The eNotes Blog Top Ten Summer Readings for2013

Top Ten Summer Readings for2013 Ahhhh, summer! Finally, some time for a bit of pleasure reading. Got a gift certificate youve been hanging on to? (Ha. Mine are gone minutes after they hit my hands.) Or maybe you are just overwhelmed with choices and dont want to waste precious free time on something that isnt so great. Well, we at want to help you get the most out of your summer reading Here are ten suggestions offered by my very well-read friends who occasionally hang up their tweed jackets and loosen their professorial buns (no, not hair).   Here you will find a combination of new and older works, both fiction and non-fiction, serious and comedic.   So pick a few and let us know what YOU think! 1.   Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue by Jane Maas Are you a fan of AMCs Mad Men and Peggy and Joan in particular? Curious about what life was really like on Madison Avenue in the 60s? Then you will enjoy Maass exploration of life in the ad game in the 1960s and beyond . 2.   Confessions of an Ex-Girlfriend by Lynda Curnyn A good beach read by a first time novelist. A friend says it is the only romance novel Ive ever finished. Suddenly single when her aspiring screenwriter boyfriend takes off for a hot job in L.A., bridal magazine editor Emma Carter is forced to reassess her appearance, her job, and her prospects-and take action. A diverse cast of engaging, occasionally offbeat characters, the hilarious sayings attributed to them, and a fast-paced style facilitated by Emmas pithy sound-bite confessions add to the fun in a lively Manhattan-set story that, while not a true romance, leaves the heroine happily pursuing her dreams and involved in a satisfying romantic relationship. This work may appeal to those who enjoy Bridget Jones-type books and like their stories urban, trendy, and slightly ambiguous. Curnyn is a fiction editor and lives in New York. This is her first novel. Library Journal 3. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan As a Steinbeck scholar, this has been on my own list for a long time, and I was pleased to see that several friends highly recommend it as well. Egens gripping true story of living through the Dust Bowl is also a National Book Award winner. 4.   Wash by Margaret Wrinkle This novel was recommended by one of my closest friends so I will be popping this into my shopping cart soon. It sounds fascinating. The Atlanta Journal Constitution calls Wash Amazing . . . Never has a fictionalized window into the relationship between slave and master opened onto such believable territory . . . Wash unfolds like a dreamy, impressionistic landscape . 5.   Who I Am  by Pete Townshend Rock n roll bios seem to make the list every year and this summer is no exception. If youve ever fantasized about pummeling a guitar to bits on stagethis is the book for you. Rock out by the pool and learn the story of a man who. wanted The Who to be called The Hair. loved The Everly Brothers, but not that drawling dope Elvis. wanted to be a sculptor, a journalist, a dancer and a graphic designer. became a musician, composer, librettist, fiction writer, literary editor, sailor. smashed his first guitar onstage, in 1964, by accident. heard the voice of God on a vibrating bed in rural Illinois.. Whats not to love? 6.   Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon Another recommendation from a good friend (I am going to be so broke by the time this list is done). Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julin Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secretsan epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love. 7.   Chanel Bonfire: A Memoir by Wendy Lawless Another friend suggests this, saying:    Chanel Bonfire is brilliant. Its a memoir by the witty, sharp daughter of a beautiful 1970s jet setter. The social climbing Mom has mental illness and alcoholism. Its actually quite funny, in a black humour sense. Highly recommend it. 8.   Devil in the White City: Murder, Madness, and Magic at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson This friend says, Devil in the White City is a fascinating intertwining of two contemporaneous true events: a serial murderer operating in Chicago and the lead-up to, running, and aftermath of the Chicago Worlds Fair. Its heavy on history and architecture, but I really liked it. 9.   Defending Jacob by William Landay What is it about legal thrillers and summer? Lots of people love them and a very literate friend suggests this one, so on the list it goes. Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis- a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control. 10.   Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener Every man I have ever known loves Michener.   Published in 2011, this volume is a collection of tales is set against the background of the South Pacific, the endless ocean, the coral specks called islands, the coconut palms, the reefs, the lagoons, the jungles, and the full moon rising against the volcanoes. Sounds like the perfect summer mental escape!

The Earths Core - Its Structure and Possible Composition

The Earth's Core - Its Structure and Possible Composition A century ago, science barely knew that the Earth even had a core. Today we are tantalized by the core and its connections with the rest of the planet. Indeed, were at the start of a golden age of core studies. The Cores Gross Shape We knew by the 1890s, from the way Earth responds to the gravity of the Sun and Moon, that the planet has a dense core, probably iron. In 1906 Richard Dixon Oldham found that earthquake waves move through the Earths center much slower than they do through the mantle around it- because the center is liquid. In 1936 Inge Lehmann reported that something reflects seismic waves from within the core. It became clear that the core consists of a thick shell of liquid iron- the outer core- with a smaller, solid inner core at its center. Its solid because at that depth the high pressure overcomes the effect of high temperature. In 2002 Miaki Ishii and Adam Dziewonski of Harvard University published evidence of an innermost inner core some 600 kilometers across. In 2008 Xiadong Song and Xinlei Sun proposed a different inner inner core about 1200 km across. Not much can be made of these ideas until others confirm the work. Whatever we learn raises new questions. The liquid iron must be the source of Earths geomagnetic field-   the geodynamo- but how does it work? Why does the geodynamo flip, switching magnetic north and south, over geologic time? What happens at the top of the core, where molten metal meets the rocky mantle? Answers began to emerge during the 1990s. Studying the Core Our main tool for core research has been earthquake waves, especially those from large events like the 2004 Sumatra quake. The ringing normal modes, which make the planet pulsate with the sort of motions you see in a large soap bubble, are useful for examining large-scale deep structure. But a big problem is nonuniqueness- any given piece of seismic evidence can be interpreted more than one way. A wave that penetrates the core also traverses the crust at least once and the mantle at least twice, so a feature in a seismogram may originate in several possible places. Many different pieces of data must be cross-checked. The barrier of nonuniqueness faded somewhat as we began to simulate the deep Earth in computers with realistic numbers, and as we reproduced high temperatures and pressures in the laboratory with the diamond-anvil cell. These tools (and length-of-day studies) have let us peer through the layers of the Earth until at last we can contemplate the core. What the Core Is Made Of Considering that the whole Earth on average consists of the same mixture of stuff we see elsewhere in the solar system, the core has to be iron metal along with some nickel. But its less dense than pure iron, so about 10 percent of the core must be something lighter. Ideas about what that light ingredient is have been evolving. Sulfur and oxygen have been candidates for a long time, and even hydrogen has been considered. Lately, there has been a rise of interest in silicon, as high-pressure experiments and simulations suggest that it may dissolve in molten iron better than we thought. Maybe more than one of these is down there. It takes a lot of ingenious reasoning and uncertain assumptions to propose any particular recipe- but the subject is not beyond all conjecture. Seismologists continue to probe the inner core. The cores eastern hemisphere appears to differ from the western hemisphere in the way the iron crystals are aligned. The problem is hard to attack because seismic waves have to go pretty much straight from an earthquake, right through the Earths center, to a seismograph. Events and machines that happen to be lined up just right are rare. And the effects are subtle. Core Dynamics In 1996, Xiadong Song and Paul Richards confirmed a prediction that the inner core rotates slightly faster than the rest of the Earth. The magnetic forces of the geodynamo seem to be responsible. Over geologic time, the inner core grows as the whole Earth cools. At the top of the outer core, iron crystals freeze out and rain into the inner core. At the base of the outer core, the iron freezes under pressure taking much of the nickel with it. The remaining liquid iron is lighter and rises. These rising and falling motions, interacting with geomagnetic forces, stir the whole outer core at a speed of 20 kilometers a year or so. The planet Mercury also has a large iron core and a magnetic field, though much weaker than Earths. Recent research hints that Mercurys core is rich in sulfur and that a similar freezing process stirs it, with iron snow falling and sulfur-enriched liquid rising. Core studies surged in 1996 when computer models by Gary Glatzmaier and Paul Roberts first reproduced the behavior of the geodynamo, including spontaneous reversals. Hollywood gave Glatzmaier an unexpected audience when it used his animations in the action movie The Core. Recent high-pressure lab work by Raymond Jeanloz, Ho-Kwang (David) Mao and others has given us hints about the core-mantle boundary, where liquid iron interacts with silicate rock. The experiments show that core and mantle materials undergo strong chemical reactions. This is the region where many think mantle plumes originate, rising to form places like the Hawaiian Islands chain, Yellowstone, Iceland, and other surface features. The more we learn about the core, the closer it becomes. PS: The small, close-knit group of core specialists all belong to the SEDI (Study of the Earths Deep Interior) group and read its Deep Earth Dialog newsletter. And they use the Special Bureau for the Cores website  as a central repository for geophysical and bibliographic data.

Hotel operation management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Hotel operation management - Essay Example The analysis of this report focuses on analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which the seaside hotel faces in the industry. The financial analysis of the three years reveals that the hotel has increased its performance from the first year to the second year. However, from the second years to the third year, there was a reasonable decline in the overall revenue of the hotel. During the third year, the hotel offered discounts to the customer which was not reflected on the sales of the hotel. Further, the third year witnessed stiff competition as the facilities and services of the rival hotels and resorts were ranked higher than that of seaside hotel. This led to a decline in the revenue. The strengths of the company lie in the ability to compete favorably in the industry while encroaching into new markets. As such, Sea side endeavors to undertake several strategies in year 4 which will see the development of the conference facilities which are more updated due to increased demand. The hotel also wished to expand their operations by application of successful and sufficient advertising mechanisms for their different sectors such as conference facilities, bar and restaurant. The purpose of this report is to provide an analysis of Seaside hotel using the financial data of three consecutive years to analyze it performance and trends. The hotel is a 3 star hotel, for this reason it is characterized by a restaurant, bar, small health club, conference facilities and business services. There is also ample car parking and grounds that many a times have brought revenues from the weddings. Over the last three years the hotel has really performed quiet well. The hotel has been able to survive in a competition intensive market and managed to develop more and more into a major hotel in the region. This section will analyze the performance of the hotel for the last three years. It will be guided by the financial analysis of

The Chinese economy has maintained a momentum of rapid growth while Essay

The Chinese economy has maintained a momentum of rapid growth while many other economies in the world have slumped - Essay Example As a result, the barriers to economic growth under the conventional planned economy were removed and full production became the order of the day. As part of the economic reforms, the country adopted a step-by-step approach in pushing the reforms ahead. At the same time, it made sure that there as a balance between the economic reforms, growth and social stability. This enabled the country to correct the notion that China is a hard place to trade as is evidenced by the large capital investment by overseas investors. According to Sharma (2007), there has been a major capital injection into the country’s economy, which been a major boost in the development of the economy. The country has also recognized the importance of a flexible monetary exchange rate. It has put measures in place to ensure that there is free capital mobility (Prasad, 2004). Economic experts have argued that the high economic growth rate registered by China will only be sustained if the country continues imple menting the comprehensive economic reforms, and the open up policies. ... This has been enabled by the ongoing reforms in the banking sector. Financial transactions and mediations in China are transacted across the banking sector. The banking industry is heavily dominated by the state-owned banks who act as the main lender to companies in China. There is an absence of the corporate bond market which underscores the crucial role that banks play in the economy of China (Li, 1997). China has instituted a reduction in interest rates to encourage more borrowing especially by people in the private sector, particularly the small and medium enterprises. Therefore, stability of the banking industry in China is crucial for sustainability of economic growth in the country (Li, Liu and Yun, n.d.). Currently, the Chinese government has accelerated efforts to address three key issues; maintaining the economic growth, avoiding social contradictions and improving the ability to cope with financial crisis. Lams have been put in place to stimulate domestic demand with an ai m of reducing the over reliance on Gross Domestic Product growth in fixed investment and export promotion. China relies more on the export market which is detrimental in the midst of a global financial crisis like the one being experienced in the world (Wang, 2010). To address this issue of export-oriented economy, the Chinese government has made it a national strategy to strike a reasonable balance between the export oriented models and inward- looking economy. This is being implemented through expansion programs in the global market, while laying down policies to promote domestic consumptions. The Chinese government is on record for trying to uplift the purchasing power of its large

East Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

East Asia - Essay Example Based on such a perspective, this paper makes a comparison of the Neo- Confucianism in China and Korea by establishing discussions on the different perspectives and circumstances that both nations experienced during the different eras. Indeed, the main area of discussion for this paper involves the benefits of Neo-Confucianism to both China and Korea and the various ways through which Neo-Confucianism influenced the lives of citizens in the two nations. Ideally, in the study of the numerous dynasties that played roles in China, the Song dynasty made a significant impact, despite the fact that it was less known for its power and stability, during a period in which Tang had previously imposed great suffering among the people. The Song dynasty, therefore, developed mechanisms for ensuring that the oppressive nature of the Tang came to an end and that all the oppressive activities reversed. Indeed, during the period, the Chinese society showed significant improvements in the various aspects including economy and cities’ expansions, contrary to the occurrences during the Tang regime in which oppression was high, resulting in the fall of the economy with success of few individuals and great suffering for the majority. The Song dynasty indeed influenced a state of significant development in all the different sectors of the economy. Such a perspective has an accurate view that through Neo-Confucianism a rationalist and worldlier Con fucianisms form was established, which involved the rejection of the previous superstitious and mystical elements of Daoism and Buddhism, which had substantive influence on Confucianism, most especially during and after the Han Dynasty (De Bary 314). Neo-Confucianism that had its origins in the Tang Dynasty, ideally, sort to create the existence of a peaceful coexistence between an individual and the universe. As such, in the Korean perspective through its scholars, classics were

Deaf infants and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Deaf infants and development - Essay Example (The Care of Infants and Young Children) Speech does not disappear, but voice gets a strange sounding, there is a intonation breach, stress breach, speech is quick, vocabulary is limited (lack of words that expresses abstract notions, only simple sentences are used) Everything mentioned above proves that hearing reduce negatively influences on the speech development. Besides we should take into consideration that we use different loudness while speaking: there are stressed and unstressed sounds in speech, voiceless consonants, etc. Among the different factors that impact the child’s speech we can outline: the degree of the hearing reduce – the worse a child hears, the worse he/she speaks; age of the speech breach – the earlier it happens the more difficult it is; conditions of the child’s growing – the results of bringing up are better if the child is treated in time; physical and psychological development. A negative impact has the limitation of the social contacts in infant’s age when a person should take the world through the sounds. The defected children require special treatment and control by the doctors and teachers. Though the sign systems have different meanings for socialization in different periods of childhood. Usually children use verbal, imaginary-moving and imaginary-graphical signs and socialize through the playing games. Role games, painting and drawing are very important for socializing children who have any kind of defects. All these kind of activity help to form imaginary thinking. (Dr. Eloise Murray) Bringing up the child with diminished hearing, parents should make a responsible choice – method of teaching. Besides the family climate is also very important for the social and cognitive development. The psychologists differentiate several types of relationship with a deaf child: understanding; â€Å"overcaring†; non-real treatment (parents treat their child as a healthy one); indifference(the most dangerous type of

How Customer Service earns Customer Loyalty Thesis

How Customer Service earns Customer Loyalty - Thesis Example The study would also include a section that would address the area of primary research methodology that would be used to analyze the research question. Finally the study would also contain a section that would summarize the findings of the study and finally suggest certain plausible recommendations that would help marketers of service based organizations to formulate effective strategies that helps in build long term relationships with the organizations thus fostering customer loyalty and ensuring sustainable competitive advantage for the organization in the long run in the competitive and turbulent business environment. Table of Contents How Customer Service earns Customer Loyalty 1 Abstract 2 Chapter 1: Introduction 5 Statement of Problem and Importance of Study 6 Definition of Terms 8 Customer Loyalty 8 Brand 8 Brand Equity 8 Innovations 8 Service Mix 8 Research Questions 9 Summary 9 Chapter 2: Literature Review 10 Historical Background 10 Service Delivery and Customer Loyalty 11 Measuring Customer Satisfaction 14 Distinction between Products and Services 15 Elements of Customer Loyalty 17 Service Innovations and Customer Loyalty 18 Customer Loyalty and Competitive Advantage 20 Service Mix and Customer Loyalty 21 Customer Loyalty and Brand Image 22 Summary 24 Chapter 3: Primary Research Methodology 24 Sampling 25 Data Collection Techniques 25 Research Methodology 26 Summary 27 Chapter 4: Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations 28 Discussions 28 Conclusions 29 Recommendations 30 References 32 Chapter 1: Introduction The present age of business and consumer markets is rightly termed as the age of consumers. Business organizations in the wake of increased completion within the market are trying out new means to lure customers. It has become essential for organizations to not only attract new customer alone but to also retain the existing customers. In this event customer relationship management and consequently customer loyalty have become largely an importa nt part of the strategy formulation of business organizations. This strategy of business organizations follows from the popular thought which states that it is easier and less expensive to retain an old customer rather than acquiring a new one. Promoting customer loyalty has therefore become one of the most important elements of strategy formulation for business organizations. Customer loyalty is largely measured as an outcome of the level of customer satisfaction which is defined as â€Å"the customer’s fulfillment response to a customer experience, or some part thereof† (Buttle, 2008, p.44). Business organizations are trying out newer strategies to induce customer loyalty which includes providing loyalty cards that can be used by the customer to redeem points based on their purchases. The points can be redeemed for cash discounts or other offers which helps induce repeat purchases by the customers. Customer loyalty has gained widespread importance in the recent years with the dynamics of markets changing from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. Promoting customer loyalty also helps an organization to get closer to its customers so as to better analyze the demands of the customers. The importance of customer loyalty can be gauged from the fact that in Europe