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This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency received two Booker Judges’ Special Recommendations and was voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.

Penzler Pick, July 2001: Working in a mystery tradition that will cause genre aficionados to think of such classic sleuths as Melville Davisson Post's Uncle Abner or Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee, Alexander McCall Smith creates an African detective, Precious Ramotswe, who's their full-fledged heir.

It's the detective as folk hero, solving crimes through an innate, self-possessed wisdom that, combined with an understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the heart of a puzzle. If Miss Marple were fat and jolly and lived in Botswana--and decided to go against any conventional notion of what an unmarried woman should do, spending the money she got from selling her late father's cattle to set up a Ladies' Detective Agency--then you have an idea of how Precious sets herself up as her country's first female detective. Once the clients start showing up on her doorstep, Precious enjoys a pleasingly successful series of cases.

But the edge of the Kalahari is not St. Mary Mead, and the sign Precious orders, painted in brilliant colors, is anything but discreet. Pointing in the direction of the small building she had purchased to house her new business, it reads "THE NO. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY. FOR ALL CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS AND ENQUIRIES. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED FOR ALL PARTIES. UNDER PERSONAL MANAGEMENT."

The solutions she comes up with, whether in the case of the clinic doctor with two quite different personalities (depending on the day of the week), or the man who had joined a Christian sect and seemingly vanished, or the kidnapped boy whose bones may or may not be those in a witch doctor's magic kit, are all sensible, logical, and satisfying. Smith's gently ironic tone is full of good humor towards his lively, intelligent heroine and towards her fellow Africans, who live their lives with dignity and with cautious acceptance of the confusions to which the world submits them. Precious Ramotswe is a remarkable creation, and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency well deserves the praise it received from London's Times Literary Supplement. I look forward with great eagerness to the upcoming books featuring the memorable Miss Ramotswe, Tears of the Giraffe and Morality for Beautiful Girls, soon to be available in the U.S. --Otto Penzler

In an era that witnessed the rise of celebrity outlaws like Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger was the most famous and flamboyant of them all. Reports on the man and his misdeeds--spiced with accounts of his swashbuckling bravado and cool daring--provided an America worn down by the Great Depression with a salacious mix of sex and violence that proved irresistible.
In Dillinger's Wild Ride, Elliott J. Gorn provides a riveting account of the year between 1933 and 1934, when the Dillinger gang pulled over a dozen bank jobs and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. A dozen men--police, FBI agents, gangsters, and civilians--lost their lives in the rampage, and American newspapers breathlessly followed every shooting and jail-break. As Dillinger's wild year unfolded, the tale grew larger and larger in newspapers and newsreels, and even today, Dillinger is the subject of pulp literature, serious poetry and fiction, and film. What is the power of his story? Why has it lingered so long? Who was John Dillinger? Gorn illuminates the significance of Dillinger's tremendous fame and the endurance of his legacy, arguing that he represented an American fascination with primitive freedom against social convention. Dillinger's story has much to tell us about our enduring fascination with outlaws, crime and violence, about the complexity of our transition from rural to urban life, and about the transformation of America during the Great Depression.

In an era that witnessed the rise of celebrity outlaws like Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger was the most famous and flamboyant of them all. Reports on the man and his misdeeds--spiced with accounts of his swashbuckling bravado and cool daring--provided an America worn down by the Great Depression with a story of sex and violence that proved irresistible.

In Dillinger's Wild Ride, Elliott J. Gorn provides a riveting account of the year between 1933 and 1934, when the Dillinger gang pulled over a dozen bank jobs, and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. A dozen men--police, FBI agents, gangsters, and civilians--lost their lives in the rampage, and American newspapers breathlessly followed every shooting and jail-break. As Dillinger's wild year unfolded, the tale grew larger and larger in newspapers and newsreels. Even today, Dillinger is the subject of pulp literature, poetry, fiction, and films, including a movie starring Johnny Depp.

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"When everybody zigs, zag," says Marty Neumeier in this fresh view of brand strategy. ZAG follows the ultra-clear "whiteboard overview" style of the author’s first book, THE BRAND GAP, but drills deeper into the question of how brands can harness the power of differentiation. The author argues that in an extremely cluttered marketplace, traditional differentiation is no longer enough—today companies need “radical differentiation” to create lasting value for their shareholders and customers. In an entertaining 3-hour read you’ll learn:

- why me-too brands are doomed to fail
- how to "read" customer feedback on new products and messages
- the 17 steps for designing “difference” into your brand
- how to turn your brand’s “onliness” into a “trueline” to drive synergy
- the secrets of naming products, services, and companies
- the four deadly dangers faced by brand portfolios
- how to “stretch” your brand without breaking it
- how to succeed at all three stages of the competition cycle

From the back cover:
In an age of me-too products and instant communications, keeping up with the competition is no longer a winning strategy. Today you have to out-position, out-maneuver, and out-design the competition. The new rule? When everybody zigs, zag. In his first book, THE BRAND GAP, Neumeier showed companies how to bridge the distance between business strategy and design. In ZAG, he illustrates the number-one strategy of high-performance brands—radical differentiation.

ZAG is an AIGA Design Press book, published under Peachpit's New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA. For a quick peek inside ZAG, go to www.zagbook.com.

With millions of websites on the Internet, search engine optimization - or SEO - is the difference between ranking one in Google and remaining invisible. This book breaks the latest SEO techniques into 50 tips that can help any website - from a small company to the largest corporation - rank number one in the search engines and boost your visitor traffic and sales.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The school is appropriately named Webster Elementary and they have a "really cool" WSH, or Word Super Hero. His name is Vocabu-Larry! The Purple Diamond Ducks is an educational detective series which helps youth acquire a deeper understanding for the English language in a fun way. In Case Number One Vocabu-Larry finds that words have multiple meanings. His sidekick is just a fuzzy wristband named Marvelous who also happens to be bi-lingual. He is a six inch albino monkey who carries a book bag everywhere he goes and has read the entire dictionary! What will Vocabu-Larry, his friends, and those neon-green boots solve this time?

The school is appropriately named Webster Elementary and they have a "really cool" WSH, or Word Super Hero. His name is Vocabu-Larry! The Purple Diamond Ducks is an educational detective series which helps youth acquire a deeper understanding for the English language in a fun way. In Case Number One Vocabu-Larry finds that words have multiple meanings. His sidekick is just a fuzzy wristband named Marvelous who also happens to be bi-lingual. He is a six inch albino monkey who carries a book bag everywhere he goes and has read the entire dictionary! What will Vocabu-Larry, his friends, and those neon-green boots solve this time?

Smith St. John is a likable (until he opens his mouth) young man, searching for a decent self-identity in Kennedy Weible’s novel, Number One Loser. With a mother of dubious devotion and a love-hate relationship with a girl that’s leaning heavily towards hate, Smith struggles to establish a non-caustic relationship with some aspect of the world. Smith works in the marketing department of a publishing house and tries to sell short stories on the side, eking out a living until a slight cocaine overdose at work costs him his job and destroys his fledgling relationship with Ana, an older woman who was beginning to feel like home. As a love interest, Ana is replaced by Beatrice-Bruce, a young editor who is able to get Smith work writing trashy celebrity biographies. It’s not until a former co-worker commits suicide without leaving a note, and arranges for Smith to discover his body, that Smith finds his odd calling, writing suicide letters for people on a freelance basis. Callously profiting from the destruction of sad lives, or aiding in the catharsis of those left behind? That’s the quandary Smith’s new career puts to him and the world when he’s invited onto a morning talk show circuit to discuss his work.

Number One Loser is a pitch black comedy about American life, marketing, values, and the nature of maturity. While Smith struggles with how to lead an acceptable life, he becomes a 15 minute celebrity, develops a cocaine addiction, and finds himself trying to navigate middle-America. Smith’s observations and wit are merciless, especially when directed at himself. Number One Loser is social commentary, black comedy, and the chronicle of a lonely young man who wishes he knew what he was doing.

Smith St. John is a likable (until he opens his mouth) young man, searching for a decent self-identity in Kennedy Weible’s novel, Number One Loser. With a mother of dubious devotion and a love-hate relationship with a girl that’s leaning heavily towards hate, Smith struggles to establish a non-caustic relationship with some aspect of the world. Smith works in the marketing department of a publishing house and tries to sell short stories on the side, eking out a living until a slight cocaine overdose at work costs him his job and destroys his fledgling relationship with Ana, an older woman who was beginning to feel like home. As a love interest, Ana is replaced by Beatrice-Bruce, a young editor who is able to get Smith work writing trashy celebrity biographies. It’s not until a former co-worker commits suicide without leaving a note, and arranges for Smith to discover his body, that Smith finds his odd calling, writing suicide letters for people on a freelance basis. Callously profiting from the destruction of sad lives, or aiding in the catharsis of those left behind? That’s the quandary Smith’s new career puts to him and the world when he’s invited onto a morning talk show circuit to discuss his work.

Number One Loser is a pitch black comedy about American life, marketing, values, and the nature of maturity. While Smith struggles with how to lead an acceptable life, he becomes a 15 minute celebrity, develops a cocaine addiction, and finds himself trying to navigate middle-America. Smith’s observations and wit are merciless, especially when directed at himself. Number One Loser is social commentary, black comedy, and the chronicle of a lonely young man who wishes he knew what he was doing.