Over 90 practical and highly applicable recipes to successfully deploy various OpenStack configurations in productionAbout This BookGet a deep understanding of OpenStack’s internal structure and servicesLearn real-world examples on how to build and configure various production grade use cases for each of OpenStack's servicesUse a step-by-step approach to install and configure OpenStack’s services to provide Compute, Storage, and Networking as a services for cloud workloads Who This Book Is For If you have a basic understanding of Linux and Cloud computing and want to learn about configurations that OpenStack supports, this is the book for you. Knowledge of virtualization and managing Linux environments is expected. Prior knowledge or experience of OpenStack is not required, although beneficial.What You Will LearnPlan an installation of OpenStack with a basic configurationDeploy OpenStack in a highly available configurationConfigure Keystone Identity services with multiple types of identity backendsConfigure Glance Image Store with File, NFS, Swift, or Ceph image backends and use local image cachingDesign Cinder to use a single storage provider such as LVM, Ceph, and NFS backends, or to use multiple storage backends simultaneouslyManage and configure the OpenStack networking backendConfigure OpenStack's compute hypervisor and the instance scheduling mechanismBuild and customize the OpenStack dashboard In Detail OpenStack is the most popular open source cloud platform used by organizations building internal private clouds and by public cloud providers. OpenStack is designed in a fully distributed architecture to provide Infrastructure as a Service, allowing us to maintain a massively scalable cloud infrastructure. OpenStack is developed by a vibrant community of open source developers who come from the largest software companies in the world. The book provides a comprehensive and practical guide to the multiple uses cases and configurations that OpenStack supports. This book simplifies the learning process by guiding you through how to install OpenStack in a single controller configuration. The book goes deeper into deploying OpenStack in a highly available configuration. You’ll then configure Keystone Identity Services using LDAP, Active Directory, or the MySQL identity provider and configure a caching layer and SSL. After that, you will configure storage back-end providers for Glance and Cinder, which will include Ceph, NFS, Swift, and local storage. Then you will configure the Neutron networking service with provider network VLANs, and tenant network VXLAN and GRE. Also, you will configure Nova’s Hypervisor with KVM, and QEMU emulation, and you will configure Nova’s scheduler filters and weights. Finally, you will configure Horizon to use Apache HTTPD and SSL, and you will customize the dashboard’s appearance.Style and approach This book consists of clear, concise instructions coupled with practical and applicable recipes that will enable you to use and implement the latest features of OpenStack.

Become an expert in Bayesian Machine Learning methods using R and apply them to solve real-world big data problemsAbout This BookUnderstand the principles of Bayesian Inference with less mathematical equationsLearn state-of-the art Machine Learning methodsFamiliarize yourself with the recent advances in Deep Learning and Big Data frameworks with this step-by-step guide Who This Book Is For This book is for statisticians, analysts, and data scientists who want to build a Bayes-based system with R and implement it in their day-to-day models and projects. It is mainly intended for Data Scientists and Software Engineers who are involved in the development of Advanced Analytics applications. To understand this book, it would be useful if you have basic knowledge of probability theory and analytics and some familiarity with the programming language R.What You Will LearnSet up the R environmentCreate a classification model to predict and explore discrete variablesGet acquainted with Probability Theory to analyze random eventsBuild Linear Regression modelsUse Bayesian networks to infer the probability distribution of decision variables in a problemModel a problem using Bayesian Linear Regression approach with the R package BLRUse Bayesian Logistic Regression model to classify numerical dataPerform Bayesian Inference on massively large data sets using the MapReduce programs in R and Cloud computing In Detail Bayesian Inference provides a unified framework to deal with all sorts of uncertainties when learning patterns form data using machine learning models and use it for predicting future observations. However, learning and implementing Bayesian models is not easy for data science practitioners due to the level of mathematical treatment involved. Also, applying Bayesian methods to real-world problems requires high computational resources. With the recent advances in computation and several open sources packages available in R, Bayesian modeling has become more feasible to use for practical applications today. Therefore, it would be advantageous for all data scientists and engineers to understand Bayesian methods and apply them in their projects to achieve better results. Learning Bayesian Models with R starts by giving you a comprehensive coverage of the Bayesian Machine Learning models and the R packages that implement them. It begins with an introduction to the fundamentals of probability theory and R programming for those who are new to the subject. Then the book covers some of the important machine learning methods, both supervised and unsupervised learning, implemented using Bayesian Inference and R. Every chapter begins with a theoretical de*ion of the method explained in a very simple manner. Then, relevant R packages are discussed and some illustrations using data sets from the UCI Machine Learning repository are given. Each chapter ends with some simple exercises for you to get hands-on experience of the concepts and R packages discussed in the chapter. The last chapters are devoted to the latest development in the field, specifically Deep Learning, which uses a class of Neural Network models that are currently at the frontier of Artificial Intelligence. The book concludes with the application of Bayesian methods on Big Data using the Hadoop and Spark frameworks.Style and approach The book first gives you a theoretical de*ion of the Bayesian models in simple language, followed by details of its implementation in the R package. Each chapter has illustrations for the use of Bayesian model and the corresponding R package, using data sets from the UCI Machine Learning repository. Each chapter also contains sufficient exercises for you to get more hands-on practice.

Accelerate your code writing skills with over twenty programming patterns that will make your code easier to maintain and scaleAbout This BookOptimize your web application for production useBuild views and controllers with minimal effort that will evolve with your applicationLearn how to maintain a MeteorJS project while it is running in production Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who have already had an introductory course with Meteor. Basic knowledge of web development is recommended.What You Will LearnUse of Jade, Stylus, and CoffeeScript to speed up web developmentIncrease productivity by leveraging the best packages in the communityOptimize your site for load speed with advanced publishers and subscribersLeverage the aggregation framework to produce results with big dataMaster the intricacies of front-end development using Jeet, Bootstrap, CSS animations, and moreOptimize your site for search engine visibilitySecure your site with Meteor’s best practicesTrack the live status of your application, ensuring all errors have been taken care of In Detail With the increasing interest in NodeJS web applications, a new framework, Meteor, has joined the ranks to simplify developer workflows. Meteor is one of the few open source frameworks that has received funding since its early development stages. It builds on ideas from existing frameworks and libraries, offering developers an easy way to develop a prototype app. At the same time, it gives them the tools and flexibility to build a fully fledged production app. Meteor is the weapon of choice for start-ups in today’s world. Meteor Design Patterns cuts through the jargon that most websites play with and gets to the point with simple solutions that will boost your development skills. We start off with a refresher on the basics of JavaScript programming such as templates, CoffeeScript, the Event Loop, and the Merge Box, amongst others. You then learn how to map real-world data and optimize the data’s publishers to output data with the least amount of work done by the server with some subscribe and publish patterns. Next, using front-end patterns, you will learn how to create maintainable and trackable forms, and make our site crawlable by any search engine. Following this, you will see how to optimize and secure the web application and maintain applications without breaking other features. Finally, you will learn how to deploy a secure production-ready application while learning to set up modulus, compose with Oplog tracking and SSL certificates, as well as error tracking with Kadira. Throughout the book, you will put your skills to practice and build an online shop from scratch. By the end of the book, you will have built a feature-rich online shop.Style and approach The book is a practical handbook on how to build an e-commerce web app using Meteor. Every topic ties into the webapp to easily illustrate the concepts that you are learning about.

Generate effective results in a variety of visually appealing charts using the plotting packages in PythonAbout This BookExplore various tools and their strengths while building meaningful representations that can make it easier to understand dataPacked with computational methods and algorithms in diverse fields of scienceWritten in an easy-to-follow categorical style, this book discusses some niche techniques that will make your code easier to work with and reuse Who This Book Is For If you are a Python developer who performs data visualization and wants to develop existing knowledge about Python to build analytical results and produce some amazing visual display, then this book is for you. A basic knowledge level and understanding of Python libraries is assumed.What You Will LearnGather, cleanse, access, and map data to a visual frameworkRecognize which visualization method is applicable and learn best practices for data visualizationGet acquainted with reader-driven narratives and author-driven narratives and the principles of perceptionUnderstand why Python is an effective tool to be used for numerical computation much like MATLAB, and explore some interesting data structures that come with itExplore with various visualization choices how Python can be very useful in computation in the field of finance and statisticsGet to know why Python is the second choice after Java, and is used frequently in the field of machine learningCompare Python with other visualization approaches using Julia and a JavaScript-based framework such as D3.jsDiscover how Python can be used in conjunction with NoSQL such as Hive to produce results efficiently in a distributed environment In Detail Python has a handful of open source libraries for numerical computations involving optimization, linear algebra, integration, interpolation, and other special functions using array objects, machine learning, data mining, and plotting. Pandas have a productive environment for data analysis. These libraries have a specific purpose and play an important role in the research into diverse domains including economics, finance, biological sciences, social science, health care, and many more. The variety of tools and approaches available within Python community is stunning, and can bolster and enhance visual story experiences. This book offers practical guidance to help you on the journey to effective data visualization. Commencing with a chapter on the data framework, which explains the transformation of data into information and eventually knowledge, this book subsequently covers the complete visualization process using the most popular Python libraries with working examples. You will learn the usage of Numpy, Scipy, IPython, MatPlotLib, Pandas, Patsy, and Scikit-Learn with a focus on generating results that can be visualized in many different ways. Further chapters are aimed at not only showing advanced techniques such as interactive plotting; numerical, graphical linear, and non-linear regression; clustering and classification, but also in helping you understand the aesthetics and best practices of data visualization. The book concludes with interesting examples such as social networks, directed graph examples in real-life, data structures appropriate for these problems, and network analysis. By the end of this book, you will be able to effectively solve a broad set of data analysis problems.Style and approach The approach of this book is not step by step, but rather categorical. The categories are based on fields such as bioinformatics, statistical and machine learning, financial computation, and linear algebra. This approach is beneficial for the community in many different fields of work and also helps you learn how one approach can make sense across many fields

Build real-world, industry-strength data storage solutions with time-tested design methodologies using CassandraAbout This BookExplore design patterns which co-exist with legacy data stores, migration from RDBMS, and caching technologies with CassandraLearn about design patterns and use Cassandra to provide consistency, availability, and partition tolerance guarantees for applicationsHandle temporal data for analytical purposes Who This Book Is For This book is intended for big data developers who are familiar with the basics of Cassandra and wish to understand and utilize Cassandra design patterns to develop real-world big data solutions. Prior knowledge of RDBMS solutions is assumed.What You Will LearnEnable Cassandra to co-exist with RDBMS and other legacy data storesExplore various design patterns to build effective and robust storage solutionsMigrate from RDBMS-based data stores and caching solutions to CassandraUnderstand the behaviour of Cassandra when trying to balance the needs of consistency, availability, and partition toleranceDeal with time stamps related to data effectivelySee how Cassandra can be used in analytical use casesApply the design patterns covered in this book in real-world use cases In Detail There are many NoSQL data stores used by big data applications. Cassandra is one of the most widely used NoSQL data stores that is frequently used by a huge number of heavy duty Internet-scale applications. Unlike the RDBMS world, the NoSQL landscape is very diverse and there is no one way to model data stores. This mandates the need to have good solutions to commonly seen data store design problems. Cassandra addresses such common problems simply. If you are new to Cassandra but well-versed in RDBMS modeling and design, then it is natural to model data in the same way in Cassandra, resulting in poorly performing applications and losing the real purpose of Cassandra. If you want to learn to make the most of Cassandra, this book is for you. This book starts with strategies to integrate Cassandra with other legacy data stores and progresses to the ways in which a migration from RDBMS to Cassandra can be accomplished. The journey continues with ideas to migrate data from cache solutions to Cassandra. With this, the stage is set and the book moves on to some of the most commonly seen problems in applications when dealing with consistency, availability, and partition tolerance guarantees. Cassandra is exceptionally good at dealing with temporal data and patterns such as the time-series pattern and log pattern, which are covered next. Many NoSQL data stores fail miserably when a huge amount of data is read for analytical purposes, but Cassandra is different in this regard. Keeping analytical needs in mind, you’ll walk through different and interesting design patterns. No theoretical discussions are complete without a good set of use cases to which the knowledge gained can be applied, so the book concludes with a set of use cases you can apply the patterns you’ve learned.Style and approach This book is written in very simple language and an engaging style complete with examples in every chapter and real-world use cases at the end of the book.

Navigate the world of data analysis, visualization, and machine learning with over 100 hands-on Scala recipesAbout This BookImplement Scala in your data analysis using features from Spark, Breeze, and ZeppelinScale up your data anlytics infrastructure with practical recipes for Scala machine learningRecipes for every stage of the data analysis process, from reading and collecting data to distributed analytics Who This Book Is For This book shows data scientists and analysts how to leverage their existing knowledge of Scala for quality and scalable data analysis.What You Will LearnFamiliarize and set up the Breeze and Spark libraries and use data structuresImport data from a host of possible sources and create dataframes from CSVClean, validate and transform data using Scala to pre-process numerical and string dataIntegrate quintessential machine learning algorithms using Scala stackBundle and scale up Spark jobs by deploying them into a variety of cluster managersRun streaming and graph analytics in Spark to visualize data, enabling exploratory analysis In Detail This book will introduce you to the most popular Scala tools, libraries, and frameworks through practical recipes around loading, manipulating, and preparing your data. It will also help you explore and make sense of your data using stunning and insightfulvisualizations, and machine learning toolkits. Starting with introductory recipes on utilizing the Breeze and Spark libraries, get to grips withhow to import data from a host of possible sources and how to pre-process numerical, string, and date data. Next, you’ll get an understanding of concepts that will help you visualize data using the Apache Zeppelin and Bokeh bindings in Scala, enabling exploratory data analysis. iscover how to program quintessential machine learning algorithms using Spark ML library. Work through steps to scale your machine learning models and deploy them into a standalone cluster, EC2, YARN, and Mesos. Finally dip into the powerful options presented by Spark Streaming, and machine learning for streaming data, as well as utilizing Spark GraphX.Style and approach This book contains a rich set of recipes that covers the full spectrum of interesting data analysis tasks and will help you revolutionize your data analysis skills using Scala and Spark.

Explore the Underscore.js library by example using a test-driven development approachAbout This BookUnderstand and learn to apply functional programming principles using the built-in functions of Underscore.jsLeverage and reuse Underscore.js-based code to create code that targets client, server, or database contextsTake Underscore.js further by reusing code between client and server and by learning about other closely related libraries Who This Book Is For If you are a developer with fundamental JavaScript knowledge and want to use modern JavaScript libraries to extend your functional programming skills, then Underscore.js is an important library you should be familiar with.What You Will LearnReference and call Underscore.js functions using a modern JavaScript development workflowApply Underscore.js to JavaScript arrays, objects, and functionsTake advantage of object-oriented or functional programming techniques with Underscore.jsLeverage Underscore.js to create code that targets client, server, or database contextsExtend Underscore.js functionality with other closely related librariesReuse Underscore.js-based code between client and server applicationsPrepare for the upcoming JavaScript standard ECMAScript 6 and support older browsers In Detail Underscore.js is one of the most popular modern JavaScript libraries used for functional programming. It can be used as a base for building complex JavaScript applications in a sustainable manner and for building other JavaScript libraries. It embraces functional programming principles but is not opinionated and can be used with imperative, object-oriented, functional, or other programming styles. This book explores how to use Underscore.js to power your code and understand modern JavaScript development concepts while applying a lightweight and efficient workflow to build applications. The book starts with an incremental Underscore.js introduction by exploring key JavaScript concepts. You will then explore the basic features of Underscore.js in action and establish a lightweight development workflow that allows the provided examples to be guided by tests. The book then covers the functionality of Underscore.js with in-depth examples and explanations for understanding and applying the Underscore.js API. You'll also learn how to use Underscore.js as a base for your own modules and libraries within an object-oriented or functional programming style, and will be able to explore Underscore.js use cases in different environments. Eventually, you'll learn about libraries that are closely related with Underscore.js, how to share code between client and server, and how to prepare for the upcoming JavaScript standard ECMAScript 6.Style and approach This book takes an example-driven approach to describing some of the essential JavaScript concepts and practices that are useful for building sustainable applications.

Master the skills and techniques that are required to design, deploy, and administer real Linux-based networksAbout This BookMaster the art of using Linux and administering network services for enterprise environmentsPerform hands-on activities to reinforce expert-level knowledgeGet full coverage of both the CentOS and Debian systems, including how networking concepts differ for each Who This Book Is For Mastering Linux Network Administration is recommended for those who already understand the basics of using Linux and networking, and would like to push those skills to a higher level through real-world Linux networking scenarios. Whether you intend to run a home office consisting of Linux nodes or a rollout of a Linux network within your organization, this book is a great fit for those that desire to learn how to manage networked systems with the power of Linux.What You Will LearnInstall and configure the Debian and CentOS systemsSet up and configure file serversAdminister networked nodes remotelyDiscover how to monitor system performance for peak healthConfigure network services such as DNS and DHCPHost HTTP content via ApacheTroubleshoot Linux networking issues In Detail Linux is everywhere. Whether you run a home office, a small business, or manage enterprise systems, Linux can empower your network to perform at its very best. Armed with the advanced tools and best practice guidance of this practical guide, you'll be able to mold Linux networks to your will, empowering your systems and their users to take advantage of all that Linux-based networks have to offer. Understand how Linux networks function and get to grips with essential tips and tricks to manage them - whether you're already managing a networks, or even just starting out. With Debian and CentOS as its source, this book will divulge all the details you need to manage a real Linux-based network. With detailed activities and instructions based on real-world scenarios, this book will be your guide to the exciting world of Linux networking.Style and approach This practical guide will walk you through all the core concepts required to manage real Linux-based networks.

Over 90 recipes to help you build and run automated tests for your web applications with Selenium WebDriverAbout This BookLearn to leverage the power of Selenium WebDriver with simple examples that illustrate real-world problems and their workaroundsExplains the testing of mobile applications with Appium for mobile platforms such as iOS and AndroidA pragmatic manual with engaging recipes and attractive screenshots to test your web applications efficiently Who This Book Is For This book is intended for software quality assurance/testing professionals, software project managers, or software developers with prior experience in using Selenium and Java to test web-based applications. This books also provides examples for C#, Python and Ruby users.What You Will LearnUnderstand how the locators work and use various locator methods to build reliable testsBuild reliable and maintainable tests with the Selenium WebDriver APIUse the PageFactory pattern to build a robust and easy to maintain test frameworkBuild data-driven tests and extend Selenium API to implement custom steps and checksIntegrate and use ATDD/BDD tools such as Cucumber, SpecFlow, Capybara, and Behave with the Selenium WebDriver APISet up iPhone/iPad and Android simulators and devices to test your mobile web application with AppiumSet up Selenium Grid for faster and parallel running of tests, increasing test coverage and reducing test execution time for cross-browser testingBuild extended Selenium WebDriver tests for additional coverage In Detail This book is an incremental guide that will help you learn and use the advanced features of the Selenium toolset including the WebDriver API in various situations to build a reliable test automation. You start off by setting up the test development environment and gain tips on the advanced locater strategy and the effective use of the Selenium WebDriver API. After that, the use of design patterns such as data - driven tests and PageFactory are demonstrated. You will then be familiarised with extending Selenium WebDriver API by implementing custom tasks and setting up your own distributed environment to run tests in parallel for cross-browser testing. Finally, we give you some tips on integrating Selenium WebDriver with other popular tools and testing mobile applications. By the end of this book, you will have learned enough to solve complex testing issues on your own.Style and approach This recipe-based guide covers real-life scenarios of testing your web apps with Selenium. Each recipe begins with a short introduction and key concepts along with illustrated examples of use cases, and ends with detailed but informative de*ions of the inner workings of the example.

In this boldest book since Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Bishop John Shelby Spong offers a compelling view of the Gospels as thoroughly Jewish tests.Spong powerfully argues that many of the key Gospel accounts of events in the life of Jesus from the stories of his birth to his physical resurrection are not literally true. He offers convincing evidence that the Gospels are a collection of Jewish midrashic stories written to convey the significance of Jesus. This remarkable discovery brings us closer to how Jesus was really understood in his day and should be in ours.

The authority on panic and anxiety newly revised and expandedAre you one of the more than nineteen million Americans who suffer from anxietyDon't panic. Newly revised and expanded, this edition offers a straightforward and remarkably effective self-help program for overcoming panic and coping with anxious fears. With insight and compassion, Reid Wilson, Ph.D., demystifies anxiety attacks and provides indispensable advice, including: how a panic attack happens, what causes it, and how it can affect your life how to recognize, manage, and control the moment of panic how to control the chronic muscle tensions that increase anxiety how to conquer fear and face problems with confidence how to decide which medication is right for you how to establish reachable goals and rediscover the joy of living

With over 200 pre*ions for giving yourself a break, this book helps the reader to sort out guilty feelings about self nurture and to define her comfort/self nurture needs.In this book the author delivers a host of creative and comforting programmes like the self care schedule, creative selfishness, creating a comfort network, body delights, a personal sanctuary, the comfort journal, bathing pleasures and comfort rituals. Organised by topic and cross referenced throughout, this guidebook is designed to appeal to women of all ages. The new edition has been revised and updated for modern women.

Bestselling author Charlie Connelly returns with a First World War memoir of his great uncle, Edward Connelly, who was an ordinary boy sent to fight in a war the likes of which the world had never seen. But this is not just his story; it is the story of all the young forgotten soldiers who fought and bravely died for their country The Forgotten Soldier tells the story of Private Edward Connelly, aged 19, killed in the First World War a week before the Armistice and immediately forgotten, even, it seems, by his own family. Edward died on exactly the same day, and as part of the same military offensive, as Wilfred Owen. They died only a few miles apart and yet there cannot be a bigger contrast between their legacies. Edward had been born into poverty in west London on the eve of the twentieth century, had a job washing railway carriages, was con*ed into the army at the age of eighteen and sent to the Western Front from where he would never return. He lies buried miles from home in a small military cemetery on the outskirts of an obscure town close to the French border in western Belgium. No-one has ever visited him. Like thousands of other young boys, Edward’s life and death were forgotten. By delving into and uncovering letters, poems and war diaries to reconstruct his great uncle’s brief life and needless death; Charlie fills in the blanks of Edward’s life with the experiences of similar young men giving a voice to the voiceless. Edward Connelly’s tragic story comes to represent all the young men who went off to the Great War and never came home. This is a book about the unsung heroes, the ordinary men who did their duty with utmost courage, and who deserve to be remembered.

There is a mysterious, indescribable, complex exchange that can happen in the space between you and your partner. You find each other. Your centers of gravity expand as your lives become more and more entwined. You create space for this other person to thrive while they're doing the same for you. This creates a flow of energy in the space between you. This energy field is at the heart of marriage. It flows in the space between you, space that exists nowhere else in the universe. You can become more familiar with how this energy field works. You can develop language between you to identify what's happening in the space between you. You can sharpen your abilities to assess it. You can act in certain ways to increase the flow. You can identify what's blocking the flow, and then you can overcome those barriers. Years into your marriage, you can continue to intensify this energetic flow between you.It is risky to give yourself to another. There are no guarantees, and there are lots of ways for it to fall apart and break your heart. But the upside is infinite. from The Zimzum of LoveNew York Times bestselling author Rob Bell and his wife, Kristen Bell, explore a whole new way of understanding our most intimate and powerful relationship: marriage. The concepts behind The Zimzum of Love open ways for us to transform and deepen how we love.

One of the world's most beloved teachers and Zen masters shares a profound, concise, and practical guide to understanding and developing our most powerful inner resource silence to help us find happiness, purpose, and peace.We spend a lot of our lives searching for happiness, running from one thing to another, worrying about the past and being anxious about the future. All the while the world around us is overflowing with the wonder and contentment we seek. This beauty calls to us every day, yet we rarely are in the position to listen. If we don't have silence in ourselves, if our minds and our bodies are full of noise, we can't hear beauty's call.In Silence, Thich Nhat Hanh guides us on a path to cultivate the calm within ourselves and experience the profound power of quiet amid our noisy everyday lives.The gift of silence doesn't require hours upon hours of solitary meditation or an existing practice of any kind. With mindfulness comes the stillness we need to come home to ourselves and discover who we are and what we truly want.Combining powerful stories, timeless wisdom, and simple mindfulness techniques, Thich Nhat Hanh shows us that silence is at the heart of the happiness we seek.

In this highly acclaimed translation, Stephen Mitchell conveys in English the simplicity, dignity and powerful earthiness of the original Hebrew. More than just interpreting it, he also separates stories that were combined by scribes centuries after they were written, explaining their sources and omitting all verses that are recognized as scribal additions. Like removing coat after coat of lacquer from a once-vibrant masterpiece, this allows readers to appreciate the clarity of the original tales.Genesis is an extraordinarily beautiful book that is accessible in a way that no other translation has ever been. It will shed new light on readers' understanding of this seminal work of sacred *ure.

Pamela Haag has written the generational "big book" on modern marriage, a mesmerizing, sometimes salacious look at the semi-happy ambivalence lurking just below the surface of many marriages today. The spouses may rarely fight they may maintain a sincere affection for each other but one or both may harbor a melancholy sense that something important is missing. Remarkably, this side of the marriage story hasn't been told or analyzed until now.Meticulously researched and injected with insightful firsthand accounts and welcome doses of humor, Marriage Confidential articulates for a generation that grew up believing they would "have it all" why they have ended up disenchanted. Haag introduces us to contemporary marriages where spouses act more like life partners than lovers; children occupy an uncontested position at the center of the marital relationship; and even the romantic staples of sexual fidelity and passion are assailed from all sides so much so that spouses can end up having affairs online almost by accident.Blending tales from the front lines of matrimony with cultural history, surveys, and research covert-ops (such as joining an online affair-finding site and posting a personal ad in the New York Review of Books), Haag paints a detailed picture of the state of marriage today. And to show what's possible as well as what's melancholy in our post-romantic age, Haag seeks out marriages with a twist rebels who are quietly brainstorming and evolving the *s around career, money, social life, child rearing, and sex.Provocative but sympathetic, forward-thinking and bold, here, at last, is a manifesto for living large in marriage.

Now in paperback, The Reluctant Parting is a poignant look at the New Testament exploring the forgotten question of intention and identity in Christianity's core writings– How did Jesus's followers stop being Jewish without meaning toWhile other books have demonstrated the "Jewishness" of Jesus, none have grappled with the implications of the New Testament authors' relationship to their own Judaism. The Christian New Testament has led a life never imagined by its Jewish sectarian authors. Through lively and accessible scholarship, Galambush reveals the anguish of the early Christians as they first struggled with, and then left behind, the larger Jewish community. She illuminates the human drama of the split between Jews and Christians, revealing a deep loss at the heart of Christian tradition that continues to cry out for reconciliation between Christianity and the Judaism it so painfully left. Not just another well–credentialed scholar, Galambush is uniquely positioned as both a convert to Judaism and a former associate pastor to identify what is at stake for Jews as well as for Christians. The book's deeply empathic portrayal of the early Christians' struggle with their Jewish identity will allow it to serve as a resource for Jews and Christians alike.

The key to how ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things after traumatic upheavalMany people suffer trauma in their lifetime. While some experience serious psychological consequences, like post-traumatic stress disorder and other afflictions, many are able to move on and overcome trauma's effects. Then there are those rare individuals who, in the aftermath of great tragedy and turmoil, reassess their priorities, redirect their focus, and accomplish extraordinary feats they break records, win awards, and meet the seemingly unattainable goals they set for themselves.These are the supersurvivors. A leukemia sufferer who won an Olympic gold medal, a blind man who rowed across the Atlantic, a woman who survived genocide in Rwanda and went on to become a President Obama appointee: these are among the extraordinary men and women who moved beyond mere resilience. They radically deviated on their life path, transforming the worst thing to happen to them into their best success.Renowned psychology researchers David B. Feldman and Lee Daniel Kravetz interviewed dozens of men and women to understand how these individuals pushed beyond their experiences to attain greatness. We discover why certain delusions can be healthy, why forgiveness is good for the body, and why reflecting on death can lead to a better life. And, perhaps counterintuitively, we learn how positive thinking is not always a strategy toward the good. Feldman and Kravetz weave the narratives of these supersurvivors with the latest scientific findings and clinical experience to elucidate how we can learn from their inspiring stories, offering hope that tragedy does not have to cause us to shrink from a full and adventurous life. Supersurvivors is sure to reset our thinking about how we deal with all our challenges, no matter who we are or what we have endured.

From Kimberly Seals-Allers, the creator of the Mocha Manual series, and coauthor Pamela McBride, a seasoned military wife, comes the ultimate guide to life, love, and logistics for military spouses, girlfriends, and female service members. Whether you're just beginning to date a military man and pondering the ins and outs of a long-distance relationship as he moves from base to base or you're a newly wed military wife, The Mocha Manual to Military Life has a host of tips for optimizing your romance. Beyond matters of the heart, the book also offers advice on everything from how to thrive during deployment to how to master military protocol to how to best build friendships among military wives. Accessible and witty, The Mocha Manual to Military Life is a fresh and timely must-read for all women but particularly African American and Latina women affected by military service. Written in the same informative tone as the other books in the Mocha Manual series, with sidebars and testimony from women who have experience navigating military life, this book is sure to be essential reading for all women engaged in some form or fashion with the military.

Because We All Have a Relationship We Need to Put to Rest From your basic lying, cheating, no-good scum to those relationships that were doomed from the start (they were married to different people), to a man who faked his death, Relationship Obits is a voyeuristic romp through the unexplored underbelly of love and life. Kathleen Horan founded relationshipobit.com when a big breakup was followed two weeks later by the death of her father. Writing her father's obituary made her wonder what it would be like to write one for the end of her relationship. The Web site was born and thousands began to put their love to rest online. This collection is at times hilarious, raw, shocking, and poignant a true celebration of love in all its manifestations.