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Frey is pretender to the throne of the aggressive, digressive, cocky Kings David: Eggers and Foster Wallace. Pre-pub comparisons to those writers spring not from Frey's writing but from his attitude: as a recent advance profile put it, the 33-year-old former drug dealer and screenwriter "wants to be the greatest literary writer of his generation." While the Davids have their faults, their work is unquestionably literary. Frey's work is more mirrored surface than depth, but this superficiality has its attractions. With a combination of upper-middle-class entitlement, street credibility garnered by astronomical drug intake and PowerPoint-like sentence fragments and clipped dialogue, Frey proffers a book that is deeply flawed, too long, a trial of even the most na‹ve reader's credulousness-yet its posturings hit a nerve. This is not a new story: boy from a nice, if a little chilly, family gets into trouble early with alcohol and drugs and stays there. Pieces begins as Frey arrives at Hazelden, which claims to be the most successful treatment center in the world, though its success rate is a mere 17%. There are flashbacks to the binges that led to rehab and digressions into the history of other patients: a mobster, a boxer, a former college administrator, and Lilly, his forbidden love interest, a classic fallen princess, former prostitute and crack addict. What sets Pieces apart from other memoirs about 12-stepping is Frey's resistance to the concept of a higher power. The book is sure to draw criticism from the recovery community, which is, in a sense, Frey's great gimmick. He is someone whose problems seem to stem from being uncomfortable with authority, and who resists it to the end, surviving despite the odds against him. The prose is repetitive to the point of being exasperating, but the story, with its forays into the consciousness of an addict, is correspondingly difficult to put down.
0-446-53223-1
The people of the United States, according to author and filmmaker Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine, Stupid White Men), have been hoodwinked. Tricked, he says, by Republican lawmakers and their wealthy corporate pals who use a combination of concocted bogeymen and lies to stay rich and in control. But while plenty of liberal scholars, entertainers, and pundits have made similar arguments in book form, Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? stands out for its thoroughly positive perspective. Granted, Moore is angry and has harsh words for George W. Bush and his fellow conservatives concerning the reasoning behind going to war in Iraq, the collapse of Enron and other companies, and the relationship between the Bushes, the Saudi Arabian government, and Osama bin Laden. But his book is intended to serve as a handbook for how people with liberal opinions (which is most of America, Moore contends, whether they call themselves "liberals" or not) can take back their country from the conservative forces in power. Moore uses his trademark brand of confrontational, exasperated humor skillfully as he offers a primer on how to change the worldview of one's annoying conservative blowhard brother-in-law, and he crafts a surprisingly thorough "Draft Oprah for President" movement. Refreshingly, Dude, Where's My Country? avoids being completely one-sided, offering up areas where Moore believes Republicans get it right as well as some cutting criticisms of his fellow lefties. Such allowances, brief though they may be, make one long for a political climate where the shouting polemicists on both sides would see a few more shades of gray. Dude, Where's My Country? is a little bit scattered, as Moore tries to cram opinions on Iraq, tax cuts, corporate welfare, Wesley Clark, and the Patriot Act into one slim volume--and the penchant to go for a laugh sometimes gets in the way of clear arguments. But such variety also gives the reader more Moore, providing a broader range of his bewildered, enraged, yet stalwartly upbeat point of view. --John Mo
0-06-019339-5
Bill Phillips had been publishing bodybuilding magazines and marketing nutritional supplements for years when he had a weird revelation at a trade show: many of the most loyal and enthusiastic readers he had were totally out of shape. From that uncomfortable realization came his popular Physique Transformation Contest (top prize that first year: Phillips's own Lamborghini), now world famous, and this book.
The three-times-a-week weightlifting program in Body for Life is deceptively simple. If you've spent any time in the gym, you've already done all the exercises. But Phillips includes a couple of high-intensity sets at the end of each exercise that should compound the training effect on each muscle group. Same goes for the cardiovascular exercise he recommends: just 20 minutes, three times a week. But those 20 minutes are spent jacking the intensity up and down, accomplishing more in less time.
Phillips arranges all this into a 12-week program, along with nutritional and motivational tips. Be warned that the nutritional advice gets a little spacey. For example, he puts "carbohydrates" and "vegetables" into separate categories, and recommends three daily doses of a nutritional supplement called Myoplex, which his company manufactures. (Fortunately, he gives tips on how to make each dose taste different, such as by adding drops of peppermint extract.) Despite this strangeness, Body for Life still motivates because so many others have achieved astounding results in similar 12-week windows, and the pictures and testimonials are here as evidence. --Lou Schuler
0-7645-0392-8
Transform ordinary images into breathtaking works of digital art with the advanced power and endless possibilities of Photoshop 5, Adobe's state-of-the-art digital imaging software. Take the grand tour of Version 5 with veteran tour guide Deke McClelland, and then move into new and exciting realms of digital wizardry as you master an array of text effects, image enhancements, and other wondrous things that make Photoshop 5 so hugely popular among the digiterati.
Photoshop guru McClelland takes you gently -- and intelligently -- through the world of pixels, paintbrushes, and special effects with friendly, easygoing, down-to-earth tips and tricks to help you master the fine art of digital imagery. Clean up bad scans and poor-quality pictures, learn special painting tricks, create collages, add gradient fills and strange warps, explore new filters, and make your artistic masterpieces publishing-perfect or Web-ready with Photoshop 5. Plus, 16 pages of full-color examples -- and dozens of black-and-white images -- add to the visual content of this great guide for professional image-makers and amateur artists alike.
0-02-863118-8
Hardcover in great condition
THE MOST USEFUL AND AUTHORITATIVE DICTIONARY YOU CAN OWN—OVER 163,000 ENTRIES
Selected by the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other leading newspapers as their official dictionary of choice.
Up-to-Date Entries for Today's World
Nearly 7,500 new entries bring meaning and understanding to changes in lifestyles, technology, medicine, society, world politics and cultures, and more.
Over 850 Illustrations, Photographs, and Maps
Important people, places, objects, and concepts are clearly illustrated to help you recognize and identify them.
Expanded Reference Information with a 4-Color World Atlas
Numerous tables, charts, and lists provide a handy reference to geographical and other useful data. A special section also includes important historical documents, a guide to punctuation, and full-color maps of the world.
Thousands of Geographical and Biographical Entries
The people and places that shape our world are fully covered. Entries are part of the A-Z body of the dictionary, so they are easy to find. Many entries include maps or photographs.
Helpful Notes, Examples, and Synonyms
To help you choose words precisely, usage notes give important cautions and explanations. Examples put words into meaningful context. Synonym notes list related words and point out important differences in meaning.
Easy to Read and Use
Each page is designed so you don't have to work to find the information you want.
The Definitive Guide to American English
Webster's New World College Dictionary includes more unique Americanisms—nearly 12,000—than any other college dictionary. Its crisp, dynamic defining style is itself uniquely American.
785555027282
DB2 for Dummies approaches problems of database engineering and administration via IBM's DB2 Universal Database solution. It assumes essentially no reader experience with relational databases, and absolutely no experience with DB2. For those reasons, it is excellent. All three of the authors work for IBM on the DB2 team, and they've merged their technical expertise into the Dummies format nicely.
The book earns its keep for two classes of readers. First, it's well-suited to people who have no database experience at all and want to learn via DB2. Second, it's a fine text for people who have experience with another relational database management system (RDBMS), such as Oracle or Sybase, and want to learn how DB2 works.
As is typical of books in this series, some of the cutesy prose comes across as way too contrived ("Imagine buying a travel guide ... but without an index!"), but the technical information readers need is never far away. Sections begin with text explanations of whatever feature is being introduced (these are great for experienced database administrators trying to get a feel for DB2 terminology) and then turn to procedures you can follow step-by-step (which are comforting to nervous novices). In turn, all important configuration and administration tasks get ample coverage, and readers leave able to do most everyday DB2 work. --David Wall
Topics covered: IBM's DB2 Universal Database 6.1 client/server database system for Microsoft Windows. After coverage of client and server installation, the book introduces instances, databases, table spaces, tables, and key administrative tasks like replication and performance monitoring.
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