Boston writer and humorist Kris Frieswick gives sound advice on how to live the good life in Beantown, for peanuts. Thrifty readers will discover where to have all kinds of fun, experience the city’s culture, and fortify themselves with grub and brew, all for a pittance. Also includes tips on how to break into Boston’s social network, a great source of free parties and events!

Thrifty readers will discover where to have all kinds of fun, experience the city's culture, and fortify themselves with grub and brew, all for a pittance.

A Boston humorist gives sound advice on how to live the good life in Beantown, for peanuts.

Explore the backrooms and seedy hangouts throughout the real story of Boston’s gangster past in this true crime history guide. The capture of notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger closed an infamous chapter in Boston history, yet the city’s criminal underworld has a long and bloody rap sheet that stretches back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Journalists Ford and Schorow reveal the underbelly of Boston through profiles of ruthless gangsters like Charles “King” Solomon, the Angiulo brothers, Joseph “The Animal” Barboza, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi and many more who carried out deadly hits and lucrative heists.

The Guide to Huge Cash Awards, Lifetime Payments & Maximum Money. By Jim "The Hammer" Shapiro. Learn how to wring Maximum Money Awards out of: Smug Insurance Companies; Rich, Greedy Corporations; Evil Landlords; and Crooked Stock Brokers.

A humorous and moving coming-of-age story that brings a unique, not-quite-outsider’s perspective to China’s shift from ancient empire to modern superpower Raised in a strict Chinese-American household in the suburbs, Val Wang dutifully got good grades, took piano lessons, and performed in a Chinese dance troupe—until she shaved her head and became a leftist, the stuff of many teenage rebellions. But Val’s true mutiny was when she moved to China, the land her parents had fled before the Communist takeover in 1949. Val arrives in Beijing in 1998 expecting to find freedom but instead lives in the old city with her traditional relatives, who wake her at dawn with the sound of a state-run television program playing next to her cot, make a running joke of how much she eats, and monitor her every move. But outside, she soon discovers a city rebelling against its roots just as she is, struggling too to find a new, modern identity. Rickshaws make way for taxicabs, skyscrapers replace hutong courtyard houses, and Beijing prepares to make its debut on the world stage with the 2008 Olympics. And in the gritty outskirts of the city where she moves, a thriving avant-garde subculture is making art out of the chaos. Val plunges into the city’s dizzying culture and nightlife and begins shooting a documentary, about a Peking Opera family who is witnessing the death of their traditional art. Brilliantly observed and winningly told, Beijing Bastard is a compelling story of a young woman finding her place in the world and of China, as its ancient past gives way to a dazzling but uncertain future.

Everyone loves to eat. And everyone wants to be healthy. But how do we navigate between today’s extremes—between those offering us gastronomic gluttony and the siren song of convenient junk food and those preaching salvation only through deprivation and boring food choices? Dr. Michael Fenster draws upon his expertise and training as an interventional cardiologist and as a chef to forge a path through this wilderness to offer readers a middle path that endorses both fine dining and health eating. As a chef and foodie, and someone who has battled the bulge himself, he knows that if the food doesn’t taste great, no one will sustain any program for a lifetime. Here, Dr. Mike introduces the idea of becoming a Grassroots Gourmet. Being a Grassroots Gourmet is all about using fresh, wholesome ingredients, from local sources when you can get them. It is about the judicious use of salt, sugars, and fat to create wonderfully appealing and tasty, restaurant-worthy dishes. You do not need to be a trained chef; a few simple techniques, described here, go along way. As a physician, chef, and martial arts expert, Fenster combines knowledge from all three fields to present a cooking and dining program that recognizes our desire to eat great food without gaining weight and without sacrificing our health along the way. Revealing the latest data on previously forbidden foods like red meat and foie gras, Dr. Mike describes why these can be delicious AND healthy choices. He guides the reader step by step through a philosophy of eating and living that is sustainable and enjoyable once the commitment is made, and offers original, kitchen-tested recipes, and information about various food choices. Recipes include: Oven Roasted Mushroom Stuffed Quail with Blueberry Chimichuri Chicken Yakitori Saffron Risotto with Mushrooms, Peas, and Pearl Onions French Omelet with Truffle Butter and Brie Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Porcini Mushroom and Artichoke Heart Ragu Grilled Pork Loin Margarita Blood Orange Curry Sauce

“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University