The fun and easy way to learn to play the mandolin The newest addition to the highly successful Dummies instrument-instruction line, Mandolin For Dummies gives you easy-to-follow, step-by-step instruction on learning to play the mandolin. Following the time-tested Dummies format, Mandolin For Dummies provides a level of content and instruction greater than anything currently available. Mandolin For Dummies breaks down the fundamentals of this instrument and provides the resources you need to practice and improve your ability over time. Packed with individualized instruction on key mandolin-friendly musical styles, including Irish and Celtic, "old time" American music, blues, bluegrass, swing, and jazz Files available via download provide audio tracks from the book and exercises so you can play along and build your skills -- almost 2 hours of music! Clear and useful photos and diagrams ensure you fret, strum, and pick with precision Includes a mandolin buying guide to help ensure you make the right purchases Tips on restringing mandolins and other DIY care and maintenance topics If you're an aspiring mandolin player, don't fret! Mandolin For Dummies has you covered.

No longer confined to basic folk genres, any mandolinist aspiring to a broader comprehension of music, including swing, blues, pop, choro, broadway, and even classical can expand his/her playing and through a working knowledge of jazz fundamentals. This breakthrough approach in mandolin pedagogy takes four uncomplicated fretboard patterns (FFcP) and drills a physical familiarity into the player's fingers, softening the fear of upper frets and prepares for the harmonic alterations necessary for effective and intuitive playing of more complex contemporary music.A brief introduction into modes, the player is eased into jamming with audio accompaniment (CD), and eventually an initiation into the most fundamental jazz chord progression of all, the 'ii V7 I' pattern. from the horizontal (melody) to the vertical (chords) and back, the results are a both instinctive and physical grasp of tonal centers and the improvisational fodder of effective performing. an emphasis on pinky strength, finger control and sustain, the book's exercises also develop the player's concepts of tone and melody. Further supportive resources including MP3 audio tracks are also available on the internet. http://www.jazzmando.com/webtracks.shtml

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the best-selling author of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook—this everyday cookbook is “filled with fun and easy ... recipes that will have you actually looking forward to hitting the kitchen at the end of a long work day” (Bustle). A happy discovery in the kitchen has the ability to completely change the course of your day. Whether we’re cooking for ourselves, for a date night in, for a Sunday supper with friends, or for family on a busy weeknight, we all want recipes that are unfussy to make with triumphant results. Deb Perelman, award-winning blogger, thinks that cooking should be an escape from drudgery. Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites presents more than one hundred impossible-to-resist recipes—almost all of them brand-new, plus a few favorites from her website—that will make you want to stop what you’re doing right now and cook. These are real recipes for real people—people with busy lives who don’t want to sacrifice flavor or quality to eat meals they’re really excited about. You’ll want to put these recipes in your Forever Files: Sticky Toffee Waffles (sticky toffee pudding you can eat for breakfast), Everything Drop Biscuits with Cream Cheese, and Magical Two-Ingredient Oat Brittle (a happy accident). There’s a (hopelessly, unapologetically inauthentic) Kale Caesar with Broken Eggs and Crushed Croutons, a Mango Apple Ceviche with Sunflower Seeds, and a Grandma-Style Chicken Noodle Soup that fixes everything. You can make Leek, Feta, and Greens Spiral Pie, crunchy Brussels and Three Cheese Pasta Bake that tastes better with brussels sprouts than without, Beefsteak Skirt Steak Salad, and Bacony Baked Pintos with the Works (as in, giant bowls of beans that you can dip into like nachos). And, of course, no meal is complete without cake (and cookies and pies and puddings): Chocolate Peanut Butter Icebox Cake (the icebox cake to end all icebox cakes), Pretzel Linzers with Salted Caramel, Strawberry Cloud Cookies, Bake Sale Winning-est Gooey Oat Bars, as well as the ultimate Party Cake Builder—four one-bowl cakes for all occasions with mix-and-match frostings (bonus: less time spent doing dishes means everybody wins). Written with Deb’s trademark humor and gorgeously illustrated with her own photographs, Smitten Kitchen Every Day is filled with what are sure to be your new favorite things to cook. Look for Deb Perelman’s latest cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers!

“A mesmerizing novel about a family in crisis.”— Miami Herald A disquieting and ultimately uplifting novel about a marriage, a family, and human resilience in the face of tragedy, from Wally Lamb, the New York Times bestselling author of The Hour I First Believed and I Know This Much Is True. After 27 years of marriage and three children, Anna Oh—wife, mother, outsider artist—has fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her success. They plan to wed in the Oh family’s hometown of Three Rivers in Connecticut. But the wedding provokes some very mixed reactions and opens a Pandora’s Box of toxic secrets—dark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohs’ lives. We Are Water is a layered portrait of marriage, family, and the inexorable need for understanding and connection, told in the alternating voices of the Ohs—nonconformist, Anna; her ex-husband, Orion, a psychologist; Ariane, the do-gooder daughter, and her twin, Andrew, the rebellious only son; and free-spirited Marissa, the youngest. It is also a portrait of modern America, exploring issues of class, changing social mores, the legacy of racial violence, and the nature of creativity and art. With humor and compassion, Wally Lamb brilliantly captures the essence of human experience and the ways in which we search for love and meaning in our lives.

'Chad and Derek just created the next required reading in plant-based cooking . . . Make your life easier, tastier, and Wicked Healthy with the Sarno boys' Michelle and Matt, New York Times bestselling authors of the Thug Kitchen series 'Whether you are going the whole vegan hog, or trying it a few days a week, this book is the perfect inspiration' The Lady Hi, we're Chad and Derek. We're brothers who craft humble vegetables into the stuff of food legend. Everything we create is a bold marriage of delicate and punchy flavours, crunchy textures, and all with knife-sharp attention to detail. We're proud graduates of the University of Common Sense who simply believe that eating more veg is good for you and good for the planet. THE WICKED HEALTHY COOKBOOK presents a delicious game plan endorsed by every doctor and health organisation in the world: eat more plants. Chefs Chad and Derek Sarno are among the world's foremost authorities on plant-based cooking and here they share their secrets for making killer meals. Celebrating the central role of beautiful, crave-able food for our health and vitality, Chad and Derek provide 129 recipes for everyday meals and fancy dinner parties alike and also show us how to kick back and indulge with drool-inducing recipes like: Sloppy BBQ Jackfruit Sliders with Slaw New England Style "Lobstah" Rolls Grilled peaches with Vanilla Spiced Gelato Mango Sriracha Caramel. 'Derek and Chad deliver you a world of flavors, textures, and downright sexy food! These plant-pushers know their stuff. Learn from them and feel better because of them. Cook the future-of-food now!' Jane Land and Matthew Glover, founders of Veganuary

Learn about the creation of the unique American music called bluegrass through the story of Bill Monroe. Bill Monroe loved many things: playing music, his big family, and his home in the bluegrass state of Kentucky. Even though his eyes were crossed and didn't work right, Bill's ears worked hard, picking out all sorts of sounds around his treasured home: rushing streams, wailing winds, and sundown jamborees with his family. Through heartache and hard times, Bill held on to these sounds that reminded him of home. Award-winning author Barb Rosenstock and illustrator Edwin Fotheringham beautifully capture the ups and downs of Bill Monroe's musical journey, and how his deep Kentucky roots helped him create a unique form of American music--bluegrass. Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash and Jerry Garcia all credit Bill Monroe with influencing their music.

First published in 1961, The Beer Can by the Highway takes a provocative, wide-ranging look at America's ever-changing physical and intellectual landscapes, from advertising and jazz to Manhattan's skyline and the prairies of the Midwest. The Johns Hopkins edition features a foreword by Ralph Ellison, who praises the work as "one that springs from deep within that rich segment of the American grain which gave us the likes of Emerson and Whitman, Horatio Greenough and Constance Rourke—yes, and Mark Twain."