Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology (Vintage)

Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology (Vintage)

by Steven Levy

Even as molecular biologists attempt to reproduce life in vitro, another group of scientists is creating life--or something very close to it--in silico, using computers to produce "organisms" that can move, see, feed, reproduce, and die. Photos.

Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back

Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back

by Norah Vincent

Following in the tradition of John Howard Griffin ( Black Like Me ) and Barbara Ehrenreich ( Nickel and Dimed ), Norah Vincent absorbed a cultural experience and reported back on what she observed incognito. For more than a year and a half she ventured into the world as Ned, with an ever-present five o’clock shadow, a crew cut, wire-rim glasses, and her own size 111/2 shoes—a perfect disguise that enabled... (more)

Merde: Book 1

A Year in the Merde

by Stephen Clarke

Based on Stephen Clarke’s own experiences and with names changed to “avoid embarrassment, possible legal action, and to prevent the author’s legs being broken by someone in a Yves Saint Laurent suit,” A Year in the Merde provides perfect entertainment for Francophiles and Francophobes alike.

A Great, Silly Grin

by Humphrey Carpenter

A vibrant history of the British satire explosion of the early 1960s and its lasting influence on comedy A Great, Silly Grin opens at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival, where a staggeringly inspired satirical revue called Beyond the Fringe startled a public steeped in the polite, bland banality of the 1950s. From there it is a short trip to the coffee bars of London, where the appearance of a scruffy yellow pamphlet... (more)

Errata: An Examined Life

by George Steiner

George Steiner, one of the great literary minds of our century, here relates the story of his own life and the ways that people, places, and events have colored the central ideas and themes of his work. Brilliant and witty, his memoir reveals Steiner`s thoughts on the meaning of the western tradition and its philosophic and religious premises.

Passion and Reason: Making Sense of Our Emotions

Passion and Reason: Making Sense of Our Emotions

by Richard S. Lazarus

This eye-opening look at the emotions of everyday life is the first book to move beyond clinical jargon and popular psychology to really explain why people feel the way they do. Based on four decades of pioneering research, it explores 15 emotions in depth and offers fascinating vignettes to frame each. From the acclaimed author of the classic Emotion and Adaptation.

The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China

The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China

by Keith Laidler

In 1856 Emperor Hsien Feng turned over an ornately carved jade name-plaque next to his bedchamber, an action with which he brought a much-desired new concubine to his bed and unwittingly sealed the fate of the Manchu dynasty. A centuries-old prophecy had foretold that Manchu rule in China would be brought to ruin by a woman from the Yeho-Nala tribe; in the darkness of the bedchamber those words became reality. The... (more)

Which MBA?: A Critical Guide to the World's Best Programs Tenth Edition (Which MBA)

Which MBA?: A Critical Guide to the World's Best Programs Tenth Edition (Which MBA)

by George Bickerstaffe

"...one of the better guides" - "The Guardian" The 16th edition of "Which MBA?", the comprehensive and authoritative guide to choosing the ideal MBA, reflects the ever-increasing range of options in the business education marketplace, away from one-size-fits-all approach to diversity and choice. This 16th helps the reader understand the range of options available in executive education and what sort of program... (more)

Afterlife

by Paul Monette

/Paul Monette Set against the big-city backdrop of Los angeles, Afterlife is a powerful novel of three AIDS widowers, all of whom lost their lovers in the same week--and who now must.

My Love Affair With America: The Cautionary Tale of a Cheerful Conservative

My Love Affair With America: The Cautionary Tale of a Cheerful Conservative

by Norman Podhoretz

My Love Affair with America is more than the poignant recovery of lost time. Podhoretz uses his own experience to launch a strong defense of America and American values at a time when he fears that his fellow conservatives are in danger of following the path of the New Left into contempt for their native land. The gratitude Podhoretz feels for the United States is a challenge to the political Right as well as the... (more)

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief

by L. Wolpert

A unique, scientific look into why we are all believers. In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass , the White Queen tells Alice that to believe in a wildly improbable fact she simply needs to "draw a long breath and shut <her> eyes." Alice finds this advice ridiculous. But don't almost all of us, at some time or another, engage in magical thinking? Seventy percent of Americans believe in angels; 13... (more)

Complete Idiot's Guide to BRITISH ROYALTY (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

Complete Idiot's Guide to BRITISH ROYALTY (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

by Richard Buskin

Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative

Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative

by David Brock

In a powerful and deeply personal memoir in the tradition of Arthur Koestler’s The God That Failed , David Brock, the original right-wing scandal reporter, chronicles his rise to the pinnacle of the conservative movement and his painful break with it. David Brock pilloried Anita Hill in a bestseller. His reporting in The American Spectator as part of the infamous “Arkansas Project” triggered the course of... (more)

MAN AND MICROBES: Disease and Plagues in History and Modern Times

MAN AND MICROBES: Disease and Plagues in History and Modern Times

by Arno Karlen

A noted medical historian places recent outbreaks of deadly diseases in historical perspective, with accounts of other alarming and recurring diseases throughout history and of the ways in which humans have adapted. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem--and What We Should Do About It

Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem--and What We Should Do About It

by Noah Feldman

A brilliant and urgent appraisal of one of the most profound conflicts of our time Even before George W. Bush gained reelection by wooing religiously devout "values voters," it was clear that church-state matters in the United States had reached a crisis. With Divided by God , Noah Feldman shows that the crisis is as old as this country--and looks to our nation's past to show how it might be resolved. Today... (more)

The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea (Modern Library Chronicles)

The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea (Modern Library Chronicles)

by John Micklethwait

Chosen by BusinessWeek as One of the Top Ten Business Books of the Year With apologies to Hegel, Marx, and Lenin, the basic unit of modern society is neither the state, nor the commune, nor the party; it is the company. From this bold premise, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge chart the rise of one of history’s great catalysts for good and evil. In a “fast-paced and well-written” work ( Forbes ), the... (more)

True to Type

by William C. Jeffries

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Every year, millions of people take it. Carefully validated, highly reliable, the MBTI has become the most popular personality indicator in the world, an indispensable tool for managers, consultants, trainers and personal administrators. The MBTI is an indicator, not a test. It is not meant to predict performance, analyze abilities, categorize, or make value judgments. It is... (more)

Travelers' Tales Guides India (Travelers' Tales Guides)

Travelers' Tales Guides India (Travelers' Tales Guides)

by Larry Habegger

A new kind of travel anthology, Travelers' Tales marries the best of a guidebook with travel literature. Here veteran travel writers O'Reilly and Habegger bring together those stories which best capture the experience of India--the best bazaar of human experiences that can be visited in a lifetime.

White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves

White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves

by Giles Milton

This is the forgotten story of the million white Europeans, snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of North Africa to be sold to the highest bidder. Ignored by their own governments, and forced to endure the harshest of conditions, very few lived to tell the tale. Using the firsthand testimony of a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow, Giles Milton vividly reconstructs a... (more)

Nerds 2.0.1

by Stephen Segaller

The companion to the documentary series premiering on PBS in November 1998. A romp through the development of the "Information Superhighway" from the people who brought you "Triumph of the Nerds." Nerds 2.0.1 is the first light-hearted but comprehensive account of how the Internet developed from a medium for academic geeks, hackers, and policy wonks into a billion-dollar vehicle for communication and ... (more)

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