New Book Release: Disaster Survival Guide

The Disaster Survival Guide: How to Prepare For and Survive Floods, Fires, Earthquakes and More by Marie Jones

Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Floods. Wildfires. Earthquakes. Epidemics. Droughts. Landslides. Trillions of dollars in damages. Billions of people affected. Terrorist attacks. Gas explosions. Bridge collapses. Car, train, and plane crashes. These sudden and unexpected events make it feel as if chaos rules the world, but expecting the unexpected can mitigate the damage and loss to you and your loved ones. It pays to be prepared. When catastrophe strikes, no matter how big or small, being ready and knowing how to respond can be the difference between the loss of life and survival. 

The Disaster Survival Guide: How to Prepare For and Surviving Floods, Fires, Earthquakes and More shows how to prepare and respond to any crisis, man-made or natural, wherever it might occur and however small or large it might be. Using what has been learned from previous disasters, this indispensable book illustrates how others survived past crises. Just as important as learning how to survive the worst is learning how to survive everyday emergencies ranging from bee stings, snakebites, and allergic reactions to house fires, gas explosions, and more. It’s all important, and it’s all in this comprehensive guide.

Covering the basics needs from food, water and first aid to shelter, security, and self-defense, this informative guide walks readers through the steps it takes to create their own personal emergency action plan. It provides a catalog of the skills, tools, and items needed to endure and overcome a variety of situations and circumstances. It pinpoints hazards unique to different terrains, locations, situations, and settings, too, and it helps identify and understand possible threats. 

Furthermore, the guide provides insights into how to react and respond when disaster does strike. Critical decisions faced during an emergency are considered: whether to stay or to go, where to go, how to stay informed, and more. Truly essential, this comprehensive guide takes a clear-eyed look at what to do should the worst happen.

New Book Release: Handy Forensic Science

The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book: Reading Clues at the Crime Scene, Crime Lab and in Court by Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas Svarney

Covering the fundamentals, science, history, and analysis of clues, The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book: Reading Clues at the Crime Scene, Crime Lab and in Court provides detailed information on crime scene investigations, techniques, laboratory finding, the latest research, and controversies. It looks at the science of law enforcement, how evidence is gathered, processed, analyzed, and viewed in the courtroom, and more. From the cause, manner, time of a death, and autopsies to blood, toxicology, DNA typing, fingerprints, ballistics, tool marks, tread impressions, and trace evidence, it takes the reader through the many sides of a death investigation. Arson, accidents, computer crimes, criminal profiling, and much, much more are also addressed. 

The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book gives real-world examples and looks at what Hollywood gets right and wrong. It provides the history of the science, and it introduces the scientists behind breakthroughs. An easy-to-use and informative reference, it brings the complexity of a criminal investigation into focus and provides well-researched answers to over 950 common questions, such as…

• What is the difference between cause of death and manner of death?
• How did a person’s skull fit into criminal evidence in the early 1800s?
• When were fingerprints first used to identify a criminal?
• How is the approximate time of death of a crime scene victim determined?
• What is forensic serology?
• What is the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System?
• Can a forensics expert look at skeletal remains and tell whether the person was obese?
• How can a simple knot analyzed in the crime lab be used as evidence?
• Can fingerprints be permanently changed or destroyed?
• How fast does a bullet travel?
• How was a chemical analysis of ink important in the conviction of Martha Stewart?
• What types of data are often retrieved from a crime scene cellphone?
• Can analyses similar to those used in forensics be used to uncover doping in athletics?
• What is the Personality Assessment Inventory?
• What are some motives that cause an arsonist to start a fire?
• What state no longer allows bite marks as admissible evidence in a trial?
• What is the Innocence Project?
• Why are eyewitness accounts not always reliable? 
• Who was “Jack the Ripper”?

Providing the facts, stats, history, and science, The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book answers intriguing questions about criminal investigations. This informative book also includes a helpful bibliography, glossary of terms, and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness.

New Book Release: Shulchan Aruch English Vol. 6: Hilchot Shabbat

Shulchan Aruch English Vol. 6: Hilchot Shabbat, Part 3 by R. Eliyahu Touger, ed.

The laws regarding Shabbos: the 4 domains, prohibited transfers, making eruvin, and issur techumim.

New Book Release: Handy Literature

The Handy Literature Answer Book: An Engaging Guide to Unraveling Symbols, Signs and Meanings in Great Works by Daniel Burt and Deborah Felder

From the epic of Gilgamesh to Aristotle and Cicero, and from Shakespeare and the King James Bible to Wuthering Heights, War and Peace, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Nobel-winning lyrics of Bob Dylan, the world of literature is an integral part of our lives. Great literature can shape and form thoughts and opinions as well as influence politics and predict the future. Reading can truly enrich our lives, but it can sometimes be daunting to get the most out of a great work of literature.

The Handy Literature Answer Book: Understand and Enjoy Meanings, Symbolism, and Signs in Great Works is an engaging, easy-to-read look at literature basics such as themes, symbols, context, and other literary devices. Different literary forms, including novels, poems, plays, short stories, memoirs, and literary nonfiction are analyzed. Hundreds of important stories and great works are used as illustrative examples. Learn about the five basic questions for any work of literature, including “What is the significance of a title?” “What is conflict?” “What is character development?” “What is point of view?” “How does a setting affect a story?” “What are the different schools of literary criticism?” and many more.

Bringing the most out of the reading experience, The Handy Literature Answer Book deciphers and analyzes stories, novels, and verses through insightful in-depth answers to nearly 400 common questions. You will also read about such fascinating tidbits as …

• What are the key components of literature?

• How is reading literature different from other kinds of reading?

• Why is artful reading so hard?

• What do poems do?

• How should a poem be read for its comparisons—metaphors and similes?

• What, according to Poe, should be the method of the short story writer?

• How do you recognize the difference between story and plot in a short story?

• How can you recognize a symbol?

• What are the defining characteristics of the novel?

• How did the novel evolve from a popular literary entertainment to the modern novel?

• What is the difference between drama and theater?

• What is the best way to understand and appreciate Shakespearean drama?

• What approaches should you take in reading an essay?

• What are characteristics of a memoir?

handy primer also includes a glossary of essential literary terms, a timeline, a helpful bibliography, and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness. Making reading more enriching, rewarding, and enjoyable, The Handy Literature Answer Bookis a wonderful, eye-opening read!

New Book Release: Captured by the Alien Vampire Highlander

Captured by the Alien Vampire Highlander by Crymsyn Hart

A bright light hits Della in the grocery store parking lot. The next thing she knows, she's naked and siting in a cell with a green skinned man eating her chocolate chips wearing a kilt. Not able to believe her predicament, Della tries anything to get away from her kidnapper.

All Luris wanted was a cooperative Plasma Unit to drink blood from. What he gets is an Earth woman with an attitude. With space pirates on his tail, the only thing he can do is race toward home bringing Della with him until trouble catches up with them. They must work together or they could end up lost in space.

New Book Release: In the Shadow of Death

In the Shadow of Death by Alexandra Christian

Scarlett Munro has been searching for an angel her whole life, but always looking in the wrong places. Falling down a spiral of drug abuse and obsession, she's a woman on the verge of rock bottom. Enter Raze Constantine. He's a sexy billionaire with a frightening proposition and he'll go to any lengths to protect his investment.

But Raze has obsessions of his own. As the angel of death, it's his responsibility to deliver dying souls to the hereafter. It's a melancholy existence and the only light is Scarlett. He's been protecting her for centuries, delivering her soul back to Earth just to watch over her. Now the imbalance in the Ether is starting to catch up. Will he be able to let her go or is their love worth the fall?

New Book Release: Destiny

Destiny: Why a Tiny Nation Plays Such a Huge Role in History by Ken Spiro

Every Hollywood epic follows the same plot outline: a cosmic struggle of good and evil that pits a little hero against a big bad guy (think Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, Frodo Baggins vs. Saruman, Harry Potter vs. Voldemort). The odds are totally stacked against the hero, yet as the story unfolds, his strengths are revealed, and in the final showdown he triumphs. All these movies follow this plot because it is deeply ingrained in our subconscious that this is the way the story is supposed to happen. This may be fiction and fantasy in the movies, but in reality it is the story of the Jewish people and the real plot of human history.

This book walks the reader through the central themes in Jewish history: the impact of Jewish values on civilization, Jewish drive and the disproportionate impact of the Jewish people, antisemitism and its message, the Jewish view of history and conception of time and the End of Days. These themes allow the reader to see the striking parallel between the reality of Jewish history and the universal plot of these epic movies that everyone loves. The metaphor is enhanced with striking fold-out movie storyboards depicting Jewish history in movie form. The reader will come away with an understanding of the unique role and mission of the Jewish people in history and its very special destiny.