Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
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An acclaimed biographer makes a persuasive case that editor Thomas Higginson performed a singularly significant role for poet Emily Dickinson.
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Style maven Carolyne Roehm captures readers’ attention form the start in Presentations: A Passion for Gift Wrapping with her confession that she’s held onto paper, tags, ribbons, cards and ornaments gathered on international travels for 30 years, knowing that the right time and occasion will come along for me to use them. This illustrated guide is all about finding that perfect moment, then packaging a gift to capture the anticipation and pleasure in the eyes of the receiver. Roehm, author of At Home with Carolyne Roehm, uses nature’s palette and a somewhat smug knowledge of art history to embellish boxes and bags with fresh flowers, sugared fruit, postcards of famous masterpieces, sumptuous velvet and taffeta ribbons and gold leaves, even making a moss teddy bear to hold a young friend’s birthday gift and using her computer to create a shirting-stripe wrapping paper (brief how-to and sources sections in the back of the book help more hapless crafters). But Roehm isn’t above using rubber stamps, stickers, artificial flowers, freezer paper and other inexpensive materials to turn even the simplest gift into an occasion.

Style maven Carolyne Roehm captures readers' attention form the start in Presentations: A Passion for Gift Wrapping with her confession that she's held onto paper, tags, ribbons, cards and ornaments gathered on international travels for 30 years, knowing that the right time and occasion will…
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Live Your Best Life: A Treasury of Wisdom, Wit, Advice, Interviews and Inspiration from O, the Oprah Magazine is the first annual compilation of articles and essays from O magazine, the print arm of the Oprah Winfrey empowerment empire. A hybrid of thoughtful, even poetic, nonfiction and succinct, quality service pieces emphasizing the beauty of best self and the power in personal growth, the magazine raises the bar for women’s publications. Live Your Best Life saves readers the trouble of ripping out around 100 keepers on complex topics including dieting and health, dating and relationships, parenthood and family, mature life and giving back, by both famous and familiar (Francine Prose, Ann Patchett, Suze Orman, Dr. Phil) and lesser known but knowing writers. Proving that Oprah walks the walk, 100 percent of the profits from the book will benefit Angel Network, her charitable foundation that helps educate and advance women and children around the world.

Live Your Best Life: A Treasury of Wisdom, Wit, Advice, Interviews and Inspiration from O, the Oprah Magazine is the first annual compilation of articles and essays from O magazine, the print arm of the Oprah Winfrey empowerment empire. A hybrid of thoughtful, even poetic,…
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In the dust jacket blurb for Mark Leonard's What Does China Think? rests an important pair of sentences: "Very few things that happen in our lifetime will be remembered after we are dead. But China's rise is different, like the rise and fall of Rome or the Soviet Empire, its after-effects will reverberate for generations to come." In a scholarly (but by no means dry) treatise, Leonard explores the conundrum that is modern China, through the views of the thinkers, movers and shakers who are leading the recently backward land into a position of prominence (and perhaps dominance) in the 21st century. In one essay titled "Meritocracy vs. majority rule," Leonard quotes Beijing University's Pan Wei, who believes Westerners have it wrong in assuming that their countries are prosperous and stable because of democracy; rather, he suggests prosperity and stability spring forth from the rule of law, and law and democracy are like yin and yang, in constant conflict with one another. What Does China Think? should be on the short list for anyone who wants insight into China's idea of its rightful place in the world order.

Encyclopedia Sinologica

Every now and then one's radar is blipped by someone or something that should have been taught in school, but somehow wasn't. Such is the case with Englishman Joseph Needham, who went to China in the 1930s and embarked on a lifelong project to catalog all of the inventions for which the Chinese were responsible. Big deal, you say. That's what I thought as well, until I had the opportunity to read Simon Winchester's The Man Who Loved China. This unforgettable (and unputdownable) book is a major revelation both about Chinese ingenuity and the remarkable man who spent his life unearthing and cataloging it. Among the notable inventions credited to the Chinese: paper, the compass, gunpowder, chopsticks (OK, that was probably a given), the toothbrush, toilet paper, the abacus, the bellows, the cannon, canal locks (as in the Panama Canal), paper money, grenades, the suspension bridge, vaccinations and the wheelbarrow, to mention but a handful. Whew! In the end, Needham produced 17 exhaustive volumes, rendering him a legend in the annals of encyclopedia. The Man Who Loved China should appeal strongly to fans of John McPhee or Michael Sims, or anyone interested in the history of China as seen through the eyes of an inquisitive Westerner.

The land in pictures

If a single picture is worth a thousand words, then Yann Layma's China should be worth at least 210,000 descriptors. The pictures are first-rate, of National Geographic quality. Each rates a two-page spread, without margins or captions to distract from the images (the pictures are all reproduced in thumbnail size in the back of the book, along with descriptive captions). Layma displays a rare sensitivity and humor in depicting daily life in China. One picture shows stately houseboats wending their way down a misty canal; another depicts the elaborate geometric pattern of a rice paddy. Still others offer glimpses into the daily lives of such diverse groups as falconers, runway models, fishermen, factory workers, religious figures and martial arts practitioners. Also included are essays by five noted Chinese writers: one section deals with the teachings of Lao Tzu and Confucius, another with famous Chinese inventions; a third covers Chinese calligraphy, a fourth gives a brief look at milestones in Chinese history. The other books in this article each illustrate a facet of the modern miracle that is China, but this is the one that will make you long to pay a visit to the Middle Kingdom.

What's on the menu

No report on modern-day China would be complete without at least a look at Chinese cuisine. Of course, everyone in the West is familiar with the staples: egg rolls, sweet and sour pork, General Tso's chicken and egg foo young. Less known are such culinary delights as red-braised bear paw, dried orangutan lips (I am not making this up), camel hump and the ovarian fat of the Chinese forest frog. For a historical (and often hysterical) glimpse at these and other fascinating facets of Chinese cooking, look no further than Fuchsia Dunlop's Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, a tale of travel in modern China, with appended recipes for meals that tend more toward the delicious end of Chinese cuisine spectrum, rather than, say, the aforementioned orangutan lips. Dunlop's writing style is conversational and engaging, and she poses several perplexing questions (for instance, when she inadvertently cooks a caterpillar along with some homegrown veggies in England, should she eat it, as she has done many times in China, or shiver in revulsion, as befits her upbringing?).

This could happen to you

And now for the fun part, the book that made me laugh out loud more times than I can remember, J. Maarten Troost's Lost on Planet China. After spending too long in Sacramento ("a little corner of Oklahoma that got lost and found itself on the other side of the Sierra Nevada. . ."), Troost decided a new place to live was in order. "I'm thinking China," he suggested to his wife, Sylvia. "I'm thinking Monterey," Sylvia countered. Clearly a compromise was required, and so it came to pass that Troost set forth on a solo exploratory mission to Old Cathay. After learning some vital Chinese phrases ("I am not proficient at squatting; is there another toilet option?," "Are you sure that's chicken?"), Troost found himself waving goodbye to his family. He would soon be saying hello again, though, as he had forgotten his backpack containing his passport, plane ticket and traveler's checks: " 'I'm trying to envision you in China,' Sylvia said, 'and I can't decide whether to laugh or weep.' I empathized. It's a thin line that separates tragedy from farce." As you might imagine, it only gets more frenetic and exponentially more humorous from this point forward. Troost is already being lauded as the new generation's answer to Bill Bryson; in my view, his writing is markedly different, but it will definitely find an appreciative audience among Bryson fans.

In the dust jacket blurb for Mark Leonard's What Does China Think? rests an important pair of sentences: "Very few things that happen in our lifetime will be remembered after we are dead. But China's rise is different, like the rise and fall of…

Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt have created coffee-table books that resonate with Americans, from A Day in the Life of America to Passage to Vietnam. The husband-and-wife duo's latest, America at Home: A Close-up Look at How We Live, sticks to the winning formula: large color photos (by pros and amateurs alike) with short, evocative captions. Thoughtful essays consider what home means: "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening ponders our "weird, mysterious connection" with home, tech writer David Pogue muses about home-as-workplace and novelist Amy Tan writes about her husband, their pets and their home life. All sorts of Americans are represented – from different states, age groups, ethnicities and lifestyles – and the concept of home is broad. America at Home visits a yurt, houseboats and comedian Rich Little's in-home theater, to name a few, and offers statistics on everything from homelessness to adoption rates. The book is fun to flip through, pore over or share.

The prolific, Pulitzer Prize-winning George F. Will offers his impressions of America's culture via a cross-country chronicling of the people, places and traditions that inform our national identity. In One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation, the longtime Newsweek columnist writes about Hugh Hefner, Ronald Reagan, the Holocaust Memorial Museum and baseball. He also peers through the lens of his own experience to question what is accepted vs. what is right. In an essay about his son Jon, born with Down syndrome, Will bemoans "today's entitlement mentality—every parent's 'right' to a perfect baby." He also questions whether "green" companies are as eco-conscious as they claim, and rhapsodizes about his beloved baseball. The book is a mixed bag and, ultimately, an invitation to look at America in a skeptical but hopeful way.

EMBRACING CHANCE
Numismatists, history buffs and schoolchildren alike will enjoy A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America – One State Quarter at a Time. Jim Noles explores the meaning of what's shown on the coins, such as the Statue of Liberty, a cow, the Space Shuttle and Helen Keller. He reveals how the U.S. Mint came up with the idea (they were inspired by a Canadian program), and notes that, in some states, the governor chose the design, while others had citizens weigh in. Also interesting: thanks to recent legislation, Washington, D.C., and the five U.S. territories will get quarters, too. There's a lot to be learned here, but the quarter-by-quarter approach keeps the information manageable. It's clear, as Noles writes, "that new spare change jangling in our pockets . . . celebrates change and the history of change."

RUN IT UP THE FLAGPOLE
You may already know the Betsy Ross story has been consigned to myth, but did you know that, since 1998, the Smithsonian has been working to preserve the Star-Spangled Banner? The museum reopens this month, and visitors may enter the new flag room and see the American icon in all its dramatic, tattered glory. The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of an American Icon by Lonn Taylor, Kathleen M. Kendrick and Jeffrey L. Brodie serves as a nice preview or alternative: it takes readers through the flag's history and considers its role as a symbol of American unity and democracy. The book covers a range of topics, from the day in 1814 when Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the national anthem to a biographical sketch of the woman who made the flag from linen, cotton and wool. There are plenty of photos, including the historic (raising the flag at Iwo Jima) and the pop cultural (images of '60s-era items adorned with stars and stripes).

Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt have created coffee-table books that resonate with Americans, from A Day in the Life of America to Passage to Vietnam. The husband-and-wife duo's latest, America at Home: A Close-up Look at How We Live, sticks to the winning formula: large…

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Do you want to keep this year’s resolutions? Gain insight on what stopped you from pursuing the career of your fantasies? Just in time for the annual post-holiday self-inventory period, Caroline Myss offers guidance in her new book Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential.

In Sacred Contracts, Myss continues her quest to empower readers to imagine their lives as they were meant to be lived and shares practical tools to help them get there. A dynamic speaker and teacher, with many fans in the New Age community, Myss lectures on the chakra system through which each person manages his personal energy and the archetypes that influence the creation and response to one’s life situations. In this new book, she explains the basics of chakras and archetypes and explains how they are related to the sacred contracts that each person draws up prior to birth.

To enjoy Sacred Contracts to its fullest, purchase a journal and record your thoughts as you read. Myss has included many exercises designed to help readers understand the underlying forces that prompt their decisions. Although it doesn’t come with a guarantee, Sacred Contracts is certain to make at least one aspect of your life seem less mysterious.

Do you want to keep this year's resolutions? Gain insight on what stopped you from pursuing the career of your fantasies? Just in time for the annual post-holiday self-inventory period, Caroline Myss offers guidance in her new book Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential.

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You will not enjoy this book. It isn't possible to enjoy it. It is brutal. It is ugly. It is violent, callous, cruel, capricious, vicious. It is war.

You will not put this book down and feel satisfied. You will not feel content. If you put it down and feel you know what is happening and why, and that you have a solution, then you felt all those things before you read the book and have brought them along to your reading of it. The book offers none of these things.

If you are against the war you will probably remain against it. If you are for the war, you will probably remain for it. If you seek clarity on the war, you will continue to seek it. What do you gain from this book? The only thing possible to gain: perspective.

War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq is one man's perspective, mulled within the filter of that man's own assumptions and understandings, but it is a deeper perspective than one gets on the nightly news, or the pages of a paper, or pro and con rants on the Internet.

For the last five years, NBC correspondent Richard Engel has served in Iraq (with a year in Lebanon), heading the NBC bureau for the region, covering the war. He has seen colleagues kidnapped. He has seen colleagues die. He has barely escaped kidnapping himself. He has barely survived explosions, sniper attacks and firefights. He has seen things I will not repeat, except to say that sometimes the difference between a man and a wild dog is that a dog has the excuse and limit of instinct.

War Journal is not a pretty book, but it is a book worth reading. Engel's experiences were not limited to one side or the other. Fluent in Arabic and experienced with the culture and beliefs of the Middle East, Engel was able to pursue contacts and interviews with Sunni insurgents, Shiite militia and "official" Iraqi forces as well as U.S. soldiers and diplomats. His conversation partners ranged from Iraqi orphans to Iraqi prime ministers, culminating in a briefing with President Bush. The result for the reader is insight into many levels of the Iraq war, seeing the changing perception of it from many levels and many sides, including Engel's own.

This is very much a journey as well as a journal. In the midst of the violence and politics is a man struggling to come to terms with a world torn apart by horrors. He watches the violence dull the senses of his friends and coworkers, even as it scrapes his own soul. He reports on the strain the war places on soldiers' marriages as his own shatters. And like a doctor in a trauma ward, he moves into a realm of clinical detachment, pushing grotesqueries aside for the moment until they rise up again in the quietness of later.

Engel does not conclude War Journal with a solution, for either Iraq or himself. He ends only by wondering how the story will continue, and what will be the end purpose of it all. The book concludes with Engel back in Baghdad, there to cover what he cannot predict, wondering what it will mean for the world, himself and the people of Iraq.

Howard Shirley writes from Franklin, Tennessee.

You will not enjoy this book. It isn't possible to enjoy it. It is brutal. It is ugly. It is violent, callous, cruel, capricious, vicious. It is war.

You will not put this book down and feel satisfied. You will not feel content. If you…

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