Come home with the Walkers in the unforgettable third season of Brothers And Sisters. Television’s most captivating family is back with more secrets and surprises than ever before. It’s a new year full of exciting developments. Robert and Kitty dream of parenthood, and the future of Ojai Foods hangs by a thread. Witness every business (and social) affair of the Walker and the Harper families in Season Three, complete with never-before-seen bonus features available only on DVD.

The rise in foreclosures has increased the demand for rental properties across the nation, and that trend will continue for some time. But aside from that new group of renters (people who have lost their homes) there is another demographic that remains constant. 40% of Americans earn under $35,000/year. Most of these people will be lifelong renters, who search for a decent rental accompanied by an attentive landlord. This segment of the rental market represents tremendous opportunity for smart investors, regardless of fluctuation in the economy. The Landlord Chronicles is based on Barb Getty's personal journey. She began her real estate investing career over 15 years ago, at the lowest point in her life, with little money and no background in rehabbing, management or real estate. Written in a lighthearted, conversational style, this guide walks the reader through every phase of the process: finding target neighborhoods, locating the "diamond in the rough," financing, rehabbing, attracting and keeping tenants, managing and maintaining the rental, evicting non-payers, accounting and record-keeping, selling/exit strategies, etc. Getty details specific products, tools, tips and techniques to simplify and expedite the process, and shows how start-up costs can be kept to a minimum. There are hilarious personal stories sprinkled throughout the book, highlighting some of the rookie mistakes she made early on. Although seasoned investors will add to their knowledge base by reading The Landlord Chronicles, the beginner investor will find the book invaluable. It provides the reader with everything he/she needs, including various business forms and resources. Getty's career has provided autonomy, freedom and flexibility . . . precious commodities. But in addition, whether you do it part- or full-time, investing in low and middle income rentals can provide steady income and build wealth for the future. Enjoy the book

In old Russia, patron/client relations, "clan" politics, and a variety of other informal practices spanned the centuries. Government was understood to be patrimonial and personal rather than legal, and office holding was far less important than proximity to patrons. Working from heretofore unused documents from the Communist archives, J. Arch Getty shows how these political practices and traditions from old Russia have persisted throughout the twentieth-century Soviet Union and down to the present day. Getty examines a number of case studies of political practices in the Stalin era and after. These include cults of personality, the transformation of Old Bolsheviks into noble grandees, the Communist Party's personnel selection system, and the rise of political clans ("family circles") after the 1917 Revolutions. Stalin's conflicts with these clans, and his eventual destruction of them, were key elements of the Great Purges of the 1930s. But although Stalin could destroy the competing clans, he could not destroy the historically embedded patron-client relationship, as a final chapter on political practice under Putin shows. 

The definitive study of Nikolai Yezhov's rise to become the chief of Stalin's secret police-and the dictator's "iron fist"-during the Great Terror Head of the secret police from 1937 to 1938, N. I. Yezhov was a foremost Soviet leader during these years, second in power only to Stalin himself. Under Yezhov's orders, millions of arrests, imprisonments, deportations, and executions were carried out. This book, based upon unprecedented access to Communist Party archives and Yezhov's personal archives, looks into the life and career of the enigmatic man who administered Stalin's Great Terror. J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov seek to answer a series of troubling questions. What kind of person calmly and efficiently sends thousands of innocent people to their deaths? What could prepare a man for such a role? How could a person whom acquaintances describe as friendly, pleasant, and even gallant carry out one of history's most horrifying campaigns of terror? The authors uncover the full details of Yezhov's rise to power and conclude that he was not merely Stalin's tool but a skillful maneuverer in his own right. The historical documents provide a thorough portrait of Yezhov and reveal a man of fanatical dedication to his leader and his party-a man who became a willing murderer. Readers will find his story chilling, the more so in our own times, when the impulse to terror that engulfed Yezhov seems neither surprising nor unfamiliar.

THE BEST SUPERHERO UNIVERSE SERIES IN THE UNIVERSE!   By now, everyone in the world knows Invincible. But what about the rest of the Invincible Universe’s heroes and villains?   Atom Eve! Rex Splode! Brit! Best Tiger!   This collection reveals the secret history of Invincible's closest allies, as well as the formation of a brand-new Guardians of the Globe team to fight the largest gathering of supervillains ever: The Order.   Collects INVINCIBLE PRESENTS: ATOM EVE #1-2, INVINCIBLE PRESENTS: ATOM EVE & REX SPLODE #1-3, GUARDING THE GLOBE (VOL. 1) #1-6, GUARDING THE GLOBE (VOL. 2) #1-6, and INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE #1-12.

Like its predecessors, "Once Upon a Time" and "A Place in the Sun", "Poolside with Slim Aarons" offers images of jet-setters and the wealthy, of beautiful, glittering people living the glamorous life. Yet this new collection of stunning photographs of the rich and well-connected 'doing attractive things' in their favourite playgrounds has a new twist. The main character is pools and everything that goes with them - magnificent, suntanned bodies, well-oiled skin, bikini-clad women, yachts, summer cocktails, sumptuous buffets, spectacular locations and most of all fun. "Poolside with Slim Aarons" is not so much a Who's Who of society, aristocracy and celebrity - although C. Z. Guest, Lily Pulitzer, Cheryl Tiegs, Peter Beard and many who have appeared in the previous books are here - as it is about leisure time and how the rich make use of it. This is a more intimate peek into very private lives, to which Slim Aarons was given unprecedented access in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. From the Caribbean to Italy and Mexico to Monaco, "Poolside with Slim Aarons" whisks the reader away to an exclusive club where taste, style, luxury and grandeur prevail.

The choices that individuals make in moments of crisis can transform them. By focusing on fictional characters trapped on fictional islands, the book examines how individuals react when forced to make hard choices within the liminal space of a "prison" island. At stake is the perception of choice: do characters believe that they have the power to choose, or do they think that they are at the mercy of fate? The results reveal certain patterns-psychological, historical, social, and political--that exist across a variety of popular/public cultures and time periods. This book focuses on how the interplay between liminality and the Locus of Control theory creates dynamic sites of negotiated meaning. This psychological concept has never before been used for literary analysis. Offered here as an alternative to the defects of Freudian psychology, the Locus of Control theory has been proven reliable in thousands of studies, and the results have been found, with few exceptions, to be consistent in both women and men. That consistency is explored through close readings of islands found in popular culture books, films, and television shows, with suggestions for future research.

The systematic scientific investigation of human perception began over 130 years ago, yet relatively little is known about how we identify complex patterns. A major reason for this is that historically, most perceptual research focused on the more basic processes involved in the detection and discrimination of simple stimuli. This work progressed in a connectionist fashion, attempting to clarify fundamental mechanisms in depth before addressing the more complex problems of pattern recognition and classification. This extensive and impressive research effort built a firm basis from which to speculate about these issues. What seemed lacking, however, was an overall characterization of the recognition problem - a broad theoretical structure to direct future research in this area. Consequently, our primary objective in this volume, originally published in 1981, was not only to review existing contributions to our understanding of classification and recognition, but to project fruitful areas and directions for future research as well. The book covers four areas: complex visual patterns; complex auditory patterns; multi-dimensional perceptual spaces; theoretical pattern recognition.

Slim Aarons: Women explores the central subject of Slim Aarons's career-the extraordinary women from the upper echelons of high society, the arts, fashion and Hollywood. The book presents the women who most influenced Slim's life and work-and the other remarkable personalities he photographed along the way, including Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, Diana Vreeland and Marilyn Monroe, all featured in unforgettable photographs. The collection contains more than 200 images, the majority of which have not appeared in previous books, along with detailed captions written by one of Slim's closest colleagues. Showcasing beautiful women at their most glamorous in some of the most dazzling locations across the globe, Slim Aarons: Women is a fresh look at the acclaimed photographer through the muses who inspired his most incredible photographs.

The systematic scientific investigation of human perception began over 130 years ago, yet relatively little is known about how we identify complex patterns. A major reason for this is that historically, most perceptual research focused on the more basic processes involved in the detection and discrimination of simple stimuli. This work progressed in a connectionist fashion, attempting to clarify fundamental mechanisms in depth before addressing the more complex problems of pattern recognition and classification. This extensive and impressive research effort built a firm basis from which to speculate about these issues. What seemed lacking, however, was an overall characterization of the recognition problem - a broad theoretical structure to direct future research in this area. Consequently, our primary objective in this volume, originally published in 1981, was not only to review existing contributions to our understanding of classification and recognition, but to project fruitful areas and directions for future research as well. The book covers four areas: complex visual patterns; complex auditory patterns; multi-dimensional perceptual spaces; theoretical pattern recognition.

Climate Change across the Curriculum examines ways of thinking and conveying information about climate change across university curricula and within academic disciplines. The contributors provide methods, strategies, rationales, and theoretical justifications for teaching climate issues at the university level. The content of this book aims to introduce climate change to classes outside of the sciences, as it will take a wide range of disciplines, broader institutional thinking, and experimentation to fully engage university resources and knowledge toward the mitigation of fossil fuel consumption and adaptation to the negative consequences of climate change. Climate Change across the Curriculum encourages professors to engage salient aspects of their academic disciplines to the study of climate issues in the classroom, as well as sample theories, practices, and resources from a wide range of academic disciplines outside of their own areas of specialization. The contributors ask: what role will higher education play in addressing environmental challenges and producing students who become professionals who accomplish work that solves these problems?

"This tender, smart, personal book is a gift. Stuart Getty generously shows us, with witty illustrations and kind humor, the hows and whys of they/them pronouns. A wonderful and necessary resource that is a delight to read." -Michelle Tea, author of Modern Tarot and Valencia What does nonbinary really mean? What is gender nonconforming? And isn't they a plural pronoun? In this charming and disarming guide, a real-life they-using genderqueer writer unpacks all your burning questions in a fun, visual way. No soapboxes or divisive comment-section wars here! Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, always human, this gender-friendly primer will get you up to speed. It's about more than just bathrooms and pronouns--this is about gender expression and the freedom to choose how to identify. While they might only be for some, that freedom is for everyone! "[A] clear, kind guide to gender nonconformity. Getty's cheeky tone and the punchy black-and-white illustrations by Brooke Thyng make this book a useful reference for anyone with questions about gender, whether their own or those they witness in the larger world." -Booklist "Straightforward, practical, relevant navigation through the radiant world of gender fluidity." -Kirkus Reviews

This book presents a novel treatment of the metre of Beowulf, an Old English epic poem of uncertain date and origin which is nonetheless considered one of the gems of Germanic Alliterative Verse. Building on recent advances in generative linguistics, the analysis presented in this book offers compelling explanations for a wide range of metrical phenomena that have been observed but only poorly understood for over a century.

This beautifully designed book includes 25 hymns chosen by Joni Eareckson Tada with accompanying devotions and photography designed to spark hope in the midst of hardship.