The wonderful thing about crochet is its versatility – using very little more than one ball of yarn and a crochet hook you can create stylish fashion garments and unique accessories for your home, with ease. The beautiful and contemporary designs in this book – from the narrow stripe beret and deep v skinny tunic to the mock pleat shoulder bag and crochet squares blanket – all use the latest yarns and colours and have been designed with the style-conscious in mind. There are also shorter projects so if you're really pressed for time, you can simply make a few pretty crochet cupcakes or jam jar covers – perfect for adding a personal touch to your home or for giving as gifts to friends and relatives. With a comprehensive introduction to the techniques of this fulfilling craft, as well as step-by-step instructions throughout the projects, this book is your one-stop guide to crochet. All patterns have been thoroughly tested and give clear instructions and close-up detail shots make the book suitable even for a beginner.
Whether you're training for a marathon, preparing for some serious trekking or simply playing football, good nutrition is not just important; it can give you the edge to boost stamina and increase endurance. By eating right – and this includes taking sufficient quantities of fluids – you'll be sure to put in a winning performance. This book will look at the building blocks of good nutrition and how eating right supplies the body with the right amounts of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. But it's not enough just to eat a balanced diet – different sports have different requirements, such as boosting power or increasing energy. An athlete looking to build strength will need to eat differently from one looking to build endurance. Eating for Sport will look at these different needs, as well as the special needs of women and vegetarians. Fluid intake is critical for success on the sporting field, and the book will look at the importance of hydration as well as the pros and cons of juices, energy drinks and smoothies.
With 15 easy to follow, fabulously illustrated step-by-step projects, this book is just what the beginning upholsterer needs. The first eight items—including a drop-in-bottom chair, overstuffed seat, and box cushion—teach the fundamental techniques required to tackle any upholstery task that might arise. After that, it’s time to get more creative, with a beautiful Art Deco armchair, chaise longue, leather chesterfield, and more. Each project includes a list of tools and materials, a quick overview of the key skills, and tip boxes to make the work go more smoothly.
It’s the ultimate sourcebook for stitchwork practitioners! This hardworking reference and superb project book provides an essential guide for embroiderers at any level. Divided into five sections according to the type of embroidery, each group of stitches is displayed in a stunning project, ranging in size from a sampler to a pin cushion. Full instructions for making each of the stitches are given as well as a chart for the project, so that by working through the designs, stitches are practiced and a beautiful piece of work results. Close-up photographs are accompanied by clear diagrams and concise explanations of how to work the stitches. For each type of embroidery, full details are also given on suitable fabrics, types of threads and needles, how to prepare the fabric and the best uses for the embroidery. This book is a fabulous sourcebook of stitches and will lead stitchers of all levels of ability to build up a portfolio of stunning work as a display of their skills.
The Major's Wife Diana King is a psychiatric doctor, working closely with military families. Her marriage to a major in the US Army may not seem anything out of the normal except that her husband is an African American man. She is a white woman from the rural south. Her father makes it very clear that he is not supportive of the relationship. The drama explodes when King and family are reassigned to Fort Rucker, Alabama, where Diana's family resides as original settlers. King is called up for duties in Iraq, serving couple stints in the Gulf War. While he is away, his wife continues her psychiatric care and post-combat treatment counseling for soldiers returning with issues from serving in the war. She meets her former lover from high school. Now a sergeant with the post-combat syndrome (PTSD), he tries to get extra counseling sessions between the sheets. Both are married, and an extramarital affair occurs between them. After King's heroic return to Fort Rucker, he is ambushed and is senselessly killed. In a town of old bigotry, this murder awakens racial tension. The local police, led by Detective Sharkey, try to solve intriguing murder. Diana and her father are prime suspects, King's father, a military man himself, relies on an old friend to help solve the mystery of his son's demise. Provocative and riveting The Major's Wife reveals some real experiences directly from the combat zone. The author, Anthony Whyte, relies on his military background to capture the arduous, fascinating, exciting grind of a soldier's life. From start to an inevitable sensational dramatic finish, The Major's Wife is a compelling read.
Best-selling author Cass R. Sunstein examines how to avoid worst-case scenarios The world is increasingly confronted with new challenges related to climate change, globalization, disease, and technology. Governments are faced with having to decide how much risk is worth taking, how much destruction and death can be tolerated, and how much money should be invested in the hopes of avoiding catastrophe. Lacking full information, should decision-makers focus on avoiding the most catastrophic outcomes? When should extreme measures be taken to prevent as much destruction as possible? Averting Catastrophe explores how governments ought to make decisions in times of imminent disaster. Cass R. Sunstein argues that using the “maximin rule,” which calls for choosing the approach that eliminates the worst of the worst-case scenarios, may be necessary when public officials lack important information, and when the worst-case scenario is too disastrous to contemplate. He underscores this argument by emphasizing the reality of “Knightian uncertainty,” found in circumstances in which it is not possible to assign probabilities to various outcomes. Sunstein brings foundational issues in decision theory in close contact with real problems in regulation, law, and daily life, and considers other potential future risks. At once an approachable introduction to decision-theory and a provocative argument for how governments ought to handle risk, Averting Catastrophe offers a definitive path forward in a world rife with uncertainty.
A delightful romp through America’s Golden Age of Cocktails The decades following the American Civil War burst with invention—they saw the dawn of the telephone, the motor car, electric lights, the airplane—but no innovation was more welcome than the beverage heralded as the “cocktail.” The Gilded Age, as it came to be known, was the Golden Age of Cocktails, giving birth to the classic Manhattan and martini that can be ordered at any bar to this day. Scores of whiskey drinks, cooled with ice chips or cubes that chimed against the glass, proved doubly pleasing when mixed, shaken, or stirred with special flavorings, juices, and fruits. The dazzling new drinks flourished coast to coast at sporting events, luncheons, and balls, on ocean liners and yachts, in barrooms, summer resorts, hotels, railroad train club cars, and private homes.From New York to San Francisco, celebrity bartenders rose to fame, inventing drinks for exclusive universities and exotic locales. Bartenders poured their liquid secrets for dancing girls and such industry tycoons as the newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst and the railroad king “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt.Cecelia Tichi offers a tour of the cocktail hours of the Gilded Age, in which industry, innovation, and progress all take a break to enjoy the signature beverage of the age. Gilded Age Cocktails reveals the fascinating history behind each drink as well as bartenders’ formerly secret recipes. Though the Gilded Age cocktail went “underground” during the Prohibition era, it launched the first of many generations whose palates thrilled to a panoply of artistically mixed drinks.
Flora, fauna, and famine in thirteenth-century Egypt A Physician on the Nile begins as a description of everyday life in Egypt at the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, before becoming a harrowing account of famine and pestilence. Written by the polymath and physician ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, and intended for the Abbasid caliph al-Nāṣir, the first part of the book offers detailed descriptions of Egypt’s geography, plants, animals, and local cuisine, including a recipe for a giant picnic pie made with three entire roast lambs and dozens of chickens. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf’s text is also a pioneering work of ancient Egyptology, with detailed observations of Pharaonic monuments, sculptures, and mummies. An early and ardent champion of archaeological conservation, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf condemns the vandalism wrought by tomb-robbers and notes with distaste that Egyptian grocers price their goods with labels written on recycled mummy-wrappings.The book’s second half relates his horrific eyewitness account of the great famine that afflicted Egypt in the years 597–598/1200–1202. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf was a keen observer of humanity, and he offers vivid first-hand depictions of starvation, cannibalism, and a society in moral free-fall. A Physician on the Nile contains great diversity in a small compass, distinguished by the acute, humane, and ever-curious mind of its author. It is rare to be able to hear the voice of such a man responding so directly to novelty, beauty, and tragedy.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
The adventures of the man who created Aladdin The Book of Travels is Ḥannā Diyāb’s remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again, which forever linked him to one of the most popular pieces of world literature, the Thousand and One Nights . Diyāb, a Maronite Christian, served as a guide and interpreter for the French naturalist and antiquarian Paul Lucas. Between 1706 and 1716, Diyāb and Lucas traveled through Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunis, Italy, and France. In Paris, Ḥannā Diyāb met Antoine Galland, who added to his wildly popular translation of the Thousand and One Nights several tales related by Diyāb, including “Aladdin” and “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” When Lucas failed to make good on his promise of a position for Diyāb at Louis XIV’s Royal Library, Diyāb returned to Aleppo. In his old age, he wrote this engaging account of his youthful adventures, from capture by pirates in the Mediterranean to quack medicine and near-death experiences. Translated into English for the first time, The Book of Travels introduces readers to the young Syrian responsible for some of the most beloved stories from the Thousand and One Nights .A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
The adventures of the man who created Aladdin The Book of Travels is Ḥannā Diyāb’s remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again, which forever linked him to one of the most popular pieces of world literature, the Thousand and One Nights . Diyāb, a Maronite Christian, served as a guide and interpreter for the French naturalist and antiquarian Paul Lucas. Between 1706 and 1716, Diyāb and Lucas traveled through Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunis, Italy, and France. In Paris, Ḥannā Diyāb met Antoine Galland, who added to his wildly popular translation of the Thousand and One Nights several tales related by Diyāb, including “Aladdin” and “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” When Lucas failed to make good on his promise of a position for Diyāb at Louis XIV’s Royal Library, Diyāb returned to Aleppo. In his old age, he wrote this engaging account of his youthful adventures, from capture by pirates in the Mediterranean to quack medicine and near-death experiences.Translated into English for the first time, The Book of Travels introduces readers to the young Syrian responsible for some of the most beloved stories from the Thousand and One Nights .A bilingual Arabic-English edition.