20 FebNew Books Week of February 20

Yes! Energy: The Equation To Do Less, Make More
by: Lora Langemeier
Publisher: Hay House

The strongest energy always wins. That’s it! That’s the key to moving from your current situation, any situation, into the life you’ve always wanted.

Yes! Energy presents the power of the “Energy Equation,” which you can employ to attract abundance to all areas of your life. This formula can help you lead your life to achieve financial freedom; center your actions around a spiritual core of certainty and confidence; up-shift your attitude into consistent optimism; commit to engage with others at the highest, most satisfying levels; create the enterprise you’ve always envisioned; and dust off your dreams.
Best-selling author and entrepreneurial speaker Loral Langemeier developed this simple and straightforward methodology, which is revealed explicitly in these pages, because she needed it herself. Knocked to her knees more than a few times on her true-grit journey from farm girl to multimillionaire, she knows what it’s like to hit obstacles hard. Yet despite the blows, she still stands, and she still delivers.

So, if you want to learn how to tap into infinite, productive energy; extreme optimism; and calming, clarifying spirituality to improve your life in any way . . . this is the book for you!

 
 

Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think
by: Peter H. Diamandis & Steven Kotler
Publisher: Free Press

Providing abundance is humanity’s grandest challenge—this is a book about how we rise to meet it.

We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions. An antidote to pessimism by tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist, Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler.

Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing—fast. The authors document how four forces—exponential technologies, the DIY innovator, the Technophilanthropist, and the Rising Billion—are conspiring to solve our biggest problems. Abundance establishes hard targets for change and lays out a strategic roadmap for governments, industry and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism.

Examining human need by category—water, food, energy, healthcare, education, freedom—Diamandis and Kotler introduce dozens of innovators making great strides in each area: Larry Page, Steven Hawking, Dean Kamen, Daniel Kahneman, Elon Musk, Bill Joy, Stewart Brand, Jeff Skoll, Ray Kurzweil, Ratan Tata, Craig Venter, among many, many others.

 
 

Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It’s Too Late
by: James Robison & Jay W. Richards
Publisher: FaithWords

Many books have been written on conservative politics. Many more have been written calling Christians to holiness and spiritual revival. Few, however, have managed to combine a clear explanation of the conservative political perspective with its corresponding personal and spiritual virtue.

In INDIVISIBLE, James Robison, the founder and president of LIFE Outreach International, partners with Jay Richards, Ph.D., a writer who has appeared in both the New York Times and The Washington Post. Together, they tackle tough, controversial political issues facing conservative Christians today, including abortion, stem cell research, education, economics, health care, the environment, judicial activism, marriage, and others. Written to appeal to a broad spectrum of believers, INDIVISIBLE not only argues political questions from a Scriptural standpoint, it also provides simple arguments that Christians can use to support their beliefs in public settings.

Most significantly, Robison and Richards recognize that the point of origin for spiritual and moral transformation is the individual. “We are convinced by historical precedent that long term cultural change requires not merely sound thinking and public good works but rather, God’s spiritual and moral transformation of us as individuals, which will then transform our churches, our communities, our culture, and ultimately our politics.”

 
 

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Vintage)
by: Stieg Larsson
Publisher: Vintage

In the concluding volume of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition in a Swedish hospital, a bullet in her head.

But she’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael Blomkvist, she’ll need to identify those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she’ll seek revenge–against the man who tried to killer her and against the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life.

 
 

Celebrity in Death
by: J.D. Robb
Publisher: Putnam Adult

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is no party girl, but she’s managing to have a reasonably good time at the celebrity-packed bash celebrating The Icove Agenda, a film based on one of her famous cases. It’s a little spooky seeing the actress playing her, who looks almost like her long-lost twin. Not as unsettling, though, as seeing the actress who plays Peabody drowned in the lap pool on the roof of the director’s luxury building. Now she’s at the center of a crime scene-and Eve is more than ready to get out of her high heels and strap on her holster and step into the role she was born to play: cop.

 
 

Eisenhower in War and Peace
by: Jean Edward Smith
Publisher: Random House

In his magisterial bestseller FDR, Jean Edward Smith gave us a fresh, modern look at one of the most indelible figures in American history. Now this peerless biographer returns with a new life of Dwight D. Eisenhower that is as full, rich, and revealing as anything ever written about America’s thirty-fourth president. As America searches for new heroes to lead it out of its present-day predicaments, Jean Edward Smith’s achievement lies in reintroducing us to a hero from the past whose virtues have become clouded in the mists of history. 

Here is Eisenhower the young dreamer, charting a course from Abilene, Kansas, to West Point, to Paris under Pershing, and beyond. Drawing on a wealth of untapped primary sources, Smith provides new insight into Ike’s maddening apprenticeship under Douglas MacArthur in Washington and the Philippines. Then the whole panorama of World War II unfolds, with Eisenhower’s superlative generalship forging the Allied path to victory through multiple reversals of fortune in North Africa and Italy, culminating in the triumphant invasion of Normandy. Smith also gives us an intriguing examination of Ike’s finances, details his wartime affair with Kay Summersby, and reveals the inside story of the 1952 Republican convention that catapulted him to the White House.

Smith’s chronicle of Eisenhower’s presidential years is as compelling as it is comprehensive. Derided by his detractors as a somnambulant caretaker, Eisenhower emerges in Smith’s perceptive retelling as both a canny politician and a skillful, decisive leader. Smith convincingly portrays an Eisenhower who engineered an end to America’s three-year no-win war in Korea, resisted calls for preventative wars against the Soviet Union and China, and boldly deployed the Seventh Fleet to protect Formosa from invasion. This Eisenhower, Smith shows us, stared down Khrushchev over Berlin and forced the withdrawal of British, French, and Israeli forces from the Suez Canal. He managed not only to keep the peace—after Ike made peace in Korea, not one American soldier was killed in action during his tenure—but also to enhance America’s prestige in the Middle East and throughout the world.

Domestically, Eisenhower reduced defense spending, balanced the budget, constructed the interstate highway system, and provided social security coverage for millions who were self-employed. Ike believed that traditional American values encompassed change and progress.

Unmatched in insight, Eisenhower in War and Peace at last gives us an Eisenhower for our time—and for the ages.

 
 

The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table
by: Tracie Mc Millian
Publisher: Scribner

What if you can’t afford nine-dollar tomatoes? That was the question award-winning journalist Tracie McMillan couldn’t escape as she watched the debate about America’s meals unfold, one that urges us to pay food’s true cost—which is to say, pay more. So in 2009 McMillan embarked on a groundbreaking undercover journey to see what it takes to eat well in America. For nearly a year, she worked, ate, and lived alongside the working poor to examine how Americans eat when price matters.

From the fields of California, a Walmart produce aisle outside of Detroit, and the kitchen of a New York City Applebee’s, McMillan takes us into the heart of America’s meals. With startling intimacy she portrays the lives and food of Mexican garlic crews, Midwestern produce managers, and Caribbean line cooks, while also chronicling her own attempts to live and eat on meager wages. Along the way, she asked the questions still facing America a decade after the declaration of an obesity epidemic: Why do we eat the way we do? And how can we change it? To find out, McMillan goes beyond the food on her plate to examine the national prio-rities that put it there. With her absorbing blend of riveting narrative and formidable investigative reporting, McMillan takes us from dusty fields to clanging restaurant kitchens, linking her work to the quality of our meals—and always placing her observations in the context of America’s approach not just to farms and kitchens but to wages and work.

The surprising answers that McMillan found on her journey have profound implications for our food and agriculture, and also for how we see ourselves as a nation. Through stunning reportage, Tracie McMillan makes the simple case that—city or country, rich or poor—everyone wants good food. Fearlessly reported and beautifully written, The American Way of Eating goes beyond statistics and culture wars to deliver a book that is fiercely intelligent and compulsively readable. Talking about dinner will never be the same again.

 
 

While America Sleeps: A Wake-up Call for the Post 9/11 Era
by: Russ Feingold
Publisher: Crown

Former senator Russ Feingold looks at institutional failures, both domestic and abroad, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and proposes steps to be taken—by the government and by individuals—to ensure that the next ten years are focused on solving the international problems that threaten America.

In While America Sleeps, Russ Feingold details our nation’s collective failure to respond properly to the challenges posed by the post-9/11 era. Oversimplification of complicated new problems as well as the cynical exploitation of the fears generated by 9/11 have undermined our ability to adjust effectively to America’s new place in the world. This has weakened our efforts to protect American lives, our national security, and our constitutional values. Ranging from institutional failures to “get it right” by Congress, the executive branch, and the media to the way we have spoken of the war on terror, the nature of Islam, and American exceptionalism, too often we have not made the best choices in confronting, in Churchill’s words, the “new conditions under which we now have
to dwell.”

Senator Feingold explores the way in which the American public has been fed inadequate information
or mere slogans to explain 9/11, Al Qaeda, and related events. This compares unfavorably with the candor often associated with, for example, FDR’s fireside chats during World War II. Lumping Al Qaeda into a catch-all category known as “bad guys,” failing to make it clear that Islam itself is not a threat to our way of life, and underestimating the extreme difficulty of fully invading individual countries as a way to root out international terrorism are examples of this misdirection. Moreover, our general inability to keep our eyes on the international ball seems to have grown
even worse in the years following 9/11.

More than ten years after one of the greatest wake-up calls in human history, our nation seems to have again grown complacent about the issues that suddenly seemed so urgent immediately after 9/11. While America Sleeps suggests ways in which we can awaken a new national commitment to engage with
the rest of the world and one another in a less simplistic and more thoughtful way. Feingold’s hope is that when the history of this era is written, it will be said that our country was taken off guard at the height of its power at the turn of the century and stumbled for a decade in an unfamiliar environment, but in the following decade America found a new national commitment of unity and resolve to adapt to its new status and leadership in the world.

 
 

Baseball America 2012 Prospect Handbook: The 2012 Expert Guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Ranks
by: Baseball America
Publisher: Baseball America

The Baseball America 2012 Prospect Handbook is the leading annual reference guide to the next generation of rising stars. The Prospect Handbook profiles in-depth analysis and statistics of 900 players, provides a detailed amateur draft report card, a list of the top one hundred prospects, and a ranking of the Major League Baseball player development programs. The Prospect Handbook is the resource for information regarding the leading minor leaguers throughout baseball and is a valuable tool for fans, fantasy leaguers, and anyone who wants to know more about the player development process.

 
 

Forgiving the Unforgivable: The True Story of How Survivors of the Mumbai Terrorist Attack Answered Hatred with Compassion
by: Master Charles Cannon, Neale Donald Walsch, Eckhard Tolle, Will Wilkinson
Publisher: Select Books

In November, 2008, Pakistani Muslim terrorists attacked Mumbai. The 5 Star Oberoi Hotel was one of their targets. The Oberoi was also where M.C. Cannon, leader of the Synchronicity Foundation for Modern Spirituality in Virginia, and 24 of his associates were staying. Four in the group were wounded and two were killed. When rescued by SWAT teams and interviewed by the press, Synchronicity survivors expressed immediate compassion and understanding towards the terrorists. During interviews and press conferences following the attack, they repeated words of forgiveness, not accusation. This ignited an international tsunami of stunned curiosity and thousands of e-mail messages and phone calls flooded in. “I am inspired by your response.” “How did you get to be the way you are?” And, “How can I learn to do that?” This book is a response to those inquiries.This book uses the Mumbai siege as a context for a revolutionary explanation of what true forgiveness really is and how to live the Holistic Lifestyle in a state of awareness where true forgiveness becomes instinctive.

 
 

The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine
by: David Brock
Publisher: Anchor

Based on the meticulous research of the news watchdog organization Media Matters for America, David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt show how Fox News, under its president Roger Ailes, changed from a right-leaning news network into a partisan advocate for the Republican Party. 

The Fox Effect follows the career of Ailes from his early work as a television producer and media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. Consequently, when he was hired in 1996 as the president of Rupert Murdoch’s flagship conservative cable news network, Ailes had little journalism experience, but brought to the job the mindset of a political operative. As Brock and Rabin-Havt demonstrate through numerous examples, Ailes used his extraordinary power and influence to spread a partisan political agenda that is at odds with long-established, widely held standards of fairness and objectivity in news reporting.

Featuring transcripts of leaked audio and memos from Fox News reporters and executives, The Fox Effect is a damning indictment of how the network’s news coverage and commentators have biased reporting, drummed up marginal stories, and even consciously manipulated established facts in their efforts to attack the Obama administration.

 
 

A Perfect Blood
by: Kim Harrison
Publisher: Harper Voyager

New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison returns to the Hollows with the electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed Pale Demon!

Ritually murdered corpses are appearing across Cincinnati, terrifying amalgams of human and other. Pulled in to help investigate by the I.S. and the FIB, former witch turned day-walking demon Rachel Morgan soon realizes a horrifying truth: a human hate group is trying to create its own demons to destroy all Inderlanders, and to do so, it needs her blood.

She’s faced vampires, witches, werewolves, demons, and more, but humanity itself might be her toughest challenge yet.

 
 

Art of the Mass Effect Universe
by: Various
Publisher: Dark Horse

The Mass Effect series is a groundbreaking epic that has immersed gamers in one of science fiction”s richest universes. Now BioWare and Dark Horse are proud to invite fans deeper than ever into the Mass Effect saga with The Art of the Mass Effect Universe! Featuring concept art and commentary by BioWare on the games” characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, and more – Mass Effect 3 – The Art of the Mass Effect Universe is the most complete companion available to gaming”s most compelling series.

 
 

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning The Official Guide
Publisher: Future Press

Diving into Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning can be daunting. The world is vast, the combat is brutal and your potential choices are almost infinite. This encyclopedic guide aims to make everything clear; to show you how every element of the game fits together and let you take advantage of each of them to get the experience you want. See the whole thing and cut your way through it in style.

Master Your Destiny
Building your character isn t too stressful when you can change your destiny at any point, but really taking advantage of the possibilities in Reckoning requires planning and knowledge. We explain how every aspect of the Destiny and Skill systems can be used to create the most powerful characters of each type.

Fight to the End
Reckoning s Main Quest can be a real challenge, but if you want to see its end our complete walkthrough will ensure you never falter. Every battle is fully covered and maps reveal everything about the areas you ll traverse along the way.

Control the Battle
The beauty of Reckoning is in its visceral combat. You can be as strong as you want if you have the skills and knowledge to excel at combat. We show you how to master Reckoning Mode to gain more XP and get better items, and how to slash, cancel and combo your way through the game s battles with style.

Leave Nothing Unexplored
In a world this vast it s hard not to miss things. Our illustrated maps and detailed Area Guide chapter will ensure that you ll always find what you re looking for. Every town is explored in full and even the most remote cave has its deepest secrets exposed.

See All Sides of the Story
The game is filled with hundreds of Side Quests, Tasks and major Factions to explore and complete, and it s only through these that you ll see the full picture of the world of Amalur. We provide walkthroughs, maps and tips for every one of these optional quests and all their possible rewards are outlined.

Unlock Everything
Players wanting to know everything about the world of Amalur and ensure they ve squeezed every last drop out of the game will find everything they re looking for. We provide tips for unlocking every Achievement/Trophy and the locations of all of the game s rarest items.

Explore Beyond
Get deep into the world of Amalur with our exclusive story timeline and selection of beautiful concept atwork and sketches, and an in-depth interview with the visionaries behind the game.

13 FebNew Books Week Of February 13

Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, and Me!
by: Karen Gravano
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

From Karen Gravano, a star of the hit VH1 reality show Mob Wives, comes a revealing memoir of a mafia childhood, where love and family come hand-in-hand with murder and betrayal.

Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, once one of the mafia’s most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti’s right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State’s evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family. 

But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure.  He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table.  He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs.  He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn’t come home at all.  He hosted “secret” meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with “business associates.” By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster.  And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder.  Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds.  The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in.

This is the story of a daughter’s struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.

 

Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution
by: Mark Meckler
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

The definitive history of one of the most radical, revolutionary movements the country has ever seen, from those who started it all

In 2009, an unemployed mother of two and a politically inexperienced northern California attorney met on a conference call that would end up starting one of the largest grassroots political organizations in American history, the Tea Party Patriots. Fueled by the fires of passion and patriotism, Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin have become the faces of the most powerful political movement in the country, empowering their more than twenty million members by using both high-tech advances and the time-tested American tradition of rallying in public. Promoting the basic principles of the Tea Party Movement—free market, limited government, and fiscal responsiblity—the Tea Party Patriots have become the largest tea party organization in the world. With unparalleled access to the inner workings of the movement, Meckler and Martin hope to explain how the Tea Party came to be, what it is and is not, and perhaps most important, provide the first comprehensive, forward-looking document outlining a plan to restore America to its prior greatness.

Never before has there been such an audience for this material. Americans of all political stripes have been waiting for a thorough and informative account of this movement. Straight from the co-founders themselves, Tea Party Patriots promises to be the definitive source for a political revolution.

 

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels–A Love Story
by: Ree Drummond
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

That’s when I saw him—the cowboy—across the smoky room.

I’ll never forget that night. It was like a romance novel, an old Broadway musical, and a John Wayne Western rolled into one. Out for a quick drink with friends, I wasn’t looking to meet anyone, let alone a tall, rugged cowboy who lived on a cattle ranch miles away from my cultured, corporate hometown. But before I knew it, I’d been struck with a lightning bolt . . . and I was completely powerless to stop it.

This isn’t just my love story; it’s a universal tale of passion, romance, and all-encompassing love that sweeps us off our feet.

It’s the story of a cowboy. And Wranglers. And chaps. And the girl who fell in love with them.

06 FebNew Books Week Of February 6

If You Ask Me: (And of Course You Won’t)
by: Betty White
Publisher: Berkley Trade

It-girl Betty White delivers a hilarious, slyly profound take on love, life, celebrity, and everything in between.

Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White’s wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. If You Ask Me mixes her thoughtful observations with humorous stories from a seven- decade career in Hollywood. Longtime fans and new fans alike will relish Betty’s candid take on everything from her rumored crush on Robert Redford (true) to her beauty regimen (“I have no idea what color my hair is and I never intend to find out”) to the Facebook campaign that helped persuade her to host Saturday Night Live despite her having declined the hosting job three times already.

Featuring all-new material, with a focus on the past fifteen years of her life, If You Ask Me is funny, sweet, and to the point-just like Betty White.

 

Hilarity Ensues
by: Tucker Max
Publisher: Blue Heeler Books

Tucker Max’s third and final book in his series of stories about his drunken debauchery and ridiculous antics. What began as a simple sentence on an obscure website, “My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole,” and developed into two infamously genre-defining books, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell and Assholes Finish First, ends here.

But as you should expect from Tucker by now, he is going out with a bang—literally and figuratively. In this book, you’ll learn:

* How to live and work in Cancun, while still enrolled in Law School,

* Why Halloween is really awesome,

* How to subtly torture a highstrung roommate until he explodes with furious anger over a misplaced condiment,

* What really happened when a dirty pageant girl tried to sue Tucker because he told the truth,

* Why you should never accept a homemade treat from a hippie with a van, and

* What happens when Tucker turns sexting into a sport.

He’s still Tucker Max, and—for one more book—he’s still an asshole.

 

I Beat The Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond
by: Michael Oher
Publisher: Gotham

The football star made famous in the hit film (and book) The Blind Side reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth. Michael Oher shares his personal account of his story, in this inspirational New York Times bestseller.

Looking back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, Michael talks about the goals he had to break out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family. Eventually he grasped onto football as his ticket out and worked hard to make his dream into a reality. With his adoptive family, the Touhys, and other influential people in mind, he describes the absolute necessity of seeking out positive role models and good friends who share the same values to achieve one’s dreams. Sharing untold stories of heartache, determination, courage, and love, I Beat the Odds is an incredibly rousing tale of one young man’s quest to achieve the American dream.

 

The Hunger Pains: A Parody
by: The Harvard Lampoon
Publisher: Touchstone

WINNING MEANS WEALTH, FAME, AND A LIFE OF THERAPY LOSING MEANS DEATH, BUT ALSO FAME! THIS IS THE HUNGER PAINSWhen Kantkiss Neverclean replaces her sister as a contestant on the Hunger Games—the second-highest-rated reality TV show in Peaceland, behind Extreme Home Makeover—she has no idea what to expect. Having lived her entire life in the telemarketing district’s worst neighborhood, the Crack, Kantkiss feels unprepared to fight to the death while simultaneously winking and looking adorable for the cameras. But when her survival rests on choosing between the dreamy hunk from home, Carol Handsomestein, or the doughy klutz, Pita Malarkey, Kantkiss discovers that the toughest conflicts may not be found on the battlefield but in her own heart . . . which is unfortunately on a battlefield.

30 JanNew Books Week Of January 30

The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt
by: Scott Rasmussen
Publisher: Threshold Edition

When it comes to the economy, American voters can no longer count on the Political Class. We are the ones who truly want progress, and—despite what politicians would lead us to believe—we are the only ones willing to make the difficult but necessary changes that willrestore our country’s fiscal sanity. For years, Americans have elected candidates who promise to reduce spending. Yet spending has steadily increased for more than half a century. For just as long, politicians have blamed voters, claiming a lack of public support for the necessary cuts to reduce the budget deficit. On the contrary, evidence suggests that voters are far more willing than politicians to make the compromises to eliminate this massive burden from future generations. Now, influential political analyst Scott Rasmussen, one of the most recognized public opinion pollsters in America, proves that our politicians are intentionally perpetrating a flat-out lie about their short-sighted and destructive economic choices and ourhard-earned money.In The People’s Money, Rasmussen explores clear-headed, responsible, and reasonable ways to eliminate a deficit that is much larger than politicians would have us believe—$123 trillion and counting—all with the vast support of the American people. This is Rasmussen on:·The bailouts—the cause and effects, and the catalyst that fueled the current era of discontent

·National defense—and the $100 billion annual cost that could be erased today with absolutely no threat to security

·Social security—and a plan that could not only reduce spending by trillions of dollars but offer a more satisfying plan for retirees

·Tax burdens—and the truth behind the changes Americans are willing to make for the sake of their country

·Government payroll—and the commonsense cuts that are necessary

·Health care—and why the current plans, from both Republicans and Democrats, are financially unhealthy

Drawing on a comprehensive review of history, revelatory budgetary documents, and enlightening public opinion polls, Rasmussen lays out a step-by-step budget that could wipe out trillions from the national debt. It’s his job to call on the American people for their opinion. Resoundingly, they have called back with a collective voice that is at once hopeful, frustrated, honest, and angry. If only the American Political Class would listen. Until then, The People’s Money is a call to arms for the people to be heard, an ultimatum for a grossly out-of-touch American political system, and one of the most provocative, important, informed, and yet hopeful books on the economic state of the country yet written.

23 JanNew Books Week Of January 23

All In: The Education of General David Petraeus
by: Paula Broadwell
Publisher: Penguin Press

General David Petraeus is the most transformative leader the American military has seen since the generation of Marshall. In All In, military expert Paula Broadwell examines Petraeus’s career, his intellectual development as a military officer, and his impact on the U.S. military.Afforded extensive access by General Petraeus, his mentors, his subordinates, and his longtime friends, Broadwell embedded with the general, his headquarters staff, and his soldiers on the front lines of fighting and at the strategic command in Afghanistan to chronicle the experiences of this American general as they were brought to bear in the terrible crucible of war. All In draws on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with Petraeus and his top officers and soldiers to tell the inside story of this commander’s development and leadership in war form every vantage point.When Petraeus assumed command in Afghanistan in July 2010, the conflict looked as bleak as at any moment in America’s nine years on the ground there. Petraeus’s defining idea-counterinsurgency-was immediate put to its most difficult test: the hard lessons learned during the surge in Iraq were to be applied in a radically different theater. All In examines the impact in Afghanistan of new counterinsurgency as well as counterterrorism strategies through the commands of several Petraeus protégés.To inform this unprecedented reporting of Petraeus’s command in Afghanistan, Broadwell examines his evolution as a solider from his education at West Point in the wake of Vietnam to his earlier service in Central America, Haiti, Kuwait, Bosnia, and Iraq. All In also documents the general’s role in the war in Washington, going behind the scenes of negotiations during policy reviews of the war in Afghanistan in Congress, the Pentagon, and the White House.Broadwell ultimately appraises Petraeus’s impact on the entire U.S. military: Thanks to this man’s influence, the military is better prepared to fight using a comprehensive blend of civil-military activities. As America surveys a decade of untraditional warfare, this much is clear: The career of General David Petraeus profoundly shaped our military and left an indelible mark on its rising leaders.

It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living
by: Dan Savage
Publisher: Penguin Press

Every story can change a life.

Growing up isn’t easy. Many young people face daily tormenting and bullying, and this is especially true for LGBT kids and teens. In response to a number of tragic suicides by LGBT students, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage uploaded a video to YouTube with his partner, Terry Miller. Speaking openly about the bullying they suffered, and how they both went on to lead rewarding adult lives, their video launched the It Gets Better Project YouTube channel and initiated a worldwide phenomenon.

It Gets Better is a collection of original essays and expanded testimonials written to teens from celebrities, political leaders, and everyday people, because while many LGBT teens can’t see a positive future for themselves, we can.

16 JanNew Books Week Of January 16

Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America
by: Mark Levin
Publisher: Threshold Editions

Mark R. Levin’s Liberty and Tyrannymade the most persuasive case for conservatism and against statism in a generation. In this most crucial time, this leading conservative thinker explores the psychology, motivations, and history of the utopian movement, its architects, and its modern day disciples – and how the individual and American society are being devoured by it.

In Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America Levin asks, what is this utopian force that both allures a free people and destroys them? In the end, Levin’s message is clear: The American republic is in great peril. The people must now choose between utopianism or liberty.

 

Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir
by: Wael Ghonim
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The revolutions that swept the Middle East in 2011 surprised and captivated the world. Brutal regimes that had been in power for decades were overturned by an irrepressible mass of freedom seekers. Now, one of the figures who emerged during the Egyptian uprising tells the riveting inside story of what happened and shares the keys to unleashing the power of crowds.

Wael Ghonim was a little-known, thirty-year-old Google executive in the summer of 2010 when he anonymously launched a Facebook page to protest the death of one Egyptian man at the hands of security forces. The page’s following expanded quickly and moved from online protests to a nonconfrontational movement.

The youth of Egypt made history: they used social media to schedule a revolution. The call went out to more than a million Egyptians online, and on January 25, 2011, Cairo’s Tahrir Square resounded with calls for change. Yet just as the revolution began in earnest, Ghonim was captured and held for twelve days of brutal interrogation. After he was released, he gave a tearful speech on national television, and the protests grew more intense. Four days later, the president of Egypt was gone.
   
The lessons Ghonim draws will inspire each of us. He saw the road to Tahrir Square built not by any one person, but by the people. In Revolution 2.0, we can all be heroes.

09 JanNew Books Week Of January 9

The Obamas
by: Jodi Kantor
Publisher: Little Brown

When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, he also won a long-running debate with his wife Michelle. Contrary to her fears, politics now seemed like a worthwhile, even noble pursuit. Together they planned a White House life that would be as normal and sane as possible.

Then they moved in.

In the Obamas, Jodi Kantor takes us deep inside the White House as they try to grapple with their new roles, change the country, raise children, maintain friendships, and figure out what it means to be the first black President and First Lady. Filled with riveting detail and insight into their partnership, emotions and personalities, and written with a keen eye for the ironies of public life, THE OBAMAS is an intimate portrait that will surprise even readers who thought they knew the President and First Lady.

 

I Got This: How I Changed My Ways and Lost What Weighed Me Down
by: Jennifer Hudson
Publisher: Dutton

A personal and inspirational memoir from Grammy and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, focused on her amazing transformation as she embraced a healthy lifestyle and lost over eighty pounds.

Soulful and sultry, Jennifer Hudson wowed the world with her powerful voice in American Idol‘s third season, and then took Hollywood by storm with a star turn in Dreamgirls that won her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. But before we knew her as an American Idol standout, Jennifer was singing in her church choir in the Southside of Chicago. This uplifting memoir tells the story of Jennifer’s meteoric rise from American Idol to Dreamgirls to her amazing weight loss on the megablockbuster Weight Watchers diet plan. With the Weight Watchers brand endorsing her, Jennifer gives her fans tips for embracing a healthy lifestyle in order to lose weight and reclaim their bodies. Full of stories from her American Idol days, her experience acting in Dreamgirls, and how her son inspired her to want to live healthfully, this book is a gift for her millions of fans and an inspiration for anyone struggling with weight issues.

02 JanNew Books Week Of January 2nd

Love in a Nutshell
by: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: SMP

Number one bestselling author Janet Evanovich teams up with award-winning author Dorien Kelly to deliver a sparkling novel of romantic suspense, small-town antics, secretive sabotage, and lots and lots of beer

Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she’s been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents’ summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene’s Harbor, Michigan. Kate’s plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory.

Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees. Someone has been sabotaging his company, and Kate is just new enough in town that she can insert herself into Culhane’s business and snoop around for him. If Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus. Needless to say, Kate is highly motivated. But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss.

Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate’s family home, and keep a killer from closing in…all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another? Filled with humor, heart, and loveable characters, Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun.

 

Private: #1 Suspect (Jack Morgan)
by: James Patterson
Publisher: Little Brown

Unsolvable cases

Since former Marine Jack Morgan started Private, it has become the world’s most effective investigation firm–sought out by the famous and the powerful to discreetly handle their most intimate problems. Private’s investigators are the smartest, the fastest, and the most technologically advanced in the world–and they always uncover the truth.

Impossible murders

When his former lover is found murdered in Jack Morgan’s bed, he is instantly the number one suspect. While Jack is under police investigation, the mob strong-arms him into recovering $30 million in stolen pharmaceuticals for them. And the beautiful manager of a luxury hotel chain persuades him to quietly investigate a string of murders at her properties.

The #1 suspect is Jack Morgan

While Jack is fighting for his life, one of his most trusted colleagues threatens to leave Private, and Jack realizes he is confronting the cleverest and most powerful enemies ever. With more action, more intrigue, and more twists than ever before, PRIVATE: #1 SUSPECT is James Patterson at his unstoppable best.

 

Night Road
by: Kristin Hannah
Publisher: Griffin

For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children’s needs above her own, and it shows—her twins, Mia and Zach—are bright and happy teenagers.  When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude.  Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia’s best friend.  Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.   

Jude does everything to keep her kids on track for college and out of harm’s way.  It has always been easy– until senior year of high school.  Suddenly she is at a loss.  Nothing feels safe anymore; every time her kids leave the house, she worries about them. 

On a hot summer’s night her worst fears come true. One decision will change the course of their lives.  In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything.  In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget…or the courage to forgive.

Vivid, universal, and emotionally complex, NIGHT ROAD raises profound questions about motherhood, identity, love, and forgiveness.  It is a luminous, heartbreaking novel that captures both the exquisite pain of loss and the stunning power of hope.  This is Kristin Hannah at her very best, telling an unforgettable story about the longing for family, the resilience of the human heart, and the courage it takes to forgive the people we love.

 

Seeds of Rebellion
by: Brandon Mull
Publisher: Aladdin

The second epic installment of Brandon Mull’s #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy series!After the cliffhanger ending of A World Without Heroes, Jason is back in the world he’s always known—yet for all his efforts to get home, he finds himself itching to return to Lyrian. Jason knows that the shocking truth he learned from Maldor is precious information that all of his friends in Lyrian, including Rachel, need if they have any hope of surviving and defeating the evil emperor.Meanwhile, Rachel and the others have discovered new enemies—as well as new abilities that could turn the tide of the entire quest. And as soon as Jason succeeds in crossing over to Lyrian, he’s in more danger than ever. Once the group reunites, they strive to convince their most-needed ally to join the war and form a rebellion strong enough to triumph over Maldor. At the center of it all, Jason and Rachel realize what roles they’re meant to play—and the answers are as surprising as they are gripping. 

 

The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life
by: Glenn Beck
Publisher: Threshold Editions

Radio and television host Glenn Beck has experienced the rollercoaster of life like few others.  From the suicide of his mother when he was just thirteen, to his eventual alcoholism, depression, divorce, unemployment, and health scares—Glenn has weathered life’s darkest storms.Any one of those struggles could’ve ruined him, yet Glenn was able to keep moving forward.  He saw past the darkness into the light; past his grief and addictions and into what his life could be.

YOU CAN DO IT TOO

The process of finding happiness through personal redemption was not easy, but it left Glenn with a blueprint for how to confront future adversity.  Glenn is living proof that these steps—he calls them wonders—don’t just work on paper.  They helped transform his life and can they can help to transform yours as well.  

THE 7 WONDERS

Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow—two of the most popular and influential personalities in American media today—have joined forces to present a powerful guide to personal transformation and fulfillment that is as unique as their own unlikely partnership.  They are called the “7 Wonders” and they can be used by anyone who has made the decision that they are ready to change their life.

After the television talk show host and the bestselling psychiatrist struck up a fast friendship they realized that their experiences with life’s struggles were complementary.  What Keith had studied, Glenn had lived.  What Keith had counseled patients on for years, Glenn had suffered through for decades.

The deeply personal insights they shared brought them to realize that their life stories had seven key principles in common; seven wonders that seemed to be essential ingredients for anyone attempting to transform their life. 

 

Bossypants
by: Tina Fey
Publisher: Little Brown

Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update,” before “Sarah Palin,” Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon — from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

 

Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles
by: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Macmillan

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

 

Dark Flame (Immortals)
by: Alyson Noel
Publisher: Griffin

Ever is trying to help Haven transition into life as an immortal. But with Haven drunk on her new powers and acting recklessly, she poses the ultimate threat—exposing their secret world. As Ever struggles to keep the Immortals hidden, it only propels Haven closer to the enemy—Roman and his evil companions. At the same time, Ever delves deeper into dark magick to free Damen from Roman’s power. But when her spell backfires, it binds her to the one guy who’s hell-bent on her destruction. Now there’s a strange, foreign pulse coursing through her, and no matter what she does, she can’t stop thinking about Roman—and longing for his touch. Frantic to break the spell before its too late, Ever turns to Jude for help, risking everything she knows and loves to save herself—and her future with Damen…

 

Gun Games: A Decker/Lazarus Novel
by: Faye Kellerman
Publisher: William Morrow

Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus are back in this gripping mystery involving a secret cabal of some of Los Angeles’ most wealthy—and vicious—teens

LAPD lieutenant detective Decker and his wife, Rina, have willingly welcomed fifteen-year-old Gabriel Whitman, the son of a troubled former friend, into their home. While the enigmatic teen seems to be adapting easily, Decker knows only too well the secrets adolescents keep—witnessed by the tragic suicide of another teen, Gregory Hesse, a student at Bell and Wakefield, one of the city’s most exclusive prep schools.

Gregory’s mother, Wendy, refuses to believe her son shot himself and convinces Decker to look deeper. What he finds disturbs him. The gun used in the tragedy was stolen—evidence that propels him to launch a full investigation with his trusted team, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver. But the case becomes darkly complicated by the suicide of another Bell and Wakefield student—a death that leads them to uncover an especially nasty group of rich and privileged students with a predilection for guns and violence. Decker thought he understood kids, yet the closer he and his team get to the truth, the clearer it becomes that he knows very little about them, including his own charge, Gabe. The son of a gangster and an absent parent, the boy has had a life filled with too much free time, too many unexplained absences, and too little adult supervision.

Before it’s over, the case and all its terrifying ramifications will take Decker and his detectives down a dark alley of twisted allegiances and unholy alliances, culminating at a heart-stopping point of no return.

 

One Perfect Word: One Word Can Make All the Difference
by: Debbie Macomber
Publisher: Howard Books

In the tradition of One Simple Act and God’s Guest List, perennial bestselling novelist Debbie Macomber reveals in inspiring, moving stories that the simplicity of one perfect word can become profound. When Debbie took the time to intentionally focus on a single word—such as prayer, trust, or surrender—for a whole year, this act changed not only herself, but those around her.

“The surprising thing is that when we decide to focus on one word for the year,” Debbie writes, “God takes part in the choosing. That’s why the word is perfect for us. We may not see it at the time, but as we look back we see that it all worked together—our word, our life, our journey.” For example, the year she chose the word balance, her career moved to a whole new level. The pressures on Debbie to speak, promote, and practically live on the road were overwhelming. It was her yearlong focus on that all-too-difficult word balance that helped her refine her schedule. As you read Debbie’s and others’ stories, you will be inspired to find your own word and will see how one perfect word can make all the difference.

26 DecNew Books Week Of December 26

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel
by: Deborah Harkness
Publisher: Penguin

“A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight.”
-People

In a sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches became the “it” book of early 2011, bringing Deborah Harkness into the spotlight and galvanizing fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and the descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript deep in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar’s depth to this riveting story of magic and suspense.

 

A Simple Act of Gratitude: How Learning to Say Thank You Changed My Life
by: John Kralik
Publisher: Hyperion

How saying thank you changed one man’s life–and can transform yours, too.

“Profoundly honest and uplifting, John Kralik’s story reminds us of all those in our own lives who deserve our thanks. Though his journey was remarkably personal, it has the power to be a call to action for all of us.”
–Jeffrey Zaslow, coauthor of The Last Lecture

One recent December, John Kralik found his life at a frightening low: his small law firm was failing; he was struggling through a painful divorce; he had grown distant from his children; and overall, his life dreams seemed to have slipped beyond reach.

Inspired by a note his ex-girlfriend had sent to thank him for a gift, John imagined that he might find a way to feel grateful for what he had by writing thank-you notes. To keep himself going, he set a goal of writing 365 notes in the coming year.

Immediately after sending his very first notes, significant and surprising benefits began to come John’s way–from financial gain to true friendship, from weight loss to inner peace. Thank-you note by thank-you note, his whole life turned around.

A Simple Act of Gratitude is a rare memoir: uplifting and inspirational, but with a profoundly basic messageand example that everyone can believe and achieve. To read it is to be changed.

Previously published as 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life.

 

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
by: Amy Chua
Publisher: Penguin

After igniting a firestorm of debate across the nation, Amy Chua’s daring, conversation-changing memoir is now in paperback.

At once provocative and laugh-out-loud funny, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother set off a global parenting debate with its story of one mother’s journey in strict parenting. Amy Chua argues that Western parenting tries to respect and nurture children’s individuality, while Chinese parents typically believe that arming children with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence prepares them best for the future. Achingly honest and profoundly challenging, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua’s iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, the Chinese way-and the remarkable, sometimes heartbreaking results her choice inspires.

 

Death Benefit
by: Robin Cook
Publisher: Putnam

Pia Grazdani is an exceptional yet aloof medical student working closely with Columbia University Medical Center’s premier scientist on cutting edge research that could revolutionize health care by creating replacement organs for critically-ill patients. Thorough her work with the brilliant molecular geneticist Dr. Tobias Rothman, Pia knows she will be given the chance to fulfill her ambition to participate in medical discoveries that can help millions while bringing her a measure of personal peace that might once and for all push aside memories of her difficult and abusive childhood.

But when tragedy strikes in the lab, Pia, with the help of infatuated classmate George Wilson, launches an investigation into the unforeseen calamity in the hospital’s supposedly secure biosafety lab.

Meanwhile, two ex-Wall Street whiz-kids think they have found another loadstone in the nation’s multi-trillion dollar life insurance industry, and race to find ways to control actuarial data and securitize the policies of the aged and infirm to make another killing.

As Pia and George dig deeper into the events at the lab one question remains unanswered: is someone attempting to manipulate private insurance information to allow investors to benefit from the deaths of others?

 

Down The Darkest Road
by: Tami Hoag
Publisher: Dutton

#1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag returns with the latest entry in her riveting Oak Knoll series.

Deeper Than the Dead introduced Tami Hoag’s millions of fans to Oak Knoll, a small California town that, in the mid-eighties, seemed as idyllic as any . . . until the See-No-Evil killer shattered that notion. It took FBI agent Vince Leone and a new technique called “profiling” to put an end to the trauma.

Secrets to the Gravebrought Leone’s teacher-turned-child- advocate wife, Anne, into a central role. Together with Vince and local sheriff ‘s deputy Tony Mendez, she solved an Oak Knoll murder with a particularly challenging mystery: The victim never existed.

And now Hoag returns once more to Oak Knoll for the third installment of this bestselling series. Through Leone’s pioneering, science-based investigatory skills, Hoag explores the early days of forensic police work. And through the chilling case at the heart of Down the Darkest Road, she hooks ever more readers into the meticulously crafted, all-too-terrifying world of Oak Knoll, where the scariest secrets of all can be found . . . Down the Darkest Road.

 

Everyday Food: Light: The Quickest and Easiest Recipes, All Under 500 Calories
by: Martha Stewart and Living Magazine
Publisher: Free Press

Cook what you want to eat, without all the fat
 
The editors of Everyday Food magazine know that it’s not enough to get dinner on the table in a snap—it also has to be good for the whole family. Everyday Food: Lightfeatures delicious, healthful recipes, all under 500 calories. Organized seasonally so you can take advantage of the freshest ingredients, this book shows you how to quickly make your favorite dishes in a way that’s light but nonetheless tempting.Making simple adjustments to your weeknight arsenal is easy with the step-by-step instructions on cooking techniques (like stir-frying and roasting), kitchen tools to help cut down on calories (such as a steamer basket and a citrus zester), and great low- or no-fat flavor boosters (marinades, herbs, and spices). And each recipe is accompanied by a beautiful color photograph and nutritional information to keep you motivated all week long. Here are some of the recipes you’ll find inside:

   • Oven-Fried Chicken
   • Saucy Shrimp and Grits
   • Lighter Eggplant Parmesan
   • Grilled Marinated Flank Steak
   • Olive-Oil Mashed Potatoes
   • Lighter Creamed Spinach
   • Tomato Salad with Olives and Lemon Zest
   • Light Chocolate-Chunk Brownies
   • Pear and Berry Crisp
   • Mini Mocha Cheesecakes
 
Tips throughout explain what makes these recipes light, whether by using simple substitutions (such as whole-wheat tortillas instead of pizza crust), smart ways to cut back on fat (topping fish with bread crumbs rather than coating it in batter), or healthy cooking methods (baking onion rings instead of frying them). You’ll also find prep and cook times for each recipe, and plenty of one-pot meals that make great weeknight dinners for the whole family.

Staying on track for a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to mean relying on gimmicky diets or eating flavorless meals. With Everyday Food: Light, cooking fulfilling and tasty dinners has never been easier or more inspiring. 

 

Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body!
by: Jilian Michaels
Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Does it feel as if you’re fighting your body to lose even one pound—or just to maintain your current weight? Respected health and wellness expert and bestselling author Jillian Michaels has been there, too. So she consulted top experts in the field of metabolism and discovered that she’d inadvertently been abusing her endocrine system for years. After “fixing” her own metabolism, she decided to share what she learned by devising this simple, 3-phase plan that engages all the weight-loss hormones (including the friendly HGH, testosterone, DHEA; and the not-so-friendly: insulin, cortisol, and excess estrogen).

In Master Your Metabolism, discover how to:
•REMOVE “anti-nutrients” from your diet
•RESTORE foods that speak directly to fat-burning genes
•REBALANCE energy and your hormones for effortless weight loss

Michaels offers a wealth of information throughout, including: shopping lists and online shopping resources, hormone-trigger food charts, how to eat “power nutrient” foods on a budget, smart strategies for eating out, quick and easy recipes, as well as mini-programs for addressing PMS, andropause, metabolic syndrome, PCOS, and menopause.

 

One Summer
by: David Baldacci
Publisher: Grand Central

From #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci comes a moving family drama about learning to love again after heartbreak and loss.

ONE SUMMER

It’s almost Christmas, but there is no joy in the house of terminally ill Jack and his family. With only a short time left to live, he spends his last days preparing to say goodbye to his devoted wife, Lizzie, and their three children. Then, unthinkably, tragedy strikes again: Lizzie is killed in a car accident. With no one able to care for them, the children are separated from each other and sent to live with family members around the country. Just when all seems lost, Jack begins to recover in a miraculous turn of events. He rises from what should have been his deathbed, determined to bring his fractured family back together. Struggling to rebuild their lives after Lizzie’s death, he reunites everyone at Lizzie’s childhood home on the oceanfront in South Carolina. And there, over one unforgettable summer, Jack will begin to learn to love again, and he and his children will learn how to become a family once more.

 

Smart Trust: Creating Prosperity, Energy, and Joy in a Low-Trust World
by: Stephen Covey
Publisher: Free Press

Smart Trust is without doubt one of the most powerful and seminal books of our age” (Warren Bennis).

After illustrating the global relevance of trust with his book The Speed of Trust by selling more than one million copies in twenty-two languages, Stephen M. R. Covey again illuminates the hidden power of trust to change lives and impact organizations in Smart Trust. In a compelling and readable style, he and long-time business partner Greg Link share enlightening principles and anecdotes of people and organizations that are not only achieving unprecedented prosperity from high-trust relationships and cultures but—even more inspiring—also attaining elevated levels of energy and joy.

The sustainable success these leaders and enterprises are exhibiting is paradoxically being produced in what has proved to be the lowest trust climate in years, if not decades. Smart Trustshows what they are doing and the five actions they are commonly taking to prosper, against the odds, in the same circumstances causing so many others to fail.

With penetrating insights illuminated by their unique access to many of the world’s most successful leaders and organizations, the authors lay out a breakthrough process and skill set in a practical and actionable formula that makes trust a performance multiplier for leaders, teams, organizations, and even countries. They show why trust is fast becoming the most consequential life and leadership skill of our time—a career-critical competency required to navigate and compete in this perilous twenty-first-century interdependent, global economy. Covey and Link teach how to cut through traditional either/or thinking to extend “Smart Trust,” enabling you to exercise sound judgment in a low-trust world by minimizing risk and maximizing possibilities.

Smart Trust has met the strict scrutiny of business leaders around the globe and is validated by research from multiple sources that confirms that high-trust organizations outperform low-trust organizations by nearly three times. Smart Trustshares findings that verify how enduring success, vitality, and happiness are directly related to the level of trust in our relationships—whether in our professional or personal lives.

Find out why trusted people are more likely to get hired or promoted, get the best projects and bigger budgets, and are last to be laid off. This sea-changing book will forever shift your perspective as it reveals and validates, once and for all, the transformational power of trust. Reading Smart Trust will increase your probability of thriving in this increasingly unpredictable marketplace. The more unpredictable it becomes, the more your (and your organization’s) sound judgment and ability to trust in this low-trust world will give you a tremendous competitive advantage—and the capacity to navigate the uncertainty low trust creates.

 

77 Shadow Street
by: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam

I am the One, the all and the only. I live in the Pendleton as surely as I live everywhere. I am the Pendleton’s history and its destiny. The building is my place of conception, my monument, my killing ground. . . .

The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon’s dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of  madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. For its fortunate residents—among them a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager—the Pendleton’s magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten.
 
But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge  into unknown depths. With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton’s past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. Soon, all those within its boundaries will be engulfed by a dark tide from which few have escaped.
 
Dean Koontz transcends all expectations as he takes readers on a gripping journey to a place where nightmare visions become real—and where a group of singular individuals hold the key to humanity’s destiny. Welcome to 77 Shadow Street.

19 DecNew Books Week Of December 19

D.C. Dead (Stone Barrington)
by: Stuart Wood
Publisher: Putnam

After a shocking loss, Stone Barrington is at loose ends, unsure if he wants to stay in New York and continue his work as a partner at Woodman & Weld. It comes as a welcome relief when he’s summoned to Washington, D.C., by President Will Lee. The president has a special operation that calls for Stone’s unique skill set, and it’s a mission that will reunite him with his former partner in crime and in bed, Holly Barker.

 

Covert Warriors (Presidential Agent, Book 7)
by:  W.E.B. Griffin
Publisher: Putnam

The thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times- bestselling series.

There’s an uneasy and unholy alliance building across the Caribbean. Few in the U.S. government want to believe that a Third World country and its chest-thumping leader could pose a credible threat-but then why are the Chinese helping to train its special forces? Why are the Russians helping to build a nuclear power plant?

Charley Castillo and his men go in to investigate, but they have no idea what they have just gotten themselves into. By the time they finish connecting the dots, they will be on the hit lists of the Kremlin, the Cubans, the Venezuelans, and the drug cartels-and totally out on their own. Whatever happens next, they’ll have to do it by themselves.

 

Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook
by: Weight Watchers
Publisher: Weight Watchers

One pot and you’re done—delicious recipes using everyday kitchen equipmentWith every day so busy, wouldn’t you just love to throw everything in one pot and have dinner ready? With Weight Watchers® One Pot Cookbook, you’ll find 300 super-tasty and healthy one-dish recipes that the whole family will love. These no-fuss recipes are more than just easy—they are healthy and nutritious, as they come from the culinary experts at Weight Watchers.

You’ll find over 300 delicious and comforting one-pot recipes that include casseroles, pastas, soups and stews, light stir-fries, and desserts—all accompanied by 100 beautiful, 4-color photographs. Organized by type of cooking vessel—everything from casserole dishes, skillets, woks, saucepans, slow cookers, pressure cookers, even specialty equipment such as fondue pots—this book lets you make the most of your kitchen tools while cooking delicious meals for the whole family.

Also included in this ultimate cookbook:

  • All recipes include nutrition information and Weight Watchers PointsPlusvalues
  • Extra Healthy Tips provide easy suggestions for additions to the recipes
  • Tons of introductory information on each type of pot—from skillets to slow cookers—is also included

For great-tasting, nutritious meals that are easy to prepare and quick to clean up, turn to Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook.

 

The World of Downton Abbey
by: Jessica Fellowes
Publisher: Macmillan

A lavish look at the real world–both the secret history and the behind-the-scenes drama–of the spellbinding Emmy Award-winning Masterpiece TV series Downton Abbey

April 1912. The sun is rising behind Downton Abbey, a great and splendid house in a great and splendid park. So secure does it appear that it seems as if the way it represents will last for another thousand years. It won’t.

Millions of American viewers were enthralled by the world of Downton Abbey, the mesmerizing TV drama of the aristocratic Crawley family–and their servants–on the verge of dramatic change. On the eve of Season 2 of the TV presentation, this gorgeous book–illustrated with sketches and research from the production team, as well as on-set photographs from both seasons–takes us even deeper into that world, with fresh insights into the story and characters as well as the social history.

 

The Devil’s Elixir
by: Raymond Khoury
Publisher: Dutton

FBI agent Sean Reilly and his girlfriend, archaeologist Tess Chaykin, heroes of Raymond Khoury’s bestselling Templar novels, return in another edge-of-your-seat thriller that reaches from present day back to 1700s Mexico-and possibly beyond.

What if there was a drug, previously lost to history in the jungles of Central America, capable of inducing an experience so momentous-and so unsettling-that it might shake the very foundations of Western civilization?

What if powerful forces on both sides of the law got wind of that drug and launched a vicious, uncompromising pursuit to possess it?

In Raymond Khoury’s million-copy-selling Templar novels, Reilly and Tess traveled the globe to unravel ancient mysteries with present-day ramifications. In The Devil’s Elixir, they find themselves dragged into a race-against the clock, against a brutal drug kingpin known as “El Brujo”-the sorcerer-and even against government authorities-to merge two divergent trails, one several hundred years old, the other as current as a heartbeat, that could drag humanity to the brink of self- destruction.

Packed with the nonstop suspense and unexpected twists Raymond Khoury fans delight in, The Devil’s Elixir is destined for bestseller lists everywhere.

 

Second Grave on the Left (Charley Davidson)
by: Darynda Jones
Publisher: Macmillan

Second in the award-winning paranormal series that’s “hilarious and heartfelt, sexy and surprising.”
—J.R. Ward

When Charley and Cookie (her best friend/receptionist) have to track down a missing woman, the case is not quite as open and shut as they anticipate. A friend of Cookie’s named Mimi disappeared five days earlier. This friend then sends Cookie a cryptic message telling them to meet her at a nearby coffee shop. The coffee is brewing, but Mimi’s still missing. There is, however, a clue left on the bathroom wall: a woman’s name, scribbled by Mimi. Mimi’s husband explains that his wife had been acting strange since she found out an old friend of hers from high school had been murdered a couple weeks prior. The same woman Mimi had named in her message.

Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally) has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley. He’s left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer. But Reyes can’t let that happen. Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven. And if they have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Can Charley handle hot nights with Reyes and even hotter days tracking down a missing woman? Can she keep those she loves out of harm’s way? And is there enough coffee and chocolate in the world to fuel
her as she does?

Here is your signpost for the most hilarious read of the summer: Second Grave On The Left.

 

EAT: Feed Your Body and Starve the Fat
by: Ian K. Smith
Publisher: Macmillan

Diets are made to go “on” and “off” of, and if you’re like most people—who want to be fit, lean, alert and healthy—you don’t want to diet.  You want to eat naturally and normally, in a way that helps you have the body and lifestyle you deserve to enjoy.  In EAT, Dr. Ian Smith has created a flexible and intelligent plan that you can follow every day, in every situation—eating out, working late, traveling, cooking for the holidays—and that will urge your body to perform at its peak. You’ll drop any excess pounds you need to lose.   You won’t worry about what you “can” and “can’t” eat, but will listen to yourself and eat smart.

Dr. Ian’s Ten Simple Rules for Good Eating tell you what the experts know. They include:

–Follow the Rainbow: if you eat color, you’re getting vitamins and minerals in the right package
–Carb Heaven: don’t ban carbohydrates—or any nutrient group!
–Size Matters:  how to portion, and secret calories you don’t know about
–You are What You Drink: the miracle liquid and drinks that can wash out good eating

EAT is not about denial.  It’s about permission….to live, to fuel your strong body, to eat!

 

Eat This Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution
by: David Zinczenco
Publisher: Macmillan

With more than 50,000 food products in the average supermarket, it’s no wonder shoppers feel confused and overwhelmed. How do they know what to buy to eat healthier and avoid packing on pounds? And as food prices skyrocket, how do consumers know they’re getting the best deals?

Luckily they have Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide, the ultimate authority on packaged foods, produce, and dairy and meat products found in our supermarkets. Newly revised and updated with all-new nutrition facts and information, this expanded edition acts as a trusted bodyguard, steering buyers away from nutritional danger zones and protecting them with the power of knowledge. On every page, readers will find easy-to-follow tips and nutrition facts that help them make the best choices for cutting calories, shedding pounds, and even saving money!

The book’s easy-to-carry format and highly visual design make it a perfect companion for the purse or shopping cart. And the information inside, based on extensive research and market reporting, will finally put the shopper in control of his or her family’s diet and health.

About Mercury Retail Services

Mercury Retail Services’ goal is to consistently serve as a leading, dynamic retail service company, focused on our clients’ diversified needs. Our company-wide commitment to growth, technology, superior reporting, and quality execution spirit us forward and distinguish us from the competition.

Contact Information

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5718 Business Park
San Antonio, TX 78218
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