Archive for May, 2009

The Fine Art of Small Talk: How To Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills — and Leave a Positive Impression!

The Fine Art of Small Talk: How To Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills — and Leave a Positive Impression! Nationally recognized communication expert Debra Fine reveals the techniques and strategies anyone can use to make small talkin any situation Do you spend an abnormal amount of time hiding out in the bathroom or hanging out at the buffet table at social gatherings? Does the thought of striking up a conversation with a stranger make your stomach do flip-flops? Do you sit nervously through job interviews waiting for the other person to speak? Are you a Nervous Ned or Nellie when it comes to networking? Then its time you mastered The Fine Art of Small Talk. With practical advice and conversation cheat sheets, The Fine Art of Small Talk will help you learn to feel more comfortable in any type of social situation, from lunch with the boss to an association event to a cocktail party where you dont know a soul.
Customer Review: Adding a dimension to a fine book
I periodically teach a course for newly-hired and largely inexperienced application software consultants, “Soft Skills.” This book with its imparted wisdoms from a person who climbed the ladder so to speak and its practical, checklist approach is one of the best I have read. I recommend it to my classes.
It is probably worthwhile for persons interested in effective human-to-human communication to also consider that knowledge of non-verbal communication and an ability to handle contentious issues are also key elements. Adding these to this fine book would make it less accessible so I recommend that persons who seek competence in this area explore these other topics as well.

Adventures in American Literature: Athena Edition

Adventures in American Literature: Athena Edition


John Abraham Either media reportage is entering a new age of fiction or love has become a fickle thing. The latest rumour about a sprouting love affair between John Abraham and Katrina Kaif seem to have its roots in fiction rather than facts. Even

Creating Web Pages All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Creating Web Pages All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) Whether you’re looking to show off your digital photos or launch your own blog, Creating Web Pages All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies, 3rd Edition delivers all the know-how you need to create Web pages for any need. It demystifies technical topics like HTML and Cascading Style Sheets, gives you the lowdown on adding sound and video to a page, and shows you how to put the latest versions of Dreamweaver and Flash to work.

These nine minibooks show you the easy way to create great-looking pages with all the bells and whistles. They’re completely revised and updated to cover new page design tools and trends. Three all-new minibooks show you how to use Microsoft’s new Expressions Web tool to build simple but dazzling pages at online services such as Google Pages, MySpace, and eBay. You’ll also learn how to tweak a site’s look and feel with Cascading Style Sheets. Discover how to:

  • Create user-friendly page designs
  • Build a blog or photo page
  • Fine-tune your firewall
  • Fine-tune pages with HTML or CSS
  • Spice up your pages with video and animation
  • Use templates to save time and frustration
  • Reduce exposure by controlling user tasks
  • Create interactive features such as clickable images
  • Generate sophisticated graphic effects and movies with FlashDiscover

So what are you waiting for? Get Creating Web Pages All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies, 3rd Edition and start smartening up your Web pages now!
Customer Review: creating web pages for dummies
I am new to the whole web site building, so this book was for me. It gave me a basic understanding of web publishing, free tools available to create my web pages and how to add links, blogs and graphics to my web site.
This book though, does not go into great detail about web design so if that’s what you are looking for, this is not for you.
This is for the beginner who wants to get a feel for the process and work it takes to get a web site up and running.
I found it very helpful in getting me started on the road to creating a great web site.

Joy of Cooking

Joy of Cooking Joy is the all-purpose cookbook. There are other basic cookbooks on the market, and there are fine specialty cookbooks, but no other cookbook includes such a complete range of recipes in every category: everyday, classic, foreign and de luxe. Joy is the one indispensable cookbook, a boon to the beginner, treasure for the experienced cook, the foundation of many a happy kitchen and many a happy home.

Privately printed in 1931, Joy has always been family affair, and like a family it has grown. Written by Irma Starkloff Rombauer, a St. Louisan, it was first tested and illustrated by her daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, and subsequently it was revised and enlarged through Marion’s efforts and those of her architect husband, John W. Becker. Their sons — Ethan, with his Cordon Bleu and camping experiences, and Mark, with his interest in natural foods-have reinforced Joy in many ways.

Now over forty, Joy continues to be a family affair, demonstrating more than ever the awareness we all share in the growing preciousness of food. Special features in this edition are the chapter on Heat, which gives you many hints on maintaining the nutrients in the food you are cooking, and Know Your Ingredients, which reveals vital characteristics of the materials you commonly combine, telling how and why they react as they do; how to measure them; when feasible, how to substitute one for another; as well as amounts to buy. Wherever possible, information also appears at the point of use.

Divided into three parts, Foods We Eat, Foods We Heat and Foods We Keep, Joy now contains more than 4500 recipes, many hundreds of them new to this edition — the first full revision in twelve years. All the enduring favorites will still be found. In the chapter on Brunch, Lunch and Supper Dishes there are also interesting suggestions for using convenience and leftover foods. Through its more than 1000 practical, delightful drawings by Ginnie Hofmann and Ikki Matsumoto, Joy shows how to present food correctly and charmingly, from the simplest to the most formal service; how to prepare ingredients with classic tools and techniques; and how to preserve safely the results of your canning and freezing.

Joy grows with the times; it has a full roster of American and foreign dishes: Strudel, Zabaglione, Rijsttafel, Couscous, among many others. All the classic terms you find on menus, such as Provencale, bonne femme, meuni re and Florentine, are not merely defined but fully explained so you yourself can confect the dish they characterize. Throughout the book the whys and wherefores of the directions are given, with special emphasis on that vital cooking factor — heat. Did you know that even the temperature of an ingredient can make or mar your best-laid plans? Learn exactly what the results of simmering, blanching, roasting and braising have on your efforts. Read the enlarged discussion on herbs, spices and seasonings, and note that their use is included in suitable amounts in the recipes. No detail necessary to your success in cooking has been omitted.

Joy, we hope, will always remain essentially a family affair, as well as an enterprise in which its authors owe no obligation to anyone but to themselves and to you. Choose from our offerings what suits your person, your way of life, your pleasure — and join us in the Joy of cooking.

Because of the infinite patience that has gone into the preparation of Joy of Cooking, the publishers offer it on a money-back guarantee. Without question there is no finer all-purpose cookbook.


Customer Review: MOT LASCAM
Because of research I did I bought the “before 1975 edition” of the greatest cookbook ever printed! I now have the ability to prepare any food….including porcupine….not that I ever would.
Customer Review: Absolutely love it, but….
Several years ago I had a spiral-bound version of this book. I absolutely loved it, to the point that I considered it light reading material (lol). I lost it when I moved home from college. I bought this version and I’m a little confused. This is supposed to be the original (I think), but something’s different. Some of the recipes seem to be missing, as well as some of the delightful stories and commentary.