• The Coming Storm
    Books,  Books Defying Categories

    Climate Change- Extreme Weather: Reiss brings back The Coming Storm in Second Edition

    The prescient book that first linked specific weather disasters with man-made global warming . . . now in its second edition. … “The most readable and intelligent summary of global warming science and politics I have read… a valiant effort to make people actually care about global warming.” — Bill McKibben, New York Observer … “What Bob Reiss did to elevate our awareness of the destruction of the rain forest in The Road to Extrema, he has now done for global warming… Reiss bypasses political rhetoric and engages us in storytelling, showing us how the greenhouse effect is changing our lives, person by person, community by community, nation by nation.”…

  • Books,  Books Defying Categories,  Classics of the Social Sciences

    Dundes’ Cracking Jokes analyzes sick humor as cultural signs; adds new foreword by Marc Galanter

    This is a candid academic treatment of offensive and sick humor by the leading folklorist scholar on the topic of jokes and joke cycles. It features insightful, surprising, controversial and thought-provoking analyses of the jokes that have been told for years, throughout various cultures. Now in a 30th Anniversary Edition with new foreword. “No piece of folklore continues to be transmitted unless it means something—even if neither the speaker nor the audience can articulate what that meaning might be. In fact, it usually is essential that the joke’s meaning not be crystal clear. If people knew what they were communicating when they told jokes, the jokes would cease to be…

  • Books,  Books Defying Categories,  Featured

    Raskin explores the beauty and function of seashells in a colorful new book

    The poet Pablo Neruda kept a box of seashells on his desk for inspiration and was in awe of their beauty. But does that beauty serve a survival function for the mollusk that produced it? Does it help to attract a mate, to capture prey, to ward off predators? If not, does that very beauty defy the principle that ‘Nature does nothing in vain’? In addressing these basic questions, Raskin discusses a controversial answer that many will find intriguing. This little book on seashells, with its many photos, will deepen your appreciation of their beauty — and invite you to consider nature in a light you may never have expected.…

  • Books,  Books Defying Categories

    The Process and Pluses of Becoming a Civil Law Notary

    Now in a revised and updated 2023-2024 edition: Louisiana civil law notaries enjoy functions, responsibilities, and earning potential unmatched in any other state — and reserved there to attorneys. Louisiana notaries wield the power not just to verify signatures but also to create the legal papers they notarize, including affidavits, donations, powers of attorney, and even wills and trusts. And so much more, with no educational requirement beyond high school … but a state exam that is famously challenging. The entire process to become a notary is difficult, and wrapped in some mystery. This book is helpful if you’re in the beginning stages of becoming a notary public. Or just…

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    Senate Intelligence Committee Issues Report on Russian Election Interference

    Presented in convenient book-size rather than letter-size, two bound and affordable paperback volumes reproduce the Senate report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and ties to high-level Trump campaign officials. It’s a bipartisan report and cannot be dismissed as the mere product of oppositional politics. The chair of the committee, Marco Rubio, is otherwise a firm supporter of the president, but the undisputed facts laid out in this report tell a hair-raising history. You don’t have to read between the lines — or under the redactive black bars — to see a conclusion of campaign collusion if not criminal conspiracy. This is the report issued Aug. 18, 2020 by…

  • Books,  Books Defying Categories,  Featured

    Louisiana Notary Exam Sample Questions Adds Explained Answers

    Questions and answers in four separate tests—plus detailed explanations for each right and wrong answer, keyed to the page of the official study guide—help coach students for the difficult exam. This unofficial resource at last takes notary prep to the next level by revealing the tricks of questions and formats, tactics for the test, and notary law behind it. Louisiana civil law notaries have unmatched functions, responsibilities, and opportunities—but the exam has a 20% pass rate. Candidates need all the help they can get. The best prep classes and study groups recommend multiple practice questions to understand the format, content, and coverage of the actual exams the Secretary of State…

  • Books,  Books Defying Categories,  Featured

    The Louisiana Civil Law Notary in Law and Practice: Decoding the Louisiana Exam

    The Louisiana Notary Exam averages less than a 20% pass rate. The Notary Exam has an official Study Guide you use during the exam. But the Study Guide has no index, no big picture, no study strategies, no exam-day tips, not enough cross-references . . . and few of the forms notaries use that they test your understanding of. It’s got the law and notary rules, but it’s missing essentials for any such textbook. This book has all that—and much more that anyone contemplating the Notary Exam should read. It even includes crucial information about notary practice that every newbie notary ought to know. Basically it’s the rest of the…

  • Books,  Books Defying Categories

    Eric Sellin’s The Dramatic Concepts of Antonin Artaud is Digitally Remastered,™ with new foreword by Peter Thompson

    Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) conceived and inaugurated the Theater of Cruelty, a dramatic movement that has had a profound influence on the avant garde theater in Europe and the United States. The movement is exemplified by the Peter Brook production of Marat/Sade. This book, the first to analyze Artaud’s theories, their sources, and the extent to which he succeeded in implementing them in his own plays, is now available in a 2017 digital edition and new printings, readily accessible to scholars and interested fans of literary criticism and the modern theater worldwide. The new editions add a thoughtful Foreword by Professor Peter Thompson of Roger Williams University. This sophisticated study will…

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    Eliezer Segal explores Jewish history and legends in his witty new collection of essays Chronicles and Commentaries

    The controversial history of sermons, the physics and philosophy of rainbows, lions in the synagogue, hares in the Greek Bible, the gold standard, God in human disguise—these are but a few of the many topics that are introduced in this lively miscellany of glimpses into exotic frontiers of Jewish literature, history, and tradition. In the present compendium of short studies, Dr. Eliezer Segal once again introduces the public to the fruits of Judaic scholarship, while employing a charming style that combines learning and wit. Chronicles and Commentaries is the latest addition to the author’s distinguished series of collections that includes: Why Didn’t I Learn That in Hebrew School? (1999), Ask…

  • Books,  Books Defying Categories,  QP Blog

    Eliezer Segal’s new collection of fun, informative essays on the Jewish calendar: A Time for Every Purpose

    A Time for Every Purpose continues the series of collections of Eliezer Segal’s beloved and witty articles about the Jewish sacred calendar — articles that originally appeared in his From the Sources column in the Calgary Jewish Free Press between 2011 and 2015. As always, the author strives to maintain a balance between accurate scholarship and entertaining readability as he introduces his readers to fascinating aspects of the Jewish festivals and holy days — and how they evolved in ongoing dialogue with historical changes, geographical diversity, and intellectual challenges. The articles are written from a sympathetic but non-dogmatic perspective by a recognized scholarly authority on the academic study of Judaism.…