Larger-Than-Life Cookies for Larger-Than-Life Appetites Take your cookies to new heights with Wendy Kou’s supersized approach to baking. Each cookie—about the size of your head—is not only fun to make, but tastes delicious and is perfect to savor or share. These decadent cookies cover all your must-have flavors like chocolate chip, red velvet, sugar cookie, oatmeal, cinnamon roll and so much more. And if you’re feeling extra adventurous, there’s always the option to take on one of Wendy’s stuffed cookies (brownie or cheesecake middle, anyone?) or combination flavor cookies—like her chocolate espresso and red velvet cookie. Why bake a boring cake when you can make a Birthday Cake Cookie that feeds 8 to 10 people? And why have the same old sandwiches when you can make a Peanut Butter Jelly Cookie that will satiate you for days? With 75+ cookie recipes, and 20+ cookie variations, you’ll never run out of ways to make dessert feel new again

Finally, a cookie book that’s sweet and sassy! Sweet Talk Cookies has gloriously out-of-the-ordinary cookie designs. If you’re sick of the same-old cookies, if you can’t possibly decorate another bland tree or stocking, look no further. Hayley Callaway, founder of Hayley Cakes and Cookies (@thehayleycakes), has just what you need—whether that’s a taco truck and message cookie that says “Feed me and tell me I’m pretty” or a T-rex hanging Christmas lights. When it comes to designs, this is a book filled with cookies that have character, for year-round fun. Chapters span the seasons, including both holiday-related motifs and designs that simply celebrate something like summer fun (helllooo snow cones!). If you’re looking to really make these cookies your own, you’ll love the creative lettering workshop. Once you master the art of writing with icing, you can customize to your heart’s content! Inside, you’ll find all this and more: A complete cookie class: Outlining all the key materials and techniques needed in the rest of the book. Recipes: Hayley’s signature cookie and icing recipes. Writing workshop: The key to making the cookies your own! Holiday cookies: Cookies to pop the bubbly and celebrate the New Year, fa-boo-lous Halloween cookies, ideas for your Valentine, and even a couple birthday party cookies. Animal cookies: A whole farm of mini-animals as well as bears, a rainbow turtle, even unicorns! Christmas cookies: Just try and pick your favorite from the what’s crackin’ nutcracker, Rudolph the sprinkle-nose reindeer, and a cookie that is decorated like a tray of Christmas cookies. Summer cookies: Have some fun in the sun with mermaids, fancy seashells, watermelon, tie-dye shirts, and more. And even more cool designs: Cowboy boots, eggs and bacon, carved woodgrain, a watercolor cactus...the sky’s the limit! If you are the type of person who demands cookies not only taste good, but be in good taste, this is your cookie book soul mate!

"Cupcakes stuffed with cookie dough. Brownies filled with peanut butter cups. S'mores tucked inside cookies. Discover these and more amazing treats when you bake a delectable cookie or a moist cupcake with a delicious sweet surprise inside. Treats that are delicious on their own become even more appealing when paired with a complementary flavor, making these goodies doubly fun, doubly flavorful, doubly delicious"--

Bigger is better in the cookbook that “opens up a whole universe of giants, including chocolate chip whoppers and king-sized raisin pillows” (The Boston Globe). Nobody’s ever made baking history with a scrawny cookie. No matter what the occasion, nothing beats the big, fat, homemade kind. With this deliciously fun cookbook and a few simple ingredients, anyone can whip up a quick batch of one of fifty different gigantic crispy, chewy, or fancy-pants sandwich cookies. From classic Super Chocolate Chip to colossal Mocha Mud Mountains, Jumbo Coconut Macaroons to Lemon Whoopie Pies, this is total cookie satisfaction. Introductory material includes tips on buying the best ingredients, techniques such as mixing and forming the perfect round, baking ahead and storing, and for those who actually like to share their cookies, how to pack them up safely so they won’t break on the way to the party. So, get that sweet tooth ready and bite into a Big Fat Cookie. “Cookies don’t always get much credit for being desserts, partly because of their small size. Klivans’s creations, however, give cookies the size they need to hold their own at the end of a meal (or anytime) . . . Even those who spend very little time in the kitchen will be inspired to break out their baking sheets after thumbing through this enticing book.” —Publishers Weekly “A former pastry chef and author of several baking books, Klivans draws heavily on the classics—chocolate chip, oatmeal, shortbread, gingerbread—but she always manages to interject an unusual twist . . . a book that any cookie-loving reader will want to use over and over again.” —East Bay Times

Presents low-fat, reduced-sugar recipes and nutritional information for such diabetic-safe treats as chocolate-almond cannoli cake, apple-raisin bread pudding, old fashioned peanut butter cookies, cherry apple crisp, and chocolate-pecan biscotti

Many slogans have been used over the years to describe Nebraska: the Good Life, the Beef State, the Cornhusker State. But the Good Life does seem to sum up how most Nebraskans feel about living here. Whether it’s Cornhusker football in the fall or canoeing the Niobrara River in the summer, Nebraska is a special place. And with 100 Things to Do in Nebraska Before You Die, 2nd edition, as your guide, you’ll see just what it is that people love so much about the state. Explore the birthplaces of Nebraska-centric events, such as the Old West Balloon Festival and O’Neill’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Remember the people, from visiting Johnny Carson’s hometown to the birthplace of civil rights leader Malcolm X. Find great places to eat and drink, including Potter, the birthplace of the Tin Roof Sundae and Glur’s Tavern, the oldest continuously operating bar west of the Mississippi, and find adventure amidst the diversity and beauty of the country’s 16th geographically largest state. Local authors and travel bloggers Tim and Lisa Trudell are your expert guides through the diversity and beauty of the Cornhusker State. 100 Things to Do in Nebraska Before You Die, 2nd edition, is a veritable bucket list of Nebraska’s best experiences that will help even born-and-bred Nebraskans see the state in a new light.

One of the biggest questions of the financial crisis has not been answered until now: What happened at Lehman Brothers and why was it allowed to fail, with aftershocks that rocked the global economy? In this news-making, often astonishing book, a former Lehman Brothers Vice President gives us the straight answers—right from the belly of the beast. In A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, Larry McDonald, a Wall Street insider, reveals, the culture and unspoken rules of the game like no book has ever done. The book is couched in the very human story of Larry McDonald’s Horatio Alger-like rise from a Massachusetts “gateway to nowhere” housing project to the New York headquarters of Lehman Brothers, home of one of the world’s toughest trading floors. We get a close-up view of the participants in the Lehman collapse, especially those who saw it coming with a helpless, angry certainty. We meet the Brahmins at the top, whose reckless, pedal-to-the-floor addiction to growth finally demolished the nation’ s oldest investment bank. The Wall Street we encounter here is a ruthless place, where brilliance, arrogance, ambition, greed, capacity for relentless toil, and other human traits combine in a potent mix that sometimes fuels prosperity but occasionally destroys it. The full significance of the dissolution of Lehman Brothers remains to be measured. But this much is certain: it was a devastating blow to America’s—and the world’s—financial system. And it need not have happened. This is the story of why it did.