The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask
by Barbara W. Ellis
Published 2008 by Storey Publishing

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781603420242

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This comprehensive, quick-to-read, and fun-to-browse book offers solutions toproblems that can plague vegetable gardening.

Rock & Roll Heaven: A Fascinating Guide to Musical Icons Who Have Joined the Great Gig in the Sky
by Robert Dimery
Published 2007 by Barron's Educational Series

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780764160905

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(back cover)

" Rock & Roll Heaven" is a fascinating look at over 100 of popular musics most famous fatalities, from legendary rockers who lived fast and died young to tragic and self-destructive poet-musicians.

Discover whose body was washed up at the foot of Beale Street, home of the blues. Find out why country legend Gram Parsons corpse was stolen. Read about the grisly coincidence that links Keith Moon and Mama Cass.

Artist portraits feature career highlights along with details of their untimely demise, accompanied by stunning photographs.

(front flap)

This is your graveside guide to the final days of some of popular musics legends. Featuring 120 late-but-great icons that have knocked on heavens door or driven down the highway to hell, each entry includes a revealing account of the stars death, along with a wealth of fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. Heres how the end came for . . .

Buddy Holly . . .Died Feb. 3, 1959 . . . Cause: plane crash

Sam Cooke . . .Died Dec. 11, 1964 . . .Cause: gunshot

Jimi Hendrix . . . Died Sept. 18, 1970 . . . Cause: asphyxiation

Janis Joplin . . .Died Oct. 4, 1970 . . .Cause: drug overdose

Mama Cass Elliot . . .Died July 29, 1974 . . .Cause: heart attack

John Lennon . . .Died Dec. 8, 1980 . . . Cause: gunshot

Marvin Gaye . . .Died Dec. 28, 1983 . . . Cause: gunshot

Jeff Buckley . . .Died May 29, 1997 . . .Cause: drowned

Youll get inside stories on these tragedies and many more in Rock & Roll Heaven.

(back flap)

Robert Dimery is a freelance writer and editor who has worked on several books covering the rock music scene. He has worked for a variety of magazines, including "London Time Out" and" Vogue."

Bruno MacDonald has edited and contributed to many books and magazines that cover pop music and its celebrities.

The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, & Invention
by Robert Temple
Published 2007 by Inner Traditions International

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781594772177

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SCIENCE / CHINA Many of the world's greatest inventions have their foundation in ancient China. This book shows the true origins of: the decimal system - printing - paper money - the compass the wheelbarrow - the crossbow - the science of immunology porcelain - matches - the rudder - the game of chess the umbrella - brandy and whiskey - the mechanical clock playing cards - and more . . . Undisputed masters of invention and discovery for 3,000 years, the ancient Chinese were the first to discover the solar wind and the circulation of the blood and even isolate sex hormones. From the suspension bridge and the seismograph to deep drilling for natural gas, the iron plough, and the parachute, ancient China's contributions in the fields of engineering, medicine, technology, mathematics, science, transportation, warfare, and music helped inspire the European agricultural and industrial revolutions.Since its original publication, The Genius of China has won five literary awards in America and been translated into forty-three languages. Its Chinese edition, The Spirit of Chinese Invention, was approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education for use in connection with the national secondary curriculum in China. Based on the immense, authoritative scholarship of the late Joseph Needham, the world's foremost scholar of Chinese science, and including a foreword by him, this revised full-color illustrated edition brings to life the spirit and excitement of the unparalleled achievements of ancient China. ROBERT TEMPLE is a visiting professor of the history and philosophy of science at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He also is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; member of the Egypt ExplorationSociety, Royal Historical Society, Institute of Classical Studies, and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies; and visiting research fellow of the University of the Aegean in Greece. He is the author of ten books, including The Sirius Mystery and Oracles of the Dead, and lives in England with his wife, Olivia.

Mastering the Basics: Japanese
by Nobuo Akiyama
Published 1995 by Barron's Educational Series

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780812090468

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A fine supplement to language textbooks in high school and college courses. Its chapters cover basic language review topics, each chapter offering an introductory diagnostic test with answers, a subject review, and a closing test that measures the reader's learning progress. Topics include grammar, pronunciation, parts of speech, idioms, telling time, and more.

Choosing Happiness: Life & Soul Essentials
by Stephanie Dowrick
Published 2008 by Jeremy P. Tarcher

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781585425822

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This inclusive and broad-ranging work offers the skills and insights readers need to be more inwardly stable, content, and happier--and to interact with other people in a more positive and rewarding way.

Alternative Energy Demystified
by Stan Gibilisco
Published 2006 by McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780071475549

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There's no better time -- or easier way -- to LEARN about ALTERNATIVE ENERGY Thinking about heating your home with solar power but don't know how it really works? Wondering what makes hybrid cars run? "Alternative Energy Demystified" shines the light on the various energy sources and technologies available today. The book begins by covering a wide range of heat sources, including wood, corn, coal, oil, gas, electricity, and solar heat. Propulsion methods are discussed next, including gasoline, methane, ethanol, biodiesel, hydrogen, fuel cells, and more. Electricity from fossil fuels, water, wind, atoms, and other sources is also covered. Featuring end-of-chapter quizzes and a final exam, this illuminating guide explains the technical basics of many different forms of energy -- some that may surprise you! This self-paced guide gives you: A thorough overview of the various sources of energy To-the-point explanations and detailed illustrations A quiz at the end of each chapter to reinforce learning and pinpoint weaknesses A final exam at the end of the book A time-saving approach to performing better on an exam or at work! Simple enough for a beginner, but challenging enough for an advanced student, "Alternative Energy Demystified" is your shortcut to a working knowledge of this timely topic.

An Hour to Live, an Hour to Love: The True Story of the Best Gift Ever Given
by Richard Carlson
Published 2007 by Hyperion

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781401322571

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Richard Carlson's sudden, tragic death in 2006 left his millions of fans reeling and his wife and partner Kristine grief stricken. This work features one of the many of Richard's letters to his beloved wife, and her heartfelt response

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 11/05/2007

On their 18th wedding anniversary, in 2003, Richard Carlson (author of the bestselling Don't Sweat the Small Stuff) presented his wife, Kristine, with a short manuscript called "An Hour to Live." He imagines he has an hour to live and poses questions originally asked by spiritual guide and author Stephen Levine: whom would you call? what would you say? and why are you waiting? Uncannily, the text foreshadowed Carlson's death three years later, at age 45, of a pulmonary embolism. Though he had no chance to make that last phone call, his wife (and the reader) already knows his feelings for her and their children. We also know what was important to him, which boils down to the old chestnut: no one, on their deathbed, ever wishes they'd spent more time at the office. Included in the book is Kristine's tribute to Richard, called "An Hour to Love." Both pieces (only 50 pages and padded with "Richard's favorite poem" and blank pages for the reader's own answer to the key question) are heartfelt-and oddly unengaging. They tell the reader how wonderful the Carlsons' marriage was, but don't show why. We are left with a lovely ideal-too ideal for readers to relate to. (Jan. 15)

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
by Eric Weiner
Published 2008 by Twelve

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780446580267

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Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, "The Geography of Bliss" takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness."

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 10/22/2007

Fortified with Eeyoreish fatalism-"I'm already unhappy. I have nothing to lose"-Weiner set out on a yearlong quest to find the world's "unheralded happy places." Having worked for years as an NPR foreign correspondent, he'd gone to many obscure spots, but usually to report bad news or terrible tragedies. Now he'd travel to countries like Iceland, Bhutan, Qatar, Holland, Switzerland, Thailand and India to try to figure out why residents tell "positive psychology" researchers that they're actually quite happy. At his first stop, Rotterdam's World Database of Happiness, Weiner is confronted with a few inconvenient truths. Contrary to expectations, neither greater social equality nor greater cultural diversity is associated with greater happiness. Iceland and Denmark are very homogeneous, but very happy; Qatar is extremely wealthy, but Weiner, at least, found it rather depressing. He wasn't too fond of the Swiss, either, uncomfortable with their "quiet satisfaction, tinged with just a trace of smugness." In the end, he realized happiness isn't about economics or geography. Maybe it's not even personal so much as "relational." In the end, Weiner's travel tales-eating rotten shark meat in Iceland, smoking hashish in Rotterdam, trying to meditate at an Indian ashram-provide great happiness for his readers. (Jan.)