Best Selling Books by Peter Clark

This novel, "Mama''s Boy," is about a pathologically shy, pigeon-toed boy, Peter Macaulay, who everybody, including his parents, considers mentally retarded and incredibly awkward physically. He has no friends and relates only to his mother, Elizabeth, even though when drunk she abuses him verbally and often slaps him. On the eve of high school, a gifted teacher and tutor, Ellen Marie Gaffney, is brought into Peter''s life by his father, Jack, who is embarrassed by his son known at school as "The Geek." Jack hopes Miss Gaffney can prepare Peter academically for high school. The father also bribes the school principal with a $10,000 check to have Peter placed on the all-black basketball team. Two blacks, Fred "Sweetie" Davis and James "Big Daddy" Winkfield, take Peter under their wings, although other blacks bully him physically and verbally, often threatening his life. The female protagonist of the novel, 21-year-old Nora Quindt, a senior at the University of California at Berkeley, becomes Peter''s second tutor, and through her growing emotional attachment to this 16-year-old "child" becomes part of the black basketball world of Castlemont High School in Oakland, California. The overall theme of this novel revolves around black-white relations in America. The author, Peter Clark, went to Castlemont, an inner-city school that was 60 percent black in 1958-1961, and was personal friends with Fred Davis and James Winkfield.

America''s favorite writing coach and bestselling author returns with an "indispensable" guide (Diana K. Sugg, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter) to writing clearly and honestly in a world full of lies, propaganda, and misinformation. The darker and more dystopian the future appears, the more influential public writers become. But with so much content vying for our attention, and so much misinformation and propaganda polluting public discourse, how can writers break through the noise to inform an increasingly busy, stressed, and overwhelmed audience? In Tell It Like It Is, bestselling author, writing coach, and teacher Roy Peter Clark offers a succinct and practical guide to writing with clarity, honesty, and conviction. By analyzing stellar writing samples from a diverse collection of public writers, Clark highlights and explains the tools journalists, scientists, economists, fact-checkers, even storytellers use to engage, inform, and hook readers, and how best to deploy them in a variety of contexts. In doing so, he provides answers to some of the most pressing questions facing writers today: How do I make hard facts—about pandemics, wars, natural disasters, social justice—easy reading? How do I get readers to pay attention to what they need to know? How do I help contribute to a culture of writing that combats misinformation and propaganda? How do I instill hope into the hearts and minds of readers? With Clark''s trademark wit, insight, and compassion, Tell It Like It Is offers a uniquely practical and engaging guide to public writing in unprecedented times—and an urgently needed remedy for a dangerously confused world.

The craft of writing offers countless potential problems: The story is too long; the story''s too short; revising presents a huge hurdle; writer''s block is rearing its ugly head. In Help! For Writers, Roy Peter Clark presents an "owner''s manual" for writers, outlining the seven steps of the writing process, and addressing the 21 most urgent problems that writers face. In his trademark engaging and entertaining style, Clark offers ten short solutions to each problem. Out of ideas? Read posters, billboards, and graffiti. Can''t bear to edit yourself? Watch the deleted scenes feature of a DVD, and ask yourself why those scenes were left on the cutting-room floor. Help! For Writers offers 210 strategies to guide writers to success.

Early in the history of English, the words "grammar" and "glamour" meant the same thing: the power to charm. Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools, aims to put the glamour back in grammar with this fun, engaging alternative to stuffy instructionals. In this practical guide, readers will learn everything from the different parts of speech to why effective writers prefer concrete nouns and active verbs. The Glamour of Grammar gives readers all the tools they need to"live inside the language" -- to take advantage of grammar to perfect their use of English, to instill meaning, and to charm through their writing. With this indispensable book, readers will come to see just how glamorous grammar can be.

In this “great and necessary addition to the canon of Vietnam War memoirs” the author “is a thoroughly human Virgil guiding us through the hell of combat” (New York Journal of Books). Peter Clark’s year in Vietnam began in July 1966, when he was shipped out with hundreds of other young recruits as a replacement in the 1st Infantry Division. Assigned to the Alpha Company, Clark gives a visceral and vivid account of life in the platoon as he progresses from green recruit to seasoned soldier over the course of a year. Alpha One Sixteen follows Clark as he discovers how to handle the daily confusion of distinguishing combatants from civilians. The Viet Cong were a largely unseen enemy who fought a guerrilla war, setting traps and landmines everywhere. As he continues his journey, Clark gradually learns the techniques for coping with the daily horrors he encounters, the technical skills needed to fight and survive, and how to deal with the awful reality of civilian casualties. Fighting aside, it rained almost every day, and insect bites constantly plagued the soldiers as they moved through dense jungle, muddy rice paddies, and sandy roads. From the food they ate to the inventive ways they managed to shower—and the off-duty time they spent in the bars of Tokyo—every aspect of the platoon’s lives is explored in this revealing book. A Military Book Club main selection.

A special 10th anniversary edition of Roy Peter Clark''s bestselling guide to writing, featuring five bonus tools. Ten years ago, Roy Peter Clark, America''s most influential writing teacher, whittled down almost thirty years of experience in journalism, writing, and teaching into a series of fifty short essays on different aspects of writing. In the past decade, Writing Tools has become a classic guidebook for novices and experts alike and remains one of the best loved books on writing available. Organized into four sections, "Nuts and Bolts," "Special Effects," "Blueprints for Stories," and "Useful Habits," Writing Tools is infused with more than 200 examples from journalism and literature. This new edition includes five brand new, never-before-shared tools. Accessible, entertaining, inspiring, and above all, useful for every type of writer, from high school student to novelist, Writing Tools is essential reading.

America''s most influential writing teacher offers an engaging and practical guide to effective short-form writing. In How to Write Short, Roy Peter Clark turns his attention to the art of painting a thousand pictures with just a few words. Short forms of writing have always existed-from ship logs and telegrams to prayers and haikus. But in this ever-changing Internet age, short-form writing has become an essential skill. Clark covers how to write effective and powerful titles, headlines, essays, sales pitches, Tweets, letters, and even self-descriptions for online dating services. With examples from the long tradition of short-form writing in Western culture, How to Write Short guides writers to crafting brilliant prose, even in 140 characters.

From one of America''s most influential teachers, a collection of the best writing advice distilled from fifty language books -- from Aristotle to Strunk and White. With so many excellent writing guides lining bookstore shelves, it can be hard to know where to look for the best advice. Should you go with Natalie Goldberg or Anne Lamott? Maybe William Zinsser or Stephen King would be more appropriate. Then again, what about the classics -- Strunk and White, or even Aristotle himself? Thankfully, your search is over. In Murder Your Darlings, Roy Peter Clark, who has been a beloved and revered writing teacher to children and Pulitzer Prize winners alike for more than thirty years, has compiled a remarkable collection of more than 100 of the best writing tips from fifty of the best writing books of all time. With a chapter devoted to each key strategy, Clark expands and contextualizes the original author''s suggestions and offers anecdotes about how each one helped him or other writers sharpen their skills. An invaluable resource for writers of all kinds, Murder Your Darlings is an inspiring and edifying ode to the craft of writing.

This introduction to Zoroastrianism presents it as a living faith, with a coherent theology and an ethic of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. The text also contains a glossary of Zoroastrian terms.

By combining engaging readings and practical instruction, this textbook integrates journalism theory and practice. Students are guided through the craft while enhancing their critical thinking skills and overall understanding of the field of journalism.

Following a quiet period in global M&A activity, a new boom seems to be underway, but in an age where two-thirds of all merger deals can be said to fail (where deals fall short of the minimum required financial returns to the acquiring company), how can future success be guaranteed? And what can acquirers, and their shareholders and advisers, do to improve the chances of success? Masterminding the Deal looks at performance in two critical areas - merger segmentation (the identification of critical characteristics and attributes separating more successful mergers from the rest) and category-specific synergy diagnosis (the differentiation of synergy benefits - expenses, revenues, tax - to ensure maximum rewards). Through this in-depth analysis, the book provides the managers and advisers of acquiring firms with concise and actionable frameworks to improve and enhance merger performance. Masterminding the Deal will help you to identify and apply the key components of merger success.

"Tribulations of a California actor turned minister." Cf. Hanna, A. Mirror for the nation.

The study of innovation, organisational change and IT takes in broad, complex and wide-ranging perspectives that from a student′s standpoint can be confusing and frequently inaccessible. Organizational Innovations provides a clear understanding of organizational innovation for students and academics teaching in this area. The past decade has greatly transformed our understanding of the origins, evolution and transfer of organizational innovations between sectors and between nations. It selectively draws together the relevant A-Z of key frameworks and concepts from a range of perspectives in organization theory, consumption, management information systems, geography and management of technology. The book offers an accessible introduction to the new approaches and key concepts, and explains how new understanding relates to previous frameworks. The book includes a wide range of examples from a variety of different contexts, including a range of diverse countries. Equal attention is given to the requirements of analysis and practice. It will be essential to students taking courses on innovation. Final year undergraduate courses in management, organization and marketing will find Organizational Innovations of great relevance.

Since the Middle Ages Europe has been one of the most urbanized continents on the planet and Europe''s cities have firmly stamped their imprint on the continent''s economic, social, political, and cultural life. This study of European cities and towns from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day looks both at regional trends from across Europe and also at the widely differing fortunes of individual communities on the roller coaster of European urbanization. Taking a wide-angled view of the continent that embraces northern and eastern Europe as well as the city systems of the Mediterranean and western Europe, it addresses important debates ranging from the nature of urban survival in the post-Roman era to the position of the European city in a globalizing world. The book is divided into three parts, dealing with the middle ages, the early modern period, and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - with each part containing chapters on urban trends, the urban economy, social developments, cultural life and landscape, and governance. Throughout, the book addresses key questions such as the role of migration, including that of women and ethnic minorities; the functioning of competition and emulation between cities, as well as issues of inter-urban cooperation; the different ways civic leaders have sought to promote urban identity and visibility; the significance of urban autonomy in enabling cities to protect their interests against the state; and not least why European cities and towns over the period have been such pressure cookers for new ideas and creativity, whether economic, political, or cultural.

With its location as a port, Istanbul has always absorbed ideas, people and styles from north, south, east and west. Peter Clark looks at some of the representative personalities of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires and argues that these states had more in common than ideology-driven accounts may suggest. We learn about Spanish-speaking Jews, unexpected Ottoman connections with Poland, contemporary Islamist politics and the feverish support for the three major Istanbul football teams. Both Trotsky and Pope John XXIII spent important years of their lives in the city.

This collection of essays provides a timely assessment of the life and work of one of the twentieth century''s most original thinkers.

Intended for students and practitioners who have a basic education in chemical engineering or food science. Contains basic information in each area and describes some of the fundamental ideas of processing development and design. Examines the food industry structure, how it works, consumer products,

Roy Peter Clark, one of America''s most influential writing teachers, offers writing lessons we can draw from 25 great texts. Where do writers learn their best moves? They use a technique that Roy Peter Clark calls X-ray reading, a form of reading that lets you penetrate beyond the surface of a text to see how meaning is actually being made. In The Art of X-Ray Reading, Clark invites you to don your X-ray reading glasses and join him on a guided tour through some of the most exquisite and masterful literary works of all time, from The Great Gatsby to Lolita to The Bluest Eye, and many more. Along the way, he shows you how to mine these masterpieces for invaluable writing strategies that you can add to your arsenal and apply in your own writing. Once you''ve experienced X-ray reading, your writing will never be the same again.

"Conflict between Indians and land developers on the southern California coast." Cf. Hanna, A. Mirror for the nation.

With notable expansion in the clinical interaction between hematologists and obstetricians over the last decade, understanding and managing the clinical manifestations of hemato-obstetric science has become increasingly important. A new reference work in this growing field, this text is a key tool in the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions, providing the reader with a user-friendly, authoritative source of information, which incorporates best practice within internationally accepted guidelines. Clearly presented and easy to use, each chapter includes: * pathophysiology * presentation * differential diagnosis * diagnostic tests and difficulties * maternal, fetal, and potential management complications * implications for screening and future management * tables summarizing the key points in diagnosis and management. A practical, reader-friendly book, this text will be an important resource for clinical staff involved in the management of pregnancy - from trainees in obstetrics, hematology and vascular medicine, to general practitioners involved in day-to-day maternity care, as well as midwifery staff and specialists in hematology, obstetrics and vascular medicine.

Modern freemasonry was invented in London about 1717, but was only one of a surge of British associations in the early modern era which had originated before the English Revolution. By 1800, thousands of clubs and societies had swept the country. Recruiting widely from the urban affluent classes, mainly amongst men, they traditionally involved heavy drinking, feasting, singing, and gambling. They ranged from political, religious and scientific societies, artistic and literary clubs, to sporting societies, bee keeping, and birdfancying clubs, and a myriad of other associations.

OpenStep is the software development environment co-developed by Sun and Next Computers. This book provides the first introduction to OpenStep and how it is used to build business applications for Next, Sun, and Windows NT systems. As well as covering the basics, it covers WebObjects (for developing world wide web applications) and the Enterprise Objects framework for developing database applications. No serious OpenStep developer will want to be without this book.

The Cocoa frameworks are some of the most powerful for creating native OS X apps available today. However, for a first-time Mac developer, just firing up Xcode 4 and starting to browse the documentation can be a daunting and frustrating task. The Objective-C class reference documentation alone would fill thousands of printed pages, not to mention all the other tutorials and guides included with Xcode. Where do you start? Which classes are you going to need to use? How do you use Xcode and the rest of the tools? Learn Cocoa for the Mac, Second Edition, completely revised for OS X Mountain Lion and XCode 4, answers these questions and more, helping you find your way through the jungle of classes, tools, and new concepts so that you can get started on the next great OS X app today. Jack Nutting and Peter Clark are your guides through this forest; Jack and Peter have lived here for years, and will show you which boulder to push, which vine to chop, and which stream to float across in order to make it through. You will learn not only how to use the components of this rich framework, but also which of them fit together, and why. Jack Nutting’s approach, combining pragmatic problem-solving with a deep respect for the underlying design philosophies contained within Cocoa, stems from years of experience using these frameworks. Peter Clark will show you which parts of your app require you to jump in and code a solution, and which parts are best served by letting Cocoa take you where it wants you to go. The path over what looks like a mountain of components and APIs has never been more thoroughly prepared for your travels. In each chapter, you’ll build an app that explores one or more areas of the Cocoa landscape. With Jack’s and Peter''s guidance, the steep learning curve becomes a pleasurable adventure. There is still much work for the uninitiated, but by the time you’re done, you will be well onyour way to becoming a Cocoa master.