Alexander Aciman, Emmett Rensin From 'Oedipus': Party in Thebes!!! Nobody cares I killed that old dude, plus this woman is all over me. Total MILF. 'From Paradise Lost': OH My God I'm in Hell. Perhaps you once asked yourself, 'What exactly is Hamlet trying to tell me? Why must he mince his words, muse in lyricism and, in short, whack about the shrub?'

Anjum Anand One of the reasons for the great success of the television series Indian Food Made Easy is Anjum Anand’s clear and straightforward presentation, rendering these recipes manageable (or least convincing us that they are within our own particular range). There is also a commendable avoidance of gimmicks — particularly welcome in an era when TV chefs feel obliged to adopt unusual or eccentric personae to grab attention. And it's particularly pleasing to note that all of these qualities are in evidence in this book of the series: straightforward, concise recipes (illustrated only with tempting pictures of the food itself, rather than the presenter striking various telegenic poses — she is to be seen on the cover only, admittedly looking Nigella Lawson-like). And given that Indian food is noted more for its delicious taste than its healthy properties, Anjum Anand takes on the negative reputation that the cuisine has in this regard, and comes up with alternatives to the standard high-fat ingredients (that's not to say that she doesn't unashamedly tackle such things where necessary — taste is definitely the overriding consideration in this book). And with such recipes as Mangalorean chicken (with its mouth-watering combination of coconut, coriander and large fat red chillies) and wild mushroom and pilaff — all presented in the most accessible and uncomplicated fashion — this book is likely to accelerate the already considerable acceptance of Indian cookery for non-Indian aspirants. —Barry Forshaw

Anjum Anand

Anjum Anand In this deliciously spicy book, Anjum Anand presents an eclectic choice of her favourite curries. These include regional dishes, favourite restaurant classics and many original creations - some are hot, some are mild, although all can be adjusted to taste. This will be the essential book of 50 great curries and 25 accompanying dishes.

Tom Ang

Jay Ansill

Zulal Ayture-Scheele

Mallika Basu

Rick Beech

Vineet Bhatia Features over 150 Indian recipes, accompanied by photography. With a mixture of modernity and classicism, this book introduces elements of molecular gastronomy as well as Western influences.

Jon Blank, etc., Wankyu Choi, Allan Kent, Ganesh Prasad, Chris Ullman Beginning PHP4 offers an almost ideal introductory tutorial to one of today's hottest scripting languages. This book is really all the novice needs to start building dynamic Web sites powered by PHP4, but old hands at programming will also find valuable information inside it.

PHP, of course, is introduced in the book, but there is also an approachable and effective introduction to programming in general. The conscientious tutorial on basic concepts like variables, keywords and flow control will give even beginners an understanding of the basics of writing programs. PHP, it turns out, is not only a great way to generate HTML dynamically, it's a very marketable skill. Web fundamentals like HTTP, HTML form variables, and managing session information using no less than four different techniques are explained thoroughly and effectively. You also find out how to install PHP and other tools on your system, with the assistance of plenty of screen shots.

That's not to say that this book will cramp the style of more experienced developers. Some chapters delve into such important and advanced topics as database programming (with MySQL) and PHP's support for XML. One standout section demystifies the new support for objects and classes in PHP4. Basic topics like managing files and directories on the server, plus graphics processing, are addressed, of course, and a nifty sample program shows you how to build a Web-based text editor. Except for the final case study, a "URL directory manager" (akin to Yahoo) that is rather specialised, the examples are spot on, illustrating everyday programming tasks. You will also learn to generate e-mail with PHP, certainly a valuable skill to have.

The appendix lists several hundred PHP functions in over 50 pages—a handy and useful feature. In all, Beginning PHP4 provides a strong choice for learning about one of today's most powerful and easy-to-use scripting languages. It is concise, fast-moving and thoroughly approachable. —Richard Dragan

David Blatner

Murdoch Books

Murdoch Books

Murdoch Books

Murdoch Books

Joe Borgenicht, David Borgenicht David Borgenicht and Joe Borgenicht's The Action Hero's Handbook essentially repeats the formula of David's previous opus, the ludicrous and ludicrously successful The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. The extensively researched Worst-Case offered practical guidance on what to do should you, heaven forbid, find yourself face to face with a grisly grizzly bear or hurtling towards the ground with an unopened parachute flapping above your head. Described by its authors as a "guide to keeping up with the Indiana Joneses", this slim volume provides advice that will help you out-Bond James Bond should you, heaven forbid, find yourself battling against a malevolent genius with a penchant for grey Persian cats and a tank full of sharks equipped with laser beams.

Well, sadly, not quite, but if you've ever wanted to know how to evade a MiG jet, negotiate a hostage crisis, communicate with extraterrestrials, execute a Jedi mind trick or even perform a Vulcan neck grip then this is the book for you. The trick with the latter, according to Karate expert Ray Geraneo, is to make a quick jab to the radial nerve in your victim's arm before mercilessly, if entirely logically, applying pressure to the brachial plexus. (In case you are left wondering where the blazes either of those are, the step-by-step instructions in each chapter are accompanied by snazzy, in-flight safety leaflet-style illustrations.) Ideally one would hope to avoid using the material proffered in the section headed "How to Take a Bullet"—"stand between shooter and target, face shooter and place chest in line of fire"—but there's plenty here that can be applied to everyday life. Let's face it, action heroes aren't the only ones who need to know "How To Pick Someone Up in a Bar" or "How to Stop a Wedding". And who can tell; the section "How to Climb Down Mount Rushmore" might just come in handy one day after all. —Travis Elborough

Christopher Brookmyre

Dan Brown With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoterica culled from 2,000 years of Western history. A murder in the silent after-hours halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his granddaughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle.

The duo become both suspects and detectives searching not only for Neveu's grandfather's murderer, but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, the mystery leads Neveu and Langdon on a breathless flight through France, England and history itself. Brown has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown's hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture's greatest mysteries—from the nature of the Mona Lisa's smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown's conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. —Jeremy Pugh, Amazon.com

Dan Brown

Sarah Brown

Bill Bryson What on earth is Bill Bryson doing writing a book of popular science—A Short History of Almost Everything? Largely, it appears, because this inquisitive, much-travelled writer realised, while flying over the Pacific, that he was entirely ignorant of the processes that created, populated and continue to maintain the vast body of water beneath him.

In fact, it dawned on him that "I didn't know the first thing about the only planet I was ever going to live on". The questions multiplied: What is a quark? How can anybody know how much the Earth weighs? How can astrophysicists (or whoever) claim to describe what happened in the first gazillionth of a nanosecond after the Big Bang? Why can't earthquakes be predicted? What makes evolution more plausible than any other theory? In the end, all these boiled down to a single question—how do scientists do science? To this subject Bryson devoted three years of his life, reading books and journals and pestering the people who know (or at least argue about it); and we non-scientists should be pretty grateful to him for passing his findings on to us.

Broadly, his investigations deal with seven topics, all of enormous interest and significance: the origins of the universe; the gradual historical discovery of the size and age of the earth (and the beginnings of the awesome notion of deep time); relativity and quantum theory; the present and future threats to life and the planet; the origins and history of life (dinosaurs, mass extinctions and all); and the evolution of man. Within each of these, he looks at the history of the subject, its development into a modern discipline and the frameworks of theory that now support it. This is a pretty broad brief (life, the universe and everything, in fact), and it's a mark of Bryson's skill that he is able to carve a clear path through the thickets of theory and controversy that infest all these disciplines, all the while maintaining a cracking pace and a fairly judicious tone without obvious longueurs or signs of haste. Even readers fairly familiar with some or all of these areas o! f discourse are likely to learn from A Short History. If not, they will at least be amused—the tone throughout is agreeable, mingling genuine awe with a mild facetiousness that often rises to wit.

One compelling theme that appears again and again is the utter unpredictability of the universe, despite all that we think we know about it. Nervous page-turners may care to omit the sensational chapters on the possible ways in which it all might end in disaster—Bryson enumerates with cheerful relish the kind of event that makes you want to climb under the bedclothes: undetectable asteroid colliding with the earth; superheated magma chamber erupting in your back garden; ebola carrier getting off a plane in London or New York; the HIV virus mutating to prevent its destruction in the mosquito's digestive system. Indeed, the chief theme of this sprightly book is the miraculous unlikeliness, in a universe ruled by randomness, of stability and equilibrium—of which one result is ourselves and the complex, fragile planet we inhabit. —Robin Davidson

Andrew Byatt, Alastair Fothergill, Martha Holmes Whether you have seen the BBC TV series or not, The Blue Planet is a must-have book. It tells the story of life in the oceans, upon which we all ultimately depend. From the tropics to the poles, from the shores to the deeps, the waters of the planet teem with an amazing diversity of creatures and plants and a wonderful sample of it is portrayed here in the book's 400 or so colour photos.

The Blue Planet is a reminder of what we know and what we still don't know about the oceans and is a timely reminder of how fragile its ecosystems can be. We still know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the floor of the oceans. As David Attenborough reminds us in his introduction the highest peaks on Earth are still unclimbed and there are still thousands, maybe even millions, of animal species that remain undiscovered because all are hidden under the waves of the oceans. People have walked on the surface of the moon, nobody has walked on the floor of the deep ocean and probably never will. Looking at a book such as this you can get some idea of the thrill of exploring the last unknown section of our planet. And since 70 per cent of Earth's surface is covered in water, there is still plenty left to find out about.

The story the book tells is so momentous that much of the scientific background has to be condensed. For the general reader, however, this is an excellent and up-to-date introduction. Martha Holmes, one of the three authors is a marine biologist and all have worked in the Natural History Unit, the jewel in the crown of BBC TV, and so have been exposed to most of the researchers whose work has helped inform the series and the book. There is a useful glossary and index but, disappointingly, there is no Further Reading list for those who want to find out more. The Blue Planet will no doubt encourage a whole new generation of marine biologists and oceanographers.— Douglas Palmer

Ian Caldwell, Dustin Thomason

Masahiro Chatani

Anthony Croft, Robert Davison

M; Knaster, S Dalrymple

Martin Daniels, Ian Alexander

Richard Dawkins

Ed Douglas

Gareth Downes-Powell, Tim Green, Bruno Mairlot

Robert Eastaway, Jeremy Wyndham

Michael Ende

Peter Engel

Len Fisher

V Flanders

Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Keeling, Vanessa Berlowitz, Mark Brownlow, Huw Cordey, Mark Linfield

Michael Freeman

Malcolm Gladwell : For Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling The Tipping Point explores the extraordinarily perceptive and deceptive power of the sub-conscious mind. Gladwell’s major claim is that decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as a decision made cautiously and deliberately. What we are actually doing is what Gladwell calls ‘thin-slicing’. When we leap to a decision or have a hunch our unconscious is sifting through the situation in front of us looking for a pattern, throwing out the irrelevant information and zeroing in on what really matters. Our unconscious mind is so good at this that it often delivers a better answer than more deliberate and protracted ways of thinking. Much of this is utterly mysterious but some of the most astonishing and useful examples of thin-slicing can be learned.

 

Gladwell hopes to convince us that our snap judgements and first impressions can be educated and controlled so instead of merely praising the mysterious process of instinct and intuition he is interested in those moments when our instincts betray us, the situations where our powers of rapid cognition can go awry, where we fail to read the signs. Most disturbing of all is the degree to which culturally determined preconceptions and prejudices control us. Without reducing matters to racism and sexism Gladwell shows us that there are facts about people’s appearance—their size or shape or color or sex—that can trigger a very similar set of powerful associations which explains why utter mediocrities (such as U.S. President Warren Harding) can sometimes end up in positions of enormous responsibility; or why tall people earn substantially more than their shorter colleagues; or why car salesmen unconsciously charge prices according to race and gender.  

Gladwell’s conversational prose style is concise, informative, accessible and entertaining. The stories, scientific findings and psychological tests are consistently surprising whether he is dealing with speed-dating, record promotions, police shoot-outs, the human face, or the reasons doctors get sued. —Larry Brown END

Matt Groening

Christian Gross

Amit Gupta, Kelly Jensen

Robert Harbin

Robert Harbin

Robert Harbin

Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help non-scientists understand fundamental questions of physics and our existence: where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to deal with these questions (and where we might look for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; the concepts are so vast (or so tiny) that they cause mental vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking for as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God". —Therese Littleton, Amazon.com

Hiromi Hayashi

Stuart Hemple, Eric Marshall

Luke Herriot

Nick Hornby It has been said often enough that baby boomers are a television generation, but High Fidelity reminds that in a way they are the record-album generation as well. This hilarious novel is obsessed with music; Hornby's narrator is an early thirtysomething bloke who runs a London record store. He sells albums recorded the old-fashioned way—on vinyl—and is having a tough time making other transitions as well, specifically to adulthood. The book is in one sense a love story, both sweet and interesting; most entertaining, though, are the hilarious arguments over arcane matters of pop music. —Christine Buttery

Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby

Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.

Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling.

The son of an Afghan diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, Hosseini combines the unflinching realism of a war correspondent with the satisfying emotional pull of master storytellers such as Rohinton Mistry. Like the kite that is its central image, the story line of this mesmerizing first novel occasionally dips and seems almost to dive to the ground. But Hosseini ultimately keeps everything airborne until his heartrending conclusion in an American picnic park. —Lisa Alward, Amazon.ca

Khaled Hosseini

Madhur Jaffrey A collection of recipes that shows us that Indian food need not be complicated or involve hours in the kitchen.

Bill Jelen, Tracy Syrstad

Kunihiko Kasahara

Kunihiko Kasahara, Toshie Takahama

Jeremy Keith

Eric Kenneway

Atul Kochhar

Michael LaFosse

Robert J. Lang

Robert J. Lang

Robert J. Lang

Robert J. Lang

Robert J. Lang

Terry Laughlin

Nigella Lawson The accompaniment to her new 13 part prime-time series for the Autumn which will be perfect for those of us who need instant culinary gratification! Fast foods, ingenious short cuts, terrific time-saving ideas and easy, delicious meals for all the family.

Mark Leigh, Mike Lepine

C. S. Lewis When Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy took their first steps into the world behind the magic wardrobe, little do they realise what adventures are about to unfold. And as the story of Narnia begins to unfold, so to does a classic tale that has enchanted readers of all ages for over half a century.

This stunning version of the classic The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, illustrated by Christian Burningham, comes with a special recording of the story which features a full production and specially composed music which transports the listener straight to the heart of Narnia. An absolute must for Narnia fans, and an excellent way of introducing the magical story to a new generation of readers. —Susan Harrison

Mark Leyner, Billy Goldberg

Sheila Lowe

Ellen Lupton

For Him Magazine

Tarek Malouf

Tarek Malouf The bestselling, hugely popular Hummingbird Bakery is back with a wonderful new collection of easy and delicious cupcakes, layer cakes, pies and cookies to suit all occasions in this beautiful book.

Dave Mark, Jeff LaMarche

Zuleikha Mayat

Zuleikha Mayat

John Montroll

John Montroll

John Montroll

John Montroll

John Montroll

John Montroll

John Montroll

John Montroll

John Montroll

John Montroll, Robert J. Lang

Audrey Niffenegger

Wendy Northcutt

Jamie Oliver There are a few television chefs like Delia Smith and Nigel Slater who know exactly what viewers want. They cook food which is simple to prepare, but looks and tastes delicious. That's probably the reason why the BBC has bagged Jamie Oliver as the presenter of its series "The Naked Chef". A working chef at London's celebrated River Café, Oliver cooks simpler versions of what you would find on the restaurant's menu. It's basically modern Italian food using ingredients which can be found by almost anyone who is reasonably interested in food shopping. Like the television show, the book is titled The Naked Chef. In Oliver's words, this sums up the idea: "It's basically stripping back to the bare essentials." He applies this to all his recipes—from salads to roasts, desserts to pastas. He doesn't use culinary jargon nor time-consuming processes. In the book you'll find suggestions for ingredients to keep in your larder and herbs to grow on your windowsill. Recipes include Warm Salad of Radicchio, Gem and Pancetta and Beetroot Tagliatelle with Pesto, Mussels and White Wine. There are also tips on how to cook live lobsters, how to make gravy, preparing pulses for cooking, and how to make the perfect roast chicken. Several photographs accompany some of the recipes, with step-by-step instructions. Oliver's recipes for bread are particularly good—a tribute to his training at Carluccio's, the Covent Garden deli. This is the perfect book for anyone who doesn't want to spend much more than half an hour preparing meals and is not willing to compromise on innovation and taste. —Dale Kneen

Jamie Oliver He's back. Can anyone remember why they called Jamie Oliver the Naked Chef first time round? No matter. The Return of the Naked Chef is a quite brilliant collection of smart-casual food, simple, sexy, sophisticated, sharp as a tack and bang up to the moment. Oliver (or his editors, stylists, whoever) certainly has his finger on the pulse: there isn't a duff recipe in the book. This is food designed to be cooked in the home, but informed by the professional skills and commercial instincts of a working chef.

So what do we get? First off, ingredient perfect pitch. Seared scallops, grilled squid, baked beetroot and squash, roast Jerusalem artichokes, braised lamb shanks, crispy sea bass, carpaccio of beef, pancetta, lots of herbs, goats' cheese, Asian influences—all exactly what everybody seems to want to cook at the moment. There isn't perhaps anything blindingly original in his recipes, but the combinations are nudged this way and that to maximum effect: "Potato and Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Thyme, Mascarpone and Hazelnuts", "Risotto of Radicchio, Smoky Bacon, Rosemary and Red Wine", "Braised Pigeon Breasts with Peas, Lettuce and Spring Onions", "Orange and Polenta Biscuits" give something of the flavour of the style. It's modern, fresh and not in any way intimidating. On the minor matter of personal appeal, where Oliver really scores is the intriguing contrast (the "tension", as literary critics would say) between the skilled and imaginative professional on the one hand, and the laddish Essex boy on the other, who always manages to look as if he's just crawled from under a companionable duvet. This book will scarcely need recommending, but it is a highly appealing and skilful package. —Robin Davidson

Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver Brand New Item, Fast Dispatch

George Orwell

Antal Parody

Lorraine Pascale

Greg Harvey PhD, Peter Weverka, John Walkenbach, Alison Barrows, Bill Dyszel, Camille McCue, Damon Dean, Jim McCarter, Lee Musick

Nicholas Pileggi Welcome to the world of New York organised crime; of heists, extortion, family, gambling, molls and casual violence. This is the book that inspired the film, written by Nicholas Pileggi in 1985 and originally entitled Wiseguy. Martin Scorsese read it, contacted Pileggi who apparently "had been waiting for this phone call all my life", and between them they wrote the screenplay for the hugely popular 1990 movie. The resulting blend of snappy dialogue, snappier editing and superb ensemble acting tended to overshadow Scorsese's dubious ambivalence towards violence, but the audience was blown away more spectacularly than one of Tommy De Vito's victims.

Pileggi's book was written with Henry Hill, whose life it describes. The narrative switches between Pileggi, Hill, and Hill's wife Karen, all delivered with the smooth action of a well-polished Magnum. It proves utterly compelling, breathlessly serving up an action-fuelled life of criminal excess with Henry starting as an aspirant 12-year-old errand runner ("To be a wiseguy was better than being president of the United States. To be a wiseguy was to own the world"), and progressing to such a status within the Mob that when he is finally nailed he turns Federal witness to implicate his former cronies, a move that represents his only chance to save his family's necks. The irony for Hill is that his fictionalised life story has been seen by millions, but he cannot tell anyone without jeopardising his new identity, which means he gets "to live the rest of my life as a shnook". As a source the book runs very close to the film, and someone who know the film will find it hard not to picture Scorseses's stylised realisation as they read, while those who don't will discover a grittily related, authentically grim amorality tale of a life shot through with brutality and survivalist scheming that stands on its own without the Big Screen treatment. Surprisingly bleak. —David Vincent

K et al Potts

Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack S. Cohen Terry Pratchett needs no introduction. Ian Stewart has written fine nonfiction books on mathematics, and he and Jack Cohen collaborated on the quirkily inventive pop-science titles The Collapse of Chaos and Figments of Reality. What on earth, or on Discworld, are they all doing in the same book? Pratchett provides a very funny 30,000-word novella about Discworld science, beginning in the High Energy Magic faculty of Unseen University and leading his eccentric wizards to investigate an alien cosmos where there's no magic to keep things going. This is the Roundworld universe—ours. The key point: much that's true only on Discworld (eg: that suns orbit planets and not vice-versa) was once believed on Earth and the wizards' comic misunderstandings echo the history of real science ... Unusually, Pratchett's story is split into chapters and in between his chapters Stewart and Cohen wittily discuss the concepts underlying the fiction, from the Big Bang through stellar formation to life and evolution. Much of the science we know, they cheerfully insist, is "lies-to-children": good stories that are mostly untrue, like thinking of atoms as tiny solar systems. Discworld operates by narrative plausibility and so does human thought even when our Roundworld universe disagrees. Between the laughs, The Science of Discworld is a provocative, informative book that'll make you think about what you think you know. —David Langford

ENI Publishing

Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay

Janine Ratcliffe

John Ray, Sean Johnson

Nick Robinson

Nick Robinson

Lew Rozelle

New Scientist

Jeremy Shafer

John Shelley

Kate Shirazi

Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates

Simon Singh When Cambridge mathematician Andrew Wiles announced a solution for Fermat's last theorem in 1993, it electrified the world of mathematics. After a flaw was discovered in the proof, Wiles had to work for another year—he had already laboured in solitude for seven years—to establish that he had solved the 350-year-old problem. Simon Singh's book is a lively, comprehensible explanation of Wiles's work and of the colourful history that has build up around Fermat's last theorem over the years. The book contains some problems that offer a taste for the maths, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the quirkier side of mathematicians.

Mike Slocombe Top Web designer Slocombe (urban75.org) demystifies the entire Web site production process with fun, slang-filled text in Max Hits: Building and Promoting Successful Websites—sometimes all one needs to finally "get" a concept is to hear it re-worded in a friendly, less technical way. He makes ideas that novices often find confusing, like XML, SVG, and CSS, seem easy and points the way to further reading and useful applications. Not strictly a how-to manual, the book is rich with screenshots and bite-size blocks of text, with a hip layout by Bark Design that makes it more entertaining than most technical books.

Slocombe dispenses a lot of hard-earned wisdom. Rather than teaching all of HTML, he gives a simple tutorial that gets across the main idea of how tags work and then sends the reader off to look at source code, consult online resources and/or use an HTML editor such as Homesite. When discussing how wide a site should be, he gets right to the crux of the problem: should a Web designer worry about how the site looks on every monitor from plasma to PDA? What are the pros and cons of specifying the table tag width at 100%? Again, he points the way to places online where readers can check how their site displays in different browsers and resolutions.

Pros and cons come into play in most Web site design decisions. For example, developers must weigh design versus download time or latest technology versus browser compatibility. These decisions are unique to each site and Slocombe helps readers make informed choices. His advice can be as simple as hitting the auto button on the levels panel in Photoshop to clear up a muddy photograph or as complex as delivering appropriate content to your audience.

This is a hip book that looks at all the details involved in making a Web site. It's well written, well designed, well coded and gets lots of attention from search bots. And it clues readers into some of the coolest sites existing on the Web today. It may just be what you need to get off to a good start with your own Web site. —Angelynn Grant

Kim Sterelny

Andrew Stoker, Sasha Williamson

Manny Tan, Jamie MacDonald, Glen Rhodes, Brandon Williams, Kip Parker, Gabriel Mulzer, Jared Tarbell, Ty Lettau, J.D. Hooge, et al

Nicolas Terry

Trevor Thom

Scarlett Thomas

D C Thomson

Ted Smart / The Times

J.R.R. Tolkien Although The Silmarillion takes place in the same imaginary world as J.J.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and was originally published four years after the author's death and over two decades after the former book, it is set much earlier, in the First Age of the World. The tales and the book which reads as a fusion between a story collection and historical chronicle, are a matter of legend even to the characters of The Lord of the Rings:

In the beginning Eru, the One, who in the Elvish tongue is named Ilúvatar, made the Ainur of his thought; and they made a great Music before him

Tolkien wrote the heart of this material very early in his career, and continued to work on it throughout his life. It fell to his son, Christopher Tolkien, to edit it into book form, and such proved the unquenchable public appetite that he subsequently oversaw 12 volumes of The History of Middle-Earth. This edition features 20 highly evocative colour plates by Ted Nasmith, themselves worth the price of admission, while reinforcing the sense of a historical work are genealogical tables, an extensive index, appendix and colour map. Far removed from the genial style of The Hobbit, this is Tolkien at his most formal, his prose austere, poetically beautiful, his storytelling capturing the epic scale, high drama and melancholy wonder of myth. These stories of elves and heroes and old gods are quite literally the foundation of the entire modern fantasy-publishing revival, and are therefore essential reading. —Gary S. Dalkin

J.R.R. Tolkien Poor Bilbo Baggins! An unassuming and rather plump hobbit (as most of these small, furry-footed people tend to be ), Baggins finds himself unwittingly drawn into adventure by a wizard named Gandalf and 13 dwarves bound for the Lonely Mountain, where a dragon named Smaug hordes a stolen treasure. Before he knows what is happening, Baggins finds himself on the road to danger. Wizards, dwarves and dragons may seem the stuff of children's fairy tales, but The Hobbit is in a class of its own—light-hearted enough for younger readers, yet with a dark edge guaranteed to intrigue an older audience. In the best tradition of the archetypal hero's quest, Bilbo Baggins sets out on his fateful journey a callow, untested soul and returns—tempered by hardship, danger and loss—a better man—er, hobbit.

This book is the predecessor to Tolkien's masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, and though that trilogy can be thoroughly enjoyed without first reading The Hobbit, much that happens in the later novels is foreshadowed here. A word of caution, however: as Bilbo discovers early on, travel and adventure are addictive things; embark on this journey to the Lonely Mountain with Tolkien's reluctant hero, and you might not be able to stop there. And the road taken to the distant mountains of Mordor in the ensuing trilogy is an even more perilous one.

Adam Trachtenberg, David Sklar

P.D. Tuyen

Larry Ullman

Larry Ullman

Janet Valade

Jeffrey Veen When it comes to Web design, style guides are often too boring and predictable to capture the attention of caffeine-riddled Web developers. But not The Art & Science of Web Design; this book strategically equips readers to design sites effectively.

Jeffrey Veen, an established design guru and the creator of HotWired.com, has authored a carefully structured look into the undercurrents of Web design. Organised around the key development topics, the book is laden with a historical background of standards, features and trends. Yet the topics are timeless and central to good Web engineering, so it's space well spent. The mix of expert opinion and historical explanation combine for a well-rounded reader experience.

Issues such as interface consistency are explored within the unique paradigm of the Web, with the assistance of a sidebar to explain what "above the fold" means. Performance is discussed with an unusual twist: ie., how the current constraint on Web-browsing performance is actually good since it fosters creativity and more elegant design and development. This, beyond the usual design tips, is what makes this book special. Art & Science stays at a reasonably high altitude, dwelling not on the fine details of browser compatibility but rather on the key areas designers need to be concerned about. With his years of experience and knowledge of the legacy of traditional publishing, Veen has provided great perspective on the dicey work of Web designers. —Stephen W. Plain

Mario Adrados Netto
J. Aníbal Voyer

Sereena Walker, Alexa Goodwin, Priya Kachroo Spicy, speedy and easy Indian food to cook at home.

Lynda Weinman, William Weinman Who better to ease you into the detailed world of HTML coding (where even an errant spacebar can gum up your creative masterpiece) than well-known Web design instructor Lynda Weinman? The first edition of Creative HTML Design.2 came out over three years ago and the Web has changed a lot in that time. Novices will appreciate this HTML primer that not only helps in hand-coding Web pages but also in troubleshooting the HTML generated by WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver and GoLive and image/animation applications like Flash, Fireworks, Photoshop and ImageReady.

Creative HTML Design.2 covers basic page structure, images and compression, colour, links, buttons, transparency, typography, organisation, style sheets, navigation, rollovers, forms and other issues. (A good description of the first edition, including a sample chapter, can currently be found at www.lynda.com; this new edition will most likely be detailed there soon as well. They also maintain an errata section, important for any book that includes code.) Lynda Weinman's specialty is her friendly yet tech-savvy teaching style—there aren't many who can walk readers through the minutiae of client-side image map coordinates and not confuse them (or bore them to tears). Brother Gary, an engineer and programmer, presumably provides the finer points of HTML, plus the JavaScript and CGI scripts. The book offers all the good aspects of Weinman's other popular books—text that's affable yet clear, with a view to anticipating problems beginners may stumble into, lesson projects that are neither too complex nor aesthetically amateur, and a book layout that doesn't crowd pages but rather serves up mini-steps and clearly captioned screenshots in easily digested morsels.

With editors that do it all like Dreamweaver and GoLive, why would a non-tech-head Web designer want to learn HTML? As Weinman explains, "The advantage of knowing and understanding HTML is that you are in better control of knowing what is possible and what is not." Even if you use an HTML editor, you will at some point have to go "under the hood" and fix troubled code and even a little familiarity can make a big difference in relieving Web design stress. —Angelynn Grant

Stephen Weiss

Issei Yoshino Origami Skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is a step-by-step guide of how to assemble the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex using the origami method.