New in paperback, The Typography Workbookprovides an at-a-glance reference book for designers on all aspects of type.

The book is part of Rockport'Äôs popular Workbook series of practical and inspirational workbooks that cover all the fundamental areas of the graphic design business. This book presents an abundance of information on type'Äîthe cornerstone of graphic design'Äîsuccinctly and to the point, so that designers can get the information they need quickly and easily.

Whereas many other books on type are either very technical or showcase oriented, this book offers ideas and inspiration through hundreds of real-life projects showing successful, well-crafted usage of type. The book also offers a variety of other content, including choosing fonts, sizes, and colors; incorporating text and illustrations; avoiding common mistakes in text usage; and teaching rules by which to live (and work) by.

"To study the lingo of the con is inevitably to study the con itself," writes Luc Sante in his foreword to this classic work of urban anthropology, originally published in 1940. "A term such as cackle-bladderor shut-outcannot be properly described without giving a full account of its use, and such an account cannot be illustrated by stick figures." Thus The Big Conis filled with richly detailed anecdotes populated by characters with names like Devil's Island Eddie, the Honey Grove Kid, the Hashhouse Kid, and Limehouse Chappie ("distinguished British con man working both sides of the Atlantic and the steamship lines between, all with equal ease"). David Maurer spent years talking to con men about their profession, learning about each and every step of the three big cons (the wire, the rag, and the payoff). From putting the mark up to putting in the fix, Maurer guides readers through the fleecing—pretty soon you'll be forgetting the book's scientific value and reading for sheer entertainment. (A cackle-bladder, by the way, is a fake murder used to scare the victim off after his money's been taken. As for the shut-out, well, that you'll have to learn on your own.) —Ron Hogan

There are very few classics in the field of pop culture—the academic stuff tends to be too dry and the fun stuff is too quickly dated. This book by Luc Sante is the exception—in fluid prose liberally sprinkled with astute metaphors, Sante tells the story of New York's Lower East Side, circa 1840-1920. The personal histories of criminals, prostitutes, losers, and swindlers bring to life the social and statistical history that the author has meticulously researched. Not limiting himself to the usual sources, Sante finds his history in old copies of Police Gazetteas well as actual police, fire, and social service records. Above all, what really makes this book work is the writing, which brings to life a culture of the streets that continues to form a silent influence on our contemporary popular culture.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

Here is the continuation of Marjane Satrapi's fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran.

As funny and poignant as its predecessor, Persepolis 2 is another clear-eyed and searing condemnation of the human cost of fundamentalism. In its depiction of the struggles of growing up—here compounded by Marjane’s status as an outsider both abroad and at home—it is raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.

What does Sun's Jini technology mean for the future of distributed computing? To find out, take a look at The Jini Specification, a guide written for IS managers and Java developers alike.

The book starts with what Jini is and how it works. (In short, Jini allows Java clients to invoke remote services easily through Java.) The authors present a chat message server and explain the Jini architecture where clients look up and "lease" remote services.

The heart of this book is its coverage of classes in the Jini specification. First there's an overview of Jini illustrated with a printer service. Then it's a close look at how clients "discover" Jini services, either through multicast or unicast protocols. (The authors also present useful built-in utility classes here.)

Next comes material on storing entries for Jini services (used for identifying them across the network) and the classes used to "lease" remote services. An interesting section on remote events contrasts them with local JavaBean events. Then it's on to Jini transactions, including the two-phase commit process used to manage work done remotely.

Later the book turns to the new JavaSpaces classes, which permit sharing data between Java processes in order to facilitate parallelism. An intriguing appendix reprints a white paper in which the Sun team outlines its philosophy of distributed computing. (They argue that local and remote objects need to be handled differently: object location transparency is a myth.)

With a mix of technology briefing and nuts-and-bolts detail, The Jini Specificationdelivers a valuable perspective on the latest advance in Java distributed computing from Sun. —Richard Dragan

This laugh-out-loud giude will introduce readers to a different side of the Peach State. With this guide in hand, they can tour the cities and swamplands, and then hit the road to pick their own Kiwis, chase a greased pig during Climax Swine Time, or welcome the buzzards back to their winter roost.

Back in print! Panel Discussions is the combined knowledge of more than a dozen of the comic book industry's top storytellers, covering all aspects of the design of comics, from pacing, story flow, and word balloon placement, to using color to convey emotion, spotting blacks, and how gutters between panels affect the story! The struggle to tell a comics story visually requires more than a cool-looking image; it takes years of experience and a thorough understanding of the art form's visual vocabulary. Learn from the best, as Will Eisner, Scott Hampton, Mike Wieringo, Walter Simonson, Mike Mignola, Mark Schultz, David Mazzucchelli, Dick Giordano, Brian Stelfreeze, Mike Carlin, Chris Moeller, Mark Chiarello and others share hard-learned lessons about the design of comics, complete with hundreds of illustrated examples. When should you tilt or overlap a panel? How can sound effects enhance the story, and when do they distract from it? What are the best ways to divide up the page to convey motion, time, action, or quiet? If you're serious about creating effective, innovative comics, or just enjoying them from the creator's perspective, this in-depth guide is must-reading!

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions — both big and small — have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.

As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

In The Paradox of Choice,Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice — the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish — becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice — from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs — has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.

By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.