Product Description
What type of telescope is best for beginners? Can I use my camera to take photographs through a telescope? How good are the new computerized telescope mounts? What charts, books, software and other references do I need? These questions are asked time and again by enthusiastic new amateurs as they take up recreational astronomy.

But accurate, objective and up-to-date information can be hard to find. Throughout the 1990s, the first edition of The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide established itself as the indispensable reference to the equipment and techniques used by the modern recreational stargazer. Now, authors Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer have produced an expanded and completely updated edition that again sets the standard for accessible and reliable information on one of the world’s most popular hobbies.

Dickinson and Dyer — both full-time astronomy writers — bring decades of experience to their task. They explain why telescopes often perform much differently from what the novice expects. They recommend the accessories that will enhance the observing experience and advise what not to buy until you become more familiar with your equipment. They name brands and sources and compare value so that you can be armed with the latest practical information when deciding on your next purchase. Sections on astrophotography, daytime and twilight observing, binocular observing and planetary and deep-sky observing round out this comprehensive guide to personal exploration of the universe. Dickinson and Dyer’s elegant yet straightforward approach to a complex subject makes this book an invaluable resource for astronomers throughout North America.

With more than 500 color photographs and illustrations, The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide is also one of the most beautiful — and user-friendly — astronomy books ever produced.
The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide

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Third in the Aurora Teagarden series, one great new look.

Deciding if she wants to go into real estate becomes a life-or-death choice for Aurora “Roe” Teagarden. A naked corpse is discovered at her first house showing. And when a second body is found in another house for sale, it becomes obvious that there is a very cool killer at large in Lawrenceton, one who knows a great deal about real estate-and maybe too much about Roe.
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse

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“This is the book for those who want…to take the slow route…get out of the car and walk around and look and talk to the people.” —Times-Picayune

Expanded to include all U.S. designated America’s Byways as well as other selected drives in all 50 states, this stunning new edition features unique driving tours through virtually every kind of landscape—spectacular coastlines, mountains, lakes, small towns, ranch and farmlands, islands, bays, and river valleys.

Some of the routes are famous, such as Virginia’s Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway, the Natchez Trace, and picturesque sections of the Great River Road. But there are lesser-known drives here too, including the ones along Maryland’s serene Eastern Shore and Michigan’s remote Whitefish Bay, through quiet Pennsylvania Dutch Country and Texas’s undiscovered Davis Mountains. Some drives are jaw-droppingly magnificent, like Wyoming’s Centennial Scenic Byway through the spectacular Teton Range; while others possess quiet beauty, such as the lush Flint Hills of Kansas. These diverse auto adventures range from the 4-mile Las Vegas Strip to the 8,000-mile Alaska Marine Highway, offering wonderful inspiration for day excursions, weekend getaways, and longer, leisurely family vacations.

Veteran National Geographic writers combine their regional knowledge and storytelling techniques, describing the scenery, history, and points of interest along each route. Readers will also find 375 glorious photographs and four-color maps for every drive, along with information on road conditions, driving times, site addresses, visiting hours, admission fees, and more. It adds up to a “must have” reference for every adventuresome motorist.
National Geographic Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways, 3d Ed.

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In the tradition of Laurell K. Hamilton, a deliciously wicked sequel to Bitten, from Canada’s new queen of suspense.

Even though she’s the world’s only female werewolf, Elena Michaels is just a regular girl at heart — with larger than normal appetites. She sticks to three feasts a day, loves long runs in the moonlight, and has a lover who is unbelievable frustrating yet all the more sexy for his dark side. Like every regular girl, she certainly doesn’t believe in witches. Then again, when two small, ridiculously feminine women manage to hurl her against a wall, and then save her from the hunters on her tail, Elena realizes that maybe there are more things in heaven and earth than she’s dreamt of.

Vampires, demons, shamans, witches — in Stolen they all exist, and they’re all under attack. An obsessed tycoon with a sick curiosity is well on his way to amassing a private collection of supernaturals, and plans to harness their powers for himself — even if it means killing them. For Elena, kidnapped and imprisoned deep underground, separated from her Pack, unable to tell her friends from her enemies, choosing the right allies is a matter of life and death.
Stolen: A Novel

Product Description
These attractively priced, four-color guides offer dozens of neighborhood and thematic tours, complete with hundreds of photos and bulleted maps that lead the way from sight to sight. Day by Days are the only guides that help travelers organize their time to get the most out of a trip.

• Full-color package at an affordable price
• Star ratings for all hotels, restaurants, and attractions
• Foldout front covers with maps and quick-reference information
• Tear-resistant map in a handy, reclosable plastic wallet
• Handy pocket-sized trim

Features: Modernista Barcelona, Barcelona for Art Lovers, Ancient Barcelona, Gourmet Barcelona, Barcelona with kids, and more!

At last, a travel guide that tells you how to see the best of everything-in the smartest, most time-efficient way.

• The best of Barcelona in one, two, or three days
• Thematic tours for every interest, schedule, and taste
• Walking tours of the city’s best-loved neighborhoods
• Hundreds of evocative color photos
• Bulleted maps that show you how to go from place to place
• Hotels, restaurants, shopping, and nightlife for all budgets
• A tear-resistant foldout map-enclosed in a handy plastic wallet you can also use for tickets and souvenirs

Frommer’s Barcelona Day by Day

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Hailed by NPR’s Fresh Air as part Testament of Youth, part Dorothy Sayers, and part Upstairs, Downstairs, this astonishing debut has already won fans from coast to coast and is poised to add Maisie Dobbs to the ranks of literature’s favorite sleuths.

Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence—and the patronage of her benevolent employers—she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.
Maisie Dobbs

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Four mesmerizing novellas, including the ones that inspired the movies The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and Stand by Me.Amazon.com Review
Different Seasons (1982) is a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and subject, each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, nonhorrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme to escape from prison. The second concerns a boy who discards his innocence by enticing an old man to travel with him into a reawakening of long-buried evil. In the third story, a writer looks back on the trek he took with three friends on the brink of adolescence to find another boy’s corpse. The trip becomes a character-rich rite of passage from youth to maturity.

These first three novellas have been made into well-received movies: “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” into Frank Darabont’s 1994 The Shawshank Redemption (available as a screenplay, a DVD film, and an audiocassette), “Apt Pupil” into Bryan Singer’s 1998 film Apt Pupil (also released in 1998 on audiocassette), and “The Body” into Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me (1986).

The final novella, “Breathing Lessons,” is a horror yarn told by a doctor, about a patient whose indomitable spirit keeps her baby alive under extraordinary circumstances. It’s the tightest, most polished tale in the collection. –Fiona Webster
Different Seasons

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Riveting exposé of US-led destruction of democratic government in Haiti.

Once the most lucrative European colony in the Caribbean, Haiti has become one of the most divided and impoverished countries in the world. In the late 1980s a remarkable popular mobilization known as Lavalas, or “the flood,” sought to liberate the island from decades of US-backed dictatorial rule. After winning a landslide election victory, in 1991 the Lavalas government, led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown by a bloody military coup. Damming the Flood analyzes how and why Aristide’s enemies in Haiti, the US and France instigated a second coup in 2004 to remove Aristide and Lavalas for good.

The elaborate international campaign to contain, discredit and then overthrow Lavalas at the start of the twenty-first century was perhaps the most successful act of imperial sabotage since the end of the Cold War. Its execution and its impact provide important lessons for those interested in today’s political struggles in Latin America and the rest of the post-colonial world.
Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment

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Newly revised and updated! This ”Essential Guide to the City of Light” is eminently portable and offers the very best of things to see and do in Paris. Targeted foldout area maps guide your explorations through the sights and neighborhoods of Paris, both on and off the beaten path. Insider tips accompany this compilation of must-not-miss landmarks; arts and entertainment venues; and places to eat, drink, shop, and stay. You can’t do without it! 216 pages; 4-1/4 wide x 5-3/4 high; 10 foldout maps; concealed wire-o binding; book lies flat for ease of use; elastic band place holder.
The Little Black Book of Paris 2009