Books about Sophisticated from Amazon.com

The slow cooker can be so much more than a repository for nacho cheese dip—use it to raise the standards of your everyday dining from the mundane to the gourmet THE GOURMET SLOW COOKER brings an upscale approach to this new-old phenomenon, using fresh ingredients in imaginative recipes that you can create all during a day's work. Focusing on traditional one-pot meals from various cultures, recipes such as Apricot Chicken from India, Molé Poblano from Mexico, Neopolitan Truffle Risotto from Italy, and Boston Baked Beans from the United States are delicious meals truly fit to serve guests..
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Tricia Guild is known for her bold fabric, wallpaper designs, and an extraordinary sense of color and pattern Following the success of her books on color, she now shares her skills with patterns The book draws on historical and global patterns. Woven or printed or embroidered, patterns inspire Tricia Guild as she uncovers their origins and explores the exotic. Any pattern can be appropriate for the right room—European checks and stripes, Asian silks and damasks, the Caribbean's vibrant ethnic prints, as well as contemporary abstract and geometric patterns. The book is divided into style sections: floral, painterly, geometric, classics, silks, and tropical. The author draws on examples from her own designs to demonstrate the impact pattern has on the energy and mood of a room and how to use pattern with confidence. Included at the end are colorboards with hints and tips for designing. With stunning, original photography and a text rich in insights from the designer's own experience, this is a must-have compendium for anyone interested in contemporary interior design..
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The Secrets of Baking is a comprehensive primer that guides the cook through the world of baked goods and other desserts, from time-honored classics of the French patisserie to the inspired and fanciful creations that made Spago the famous restaurant it is today. At the same time, it advances a radically new understanding of these recipes, one that will give the baker greater flexibility and confidence in the kitchen.
Instead of grouping desserts into traditional categories (pies, cakes, cookies), Sherry Yard arranges them around crucial master recipes. Starting with these recipes -- simple, basic guidelines for making caramel, chocolate sauce, lemon curd, pound cake, and brioche, to name just a few -- Yard shows the cook how to create dozens of variations. Knowing how ingredients interact opens the door to a multitude of baking possibilities. For example, cream puff dough forms the foundation for éclairs, profiteroles, and the caramel-coated tower the French call croquembouche, but understanding how and why it behaves the way it does allows the cook to create deep-fried beignets, mascarpone-filled cannolis, or simmering-hot dumplings.
This authoritative, friendly bake-shop bible contains fascinating mini-lessons on food science, illuminating bits of baking history, and time-saving tips. Newcomers to the world of baking will feel at ease with such simple, homey desserts as Banana Bread and Mississippi Mud Pie, and elaborate show-stoppers like Chocolate Brioche Sandwich with Espresso Gelato and Blackberry-Lime-Filled Doughnuts with Blackberry Sorbet and Berries will transform amateur bakers into expert pastry chefs..
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In the now-classic novel Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice refreshed the archetypal vampire myth for a late-20th-century audience The story is ostensibly a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss, an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. At his emotional nadir, he is confronted by Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The two prey on innocents, give their "dark gift" to a young girl, and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris. But a summary of this story bypasses the central attractions of the novel. First and foremost, the method Rice chose to tell her tale--with Louis' first-person confession to a skeptical boy--transformed the vampire from a hideous predator into a highly sympathetic, seductive, and all-too-human figure. Second, by entering the experience of an immortal character, one raised with a deep Catholic faith, Rice was able to explore profound philosophical concerns--the nature of evil, the reality of death, and the limits of human perception--in ways not possible from the perspective of a more finite narrator.

While Rice has continued to investigate history, faith, and philosophy in subsequent Vampire novels (including The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, and The Vampire Armand), Interview remains a treasured masterpiece. It is that rare work that blends a childlike fascination for the supernatural with a profound vision of the human condition. --Patrick O'Kelley.
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Buy this book and you change a life. Read this book and you'll change your own.

Notes from a Friend is a concise and easy-to-understand guide to the most powerful and life-changing tools and principles that make Anthony Robbins an international leader in peak performance.

Starting in 1991, a self-published version of this book has been handed out to thousands of people in need, as part of the Anthony Robbins Foundation's Thanksgiving "Basket Brigade." The book helped so many individuals overcome the most challenging circumstances that people repeatedly asked to purchase it for themselves and for their friends. Now, for the first time, it is available to you in this special, updated edition containing new material.

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In Misery (1987), as in The Shining (1977), a writer is trapped in an evil house during a Colorado winter. Each novel bristles with claustrophobia, stinging insects, and the threat of a lethal explosion Each is about a writer faced with the dominating monster of his unpredictable muse.

Paul Sheldon, the hero of Misery, sees himself as a caged parrot who must return to Africa in order to be free. Thus, in the novel within a novel, the romance novel that his mad captor-nurse, Annie Wilkes, forces him to write, he goes to Africa--a mysterious continent that evokes for him the frightening, implacable solidity of a woman's (Annie's) body. The manuscript fragments he produces tell of a great Bee Goddess, an African queen reminiscent of H. Rider Haggard's She.

He hates her, he fears her, he wants to kill her; but all the same he needs her power. Annie Wilkes literally breathes life into him.

Misery touches on several large themes: the state of possession by an evil being, the idea that art is an act in which the artist willingly becomes captive, the tortured condition of being a writer, and the fears attendant to becoming a "brand-name" bestselling author with legions of zealous fans. And yet it's a tight, highly resonant echo chamber of a book--one of King's shortest, and best novels ever. --Fiona Webster.
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settle for less.

Nicole Williams, the author of Wildly Sophisticated, knows that the real key to success isn't saving more money... it's making more money. Earn What You're Worth shows working women how to up their earning power--by using their unique skills and abilities to build a rewarding, lucrative career.

Readers will learn to:

- Learn the difference between going into debt--and investing in their career
- Sell themselves at work--without selling their soul
- Discover their individual gifts and talents--and use them to get a raise
- Value what's most important to them--and dump bad financial habits
- Decide what they really want out of their career--and get it

Once women get over their fears of dealing with cold, hard cash, they'll have the confidence to ask for--and get--what they deserve. Crammed with useful information, uncommon advice, inspiring stories, and insider secrets to success, Earn What You're Worth will motivate women to invest in the most important stock of all...themselves..
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Toaster ovens aren't just for browning your bagel or warming up frozen pizza anymore. Lynn Alley, author of THE GOURMET SLOW COOKER, is earning a name for herself by finding unconventional and imaginative ways to prepare gourmet meals at home. In THE GOURMET TOASTER OVEN, she reveals why toaster ovens are ideal for creating simple yet sophisticated meals: they take up less space, use less energy, preheat quickly, and are cheaper than convection ovens. They also let you cook small meals more efficiently and provide additional oven space for side dishes when cooking a large meal. In this beautifully photographed book, Alley offers 50 breakfast, lunch, appetizer, dinner, and goodie recipes designed to serve two, promising incredible meals hot out of your (toaster) oven..
Price: $2.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Photography is a complex craft. Some excel at the technical side of image-making, focusing perfectly on the subject, releasing the shutter at just the right moment and making exposures with the precise amount of light. Others are artists and storytellers, capturing a fleeting moment in time which inspires a viewer to gaze upon an image and ponder its meaning. The best photographers are masters of both.

In this highly visual, informative new book, Angela Faris Belt discusses the four crucial elements of photography that are essential for successful technical and conceptual image-making:

the photographic frame and its borders
quality of focus as determined by the aperture or lens
shutter speeds and their effects in relation to time and motion
the physical media used to create the aggregate image

Step-by-step guidance including informative screen shots, traditional darkroom and Photoshop techniques, suggested exercises, and before and after images help both film and digital photographers improve their skills, learn new techniques, and better understand their craft. More than 300 stunning, full color images and portfolios featuring the work of over 40 prestigious artists provide visual inspiration as well as a gorgeous collection of artwork for photography enthusiasts.

*Learn from an expert author how to combine your creative vision with technical accuracy to produce images that are visually provoking as well as technically inspiring
*Includes over 300 stunning full color images and highlights the portfolios of 40+ prestigious artists
*Contains screenshots, before-and-after images, and how-to information to help both students and photographers practice skills and learn new techniques
*Follow the suggested exercises at the end of each chapter to develop your own portfolio of images.
Price: $32.67 [Notify me when price goes down.]