Books about Eccentric from Amazon.com

In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"—New York Times Book Review) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.

No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair.

He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before the rest of the world. His thrilling and dangerous journeys, vividly recreated by Winchester, took him across war-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese people.

After the war, Needham was determined to tell the world what he had discovered, and began writing his majestic Science and Civilisation in China, describing the country's long and astonishing history of invention and technology. By the time he died, he had produced, essentially single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever.

Both epic and intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China through Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable tale of what makes men, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great—related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.

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Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl ” She captures Leo Borlock’s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first.

Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.


From the Hardcover edition..
Price: $2.91 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When fifteen-year-old Beck Phillips travels by train to the secluded village of Kingsplot to live with his wealthy but estranged uncle, Beck discovers some dark family secrets. A buried basement, a forbidden wall, an old book of family history with odd references to... dragons? Beck's life is about to be changed forever in this suspenseful tale about the destructive nature of greed and the courage to make things right. Pillage is filled wtih Mr. Skye's signature humor as well as some very intense moments. including a surprising ending, that will keep readers young and old engrossed and entertained..
Price: $11.16 [Notify me when price goes down.]

LOVE, STARGIRL picks up a year after Stargirl ends and reveals the new life of the beloved character who moved away so suddenly at the end of Stargirl. The novel takes the form of "the world's longest letter," in diary form, going from date to date through a little more than a year's time. In her writing, Stargirl mixes memories of her bittersweet time in Mica, Arizona, with involvements with new people in her life.

In Love, Stargirl, we hear the voice of Stargirl herself as she reflects on time, life, Leo, and - of course - love..
Price: $6.88 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Glamorous eccentrics are irresistible people. They are irreverent, occasionally impertinent, a tad mysterious, charming, often self-invented, good at applying eyeliner, and above all nonconformist They are a fabulous confection of style, self-empowerment, and black patent sling backs. Everyone wants to be one, but how? Ubiquitous style guru Simon Doonan has the answer.

By no means a typical how-to manual, Eccentric Glamour is a mixture of cultural commentary and personal disclosure, generously seasoned with gushings of wildly dictatorial, provocative, and reckless style advice. Through cautionary tales and inspirational examples, Doonan shows how to develop your own brand of eccentric glamour -- by magnifying everything that is already unique and idiosyncratic about you.

In these comic essays, interspersed with one-on-one interviews with some of the world's most glamorous eccentrics (including Iman, Lucy Liu, Tilda Swinton, Malcolm Gladwell, and many more), Simon Doonan offers the women of America an alternative to the cheapness and tackiness that currently pass for personal style. Eccentric Glamour is intended as an antidote to the epidemic of slutty dressing and porno-chic that has taken over since the arrival of Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith (may she rest in peace). While the typical TV boobs 'n' Botox makeovers force every woman to look the same, the transformations this book strives to inspire are the very opposite. Dressing like a ho is not just bad taste but boring! In Simon Doonan's book, conformity is the only crime and dressing down the only faux pas.

Eccentric Glamour is every woman's birthright. SO SAY NO TO HO!...and yes to ECCENTRIC GLAMOUR!.
Price: $5.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

O'Connor, Karen; Sabato, Larry J.; Haag, Stefan; Keith, Gary A., American Government: Continuity and Change, Web Link Edition *\ The Web Link Edition consists of two components: a "bare bones," spiral-bound book that lies flat so readers can use it with ease at a computer, and a robust website that contains a multitude of highly interactive, in-depth exercises, interactive maps and graphics, surveys, videos, web links, and more. Icons in the book refer readers to specific exercises and assets on the book's password-protected website that they can engage in to learn more about the topic being discussed in the book. The icons tie the book and website together so that they form one, powerful, cohesive system. For those interested in American Government. .
Price: $65.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

An all-new novel starring the obsessively beloved TV detective who always knows when something’s out of place…

Adrian Monk has actually been doing well lately. He’s solving murders as fast as they come, and he’s been noticeably less compulsive. Monk knows he owes it all to his therapist, Dr. Kroger. So when Kroger attends a conference in Germany, Monk hits the skids, reverting to his OCD habits full-time. Desperate, Monk follows his shrink to Germany. And that’s when he sees the man across a crowded town square. A man with six fingers. Monk knows it could be the man responsible for his wife’s death..
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Pat Conroy called Dorothea Benton Frank's debut, Sullivan's Island, "hilarious and wise," while Anne Rivers Siddons declared that it "roars with life." Here, Frank evokes a lush plantation in the heart of modern-day South Carolina-where family ties and hidden truths run as deep and dark as the mighty Edisto River..
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Fourth in the all-new series of original mysteries starring Adrian Monk, the brilliant investigator who always knows when something's out of place.

Now that her ne'er-do-well husband has been arrested for murder, Monk's former assistant, Sharona, is ready to reclaim her place in Monk's extremely well-ordered life. But his current assistant, Natalie, is not pleased with this turn of events.

While Monk tries to maintain a delicate balance between the two women, he discovers a few snags in the case against Sharona's husband. And with other murders to investigate, Monk realizes he may be up against a killer who not only understands him, but is one step ahead..
Price: $5.30 [Notify me when price goes down.]