Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

A new collection from David Sedaris is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris has inspired hilarious pieces, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, about his attempts to learn French. His family is another inspiration. You Cant Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as... (more)

The Quotable Writer: Words of Wisdom from Mark Twain, Aristotle, Oscar Wilde, Robert Frost, Eric Jong, and More

The Quotable Writer: Words of Wisdom from Mark Twain, Aristotle, Oscar Wilde, Robert Frost, Eric Jong, and More

"The Quotable Writer taps the power of words for the wordsmiths who live and make their living by them. Dip into it and see if you don't find yourself driven to write some yourself." David A. Fryxell, editorial director and nonfiction columnist for Writer's Digest, and author of How to Write Fast (While Writing Well) and Elements of Article Writing: Structure and Flow William A. Gordon has created a Barlett's... (more)

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

by Naomi Wolf

The bestselling classic that redefined our view od the relationship between beauty and female identity. In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the... (more)

Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism

Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism

by George M. Marsden

In this historical overview of American fundamentalism and evangelicalism, Marsden provides an introduction to these growing religious movements and a deeper analysis of two themes that have been especially prominent and controversial in these traditions--views of science and views of politics.

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

by Samuel P. Huntington

Predicting greater future conflicts between Western and non-Western cultures, a political study argues for greater understanding of non-Western civilizations and offers strategies for maximizing Western influence. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer

Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer

by Michael Lerner

"Here we have a truly remarkable book. Unlike anything in the alternative literature, Choices in Healing gives a scrupulously nonjudgemental review of the world of alternative treatments for cancer. Michael Lerner is a talented, scientifically astute and well-educated individual.... His compilation of both orthodox and alternative approaches to cancer is superb.... This is essential reading." -- Karol ... (more)

Release 2.0

by Esther Dyson

Welcome to Esther Dyson's provocative and visionary new book, Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age. In this eagerly anticipated book, Dyson--an entrepreneur, high-tech industry analyst, government adviser, and the "most powerful woman in the Net-erati," according to the New York Times Magazine --presents a fascinating exploration of our new digital society. She offers a detailed view of the... (more)

The Chinese Kitchen

by Deh-Ta Hsiung

There's no cuisine more rich with flavor, color, texture, variety, and tradition than Chinese cooking. From the familiar to the exotic, this comprehensive and stunningly illustrated sourcebook, organized by ingredient, is a master chef's catalog of what makes this centuries-old cuisine so vibrant today. Complete with historical background, information on buying and storing ingredients, and exquisite recipes, ... (more)

Mountain of Names: A History of the Human Family.

Mountain of Names: A History of the Human Family.

by Alex Shoumatoff

International in scope, this series of non-fiction trade paperbacks offers books that explore the lives, customs and thoughts of peoples and cultures around the world.

The Pity of War: Explaining World War I

by Niall Ferguson

A landmark work of history that challenges our most basic assumptions about the causes and consequences of the First World War In The Pity of War, Niall Ferguson makes a simple and provocative argument: that the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. Britain, according to Ferguson, entered into war based on nave assumptions of German aims-and England's entry into the war... (more)

The Fundamentalist Phenomenon/the Resurgence of Conservative ChristianityEd Dobson, Edward E. Hindson, Jerry Falwell

The Fundamentalist Phenomenon/the Resurgence of Conservative Christianity

by Ed Dobson

The Missionary and the Libertine (Essential Asia)

The Missionary and the Libertine (Essential Asia)

by Ian Buruma

From Naipaul’s India to the last days of Hong Kong, and from the ghosts of Pearl Harbor to Benazir Bhutto, Buruma delivers an engaging and incisive look at the ways East and West understand–and misunderstand–each other. At home in both worlds, Buruma traverses the realms of journalism, literary criticism, and political analysis, to examine the dialogue of fact and fantasy that affects our perception of far-away... (more)

The Death Of Woman Wang

by Jonathan D. Spence

Four years ago Jonathan Spence's Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-hsi scored as a tour de force of creative scholarship and literary reconstruction; simply for reading, the present volume is less satisfying - a composite, not a sustained narrative - but it has the distinction of burrowing into the lives of ordinary people in one rural fastness of 17th-century China. "T'an-ch'eng is only a tiny area, and it... (more)

The Complete Cancer Survival Guide: Everything You Must Know and Where to go For State-Of-The-Art Treatment of the 25 Most Common Forms of Cancer.

The Complete Cancer Survival Guide: Everything You Must Know and Where to go For State-Of-The-Art Treatment of the 25 Most Common Forms of Cancer.

by Peter Teeley

As far as Peter Teeley and his doctors knew, the fifty-one-year-old father of four was slated to undergo a routine appendectomy. When he awoke from surgery, he found his wife sitting at the foot of his hospital bed, bearing devastating news: What had appeared on the MRI scan was not an inflamed appendix but in fact stage III colon cancer. This was the beginning of Peter Teeley's battle against the disease. What he... (more)

Puritan Christianity in America: Religion and Life in Seventeenth-Century MassachusettsAllen Carden

Puritan Christianity in America: Religion and Life in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts

by Allen Carden

Notes from an Even Smaller Island

by Neil Humphreys

When journalist Neil Humphreys moved from his native England to the small island country called Singapore, he began to write articles about his observations of the quirky city for a local newspaper. With his trademark wit and style, Humphreys' readership and popularity grew and included both locals and expats. Local Singaporeans found his observations so dead-on they couldn't find fault with him and are now loyal... (more)

A Walking Tour: Bangkok (Walking Tour)

by G. Byrne Bracken

Singapore's exquisite buildings are often overlooked in the frenetic pace of urban living. Architect G. Byrne Bracken's sketch-cum-guidebook, with some 70 sketches and 30 maps, takes you on a delightful tour through the city's shophouses and skyscrapers, mosques and minarets.

The adventure of Mr. Verdant Green,: An Oxford freshmanCuthbert Bede