As a master editor, publisher, novelist, and writing instructor, Sol Stein knows what writers face when they sit down before a blank page. This invaluable guide provides quick and handy A–Z reference help for common and more complicated questions: writer's block, writing a difficult scene, preparing a manuscript for publication or submission, plotting, developing a character, and dozens of other topics, listed alphabetically in the table of contents. Stein enables writers to maintain their creative momentum by immediately returning to a manuscript in progress after finding the solution in this book. The book also includes a section on publishing, which details the publishing process and explains the terms all writers need to know. Packed with insight, anecdotes, and specific information, this guide is a must-have reference on the shelves of aspiring and published authors as well as publishing professionals.

Driving down the Long Island Expressway in November of 1992, Sol Wachtler was New York's Chief Judge and heir apparent to the New York Governorship. Suddenly, three van loads of FBI agents swerved in front of him--bringing his car and his legal career to a halt. Wachtler's subsequent arrest, conviction and incarceration for harassing his longtime lover precipitated a media feeding frenzy, revealing to the world his struggles with romantic obsession, manic-depression and drug abuse. In this, his prison diary, Wachtler reveals the stark reality behind his vertiginous fall from the heights of the legal establishment to the underbelly of the criminal justice system. Sentenced to a medium security prison in Butner, North Carolina, Wachtler is stabbed by an unseen assailant, berated by prison guards, and repeatedly placed in solitary confinement with no explanation. Moreover, as a prisoner he confronts first hand the inequities of a system that his judicial rulings helped to construct and befriends the type of people he once sentenced to prison. With unflinching honesty, Wachtler draws upon his unique experience of living life on both sides of the bench to paint a chilling portrait of prison life interwoven with a no-holds-barred analysis of the shortcomings of the American legal justice system.

First published in 1952, this classic remains one of the most famous books in its field. The perspective is that of Gestalt theory. Professor Asch addresses fundamental questions about human nature and provides a consistent, unified discussion of basic issues in social psychology. He considers the main psychological theories, tracing their effects on thinking and investigation, and evaluating their contributions and limitations. When it was published, Social Psychology represented a revolution in thinking about the subject, and it is still highly relevant to the problems of today.

A Jewish family fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938 endures innumerable separations before they are once again united.

Pushed to the breaking point, Cara Burrows flees her home and family and escapes to a five-star spa resort she can't afford. Late at night, exhausted and desperate, she lets herself into her hotel room and is shocked to find it already occupied -- by a man and a teenage girl. A simple mistake at the front desk but soon Cara realizes that the girl she saw alive and well in the hotel room is someone she can't possibly have seen: the most famous murder victim in the country, Melody Chapa, whose parents are serving natural life sentences for her murder. Cara doesn't know what to trust -- everything she's read and heard about the case, or the evidence of her own eyes. Did she really see Melody? And is she prepared to ask herself that question and answer it honestly if it means risking her own life?

Pushed to the breaking point, Cara Burrows flees her home and family and escapes to a five-star spa resort she can't afford. Late at night, exhausted and desperate, she lets herself into her hotel room and is shocked to find it already occupied -- by a man and a teenage girl. A simple mistake at the front desk but soon Cara realizes that the girl she saw alive and well in the hotel room is someone she can't possibly have seen: the most famous murder victim in the country, Melody Chapa, whose parents are serving natural life sentences for her murder. Cara doesn't know what to trust -- everything she's read and heard about the case, or the evidence of her own eyes. Did she really see Melody? And is she prepared to ask herself that question and answer it honestly if it means risking her own life?

"The hilarious, beloved cohost of TLC's What Not to Wear examines the universal obstacles all women--including herself--put in their way With her unique talent for seeing past disastrous wardrobes to the core emotional issues that caused these sartorial crises, style savant Stacy London has transformed not only the looks but also the lives of hundreds of guests who have appeared on What Not to Wear. Now for the first time in print, London turns that expert X-ray insight on herself. Like the women she's transformed, London has plenty of emotional baggage. At eleven, she suffered from severe psoriasis that left her with permanent physical and mental scars. During college, she became anorexic on a misguided quest for perfection. By the time she joined the staff at Vogue, London's weight had doubled from binge eating. Although self-esteem and self-consciousness nearly sabotaged a promising career, London learned the hard way that we wear our insecurities every day. It wasn't until she found the self-confidence to develop a strong personal style that she finally became comfortable in her skin. In The Truth About Style, London shares her own often painful history and her philosophy of the healing power of personal style--illustrating it with a series of detailed "start-overs" with eight real women, demonstrating how personal style helps them overcome the emotional obstacles we all face. For anyone who has ever despaired of finding the right clothes, or even taking an objective assessment in a full-length mirror, The Truth About Style will be an inspiring, liberating, and often very funny guide to finding the expression of your truest self. "--

For baby lovers.baby owners and baby makers.Here is sound,loving,hilarious advice from American's number one baby authorities ,Stan and the Berenstains help you learn everything you need to know before and after baby arrives.

"In the post-war era Jews have been incomparably less numerous than before and often deeply assimilated. Still, their presence's felt as big. The book is scholarly and also deeply personal. Most of the events and processes described here have a strong connection to the author's life, particularly the post-1968 mini-renaissance of Jewish life, especially in its religious variety, and advances in the realm of Jewish-Christian relations and particularly of Jewish-Christian dialogue. In addition to an account of the history of Jews in Poland after 1945, Jewish-Christian dialogue in that period, including meeting with the Polish pope, the chapters treat the concept of de-assimilation used as a key to understand the most recent phase of the story, analyze how Jewish were Jewish Communists, ponder what were the assumptions behind the post-war section of the core exhibition in POLIN, and offer an original proposal why the Holocaust is widely considered as unique"--

Interviews and Encounters with Stanley Kunitz will be kept close at hand by young poets as a survival kit. Others who care about poetry and the life of the imagination will read and re-read the book to clear the head. Readers will understand why Kunitz is seen by many as a paradigm of the creative artist, a model and example to whom any artist - poet, painter, or whatever - can go for aid and courage.

In 1997, Stanley B. Prusiner received a Nobel Prize, the world's most prestigious award for achievement in physiology or medicine. That he was the sole recipient of the award for the year was entirely appropriate. His struggle to identify the agent responsible for ravaging the brains of animals suffering from scrapie and mad cow disease, and of humans with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, had been waged largely alone and in some cases in the face of strenuous disagreement. In this book, Prusiner tells the remarkable story of his discovery of prions - infectious proteins that replicate and cause disease but surprisingly contain no genetic material - and reveals how superb and meticulous science is actually practiced with talented teams of researchers who persevere. He recounts the frustrations and rewards of years of research and offers fascinating portraits of his peers as they raced to discover the causes of fatal brain diseases. Prusiner's hypothesis, once considered heresy, now stands as accepted science and the basis for developing diagnoses and eventual cures. He closes with a meditation on the legacy of his discovery: What will it take to cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig's and other devastating diseases of the brain?

A look at the facts and folklore of sleep that is mainly concerned with the problems of an increasingly sleep-deprived society, and the effects this has on people's work. The author shows, for example, that the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill and the space shuttle "Challenger" disaster were associated with people suffering from sleep deprivation. He also looks at some of the more subtle and insidious effects of sleep loss on our physical and mental health. The author attempts to answer a number of questions: Do fish sleep? Are there really "morning" and "night" people? Do some people really only need four hours sleep a night? He also includes accounts of sleep oddities, such as people who have committed murder in their sleep, and descriptions of fairly common disorders which may be responsible for unexplained infant deaths. The book also describes techniques to improve the quality and efficiency of the reader's own sleep.

A collection of essays concerning language, literature, reading, writing and the reader.