They include a special reader's letter from Karen explaining how the darkness in these stories became more than she could bear and prompted a dramatic career change to write Life-Changing Fiction.Final Vows: When Carol Montecalvo began writing to a man in prison through a program at her church, she considered it her Christian duty. But these letters soon became her lifeline as she fell in love with Dan, the man behind the letters. In Final Vows, Karen Kingsbury chronicles a couple’s unlikely romance and marriage, and what led to Carol's bloody death on her kitchen floor. It seems her husband has obvious motives for murder. But is this former felon really guilty? Or could he actually be a grieving widower, in the wrong place at the wrong time, showing the wrong type of emotions when faced with his wife's lifeless body?Deadly Pretender: CIA Agent. Business Owner. Lobbyist. Bigamist. David Miller was the envy of both friend and foe, with a dream job and perfect family. He seemed to have it all. But he wanted more. One family wasn't enough: he wanted two. Two careers weren't enough; he invented a third. He juggled it all quite well . . . until the day his two wives found out about each other. David Miller groped for ways to hold on to his finances and reputation. His solution? Murder. But it had to be done right, leaving him off the list of suspects.The Snake and the Spider: Florida. Spring Break. Words that evoke excited anticipation for young adults . . . and extreme angst for their parents. But the parents of best friends Daryl Barber and James Boucher were confident their sons could be trusted to spend a week in the sun without them. As they all waved goodbye, no one imagined it would be the last time they'd see each other alive. When the boys missed their agreed-upon daily check-ins, both sets of parents were disappointed. When the boys failed to come home on their planned return date, both sets of parents were furious. And when it was clear the boys had vanished without a trace, both sets of parents were terrified.Missy’s Murder: On an October day, teenager Missy Avila was lured into the woods, beaten, tortured, and drowned. Missy's best friend, Karen, publicly vows to find the killer and even moves in with Missy's family to help. No one could have guessed what would happen next. Missy's Murder is a shocking tale of how jealousy can drive people to acts of great evil.

    This book builds on the contributions and strengths of seminal technologies like Spring, Hibernate, and TopLink.EJB 3 is the most important innovation introduced in Java EE 5.0. EJB 3 simplifies enterprise development, abandoning the complex EJB 2.x model in favor of a lightweight POJO framework. The new API represents a fresh perspective on EJB without sacrificing the mission of enabling business application developers to create robust, scalable, standards-based solutions.EJB 3 in Action is a fast-paced tutorial, geared toward helping you learn EJB 3 and the Java Persistence API quickly and easily. For newcomers to EJB, this book provides a solid foundation in EJB. For the developer moving to EJB 3 from EJB 2, this book addresses the changes both in the EJB API and in the way the developer should approach EJB and persistence.

    "The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking" demonstrates that meals without meat can be both tasty and exciting. The delightful variety of gourmet dishes in this collection should inspire anyone interested in adopting a vegetarian lifestyle.

    The task-based approach teaches readers how to combine HTML and CSS to create sharp and consistent Web pages.

    Relentlessly practical, the book delivers insight, not documentation, to teach developers what they need to know to build the next generation of SOAs.After explaining the advantages of service-orientation for application design and teaching the basics of how to develop SOAs using WCF, the book shows how you can take advantage of built-in features such as service hosting, instance management, asynchronous calls, synchronization, reliability, transaction management, disconnected queued calls and security to build best in class applications. "Programming WCF Services" focuses on the rationale behind particular design decisions, often shedding light on poorly-documented and little-understood aspects of SOA development. Developers and architects will learn not only the "how" of WCF programming, but also relevant design guidelines, best practices, and pitfalls. Original techniques and utilities provided by the author throughout the book go well beyond anything that can be found in conventional sources.Based on experience and insight gained while taking part in the strategic design of WCF and working with the team that implemented it, "Programming WCF Services" provides experienced working professionals with the definitive work on WCF. Not only will this book make you a WCF expert, it will make you a better software engineer. It's the Rosetta Stone of WCF.

    

    That day, George landed the largest largemouth ever recorded--twenty-two pounds four ounces. The fish has inspired and frustrated hundreds of anglers for decades. They've dedicated their lives to the pursuit of "Sowbelly"--a nearly mythical fish, whose swinelike girth holds the key to their dreams.From an L.A. cop who came within ounces of besting the record to an Alabaman who has lost his marriage and his daughter to this pursuit, Burke takes readers along for the ride in this legendary race.

    Hop on a bike and that view will brighten drastically. Travels with Willie is about finding adventure and facing fear, embarrassing blunders and language barriers, ice cream and kindness, Cuba and Colombia, Turkey and Thailand, the world's steepest street and the world's cheapest engagement ring, catching a thief and losing a zebra, a father's touch and a farmer's embrace, buying time and spending another night. Fellow bicycle travelers will smile with recognition, and arm-chair travelers might find themselves wandering into a bike shop, looking for a passport to adventure.

    Leading networking authority Douglas Comer presents a wide-ranging, self-contained tour of the concepts, principles, and technologies that enable today's Internet to support applications ranging from web browsing to telephony and multimedia. This Fifth Edition has been thoroughly reorganized, revised, and updated: it includes extensive new coverage of topics ranging from wireless protocols to network performance, while reducing or eliminating coverage of older protocols and technologies. Comer begins by illuminating the applications and facilities offered by today's Internet. Next, he systematically introduces the underlying network technologies and protocols that make them possible: low-level data communications; packet switching, LAN, and WAN technologies; and Internet protocols such as TCP, IP, UDP, and IPv6. With these concepts and technologies established, he introduces several of the most important contemporary issues faced by network implementers and managers, including quality of service, Internet telephony, multimedia, network security, and network management. Comer has carefully designed this book to support both top-down and bottom-up teaching approaches. Students need no background in operating systems, and no sophisticated math: Comer relies throughout on figures, drawings, examples, and analogies, "not" mathematical proofs.

    But in Cycling Past 50, author Joe Friel shows cyclists that with proper training and the right attitude, the years after 50 can be their best ever.Written for cyclists of all types-road riders, mountain bikers, track racers-this book provides an in-depth look at the full range of considerations for cycling successfully into and through middle age.Joe Friel, a writer and contributing editor to several top cycling publications and a dedicated rider himself, will inspire cyclists toward better performance and more biking enjoyment as he presents:- basic principles of training; - advanced workouts to improve endurance, climbing ability, and sprinting; - training advice for 100-mile events and multi-day tours; - planning tips and a workout program for getting into racing form; - injury prevention tips and exercises; and - body fueling advice.In addition to explaining the physical adjustments seasoned cyclists can make to keep their biking effective and satisfying, Friel discusses the mental aspects of cycling successfully into middle age. He explains the importance of developing a positive attitude, maintaining a high level of motivation, and taking pride in their accomplishments. He also reminds cyclists that, above all, biking should be a fun activity that should be shared with fellow riders, family, and friends.

    You can only resist God's call for so long. Ask Moses, ask Paul… ask MaryAnne Connor. As the owner of a successful real estate marketing firm, MaryAnne Connor, appeared to have it all. A happy marriage, the respect of her peers and a thriving career. But denial was her stronghold, and her enemy. She suffered from chronic pain, a dependency on pain medication and her marriage was failing. And then there were God's whispers. They were getting louder. He wanted her to shift to a life of helping others. But how could He use her when she was so broken? After years of resistance, she surrendered to His call, left everything behind and stepped onto the darkest streets of her city. There she found a kinship with other broken-hearted souls and the burning desire to help the poor and hungry. And so the genesis of NightShift Street Ministries began, along with an incredible series of miracles to conquer every obstacle put in her path. Purchase The Shift today, walk in MaryAnne’s footsteps and take a remarkable journey to a place of love, hope & purpose.

    Today, Rails developers and architects need better ways to interface with legacy systems, move into the cloud, and scale to handle higher volumes and greater complexity. In Service-Oriented Design with Ruby and Rails Paul Dix introduces a powerful, services-based design approach geared toward overcoming all these challenges. Using Dix's techniques, readers can leverage the full benefits of both Ruby and Rails, while overcoming the difficulties of working with larger codebases and teams. Dix demonstrates how to integrate multiple components within an enterprise application stack; create services that can easily grow and connect; and design systems that are easier to maintain and upgrade. Key concepts are explained with detailed Ruby code built using open source libraries such as ActiveRecord, Sinatra, Nokogiri, and Typhoeus. The book concludes with coverage of security, scaling, messaging, and interfacing with third-party services. Service-Oriented Design with Ruby and Rails will help you Build highly scalable, Ruby-based service architectures that operate smoothly in the cloud or with legacy systems Scale Rails systems to handle more requests, larger development teams, and more complex code bases Master new best practices for designing and creating services in Ruby Use Ruby to glue together services written in any language Use Ruby libraries to build and consume RESTful Web services Use Ruby JSON parsers to quickly represent resources from HTTP services Write lightweight, well-designed API wrappers around internal or external services Discover powerful non-Rails frameworks that simplify Ruby service implementation Implement standards-based enterprise messaging with Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) Optimize performance with load balancing and caching Provide for security and authentication

    But, on the other hand many still see sex as a taboo subject fraught with seemingly life and soul threatening dangers at every turn. This fear of human sexuality is so deeply embedded within our psyche that Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, once suggested that ‘had God consulted me in the matter [of human reproduction], I should have advised Him to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them out of clay.’While such negative beliefs around sex and been slowly eroding over the past 50 years, it is still very difficult for many to accept their own sexuality. Unfortunately, we are still conflicted with a tremendous amount of religious infused guilt over sex. Perhaps we should consider the sage advice of actress Bette Davis when she remarked that "sex is God's joke on human beings." If the joke is really on us then it would it not make a whole lot more sense for society to drop all its pious pretenses around sex and embrace and celebrate it whole heartedly? In my view the answer to that question is a resounding YES!This celebration of sex is what the readers of my first collection, The DIRTY Little Book of SEX Quotes thoroughly enjoyed. Just like the first collection, this compilation concentrations on delivering more of what my readers found so enjoyable; a collection of evocative, thought provoking, contentious, witty, outrageous, uplifting and hilariously funny sex quotes; plus a whole lot MORE! In The DIRTY Big Book of SEX Quotes you will find it jam packed with so much new material including:• More than 600 new sex quotes that you will thoroughly enjoy.• Over 100 strange sex laws from around the world that will leave you dumbfounded.• More than 300 fascinating pieces of sex trivia.• Nearly a 1,000 hilarious sex euphemisms. • Over 100 beautiful illustrations and pictures.Moreover, this book has been organized into over 100 page turning categories divided into 10 chapters. At the start of each chapter you will find a biography from a famous personality complete with their collection of juicy sex quotes. Included are biographies from such icons and public figures as:• Woody Allen• Marilyn Monroe• Madonna• Jenna Jameson• George Burns• Mae West• Bill Maher• Jerry Falwell• Rodney Dangerfield• Oscar Wilde. D.H. Lawrence once remarked that "Sex and beauty are inseparable, like life and consciousness. And the intelligence which goes with sex and beauty, and arises out of sex and beauty, is intuition." Something this beautiful should clearly be celebrated! The DIRTY Big Book of SEX Quotes is my contribution to that celebration by injecting humor, joyfulness, beauty and irreverence into a area of our lives that truly deserves it.

    Today's increasingly fast pace of software development--as programmers make small changes to software one day only to undo them the next--has only heightened the problem; consecutive work on code or single-programmer software is a rare sight these days. Without careful attention to version control, concurrent and collaborative work can create more headaches than it solves. This is where Subversion comes into play.Written by members of the Subversion open source development team, Version Control with Subversion introduces the powerful new versioning tool designed to be the successor to the Concurrent Version System or CVS. CVS users will find the "look and feel" Subversion comfortably familiar, but under the surface it's far more flexible, robust, and usable, and more importantly, it improves on CVS's more notable flaws.The book begins with a general introduction to Subversion, the basic concepts behind version control, and a guided tour of Subversion's capabilities and structure. With thorough attention to detail, the authors cover every aspect of installing and configuring Subversion for managing a programming project, documentation, or any other team-based endeavor. Later chapters cover the more complex topics of branching, repository administration, and other advanced features such as properties, externals, and access control. The book ends with reference material and appendices covering a number of useful topics such as a Subversion complete reference and troubleshooting guide.Version Control with Subversion aims to be useful to readers of widely different backgrounds, from those with no previous experience in version control to experienced sysadmins. If you've never used version control, you'll find everything you need to get started in this book. And if you're a seasoned CVS pro, this book will help you make a painless leap into Subversion.

    Learn how to leverage the Django web framework to its full potential in this advanced tutorial and reference. Endorsed by Django, Pro Django more or less picks up where The Definitive Guide to Django left off and examines in greater detail the unusual and complex problems that Python web application developers can face and how to solve them.Provides in-depth information about advanced tools and techniques available in every Django installation Runs the gamut from the theory of Django's internal operations to actual code that solves real-world problems for high-volume environments Goes above and beyond other books, leaving the basics behind Shows how Django can do things even its core developers never dreamed possible