Books about Evening from Amazon.com

"The men as they rode turned black in the sun from the blood on their clothes and their faces and then paled slowly in the rising dust until they assumed once more the color of the land through which they passed." If what we call "horror" can be seen as including any literature that has dark, horrific subject matter, then Blood Meridian is, in this reviewer's estimation, the best horror novel ever written. It's a perverse, picaresque Western about bounty hunters for Indian scalps near the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s--a ragged caravan of indiscriminate killers led by an unforgettable human monster called "The Judge." Imagine the imagery of Sam Peckinpah and Heironymus Bosch as written by William Faulkner, and you'll have just an inkling of this novel's power. From the opening scenes about a 14-year-old Tennessee boy who joins the band of hunters to the extraordinary, mythic ending, this is an American classic about extreme violence..
Price: $8.43 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Amazon.com Exclusive:
The Darkest Ice Cream of the Year by Dean Koontz

I once said writing a novel is sometimes like making love and sometimes like having a tooth pulled--and sometimes like making love while having a tooth pulled. I arrived at one of those joyful yet excruciating moments while working on The Darkest Evening of the Year.

Because I am obsessive about the revision of each page--the word fussbudget is embarrassingly apt when I am brooding over whether to use a comma or a semicolon--I have more than once held on to a manuscript until the drop-dead date for delivery. When that date rolled around for this book, I had written everything, but I was unwilling to send all of it to my editor. I withheld the last fifty pages for another four days, causing a quiet panic in those at my publishing house who are responsible for meeting production deadlines.

Although the book was done, I felt that something was wrong with Chapter 63. The action worked, the characters were in character, the mood was sustained...but something felt wrong with it, some fine point of the villain's motivation. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I worked 12-hour days, trying to identify the source of my doubt, but couldn't specify it to my satisfaction.

Nothing like this had ever happened to me. Previously, my worst struggles with a story had come in the first two-thirds, and the final third had been, if not a sweet swift toboggan run, at least a sleigh ride.

Sunday, I got up at 6:00 and set to work, revising, looking for the thorn I could feel but couldn't see--and ended up working 22 hours, eating at my desk, before tumbling to the problem at 4:00 a.m. Monday morning. "Eureka!" I cried, but I was so weary and my voice was so weak that my shout of jubilation came out as a squeak.

The revisions required to Chapter 63 were minor, but after working 58 hours in four days, after having passed a night without sleep, I was unable to focus sharply enough to get them done in the little time that remained before the production schedule would be derailed. In desperation, I turned to that source of creative energy and literary enlightenment that is without equal: ice cream.

I shuffled to the kitchen and snared a Dreyer's Slow-Churned Vanilla Almond Crunch bar from the freezer. I devoured this sweet-and-creamy muse, and felt the scales lift from my eyes; inspiration sparkled between my ears. I finished the revisions and e-mailed the final version of Chapter 63 to my editor with not a minute to spare. Although the American Heart Association will take issue with me, my advice to young writers stuck on a scene is to stop worrying about your arteries and give your wheel-spinning imagination what it needs to find traction: a tasty shot of fat and sugar.

--Dean Koontz, October 2007

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Price: $6.15 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Morning and evening meditations to literally create your heart's desire..
Price: $7.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Master the power of Photoshop CS3 with
an internationally renowned photographer by your side.

Adobes Photoshop CS3 comes with powerful new features with huge payoffs. But it can be overwhelming to learn, even for professional photographers, graphic designers, keen amateurs, and others who already have an initial grasp of Photoshop. Acclaimed photographer Martin Evening, who wrote the best-selling previous books, 'Adobe Photoshop for Photographers', makes it easy with this new, thoroughly updated edition.

* Illustrated throughout with before-and-after pictures more than 750 professional, color illustrations!
* Practical techniques and real-life assignments
* Step-by-step tutorials
* Keyboard shortcut reference guide

Includes FREE DVD with:
* QuickTime movie tutorials for MAC and PC
* Searchable tips on tools, palettes layer styles, and shortcuts
* Includes images selected for you to experiment with to get you up to speed with everything in the book, including the new Photoshop CS3 features, fast!
* Updated Camera Guide to help you decide which will best suit your needs, plus bonus Digital Capture chapter in printable PDF format

Uncover quickly exactly what Adobes CS3 now offers photographers. New tutorials focus on the key features introduced in CS3. You lose no time in finding out how to put your ideas to work with:

* Adobes Camera Raw 4 plug-in that can now also process TIFFs and JPEGs
* New Align controls for combining HDR images; Photomerge; new Clone Stamp; Curves dialog that now incorporates Levels functionality; and improved controls for Brightness/Contrast to match raw image processing controls
* The latest on Black and White adjustment, which provides all the black and white conversion tools you need for optimum monochrome conversions
* A pros scoop on choosing from among dozens of Photoshops image adjustment methods to get the results you want
* Tips on Bridge 2.0 and Lightroom when you should use each
* Top tactics for successful composite images, insider guidance on editing shadows and highlight adjustments, and lessons on how to preview and re-edit filter effects as many times as you want without complex workarounds

Get the preeminent advice from one photographer to another as Martin completely updates you on the core aspects of working with Photoshop, digital workflow, and improving accessibility. Real-life examples, diagrams, illustrations, and step-by-step explanations ensure that youre up to speed with the next generation of digital photography in no time!

Foreword by Adobe Systems' key Director of Engineering, Digital Imaging, Marc Pawliger

* Over 750 professional, color images make this book stand above the rest
* New DVD! Searchable info explains tools, palettes & layer styles, also includes invaluable QuickTime movie tutorials
* Master the power of Photoshop CS3 under the instruction of an internationally recognised Photoshop expert & Adobe alpha tester.
Price: $26.43 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Each hour, 75 women are raped in the United States, and every few seconds, a woman is beaten. Each day, 400 Americans suffer shooting injuries, and another 1,100 face criminals armed with guns. Author Gavin de Becker says victims of violent behavior usually feel a sense of fear before any threat or violence takes place. They may distrust the fear, or it may impel them to some action that saves their lives. A leading expert on predicting violent behavior, de Becker believes we can all learn to recognize these signals of the "universal code of violence," and use them as tools to help us survive. The book teaches how to identify the warning signals of a potential attacker and recommends strategies for dealing with the problem before it becomes life threatening. The case studies are gripping and suspenseful, and include tactics for dealing with similar situations.

People don't just "snap" and become violent, says de Becker, whose clients include federal government agencies, celebrities, police departments, and shelters for battered women. "There is a process as observable, and often as predictable, as water coming to a boil." Learning to predict violence is the cornerstone to preventing it. De Becker is a master of the psychology of violence, and his advice may save your life. --Joan Price.
Price: $3.84 [Notify me when price goes down.]

At the end of the school year, Kendra and her brother Seth find themselves racing back to Fablehaven, a refuge for mythical and magical creatures. Grandpa Sorenson, the caretaker, invites three specialists -- a potion master, a magical relics collector, and a mystical creature trapper -- to help protect the property from the Society of the Evening Star, an ancient organization determined to infiltrate the preserve and steal a hidden artifact of great power. Time is running out. The Evening Star is storming the gates. If the artifact falls into the wrong hands, it could mean the downfall of other preserves and possibly the world. Will Kendra learn to use her fairy gifts in time? Will Seth stay out of trouble?.
Price: $3.56 [Notify me when price goes down.]

At the end of the school year, Kendra and her brother, Seth, find themselves racing back to Fablehaven, a refuge for mythical and magical creatures. Grandpa Sorenson, the caretaker, invites three specialists- a potion master, a magical relics collector, and a mystical creature trapper- to help protect the property from the Society of the Evening Star, an ancient organization determined to infiltrate the preserve and steal a hidden artifact of great power. Time is running out. The Evening Star is storming the gates. If the artifact falls into the wrong hands, it could mean the downfall of other preserves and possibly the world. Will Kendra learn to use her fairy gifts in time? Will Seth stay out of trouble? Can they overcome paralyzing fear? Find out in book 2 of this bestselling series.
Price: $11.88 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Five Minutes to a Calm, Relaxed, and Joyful Evening

What's a typical weeknight like for you? Do you leave your workplace, endure the evening commute, putter around the house, race through dinner, and collapse into bed—only to discover that it's time to go to work again? That's no way to live! You can leave tension at the office and the traffic on the highway. Just five good minutes stand between a stressful workday and a restorative evening of calm, serenity, and joy.

From the authors of Five Good Minutes, these 100 engaging practices can lead you out of a hectic day and into a peaceful night. This collection of mindfulness exercises, positive visualizations, and affirmations can become a powerful force for change in your life. In no time at all, the five good minutes you give yourself in the evening can help you transform the mundane into the extraordinary and renew your vitality and passion for life.

"This is good advice. Anybody can find five minutes most evenings for dropping to the present moment and touching what is deepest and best in oneself. If you do it lovingly and regularly, those five minutes will be good and good for you in more ways than you can imagine." —Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Coming to Our Senses

"The real gift lying at the heart of this book is the surprising discovery that so much change can result from small daily investments. Brantley and Millstine's gentle, engaging exercises lead the reader effortlessly into a daily rhythm of reconnection and mindfulness. The resulting sense of purposefulness and balance is priceless. This is a book you'll feel compelled to share with friends and loved ones alike." —Dana Landis, Ph.D., life coach in private practice.
Price: $3.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Brian Morton's Starting Out in the Evening is a study in the danger of expectations Heather Wolfe, a pretty, brash graduate student, is confident that her thesis on the novelist Leonard Schiller will put her on the literary fast track. Yet her first meeting with her idol produces something of a shock: "He came toward her smiling. Old, fat, bald, leaning awkwardly on a cane. The man of her dreams." Can this elderly author and "man of routines" really be the looming figure whose early fictions changed her life? The more she comes to know Schiller, the more he confounds her: his willingness to toil in obscurity falls far short of Heather's romanticized ideal. She can't even quite decide "if he was a hero or if he had wasted his life."

Schiller, however, views his own life quite differently. At first he's seduced by Heather's flattering attentions, and succumbs to at least a frisson of desire for love and fame. Yet ultimately this thoughtful, dignified man wants only to finish what he has begun. He has "no illusions about the scale of his achievement, but he had tried, through art, to bring a little more beauty, a little more tolerance, a little more coherence into the world." With wise and compassionate prose, Morton examines the intersection of these two lives, intertwining their story with a third one--that of Ariel, Schiller's unhappy 40-year-old daughter. Along the way, the author quietly raises a number of questions about the utility of art, its power to inflect our dreams, and, finally, what makes a life well lived. It is to Morton's credit that he doesn't presume to answer such questions. Yet the skill with which he asks them makes Starting Out in the Evening an elegiac and deeply affecting novel. --Marianne Painter.
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Though ostensibly a how-to manual on wedding gown construction, this magnificent book teaches all about advanced dressmaking skills, and its principles can be applied to creating many other types of haute-couture-style gowns. The very thorough text details all aspects of fabrics and construction: the unique characteristics of each type of fashion fabric, including extensive information on manipulating lace; preparing the muslin mockup (a necessary first step to ensure a perfect fit); adjusting the bodice, sleeves, and skirt and joining them all together; adding ornamentation; and handling bustles and trains. The final chapter presents all the specifics of making four gowns of different styles. The novice and even the advanced sewer will learn much here, and perhaps best of all, pattern-drafting experience is not required--the author works her transformations on purchased patterns. If you're ambitious enough to make your own wedding gown, this book is absolutely essential, but even if you're hiring someone else to custom-make your gown, you'll find this an invaluable guide. And anyone pursuing a dressmaking career should have this important reference work on the shelf. --Amy Handy.
Price: $14.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]