Copperhill Books

Product Description

Get massive exposure for your book, no special computer skills needed — trade published or self published, fiction or nonfiction

Discover why authors fail with paid advertising, pay-per-click, fee-based reviews, and “bestseller” campaigns

Blog to connect with readers, driving them to Amazon and bookstores

Boost your visibility with Google, use MySpace for viral marketing

Ignite word of mouth with Web social networks

Capitalize on peer content and “amateur” book reviews

Here’s what the experts say about this book:

“A wealth of ideas for making your book stand out, including many techniques for Internet buzz you won’t find elsewhere.”

– Jane Corn, Amazon.com Top Reviewer

“I spent two years building up skills to market my books Earthcore and Ancestor online, and I can tell you right now that Plug Your Book would have saved me MONTHS of time. I bought this book just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, but it blew me away.”

– Scott Sigler, # 1 bestselling author

“An amazingly rich collection of cutting-edge promotional tactics and strategies. Makes most other books about online publicity look sickly.”

– Aaron Shepard, author: Aiming at Amazon

“…The one book every author needs to read. I don’t care if you’re writing a computer book, a science fiction novel or the next great self-help guide, you need to get copy of Steve Weber’s Plug Your Book!”

- Joe Wikert, executive publisher, John Wiley & Sons “Practical, pragmatic, low-cost ideas for promoting the heck out of your own book, whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, technical, business or anything else.”

– Dave Taylor, author: ‘Growing Your Business with Google’

“I’ve worked with most of America’s largest book publishers, helping many of them build online marketing departments. I’ve worked for authors too. Plug Your Book is the new training manual.”

– Steve O’Keefe, author: ‘Publicity on the Internet’

“…Plug Your Book reveals the most effective and least expensive tools to promote your titles and to increase your exposure. It’s the best book on online marketing I have ever read, and I read quite a few in the course of my consulting practice with small presses.”

– Marion Gropen, president, Gropen Associates

Here’s what’s inside the book:

… Taking control of your book sales; Electric word of mouth; Amazon’s `long tail;’ Personalized bookstores; Book recommendation effectiveness

… Amazon Bestseller Campaigns; How Bestseller Campaigns work; Haywired recommendations

… Amateur book reviews; Credibility through peers; Amazon Top Reviewers; Negative reviews; Posting trade reviews on Amazon; Fee-based book reviews

… Building your author Web site; A survey of author Web sites; Your online press kit; Multimedia for books; Podcasting for publicity; When to launch your site

… Blogging for authors; Connecting with readers; Blog comments: pros and cons; Blogging categories; Over the long haul; Blog-to-e-mail service

… Social networking; MySpace: Not just for kids; Facebook; Create your own group; Other places on MySpace; More social-networking sites

… Tag – You’re it!; Personal book tagging; Amazon tags; Amazon Media Library; LibraryThing; Tag-based marketing

… Advanced Amazon tools; Buy X, Get Y; Free paired placement; Single New Product e-mails; Amazon Connect; Listmania; So You’d Like to . . . guides; Search Inside the Book; Statistically Improbable Phrases; Writing book reviews; Amapedia; Customer discussions; BookSurge; Your Amazon profile

Product Description
A pocket compendium of food wisdom-from the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food

Michael Pollan, our nation’s most trusted resource for food-related issues, offers this indispensible guide for anyone concerned about health and food. Simple, sensible, and easy to use, Food Rules is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat-buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is the perfect guide for anyone who would like to become more mindful of the food we eat.

About the Author
Michael Pollan is the author of five previous books, including In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire. A longtime contributor to The New York Times, he is the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California Berkeley.

by Wilfried Voss

ISBN: 978-0-9765116-8-7
Size: 8.5″ (W) x 11″ (H)
Pages: 58
Language: English
Binding: Perfect Bound
Interior Color: B&W
Publication Date: Feb 2010
Country: United States

A step-by-step guide to setting up a blog with WordPress, spam-protecting your blog, search engine optimization, and creating web traffic. This a very concise book with a “quick and dirty” approach; it will allow you to set up a professional looking blog within hours. The book has been written while creating http://www.myprofessionalblog.com. See the web site as a reference of what you can do.

Ordering Information

Refund Policy: Due to the nature of our products, we only give refunds for orders incorrectly filled by us.
Please double-check your order before submitting it to us.

Delivery: eBooks (PDF) will be available for download as soon as payment has been processed successfully. Paperbacks are usually in stock and will be mailed within two days after order receipt. It may take up to ten days to re-stock items.

About This Book

As the title of this book implies – I am referring to the “No-Nonsense” part – I am trying to deliver you a concise description on how to set up your own, professional looking blog without the usual motivational bla-bla combined with superficial information I found in many other books. My approach is “quick and dirty.”

At the time of the writing I have set up numerous blogs, and I have investigated numerous scenarios of how to get a blog useful for one’s purposes.

In my personal case I am in the business of promoting my books, but I also looked into related aspects such as selling my books through my blogs, or even create revenues through my web site with paid advertisement. In the process I found a lot of useless books on the topic, and I deemed it was time to stop the nonsense.

Please be aware that all the information in this book in freely available through the Internet, or through many, more detailed books, but reading this book and following the instructions will save you a lot of time and, after all, aggravation.

This book will give you a crash-course in setting up your blog, and, if you need more than just a basic blog, I have tried to add as many exciting features as possible. I also put an emphasis on search engine optimization (SEO).

Please understand, everything in this book is designed to give you a concise description on blog features without the hassle of reading hundreds of pages, and thus saving you a great amount of time setting up your own blog.

I will not provide you all details, just enough to get you going. The manuals you need – just in case you want to investigate the blog features in more detail – are all available through the Internet, and I will point you to the corresponding web sites. This approach did not only save me a great deal of time writing this book, but it also reflects in the price you pay for it.

Let me stress again, that you do not need to read the full manuals to set up your blog. Just follow my description, and your blog will shine within a few hours of work.

Let me also add another “no-nonsense” aspect: I will deliver you many aspects of optimizing your blog, but I do not guarantee success. Especially, I do not promise a “path to riches” if you are in business to create revenue with your blog. The success of a blog or regular web site depends on many factors not related to the blog setup and operation. Success, just like in any other business, is primarily based on hard and continuous work. Perseverance will pay eventually in one way or the other, but, again, there is no guarantee.

Throughout this book I will refer to one particular web site, myprofessionalblog.com, which is the web site (blog) I designed to write this book, meaning I set up the blog, made screen shots of what I was doing and inserted them into this document.

Everything you see on myprofessionalblog.com is available to you with little effort. In addition, I will post further information, that becomes available after writing this book, on the same blog (And no, unlike many other books with associated web site, you don’t need to register there and/or pay for access).

This About This Book section is also part of myprofessionalblog.com. My intention is to provide sufficient information on my book to make you comfortable with the decision to buy it – or not.

This being said, if you are in business to find a totally free solution for your blog, do not buy this book! My book is primarily about creating a professional blog with little expenses (roughly $120 – 200 per year), but it is not totally free.

If you want your blog totally free I recommend setting one up through various services such as Google, Yahoo, WordPress.com, and others. Please be aware that these services will give you a free, but limited blog, i.e. without all the special features you see on myprofessionalblog.com. If you don’t need the special features, i.e. you just want to write posts, you will be just fine using these services.

Another reason, not to buy this book, would be that you already use an Internet service provider (ISP), have your own web site, but your ISP does not support WordPress. WordPress, an online blog development tool, is an essential part of this book.

If you have neither an ISP nor a web site, but want your own, professional blog, I will explain how to get there quickly and easily.

Last, but not least, let me explain that, while I am very familiar with setting up blogs, I am certainly not the top-most expert on the topic. If you have comments, new insights, and/or betterment suggestions, please feel free to post them on myprofessionalblog.com, and I will make sure your input will reflect on the additions to the web site.

Table of Content

Why WordPress?……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

The Two Versions Of WordPress………………………………………………………………………. 5

Get Your Free Blog Through WordPress.Com…………………………………………………… 6

How Do I Install WordPress?……………………………………………………………………………. 6

Which Service Provider Should I Use?……………………………………………………………… 7

Logging-In to Your WordPress Blog…………………………………………………………………. 7

First Settings……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

A First Step Toward Search Engine Optimization (SEO)……………………………….. 10

A First Step Toward Protecting Your Web Site………………………………………………. 10

Let’s Add Some Standard Blog Pages……………………………………………………………… 11

One Final Setting Is Necessary……………………………………………………………………….. 14

A First Look At The New Blog…………………………………………………………………………. 14

Changing The Appearance (Theme)………………………………………………………………. 15

Changing The Side Bars (Using Widgets)……………………………………………………….. 19

Editing Pages (Home, About)…………………………………………………………………………. 21

Editing Pages (Contact Us)…………………………………………………………………………….. 22

The First Blog Entry………………………………………………………………………………………… 26

Setting Categories……………………………………………………………………………………………. 27

Managing Categories………………………………………………………………………………………. 28

Add Your Tags!……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 29

Deleting Posts (Hello World)………………………………………………………………………….. 30

Let’s Fill Up This Blog!……………………………………………………………………………………. 30

Making Your Blog Spam-Free…………………………………………………………………………. 30

Search Engine Optimization…………………………………………………………………………… 33

The SEO Plug-In………………………………………………………………………………………………. 34

Creating Hyperlinks To/From Your Blog……………………………………………………….. 36

Registering Your Blog……………………………………………………………………………………… 36

Posting Online Press Releases………………………………………………………………………… 37

Participating In Social Networks…………………………………………………………………… 38

Adding Comments To Forums And Blogs……………………………………………………….. 39

Google Ads………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 39

Creating Income With Your Blog……………………………………………………………………. 40

Affiliate Programs…………………………………………………………………………………………… 40

E-Commerce…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 41

Further Blog Improvements…………………………………………………………………………… 42

Incorporating Affiliate Program Ads……………………………………………………………… 42

Add Video Clips From YouTube……………………………………………………………………… 43

Add Google Gadgets………………………………………………………………………………………… 45

More Cool Plug-Ins………………………………………………………………………………………….. 47

Adding A Slide Show……………………………………………………………………………………….. 47

A Cool Navigation Tool……………………………………………………………………………………. 50

Social Network Connection…………………………………………………………………………….. 52

Adding E-Commerce……………………………………………………………………………………….. 53

Help References………………………………………………………………………………………………. 55

by Wilfried F. Voss – http://www.frogenyzurt.com

Sub-Titled:
How your neighbors are making a big second income by writing and publishing their own money-making websites.

Usually, I try to be nice and diplomatic about books that I didn’t care for. After all, it’s all about personal taste. However, when I smell fraud I get aggravated, and I have a hard time holding back some profane thoughts. That is the case with New Path to Riches by Nick Usborne.

As a matter of principle, I do not buy any books that promise the reader the guaranteed path to success, but every now and then I need a slap in the face, I guess. The not-so-literal slap in the face came with buying and reading New Path to Riches by Nick Usborne.

Well, my excuse is that I bought the eBook version through BookLocker.com, a business managed by Angelo Hoy (who also publishes WritersWeekly.com). I do LOVE Angela’s weekly newsletter, and I do love her style and her approach to publishing. She is, however, not responsible for the content of the books she sells. My hope was that the authors she deals with are as honest and as straight-forward as Angela, or, at least, in the same ballpark. Unfortunately, Nick Usborne is not in the same class as Angela.

My hope was also to learn intimate details about creating a money-making web site, but his book New Path to Riches is a 150+ page collection of mindless blabbering that reads like the presentation of a motivational speaker. There is absolutely NOTHING in this book that you cannot find on the Internet free-of-charge. There is close to NULL profound information on how to create a web site and make it work – as I said before, just mind-boggling bla, bla, bla, and… bla.

Don’t waste your money with this book. Spend a few minutes on the Internet to get REAL information.

Last, but not least, if you want honest information on how to start a web site or blog and make money from it, check out my book, A No-Nonsense Guide to a Professional Blog (There is also a preview of the book). Honestly, I wrote it after learning about the so-called “Google Profit Library”, but especially after reading New Path to Riches by Nick Usborne. I deemed it was time to stop the nonsense. The book shows you step by step how to set up a professional blog with some advice on how to run it, and maybe even make some money from it. The difference is, you don’t pay me at all (I would appreciate that you buy the book, paperback or PDF), and the required investment of roughly $120…200 per year goes to your Internet service provider for running your web site. Also, check out myprofessionalblog.com. This is the web site I created to write the book, meaning I created the web site, made screen-shots and included them into the document.

by Wilfried F. Voss – http://www.frogenyozurt.com

Product Description

Few outside the security services have heard of 14 Company. As deadly as the SAS yet more secret, the Operators of 14 Company are Britain’s most effective weapon against international terrorism. For every bomb that goes off 14 Company prevent twelve. The selection process is the most physically, intellectually and emotionally demanding anywhere in the world. Trained to operate under cover, Operators have at their disposal an arsenal of techniques and weapons unmatched by any other UK government or military agency. This is the true story of one Operator and of some of the most hair-raising military operations ever conducted on the streets of Britain.

Review

My reason to buy this book was the hope that it would contribute interesting insights for my research on the Irish Troubles. To put it in a nut-shell: I hope the author didn’t quit his day job over writing this book. What caught my attention was the sub-title “On the streets with Britain’s most secret service,” which proves yet again how important, but also how terribly misleading a title can be.

Little did I know how immature the writer deals with a serious topic like the Irish Troubles. The book starts with “Standby, standby. Zero, Oscar. I have Bravo 1 foxtrot from Alpha 2 towards Charlie 2,” and it doesn’t get much better from there. There is not much to say other than reading this book was a huge waste of my time.

by Wilfried F. Voss – http://www.frogenyozurt.com

Product Description

A research fellow in history at De Montfort University Leicester (U.K.), Cronin offers synopsis with little insight in this overview of Irish history. Starting with ancient Gaelic Ireland, he quickly moves on to the introduction of Christianity, the Viking and Norman-Anglo invasions, and the effects on the Protestant Reformation. With Cromwell’s invasion in the mid-17th century came the redistribution of land from the Catholics to the Protestants. This is the strong point of the book, as Cronin compacts convoluted Irish history into a comprehensive, readable form. He then briefly covers the 1798 Rebellion, Catholic emancipation under Daniel O’Connell and the great famine of the 1840s, all of which set the stage for the Fenian rebellion of 1867. The Fenians, though unsuccessful, would leave their imprint on Parnell and his Land League. Cronin paints a concise, albeit limited, picture of the events of 1914 through 1923. His portrait of John Redmond, the head of the Irish delegation at Westminster, is telling of the man and his political philosophy. Redmond, who warmly embraced Britain’s entrance into WWI, found himself isolated from his own constituents in the aftermath of the 1916 Rebellion. But the author’s sketchy and incomplete analysis of post-Civil War Ireland and some of his questionable judgments of important figures will leave some readers baffled. He praises the government of William T. Cosgrave (1922-1932) for his post-revolution adaptation of the in-place British systems in many respects returning Ireland to the status quo ante. He also praises Eamon DeValera, whose ascension to power is often viewed as hypocritical, because he renounced everything for which he had fought the Civil War. Cronin’s assessment of the Good Friday Agreement is inadequate: only once does he mention President Clinton, who played the seminal role in brokering the accord. Unfortunately, Cronin sacrifices depth for the sake of brevity; his superficial rendering would best serve as a primer for those who are new to Irish history.

Review

I have to say, I do not agree with the above product description (Amazon.com). The author did a great job of condensing the events of the tumultuous Irish history into less than 300 pages. Any complaint that one particular detail had not been explained to the full extend is simply ridiculous. This book is for everyone looking for a concise, yet very readable description of Irish history. During my intense research for my novel The Bleeding Hills I have been reading extensively, and one of the very few books I can whole-hertedly recommend is A History Of Ireland by Mike Cronin. Reading this book is highly recommended! I like that it is, compared to many other works on Ireland, actually readable and entertaining. If you need a relatively quick overview on the history of Ireland (the tile of the book doesn’t lie!) this is the one I recommend.

“Change is hard.” “People hate change.” Those were two of the most common quotes we heard when we began to study change.

But it occurred to us that if people hate change, they have a funny way of showing it. Every iPhone sold serves as counter-evidence. So does every text message sent, every corporate merger finalized, every aluminum can recycled. And we haven’t even mentioned the biggest changes: Getting married. Having kids. (If people hate change, then having a kid is an awfully dumb decision.)

It puzzled us–why do some huge changes, like marriage, come joyously, while some trivial changes, like submitting an expense report on time, meet fierce resistance?

We found the answer in the research of some brilliant psychologists who’d discovered that people have two separate “systems” in their brains—a rational system and an emotional system. The rational system is a thoughtful, logical planner. The emotional system is, well, emotional—and impulsive and instinctual.

When these two systems are in alignment, change can come quickly and easily (as when a dreamy-eyed couple gets married). When they’re not, change can be grueling (as anyone who has struggled with a diet can attest).

In those situations where change is hard, is it possible to align the two systems? Is it possible to overcome our internal “schizophrenia” about change? We believe it is.

In our research, we studied people trying to make difficult changes: People fighting to lose weight and keep it off. Managers trying to overhaul an entrenched bureaucracy. Activists combatting seemingly intractable problems such as child malnutrition. They succeeded–and, to our surprise, we found striking similarities in the strategies they used. They seemed to share a similar game plan. We wanted, in Switch, to make that game plan available to everyone, in hopes that we could show people how to make the hard changes in life a little bit easier. –Chip and Dan Heath

According to Sherwood, two questions are central to this book. What does it really take to survive a catastrophic event and what kind of survivor are you? You might be surprised at the answers. While there are tactics and strategies to surviving life tragedies, unforeseen accidents, and other catastrophes, many of these are instinctive (some, like exhibiting transitory superhuman strength, are manifested physiologically, without conscious planning). Some of us, Sherwood explains, are better survivors than others—in prisoner-of-war camps, for example, the people most likely to collapse are the eternal optimists who believe rescue is imminent and fail to come to terms with the possibility of long-term imprisonment. The book is a useful, insightful exploration of the nature of survival, the resilience of the human mind and body, and the ways in which we can all use our natural gifts to maximize our chances of coming through catastrophic situations. –David Pitt

Honestly, I can’t imagine a better tale.

A detective story that’s at once mythically large and painfully intimate.

Just the simple facts are hard to believe: that in 1951, a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks dies of cervical cancer, but pieces of the tumor that killed her–taken without her knowledge or consent–live on, first in one lab, then in hundreds, then thousands, then in giant factories churning out polio vaccines, then aboard rocket ships launched into space. The cells from this one tumor would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry and become a foundation of modern science–leading to breakthroughs in gene mapping, cloning and fertility and helping to discover how viruses work and how cancer develops (among a million other things). All of which is to say: the science end of this story is enough to blow one’s mind right out of one’s face.

But what’s truly remarkable about Rebecca Skloot’s book is that we also get the rest of the story, the part that could have easily remained hidden had she not spent ten years unearthing it: Who was Henrietta Lacks? How did she live? How she did die? Did her family know that she’d become, in some sense, immortal, and how did that affect them? These are crucial questions, because science should never forget the people who gave it life. And so, what unfolds is not only a reporting tour de force but also a very entertaining account of Henrietta, her ancestors, her cells and the scientists who grew them.

The book ultimately channels its journey of discovery though Henrietta’s youngest daughter, Deborah, who never knew her mother, and who dreamt of one day being a scientist.

As Deborah Lacks and Skloot search for answers, we’re bounced effortlessly from the tiny tobacco-farming Virginia hamlet of Henrietta’s childhood to modern-day Baltimore, where Henrietta’s family remains. Along the way, a series of unforgettable juxtapositions: cell culturing bumps into faith healings, cutting edge medicine collides with the dark truth that Henrietta’s family can’t afford the health insurance to care for diseases their mother’s cells have helped to cure.

Rebecca Skloot tells the story with great sensitivity, urgency and, in the end, damn fine writing. I highly recommend this book. –Jad Abumrad

For the past three decades, many history professors have allowed their biases to distort the way America’s past is taught. These intellectuals have searched for instances of racism, sexism, and bigotry in our history while downplaying the greatness of America’s patriots and the achievements of “dead white men.”

As a result, more emphasis is placed on Harriet Tubman than on George Washington; more about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II than about D-Day or Iwo Jima; more on the dangers we faced from Joseph McCarthy than those we faced from Josef Stalin.

A Patriot’s History of the United States corrects those doctrinaire biases. In this groundbreaking book, America’s discovery, founding, and development are reexamined with an appreciation for the elements of public virtue, personal liberty, and private property that make this nation uniquely successful. This book offers a long-overdue acknowledgment of America’s true and proud history.

The year was 1957, the month September, and I had just turned eight years old. Dwight Eisenhower was President, but in my life it was the diminutive, intense Sister Mary Lurana who ruled, at least in the third-grade class where I was held captive. For reasons you will soon understand, my parents had remanded me to the penal institution of St. Brigid’s School in Westbury, New York, a cruel and unusual punishment if there ever was one.

Already, I had barely survived my first two years at St. Brigid’s because I was, well, a little nitwit. Not satisfied with memorizing the Baltimore Catechism’s fine prose, which featured passages like “God made me to show his goodness and to make me happy with him in heaven,” I was constantly annoying my classmates and, of course, the no-nonsense Sister Lurana. With sixty overactive students in her class, she was understandably short on patience. For survival, she had also become quick on the draw.

Then it happened. One day I blurted out some dumb remark, and Sister Lurana was on me like a panther. Her black habit blocked out all distractions as she leaned down, looked me in the eye, and uttered words I have never forgotten: “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.”

And she was dead-on.

One day in 1957, in the third-grade classroom of St. Brigid’s parochial school, an exasperated Sister Mary Lurana bent over a restless young William O’Reilly and said, “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.” Little did she know that she was, early in his career as a troublemaker, defining the essence of Bill O’Reilly and providing him with the title of his brash and entertaining issues-based memoir.

And this time it’s personal. In his most intimate book yet, O’Reilly goes back in time to examine the people, places, and experiences that launched him on his journey from working-class kid to immensely influential television personality and bestselling author. Readers will learn how his traditional outlook was formed in the crucible of his family, his neighborhood, his church, and his schools, and how his views on America’s proper role in the world emerged from covering four wars on five continents over three-plus decades as a news correspondent. What will delight his numerous fans and surprise many others is the humor and self-deprecation with which he handles one of his core subjects: himself, and just how O’Reilly became O’Reilly.

“The necessary book of the Obama era.”– Jeffrey Lord, The American Spectator

“Levin has delivered a stalwart conservative manifesto written by a conservative who doesn’t want to re-brand and repackage conservatism into liberalism. He draws on founding principles, not polls, to lay out the agenda for the Right — and to illuminate the fatal flaws of statism.”– Michelle Malkin

“This is quite simply the most important book of our times.”– Scott Miller, The Conservative Post

“This has the answer for everything you’ve asked yourself about yourself, and why you believe what you believe.”– Rush Limbaugh

“Liberty and Tyranny is Mark Levin: a man who loves his family and country and believes ideas have consequences — and therefore will fight passionately for what he believes and knows to be true.”– Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review

“While it may present itself as a “conservative manifesto” (and it is that, too) it is also a compelling primer on the most basic principles of the American political order.”– Gary L. McDowell, American Thinker

“Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto couldn’t be more relevant or important. It is a masterful restatement of conservative principles that is succinct…and yet comprehensive. It is thoughtful and deep but highly readable. It is timely yet timeless.”– David Limbaugh, TownHall.com

“This is a superbly useful book. It is the perfect companion for the college freshman to fortify the student against what he or she is about to hear. It is an ideal detoxicant for the graduating senior. Most vitally, it should be read by those who do not consider themselves conservatives, because it carefully lays out the central historic, philosophic and constitutional relationship between conservative principles and our individual freedom.”– Tony Blankley, The Washington Times

“If you want to rediscover true conservatism, read Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny. If you want to help preserve liberty, buy copies for your kids.”– Terry Jeffrey, CNS News

“It is a rarity that an important book arrives at its perfect moment. Such is the case with Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto…Against this tidal wave, Mark Levin offers not so much a defense as a plan of attack, a clarion call to roll back the seas of Change.” –Andrew C McCarthy, The New Criterion

Food is the one thing that Americans hate to love and, as it turns out, love to hate. What we want to eat has been ousted by the notion of what we should eat, and it’s at this nexus of hunger and hang-up that Michael Pollan poses his most salient question: where is the food in our food? What follows in In Defense of Food is a series of wonderfully clear and thoughtful answers that help us omnivores navigate the nutritional minefield that’s come to typify our food culture. Many processed foods vie for a spot in our grocery baskets, claiming to lower cholesterol, weight, glucose levels, you name it. Yet Pollan shows that these convenient “healthy” alternatives to whole foods are appallingly inconvenient: our health has a nation has only deteriorated since we started exiling carbs, fats–even fruits–from our daily meals. His razor-sharp analysis of the American diet (as well as its architects and its detractors) offers an inspiring glimpse of what it would be like if we could (a la Humpty Dumpty) put our food back together again and reconsider what it means to eat well. In a season filled with rallying cries to lose weight and be healthy, Pollan’s call to action—”Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”–is a program I actually want to follow. –Anne Bartholomew

THE CONSCIOUS COOK is a breakthrough in vegan cuisine. By teaching readers how to make truly satisfying and delicious meals without the meat and dairy‚ it makes the shift to a vegan lifestyle easy.

A former steak lover himself‚ Chef Tal struggled for years on a vegan diet that left him hungry and filled with cravings for butter and meat. About ten years ago‚ he decided that the best way to satisfy his dietary desires was to make food that was good enough for “foodies” and could gratify his cravings for rich flavor and fat. The solution? Create vegan meals with substantial proteins that could literally change the way people eat. He studied all aspects of non−meat proteins and today is widely regarded as the expert in the field‚ developing new concepts for meals and sauces and helping to improve textures for food companies such as Gardein (the provider of vegetable proteins used by

Morningstar Farms‚ It′s All Good‚ Trader Joe′s brands‚ and the prepared food department of Whole Foods‚ to name a few).

THE CONSCIOUS COOK features a center−of−the−plate protein in all of its entrees−a first for vegan cookbooks. Seventy−five original recipes are organized by categories that include starters and small plates‚ soups and salads‚ entrees‚ and desserts. Each recipe is accompanied by stunning full−color photograph

Over the past decade, through his writing in The New Yorker magazine and his books Complications and Better, Atul Gawande has made a name for himself as a writer of exquisitely crafted meditations on the problems and challenges of modern medicine. His latest book,The Checklist Manifesto, begins on familiar ground, with his experiences as a surgeon. But before long it becomes clear that he is really interested in a problem that afflicts virtually every aspect of the modern world–and that is how professionals deal with the increasing complexity of their responsibilities. It has been years since I read a book so powerful and so thought-provoking.

Gawande begins by making a distinction between errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because we don’t know enough), and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we made because we don’t make proper use of what we know). Failure in the modern world, he writes, is really about the second of these errors, and he walks us through a series of examples from medicine showing how the routine tasks of surgeons have now become so incredibly complicated that mistakes of one kind or another are virtually inevitable: it’s just too easy for an otherwise competent doctor to miss a step, or forget to ask a key question or, in the stress and pressure of the moment, to fail to plan properly for every eventuality. Gawande then visits with pilots and the people who build skyscrapers and comes back with a solution. Experts need checklists–literally–written guides that walk them through the key steps in any complex procedure. In the last section of the book, Gawande shows how his research team has taken this idea, developed a safe surgery checklist, and applied it around the world, with staggering success.

The danger, in a review as short as this, is that it makes Gawande’s book seem narrow in focus or prosaic in its conclusions. It is neither. Gawande is a gorgeous writer and storyteller, and the aims of this book are ambitious. Gawande thinks that the modern world requires us to revisit what we mean by expertise: that experts need help, and that progress depends on experts having the humility to concede that they need help. –Malcolm Gladwell

At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who’d been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous horrific divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government, which—after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing—gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying with all her might to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. Told with Gilbert’s trademark wit, intelligence and compassion, Committed attempts to “turn on all the lights” when it comes to matrimony, frankly examining questions of compatibility, infatuation, fidelity, family tradition, social expectations, divorce risks and humbling responsibilities. Gilbert’s memoir is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.

Amazon Exclusive: Bill Walton Reviews When the Game Was Ours

Bill Walton played in the NBA for 13 years, and in 1996, was named one of the top 50 players in NBA history. He’s been an analyst for CBS Sports and NBC Sports, and since 2002, he’s been a game analyst for ESPN NBA telecasts. Read his guest review of When the Game Was Ours:

Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are transcendent, iconic and timeless standard bearers of excellence who changed “The Game” forever, always bringing out the best in each other and never failing to put a smile on all our faces.

I was one of the lucky ones. I had the incredible good fortune to have witnessed firsthand the Bird/Magic rivalry. It was an intense and constant thing for us all. But even I didn’t realize how powerful their connection was until I read When the Game Was Ours, a riveting and page-turning masterpiece that could only be written with the help of someone like Jackie MacMullan, who was there every step of the way and who sensed there was a whole lot more to their story than what happened on the court or got played over and over again on the highlight reels. In this book, Larry and Magic tell stories like they never have before. I was enthralled, page after page. Theirs was a unique relationship. They were polar opposites, but in ways few of us realized they were very much the same. They both wanted the same thing, day in and day out–to win. And did they know how to win.

When the Game Was Ours perfectly captures the defining moments of their lives from the very beginning of their fiercest of rivalries through their constantly evolving historical relationship and friendship right up to the present. This epic tome is the capstone of their landmark careers. It is also so much more than anyone could ever dream for. When the Game Was Ours brilliantly explains why “The Game” will always belong to Larry and Magic.–Bill Walton

Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don’t need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald’s, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don’t really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner’s 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there’s a good economic reason for that too, and we’re just not getting it yet. –John Moe

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.

Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.

With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association” is the style manual of choice for writers, editors, students, and educators in the social and behavioral sciences. It provides invaluable guidance on all aspects of the writing process, from the ethics of authorship to the word choice that best reduces bias in language. Well-known for its authoritative and easy-to-use reference and citation system, the Publication Manual also offers guidance on choosing the headings, tables, figures, and tone that will result in strong, simple, and elegant scientific communication. The sixth edition offers new and expanded instruction on publication ethics, statistics, journal article reporting standards, electronic reference formats, and the construction of tables and figures. The sixth edition has been revised and updated to include: new ethics guidance on such topics as determining authorship and terms of collaboration, duplicate publication, plagiarism and self-plagiarism, disguising of participants, validity of instrumentation, and making data available to others for verification; new journal article reporting standards to help readers report empirical research with clarity and precision; simplified APA heading style to make it more conducive to electronic publication; updated guidelines for reducing bias in language to reflect current practices and preferences, including a new section on presenting historical language that is inappropriate by present standards; new guidelines for reporting inferential statistics and a significantly revised table of statistical abbreviations; and, new instruction on using supplemental files containing lengthy data sets and other media. This book includes significantly expanded content on the electronic presentation of data to help readers understand the purpose of each kind of display and choose the best match for communicating the results of the investigation, with new examples for a variety of data displays, including electro physiological and biological data. It offers consolidated information on all aspects of reference citations, with an expanded discussion of electronic sources emphasizing the role of the digital object identifier (DOI) as a reliable way to locate information. It features expanded discussion of the publication process, including the function and process of peer review. It contains a discussion of ethical, legal, and policy requirements in publication; and guidelines on working with the publisher while the article is in press. Key to this edition of the Publication Manual is an updated and expanded Web presence. Look up additional supplemental material keyed to this book. This book lets you test your knowledge of APA Style with a free tutorial on style basics. It lets you learn about the changes in the sixth edition with a free tutorial reviewing key revisions. Sign up for an on-line course to enrich and enhance your understanding of APA Style. Read the APA Style blog and share your comments on writing and referencing. Consult frequently asked questions to sharpen your understanding of APA Style. This title lets you examine additional resources on such topics as ethics, statistics, and writing. It lets you familiarize yourself with submission standards for APA books and journals.