Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Harper (November 24, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $9.00

From one of the best-loved authors of all time comes an irresistible adventure of swashbuckling pirates in the New World, a classic story of treasure and betrayal.

The Caribbean, 1665. A remote colony of the English Crown, the island of Jamaica holds out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, its capital, is a cutthroat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses.

In this steamy climate there's a living to be made, a living that can end swiftly by disease—or by dagger. For Captain Charles Hunter, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking, and the law of the land rests with those ruthless enough to make it.

Word in port is that the galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is awaiting repairs in a nearby harbor. Heavily fortified, the impregnable harbor is guarded by the bloodthirsty Cazalla, a favorite commander of the Spanish king himself. With backing from a powerful ally, Hunter assembles a crew of ruffians to infiltrate the enemy outpost and commandeer El Trinidad, along with its fortune in Spanish gold. The raid is as perilous as the bloodiest tales of island legend, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he even sets foot on foreign shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish infantry stand between him and the treasure. . . .

Pirate Latitudes is Michael Crichton at his best: a rollicking adventure tale pulsing with relentless action, crackling atmosphere, and heart-pounding suspense.

Michael Crichton's novels include Next, State of Fear, Prey, Timeline, Jurassic Park, and The Andromeda Strain. He is also known as a filmmaker and the creator of ER. One of the most popular writers in the world, he has sold over 150 million books, which have been translated into thirty-six languages; thirteen have been made into films. He remains the only writer to have had the number one book, movie, and TV show at the same time. Pirate Latitudes was discovered as a complete manuscript in his files after his death in 2008.

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Hardcover: 784 pages
Publisher: Tor Books (October 27, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $16.49

“The battle scenes have the breathless urgency of firsthand experience, and the . . . evil laced into the forces of good, the dangers latent in any promised salvation, the sense of the unavoidable onslaught of unpredictable events bear the marks of American national experience during the last three decades.”—The New York Times on The Wheel of Time

“The Wheel of Time . . . is a fantasy tale seldom equaled and still less often surpassed in English.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“Jordan has a powerful vision of good and evil—but what strikes me as most pleasurable . . . is all the fascinating people moving through a rich and interesting world.”—Orson Scott Card on The Wheel of Time

Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, looms. And mankind is not ready.

The final volume of the Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, was partially written by Robert Jordan before his untimely passing in 2007. Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, was chosen by Jordan’s editor---his wife, Harriet McDougal---to complete the final book. The scope and size of the volume was such that it could not be contained in a single book, and so Tor proudly presents The Gathering Storm as the first of three novels that will make up A Memory of Light. This short sequence will complete the struggle against the Shadow, bringing to a close a journey begun almost twenty years ago and marking the conclusion of the Wheel of Time, the preeminent fantasy epic of our era.

In this epic novel, Robert Jordan’s international bestselling series begins its dramatic conclusion. Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward---wishing he could form at least a temporary truce with the invaders---his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself.

Egwene al’Vere, the Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, is a captive of the White Tower and subject to the whims of their tyrannical leader. As days tick toward the Seanchan attack she knows is imminent, Egwene works to hold together the disparate factions of Aes Sedai while providing leadership in the face of increasing uncertainty and despair. Her fight will prove the mettle of the Aes Sedai, and her conflict will decide the future of the White Tower---and possibly the world itself.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

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Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher : Harper; 1 edition (November 3, 2009)
Language : English
Price : $13.49

"The novel achieves a rare dramatic power...Kingsolver masterfully resurrects a dark period in American history with the assured hand of a true literary artist."

In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.

Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption.

With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.

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Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Vintage (April 29, 1997)
Language: English
Price : $7.15

Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. "Sometimes I wish I was not alive," Precious says. "But I don't know how to die. Ain' no plug to pull out. 'N no matter how bad I feel my heart don't stop beating and my eyes open in the morning." An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it.

Precious is now a major motion picture based on the novel Push by Sapphire, starring Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, and Lenny Kravitz. Enjoy these images from the film, and click the thumbnails to see larger images.

With this much anticipated first novel, told from the point of view of an illiterate, brutalized Harlem teenager, Sapphire (American Dreams), a writer affiliated with the Nuyorican poets, charts the psychic damage of the most ghettoized of inner-city inhabitants. Obese, dark-skinned, HIV-positive, bullied by her sexually abusive mother, Clareece, Precious Jones is, at the novel's outset, pregnant for the second time with her father's child. (Precious had her first daughter at 12, named Little Mongo, "short for Mongoloid Down Sinder, which is what she is; sometimes what I feel I is. I feel so stupid sometimes. So ugly, worth nuffin.") Referred to a pilot program by an unusually solicitous principal, Precious comes under the experimental pedagogy of a lesbian miracle worker named, implausibly enough, Blue Rain. Under her angelic mentorship, Precious, who has never before experienced real nurturing, learns to voice her long suppressed feelings in a journal. As her language skills improve, she finds sustenance in writing poetry, in friendships and in support groups-one for "insect" survivors and one for HIV-positive teens. It is here that Sapphire falters, as her slim and harrowing novel, with its references to Harriet Tubman, Langston Hughes and The Color Purple (a parallel the author hints at again and again), becomes a conventional, albeit dark and unresolved, allegory about redemption. The ending, composed of excerpts from the journals of Precious's classmates, lends heightened realism and a wider scope to the narrative, but also gives it a quality of incompleteness. Sapphire has created a remarkable heroine in Precious, whose first-person street talk is by turns blisteringly savvy, rawly lyrical, hilariously pig-headed and wrenchingly vulnerable. Yet that voice begs to be heard in a larger novel of more depth and complexity. 150,000 first printing; first serial to the New Yorker; audio rights to Random; foreign rights sold to England, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Brazil.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (November 3, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $11.99

In his first collection of short stories John Grisham takes us back to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his first novel, A Time to Kill.

Wheelchair-bound Inez Graney and her two older sons, Leon and Butch, take a bizarre road trip through the Mississippi Delta to visit the youngest Graney brother, Raymond, who's been locked away on death row for eleven years. It could well be their last visit.

Mack Stafford, a hard-drinking and low-grossing run-of-the-mill divorce lawyer gets a miracle phone call with a completely unexpected offer to settle some old, forgotten cases for more money than he has ever seen. Mack is suddenly bored with the law, fed up with his wife and his life, and makes drastic plans to finally escape.

Quiet, dull Sidney, a data collector for an insurance company, perfects his blackjack skills in hopes of bringing down the casino empire of Clanton's most ambitious hustler, Bobby Carl Leach, who, among other crimes, has stolen Sidney's wife.

Three good ol' boys from rural Ford County begin a journey to the big city of Memphis to give blood to a grievously injured friend. However, they are unable to drive past a beer store as the trip takes longer and longer. The journey comes to an abrupt end when they make a fateful stop at a Memphis strip club.

The Quiet Haven Retirement Home is the final stop for the elderly of Clanton. It's a sad, languid place with little controversy, until Gilbert arrives. Posing as a lowly paid bedpan boy, he is in reality a brilliant stalker with an uncanny ability to sniff out the assets of those "seniors" he professes to love.

One of the hazards of litigating against people in a small town is that one day, long after the trial, you will probably come face-to-face with someone you've beaten in a lawsuit. Lawyer Stanley Wade bumps into an old adversary, a man with a long memory, and the encounter becomes a violent ordeal.

Clanton is rocked with the rumor that the gay son of a prominent family has finally come home, to die. Of AIDS. Fear permeates the town as gossip runs unabated. But in Lowtown, the colored section of Clanton, the young man finds a soul mate in his final days.

Featuring a cast of characters you'll never forget, these stories bring Ford County to vivid and colorful life. Often hilarious, frequently moving, and always entertaining, this collection makes it abundantly clear why John Grisham is our most popular storyteller.

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Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (October 13, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $10.19

When a struggling young single mother saves the life of an elderly woman, she sets into motion a series of events that will test her strength, loyalty, and determination, all the while setting her on the path to finding true love. Christine Eisley is the mother of seven-year-old Zach and five-year-old Haley. Her ex-husband provides little, if any, child support and makes life difficult for Christine by using the children as pawns. She works long hours as a waitress to make ends meet, but her job is in jeopardy because she’s often late to work due to the unreliable teenaged sitters she’s forced to use. When Christine saves the life of a woman who works in Wilson’s department store, the owner of Wilson’s wants to find her, to thank her, but Christine has disappeared, losing another job once again. He sets his grandson, Jason, to the task of finding the mysterious “Christy.” Jason, an accountant by trade who has lost his job to downsizing, thinks he is “above” working at Wilson’s. Soon, he discovers that this new task gives him more than he bargains for. The Christmas Secret is a novel for anyone who wants to see how love is a gift that keeps giving back; that hope is a treasure that never runs dry, and that faith is a miracle that is reborn with each new day.

DONNA VANLIERE is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Finding Grace, The Christmas Hope series and Angels of Morgan Hill. She lives in Franklin, Tennessee with her husband and three children.

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Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (October 30, 2007)
Language: English
Price : $16.16

Karon's bestselling series of Mitford novels has concluded with 25 million copies sold to date, but to the relief of eager fans, she introduces a new series featuring Father Tim. The beloved Episcopal priest returns to his childhood town of Holly Springs, Miss., where he reconnects with old friends and battles some old demons. The novel is thick with Father Tim's past, as Karon uses flashbacks to shed light on his early adulthood, especially his transition to seminary. In Holly Springs, his penchant for getting near strangers to open up to him—and his earnest, moving reflections on faith, prayer and the risks of love—are reassuringly present. His wife, Cynthia, is on stage far less than he, but when she appears, she is charming and insightful, as usual. Yet the book is far from perfect. Development of the quirky locals in Holly Springs is thin, and the end is a tad abrupt. Most frustratingly, the central drama of the novel falls flat: Father Tim discovers a long-buried family secret, but he doesn't grapple deeply enough with the emotional consequences of his discovery, nor does Karon fully explore the ways in which the secret plunges us into the Southern quagmire of race. Still, Mitford fans will enjoy this newest visit with wise, winsome, lovable Father Tim. (Oct. 30)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

“Far from Mitford and his beloved wife Cynthia, Father Tim Kavanagh enters unfamiliar emotional territory in the town of his birth.

When he receives a letter postmarked Holly Springs, Miss., that contains a cryptic two-word message written in a precise, old-fashioned hand, Father Tim decides to answer its call and return to his birthplace for the first time in 38 years. On the long drive, he faces unanswered questions and half-forgotten memories: What happened to his boyhood chum and blood brother, Tommy? What caused his father's melancholy that bordered on cruelty? What happened to Peggy, the adored black caregiver who disappeared when he was 11? Who is trying to contact him, and why? As Father Tim awaits the letter writer, he is showered by blessings: He finds that his hometown has been beautifully restored, and he makes peace with an old flame. When the summons comes, it brings both joy and betrayal. He is reunited with his beloved Peggy, only to learn a terrible secret: She was carrying his father's child when she disappeared. When Peggy reveals that Henry, her son and Tim's half-brother, has leukemia and can only survive with a transfusion from a compatible sibling, Tim has to struggle to reach the decision he knows is right. In this setting away from home, we see Father Tim in a new light as he wrestles with his past and explores the origins of his religious convictions. The saga veers into magical theater as Karon (Cynthia Coppersmith's Violet Comes to Stay, 2006, etc.) ties up every loose end in Tim's past. But readers who miss Mitford's colorful eccentrics will be satisfied by Holly Springs's ample supply of quirky characters.

Karon's deft interweaving of past and present infuses the Mitford saga with new energy.”
—Kirkus Reviews

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Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Chicken Soup for the Soul (November 3, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $10.17

What are you thankful for today? The stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings will inspire readers to stay positive in dark times, because there is always a silver lining and we all have plenty be thankful for.

Chicken Soup for the Soul is a favorite publisher of books about family with many bestselling books about family and personal dynamics. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen are co-founders of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

By	Jeremy - See all my reviews

After seeing a story by Natalia Lusinski, and reading her stories in other Chicken Soup books, I was glad to find another one here. She does a good job of conveying a lot of meaning in a short story, like she does here in "Playing the Game." It's about growing up financially constrained, and I think most people can relate to that these days and with this economy. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up and others where you can follow writers like Natalia for inspiration.

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Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: B&H Books (December 1, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $13.49

Topping the New York Times list and already selling three million copies, The Love Dare has established itself as more than a book; it’s an unstoppable marriage movement. And like the husband in Fireproof (the film where The Love Dare originated), readers know this 40-day challenge to understand and practice unconditional love with their spouse need not end when the book does.With that in mind, The Love Dare Day by Day encourages and challenges couples toward new steps in faith and love with 365 marital encouragements, reminders, and action points worth repeating year after year.Unconditional love is eagerly promised at weddings, but rarely practiced in real life. As a result, romantic hopes are often replaced with disappointment in the home. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Whether your marriage is hanging by a thread or healthy and strong, The Love Dare Day by Day is a journey you need to take. It’s time to learn the keys to finding true intimacy

Stephen Kendrick is a senior associate pastor of preaching at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, and an accomplished screenwriter and producer. He and his wife have three children.
Alex Kendrick is associate media pastor at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. He is also an actor, writer, and director whose film credits include Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof. Alex and his wife have five children.

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Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher : Zondervan; 1 edition (October 1, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $13.59

Evangelical pastor Ed Dobson chronicles his year of living like Jesus and obeying his teachings. Dobson’s transition from someone who follows Jesus to someone who lives like Jesus takes him into bars, inspires him to pick up hitchhikers, and deepens his understanding of suffering. As Dobson discovers, living like Jesus is quite different from what we imagine.

“It may appear from the cover that this is a nice book about growing a beard because Jesus did but be warned- you will quickly discover that Ed's adventure takes him, and us, deep into the heart of grace, mercy and the endless discovery of just what the way of Jesus looks like - which, of course, has very little to do with having a beard.”—Rob Bell, Jesus Wants To Save Christians

“Inspiring, insightful, sometimes infuriating, often funny, a little weird (like its author) and a must read for anyone wanting to become a serious follower of Jesus Christ” —Cal Thomas

“Highly, highly recommended” —Brian McLaren

Evangelical pastor Ed Dobson had a radical idea…

“Live one year as Jesus lived. Eat as Jesus ate. Pray as Jesus prayed. Observe the sabbath as Jesus observed. Attend the Jewish festivals as Jesus attended. Read the Gospels every week."

Dobson’s transition from someone who follows Jesus to someone who lives like Jesus takes him into bars, inspires him to pick up hitchhikers, and deepens his understanding of suffering.

Living like Jesus is quite different from what we imagine.

“It may appear from the cover that this is a nice book about growing a beard because Jesus did but be warned- you will quickly discover that Ed's adventure takes him, and us, deep into the heart of grace, mercy and the endless discovery of just what the way of Jesus looks like - which, of course, has very little to do with having a beard.”—Rob Bell, Jesus Wants To Save Christians

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Publisher: Andrews McMeel (October 27, 2009)
Price : $63.00

The Lincoln/Obama Inaugural Bible Collection commemorates the significance of January 20, 2009, the day that President Barack Obama was inaugurated, using the Lincoln Bible to take the presidential oath of office. Bridging the historic nature of both President Abraham Lincoln's and President Obama's inaugurations, this collection is a stunning keepsake that pays tribute to both men and the office of the U.S. president.

Housed in a deluxe clamshell box are:

* An exquisite replica of the Lincoln Inaugural Bible, a 1,280-page, 1853 Oxford University Edition, with the inscription of William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court, attesting to the fact that this was the Bible used for the inauguration of Lincoln, complete with the seal of the Supreme Court. The velvet-covered volume is framed with brass borders and has a brass clasp, authentic gilded edges, and two ribbon markers. (The original Bible was purchased by William Thomas Carroll, who provided it for Lincoln's inauguration because the Lincoln family Bible was packed and in transit from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C. Carroll gave the Bible to his wife and it is inscribed to her in the front. Mrs. Carroll later gave it to Mrs. Robert Todd Lincoln, the president's daughter-in-law. The Bible, which was gifted to the Library of Congress in 1928 by Mrs. Lincoln, has considerable wear and fading on the outer velvet covering. As it was not possible to duplicate this wear, this replica is made to look as close as possible to how it would have appeared in 1861.)

* A 2009 Inauguration Packet, including the official congressional invitation complete with photographs of the president and vice president, the official Inauguration Program, and the St. John's Prayer Service Program, which was held the morning of the inauguration.

* A 72-page booklet with Lincoln and Obama photos, memorabilia, historical facts, and observations, including President Lincoln's 1861 inaugural address and his Cooper Union address. Also in the booklet are President Obama's complete inaugural address and highlights from his speech on race in Philadelphia during the campaign.

* A booklet with a facsimile of the original Emancipation Proclamation and other versions published at the time.

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Shipping : Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
Publisher: Home Business Magazine
Price : $14.97

HOME BUSINESS MAGAZINE is edited to cover various facets of the growing and dynamic 425 billion dollar home-based business market. It contains editorial by well known authorities on business operations, sales & marketing, the home office, franchising, business opportunities, network marketing, mail order and other subjects to help readers select and competently manage a home-based business. It also contains a home-based business directory, and information on high-tech, the Internet, computers and the future of home-based business. Home Office editorial includes product descriptions and management advice as well as business opportunities, franchising and work-from-home success stories.

By	David A. Baer (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews

Don't be put off by HOME BUSINESS magazine's crammed look and its heavy advertisement content.
'Fact is, you get what you pay for. These features are what make this small-article publication cheap and easy to come by.
The magazine majors on the kind of one-off submissions that get sent in by aspiring writers and home entrepeneurs eager to cash in on their experience.
But that's not a bad thing. Many of us trying to accomplish entrepeneurial stuff in the same space we live in do well to harvest the occasional gems. It's not WAR AND PEACE, but it doesn't claim to be.

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Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
Publisher: Crain Communications Inc
Price : $149.00

Folded in half and blistering with punchy headlines, Advertising Age looks and reads like a daily newspaper. However, its glossy sheen reveals it as a weekly trade tabloid to be reckoned with. Published by media giant Crain Communications, Advertising Age chronicles the feverish activities of ad agencies and marketing firms from Madison Avenue to Toledo, Ohio, and far beyond. In fact, what sets Advertising Age apart from rival publications is its consistent focus on international marketing. One recent feature story plumbed the depths of Argentina's economic crisis and its affect on ad spending. (The article in turn led to a sidebar discussion of the possibility of foreign ownership of Brazilian media companies.) Few major announcements or market trends escape the front-of-the-book news section, and a section called "The Week" reports on the absolute timeliest issues. "The Buzz" reads a bit like a gossip column, and "People & Players" details in words and large photos the goings-on of major industry personalities. But the real meat of Advertising Age is its Viewpoint section, where staff experts and readers sound off on controversial issues vital to one of America's most enduring and exciting pursuits--completing the sale. --Kristopher Kaiyala

Advertising Age is an international business newspaper covering the latest marketing, advertising, and media news. Includes agenda-setting editorial insights, exclusive analysis and data, broad scope of advertising and marketing news, industry rankings, data and proprietary metrics, and analysis.

By	Walter Reade (Appleton, WI United States) - See all my reviews

Advertising Age gives you a birds-eye view of what's happening in the world of advertising and marketing. A good amount of news, trends, and other information is packed into dozens of small blurbs, sidebars, and page-long articles. While I enjoy the content, I have two complaints. The physical format is in-between a newspaper and magazine meaning it is printed on glossy paper and staple bound on the left edge, but it is large and floppy. The other annoying feature is the number of articles that start on the first few pages but are continued somewhere in the back.

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Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
Publisher: Kiplinger Washington Editors
Price : $12.00

KIPLINGER'S PERSONAL FINANCE MAGAZINE provides affluent readers with the information they need to make smart decisions about their money. Each issue includes intelligent reporting on investments, taxes, insurance, paying for college, planning for retirement, home ownership, major purchases such as cars and computers and other personal finance topics.

By	Peter Morse (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This magazine has paid for itself many times over with its very simple, relevant financial tips. I won't go into my personal details, but I estimate that by acting upon the advice I found in different articles over the past year, I will have saved and earned over $2000, and perhaps much more. This amount has not come from major windfalls from stock purchases, but rather from sound advice on taxes, credit cards, savings options, fee comparisons, etc.-- the types of things we all deal with often. I have subscribed to many magazines over the years, and the majority were only for 1 year-- this one I will continue renew for years to come!

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Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
Publisher: Hearst Magazines
Price : $10.00

SmartMoney comes to you straight from the editors of the Wall Street Journal, the best financial reporters in the business. Every issue brings you the information you need to know to deal with markets and protecting your wealth. Turn to SmartMoney for no-nonsense advice you can put into action.

Who Reads SmartMoney?
SmartMoney is a magazine for professional and managerial people who, while affluent and sophisticated, are overworked and overwhelmed. SmartMoney provides all the answers to the tough questions of those seeking clarity in today's confused economy, setting a new standard in personal finance publishing and redefining upscale journalism.

What You Can Expect in Each Issue: Within the pages of SmartMoney, you will find the most diverse editorial mix, focusing on all the topics that readers need to know about: Personal Finance, Lifestyle, Business, Technology, and Travel, among other things.

Personal Finance: Each month, SmartMoney gives its readers an inside look on what is happening in the market, advice on what stocks are hot and which are not, and countless amounts of other personal investing information.
CEO Interviews: SmartMoney delivers informative and relevant CEO Interviews each month – targeting companies and CEOs that have really made it big. Reports sit down with CEOs and get their story, how they got to where they are today and what their next move with the company may be.
Lifestyle: From retirement to saving for college, SmartMoney delivers information on a broad range of lifestyle topics that affect the readers’ day-to-day lives.
Technology: SmartMoney reporters test the ins and outs of the newest technologies and let readers know what is really worth the money, helping readers to spend wisely.
Feature Articles: Every issue brings you the information you need to know to deal with markets and protecting your wealth. Monthly feature articles include columns on: Common Sense, The New Retirement, Stocks, Unconventional Wisdom, the Tough Customer, Special Investments and Smart Spending tips.

By	Tony Ursillo (Norwood, MA USA) - See all my reviews

I have been a subscriber for 5 or 6 years now and I always find each issue to be valuable. SmartMoney strikes a good balance between investment advice/coverage and information/articles that deal with the other aspects of your financial life. Among the features I look forward to every month:

- Ten Things: a "watch out" list of 10 things that you should know about the different professionals you interact with (your dentist, your accountant, a real estate broker, etc.). Always an eye-opener.
- Stock Screen: Paul Sturm is a knowledgeable, value-oriented journalist who puts together a list each month of 8-10 stocks that make it through a rigid screen of several characteristics. Each month, he features a different screen and he uses a good mix of quantitative characteristics and common sense to generate the list.
- Feature articles that profile common people and the serious personal finance problems they have endured (e.g., collecting on insurance, fighting the IRS, traveling overseas).

SmartMoney is frequently compared to Money magazine, but Money is often more narrowly focused on investing and it sometimes dumbs down its articles. I also read BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune regularly. While they all have their place, none provides the depth and common sense focus of SmartMoney when it comes to personal finance. I have photocopied and saved countless articles and I sometimes refer to them years later. ... my advice is to get a subscription now - it's definitely worth it.

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Publisher : Time Direct Ventures
Price : $20.00

MONEY's innovative approach to investing, cutting taxes, saving money, and retirement planning, will help you reach your financial goals. It offers smart, no-nonsense tips and strategies to make the most of your money. You'll also receive tips on the hottest stocks and mutual funds to buy now!

By	Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

I subscribe to several financial magazines, of which "Money" is one. I think that "Money" is an excellent publication for neophyte investors, as it does provide generally sound information and advice. It is very good at explaining terminology in plain English, which is to be applauded, but investors with more knowledge of investments and financial planning would probably be better off with another magazine, like "Kiplinger's", for instance.

"Money" covers primarily investments in mutual funds, bonds, and stocks, although real estate and retirement planning are also dealt with regularly. I like the investment index feature in the back of the issue: it is honestly the only part of the magazine I routinely use anymore, although I do skim the articles, and read one or two per issue. My chief complaint with the magazine is how formulaic the articles are. It seems like every month there is an article called "The Best Places To Put Your Money Now", for instance. Timeliness is a good thing, but the magazine endorses long term investing (as do I) so the last thing I want to be doing is thinking about where to move my money to this month.

Beginning investors: this is an excellent magazine for you, and I say that without reservation. Overall though, "Money" is not bad, but if you are already fairly knowledgeable about financial management you can do much better.

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Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher : HarperCollins (November 17, 2009)
Language : English
Price : $9.00

One year ago, Sarah Palin burst onto the national political stage like a comet. Yet even now, few Americans know who this remarkable woman really is.

On September 3, 2008 Alaska Governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention that electrified the nation and instantly made her one of the most recognizable women in the world.

As chief executive of America's largest state, she had built a record as a reformer who cast aside politics-as-usual and pushed through changes other politicians only talked about: Energy independence. Ethics reform. And the biggest private sector infrastructure project in U.S. history. And while revitalizing public school funding and ensuring the state met its responsibilities to seniors and Alaska Native populations, Palin also beat the political "good ol' boys club" at their own game and brought Big Oil to heel.

Like her GOP running mate, John McCain, Palin wasn't a packaged and over-produced candidate. She was a Main Street American woman: a working mom, wife of a blue collar union man, and mother of five children, the eldest of whom was serving his country in a yearlong deployment in Iraq and the youngest, an infant with special needs. Palin's hometown story touched a populist nerve, rallying hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans to the GOP ticket.

But as the campaign unfolded, Palin became a lightning rod for both praise and criticism. Supporters called her "refreshing" and "honest," a kitchen-table public servant they felt would fight for their interests. Opponents derided her as a wide-eyed Pollyanna unprepared for national leadership. But none of them knew the real Sarah Palin.

In this eagerly anticipated memoir, Palin paints an intimate portrait of growing up in the wilds of Alaska; meeting her lifelong love; her decision to enter politics; the importance of faith and family; and the unique joys and trials of life as a high-profile working mother. She also opens up for the first time about the 2008 presidential race, providing a rare, mom's-eye view of high-stakes national politics—from patriots dedicated to "Country First" to slick politicos bent on winning at any cost.

Going Rogue traces one ordinary citizen's extraordinary journey and imparts Palin's vision of a way forward for America and her unfailing hope in the greatest nation on earth.

About the Author

Sarah Palin grew up in Alaska towns, from Skagway to Wasilla to Anchorage, while her dad taught science and coached high school sports. She and her future husband, Todd Palin, graduated from Wasilla High School in 1982, and she went on to earn her college degree from the School of Journalism at the University of Idaho. Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council, then two terms as the city's mayor and manager, and was elected by her peers as president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. She then chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. Palin was elected Alaska's youngest, and first female, governor, serving from 2006 to 2009. While serving her state she was tapped as Senator John McCain's running mate in 2008, becoming the first female Republican vice presidential candidate in our nation's history.

The Palins reside in Wasilla with their five children, including a son in the U.S. Army, and one grandson. They enjoy an extended family throughout Alaska and the Lower 48.

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Hardcover: 1088 pages
Publisher : Scribner (November 10, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $9.00

Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan share their enthusiasm for Stephen King's thriller, Under the Dome. This pair of reviewers knows a thing or two about the art of crafting a great thriller. Del Toro is the Oscar-nominated director of international blockbuster films, including Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy. Hogan is the author of several acclaimed novels, including The Standoff and Prince of Thieves, which won the International Association of Crime Writer's Dashiell Hammett Award in 2005. The two recently collaborated to write the bestselling horror novel, The Strain, the first of a proposed trilogy. Read their exclusive Amazon guest review of Under the Dome:

The first thing readers might find scary about Stephen King's Under The Dome is its length. The second is the elaborate town map and list of characters at the front of the book (including "Dogs of Note"), which sometimes portends, you know, heavy lifting. Don't you believe it. Breathless pacing and effortless characterization are the hallmarks of King's best books, and here the writing is immersive, the suspense unrelenting. The pages turn so fast that your hand--or Kindle-clicking thumb--will barely be able to keep up.

You Are Here.

Nobody yarns a “What if?” like Stephen King. Nobody. The implausibility of a dome sealing off an entire city--a motif seen before in pulp magazines and on comic book covers--is given the most elaborate real-life alibi by crafting details, observations, and insights that make us nod silently while we read. Promotional materials reference The Stand in comparison, but we liken Under The Dome more to King's excellent novella, The Mist: another locked-door situation on an epic scale, a tour-de-force in which external stressors bake off the civility of a small town full of dark secrets, exposing souls both very good...and very, very bad.

Yes, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," but there is so much more this time. The expansion of King’s diorama does not simply take a one-street fable and turn it into a town, but finds new life for old archetypes, making them morally complex and attuned to our world today. It makes them relevant and affecting once again. And the beauty of it all is that the final lesson, the great insight that is gained at the end of this draining journey, is not a righteous 1950’s sermon but an incredibly moving and simple truth. A nugget of wisdom you'll be using as soon as you turn the last page.

This Is Now.

Along the way, you get bravura writing, especially featuring the town kids, and a delicious death aria involving one of the most nefarious characters--who dies alone, but not really--as well as a few laugh-out-loud moments, and a cameo (of sorts) by none other than Jack Reacher. Indeed--whether during a much-needed comfort break, or a therapeutic hand-flexing--you may find yourself wondering, "Is this a horror novel? Or is it a thriller?" The answer, of course, is: Yes, yes, yes.

"...the blood hits the wall like it always hits the wall."

It seems impossible that, as he enters his sixth decade of publishing, the dean of dark fiction could add to his vast readership. But that is precisely what will happen...when the Dome drops.

Now Go Read It. --Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (June 9, 2009)
Language: English
Prise : $16.50

“How refreshing to meet Makepeace Hatfield, who faces a world gone wild with hope, humor, and a scrappy tenacity that manages to find beauty in a ravaged arctic landscape, and hangs on to humanity against all odds.” —Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness

“Theroux is a master storyteller, and the narrative is as full of surprises as it is of murders. And in Makepeace he’s created the moral centre of a heartless world: hardened by . . . experiences [yet] capable of great courage, friendship and loyalty, so that the bleak vision of this novel contains a glint of consolation.” —Brandon Robshaw, The Independent on Sunday (five stars)

“An absorbing end-of-days fable.” —GQ

“It’s a great pleasure to fall into the pages of a natural-born storyteller. If you’re looking for an unforgettable character, your search ends here.” —Russell Hoban, author of Riddley Walker

“Imaginative and extremely well written.” —Kate Saunders, The Times (London)

“An atmospheric tale of a near-future dystopia . . . One for fans of Margaret Atwood.” —Evening Standard

“Marcel Theroux delivers a masterly sleight-of-hand . . . and after the third chapter deftly pulls the rug from under the reader’s feet. I was completely duped. It is set in a cruel Siberian landscape that is dotted with slave camps and where ‘human beings are rat-cunning and will happily kill you twice over for a hot meal.’ This is an action-packed, dystopian adventure story with cracking set pieces.” —Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler

“Theroux’s postapocalyptic road novel will inevitably be compared to that other postapocalyptic road novel Oprah liked, and while Theroux . . . is not the existential stylist McCarthy is, he is a superior plotter . . . Theroux succeeds in crafting a wildly eccentric and intelligent page-turner that’s ultimately and strangely hopeful.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Random House (June 23, 2009)
Language: English
Price : $14.62

Colum McCann has worked some exquisite magic with Let the Great World Spin, conjuring a novel of electromagnetic force that defies gravity. It's August of 1974, a summer "hot and serious and full of death and betrayal," and Watergate and the Vietnam War make the world feel precarious. A stunned hush pauses the cacophonous universe of New York City as a man on a cable walks (repeatedly) between World Trade Center towers. This extraordinary, real-life feat by French funambulist Philippe Petit becomes the touchstone for stories that briefly submerge you in ten varied and intense lives--a street priest, heroin-addicted hookers, mothers mourning sons lost in war, young artists, a Park Avenue judge. All their lives are ordinary and unforgettable, overlapping at the edges, occasionally converging. And when they coalesce in the final pages, the moment hums with such grace that its memory might tighten your throat weeks later. You might find yourself paused, considering the universe of lives one city contains in any slice of time, each of us a singular world, sometimes passing close enough to touch or collide, to birth a new generation or kill it, sending out ripples, leaving residue, an imprint, marking each other, our city, the very air--compassionately or callously, unable to see all the damage we do or heal. And most of us stumbling, just trying not to trip, or step in something awful.

But then someone does something extraordinary, like dancing on a cable strung 110 stories in the air, or imagining a magnificent novel that lifts us up for a sky-scraping, dizzy glimpse of something greater: the sordid grandeur of this whirling world, "bigger than its buildings, bigger than its inhabitants." --Mari Malcolm

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Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Del Rey (May 26, 2009)
Language: English

Price : $17.16

The city is Beszel, a rundown metropolis on the eastern edge of Europe. The other city is Ul Qoma, a modern Eastern European boomtown, despite being a bit of an international pariah. What the two cities share, and what they don't, is the deliciously evocative conundrum at the heart of China Mieville's The City & The City. Mieville is well known as a modern fantasist (and urbanist), but from book to book he's tried on different genres, and here he's fully hard-boiled, stripping down to a seen-it-all detective's voice that's wonderfully appropriate for this story of seen and unseen. His detective is Inspector Tyador Borlu, a cop in Beszel whose investigation of the murder of a young foreign woman takes him back and forth across the highly policed border to Ul Qoma to uncover a crime that threatens the delicate balance between the cities and, perhaps more so, Borlu's own dissolving sense of identity. In his tale of two cities, Mieville creates a world both fantastic and unsettlingly familiar, whose mysteries don't end with the solution of a murder. --Tom Nissley

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