- BESTSELLERS
-
"A
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"
by Dave Eggers
What's it like to be young, gifted, suddenly orphaned, launching
a stellar career, and raising your kid brother in the weird
world of San Francisco? "It was a hopeless sort of exhilaration,
a kind of arrogance born of fatalism, I guess," writes Eggers
in the most dazzlingly ironic novelistic memoir of the season.
- "Girl
with a Pearl Earring"
by Tracy Chevalier
Enter the mind of Vermeer's mysterious beauty, fall in love with
the painter, and explore 17th-century Holland via Tracy Chevalier's
utterly absorbing, sumptuously detailed historical novel.
-
"The
Brethren"
by John Grisham
John Grisham's 11th legal thriller, "The Brethren," follows
three incarcerated judges--good ol' boys all--as they seek their
fortune in extortion and mail fraud. The excitement picks up
when they unexpectedly begin to reap as they have sown.
-
"The
Cider House Rules"
by John Irving
A good old-fashioned Dickensian novel about the orphan Homer
Wells, Dr. Wilbur Larch, the meaning of fatherhood, and the
secrets of cider houses.
-
"The
Green Mile"
by Stephen King
The horror master's death-row drama won the 1997 Bram Stoker
Award for Best Novel. There's another, cheaper edition with
Tom Hanks's picture on the cover, but this one contains an introduction
by King.
-
"American
Beauty: The Shooting Script"
by Alan Ball
When star Kevin Spacey read this stunningly original midlife-crisis
tale (Ball's first screenplay), he almost fell out of bed. When
Steven Spielberg read it, he said, "Let's make this movie and
not change a word." Read it and weep, and laugh, and weep.
-
"The
Talented Mr. Ripley: A Screenplay"
by Anthony Minghella
See how Anthony "The English Patient" Minghella artfully updated
Patricia Highsmith's classic thriller about a millionaire-beguiling
forger and murderer living the high life in Italy. Or read the
original
novel by Patricia Highsmith
-
"Zero:
The Biography of a Dangerous Idea"
by Charles Seife
The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus
worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. And
today, the zero--that little nothing--could account for everything.
Seife's page-turning debut is a wholly positive one.
-
"Bridget
Jones: The Edge of Reason"
by Helen Fielding
Can Bridget Jones and her Singleton brigade triumph over Smug
Marrieds, man-stealing skinny vixens, "rude thoughts" about
Prince William, and a Thai prison diet? Find out in her new
diary.
- "Designing
Web Usability"
by Jakob Nielsen
The world wide guru of Web design tells how to make it simple
and make it great. Just say "no" to frames!
- PARENTING
AND FAMILIES
-
"The
Bipolar Child"
by Demitri F. Papolos, M.D. and Janice Papolos
Bipolor disorder--formerly known as manic depression--is often
misdiagnosed in children as ADHD or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
As a result, treatments can do more harm than good. In "The
Bipolar Child," Demitri and Janice Papolos seek to explain the
disorder and offer a guide to families struggling with a raging,
out-of-control child.
-
"Reclaiming
Our Children"
by Peter R. Breggin
In "Reclaiming Our Children: A Healing Plan for a Nation in
Crisis," noted psychiatrist Peter Breggin asserts that parents
and other adults are the source of our children's problems--not
genetics or drugs or television. He argues that time, attention,
and nurturing discipline could be our best tools against violence
and depression in our youth.
- "KidStress:
What It Is, How It Feels, How to Help"
by Georgia Witkin, Ph.D.
Relax--it's not your fault! Dr. Georgia Witkin will help you realize
that not all your child's stresses come from home. More to the
point, parents can help their kids deal with stress effectively.
- REFERENCE
-
"Word
Court"
by Barbara Wallraff
She's the Judge Judy of grammarians. Barbara Wallraff's language
column in the Atlantic Monthly dispenses "grammar with an atitbustude."
Her new book "Word Court," presents the best of this popular
column, along with healthy doses of wit, charm, and good sense.
Seldom has a grammar book been such a pleasure to read.
-
"Atlas
of the Prehistoric World"
by Douglas Palmer
Not to be critical or anything, but the earth is hardly the
spring chicken it was 4.6 billion years ago. Continents have
shifted, merged, and split apart. Seas have turned to land and
land has been submerged by sea. The "Atlas of the Prehistoric
World" forms a digest of what is known so far about the history
of the earth, enhanced with brilliant maps, photographs, and
illustrations and explained in lucid, enjoyable prose.
-
"Nolo's
Deposition Handbook"
by Paul Bergman and Albert J. Moore
Being deposed can be a confusing, Kafkaesque experience, but
"Nolo's Deposition Handbook" takes much of the fear and uncertainty
out of the process. Authors (and attorneys) Paul Bergman and
Albert Moore do a commendable job of dealing with real-life
issues, such as what to do--and not to do--in preparation and
how to deal with the trick questions that many lawyers just
love to ask.
-
"The
Book on the Bookshelf"
by Henry Petroski
When Henry Petroski's "The Book on the Bookshelf" first landed
on my desk, I was dubious. "An entire book about bookshelves?
Sounds about as exciting as the history of the paper clip."
An evening perusing the book soon made me change my mind. Petroski's
charming and erudite history of book storage is really an analysis
of our drive to categorize and store information for quick access.
And as Petroski clearly shows, when it come to our quest for
knowledge, we humans can be amazingly resourceful.
-
"Penguin
Dictionary of American Folklore"
by Alan Axelrod and Harry Oster
The A-to-Z design of the "Penguin Dictionary of American Folklore"
enables fast access if you know what you want to look up, but
it also provides seemingly endless opportunities for happy browsing.
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