Thanks to its exquisite pictorial material, this book familiarizes the reader with the logic and golden rules of art. It enables an understanding, on the one hand, of the keys to appreciating the works of the great masters, and on the other, of how to apply these rules to the practice of one's own creative activities.The work begins with a number of basic explanations on how to represent and interrelate the different parts of the human body. The introduction is followed by chapters on the various possibilities for representing male and female nudes, and mythological and biblical figures, dressed and contextualized. Finally it looks at quadruped animals and birds.

"Everyone gets dressed and getting dressed affects everything." —Bobbie Thomas, the TODAY show style editor Beyond understanding your best colors and figure-flattering clothes, Bobbie takes a unique step back in this inspiring guide to empower you to feel stylish, smart, sexy, and satisfied—with a look that's uniquely your own… You can't live life naked, so after you brush your teeth in the morning, you put "something" on. It's the first decision of your day, but have you ever considered that it's also one of the most importantStyle goes far beyond fashion and beauty and is a powerful way to say who we are and get what we want. Your "style speak" comes through in a louder "voice" than anything you might scream from a rooftop. But often, there is so much focus on the outside that we forget to step back and understand that style really starts inside. From your love life to your career, and the less obvious moments in between, the way people see you will filter your opportunities. Ultimately, what they see is what you get. In part I of this must-have style guide, Bobbie Thomas will help you identify what you'd like others to see and boost your confidence, and in part II , she'll show you how to find your best colors and cuts, edit your closet, and more, so you can build a better, more useful wardrobe.

The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling phenomenon The Daring Book for Girls is an even more daring guide to everything from making a raft to learning how to play football to the art of the Japanese Tea ceremony. This second volume, with all new original material, promises to be even more of a daring adventure than the first. Girls will learn how to surf, get horseback riding tips, make a labyrinth, find out about April Fool's Day history and pranks, how to organize a croquet tournament, find out about cowgirls, the Nobel Prize, being a detective and much more! Just as packed with creative and exciting material as the original, but twice as fun, this book will be beloved by all Daring fans everywhere!

An eye-opening look at the winners and losers in the high-stakes story of Arctic transformation, from nations to natives to animals to the very landscape itself The Arctic like the canary in the coal mine has reacted more quickly and dramatically to global warming than many had anticipated. Hundreds of scientists are urgently trying to predict just how the Arctic will change and how those changes will in turn affect the rest of the planet. But plenty of other people, driven by profit rather than data, are interested as well. The riches of the world’s last virgin territory have spurred the reawakening of old geopolitical rivalries. The United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, and the Danish territory of Greenland all control areas around the Arctic Ocean. We face a new era of oil rigs and drill ships, of tankers taking shortcuts from Yokohama to Rotterdam, as well as a potential fight over the Arctic’s treasures.Alongside the winners from an open Arctic sea are the many losers, from the nomadic reindeer herders of Siberia and Scandinavia to the Inuit hunters of Alaska, Greenland, and Canada. Other creatures that rely on the vast expanses of sea ice, including seals, birds, and whales and the ecosystems within which they live may disappear to be replaced by different creatures. Combining science, business, politics, and adven-ture, Alun Anderson takes the reader to the ends of the earth for what may be the last narrative portrait of this rapidly changing land of unparalleled global significance.

A wonderfully nostalgic and inspiring look at the center of the home front during World War II New York City More than any other place, New York was the center of action on the home front during World War II. As Hitler came to power in Germany, American Nazis goose-stepped in Yorkville on the Upper East Side, while recently arrived Jewish émigrés found refuge on the Upper West Side. When America joined the fight, enlisted men heading for battle in Europe or the Pacific streamed through Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station. The Brooklyn Navy Yard refitted ships, and Times Square overflowed with soldiers and sailors enjoying some much-needed R & R. German U-boats attacked convoys leaving New York Harbor. Silhouetted against the gleaming skyline, ships were easy prey debris and even bodies washed up on Long Island beaches until the city rallied under a stringently imposed dim-out.From Rockefeller Center's Victory Gardens and Manhattan's swanky nightclubs to metal-scrap drives and carless streets, Over Here! captures the excitement, trepidation, and bustle of this legendary city during wartime. Filled with the reminiscences of ordinary and famous New Yorkers, including Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters, and Angela Lansbury, and rich in surprising detail from Macy's blackout boutique to Mickey Mouse gas masks for kids this engaging look back is an illuminating tour of New York on the front lines of the home front.

Baseball is the only game where the defense has the ball.So begins an inside look at baseball's most scrutinized group of players relief pitchers and life in the most intriguing bullpen of all, that of the New York Yankees.Second-guessed and overstressed, the manager finds his use of the bullpen the most debated topic after any game, but the reliever is the guy in the spotlight, game on the line, alone on a raised mound of clay.Bestselling sportswriter Charley Rosen takes the reader on the wild journey that is the evolution of relief pitching over the years and examines the eccentric characters who have taken on the pressure of closing out games or not. Bullpen Diaries is full of interviews with key players, coaches, and scouts from around the league; replete with the drama of blown plays and walk-off grand slams; and laced with funny anecdotes about Yankee greats throughout the years.To underscore the drama and difficulty of being a reliever, Rosen uses key games in the 2010 season acknowledged now as the Year of the Pitcher to highlight strategies and mistakes, examine relievers on the rise or on the way out, and analyze the teams and the pitchers the Yanks faced. Bullpen Diaries also takes a look at Yankee strategies for success past, present, and, most important, future. Lastly, Rosen reveals his predictions for 2011 and beyond for baseball's most storied franchise.With insight on current players from around the league and tales of Yankee legends, Stadium history, and the author's Bronx childhood, Bullpen Diaries is a love letter to baseball and a pure joy for all fans of America's favorite pastime.

The critically acclaimed author of Good-bye and Amen, Leeway Cottage, and More Than You Know returns with a sharply perceptive and emotionally resonant novel about all the ways we talk about one another, the sometimes fine line between showing concern and doing damage, and the difficulty of knowing the true obligations of friendshipGossipBeth Gutcheon "Did you know that the origin of the word gossip in English is 'god-sibling'It's the talk between people who are godparents to the same child, people who have a legitimate loving interest in the person they talk about. It's talk that weaves a net of support and connection beneath the people you want to protect."Loviah "Lovie" French owns a small, high-end dress shop on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Renowned for her taste and discretion, Lovie is the one to whom certain women turn when they need "just the thing" for major life events baptisms and balls, weddings and funerals or when they just want to dish in the dressing room. Among the people who depend on Lovie's confidence are her two best friends since boarding school: Dinah Wainwright and Avis Metcalf. Outspoken and brimming with confidence, Dinah made a name for herself as a columnist covering the doings of New York's wealthiest and most fabulous. Shy, proper Avis, in many ways Dinah's opposite, rose to prominence in the art world with her quiet manners, hard work, and precise judgment. Despite the deep affection they both feel for Lovie, they have been more or less allergic to each other since a minor incident decades earlier that has been remembered and resented with what will prove to be unimaginable consequences. These uneasy acquaintances become unwillingly bound to each other when Dinah's favorite son and Avis's only daughter fall in love and marry. On the surface, Nick and Grace are the perfect match a playful, romantic, buoyant, and beautiful pair. But their commitment will be strained by time and change: career setbacks, reckless choices, the birth of a child, jealousies, and rumor. At the center of their orbit is Lovie, who knows everyone's secrets and manages them as wisely as she can. Which is not wisely enough, as things turn out a fact that will have a shattering effect on all their lives.An astute chronicler of everything that makes us human, Beth Gutcheon delivers her most powerful and emotionally devastating novel to date. Gossip is a tale of intimacy and betrayal, trust and fidelity, friendship, competition, and motherhood that explores the myriad ways we use and abuse "information" about others be it true, false, or imagined to sustain, and occasionally destroy, one another.

End Pain.Foster Personal and Professional Growth.Live Better. While endings are a natural part of business and life, we often experience them with a sense of hesitation, sadness, resignation, or regret. But consultant, psychologist, and bestselling author Dr. Henry Cloud sees endings differently. He argues that our personal and professional lives can only improve to the degree that we can see endings as a necessary and strategic step to something better. If we cannot see endings in a positive light and execute them well, he asserts, the "better" will never come either in business growth or our personal lives.In this insightful and deeply empathetic book, Dr. Cloud demonstrates that, when executed well, "necessary endings" allow us to proactively correct the bad and the broken in our lives in order to make room for the professional and personal growth we seek. However, when endings are avoided or handled poorly as is too often the case good opportunities may be lost, and misery repeated. Drawing on years of experience as an executive coach and a psychologist, Dr. Cloud offers a mixture of advice and case studies to help readers know when to have realistic hope and when to execute a necessary ending in a business, or with an individual; identify which employees, projects, activities, and relationships are worth nurturing and which are not; overcome people's resistance to change and create change that works; create urgency and an action plan for what's important; stop wasting resources needed for the things that really matter. Knowing when and how to let go when something, or someone, isn't working a personal relationship, a job, or a business venture is essential for happiness and success. Necessary Endings gives readers the tools they need to say good-bye and move on.

What can chess masters teach us about how humans become expertsWhy can't race car drivers explain decisions they've made behind the wheel?What does predicting the winner of a soccer match say about our ability to make the right choiceWhen we talk about experts, we typically have bought into the idea that they have all the answers. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Gordon Rugg exposes the surprising ways in which all people tend to make the same sorts of mistakes, regardless of what field they are in, how smart they are, or even their level of expertise. Focusing on why and how we make decisions, Rugg offers insight into what motivates us, how we fail to find the answers we are looking for, how we can learn to ask the essential questions, and more. Rugg has devoted his life to learning how experts solve problems. He gained international attention after arguing persuasively that the famous Voynich Manu* is a hoax. Now, he demonstrates his techniques in the Verifier Method, which can be applied to any seemingly unsolvable problem.Drawing on his personal odyssey in the field of human expertise, Rugg makes astute and entertaining conclusions about how and why we inevitably fail, and explains how to make better mistakes, work backward, and reengineer the ways we pursue success.

A comprehensive look at 300 of the most financially and/or critically successful motion pictures of all time many made despite seemingly insurmountable economic, cultural, and political challenges set against the prevailing production, distribution, exhibition, marketing, and technology trends of each decade in movie business history.

The indie world is producing extraordinary toy characters but little is known about the designers creating them or the processes used to make them. We Are Indie Toys! profiles the most interesting toymakers and reveals how they turn their unique ideas into one-of-a-kind collectibles.

The in-flight explosion of TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996, was one of the deadliest disasters in American history, spurring the most expensive airline investigation ever undertaken by the U.S. government. To this day the crash remains clouded in doubt and shadowed by suspicion of a government conspiracy.If there was any conspiracy to hide the truth about what really happened to Flight 800, it began long before the crash. Past crashes tell the story: What happened on Flight 800 has happened before and will again, unless drastic changes are made. Now veteran journalist Christine Negroni reveals what the commercial aviation industry has known for more than thirty-five years that during flight confined vapors in the fuel tanks can create a bomb like environment. It takes only a small energy source to ignite it.TWA Flight 800 was the fourteenth fuel tank explosion on a commercial airliner in thirty-five years. Yet each and every time, the airline industry persuaded regulators to deal with the symptoms of the problem and ignore the cause. When investigators could not immediately determine what happened, they were finally forced to look at the bigger picture. And, for the first time, this book exposes the hubris of aircraft manufacturers who knew all along, but dismissed as acceptable, the risk of fuel tank explosions.Deadly Departure shines a spotlight on the chaos behind the most massive crash investigation ever conducted, how the White House had to intervene between feuding investigators, and the surprising stories behind the missile theory conspiracies. It also tells the stories of the passengers and their families, the people of TWA and Boeing, the rescue and crisis workers, and the investigators and scientists involved illustrating the devastating effects on human lives. An impeccably researched, eye-opening examination of one of the great disasters of our time, Deadly Departure is a stunning exposé of how industry pressure continues to undermine regulatory policy, placing air travelers' lives at risk.

Dorothy and Otis Shepard are the groundbreaking heroes of North American visual culture. They were the first American graphic designers to work in multiple mediums and scales, but despite the brilliance of their work, their names are little known today. With 330 stunning, colorful images, Dorothy and Otis chronicles their story for the first time. It explores the Shepards' penchant for abstraction and modernism, and shows how the advent of billboard advertising inspired their creativity their large campaigns matched the grandeur of their lifestyle. Throughout, this book demonstrates how their work influenced all aspects of consumer culture, from the styling of Wrigley's Gum and the Chicago Cubs to the design of Catalina Island, which Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, and other celebrities frequented.As Dorothy and Otis brings these artists to life, it elevates them to their rightful place in popular culture and makes clear how their work shaped the American dream.With more than 330 full-color photographs throughout

Inspired by their popular USA Today column, conservative Cal Thomas and liberal Bob Beckel unmask the hypocrisy of the issues, organizations, and individuals that have created and deepened the partisan divide at the center of American politics, and make a strategic case for why this bickering must stop. Thomas and Beckel explain how bipartisanship and consensus politics are not only good for the day-to-day democratic process but also essential for our nation's future well-being. Entertaining and informative, funny and healing, Common Ground is a must-read for all concerned citizens.

The hilarious, implausible, and touching story of twin brothers accomplishing the impossible making a feature film (with a cast and crew with 11 Academy Awards and 26 nominations) with no experience, no money and no contacts.When identical twin brothers Logan and Noah Miller's homeless father died alone in a jail cell, they vowed, come hell or high water, that their film, Touching Home, would be made as a dedication to their love for him. Either You're in or You're in the Way is the amazing story of how without a dime to their names nor a single meaningful contact in Hollywood they managed to write, produce, direct, and act in a feature film alongside four-time Academy Award-nominated actor Ed Harris and fellow nominees Brad Dourif and Robert Forster. Either You're in or You're in the Way tells of the desperate struggle of two sons fighting to keep a vow to their father, and in so doing, creating a better life for themselves. A modern-day Horatio Alger on steroids, this fast-paced thrill ride of heartbreak and redemption will both captivate and inspire.

Dean Silverthorne's mother may be dead, but she still has matchmaking to do.When an injury dashes NFL Quarterback Dean Silverthorne's Super Bowl dreams, he heads back to Deer Lick, Montana with a chip on his wounded shoulder, more determined than ever to get back in the game. He loves his kooky family, but this trip home is going to be a very brief Christmas visit. His game plan doesn't include an instant attraction to Emma Hart, a feisty kindergarten teacher who seems to be the only person in Deer Lick not interested in the hometown hero. Or his dearly departed mom popping up with mistletoe in hand and meddling on the mind. Now Dean can't help but wonder if there's more to love than life between the goal posts.

In the second in Maya Rodale's delightful Wallflower series, London's Least Likely to Cause a Scandal is taking Society by storm . . .Being good has worked out very badly for Lady Olivia Archer. All she has to show for four seasons on the marriage mart is the nickname Prissy Missy. Her prospects are so bleak that her parents have betrothed her to a stranger with a dire reputation. If Phinneas Cole aka The Mad Baron wants a biddable bride, perhaps Olivia can frighten him off by breaking every ladylike rule. Phinn has admired Olivia's poise and refinement from afar . . . qualities that appear to have vanished now that they are officially engaged. This Olivia is flirtatious, provocative, and wickedly irresistible. She's not at all the woman he bargained for, yet she's the only one he wants.He's determined to woo her. She's determined to resist. But Olivia is discovering there's nothing so appealing as a fiance who's mad, bad, and dangerously seductive . . .

He runs his own business and coaches Little League. She drives a minivan, and she'd be lost without her trusty BlackBerry. They go on date nights. Their kids attend public schools, play sports, and take music lessons. They live in a roomy house in the ‘burbs. They're about as mainstream as families come. They're also polygamists. Love Times Three, the first-ever memoir of a polygamous family, is a riveting inside look at a world most of us can hardly imagine, revealing the extraordinary workings of the Dargers' day-to-day life. In this intimate, inside story, the Dargers explain why they chose this path despite the pressures of keeping their relationships secret and the jealousy and personal challenges that naturally ensue, why they believe polygamy should be an accepted lifestyle, and, ultimately, why they hope that by revealing their way of life in public, laws that criminalize their lifestyle might change.

Fans of the hit Bravo show Tabatha's Salon Takeover tune in for the straight-shooting, unvarnished commentary of its ballsy, stylish, and savvy star. Though millions admire Tabatha Coffey's unflinching honesty and never-say-die attitude, some do not and have even taken to name-calling. Refusing to let others define her, she has reclaimed the word "bitch," transforming it to fit the person she is: Brave, Intelligent, Tenacious, Creative, and Honest. In It's Not Really About the Hair, this deeply private woman shares the experiences of her own life to encourage you to get in touch with your own inner bitch. Tabatha reveals how she used her strength and openness to help define her signature look, personal relationships, life choices, and tenacious work ethic—one that in her own words likens her to "a pit bull with a bone." Here are the people and the circumstances that have led her to a place of honesty, self-assurance, satisfaction, and success—from her tough-minded mum to her famous mentors, her peers, and clients. Part memoir, part business manual, and part coaching guide on achieving self-acceptance and love, It's Not Really About the Hair teaches you that it's all right to be who you are, stand up for what you believe in, and do what makes you happy without being defined by others. Tabatha Coffey's raw, funny, shocking, and always inspirational story will encourage you to celebrate the long-lasting and most important beauty of all—the true beauty that is you.

Tom Piazza's sharp intelligence, insight, and passion fuel this new collection of writings on music, literature, New Orleans, and America itself in desperate times. For his first book since his award-winning novel City of Refuge and his stunning and influential post-Katrina polemic Why New Orleans Matters, Piazza selects the best of his writings on American roots music and musicians, including his Grammy-winning album notes for Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues; his classic profile of bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin; essays on Jimmie Rodgers, Charley Patton, and Bob Dylan; and much more. In the book's second section, Piazza turns his attention to literature, politics, and post-Katrina America in articles and essays on subjects ranging from Charlie Chan movies to the life and work of Norman Mailer, from the New Orleans housing crisis to the BP oil spill, from Jelly Roll Morton's Library of Congress recordings to the future of books. The third and final section delivers a startlingly original meditation on fiction, sentimentality, and cynicism a major new essay from this brilliant, unpredictable, and absolutely necessary writer.

What can we learn about life, love, and artillery from an eighty-two-year-old man whose favorite hobby is firing his homemade cannonsVisit by visit often with his young daughters in tow author Michael Perry is about to find out.Toiling in a shop Perry describes as "an antique store stocked by Rube Goldberg, curated by Hunter Thompson, and rearranged by a small earthquake," Tom Hartwig makes gag shovel handles, parts for quarter-million-dollar farm equipment, and now and then batches of potentially "extralegal" explosives. As he approaches his sixtieth wedding anniversary with his wife, Arlene, Tom, famous for driving a team of oxen in local parades, has an endless reservoir of stories dating back to days of his prize Model A, and an anti-authoritarian streak refreshed daily by the four-lane interstate that was shoved through his front yard in 1965 and now dumps over 8 million vehicles past his kitchen window every year. And yet Visiting Tom is dominated by the elderly man's equanimity and ultimately when he and Perry converse over the kitchen table as husbands and as the fathers of daughters unvarnished tenderness.