When hurt imposes its crabby will on our lives, many of us lock up the scars in our "private journals." We write down stuff that is for our eyes only. It's a safe place to hide our fears, failures, and frustrations with ourself, our friends, and even God. Journals are never meant to be read to the world, because if we did, they would reveal who we really are. Nobody really wants to undress their soul in front of others, to be made fun of-me included. Somewhere behind the halleluiahs, praise the Lords, and God is good stuff, there is this real place that only our journals have enough grace to accept. It's a place where 1+1 doesn't equal 2. It's a place where you mix red and blue and get gray. It's a place where you are mad at God and feel He's mad at you. That's what journals hold, the stories of our lives-not the way we always want them but the way they really are. When God invited me to write a book exposing "my journal" to the world, I politely rejected Him. Okay, not really politely. I balked, "There is no way I am ever going to reveal what I spent a lifetime concealing. God, I'm a pastor and these stories don't make me look good; as you know, some don't even make me look like a Christian. God, how about you and I make a deal? On my forty-seventh book, I will let the world snoop around in my journal, but not my first." I refused to hand over the key to my journal, knowing God would just blab it to the whole world. "I will not write a book that makes me look way more human than holy." That all changed one day when five strangers walked into McDonald's and tried pouring ketchup ...

It's a story as old as time--or at least ten minutes. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy loses job. Boy loses car. Boy loses mind and writes an awful novel about wizards and talking eyes. It's tragic, really...

Elevate your hot dogs with this creative and informative cookbook including recipes for both classic and adventurous sausages, buns, and condiments, as well as gorgeous photos and detailed history for each recipe The classic cookout staple gets a fresh and tasty twist, with recipes inspired by everything from south-of-the-border BBQ to Japanese fusion to modern food-cart cuisine. Handcraft your own top-notch dogs, buns, and condiments with step-by-step from-scratch instructions and beautiful photos for inspiration. Each of these hot dog styles from around the world is accompanied by an in-depth look at history and tasty traditions. The perfect summer cookbook, this indispensable guide will make your grilling extraordinary.

A 2015 James Beard Award Finalist: "Eye-opening, insightful, and huge fun to read." —Bee Wilson, author of Consider the Fork Why do we eat toast for breakfast, and then toast to good health at dinner? What does the turkey we eat on Thanksgiving have to do with the country on the eastern Mediterranean? Can you figure out how much your dinner will cost by counting the words on the menu? In The Language of Food, Stanford University professor and MacArthur Fellow Dan Jurafsky peels away the mysteries from the foods we think we know. Thirteen chapters evoke the joy and discovery of reading a menu dotted with the sharp-eyed annotations of a linguist. Jurafsky points out the subtle meanings hidden in filler words like "rich" and "crispy," zeroes in on the metaphors and storytelling tropes we rely on in restaurant reviews, and charts a microuniverse of marketing language on the back of a bag of potato chips. The fascinating journey through The Language of Food uncovers a global atlas of culinary influences. With Jurafsky's insight, words like ketchup, macaron, and even salad become living fossils that contain the patterns of early global exploration that predate our modern fusion-filled world. From ancient recipes preserved in Sumerian song lyrics to colonial shipping routes that first connected East and West, Jurafsky paints a vibrant portrait of how our foods developed. A surprising history of culinary exchange—a sharing of ideas and culture as much as ingredients and flavors—lies just beneath the surface of our daily snacks, soups, and suppers. Engaging and informed, Jurafsky's unique study illuminates an extraordinary network of language, history, and food. The menu is yours to enjoy.

Los Angeles--City of Angels, city of dreams. But sometimes the dreams become nightmares. Having fled New York, Victor Renquist and his small group of Nosferatu are striving to reestablish their Colony in Los Angeles. They have become a deeper, darker part of the city's nightlife. And Hollywood's glitterati are hot on the scent of a new thrill, one that outshines all others--immortality. But someone, somewhere, is meddling with even darker powers, powers that even the Nosferatu fear. Someone is attempting to summon the entity of ancient evil known at Cthulhu. And Renquist must overcome dissent in his own Colony, solve the riddle of the Darklost (a being brought partway along the Nosferatu path and then abandoned), and combat powerful enemies to save the world--of humans! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

By now I was totally and I mean totally mad! You want some ketchup, Gerald? I asked. Here have some! And I squirted him right in the face with that ketchup and I squirted hard. Geralds ears got bright red. Ill get you for this, Katy Parker. Then saying some words he totally hadnt learned in church, he stomped out of the lunchroom with all that ketchup driping down his chin. Well I admit I was a little worried, but I cant say I stayed awake all night worrying about what Gerald might do. I wasnt totally easy in my mind either. But I fi gured I should be totally able to handle anybody as dumb acting as old Gerald no matter what he came up with. What plan will Katy come up with to get out of this? And will it work the way she plans? Not all of Katys ideas work out quite the way she plans, but she keeps on trying. Until she meeets a problem that no plan of hers can solve.

Eric Muller has been trying to hack the girlfriend problem for half his life. As a teenage geek, he discovered his gift for programming computers-but his attempts to understand women only confirm that he's better at writing code than connecting with human beings. Brilliant, neurotic, and lonely, Eric spends high school in the solitary glow of a screen. By his early twenties, Eric's talent has made him a Silicon Valley millionaire. He can coax girls into bed with ironic remarks and carefully timed intimacies, but hiding behind wit and empathy gets lonely, and he fears that love will always be out of reach. So when Eric falls for the beautiful, fiercely opinionated Maya Marcom, and she miraculously falls for him too, he's in new territory. But the more he learns about his perfect girlfriend's unresolved past, the further Eric's obsessive mind spirals into confusion and doubt. Can he reconcile his need for order and logic with the mystery and chaos of love? This brilliant debut ushers Eric Muller-flawed, funny, irresistibly endearing-into the pantheon of unlikely heroes. With an unblinking eye for the absurdities and horrors of contemporary life, Gabriel Roth gives us a hilarious and heartbreaking meditation on self consciousness, memory, and love.