Let’s start with the question every Dan Brown fan wants answered: Is The Lost Symbol as good as The Da Vinci Code? Simply put, yes. Brown has mastered the art of blending nail-biting suspense with random arcana (from pop science to religion), and The Lost Symbol is an enthralling mix. And what a dazzling accomplishment that is, considering that rabid fans and skeptics alike are scrutinizing every word.

The Lost Symbol begins with an ancient ritual, a shadowy enclave, and of course, a secret. Readers know they are in Dan Brown territory when, by the end of the first chapter, a secret within a secret is revealed. To tell too much would ruin the fun of reading this delicious thriller, so you will find no spoilers here. Suffice it to say that as with many series featuring a recurring character, there is a bit of a formula at work (one that fans will love). Again, brilliant Harvard professor Robert Langdon finds himself in a predicament that requires his vast knowledge of symbology and superior problem-solving skills to save the day. The setting, unlike other Robert Langdon novels, is stateside, and in Brown’s hands Washington D.C. is as fascinating as Paris or Vatican City (note to the D.C. tourism board: get your “Lost Symbol” tour in order). And, as with other Dan Brown books, the pace is relentless, the revelations many, and there is an endless parade of intriguing factoids that will make you feel like you are spending the afternoon with Robert Langdon and the guys from Mythbusters.

Nothing is as it seems in a Robert Langdon novel, and The Lost Symbol itself is no exception–a page-turner to be sure, but Brown also challenges his fans to open their minds to new information. Skeptical? Imagine how many other thrillers would spawn millions of Google searches for noetic science, superstring theory, and Apotheosis of Washington. The Lost Symbol is brain candy of the best sort–just make sure to set aside time to enjoy your meal.

By Daphne Durham

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When it comes to dispensing relationship advice, turning to a popular comedian for advice might sound a little strange. But comedian Steve Harvey,also known as one of the original “Kings of Comedy,” has partnered with relationship expert Denene Millner to help women understand what they need to know about the men in their lives. In Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Harvey and Millner provide women with direct, and often comical, advice in dealing with their male counterparts.

About Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, by Steve Harvey

Derived from his years of experience hosting the popular syndicated radio show, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Harvey resurrects some of the most teachable lessons and has compiled them into an easy-to-read, conversational book. Instead of approaching relationships from a self-help perspective, Harvey gives women advice about men in the same way one would expect from a big brother or best friend.

Broken down into fifteen chapters, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man explores many of the common scenarios that women will encounter in their quests for a long-term, substantial relationship: dealing with “mama’s boys,” marriage, and when to introduce men to children in one’s life. But Harvey also take a candid approach to the sport of dating, dishing out the viewpoints of most men with unashamed honesty.

The Benefits of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, by Steve Harvey

The stories that come from the life experience of others are often comforting to readers, and in this case, Steve Harvey does not disappoint. Written in a conversational and witty style that anyone can relate to, Harvey feels more like a close male friend providing readers with the inside scoop on what really goes on inside the heads of men. While books about relationships can often be sugar-coated and idyllic in tone, Harvey’s Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man dismisses that tone, opting for a no-holds-barred direct truth that readers appreciate.

Overall, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man is an enjoyable read that dispenses life stories with dose of comedy. Easy to read and based on stories to which many will relate, Steve Harvey’s natural ability to tell a story shines. Candid wit and down-to-earth humor keep readers laughing and empathizing with the case studies used within the book. However, people seeking dramatic change in their relationships or deep insight into the minds of men would do well to look somewhere else.

The Drawbacks of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, by Steve Harvey

While Steve Harvey’s Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man is an enjoyable and lighthearted read, it doesn’t really bring to light any new or revolutionary thought. It is refreshing to read a book about relationship that doesn’t require a lot of inner examination for the reader, however, most of the lessons in within Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man don’t dive into new territory. Rather, they come across as basic anecdotes, many of which have been written countless times before.

Harvey, Steve. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy and Commitment, 2009 Amistad, 240 pages.

(ISBN-10: 0061728977)

(ISBN-13: 978-0061728976)

By: Annalise Kaylor

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According to Sherwood, two questions are central to this book. What does it really take to survive a catastrophic event and what kind of survivor are you? You might be surprised at the answers. While there are tactics and strategies to surviving life tragedies, unforeseen accidents, and other catastrophes, many of these are instinctive (some, like exhibiting transitory superhuman strength, are manifested physiologically, without conscious planning). Some of us, Sherwood explains, are better survivors than others—in prisoner-of-war camps, for example, the people most likely to collapse are the eternal optimists who believe rescue is imminent and fail to come to terms with the possibility of long-term imprisonment. The book is a useful, insightful exploration of the nature of survival, the resilience of the human mind and body, and the ways in which we can all use our natural gifts to maximize our chances of coming through catastrophic situations.

Sherwood (The Man Who Ate the 747), a writer for the L.A. Times, travels worldwide to gain insight from people who have survived a slew of near fatal phenomena ranging from a mountain lion attack to a Holocaust concentration camp, and interviewing an array of experts to understand the psychology, genetics and jumble of other little things that determines whether we live or die. Readers curious about their own survivor profile can take an Internet test, which is explained in the books later pages. Sherwoods assertion that survival is a way of perceiving the world around you is enlightening, as are some of the facts he uncovers: you have 90 seconds to leave a plane crash before the cabin temperature becomes unbearable; luck has more to do with personal perspective than chance. But Sherwoods balance of self-help, scientific theories and first-rate reporting is diminished by occasionally overwrought prose as well as the countless survivors stories, which can run together in a touchy-feely stream of faith and optimism. (Jan.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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The dream employee for a lot of companies is a twenty-something with as little of a life as possible outside of work–someone who’ll be fine working fourteen-hour days and sleeping under his desk.  But packing a room full of these burn-the-midnight-oil types isn’t as great as it seems. [. . .]  You don’t need more hours; you need better hours.  When people have something to do at home, they get down to business.  They get their work done because they have somewhere else to be.  They find ways to be more efficient because they have to.

Some chapters had me nodding my head in agreement, happy to see my unconventional beliefs in print and other chapters had me shaking my head and rethinking some of my ideas.

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson logically argue for their way of thinking and by the end of the page you are wondering why you didn’t see the wisdom of their ideas yourself a long time ago.

Some of the ideas in the book I have discovered on my own, especially since going out on my own, but I wish I this book had been around years ago. I would have saved a lot of time and effort and been much more productive. I might have even gone out on my own much sooner.

This book is a must read for the creative, independent entrepreneur (starter) who wants to make it on his/her own, doing his/her own thing. This book will support many of the beliefs you already hold and blow some of them out of the water.

Source: The Dreaming Cafe

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Chelsea Handler’s new book Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang is the comedian’s third book (her previous books made it on the New York Times Best Sellers List) that hits stores on March 9th.

Starred Review. Comedienne, talk show host and daring author Handler (Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea) indulges her fans with a new compilation of shockingly direct essays, from which she emerges as a scheming farceur with an expansive range of practical jokes and winning sarcasm, pulled off beautifully against (and with help from) her closest friends and family (including her boyfriend, the CEO of the E! television network that employs her). Handler spins a deliriously sticky web of running jokes while suckering the gullible, again and again, with made-up stories of her transgendered friend, a ludicrous movie deal, and her infamous personal pilot. Never shy, Handler finds room for even more irreverent honesty regarding sex-including her earliest encounters with male genitalia and with “the feeling”-and also lets readers in on her family life, including a family dinner that ends with her missing brother found intoxicated, naked, and celebrating on a dock in the early morning hours. Whether Handler is plotting to get her father committed or convincing her dog never to “shadoobie” in her presence, her essays are packed with enough laugh-out-loud moments to rival a first-rate stand-up act. B&W photos.

Life doesn’t get more hilarious than when Chelsea Handler takes aim with her irreverent wit. Who else would send all-staff emails to smoke out the dumbest people on her show? Now, in this new collection of original essays, the #1 bestselling author of Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea delivers one laugh-out-loud moment after another as she sets her sights on the ridiculous side of childhood, adulthood, and daughterhood.

Family moments are fair game, whether it’s writing a report on Reaganomics to earn a Cabbage Patch doll, or teaching her father social graces by ordering him to stay indoors. It’s open season on her love life, from playing a prank on her boyfriend (using a ravioli, a fake autopsy, and the Santa Monica pier) to adopting a dog so she can snuggle with someone who doesn’t talk. And everyone better duck for cover when her beach vacation turns into matchmaking gone wild. Outrageously funny and deliciously wicked, CHELSEA CHELSEA BANG BANG is good good good good!

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No story has been more central to America’s history this century than the rise of Barack Obama, and until now, no journalist or historian has written a book that fully investigates the circumstances and experiences of Obama’s life or explores the ambition behind his rise. Those familiar with Obama’s own best-selling memoir or his campaign speeches know the touchstones and details that he chooses to emphasize, but now—from a writer whose gift for illuminating the historical significance of unfolding events is without peer—we have a portrait, at once masterly and fresh, nuanced and unexpected, of a young man in search of himself, and of a rising politician determined to become the first African-American president.

The Bridge offers the most complete account yet of Obama’s tragic father, a brilliant economist who abandoned his family and ended his life as a beaten man; of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who had a child as a teenager and then built her career as an anthropologist living and studying in Indonesia; and of the succession of elite institutions that first exposed Obama to the social tensions and intellectual currents that would force him to imagine and fashion an identity for himself. Through extensive on-the-record interviews with friends and teachers, mentors and disparagers, family members and Obama himself, David Remnick allows us to see how a rootless, unaccomplished, and confused young man created himself first as a community organizer in Chicago, an experience that would not only shape his urge to work in politics but give him a home and a community, and that would propel him to Harvard Law School, where his sense of a greater mission emerged.

Deftly setting Obama’s political career against the galvanizing intersection of race and politics in Chicago’s history, Remnick shows us how that city’s complex racial legacy would make Obama’s forays into politics a source of controversy and bare-knuckle tactics: his clashes with older black politicians in the Illinois State Senate, his disastrous decision to challenge the former Black Panther Bobby Rush for Congress in 2000, the sex scandals that would decimate his more experienced opponents in the 2004 Senate race, and the story—from both sides—of his confrontation with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. By looking at Obama’s political rise through the prism of our racial history, Remnick gives us the conflicting agendas of black politicians: the dilemmas of men like Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Joseph Lowery, heroes of the civil rights movement, who are forced to reassess old loyalties and understand the priorities of a new generation of African-American leaders.

The Bridge revisits the American drama of race, from slavery to civil rights, and makes clear how Obama’s quest is not just his own but is emblematic of a nation where destiny is defined by individuals keen to imagine a future that is different from the reality of their current lives.

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Book Cover

Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

Meyer explains that she wrote this book while writing/editing the other Twilight  novels, and had planned to include it in an upcoming Official Guide. However, the plan started to change as Melissa Rosenberg began adapting Eclipse, and then when David Slade signed on. Both read the book to find out what exactly happened in Seattle with the newbie vamp menace, and they handed it over to the actors to help with their performance. “I was pleased that this side of the story would make it into the film and was looking forward to including it in the Guide.” Coming in at almost 200 pages in print, it’s too much for Official Guide filler, so it’s hitting the shelves on its own, and will also be available for free for a month online. (Additionally, the book will help raise funds for the American Red Cross.)

Meyer isn’t clear, however, on how much makes its way into the movie. As we know from early peeks, there is additional footage of Riley in Seattle to flesh out the cinematic story, but is it just a scene or two, or a whole sub-plot? And, if Bree’s not really part of the story, will we be getting an additional film sometime soon? I doubt her story would become a big-screen feature, but maybe a direct-to-DVD story, or super-huge extra on the Eclipse DVD? Stay tuned!

Here is what Stephenie says on her website StephenieMeyer.com:

• The novella started as a writing exercise back when Eclipse was being edited
• Originally it was intended for the Official Guide, but it ended up as 200 pages and that just wasn’t going to work size-wise
• There will be further word on the Official Guide by the end of the year
• Melissa Rosenberg, David Slade, and Jodelle Ferland got to peek at Bree’s story so aspects of it could be included in the Eclipse movie.
• Jodelle had to burn her copy after reading it for security (see picture).

© Monika Bartyzel

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In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country’s political turmoil–in this case, Afghanistan–while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. (“…I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”)

and also a movie!

Book Details

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