In 5 Easy Steps (WINNER OF THE INAUGURAL ASIAN CHIC WRITING COMPETITION 2009)


Book Description

All Elaine Chan has ever wanted is a loving husband and a houseful of children. But when her almost-fiancé unceremoniously dumps her after a humiliating episode involving childhood enemies, condoms and puking, Elaine realizes that a change is in order. Armed with an article promising to show her how to re-invent herself in just 5 easy steps, Elaine finds herself on a one-way coach ride to a new life, a new future, a new her. But the complete makeover of Elaine is an arduous process, and is threatened with derailment by distractions like the mystery of the neighbour’s vanishing Indonesian maid, with which Elaine finds herself strangely obsessed. Her efforts to keep all the balls in the air as she plays glamour-puss, model girlfriend (to Evan, a hotshot young lawyer form work) and sleuth extraordinaire all rolled into one enticing depilated package, frequently lead her into situations that verge on the bizarre. Thank heavens through all the perils that seem to dog her evolution, and whose relaxed attitude to life reminds Elaine of how she used to be. As Elaine struggles to emerge as an elegant butterfly from the dowdy chrysalis that was her former self, she cannot help asking if these five steps are taking her to where she really wants to go.




The Hill We Climb


Book Description

The instant #1 New York Times bestseller and #1 USA Today bestseller Amanda Gorman’s electrifying and historic poem “The Hill We Climb,” read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, is now available as a collectible gift edition. “Stunning.” —CNN “Dynamic.” —NPR “Deeply rousing and uplifting.” —Vogue On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman became the sixth and youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration. Taking the stage after the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, Gorman captivated the nation and brought hope to viewers around the globe with her call for unity and healing. Her poem “The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country” can now be cherished in this special gift edition, perfect for any reader looking for some inspiration. Including an enduring foreword by Oprah Winfrey, this remarkable keepsake celebrates the promise of America and affirms the power of poetry.




Hot, Flat, and Crowded


Book Description

Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy, which he calls 'Code-Green', is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating - it is what we need to make us all healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.




Violence and Social Orders


Book Description

This book integrates the problem of violence into a larger framework, showing how economic and political behavior are closely linked.




Brothers


Book Description

Set against the violence of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, 'Brothers' is a novel about boys becoming men, about family feuds and the ties that bind - that bind all of us, even those who refuse to be bound by mere convention or custom because they are bound for far greater glories.




Signifying Bodies


Book Description

Sheds new light on the memoir boom by asking: Is the genre basically about disability?







Michael Jordan Speaks


Book Description

Words and wisdom from Chicago Bulls #23: Mega-superstar, "His Airness" He is the most successful player to ever wear a basketball uniform. On the court and off the court, Michael has entertained the world as a pitchman, movie star, spokesperson, and an extraordinary athlete-although not the greatest baseball player. For the first time ever, bestselling author Janet Lowe has compiled a portrait from Michael's own words. Michael Jordan Speaks touches upon everything about the sport, his mega-superstar status, and his life, culled from articles, newscasts, and interviews.




Wolf Totem


Book Description

Chen Zhen volunteers to live in a remote settlement on the border of Inner and Outer Mongolia. There, he discovers life of apparent idyllic simplicity based on an eternal struggle between the wolves and the humans in their fight to survive. Chen learns about the spiritual relationship which exists between these adversaries.




Data-Intensive Text Processing with MapReduce


Book Description

Our world is being revolutionized by data-driven methods: access to large amounts of data has generated new insights and opened exciting new opportunities in commerce, science, and computing applications. Processing the enormous quantities of data necessary for these advances requires large clusters, making distributed computing paradigms more crucial than ever. MapReduce is a programming model for expressing distributed computations on massive datasets and an execution framework for large-scale data processing on clusters of commodity servers. The programming model provides an easy-to-understand abstraction for designing scalable algorithms, while the execution framework transparently handles many system-level details, ranging from scheduling to synchronization to fault tolerance. This book focuses on MapReduce algorithm design, with an emphasis on text processing algorithms common in natural language processing, information retrieval, and machine learning. We introduce the notion of MapReduce design patterns, which represent general reusable solutions to commonly occurring problems across a variety of problem domains. This book not only intends to help the reader "think in MapReduce", but also discusses limitations of the programming model as well. Table of Contents: Introduction / MapReduce Basics / MapReduce Algorithm Design / Inverted Indexing for Text Retrieval / Graph Algorithms / EM Algorithms for Text Processing / Closing Remarks