Almost there...

“A playful, punchy paean to the pervasive poot.” ―Kirkus Reviews (Starred review) Grandmas fart. Teachers fart. Terrifying creatures fart. But . . . is there someone who DOESN’T fart? With sly hum

The rich, poignant tales of major league baseball’s most hard-luck fraternity—the pitchers of its Almost-Perfect GamesFrom 1908 to 2015, there have been thirteen pitchers who have begun Ma

A definitive guide to the dress, weapons and accruements of the infantry elements of the most famous formation of the Napoleonic Wars.From its origins as the Consular Guard of the French Republic, and as Napoleon’s personal bodyguard, the Imperial Guard developed into a force of all arms numbering almost 100,000 men. Used by Napoleon as his principal tactical reserve, the Guard was engaged only sparingly, being deployed at the crucial moment of battle to turn the tide of victory in favor of the Emperor of the French.Naturally, the Imperial Guard has been the subject of numerous books over many decades, yet there has never been a publication that has investigated the uniforms and equipment of the infantry of the Imperial Guard in such detail and with such precision. The author has collected copies of almost all the surviving documents relating to the Guard, which includes a vast amount of material regarding the issuing of dress items, in some instances down to company level.This informa

Teacher attrition has long been a significant challenge within the field of education. It is a commonly-cited statistic that almost fifty percent of beginning teachers leave the field within their fir

Teacher attrition has long been a significant challenge within the field of education. It is a commonly-cited statistic that almost fifty percent of beginning teachers leave the field within their fir

Being a priest is likened to being a shepherd. People do, from time to time, need a poke here or a prod there. But mostly, they need to know someone is watching out for them. Rev. William Billow has b

The idea of military necessity lies at the centre of the law of armed conflict and yet it is less than fully understood. This book analyses which legal limits govern the commander's assessment of military necessity, and argues that military necessity itself is not a limitation. Military necessity calls for a highly discretionary exercise: the assessment. Yet, there is little guidance as to how this discretionary process should be exercised, apart from the notions of 'a reasonable military commander'. A reasonable assessment of 'excessive' civilian losses are presumed to be almost intuitive. Objective standards for determining excessive civilian losses are difficult to identify, particularly when that 'excessiveness' will be understood in relative terms. The perpetual question arises: are civilian losses acceptable if the war can be won? The result is a heavy burden of assessment placed on the shoulders of the military commander.

Over 100 years ago Harald Bohr identified a deep problem about the convergence of Dirichlet series, and introduced an ingenious idea relating Dirichlet series and holomorphic functions in high dimensions. Elaborating on this work, almost twnety years later Bohnenblust and Hille solved the problem posed by Bohr. In recent years there has been a substantial revival of interest in the research area opened up by these early contributions. This involves the intertwining of the classical work with modern functional analysis, harmonic analysis, infinite dimensional holomorphy and probability theory as well as analytic number theory. New challenging research problems have crystallized and been solved in recent decades. The goal of this book is to describe in detail some of the key elements of this new research area to a wide audience. The approach is based on three pillars: Dirichlet series, infinite dimensional holomorphy and harmonic analysis.

Marion plans a perfect girls weekend for her friends--with a surprise appearance from a snow bunny!--in the twentieth book of the Critter Club series.Marion has planned the ultimate girls' getaway. There will be skiing, a trip to the spa, and of course, hot chocolate! What Marion didn't plan was a snow bunny sighting! As members of the Critter Club, she and her friends are so excited to find the most adorable bunny. But when Marion's kitten, Ollie, scares the bunnies away, Marion scolds him. That's when she notices he's been acting a little strange the whole time. What's wrong with Ollie? And will the girls get to see the bunnies again?With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, The Critter Club chapter books are perfect for beginning readers!

Intimate relationships exist in social domains, in which there are cultural rules regarding appropriate behaviors. But they also inhabit psychological domains of thoughts, feelings, and desires. How are intimate relationships experienced by people living in various types of romantic or sexual relationships and in various cultural regions around the world? In what ways are they similar, and in what ways are they different? This book presents a cross-cultural extension of the findings originating from the classic Boston Couples Study. Amassing a wealth of new data from almost 9,000 participants worldwide, Hill explores the factors that predict having a current partner, relationship satisfaction, and relationship commitment. These predictions are compared across eight relationship types and nine cultural regions, then uniquely combined in a Comprehensive Partner Model and a Comprehensive Commitment Model. The findings test the generalizability of previous theories about intimate relations

Intimate relationships exist in social domains, in which there are cultural rules regarding appropriate behaviors. But they also inhabit psychological domains of thoughts, feelings, and desires. How are intimate relationships experienced by people living in various types of romantic or sexual relationships and in various cultural regions around the world? In what ways are they similar, and in what ways are they different? This book presents a cross-cultural extension of the findings originating from the classic Boston Couples Study. Amassing a wealth of new data from almost 9,000 participants worldwide, Hill explores the factors that predict having a current partner, relationship satisfaction, and relationship commitment. These predictions are compared across eight relationship types and nine cultural regions, then uniquely combined in a Comprehensive Partner Model and a Comprehensive Commitment Model. The findings test the generalizability of previous theories about intimate relations

Annie is always in a rush to move on to the next thing. After all, there are so many exciting things to do!When Annie's impatience almost ruins her chance to earn a spot in her club's summer camp, an

An entertaining and eye-opening look at the French Revolution, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde. The French Revolution and What Went Wrong looks back at the French Revolution and how it’s surrounded in a myth. In 1789, almost no one in France wanted to oust the king, let alone guillotine him.But things quickly escalated until there was no turning back. The French Revolution and What Went Wrong looks at what went wrong and why France would be better off if they had kept their monarchy.

From the author of The Changing Mind and The Organized Mind comes The New York Times bestseller which unravels the mystery of our perennial love affair with music*****'What do the music of Bach, Depeche Mode and John Cage fundamentally have in common?' Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, even more fundamental to our species than language. From Mozart to the Beatles, neuroscientist, psychologist and internationally-bestselling author Daniel Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience. In This Is Your Brain On Music Levitin offers nothing less than a new way to understand music, and what it can teach us about ourselves.*****'Music seems to have an almost wilful, evasive quality, defying simple explanation, so that the more we find out, the more there is to know . . .Daniel Levitin's book is an eloquent and poetic exploration of th

'Villette ! Villette ! Have you read it?' exclaimed George Eliot when Charlotte Bronte's final novel appeared in 1853. 'It is a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost pret

In the fourteenth fantastical book from The Kingdom of Wrenly series, Prince Lucas and Clara discover there is a ghost haunting the Wrenly Castle.There are things that go bump in the night, even in the well-protected royal palace of Wrenly. Mysterious happenings have set Prince Lucas and his dragon, Ruskin, on edge. Curtains sway next to closed windows, temperatures drop for no reason, and strange lights glow in empty rooms. Lucas and Clara are sure there is a ghost haunting the castle halls. But will they find the ghost before the ghost finds them?With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, The Kingdom of Wrenly chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

The shojo romance that's become a cultural touchstone in Japan!Shusei is the most handsome and popular boy at his high school -- and he's turned down almost every girl there, including Aoi's best frie

Somewhere in the universe, there is the perfect tune for you. It’s almost the end of middle school, and Charlie has to find her perfect song for a music class assignment. The class learns about

The Assassin tells the story of a swordswoman who refrains from killing. Hou Hsiao-hsien astonishes his audience once again by upsetting almost every convention of the wuxia (martial arts) genre in the film. This collection offers eleven readings, each as original and thought-provoking as the film itself, beginning with one given by the director himself. Contributors analyze the elliptical way of storytelling, Hou’s adaptation of the source text (a tale from the Tang dynasty, also included in this volume), the film’s appropriation of traditional Chinese visual aesthetics, as well as the concept of xia (knight-errant) that is embedded in Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist worldviews. There are also discussions of the much-celebrated sonic design of The Assassin: the nearly exclusive use of a diegetic film score is a statement on the director’s belief in cinematic reality. Underlying all the chapters is a focus on how Hou reinvents Tang-dynasty China in contemporary culture. The meticulous

Health is indispensable for living a life of dignity. Currently, there is an almost universal commitment to the right to health (care). However, despite the growing legal recognition of this right, em

Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France's Jews, both French and foreign. Since that time, this tragedy has been well-documented. But there ar

"There is something almost magical about a beautiful, colorful, well-illustrated book... There is hardly a single page without a full color photograph or illustration. The topics covered are wide-rang

Taipei is a gourmet’s destination where people buy fresh produce almost every morning of the year; where weddings are celebrated with streetside banquets; and where baristas craft cups of world-class coffee. Crook and Hung invite readers to learn more about the city’s fascinating foodways and the diverse culture behind them.There is a compelling story behind Taiwan’s recent emergence as a food destination of international significance. A Culinary History of Taipei is the first comprehensive English-language examination of what Taiwan’s people eat and why they eat those foods, as well as the role and perception of particular foods.Distinctive culinary traditions have not merely survived the travails of recent centuries, but grown more complex and enticing. Taipei is a city where people still buy fresh produce almost every morning of the year; where weddings are celebrated with streetside bando banquets; and where baristas craft cups of world-class coffee. Wherever there are chopsticks,

Walk into any bar, in almost any part of the world, and there, on the back shelf you're likely to see Baijiu, Cognac, Vodka, Scotch Shochu, Tequila, Bourbon, Rum, Gin and Absinthe. These drinks helpe

In 2017, there will be almost 57 million expatriates worldwide. While the number of corporate expat assignments is growing steadily, these assignments are expensive and fail all too often for avoidabl

In the shifting labyrinth of the Ghost Archipelago, there is one group of islands that can almost always be found; the Islands of Fire. Surrounded by a grey haze of sooty smoke, the islands contain nu

New technologies have brought about radical changes in almost all areas of life. The best concept to describe this period is «digimodernism» in which there occur many transformations, from shopping to

The classical Athenian 'state' had almost no formal coercive apparatus to ensure order or compliance with law: there was no professional police force or public prosecutor, and nearly every step in the legal process depended on private initiative. And yet Athens was a remarkably peaceful and well-ordered society by both ancient and contemporary standards. Why? Law and Order in Ancient Athens draws on contemporary legal scholarship to explore how order was maintained in Athens. Lanni argues that law and formal legal institutions played a greater role in maintaining order than is generally acknowledged. The legal system did encourage compliance with law, but not through the familiar deterrence mechanism of imposing sanctions for violating statutes. Lanni shows how formal institutions facilitated the operation of informal social control in a society that was too large and diverse to be characterized as a 'face-to-face community' or 'close-knit group'.

For readers in the English-speaking world, almost all Holocaust writing is translated writing. Translation is indispensable for our understanding of the Holocaust because there is a need to tell other

On 28 June 1914, there were two almost simultaneous shots. In Paris, the twelfth Tour de France was about to start, while in Sarajevo the Austrian crown prince Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Profes

The almost true story of Steve, the very scary fish. Steve is not very big. His teeth aren't very sharp. And though he's no angelfish, there are far scarier creatures in the sea. So why is everyone so

A car almost crashes into the house of Donald and Shelly Taylor. Rushing outside to help the motorist, the Taylors find that there is something very odd about the accident. Soon after, they are whis

他是水電工，囤積症患者，也是詩人。「你說好像沒有什麼愛的感覺／我做了，可心裡有些難過。兩次。／你叫我叫水電行的來修理熱水器／我做了，整天整個人都成為水電工了／手指頭被鐵鎚敲到好想讓人安慰／不過那也都是過去的事了／今天天氣好得不像樣／我感覺青春從遠遠的過去過來了／幾乎會要了我的命」――〈每天的天氣〉在滿是記憶符碼的、擁擠的房間裡，他曾提筆抄詩，聽著傷心欲絕，用一台小影印機，列印出略帶無力卻又奇怪積極

他是水電工，囤積症患者，也是詩人。 「你說好像沒有什麼愛的感覺／我做了，可心裡有些難過。兩次。／ 你叫我叫水電行的來修理熱水器／我做了，整天整個人都成為水電工了／ 手指頭被鐵鎚敲到好想讓人安慰／不過那也都是過去的事了／ 今天天氣好得不像樣／我感覺青春從遠遠的過去過來了／幾乎會要了我的命」 ——〈每天的天氣〉 在滿是記憶符碼的、擁擠的房間裡，他曾提筆抄詩，聽著傷心欲絕，用一台小影印機，列印出略帶無力卻又奇怪積極的白紙黑字；使用訂書機裝訂後，再以電火布（水電膠帶）封邊，做成一本名喚《我們的戒菸失敗》的zine詩集。很粗糙，就這樣，全臺灣100多人擁有，卻幾乎沒人願意割愛。 ★新增20餘幅彩色攝影主題作品＋全新校訂內文＋全新後記 ★傳奇手寫zine詩集，穢土轉生，全新面貌「文庫本」與你相遇 ★一本獻給邊緣人、孤獨者，與地才們的詩集。 怕只怕在某個又飄起雨沫的夜裡／例如響著座頭市那樣陰暗的樂曲／ 憶起究竟走過幾回的中正台商圈／就難忍莫可奈何的苦笑／ 如同我們的戒菸失敗／繼續抽著名為幸運的香菸／ 試圖在馬桶上創造些什麼鬼東西——〈#便秘〉 各領域推薦 「如果你曾有一丁點被《我們的戒菸失敗》打動，代表詩集裡的真實氣味離你不遠，《我們的戒菸失敗》是作者用人生交換來的字字句句，有屁尿屎淚，也有血有肉，有時令人會心一笑，有時慘不忍睹。常常仰賴生活衝擊創作的我，多少能體會創作者自傳體帶有自殘又自癒的矛盾。」——葛洛力（業餘唱作人，化石代的少女） 「恣睢麻利的詩句，將一個人遭受社會化齒輪反覆壓榨、推擠的過程，帶點自嘲地說完。表面上瘋瘋癲癲，讀了卻誠實到讓人覺得不堪，不忍。但這不是一本需要憐憫的書，因為讀者也是書中主角：我們都在成功邊緣徘徊，一邊嘆息Almost doesn’t count，一邊因為被他的詩句深深理解，而可以告訴自己，We’re almost there。」——陳夏民（本書編輯） 「自那個總在夜晚的Livehouse中爛醉的狂人帶著詩與害羞的表情進入我的地下室以後，我才開始真的明白：日子越是破敗無聊，越能美麗。」——黃廷玉（Mangasick店長） 「麻利詩文有種特殊的浪漫。那種浪漫來自於浮沉人生不上不下掙扎，並不只是憤怒，或者憑藉他工人身分可以大書特書的政治正確，像是張作驥的電影。當我們

The #1 internationally bestselling series, soon to be a major TV series on HBO"Strike shares a trait with many great fictional detectives: He is darn good company." -- Harlan CobenWhen novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine thinks her husband has just gone off by himself for a few days, as he has done before, and asks Strike to find him and bring him home. But as Strike investigates, he discovers that Quine has just completed a manuscript revealing poisonous secrets about almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives--meaning that there are lots of influential people who might want him silenced.When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, Strike and Robin, his determined young assistant, embark on a race against time to understand the motivations of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any they've encountered before...A compulsively readable novel in the highly ac

Almost fifteen per cent of the world's population today experiences some form of mental or physical disability and society tries to accommodate their needs. But what was the situation in the Roman world? Was there a concept of disability? How were the disabled treated? How did they manage in their daily lives? What answers did medical doctors, philosophers and patristic writers give for their problems? This, the first monograph on the subject in English, explores the medical and material contexts for disability in the ancient world, and discusses the chances of survival for those who were born with a handicap. It covers the various sorts of disability: mental problems, blindness, deafness and deaf-muteness, speech impairment and mobility impairment, and includes discussions of famous instances of disability from the ancient world, such as the madness of Emperor Caligula, the stuttering of Emperor Claudius and the blindness of Homer.

A witty and revealing memoir of the mid-1990s, when high design became art and there was no more exclusive club for high design than MOSS. For almost twenty years the SoHo design gallery MOSS was the

Driverless cars are the future. That is what the tech giants, the auto industry and even the government want us to think. Almost daily there are media stories about how we will soon all be able to rip

Almost eighty years after Leon Trotsky founded the Fourth International: the World Party of Socialist Revolution, there are now Trotskyist organizations in 57 countries, including most of Western Euro

Almost eighty years after Leon Trotsky founded the Fourth International: the World Party of Socialist Revolution, there are now Trotskyist organizations in 57 countries, including most of Western Euro