Dear Reader,When I was in seventh grade, my English teacher, Mrs. Johnson, gave our class the intriguing (if somewhat macabre) assignment of writing our own obituaries. Oddly, I don’t remember much of what I wrote about my life, but I do remember how I died: in first place on the final lap of the Daytona 500. At the time, I hadn’t considered writing as an occupation, a field with a remarkably low on-the-job casualty rate.What intrigues me most about Mrs. Johnson’s assignment is (more…)

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From Publishers Weekly

According to Tungate (Fashion Brands), while women see shopping as a leisure activity, men consider it a dull necessity—making them hard targets for eager advertisers. Citing changing historical ideals of masculinity, from the scruffy cowboy to the metrosexual, Tungate describes how men typically engage with brands, using the course of a typical day as framework—from grooming to clothing, car and sex. Male consumer patterns are rapidly changing; sales o (more…)

This is an informative and fresh approach to a fashion house that changed the look of the fashion industry.

About the Author

“This pioneering work analyzes the Italian fashion industry’s evolution and emergence as a global force … White insightfully reveals many interwoven components of this development … Sixty illustrations, footnotes, and a bibliography including primary-source files of Italian designer houses provide valuable documentation.” –”Choice” “T (more…)

From Publishers Weekly

If you work at a Fortune 500 company and live in southern Connecticut or New York’s Westchester County (two of Manhattan’s most affluent suburbs), chances are you buy your suits at Mitchells (in Westport, Conn.) or Richards (in Greenwich, Conn.). These two independent clothing stores are some of the most successful in the business and outfit CEOs from Chase, GE, IBM, Merrill Lynch and Pepsi. Mitchell, whose father started the business, shares the secret of (more…)

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In one of the more creative yet accessible Italian cookbooks to come along, Carmellini (formerly chef of A Voce in New York City) presents spectacular recipes while opening a window onto his life with food, from his Italian-American boyhood and cooking school to revelations while traveling in Italy and being a top New York chef. An extensive personal introduction as well as ample side notes and recipe introductions offer extra insight into h (more…)

From Publishers Weekly

Tayler (Siberian Dawn) takes readers on an extraordinary adventure across the largest landmass on earth, from Russia through the Caucasus into South Ossetia and Georgia, on to Central Asia and Kazakhstan, and across Xinjiang and Mongolia. Equal parts history, politics, economic theory and anthropology, he brings into sharp focus the ordinary lives behind the news headlines. Of particular interest are two recurring discoveries he makes—replacing totalitari (more…)

From Publishers Weekly

L.A. police lieutenant Milo Sturgis investigates a double homicide at the site of an unfinished, obscenely large mansion in bestseller Kellerman’s nerve-tingling 24th Alex Delaware novel (after Bones). Construction halted on the house two years earlier, and ownership can be traced only to a defunct holding company in Washington, D.C. The male victim is easily identified—Desmond Backer, who worked for an odd little architectural firm—but the female victi (more…)

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: The Book of Basketball is a 700-page work of hoops genius that would make Dr. James Naismith beam proudly – and probably blush. Author Bill Simmons, best known as ESPN.com’s “The Sports Guy,” explores the NBA with hilarious insight, brilliant analysis, and a bevy of irreverent footnotes. Simmons is a fan first – a fact best explained in an entertaining foreword by Malcolm Gladwell – and writes from the stands, not th (more…)