The Best book review

2008-10-30T02:14:00.000-07:00

Suitable for anyone with a little C/C++ programming experience who wants to create software for the newest Mac platform, Cocoa Programming for Max OS X provides a slickly packaged and approachable tutorial that will get you started creating state-of-the-art Mac programs.

The smart presentation style and easy-to-understood code examples help make this text an excellent resource. (It also helps that Aaron Hillegass is a truly engaging writer.) He first explains how the legacy NeXTSTEP platform has evolved into Cocoa on the Mac OS X. Beginning with short examples illustrating the actual Cocoa tools in action, the author gets you started with simple programs for a random-number generator, a raise calculator, and other comprehensible examples. Rather than just listing APIs and classes, the emphasis is on hands-on Cocoa development. An early standout section provides a nice tour of essential Objective-C features you'll need to know to use Cocoa effectively.

This book covers the several dozen built-in Cocoa controls, from basic text and buttons to more advanced widgets (including lists and tables). Subsequent sections look at user interface design (using the Interface Builder to create nib files) and how to add programmatic processing behind the visual layout. Along the way, the author introduces coverage of essential Cocoa APIs for strings, arrays, and dictionaries. Later chapters look at saving and loading documents (and user defaults) and how to tap the powerful graphics abilities available in Cocoa. (Besides image and basic drawing, there are short sections on PDF support and printing.)

More advanced user interface features get their due by the end of the book, including cutting and pasting data through the Cocoa pasteboard and also adding drag-and-drop support. Final sections look at creating new controls for use with the Interface Builder palette, and, briefly, how to use Java with Cocoa (an option that the author doesn't necessarily recommend). Throughout this text, the author provides more advanced, challenging problems at the end of each chapter for the "more curious" reader. This approach keeps beginners from getting lost in the details of Cocoa development, but gives the more advanced reader something more to do.

While there are comparably fewer books on Mac OS X compared to other platforms, readers are lucky to have this one available. Anyone who wants to get onboard with Cocoa development will be well served by this title. It's a fine tutorial that earns high marks for its approachable, clear examples and an excellent presentation by an author who knows his stuff and, better yet, knows how to teach it to others. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Brief history of the Mac platform (from NeXTSTEP to Mac OS X), basic Cocoa development in Objective-C, using Project Builder and Interface Builder tools, tutorial to Objective-C (instances, variables, using classes, arrays and other containers, custom classes), the Objective-C debugger, basic Cocoa controls (building user interfaces), tables and data sources, event handling and delegates, archiving documents (encoding and decoding, saving and loading documents), Nib files, window panels, saving and retrieving user defaults (including using dictionary classes), notifications (observers and more on delegates), alert panels, localization (including string tables, a English and French example, the nibtool utility), custom views and drawing, drawing images and mouse events (plus coordinates systems and autoscrolling views), responders and keyboard events, fonts and strings (including attributed strings and PDF support), pasteboards and nil-targeted actions, using Objective-C categories (a code reuse feature), drag-and-drop support, timers, sheets and drawers, formatting strings, printing support, on-the-fly menu updating, text editing with text views, basic tutorial for using Java with Cocoa, and custom Interface Builder palettes (and inspectors). --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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2008-10-30T02:12:00.000-07:00

Flash CS4 Professional Digital Classroom is like having a personal instructor guiding readers through each lesson, while they work at their own pace. This book includes 13 self-paced lessons that let readers discover essential skills and explore new features and capabilities of Adobe Flash Professional. Every lesson is presented in full color with step-by-step instructions. Learning is reinforced with video tutorials and lesson files on a companion DVD that were developed by the same team of Adobe Certified Instructors and Flash experts who have created many of the official training titles for Adobe Systems. Each video tutorial is approximately five minutes long and demonstrates and explains the concepts and features covered in the lesson. This training package shows the basics of using the program, such as using layers and instances to build animation sequences, as well as advance features, such as using ActionScript to create interactive Web page components. Jam-packed with information, this book and DVD takes users from the basics through intermediate level topics and helps readers find the information they need in a clear, approachable manner.

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Photoshop Elements 7: The Missing Manual

2008-10-30T02:09:00.000-07:00

10 Elements Tips

1. It's still important to back up your photos. Elements 7 gives you a totally painless way with its related web site. Sign up for a free account and you can set your albums to automatically back themselves up to your space online. Once you set up album syncing, you don't have to think about it again. It happens automatically. If you have a computer disaster at home, just reinstall Elements on the new computer, turn on the backup/sync option, and sign in to the site, and your photos reappear on your new computer. This service has some limitations (all detailed in the book), but it's a terrific way to keep an extra copy of important photos. And you still have the regular Organizer options for backing up to CD, DVD, or a different hard drive.

2. Find a size that fits. If you've been using Elements for scrapbooking, take a look at the new file size presets available in Elements 7. There's a whole separate category for scrapbook sizes in the New File dialog box. Now you can create a 12"-, 8"-, or 6"-square sized file without having to set up a custom size.

3. On vacation? Take a private tour. If your “staycation” this year takes you to a nearby tourist spot along with everyone else in your state, you can get rid of those strangers crowding into your photos—as long as you plan ahead a little. Start by getting a series of pictures that give you enough clear spots, even if there are people you don't know meandering somewhere through every photo. Then you can combine the pictures with the Elements 7 Scene Cleaner to create an image of Aunt Esmeralda and Cousin Wilberforce standing in front of the falls all by themselves, with nobody else around.

4. Make slideshows like a pro. With Elements 7 you can share your albums with dynamite, professional-looking galleries. Create a gallery where your photos appear as a pile of old-fashioned slides. Your friends can then sort through, and click the ones they like, to see a larger view. Elements has other gallery options that let you create a virtual book where your visitors "turn" the page with the mouse. And you can host these at the related web site, burn them to a CD or DVD, or even post them on your own web site.

5. Create beautiful skin. If you like glamour-type photography, check out the new Surface blur filter to create dreamy looking skin quality. It blurs without losing edge detail: perfect for smoothing skin in portraits.

6. Make dramatic skies. If you're a beginner, try the new Quick Fix/Touch Up tool for making the sky bluer--maybe too blue (and kind of green) if truth be told. Fortunately, you can soften up the effect once you're done. Go back to Full Edit and find the Layers palette (you don't need to understand layers for this maneuver). Click once on the layer that Elements just added to your photo (it's called Blue Skies), and then go up to the top of the palette and move the opacity slider to the left. Watch your photo as you move the slider. When it looks real, you're done. (Click the bottom layer, the one called Background, before you leave the Layers palette. That way you can make more edits to your photos.) Another option: You may prefer the results you get using the Smart Brush in Full Edit, if your sky has any clouds in it. In the tool presets in the Options bar, go to Nature->Cloud Contrast and drag across the sky. Presto, your clouds really stand out!

7. Never, ever work on your original photo. If you use the Organizer, good news: Elements already has your back. It creates version sets, which save different states of your image as you edit. You can create as many different versions of a photo as you like and go back to any one of them at any time. And if you’re working with Raw files, even better news: You can't alter your original (only the conversion settings). If you don't use the Organizer, make a copy of the picture (File- >Duplicate) and work on that. This way you can always start over again if you get a better idea later on.

8. Sharing photos with the Organizer. There are all kinds of fun, creative ways to share photos in Elements 7, and the Organizer makes it super easy to explore them all. Try a slideshow with music and commentary, or upload your photos to EasyShare or one of the other online services to create mugs, bags, and other cool gift items with your photos on them.

9. Don't scorn the auto buttons. If you've never tried these one-click fixes--Auto Levels or Auto Color, for example--give ‘em a try. Each version of Elements gets a little smarter and you may find that you like the results you get from one of these easy-to-use fixes.

10. Panoramas for everyone. You don't need to feel wistful anymore about the fact that your point and shoot camera's lens doesn't have a true wide-angle setting. Take a series of photos with, ideally, about a 30 percent overlap and Elements' Photomerge will automatically stitch them together into a panorama wider than you could have captured with the widest lens. Photomerge is really amazing--it’s totally automated and it does terrific blending to eliminate visible seams between images

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Investor's Business Daily Pulitzer Prize-Winning Editorial Cartoonist

2008-10-30T02:05:00.000-07:00

Ramirez lances the Left with the best weapon of all. Humor. As Ronald Reagan said, 'Just laugh at them.' Mike is second only to me in showing how it's done."'--Rush Limbaugh, radio host

"Michael Ramirez says more in one cartoon than most talking heads say in a full day. Plus, Ramirez is hilarious."--Bill O'Reilly, anchor, Fox News Channel

"The quickest way to end all debate with liberals is to pull out a cartoon by Michael Ramirez. Michael has an uncanny ability to cut through all the spin and expose the truth in a single, often hilarious, picture.--Sean Hannity, anchor, Fox News Channel

"In today's political environment where liberals hide behind the label of 'progressive' and moderates pose as 'conservatives,' Michael Ramirez strips them of their disguises. His powerful points of view are conveyed in an incomparable illustrative style. No other editorial cartoonist today can match the majesty and wit of Michael Ramirez's cartoons. With his razor-sharp eye and potent pen, Ramirez takes no prisoners. Liberals, bureaucrats, and imposters beware."

--Ann Coulter, six-time New York Times bestselling author

"As a columnist who works with words, I strongly reject the familiar axiom that a picture is worth a thousand words. Unless, of course, they are the marvelous pictures that Michael Ramirez draws. They are sometimes worth a thousand columns. And--this really is unfair--he gets to add his always well-chosen words to his pictures. See, for example, page 26, where a public school official lays down the law to a clergyman: 'You can't say prayers during graduation ceremonies. But if you print them on condoms, we would be happy to distribute them.' What fun."--George F. Will, nationally syndicated columnist

"Editorial cartoonists are able to convey in a simple, yet vivid and powerful message what the columnist often needs 1,000 words to do. The best cartoons--funny or sobering and serious--are like an unexpected punch to the gut. The brilliance of a great editorial cartoon is its simplicity in carrying great substance. If editorial cartooning were baseball, Michael Ramirez would be Babe Ruth. If you like really cutting-edge political humor and want to laugh and cry at the foibles of America's political figures, this book is for you."--Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas, 1996-2007, GOP Presidential Candidate 2008

"I'm a longtimeInvestor's Business Daily reader, so I know and appreciate Michael's work firsthand. While some editorial cartoonists focus on the punch line and forget the point, Michael seamlessly mixes humor with hard-hitting journalism. His two Pulitzers are well deserved."--Larry Kudlow, host, CNBC's Kudlow & Company

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Security Analysis Sixth Edition, Foreword by Warren Buffett

2008-10-30T02:03:00.000-07:00

This is a re-issue of the 2nd edition in more modern form. There's no need to talk about the content and importance of this book to value-investor. But some reminder concerning this edition: 1) It is an abridged edition of the original 2nd edition (published in 1940). A total of 10 chapters have been deleted. 2) The Appendix Notes was also deleted. That's why the publisher could keep the pages at around 700+ something. 3) In compensation for the missing chapters, the publisher has attached a CD which contained the pdf format of the original 2nd edition (with 52 complete chapters as well as the Notes). I think that's really the most valuable part of this edition. That why I commented that it's a more convenient version of the 2nd edition

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The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs

2008-10-30T01:59:00.000-07:00

Just 10 days ago, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein made the stunning announcement -- during this season of jaw-dropping developments on Wall Street -- that the renowned investment-banking firm would morph into a traditional bank holding company, accepting onerous regulation in exchange for much-needed access to cash reserves. How could this happen to the country's most powerful investment bank? Charles D. Ellis's engaging history of the company, "The Partnership," provides some clues -- about Goldman Sachs and about Wall Street writ large.

The Partnership follows the firm from its beginnings as a commercial- paper dealer in 1869 (essentially recruiting investors to extend lines of credit to companies) to its emergence as the world's pre-eminent financial- services firm. A much-debated decision to sell Goldman shares to the public in 1999 was a watershed event, perhaps encouraging riskier behavior than would have been tolerated by partners with their own capital at stake. Similarly, the explosion in proprietary trading profits in recent years -- from trades using the bank's own money -- propelled overconfident Goldman bankers to up their bets.

Obviously, Mr. Ellis, a longtime consultant at Goldman, finished his chronicle before the big storm hit Wall Street. Still, his reporting suggests a company that, through well more than a century of investing and trading, has repeatedly found ways of reinventing itself, by exploiting the weakness of its rivals and by mastering new financial specialities -- e.g., block trading, corporate underwriting, commodities trading and arbitrage. Though recently transformed, Goldman is unlikely to slink away.

Goldman's long ascent to Wall Street's first ranks began a century ago when Henry Goldman undertook to raise money for industrial enterprises, many of which were regarded as "Jewish" companies and shunned by the established Wall Street firms. Struggling to find investors for companies light on assets, Goldman hit on a novel concept for determining market value: earning power. In partnership with the well-capitalized Lehman Brothers, Goldman floated financing for companies that included United Cigar, Worthington Pump and Sears, Roebuck & Co.

In an eerie forerunner of today's disasters, Waddill Catchings, Henry Goldman's successor, would very nearly destroy the firm in the 1920s by placing much of the partners' capital behind Goldman Sachs Trading Corp. This "investment trust" was an excessively leveraged and complex structure that collapsed when one of the subsidiary organizations was suddenly unable to pay a dividend. As Mr. Ellis writes: "Goldman Sachs Trading . . . became one of the largest, swiftest, and most complete investment disasters of the twentieth century."

Out of the rubble emerged Sidney Weinberg, a street-smart kid from Brooklyn, who rebuilt Goldman's reputation and kept the company afloat through the largely unprofitable years from 1929 to the end of World War II. Taking advantage of Weinberg's dozens of powerful corporate directorships, Goldman became an underwriting powerhouse.

From 1930 to 1969, Weinberg ruled the roost; his aversion to publicity became part of Goldman orthodoxy. He also had a healthy disdain for arrogance. As related by John Whitehead -- who worked at Goldman for more than three decades and eventually became co-chairman in the 1970s -- Weinberg bought up Phi Beta Kappa keys from pawnshops all over Brooklyn. "If he had a stuffed shirt going on and on for too long about something," Weinberg "would pull the wire full of PBK keys out of his drawer and say admiringly, 'Gee, you're so awfully smart, you should have one of these.' "

Weinberg was followed by Gus Levy, a "shirtsleeves, no-frills guy" who pushed Goldman into the block trading of large groups of stocks or bonds. His strong work ethic and his belief in teamwork became a signature of Goldman's much- vaunted culture. During Levy's leadership, Goldman was nearly driven out of business a second time, when the Penn Central railroad went bankrupt in 1970. Because it was Penn Central's commercial-paper dealer, Goldman was sued not only for losing investors' money but also for not informing clients that its privileged information had caused the firm itself to dump Penn Central's paper. Goldman was censured by the Securities and Exchange Commission and lost tens of millions of dollars in the aftermath.

The firm had righted itself by the mid-1970s and for the next decade flourished under Mr. Whitehead and his co-chairman, John Weinberg (Sidney's son). Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's current chief executive, rose at the firm because of his sponsorship of principal "risk-embracing" investing -- in other words, putting the firm itself in the position of directly buying and selling securities. The last chapter of "The Partnership" is titled "Lloyd Blankfein: Risk Manager." Whether Mr. Blankfein has appropriately responded to the unprecedented challenges in today's markets — or indeed whether he precipitated some of the problems through his enthusiasm for principal trading — is an open question.

It might be just as well that The Partnership ends before Goldman's recent convulsions — Mr. Ellis is not the ideal candidate to dig up the story of what went wrong. In his afterword, he says that his consultancy, Greenwich Associates, has worked with Goldman for more than three decades. His many friendships brought him unparalleled access to the notoriously publicity-shy firm, but his closeness also results in a book that at times sounds like an authorized corporate history. Statements such as "philanthropy and public service are more important to Goldman Sachs people . . . than to any other comparable group" will have rivals grinding their teeth. He also tends to tread carefully when discussing the firm's past problems -- an irksome quality, yes, but a tolerable one, given the attractions of an inside view of what was once a Wall Street titan and -- who knows? -- may be again.”
—Liz Peek, The Wall Street Journal

“As Goldman Sachs faces its greatest challenge, an important new history shows that the American investment bank is no stranger to adversity.

When Marcus Goldman, a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria, founded a small commercial-paper dealer in New York in 1869, he hardly could have imagined it would one day become the world’s most envied and profitable investment bank. Equally shocking to him would have been the hurricane that has descended on markets this year, wrecking the investment-bank business model, which relies on fickle short-term funding, and laying low entire institutions. Three of America’s five independent investment banks have been swallowed by rivals or the abyss. The two that remain, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, have opted under intense pressure from market forces to become bank holding companies, a move that will subject them to tougher capital requirements and supervision.

A year that has seen the emasculation of America’s brokerages may not seem the ideal time to reflect on what made the erstwhile industry leader great. But, amid the torrent of negative news, Charles Ellis’s exhaustively researched history of Goldman Sachs paints a convincing picture of an institution that has got most of the important things right. It is an organisation America can be proud of, even as it is forced to reinvent itself to survive.

Mr Ellis, a consultant who has worked with the bank for more than 30 years, sees strengths aplenty. Goldman attracts the best and, with a recruitment process that redefines rigorous, hires the very best. The accent has always been on regeneration: partners are encouraged to move on to allow fresh blood to come through; many go on to public service. Hank Paulson, America’s treasury secretary and the architect of the restructuring of the banking system, and Bob Zoellick, head of the World Bank, are two examples.

The dedication of employees is legendary. Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive, describes the culture as a blend of confidence and “an inbred insecurity that drives people to keep working and producing long after they need to. We cringe at the prospect of not being liked by a client.” Even before the crisis, when Goldman was earning profits to make Croesus blush (it is still profitable), Mr Blankfein seemed more anxious than arrogant. Yet loyalty sometimes spills over into inexcusable behaviour, as when a female job candidate was asked if she would have an abortion rather than lose the chance to work on a big deal.

Much of the success comes from daring to think big. When Goldman said it wanted to break Deutsche Bank’s stranglehold on Germany’s biggest corporations, local staff laughed. But after years of persistence it managed to do just that, prompting Deutsche’s then boss, Hilmar Kopper, to declare: “Nobody irritates me like Goldman Sachs. You get mandates we have not expected you to be even considered for!”

But in fighting for business, Goldman never reached the lows of brazenness of, say, Salomon Brothers in the 1980s. Indeed, its bankers were once dubbed “billionaire boy scouts”, due to their talent for making lots of money while keeping their noses clean. It is, as one partner put it, “long-term greedy”. Better to forgo profit today than take it and alienate a client that might produce a lot more business over the long haul. Goldman refused to advise on hostile takeovers until the late 1990s.

It has also trodden gingerly when it comes to grand strategic moves, avoiding the headline-grabbing mergers embraced by so many of its rivals. When he ran the firm, Mr. Paulson nearly tied the knot with JPMorgan (now JPMorgan Chase) but balked at the last moment, fearing the deal would dilute Goldman’s close-knit culture. One of the firm’s 14 guiding “Principles” is that it should be big enough to serve any client, but small enough to maintain its esprit de corps.

Yet Goldman’s progress has been interrupted by the occasional revolution. The biggest was its own flotation in 1999, after years of often rancorous debate among the partners. The move gave the firm permanent capital with which to expand, but exposed it to the vicissitudes of stockmarkets and, some felt, loosened the ties that had bound the firm’s leaders closely together.

After its public offering, Goldman, long a leader in “agency” businesses such as underwriting and merger advice, moved aggressively into “principal” investing, risking its own capital in markets. The profit margins on the latter are bigger, but so are the risks, as the credit crisis has so brutally illustrated. In magnifying its bets with large dollops of borrowed money and peddling subprime securities, Goldman played a part in bringing America to the brink of financial catastrophe.

Thanks to sharp risk management, the investment bank has managed to navigate the turmoil better than its peers. While others were still loading up on subprime mortgages, it sensed a market turn and hedged its bets; Goldman traders made a mint betting house prices would drop even as the bank continued to sell mortgage-backed securities, leading some to question its claim that clients come first.

The challenge Goldman faces may be its biggest yet. It was almost felled by Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation, a Ponzi-like misadventure that unravelled in the 1929 crash; and by Penn Central, a rail company whose collapse in 1970 left Goldman exposed to piles of worthless debt. Two market quakes in the 1990s also left it badly shaken. Each time it managed to survive, learned its lessons and emerged stronger. This time may be no different, and backing from Warren Buffett, America’s most admired investor, can only help. But, as Mr Ellis points out, its most valuable asset has always been its freedom to choose its own course. And that, for now, has been severely curtailed.”
—The Economist

“The book is rich with insider lore as well as the closed-door dramas of partnership clashes. [Ellis’s] experience graced him with a sure hand in writing about the world of traders, analysts and deal makers.”
—New York Times Book Review

“At a time of economic uncertainty, Charles Ellis's banking history The Partnership may offer a kind of cathartic glance backward.”
—The New York Sun

“Lively and engaging…Ellis sheds light on events through dialogue and descriptions of people’s thoughts and feelings”
—Publishers Weekly

“Ellis, the author of 14 books and managing partner of Greenwich Associates, a strategy-consulting firm, here provides a history of Goldman Sachs, which is arguably the most profitable and powerful investment bank in the world today…Ellis has done a thorough job of researching the prestigious organization, providing a look at the many personalities that have made the famous name what it is today.”
—Booklist

“illuminating…[Ellis] explicates with clarity and verve…He provides intriguing, specific descriptions of notable events…He offers astute character sketches of the principal players…Mapping the firm’s tangled loyalties and fiefdoms, Ellis paints a Darwinian portrait of fierce competitors who played people along with the markets.” —Kirkus Reviews

“In tracing its more than 100 years of history, Ellis follows a constant roller-coaster ride from life- threatening disasters to glorious triumphs and back again, showing all the while how an ever- growing penchant for risk propelled the firm into the new world of complex derivatives…At this moment, The Partnership is a must-read.”
—Barron’s

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Crack the Fat-Loss Code

2008-10-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

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LOSE UP TO 25 POUNDS IN 8 WEEKS AND KEEP IT OFF!

. .

The human body evolved to resist starvation by holding on to fat. No wonder it's so difficult to lose weight! Now a revolutionary lifestyle plan finally cracks the code for efficient fat loss. Developed by leading nutrition specialist Wendy Chant, the plan is scientifically designed to help you "outsmart" your body's natural cycles for storing and burning calories.

Crack the Fat Loss Code teaches you how to boost your metabolism through "macro-patterning"--a simple routine of alternating carb-up, carb-down, and baseline days. There are even built-in cheat days, so you can enjoy the foods you love. Once you get your eating habits on schedule, you'll find that you can lose weight . . . for good.

. .

In just eight short weeks, you'll be able to:

REPROGRAM YOUR BODY--to burn the fat and keep it off.
. FEEL HEALTHY, NOT HUNGRY--with limitless food options.
. CONQUER THAT DIET PLATEAU--once and for all..

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"Crack the Fat-Loss Code brings you the most sensible solution to permanent weight management I have seen."
--Frederick C. Hatfield, Ph.D., bestselling author of Bodybuilding: A Scientific Approach, Hardcore Bodybuilding, and Ultimate Sports Nutrition

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Flat Belly Diet

2008-10-30T01:45:00.000-07:00

Prevention magazine is the country's most authoritative, trustworthy, and innovative source for practical health, nutrition, and fitness information. Now, its editors bring you a weight-loss plan that's specifically designed to target your number-one trouble spot: BELLY FAT. For women over 40, belly fat is incredibly stealth and incredibly stubborn. It's also the most deadly, contributing to a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and chronic illness than any other type of fat on your body. Finally, science has helped uncover a key dietary weapon in the fight against belly fat. Monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs, help dieters lose more weight--in their bellies specifically--and keep it off longer. Flat Belly Diet! will lead you step by step, day by day, meal by meal toward a flatter belly...and a longer, healthier life

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2008-10-30T01:39:00.000-07:00

Vince Flynn's thrillers, featuring counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp, have dominated the imagination of readers everywhere. In them, Flynn has captured the secretive world of the fearless men and women, who, bound by duty, risk their lives in a covert war they must hide from even their own political leaders.

Now, Rapp and his protege, Mike Nash, may have met their match. The CIA has detected and intercepted two terrorist cells, but a third is feared to be on the loose. Led by a dangerous mastermind obsessed with becoming the leader of al-Qaeda, this determined and terrifying group is about to descend on America.

Rapp needs the best on this assignment, and Nash, who has served his government honorably for sixteen years first as an officer in the Marine Corps and then as an operative in an elite counterterrorism team run by Rapp is his choice. Together, they have made careers out of meeting violence with extreme violence and have never wavered in the fight against the jihadists and their culture of death. Both have fought the war on terrorism in secret without accolades or acknowledgment of their personal sacrifices. Both have been forced to lie to virtually every single person they care about, and both have soldiered on with the knowledge that their hard work and lethal tactics have saved thousands of lives.

But the political winds have changed in America, and certain leaders on Capitol Hill are pushing to have men like Rapp and Nash put back on a short leash. And then one spring afternoon in Washington, DC, everything changes.

Using his insider knowledge of intelligence agencies and the military, Flynn once again delivers an all-too-real portrayal of a war that is that is waged every day by a handful of brave, devoted souls. Smart, fast-paced, and jaw-droppingly realistic, Extreme Measures is the political thriller of our time.
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The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

2008-10-30T01:35:00.000-07:00

This quintessentially American tale about the ultimate self-made man—and in some ways the least changed… [Is] the definitive portrait of a complex man…Should become a Bible for capitalists.”—Washington Post

"Mr. Buffett made a smart choice when he chose Alice Schroeder as his Boswell.... A writer able to keep pace with the wild swerves in the Buffett story and the intricacies of Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway business empire. Ms. Schroeder is as insightful about her subject's precise anticipation of current financial crises as she is about his quirky personal story. And she is a clear explicator of fiscal issues."—New York Times

"The mandatory book to read in these treacherous times of financial crisis."—Forbes

"Timing aside, Schroeder has written a surprisingly good book, 'surprisingly' because even with a surfeit of minutiae about Buffett's private life and one deal after another, she still writes with a deft touch and keeps the narrative moving. While she clearly has Buffett's blessing and cooperation, she manages to be blunt in her assessment of him.......he may not be the easiest person to know personally, but he has lived a life worth studying and in Schroeder has found someone uniquely able to tell his story."—Los Angeles Times

"Schroeder, a former analyst, has a meat-and-potatoes style that matches the homespun wisdom of her subject...Now more than ever, Buffett's emphasis on fundamentals seems like genius. It's the perfect moment for a great book on an immensely inspiring capitalist."—People, four stars

“There are lessons to be learned in Ms. Schroeder's 900+ pages… . [It] underscores the importance of learning from failures…. Most tellingly: The next time Warren Buffett warns of a crisis, we'd all better listen.”–Wall Street Journal

“You will learn a lot about one of the nation's most compelling and important men from reading The Snowball.”—Boston Globe
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Twilight

2008-10-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

The book that started the phenomenon is now available in a deluxe collector's edition! Featuring a ribbon bookmark, cloth cover, ragged edges, new chapter opener designs, and a beautiful protective slipcase, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)

The Shack

2008-10-30T01:25:00.000-07:00

he Shack" is a one of a kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God. Through my tears and cheers, I have been indeed transformed by the tender mercy with which William Paul Young opened the veil that too often separated me from God and from myself. With every page, the complicated do's and don't that distort a relationship into a religion were washed away as I understood Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the first time in my life. --Patrick M. Roddy, ABC News Emmy Award winning producer

Finally! A guy-meets-God Novel that has literary integrity and spiritual daring. "The Shack" cuts through the cliches of both religion and bad writing to reveal something compelling and beautiful about life's integral dance with the Divine. This story reads like a prayer--like the best kind of prayer, filled with sweat and wonder and transparency and surprise. When I read it, I felt like I was fellowshipping with God. If you read one work of fiction this year, let this be it. --Mike Morrell, zoecarnate.com

When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of "The Shack." This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" did for his. It's that good! --Eugene Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.

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