I wish it were longer, and that's something that I've rarely said about the baseball games I've covered in 30 years as a sportswriter. But it's how I felt while reading "The Entitled," the new baseball novel by Frank Deford. The title covers the surface story. It's about a superstar named Jay Alcazar, a Cuban power hitter who makes a hard sport look ridiculously easy. Being entitled is part of the package: The money is huge, the women always available, the fans forever adoring -- or so it seems for Alcazar. So far, the book sounds like one big cliche. But what makes this novel as much fun to read as watching Gold Glover Omar Vizquel play shortstop is that the story is primarily told from the viewpoint of the candid and colorful Howie Traveler, Alcazar's manager with the Cleveland Indians.

his is the book the foreign fan of sumo (Japanese wrestling) has been waiting for . . . ideal for the armchair enthusiast who finds himself almost hypnotized in front of his television set during the six annual tournaments but wishes he knew a little more about what he is seeing.

The U.S. military and its allies have committed to a strategy of network centric warfare (NCW) with ever-increasing levels of investment in and dependence on networked systems. As a result, the Army has become increasingly aware of the critical role that network science will play in achieving national defense goals. This report discusses a strategy for an Army center for conducting network science, technology, and experimentation supportive of all of the military services and joint operations.

In this groundbreaking work, Paul A. Djupe and Christopher Gilbert analyze national data from a survey of over 2,400 Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America clergy, looking deeper into their motivations for political action. Using these data, the authors argue that clergy roles in politics and civic life result from the intersection of their personal beliefs and interests, the specific needs of their congregation and community, and ongoing influences from their denomination.

KEY MESSAGE: As the most widely adopted new physics text in more than 50 years, Knight’s Physics for Scientists and Engineers was published to widespread critical acclaim from professors and students. In this eagerly awaited second edition, Knight builds on the research-proven instructional techniques he introduced, as well as national data of student performance, to take student learning even further. Knight’s unparalleled insight into student learning difficulties, and his impeccably skillful crafting of text and figures at every level — from macro to micro — to address these difficulties, results in a uniquely effective and accessible book, leading students to a deeper and better-connected understanding of the concepts and more proficient problem-solving skills. Building on an NSF-sponsored educational research program and input from tens of thousands of student users, the second edition refines and extends the pedagogical innovations that years of use has now shown to be effective. Unprecedented analysis of national student metadata has allowed every problem to be systematically enhanced for educational effectives, and to ensure problem sets of ideal topic coverage, balance of qualitative and quantitative problems, and range of difficulty and duration.

Epistemic logic is one of the most exciting areas in medieval philosophy. Neglected almost entirely after the end of the Middle Ages, it has been rediscovered by philosophers of the twentieth century. Epistemic Logic in the Later Middle Ages provides the first comprehensive study of the subject.

Currently the company pianist for the BallettMainz at the Mainz State Theater, Cavalli drew on 40-plus years' experience to write this one-of-a-kind manual. In straightforward, no-nonsense prose, she spells out ways for the teacher and the accompanist to make the rehearsal a success. She says, for example, that dance teachers must learn to count correctly and treat the accompanist with respect. Not surprisingly, Cavalli's real forte is explaining accompaniment. Beginning accompanists will especially benefit from her advice on selecting the proper music and defining their role in a dance company. By far the most thorough treatise on the subject in print, this work also discusses classroom etiquette, dance class structure, how teachers demonstrate, and steps and movements.

It's a fascinating project: attend 52 different churches in one year and report your first impressions. Shea, a New England novelist and former Catholic, engagingly writes of her initial visits to all kinds of churches: Shaker and Baptist, evangelical and mainline, African-American and Caucasian. Sometimes, these well-written first impressions yield intriguing analysis, as when she notes the total absence of children at the Mother Church of Christ, Scientist. But more often, the book's quick verdicts reinforce the idea that public Sunday worship is just one part of what makes a religion tick, and that it may be unfair to judge churches solely on this basis. Shea seems comfortable enough criticizing other people's intolerance—including that of former president and erstwhile Sunday School teacher Jimmy Carter—but myopically fails to see her own judgmentalism, as when bemoaning the Mennonite presence on a Hopi reservation or taking easy shots at televangelist Joel Osteen. Also, the book has some small factual errors; for instance, Mormons do not believe in the Holy Trinity, as Shea attests. Although the portraits are appealingly personal and often funny, readers may wish for a more rigorous examination of these churches than Shea's impressionistic approach is able to provide.

Now in a completely revised and expanded fourth edition, this widely adopted text and clinical reference provides a comprehensive guide to assessment and treatment of all of the major female and male sexual dysfunctions. Leading authorities demonstrate effective ways to integrate psychological, interpersonal, and medical interventions. Every chapter includes detailed clinical examples illustrating the process of therapy and the factors that influence treatment outcomes. More than an update, the fourth edition incorporates major advances in research and practice. New chapter topics include persistent genital arousal disorder in women, sexual desire disorders in men, physical therapy for female sexual pain, treatment of sexual abuse survivors, sexuality and culture, and sexual pharmacology.

In these Messenger Lectures, originally delivered at Cornell University and recorded for television by the BBC, Richard Feynman offers an overview of selected physical laws and gathers their common features into one broad principle of invariance. He maintains at the outset that the importance of a physical law is not "how clever we are to have found it out, but . . . how clever nature is to pay attention to it," and tends his discussions toward a final exposition of the elegance and simplicity of all scientific laws. Rather than an essay on the most significant achievements in modern science, The Character of Physical Law is a statement of what is most remarkable in nature. Feynman's enlightened approach, his wit, and his enthusiasm make this a memorable exposition of the scientist's craft. The Law of Gravitation is the author's principal example. Relating the details of its discovery and stressing its mathematical character, he uses it to demonstrate the essential interaction of mathematics and physics. He views mathematics as the key to any system of scientific laws, suggesting that if it were possible to fill out the structure of scientific theory completely, the result would be an integrated set of mathematical axioms. The principles of conservation, symmetry, and time-irreversibility are then considered in relation to developments in classical and modern physics, and in his final lecture Feynman develops his own analysis of the process and future of scientific discovery.

Tai chi is a slow graceful sequence of movements, with its origins in ancient China. it combines slow, graceful movements with calm, regular breathing and is the perfect antidote to a stressful modern life. Today it is practiced the world over by people from all walks of life and is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of fitness training and recreation. The Tai Chi Manual is my second book on the subject, and is ideal for beginners and advanced students alike. Reflecting my own interests in oriental medicine and culture, the approach taken here is to encourage interest in the health and relaxation aspects of tai chi. You will find chapters on health and fitness, therefore, along with information on how tai chi relates to oriental culture - and of course lots of practical, step by step information on how to learn the physical movements of tai chi. The sequence of movements is called 'the form' and the Short Yang Form is the one featured in this book. Included in these pages, you will also find diagrams for feet placement, close up illustrations of hand positions, and detailed instructions on how to create the movements themselves. I hope you enjoy it. By the way, you can also find information on how to obtain audio and video cassettes to help you with your tai chi studies at the back of this book. So there is everything you need here to get started on your tai chi journey!

What does it take to follow and not merely admire Jesus? How do religious affections reshape the practice of Christian values like love, peace, justice, and compassion? How can they possess both universal truth and local meaning? What role can they play in public life? In Fidelity of Heart Gilman answers these questions, while showing, in an innovative and provocative approach, how Christians can practice these values in ways continuous with the life of Jesus.

Something more than a journeyman and less than a superstar, Joe Jackson has a reputation for being a reclusive and prickly character. But he refuses the low road with A Cure for Gravity, a resolutely non-lurid autobiography of a man who considers music to be a noble calling. It matters not that the author was once lumped in with England's insurgent first-generation punks and new-wavers; here Jackson insistently focuses on his development as a composer, player, and performer, approximately in that order. Born to modest means in a setting where a sickly, creative youngster such as Jackson was regarded with suspicion, if not contempt, the young Brit was trained in the classics and developed his keyboard skills, playing everything from cabaret to progressive rock before finally setting off on his own as a sharp-tongued, ska-influenced Angry Young Man.

Attempts to keep an eye on Americans are nothing new, Parenti argues in this well-researched albeit pedantic history of ways people have been controlled in the U.S. Relying on the theories of scholar Michel Foucault-who used surveillance and control as two of his central themes-Parenti begins with slavery, focusing on the slave passes that slaveowners used to keep their human property in place. He then moves on to new crime controls, like fingerprinting, that accompanied increased urbanization. Throughout, he emphasizes how new technology has always increased the government's ability to spy on its citizens. So it's no surprise that the current rise in technology comes in for special criticism. Credit cards, ATMs, highway toll passes such as E-ZPass are all tools that the government can employ to curtail freedom. There's a lot of food for thought here (and some troubling aspects of American history brought to light). But Parenti's lens is too sharp and his antigovernment animus too apparent. As he himself admits, most Americans seem to think that some liberties are worth trading in if they bring more security. There's no doubt that books focusing on this topic can be helpful contributions to the national discourse, but when Parenti sees post-September 11 not as a shift toward cracking down on civil liberties but as more of the same, many readers will likely feel he is a bit off base.

The only user-level guide to Plug and Play, this handy, detailed text/CD-ROM package provides you with all the authoritative step-by-step guidance you need to understand, install, maintain, and troubleshoot PC-based Plug-and-Play devices. Best-selling computer guru Steve Bigelow gives you an essential understanding of PnP devices and their role in minimizing conflicts caused by the addition of peripherals to PCs. You'll learn how to install, update, and manage PnP devices under DOS, Windows 95, and Windows 98, as well as how to identify and deal with the full range of hardware and software conflicts. You'll find a comprehensive PC PnP troublshooting section that offers you systematic, easy-to-follow advice on everything from handling dozens of standard conflicts to troublshooting numerous PnP-based problems. Featuring a How-To Quick Reference that enables you to troubleshoot specific problems and carry out particular procedures in a snap, The Plug & Play Book is your one-stop guide to maximizing the problem-solving advantages of PnP technology, whether you're a novice or experienced PC technician.