American Family Resource Center

Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools

List Price: $28.00 Price: $15.98 You Save: $12.02 (43%)

IN a reporting tour de force, award-winning journalist Steven Brill takes an uncompromising look at the adults who are fighting over America’s failure to educate its children—and points the way to reversing that failure.

Brill’s vivid narrative—filled with unexpected twists and turns—takes us from the Oval Office, where President Obama signs off on an unprecedented plan that will infuriate the teachers’ unions because it offers billions to states that win an education reform “contest”; to boisterous assemblies, where parents join the fight over their children’s schools; to a Fifth Avenue apartment, where billionaires plan a secret fund to promote school reform; to a Colorado high school, where students who seemed destined to fail are instead propelled to college; to state capitols across the country, where school reformers hoping to win Obama’s “contest” push bills that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.

It’s the story of an unlikely army—fed-up public school parents, Ivy League idealists, hedge-funders, civil rights activists, conservative Republicans, insurgent Democrats—squaring off against unions that the reformers claim are protecting a system that works for the adults but victimizes the children.

Class Warfare is filled with extraordinary people taking extraordinary paths: a young woman who goes into teaching almost by accident, then becomes so talented and driven that fighting burnout becomes her biggest challenge; an antitrust lawyer who almost brought down Bill Gates’s Microsoft and now forms a partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates to overhaul New York’s schools; a naïve Princeton student who launches an army of school reformers with her senior thesis; a California teachers’ union lobbyist who becomes the mayor of Los Angeles and then the union’s prime antagonist; a stubborn young teacher who, as a child growing up on Park Avenue, had been assumed to be learning disabled but ends up co-founding the nation’s most successful charter schools; and an anguished national union leader who walks a tightrope between compromising enough to save her union and giving in so much that her members will throw her out.

Brill not only takes us inside their roller-coaster battles, he also concludes with a surprising prescription for what it will take from both sides to put the American dream back in America’s schools. Read more...

The Core Program: Fifteen Minutes a Day That Can Change Your Life

List Price: $17.00 Price: $11.56 You Save: $5.44 (32%)

Features: Condition: New ISBN13: 9780553380842 Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Introducing the fitness program designed by a physical therapist exclusively for women — proven to increase strength, tone muscles and reduce aches and pains in just 15 minutes a day!

Few women realize that most popular fitness regimens are designed for men. Yet women have their own unique fitness needs — and using a program developed with men’s bodies in mind is not only ineffective, but can actually result in injury.

Renowned physical therapist Peggy Brill has devoted her life to developing an exercise program specifically for women. Based on her understanding of movement dynamics and body structure, these exercises focus on developing and balancing the muscles in the anatomical center of the body — the core — which includes the back, hip and abdominal muscles.

Peggy’s remarkable head-to-toe workout targets the “hot spot” areas — neck, back, pelvis, hips, knees — that cause problems for even the healthiest women. In just 15 minutes a day, The Core Program’s easy-to-learn exercises will help women:

• Strengthen their bodies to achieve balance and alignment
• Eliminate everyday aches and pains
• Prevent bone loss
• Protect against osteoarthritis
• Improve sleep, digestion and circulation
• Enjoy better sex
• Feel energized all day long
• Overcome the effects of aging

With inspirational case histories, detailed photographs illustrating each exercise and self-tests for rating balance, flexibility and strength, The Core Program is an owner’s manual for the naturally strong, healthy body every woman should have.


From the Hardcover edition. Read more...

Exercise books often make grandiose claims of improving everything from your sex life to your cholesterol level. At best, these claims are harmless; at worst, annoying. Every so often, however, a program is developed with attention to specific issues, backed up with strong medical knowledge, and presented in a plain and helpful manner. Peggy Brill is a physical therapist who has created just such an exercise program. The Core Program offers numerous ways to improve deep muscle strength in women, which can lead to improved posture, strength, and energy levels.

Brill's program is designed specifically for women and built around easy exercises for the torso area, starting deep with the pelvic floor and working its way out from there. As it is a no-impact program that takes just a few minutes each day, it's easy for every woman to incorporate into her schedule, and equally appropriate for teens or senior citizens. She emphasizes that "the Core Program is supposed to relieve stress, not cause it," so a skipped routine or two is not the end of the world. The exercises are similar to those taught in physical therapy visits. Muscle groups from head to toe are gently warmed up before moving into yoga-inspired stretches and lift-and-hold exercises. Each one is shown with photographs and detailed written instructions, and all are easy to follow, even for a novice. With a few simple tests, you can easily determine the exercise level appropriate for you out of the three different levels shown. Amid all the instruction are plenty of stories from women with chronic fatigue or injuries who have successfully improved their stamina and strength. Whether this is the only fitness program in your life or an addition to your regular workout, you'll find this book informative and educational, with achievable goals and straightforward routines. --Jill Lightner Read more...

A Dog Named Slugger (Platinum Nonfiction)

List Price: $33.95 Price: $33.95

The true life story of a dog who changed everything for one woman. For the first time in my life, I didn't need to pretend, I didn't need to be tough: I only needed to be honest. "I have cerebral palsy. I walk funny and my balance is bad. I fall a lot. My hands shake, too. That means I'm not so good at carrying things. And if I drop stuff, sometimes it's hard to just bend down and get it." I waited anxiously for the interviewer's response. She smiled. "It sounds like a service dog could be great for you." So began Leigh Brill's journey toward independence and confidence, all thanks to a trained companion dog named Slugger. The struggling college student and the Labrador with a "a coat like sunshine" and a tail that never stopped wagging became an instant team. Together, they transformed a challenge into a triumph. Together, they inspired and educated everyone they met. Now, Leigh honors her friend with the story of their life, together. Read more...

Cholesterol Down: Ten Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in Four Weeks--Without Prescription Drugs

List Price: $14.00 Price: $11.20 You Save: $2.80 (20%)

Features: Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold! Condition: New ISBN13: 9780307339119

Take Control of Your Cholesterol— Without Drugs

If you are one of the nearly 100 million Americans struggling with high cholesterol, then Dr. Janet Brill offers you a revolutionary new plan for taking control of your health—without the risks of statin drugs. With Dr. Brill’s breakthrough Cholesterol Down Plan, you simply add nine “miracle foods” to your regular diet and thirty minutes of walking to your daily routine. That’s all. This straightforward and easy-to-follow program can lower your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol by as much as 47 percent in just four weeks.

Cholesterol Down explains Dr. Brill’s ten-point plan as well as the science behind it. You’ll learn how each miracle food affects LDL cholesterol and how the foods work together for maximum effect, as well as:

• How eating whole grains helps reduce LDL cholesterol in your bloodstream
• Why antioxidants keep plaque from building up in your arteries
• How certain steps change the structure of LDL cholesterol particles (and why it’s best for them to be large and fluffy)
• Why walking just thirty minutes a day lowers “bad” cholesterol and cuts dangerous belly fat

With everything you need to stay focused on the plan, including a daily checklist, a six-month chart for racking LDL cholesterol changes, tools for assessing your risk level for cardiovascular disease, sample weekly menus, and even heart-healthy recipes, Cholesterol Down is the safe and effective alternative or complement to statin drugs. Read more...