel in the bestselling series. The German translation of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is due to be published in October but some fans can't wait. A small group of Potter fanatics have started translating an English version of the book and posting the results on a website for anyone to download.
  • Ignore e-Book Hype ... For Now I remember the first electric toothbrushes. They'd revolutionize dental care. They flopped. Until companies like Water Pik, Sonicare and others came along with better technology. Similar thing's happening with electronic books (e-books) -- those devices and software that let you download and read digitized works. Lots of hype, some sales, but not enough to alter the industry. Only for a time, though. I'll tell you why and how e-books will eventually succeed. And why your local college campus holds one of the keys. By Jesse Berst, Editorial Director
  • Pirates Invade Book Publishing At least one website offers free downloads of entire texts of copyrighted books by famous authors. What can the publishing industry do about this Napster-ization of books? By M.J. Rose.
  • Publishers Yearn to E-Learn Some of the biggest players in textbook publishing are placing their bets on e-learning, hoping to lead the growing space by instilling technology-based learning tools in the classroom. By Kendra Mayfield
  • Rediscovering Indie Bookstores Independent booksellers have gotten the message, and more and more their little bookstores in the middle of nowhere are finding second homes on the Web. By M.J. Rose.
  • The Impassioned Fight to Save Dying Languages More and more voices are speaking up to keep them from being overwhelmed by English and global pressures. By ROBERT LEE HOTZ, Times Science Writer
  • The Real E-Books Forget those single-purpose e-book readers. The future of electronic publishing lies in files you can download to, view on and print out from the computer you already own. By Steve Ditlea





RECENT ADDITIONS TO "BOOKS OF THE WORLD"


RECOMMENDED BOOKS

American Rhapsody
by Joe Eszterhas
American Rhapsody is a gleeful act of outrage, simultaneously an assault on the Clintons and a bridge-burning, tell-all Hollywood memoir in the wicked spirit of You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again. Joe Eszterhas's narrative is a torrent of consciousness with no consistent sense of direction,..

The First Days of School : How to Be an Effective Teacher
by Harry K. Wong, Rosemary Tripi Wong
Used by new and veteran teachers, college instructors, and administrators, this is a beautifully designed book on classroom management, student achievement, and teacher effectiveness. Color graphics.

Bobos in Paradise : The New Upper Class and How They Got There
by David Brooks
You've seen them: They sip double-tall, nonfat lattes, chat on cell phones, and listen to NPR while driving their immaculate SUVs to Pottery Barn to shop for $48 titanium spatulas. They tread down specialty cheese aisles in top-of-the-line hiking boots and think nothing of laying down $5 for an...

SellOut: The Inside Story of President Clinton's Impeachment
by David P. Schippers, Alan P. Henry
While no one came out of the Monica Lewinsky scandal looking good, David Schippers, the chief investigative counsel for the Clinton impeachment, wants to be sure Americans know just who contributed to the debacle and how. A trial attorney and a Democrat, Schippers was hired by Republican congressman...

Feeling Your Pain : The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years
by James Bovard
The Clinton-Gore years have been a catastrophe for individual liberty, writes James Bovard in this libertarian broadside:
Clinton was the Nanny State champion incarnate--the person who autorbusght tens of millions of Americans to look to government for relief from every irritation of daily life--from

The War Against Boys : How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men
by Christina Hoff Sommers
The author of the provocative bestseller Who Stole Feminism? returns with an equally eye-opening follow-up. "It's a bad time to be a boy in America," writes Christina Hoff Sommers. Boys are less likely than girls to go to college or do their homework. They're more likely to cheat on tests, wind up...

Voodoo Science : The Road from Foolishness to Fraud
by Robert L. Park
Scientific error, says Robert Park, "has a way of evolving ... from self-delusion to fraud. I use the term voodoo science to cover them all: pathological science, junk science, pseudoscience, and fraudulent science." In pathological science, scientists fool themselves. Junk science refers to...

Flux : Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love, and Life in a Half-Changed World
by Peggy Orenstein
After the release of her bestselling title, Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap, Peggy Orenstein toured the country talking to groups of parents, teachers, and girls. It was after one of these teen town hall meetings that she decided to write about the crucible of...

Everything You Think You Know About Politics...and Why You're Wrong
by Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Here are a few facts Kathleen Hall Jamieson thinks you don't know about politics: most presidents try to keep their campaign promises, most candidate ads tell the truth, campaign rhetoric has not become more negative in recent years, reporters don't represent the content of candidate speeches very...

Rule by Secrecy : The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids
by Jim Marrs
Set aside your preconceptions of the world, of what you've read in your history textbooks, and what you see and hear from the mainstream media. Jim Marrs, award-winning journalist and author of Alien Agenda and the New York Times bestseller Crossfire, is about to change your perspective, as he...

Black Mass: The Irish Mob, The FBI and A Devil's Deal
by Dick Lehr, Gerard O'Neill
In the spring of 1988, Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill set out to write the story of two infamous brothers from the insular Irish enclave of South Boston: Jim "Whitey" Bulger and his younger brother Billy. Whitey was the city's most powerful gangster and a living legend--tough,...

How to Be Invisible : A Step-By-Step Guide to Protecting Your Assets, Your Identity, and Your Life
by J. J. Luna
It's hard to say how private investigators would react to books like J. J. Luna's How to Be Invisible--while it makes their jobs a lot harder, most of them are paid by the hour. If you want to withdraw from the snooping eyes of the government, corporations, stalking ex-boyfriends, or practically...

Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America
by John McWhorter
McWhorter makes compelling arguments for the failure of African Americans to achieve academic success. He posits three causes of this failure, which he characterizes as victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism. McWhorter's "cult of victimology" is the "transformation of victimhood from a...

Newjack : Guarding Sing Sing
by Ted Conover
Most people know it's easier to get into prison than it is to get out. But for a journalist, just getitbusng into Sing Sing, New York's notorious maximum-security prison, isn't easy. In fact, Ted Conover was so stymied by official channels that he took the only way in--other than crime--and became a...

The Twilight of American Culture
by Morris Berman
"If you have finally had it with CNN and Hollywood and John Grisham and New Age 'spirituality,' then pull up a chair, unplug your phone (beeper, TV, fax machine, computer, etc.), and give me a few hours of your time. I promise to do my best not to entertain you."

Prince Albert: The Life and Lies of Al Gore
by David N. Bossie, Floyd G. Brown
John Fund, Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
Prince Albert...is thoroughly researched and footnoted and facts are stubborn things, as Al Gore will discover.

Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource
by Marq De Villiers, Marq De Villiers
Water is a curious thing, observed the economist Adam Smith: although it is vital to life, it costs almost nothing, whereas diamonds, which are useless for survival, cost a fortune. In Water, Canadian journalist de Villiers says the resource is still undervalued, but it is becoming more precious...

"Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results"
by Stephen C. Lundin et al.
If you liked "Who Moved My Cheese?" check out this fable about a "toxic energy dump" business saved by lessons from the fun-loving fishmongers at Seattle's Pike Place Market.

"The Beatles Anthology"
by the Beatles
Get the Beatles'-eye view in an enormous group autobiography with 1,300-plus pictures

"Merrick"
by Anne Rice
Just when you thought it was safe for a bloodsucker to go out in the dark, Rice introduces her three top vampires to the gorgeous, scary witch Merrick Mayfair.

"Drowning Ruth"
by Christina Schwarz
Oprah's latest book-club selection features a Wisconsin family with numerous skeletons in the closet.

"Open House"
by Elizabeth Berg
A plucky, witty divorcée finds love among the ruins in this Oprah-blessed bestseller.

"Shopgirl: A Novella"
by Steve Martin
The onetime wild-and-crazy guy follows his high-IQ hit "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" with a literary fable about a beautiful artist, her millionaire swain, and her female nemesis.

"The Message of the Markets: How Financial Markets Foretell the Future--and How You Can Profit from Their Guidance"
by Ron Insana
The market is shouting out how you can make money (and avoid losing it all), says CNBC's Ron Insana. Are you listening? Or don't you like money?

"The Amber Spyglass"
by Philip Pullman
Harry Potter, move over for Lyra Silvertongue and Will Parry, the greatest magical heroes of fiction for adults and kids with taste and imagination.

"The Last Precinct"
by Patricia Cornwell
Has Virginia's chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta ended up on the wrong end of a grand jury murder investigation? You can find out when the bestseller is released October 16.

"Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869"
by Stephen E. Ambrose
Our favorite historian tells the amazing tale of how Abe Lincoln, brilliant engineers, scurrilous financiers, and a quarrelsome rainbow coalition of brawny immigrants built America's railroad.

"The Truth About Dogs: An Inquiry into the Ancestry, Social Conventions, Mental Habits, and Moral Fiber of Canis Familiaris"
by Stephen Budiansky
Atlantic Monthly's Budiansky explains Fido with new evidence from behavioral science, archaeology, neuroscience--and the Dog Genome Project


SOFTWARE
  • Shareware and freeware:
    • DesignWorkshop Lite v1.8.4 Design your home in 3D. DesignWorkshop Lite is a full-featured (and free) 3D solid modeling application that should interest anyone who does architectural 3D modeling. It enables you to see your work from numerous perspectives, in both wireframe and fully textured modes. It supports .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .pcx, .png, .tif, and .pict images for textures, for backgrounds, and for exporting pixel images from its rendering and walkthrough window. 3D DXF import and export functions are also included. Unfortunately, the lack of right-click menus and tooltips makes the program less friendly to use than it should be. However, excellent documentation is included. The only restriction in DesignWorkshop Lite is that the Save and Save As functions are restricted for models with over 100 solid objects, or typically around 1,000 surfaces. (FREE)



 
 
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