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  How the Hell Did This Happen? -...

  P.J. O'Rourke

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  The iconic humorist offers his take on the stranger-than-fiction (and stranger-than-fact) 2016 presidential election and its equally unbelievable aftermath.   The 2016 election cycle was so absurd that celebrated political satirist, journalist, and die-hard Republican P. J. O’Rourke endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. As P. J. put it, “America is experiencing the most severe outbreak of mass psychosis since the Salem witch trials of 1692. So why not put Hillary on the dunking stool?”   In How the Hell Did This Happen?, P. J. brings his critical eye and inimitable voice to some seriously risky business. Starting in June 2015, he asks, “Who are these jacklegs, high-binders, wire-pullers, mountebanks, swellheads, buncombe spigots, four-flushers and animated spittoons offering themselves as worthy of America’s highest office?” and surveys the full cast of presidential candidates including everyone you’ve already forgotten and everyone you wish you could forget.   P. J. offers a brief history of how our insane process for picking who will run for president evolved, from the very first nominating convention (thanks, Anti-Masonic Party) through the reforms of the Progressive era (because there’s nothing that can’t be worsened by reform) to the present. He takes us through the debates and key primaries and analyzes everything from the campaign platforms (or lack thereof) to presidential style (“Trump’s appearance—indeed, Trump’s existence—is a little guy’s idea of living large. A private plane! A swell joint in Florida! Gold-plated toilet handles!”). And he rises from the depths of despair to come up with a better way to choose a president. Following his come-to-Satan moment with Hillary and the Beginning of End Times in November, P. J. reckons with a new age: “America is experiencing a change in the nature of leadership. We’re getting rid of our leaders. And we’re starting at the top.”   “Where are we going? Where have we been? P. J. O’Rourke casts his gimlet gaze on the circus of clowns-people foisted on us by the 2016 election—and demands to know How the Hell Did This Happen?” —Vanity Fair

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  The Complete Photo Guide to Cake...

  Autumn Carpenter

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  With hundreds of techniques and over 1,000 photos, this is “an all-inclusive look at how to make a stunning cake from start to finish . . . exceptional” (Library Journal). 
   
  This clearly organized resource is like having a cake decorating workshop in a book. Discover useful tips for embellishing with buttercream, royal icing, fondant, gum paste, and more. The easy-to-follow instructions and 1,000+ photos include techniques for piping, string work, creating and shaping a variety of flowers, molding chocolate, and adding patterns with stencils. Cake pro Autumn Carpenter shows how to create striking florals, borders, and accents with silicone molds, hand modeling, pastry tips, cookie cutters, and more. You can also take your skills up a notch and wrap a cake in chocolate, make decorations with isomalt, and use gum paste for quilling. Try new techniques with confidence, and get inspired by a gallery of colorful ideas for holiday cakes, birthday cakes, children’s cakes, wedding cakes, and special occasion cakes. This detailed book includes: 
   
  ·Cake preparation and baking basics 
   
  ·Recipes for fillings and icings 
   
  ·Ideas and instruction for decorating cupcakes 
   
  ·Piping techniques for making lifelike and fantasy flowers, eye-catching borders, distinctive lettering, and more 
   
  ·Instructions for creating appealing accents like beading, ropes, and lace using fondant and gum paste 
   
  ·Key decorating tools and how to use them 
   
  ·Techniques for incorporating airbrushing, edible frosting sheets, and chocolate molding for one-of-a-kind designs, and more

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  A Kind of Homecoming

  E. R. Braithwaite

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  From the bestselling author of To Sir, With Love comes the moving personal memoir of a westernized black man who journeys to Africa in search of his roots and discovers a vibrant and extraordinary society on the verge of monumental changeIn the early 1960s acclaimed British Guianese author E. R. Braithwaite embarked on a pilgrimage to the West African countries of Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and across Sierra Leone just as the emerging nation was preparing to declare its independence. What Braithwaite discovered was a world vastly different from the staid, firmly established British society in which he had spent most of his life. In a place as foreign to him as the dark side of the moon, he was overcome by colorful sights, sounds, and smells that vividly reawakened lost memories from his childhood. Entering the intimate circles of the local intelligentsia, Braithwaite was able to view these newly evolving African societies from the inside, struck by their mixtures of passion and naïveté, their political obsessions and technological indifference. The author discovered a world that fascinated, excited, and, in some cases, deeply troubled him—and in the process he discovered himself.E. R. Braithwaite’s A Kind of Homecoming is at once an enthralling personal journey and an eye-opening chronicle of a time of great change on the African continent that helps us to better understand the West Africa of today.

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  Wool Pets - Making 20 Figures...

  Laura Sharp

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  Make cute and cuddly creatures from a handful of fluff and a barbed needle! “Describes and illustrates each step . . . Highly recommended.” —Library Journal 
   
  This book about sculptural needle felting explains how you can create 3-D animals and figures using the felting needle to sculpt wool. It shows the techniques and describes how the felting needle works with wool fiber to create felt, while explaining the differences between this art form and other forms of felting.  
   
  Learn how to hold the needle, what sort of materials to use, and why. You’ll find twenty complete projects including various birds, bugs, four-legged animals, and people—each one unique and irresistible! Wool Pets also suggests ways to display your felted creations as mobiles and ornaments, or arranged in shadow boxes.

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  L N E R 4-6-0 Locomotives -...

  David Maidment

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  L N E R 4-6-0 Tender Mixed Traffic Locomotives covers the design, construction, operation and performance of all 4-6-0 locomotives that ran on the London & North Eastern Railway between 1923 and 1947 and the LNER designed engines that ran on BR’s Eastern Region until the end of BR steam in 1968. This includes the former Great Central 4-6-0s of classes B1 – B9 (the B1 and B2 later reclassified B18 & B19); the North Eastern Railway B13 – B16s; the Great Eastern B12s; and the LNER B17s, the Thompson B1s and rebuilds (B2 and B3/3).  The book has over 60,000 words and 350 black & white and color photographs, many previously unpublished from the archives of the Manchester Locomotive Society at Stockport. It will be of particular interest to railway modelers and enthusiasts of locomotive running and performance as well as those seeking more general locomotive history. The book is designed and written in the same style as David Maidment’s previous Locomotive Portfolio books on engines of the Great Western and Southern Railways, and includes where possible his own experiences, seeing and traveling behind engines of these classes in the 1950s and early 1960s, especially the B1s, B12s and B17 ‘Sandringhams’.

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  Travels into Bokhara - A Voyage...

  Alexander Burnes

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  At the age of only twenty six, Alexander Burnes proved himself to be one of the most effective intelligence agents of his time. Making two dangerous journeys beyond the frontiers of the Indian Empire, he reported back via the East India Company to Downing Street on the geography and politics of the kingdoms that lay to the northwest as far as fabled Bokhara. He travelled simply, disguised as a local, but with his rapier-like mind, an ear for languages and an infectious charm and curiosity, he had a formidable arsenal of talents at his command. In 1835, the publication of Burnes's Travels into Bokhara made him a celebrity in London, where he lectured to packed halls and was even given an audience by the King. This brand new edition brings the heady sense of excitement, risk and zeal bursting from the pages.

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