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4.0 (14 ratings)

(4.0 / 5.0)

Over 50 fun songs, games and everyday activities to get started in French!

From taking a bath to going shopping, books in the Play and Learn Language series turn everyday routines into fun language-learning activities for parents and children.

Packed with lively four-colour illustrations, each package features fun songs, games, and activities, key word illustrations, engaging comic strips, sidebars with fun cultural information and English translations for all activities.

$9.86

5.0 (32 ratings)

(5.0 / 5.0)

Post-depression America was in desperate need of a defining iconography that would lift it out of the black and white doldrums, and it came in theform of Gil Elvgren's Technicolor fantasies of the American dream. His technique-which earned him a reputation as "The Norman Rockwell of cheesecake"-involved photographing models and then painting them into gorgeous hyper-reality, with longer legs, more flamboyant hair and gravity-defying busts, and in the process making them the perfect moral-boosting eye-candy for every homesick private.

$10.19

4.5 (139 ratings)

(4.5 / 5.0)

As the application of object technology-particularly the Java programming language-has become commonplace, a new problem has emerged to confront the software development community. Significant numbers of poorly designed programs have been created by less-experienced developers, resulting in applications that are inefficient and hard to maintain and extend. Increasingly, software system professionals are discovering just how difficult it is to work with these inherited, "non-optimal" applications. For several years, expert-level object programmers have employed a growing collection of techniques to improve the structural integrity and performance of such existing software programs. Referred to as "refactoring," these practices have remained in the domain of experts because no attempt has been made to transcribe the lore into a form that all developers could use. . .until now. In Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Software, renowned object technology mentor Martin Fowler breaks new ground, demystifying these master practices and demonstrating how software practitioners can realize the significant benefits of this new process.

With proper training a skilled system designer can take a bad design and rework it into well-designed, robust code. In this book, Martin Fowler shows you where opportunities for refactoring typically can be found, and how to go about reworking a bad design into a good one. Each refactoring step is simple-seemingly too simple to be worth doing. Refactoring may involve moving a field from one class to another, or pulling some code out of a method to turn it into its own method, or even pushing some code up or down a hierarchy. While these individual steps may seem elementary, the cumulative effect of such small changes can radically improve the design. Refactoring is a proven way to prevent software decay.

In addition to discussing the various techniques of refactoring, the author provides a detailed catalog of more than seventy proven refactorings with helpful pointers that teach you when to apply them; step-by-step instructions for applying each refactoring; and an example illustrating how the refactoring works. The illustrative examples are written in Java, but the ideas are applicable to any object-oriented programming language.

$42.92

4.5 (143 ratings)

(4.5 / 5.0)

This is the thoroughly revised and updated Second Edition of the hugely successful The Art of Electronics. Widely accepted as the single, authoritative text and reference on electronic circuit design, both analog and digital, this book has sold over 120,000 copies, and has been translated into eight languages. This book revolutionized the teaching of electronics by emphasizing the methods actually used by circuit designers--a combination of some basic laws, rules of thumb, and a large bag of tricks. The result is a largely nonmathematical treatment that encourages circuit intuition, brain storming, and simplified calculations of circuit values and performance. This completely new edition responds to the breakneck pace of change in electronics with totally rewritten chapters on microcomputers and microprocessors, substantially revised chapters on digital electronics, on op-amps and precision design, and on construction techniques. Every table has been revised, and many new ones have been added. The new Art of Electronics retains the feeling of informality and easy access that made the first edition so successful and popular.

$75.60

4.0 (31 ratings)

(4.0 / 5.0)

A true management classic with 200,000 copies sold, this new, expanded edition is still the ultimate guide for every new manager.

Since its original publication, The First-Time Manager has helped many thousands of rookie managers handle their new responsibilities...and now it can help you! Clear and concise, the book covers all the fundamentals you need for success, with indispensable advice on topics including hiring and firing, leadership, motivation, and managing time and stress. In addition, the completely updated fifth edition shows you how to build trust and confidence, be an active listener, manage a diverse group of individuals, conduct performance appraisals, and address many other challenges that come with the manager's job.

Written in an inviting and accessible style, this classic skill-building book is an essential tool for becoming an effective, confident new manager.

$9.90

4.0 (22 ratings)

(4.0 / 5.0)

Revised introduction; new chronology and further reading

Translated with an Introduction by Paul Turner.

$5.06

3.5 (107 ratings)

(3.5 / 5.0)

Now in its 30th printing, this classic presents historical, archaeological, and anthropological evidence to support the theory that ancient Egypt was a black civilization.

$6.94

4.5 (11 ratings)

(4.5 / 5.0)

Rise and Sprawl: How Los Angeles Came To Be


A pictorial history of the world's most enigmatic city




From the first known photograph taken in Los Angeles to its most recent sweeping vistas, this photographic tribute to the City of Angels provides a fascinating journey through the city's cultural, political, industrial, and sociological history. It traces the city's development from the 1880s' real estate boom, through the early days of Hollywood and the urban sprawl of the late 20th century, right up to the present day. With over 500 images, L.A. is shown emerging from a desert wasteland to become a vast palm-studded urban metropolis.



Events that made world news including two Olympics, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, and the Rodney King riots reveal a city of many dimensions. The entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood, and its celebrities are showcased along with many other notable residents, personalities, architects, artists, and musicians. The city's pop cultural movements, its music, surfing, health food fads, gangs, and hot rods are included, as are its notorious crimes and criminals. This book depicts Los Angeles in all its glory and grit, via hundreds of freshly discovered images including those of Julius Shulman, Garry Winogrand, William Claxton and many other superb photographers, culled from major historical archives, museums, private collectors, and universities. These are given context and resonance through essays by renowned California historian Kevin Starr and Los Angeles literature expert David Ulin.



About the editor:

Cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America, and author of numerous books on architecture, pop culture, and the history of the West Coast, Los Angeles and Hollywood. His unrivaled private collection of ephemera has featured in museum exhibitions around the world and dozens of books.

$44.10

5.0 (7 ratings)

(5.0 / 5.0)

At first glance, Walton Ford s large-scale, highly-detailed watercolors of animals may recall the prints of 19th century illustrators John James Audubon and Edward Lear, and others of the colonial era. But a closer look reveals a complex and disturbingly anthropomorphic universe, full of symbols, sly jokes, and allusions to the 'operatic' nature of traditional natural history themes. The beasts and birds populating this contemporary artist's life-size paintings are never mere objects, but dynamic actors in allegorical struggles: a wild turkey crushes a small parrot in its claw; a troupe of monkeys wreak havoc on a formal dinner table, an American buffalo is surrounded by bloodied white wolves. The book's title derives from The Pancha Tantra, an ancient Indian book of animal tales considered the precursor to Aesop s Fables.



This large-format edition includes an in-depth exploration of Walton Ford s oeuvre, a complete biography, and excerpts from his textual inspirations: Vietnamese folktales and the letters of Benjamin Franklin, the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini and Audubon s Ornithological Biography.

$44.10

4.0 (14 ratings)

(4.0 / 5.0)

This new edition contains Donald Cress's completely revised translation of the Meditations (from the corrected Latin edition) and recent corrections to Discourse on Method, bringing this version even closer to Descartes's original, while maintaining the clear and accessible style of a classic teaching edition.

$7.22