Samia is running away from the Egyptian political police with her husband Muhammad and his comrade Rafiq. The story of their escape from prison reflects their whole society.

First published in 1980, this book remains a useful guide that will help you build your own adobe house almost anywhere in the country, even in areas not usually considered "adobe country." Duane Newcomb takes you through every step of the process, from selecting a site, obtaining building permits, drawing plans, excavating, and making bricks to adding kitchen cabinets and finishing the interior. The Owner-Built Adobe House details every aspect of various types of adobe houses and includes information on plumbing, electricity, heating and cooling, fireplaces, flooring, and the framing of windows, doors, and roofs. With sixty-six detailed drawings and photographs accompanying the instructions, this book is the basic manual in the field and is invaluable to both the novice and expert homebuilder.

Few poets have so artfully confronted American life as Louis Simpson. Persona speakers struggle with everyday issues against a backdrop of larger forces, the individual’s maladjustment to a culture of materialism and brutal competition, the failure of marriage under the pressures of such a society, the failure of the American dream. Simpson wages a lover’s quarrel with the world. "Louis Simpson has perfect pitch. His poems win us first by their drama, their ways of voicing our ways . . . of making do with our lives. Then his intelligence cajoles us to the brink of a cliff of solitude and we step over into the buoyant element of true poetry."—Seamus Heaney Educated at Munro College (West Indies) and at Columbia University, Louis Simpson has taught widely, most recently at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author of seventeen books of poetry and ten works of prose. He has received fellowships from the Academy of American Poetry, the Hudson Review, the Guggenheim Foundation, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Your Map for a Brave New Real-Estate World The days of real-estate mania—when you really couldn’t go wrong with buying a home, then selling it in a few years for a lot more than you paid for it—are over. Inflated prices and the “subprime” mortgage crisis have finally burst the bubble. Now, more than ever, it’s important for current and prospective home buyers to understand just what they’re getting into when they take that plunge—and to think smarter when it comes to making the most of their biggest asset. The Wall Street Journal. Complete Home Owner’s Guidebook shows readers how to become savvy home buyers—and eventually owners—not only in this new, uncertain era but in any market: • Understand the benefits and pitfalls of owning versus renting • Make sense of the housing market—ask the important questions, factor in the unforeseen costs, and explode the big myths of home ownership • Take advantage of current opportunities if you’re a first-time home buyer • Overcome the challenges if you’re looking to trade up or cash out on your home for retirement • Make the best profit on your home in any market • Understand why your home—your number one asset—really isn’t such a great investment From the Trade Paperback edition.

Transfer California property to someone else with the easy-to-use legal forms and information in this guide Deeds for California Real Estate shows you how to choose the right kind of deed, create it, then file it with the county recorder. This plain-English book has all the forms you'll need, with step-by-step instructions for completing them quickly and accurately. Learn how to: add or remove someone's name from the title of real estate you own transfer real estate into, or out of, a revocable living trust borrow or lend money with real estate as security and more

A step-by-step guide to building a log house.

A freshly funny and heartfelt novel about one woman's secret life, the stories she tells, and the thrill and notoriety of being noticed. On the same day Bells Walker learns that her IUD has failed, her husband, Harry, is denied tenure at his Manhattan university. So Bells, Harry, their two adolescent children, and her baby bump move to New York's Hudson Valley, where Harry has landed a job at Dutchess College in the town of Pigkill. When the farm-to-table utopia Bells envisioned is anything but, she turns to the blogosphere. Under the pen name the County Dutchess, she anonymously dishes about life in Pigkill, detailing the activities of hypercompetitive parents and kombucha-drinking hipsters. Suddenly, Bells has a place to say all the things she's been secretly thinking about being a wife and mother. As Bells turns the focus of her blog on her new neighbors, her readership continues to grow, but her scandalous posts hit closer to home: she puts Harry's new job in jeopardy, derails her children's lives, and risks the one real friendship she's built. When Bells uncovers scandals right under her nose, the Dutchess goes viral, and soon everyone is asking, Who is the County Dutchess? Now Bells has to ask herself if it's worth losing the people closest to her to finally feel noticed by everyone else.

A comprehensive, upbeat guide to help you survive the moving process from start to finish, filled with fresh strategies and checklists for timing and supplies, choosing which items to toss and which to keep, determining the best place to live, saying farewell and looking forward to hello. Moving is a major life change—time consuming, expensive, often overwhelming, and sometimes scary. But it doesn’t have to be! Instead of looking at it as a burdensome chore, consider it a new adventure. Ali Wenzke and her husband moved ten times in eleven years, living in seven states across the U.S. She created her popular blog, The Art of Happy Moving, to help others build a happier life before, during, and after a move. Infused with her infectious optimistic spirit, The Art of Happy Moving builds on her blog, offering step-by-step guidance, much-needed comfort, practical information, and welcome advice on every step of the process, including: How to stage your home for prospective buyers How to choose your next neighborhood How to discard your belongings and organize your packing How to say goodbye to your friends How to make the transition easier for your kids How to decorate your new home How to build a new community And so much more. Ali shares invaluable personal anecdotes from her many moves, and packs each chapter with a wealth of information and ingenious tips (Did you know that if you have an extra-large welcome mat at the entrance of your home, it’s more likely to sell?). Ali also includes checklists for packing and staging, and agendas for the big moving day. Whether you’re a relocating professional, newly married, a family with kids and pets, or a retiree looking to downsize, The Art of Happy Moving will help you discover ways to help make your transition an easier one—and be even happier than you were before.

This guide provides an overview of the many components of the popular practice of flipping properties. Coverage spans the flipping process from start to finish—finding, buying, fixing up, and selling—and the variables needed to make all of those steps successful and profitable. Also included is coverage on negotiating, property inspections, mortgages, taxes, and working with contractors, brokers, and real estate agents. The book is perfect for responsible investors who want to flip houses the right way and steer clear of legal gray areas that get some investors into trouble.

An easy-to-understand, step-by-step guide for people who want to build their dream home in a financially responsible manner. From choosing a block of land to decorating the inside of the house, this book guides the reader through the entire building process.