Create Your Own Website (3rd Edition) (Create Your Own)

Book Description

6 Easy Projects in full color

Family or Personal Website, eBay Store to Sell Products, Online Storefronts, Websites to Share Images, Blogging Websites, Creating a Profile on MySpace

Get ready to see just how fun and easy it is to create your own websites!

As the popularity of the Internet and World Wide Web have risen over the past decade, virtually all businesses have established an online presence. Many individuals, too, have left their imprint on the web, creating a family website or posting vacation pictures. If you want to join the millions of people who have created websites, but fear you lack the background or expertise for such an endeavor, this book is for you!

Understand how to:

Create websites that can be as easy as using a word processor
Share your family pictures with friends and relatives
Start blogging with Blogger
Sell products and services online by creating your own web storefront
Create an eBay store
Make new friends on MySpace

6 Easy Projects

In this book you’ll see just how easy it is to create your own website. The CD included with this book contains professional website templates and a free web page editor. With the web page editor you can quickly and easily customize the templates into your very own personal websites. Better still, using the editor is as simple as using a word processor

It’s just point and click!

CD-ROM includes:

HTML templates for quickly creating your website
Mozilla Composer, a free HTML editing program

Introduction

1 Creating Your First Web Page

2 Creating a Website

3 Creating a Family/Personal Website

4 Creating an Online Storefront

5 Selling Products with an eBay Store

6 Creating a Blog with Blogger

7 Sharing Images Online with Snapfish

8 Hanging Out and Making Friends at MySpace

9 Bonus Material

Index

Customer Reviews:

Own Website/Online Business.......2007-09-19

Received both these books within 5 days of ordering -- excellent resources - thanks for the variety of selections to chose from --

Fun to Read, Accurate to the Max........2006-11-29

Reading this book allows someone to create five different styles and types of Websites by walking the reader through accessing Composer and desired templates, altering the text, color, and photos to personalize each Webpage, obtain a host provider, register a domain name, and publish each Webpage to a Web server.
* Chapter 1 introduces the basic functions of what a browser and Web page are, while showing the reader how to down load a free software program provided with the book.
* Chapter 2 describes the logistics of setting up a public location for viewing Web pages on the Internet by locating a host provider.
* Chapter 3 discuses customizing a Family/Personal Website template by using Composer like any other word processor, adding or deleting pages, and saving with a URL to the same folder located on the reader's computer.
* Chapter 4 continues with detailed items in "Creating a Hobby Website" by scaling images, changing existing hyperlinks, adding rows, discussing anchors, and the effect they have on sharing information with Website viewers.
* Chapter 5 "Creating a Website for an Organization" introduces obtaining a map from the Internet to replace the templates generic sample, offering email access to customers, and providing additional tips.
* Chapter 6 "Creating an Informational Website for Your Business" shows how to customize color within cells, add tables for creating coupons, and setting navigational hyperlinks.
* Chapter 7 "Creating an Online Storefront" deals with how to implement an e-Commerce Website by merging with "Creating Paypal Merchant Account" Website. With this tool, advanced programming skills that are typically required to create a shopping cart, a means to accept payment, and the functions of using forms for transferring users from one Website to another are eliminated. This lifts those advanced tasks off the reader and transfers them onto Paypal's Website in exchange for a small percentage of the product profit.
* The Bonus Chapter goes into more depth covering specific topics, like HTML, Understanding How the Internet Works, Domain names, and Optimizing Your Digital Pictures.

Throughout this book, the author highlights topics that have been covered in Shelly Cashman's "Discovering Computers" text book. One is how the Internet works. Scott Mitchell relates the Internet to the U.S. post office and adds a picture that gives a simple analogy for beginners. I appreciated the comparison, and could visualize the delivery process of digital information clearly (Mitchell 130).

The second item introduced in chapter 2 explained the concept of bandwidth. Mitchell shares very practical information related to space and cost that should be considered when choosing a host provider. The nominal comparisons made corresponding to bandwidth gave me a better appreciation for this concept.

The title "Create Your Own Website Using What You Already Know" very accurately describes what to expect out of the contents and functionality this book provides. The reader will be happy to know that the author's voice is very excited to share information in a reassuring way. Scott Mitchell continually keeps the reader in touch with the fact that the process he is laying out will be fun and easy to do, that the reader will not only learn the process but enjoy going through it.

I found the way the information was presented kept the progression of details simple enough for a first timer to feel very comfortable using and exploring all the items introduced.

Up in Running in Minutes.......2005-05-27

I just purchased Microsoft FrontPage 2003 and FrontPage Step by Step. There was no help in creating a website to sell items in the help section of FrontPage or in the book FrontPage Step by Step. After reading this book, I had an item up for sale on the internet within thirty minutes. Great book! No programming in HTML required. Just copy and paste.

No HTML? No HTML!.......2004-11-16

Mitchell gives us a breezy, confident approach to making a website. He emphasises that, within reason, you can do it all by yourself. With the aid of this book, naturally.

He walks us through the templates on the CD that comes with the book. The general thrust is to show how if you can read and write, well, then you can make a website. There is certainly more involved than in merely using a browser to peruse the web. But the book gives a total absence of HTML tags, until the last chapter. Instead, Mitchell lists 3 web authoring tools - Microsoft's FrontPage, Macromedia's Dreamweaver and Mozilla's Composer. These handle the grungy details.

You can regard this book as an independent validation of the claims made for the above tools. Indeed, no programming appears to be necessary for a simple website.

Along these lines, the chapter on making an online storefront is well done. The example storefront is actually quite limited. But even so, to have it running without programming is impressive.

Web Design Expert: All That You Need to Create Your Own Fantastic Websites

Average customer rating:

Excellent!
super book for the beginner...so much inspiration!!!
Web Expert...NOT!
The Best Web Design Book Ever!!!

Web Design Expert: All That You Need to Create Your Own Fantastic Websites
Nick Nettleton
Manufacturer: Friedman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1586636804

Book Description

Acquire the technical knowledge you need to become a great Web designer. All the basic building blocks of Web pages, tables, and frames are laid out, together with navigation and control. See how to make the shift from printed page to screen, and handle Web-specific issues, including colored backgrounds, wallpaper, and borders, plus the use of images and animated graphics.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent!.......2007-03-29

As a graphic designer, I throughly enjoyed the excellent ideas and suggestions in this book.

super book for the beginner...so much inspiration!!!.......2004-01-31

I don't know what the last person was complaining about but this is an excellent book!! I am a beginner at web design and not only did this book cleart up so many questions of mine, but it was bursting with so many ideas and inspiration. Any time I need to reference something or have trouble, I turn to this book now. It is simple and easy to follow and the beautiful illustrations are so awesome to look at. When it suggests the WYSIWYG format....that's because that's how all (or most) of the web programs work!!!!

Web Expert...NOT!.......2003-08-14

I never write reviews. In fact, this is my first one. But, after seeing the only review for this book, I have decided to tell people the truth about it. In reality, the book will not turn you into an expert, not even a beginner web designer. It introduces concepts of web design in a poor and almost offensive manner. Why tell your readers HTML is like a word processor when it is a Markup Language? Why suggest that you use WYSIWYG as your only resourse when WYSIWYG program create (most of the time) illegal HTML code? Suggestions are not practical and, except for the pictures, you can find better information on the most basic tutorial online. Don't be persuaded by the pretty graphics. This book treats you like a 7 years old kid and really teaches you nothing other than bad concepts.

The Best Web Design Book Ever!!!.......2003-01-08

Web Design Expert by Nick Nettleton is the Web design book that I have dreamed of for years. Most Web creation books stick mostly to the mechanics of how-to use the latest greatest software Web page development programs. This book is different. This book shows you (with many excellent screen shots,)how-to build a visually attractive Web-site that will immediately captivate the viewers attention, and how to make everything all flow together neatly. Whether you need layout, text, image, or animation advice, this book is for you. If you have ever felt your Web sites are missing something, this book will give you a multitude of ideas on how to immediately improve any site you are working on. My only complaint about this book, is that it wasn't written years ago. It would have saved me so much time, and helped me to give so much more value to all of the sites I've created. This book belongs on every professional, or even rank amateurs Website developers desk!

ONLINE DESIGN; Websites let you create your own sneaks and tees (or let more talented types do the work).(Special Section 5): An article from: Winnipeg Free Press

Average customer rating:

ONLINE DESIGN; Websites let you create your own sneaks and tees (or let more talented types do the work).(Special Section 5): An article from: Winnipeg Free Press
Gale Reference Team
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000PAAEZ6
Release Date: 2007-04-09

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Winnipeg Free Press, published by Thomson Gale on April 7, 2007. The length of the article is 593 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ONLINE DESIGN; Websites let you create your own sneaks and tees (or let more talented types do the work).(Special Section 5)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: Winnipeg Free Press (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 7, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: f7

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

A variety of quantitative concepts and models essential to understanding financial markets are introduced and explained in this broad overview of financial analytical tools designed for financial practitioners, advanced students, and researchers lacking a strong mathematical background. Coverage ranges from matrix mathematics and elementary calculus with their applications to portfolio and fixed income analysis to probability and stochastic processes with their applications to option pricing. The book is sequenced by mathematics topics, most of which are followed by relevant usage to areas such as valuation, risk management, derivatives, back-testing of financial models, and market efficiency. The book begins by motivating the need for understanding quantitative technique with a brief discussion of financial mathematics and financial literature review. Preliminary concepts including geometric expansion, elementary statistics, and basic portfolio techniques are introduced in chapters 2 and 3. Chapters 4 and 5 present matrix mathematics and differential calculus applied to yield curves, APT, state preference theory, binomal option pricing, mean-variance analysis, and other applications. Integral calculus and differential equations follow in chapter 6. The rest of the book covers applications of probability, statistics and stochastic processes as well as a sampling of topics from numerical methods used in financial analysis.

Customer Reviews:

Very productive approach in learning finance by heart.......2006-04-09

This excellent and practical book on quantitative finance has brought a new perspective in learning the subject by heart. It is pretty much differently productive way in capturing the subject by categorizing the lessons in term of relevant mathematical tools, instead of conventionally by particular financial topics.

It just prepares the reader sufficiently to meet the mathematical understanding of each particular financial materials by incorporating the related examples, very practical though, that utilizes each quantitative tool for that associated chapter.

One caveat to keep is that, the content is very concise, to the point and sufficient still, and leaves no room for overly explaination, if you need one. It will be, as the author regularly suggests, a very excellent supplement reading with your main finance text, whatever subject it is you are learning. It could also be conveniently kept as the handbook or quick refresher for practitioners, who needs to brighten up the basic concept in finance.

One last thing to add, the book is quite basic and should be fully benefited and most valuable to the learner who only requires the material of early stage in learning finance seriously or want to study it in more quantitatively oriented fashion. It would be deemed suitable, or at the equivalent level to, for the person attending college with major in business or finance up to and including MBA (Finance / Economics), especially the one who plans to go beyond the master level.

Excellent Book.......2003-02-21

One of the truly interesting books in financial analytics. I studied under Dr. Teall at Pace, NYC and he brings his amazing and lucid teaching style to the book. The chapters are well presented and the book is written in an extremely readable style. Moreover chapters 4 and 5 are really good and gave me a good understanding of the material. All in all a very good book that every MBA student should read.

Great Overview!.......2002-09-18

This book is clear, concise and comprehensive. The book provides a good overview of the various aspects of financial analytics. It served me well in reviewing matrix algebra as it applies to finance - variance-covariance analysis.

A Nice and Comprehensive Text in Finance.......2000-11-15

I found the text Financial Market Analytics useful and comprehensive. In addition, it is presented in a nice way, which allows readers to leverage their previous understandings.

Apart from the presented theories/discussions the text provides numerous computational examples in a systematic and thoughtful fashion, helping enhance those topics. Both undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from the text. Although spending most the time talking about essential matters, the book still gives room for further investigating for those numbercrunchers with computing innate knacks.

I strongly recommend the text to students and practitioners who regard finance as the professional fields, at present or in the future. I myself thank the author, Prof. John Teall for contributing such a good text.

A swiss army knife of mathematical tools for finance.......1999-11-02

It actually is a mathematical tool chest illustrated with numerous finance examples. As such it provides a finance professional with a quick review of elementary probability and statistics, linear algebra, calculus (stochastic and normal) and numerical methods. Teall's method is to explain the basic mathematical concepts and then to illustrate those concepts with a variety of financial examples.

For an applied finance professional, the book offers a solid review of various numerical methods and shows you how to apply them in a variety of settings. Incredibly, this is all done in under 250 pages. Between the explanations of the theory and the examples of the applications, finance professionals should be able to take the information in the book and apply it to their day to day lives. The book's brevity and focus on applied work are likely to make it more useful than longer more theoretical tomes.

Average customer rating:
Financial and BPM Analytics: A Bright Spot in the Western European Software Market
IDC , and Christina Steensboe
Manufacturer: IDC Research
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Research | Marketing | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
All | IDC | By Publisher | Research Reports | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B0007GBP5G
Release Date: 2005-11-22

Book Description

This IDC study provides an analysis of the financial and BPM portion of the Western European analytic applications market. The focus is on the key trends in the market based on insight from supply-side and demand-side research. The study also considers the strategies that vendors are following in order to meet future market requirements. Finally, guidance is offered on appropriate strategies for taking advantage of future market growth.

The analysis presented in this study provides valuable input to vendors competing in the Western European financial and BPM analytic applications market, as well as to end-user organizations initiating or enhancing financial and BPM projects. According to Christina Steensboe, program manager with IDC's European Software Group, "The Western European market for financial and BPM analytics will continue to grow due to the increased pressure on companies to measure and optimize financial and business performance — a pressure that has been further increased due to the various compliance issues that companies and especially finance departments face."

Route-to-market knowledge builders: how RONA is fine-tuning its financials with cutting edge tools.(Management Trends)(value chain analytics, activity-based ... modeling): An article from: CMA Management

Average customer rating:

Route-to-market knowledge builders: how RONA is fine-tuning its financials with cutting edge tools.(Management Trends)(value chain analytics, activity-based ... modeling): An article from: CMA Management
Robert Colman , and Julie Demers
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from CMA Management, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2004. The length of the article is 910 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Route-to-market knowledge builders: how RONA is fine-tuning its financials with cutting edge tools.(Management Trends)(value chain analytics, activity-based management aid in cost modeling)
Author: Robert Colman
Publication: CMA Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 77 Issue: 9 Page: 14(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

This impressive, richly illustrated field guide identifies more than 150 noxious weeds. 800 colour photos show the weeds at five critical stages and help to distinguish another 100 related species. Information on weed legislation by province and state is also listed. A first of its kind, this book is an extraordinary resource for a multitude of users, whether farmer, landscaper, weed specialist, or gardener.

Book Description

The book covers all aspects of acquisition, processing and interpretation of shallow reflection seismic data for geotechnical and environmental purposes.
Chapter 1 provides a thorough exposition of (i) the mathematical foundations of digital seismics, (ii) the physics of wave propagation in solids, (iii) the mathematical tools for the analysis of wave fields. This theoretical part is based extensively on first principles, thus the book can be used as a stand-alone reference to all aspects of shallow reflection seismics.
Chapter 2 describes the field instruments, including the physical principles underlying them and their modern implementation, and the acquisition techniques that allow to obtain the best data under the given technical and operational constraints.
Chapters 3-5 describe the processing required to maintain the resolution of seismic data without sacrificing other attributes of the data. The discussion is particularly thorough in where the required techniques go beyond the standard processing steps known from exploration seismics.
Chapters 6-10 describe the use of portable vibrators in geotechnical surveying, that was pioneered by the authors and their colleagues. The first four of these chapters, that describe the special techniques required and some of the opportunities offered by the use of these tools, are based on experience with the portable P-vibrator, while chapter 10 was added after the recent introduction of the portable S-vibrator to shallow surveying. All five chapters are accompanied by data from actual surveys.
The book closes with six case histories from different settings in Western Europe based on impact sources weight drop and explosives.

A comparison of high-resolution seismic methods for determining seabed velocities in shallow water

Average customer rating:

A comparison of high-resolution seismic methods for determining seabed velocities in shallow water
Thomas M Brocher
Manufacturer: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Seismology | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006YXMCS

Compilation of high resolution "optimum offset" shallow seismic reflection profiles from the southern Fraser River delta, British Columbia (Open file / Geological Survey of Canada)

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Compilation of high resolution "optimum offset" shallow seismic reflection profiles from the southern Fraser River delta, British Columbia (Open file / Geological Survey of Canada)
S. E Pullan
Manufacturer: Geological Survey of Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

A high-resolution seismic reflection investigation of shallow horizons at the Denver Federal Center, Lakewood, Colorado (Open-file report / Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey)

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A high-resolution seismic reflection investigation of shallow horizons at the Denver Federal Center, Lakewood, Colorado (Open-file report / Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey)
Kenneth W King
Manufacturer: U.S. Geological Survey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00070WG3W

High-resolution, shallow, seismic reflection surveys of the northwest Reelfoot rift boundary near Marston, Missouri (SuDoc I 19.16:1538P)

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High-resolution, shallow, seismic reflection surveys of the northwest Reelfoot rift boundary near Marston, Missouri (SuDoc I 19.16:1538P)
U.S. Geological Survey
Manufacturer: U.S. G.P.O. For sale by U.S. Geological Survey, Information Services
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00010LIBO

High-Resolution, Shallow, Seismic Reflection Surveys of the Northwest Reelfoot Rift Boundary Near Marston, Missouri (U.S. Geological Survey , 1538-P)

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High-Resolution, Shallow, Seismic Reflection Surveys of the Northwest Reelfoot Rift Boundary Near Marston, Missouri (U.S. Geological Survey , 1538-P)
Jack K. Odum
Manufacturer: U S Geological Survey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 9995463946

Maps and cross sections depicting the shallow seismic stratigraphy of the continental shelf and slope off Georgia from interpretation of high-resolution seismic-reflection data (Project report)

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Maps and cross sections depicting the shallow seismic stratigraphy of the continental shelf and slope off Georgia from interpretation of high-resolution seismic-reflection data (Project report)
Peter Popenoe
Manufacturer: Dept. of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection Division, Georgia Geological Survey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

Reliable and quickly accessible information concerning the physical phenomena and properties of various media is in great demand by many scientists in their everyday work. This extensive reference provides such information, presenting basic physical parameters and properties of substances employed in modern science and industry. The material is divided into the following branches: o Mechanics o Thermodynamics o Transport Phenomena o Electricity and Magnetism o Optics and Lasers o Nuclear Physics o Astronomy o Geophysics

Quantities and Units of Measurement: A Dictionary and Handbook

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Quantities and Units of Measurement: A Dictionary and Handbook
Jaromir Vaclav Drazil
Manufacturer: Mansell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0720116651

Medical screening reference manual for security force personnel at fuel cycle facilities possessing formula quantities of special nuclear materials

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Medical screening reference manual for security force personnel at fuel cycle facilities possessing formula quantities of special nuclear materials
P. A Arzino
Manufacturer: Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O. [distributor]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0160364086

Physical fitness training reference manual for security force personnel at fuel cycle facilities possessing formula quantities of special nuclear materials

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Physical fitness training reference manual for security force personnel at fuel cycle facilities possessing formula quantities of special nuclear materials
P. A Arzino
Manufacturer: Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O. [distributor]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0160364094

Average customer rating:

"'Range of motion' applies to our psyches as well as our bodies...If we shut down parts, we'll never get them back."

A charming and realistic portrayal of small-town USA

Minnesota's Miss Marple

The New Woman : A Staggerford Novel
Jon Hassler
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

The Staggerford Murders and Nancy Clancy's Nephew

Staggerford: A Novel

The Staggerford Flood

Dear James (Loyola Classics)

Green Journey

ASIN: B000FZDKYI

Book Description

Agatha McGee, now eighty-seven years old, knows she is slowing down. From the window of her new home in the Sunset Senior apartments, she can see that Staggerford has become a town with hustle and bustle that threatens to leave her behind. She's not quite resigned to a schedule of Sunset Senior's arts and crafts classes but with the deaths of two close friends, a mysterious missing shoe box, her nephew Frederick's worrisome mental state, and, most surprising, a kidnapped little girl left in her care, Agatha finds plenty of excitement..

Populated with the charming crew of eccentrics and quirky characters that keep Hassler's fans clamoring for more, The New Woman follows Agatha as she discovers that friends and family are the secrets to longevity and that the essence of life lies in the details.

Customer Reviews:

"'Range of motion' applies to our psyches as well as our bodies...If we shut down parts, we'll never get them back.".......2006-11-12

With warmth, gentle humor, irony, and repeating characters, Jon Hassler has kept readers fascinated with life in Staggerford, Minnesota, for nearly thirty years. Friendships, loyalties, gossip, and jealousies--all the raw material of smalltown community activity--come to life in the relationships among the characters, many of whom have been featured throughout the twelve Staggerford novels. The 87-year-old grande dame of Staggerford, Agatha McGee, formerly a teacher at St. Isidore's school, has finally moved out of her house along the river and into the Sunset Senior Apartments, where she finds the closeness of her neighbors to be stifling, at times.

When her diamond brooch turns up missing, Agatha looks carefully at her neighbors, trying to figure out who might have taken it. As always, Agatha's opinions reflect her strict world view--she is appalled at John Beezer's eating habits, at Big Edna's crassness, at the decline in grammatical speech, and at the general loss of civility she remembers from the old days in Staggerford, but she cannot imagine who might have taken her brooch.

A twenty-year-old magazine article about an MX missile, ready to fire, which the US government once mounted on a train and moved around the country each night, inspires Agatha and her friend Lillian to create an "MX Box," into which each resident puts his/her valuables, to be moved around the complex in the care of a different resident each night. Hassler's gentle, wry humor devolves into dark humor here when the box is "misplaced" by a forgetful resident--everyone knows where it is, but no one knows how to retrieve it, and the resulting farce is black humor at its hilarious best.

Plot is not Hassler's primary concern as he recreates the lives of Staggerford's elderly residents. His characters are believable, their dialogue is pitch-perfect, and his elderly readers (especially) will undoubtedly see themselves in the characters. Events are realistic and often poignant. Two long-time residents die. Agatha finds herself in charge of a young kidnapped child. Her visits to the local school leave her appalled at the lack of order, but her decision to set up a support group at the apartment complex meets with enormous success.

No world-shaking events occur here, but Staggerford is not a world-shaking community--just a typical Midwestern, middleclass town observing the commonplaces of everyday life. It is these commonplace observances--and celebrations of the lifestyle they represent--that make Hassler's novels so winsome, nostalgic, and beloved. n Mary Whipple

A charming and realistic portrayal of small-town USA.......2005-12-24

Jon Hassler published his first Staggerford novel in 1977. That event set the scene for the subsequent books that tell the stories of the events that touched the lives of its inhabitants. When asked in an interview about his choice of locale he said, "I've been rooted in northern Minnesota all my life; I've never moved." Clearly this is his "place" and that is where he set his latest novel, THE NEW WOMAN.

THE NEW WOMAN is the story of Agatha McGee, an octogenarian who taught sixth grade for almost 50 years in Staggerford. At 87 her health is good and her mental faculties are as sharp as they were when she was a much younger woman. She still lives in the house she grew up in, and until recently she managed very well. "She has carried around the image of Staggerford as a bucolic, serene little hamlet, and she was under the false impression that she was still acquainted with all its citizens, as she had been in her teaching days." For years she had based that view on what she was able to see from her windows in "her house on River Street."

We meet her three days after she's moved into the Sunset Senior Apartments. And as she gazes from the window of her new home she stares at the Kmart parking lot across the street. She is amazed at the number of cars coming and going. "...she realized that there were hundreds of people living in this town whom she didn't know." When her lifelong friend Lillian, also a resident of the building, pays a call, Agatha thinks, "Oh, dear, this move was certainly a mistake." She "had feared that living here would compromise her independence."

But in Hassler's imaginary Staggerford, things don't always turn out as expected, and as the story unfolds Agatha moves back and forth from the present to her past. And these journeys give the richness and texture of what otherwise could have been a novella without much punch. When one considers Hassler's words in another interview, a real connection is made between the writer and his theme and the reader and his message: "I spent seven years visiting my mother in a similar place in a small town in Minnesota," Hassler recalls. "I'd go up there once a week and we'd have our peach delight and our coffee. I got to know these people pretty well. I just felt so at home with them that I wanted to write about them. People get outspoken at that age, and I like that. I just love people talking at odds, going off in their own directions." Add to these flights of verbal disconnects the eccentricities of each member, and sparks fly.

Over the course of a few weeks Agatha slowly works her magic and gains the respect of her fellow residents, realizing that since she retired what she missed most was being taken seriously. She really is the "grand old lady" of the town, and when she starts reaching out to her former students who are now the movers and shakers of Staggerford, she realizes that she was never forgotten.

Hassler stages several scenes in which one or more of the characters experience an epiphany. Agatha touches people who felt neglected and ignored, which gains their everlasting loyalty. They come to honor her for who she is and was, and how she affected their lives.

At some points the plot seems to be on the verge of unraveling, but Hassler manages to pull the loose ends together. Without being sentimental, melodramatic or gloomy, he writes in a conversational style that is charming and real. He doesn't romanticize getting old and being alone or having to leave the comfort and security of one's home. He doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties inherent in meeting new people under conditions that one didn't necessarily choose. Yet he manages to give the reader an honest portrayal of his characters and his message.

Agatha is a strong-willed, pious woman who is as devoted to her church as she is to doing good and living a charitable life --- despite the dark days. The supporting cast knows that bad things happen. All of them have experienced different kinds of hard times. Of this Hassler has said in the past: "I'm not sure that the optimism and the success of my characters in overcoming darkness is really connected to my religion. I think it's connected to a belief I have in the ongoing quality of life. People survive and are stronger for their suffering. It's just the feeling I have about life."

Those notions are the major thread in THE NEW WOMAN. Agatha is surprised and delighted when she finds her niche as the leader of a support group that over 10 months grows so large that the meetings are held in the high school gym. At the end of a long meeting, when Agatha is exhausted, she says: "I believe 'range of motion' applies to our psyches as well as our bodies. If we shut down parts of our thinking, we'll never get them back, and so you might say these [meetings] are my psychological therapy."

Jon Hassler infuses today's literary scene with a book that reflects small-town style, USA. He clearly sees teachers as heroes, friendship as a special gift, optimism as the anecdote to the blues, and aging as an opportunity to continue to grow as an individual. We are never too old to learn --- and if someone is willing to teach, all of us benefit.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Minnesota's Miss Marple.......2005-12-16

Agatha McGee, the protagonist of THE NEW WOMAN, will remind you of Agatha Christie's Miss Marpel. Miss Marpel had a certain arrogance as does Miss McGee. Miss Marpel reveled in gossip; Miss McGee wouldn't miss the Friday afternoon "coffee" sessions at Sunset Senior Apartments.

Unlike Hassler's fabulous textured, thematic novels STAGGERFORD, GRAND OPENING, and NORTH OF HOPE, this is an episodic work. It begins when Miss McGee, Staggerford's most revered former teacher, is forced to move from her house on River Street to a senior citizen's home. Almost immediately someone steals the diamond brooch she was given upon high school graduation. She accuses retired farmer John Beezer. He's so taken with her he doesn't seem to mind. After a week, Agatha moves back into her house on River Street, but when her volunteer housekeeper and lifelong friend, Lillian Kite, dies, she realizes she must move to Sunset Senior Apartments permanently.

Agatha finds her brooch; she'd misplaced it while unpacking. She apologizes to Beezer, then sets about reforming him. He has terrible table manners, can't speak proper English etc. Surprisingly, he's grateful. Beezer is the most interesting character in the book. When one of Agatha's friends at Sunset misplaces what she thinks is a winning lottery ticket, in Lillian's coffin, Beezer helps her dig it up, in below-zero weather. In the process we learn how to dig through frozen earth. In the next episode, Beezer's son kidnaps his daughter from his slatternly wife, getting Agatha in trouble in the process. In the final episode, Agatha forms a mental-health group with unforseen consequences. Beezer's sister, coincidentally the same woman who murdered teacher Miles Pruit of STAGGERFORD fame, is one of the participants.

Compared to Hassler's other novels, this is a very short work, only 214 pages, but it has a certain Garrison Keillor hominess about it, and it's good to hear from Agatha again.

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The New Woman : A Staggerford Novel

Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ANE3IC

Product Description

In 1977, Jon Hassler introduced readers to the residents of Staggerford and sparked a decades-long love affair with the small town. With The New Woman, Hassler once again proves that hes "a writer good enough to restore your faith in fiction" (Richard Russo, The New York Times Book Review). Agatha McGee, now eighty-seven years old, knows she is slowing down. From the window of her new home in the Sunset Senior apartments, she can see that Staggerford has become a town with hustle and bustle that threatens to leave her behind. Shes not quite resigned to a schedule of Sunset Seniors arts and crafts classes but with the deaths of two close friends, a mysterious missing shoe box, her nephew Fredericks worrisome mental state, and, most surprising, a kidnapped little girl left in her care, Agatha finds plenty of excitement.. Populated with the charming crew of eccentrics and quirky characters that keep Hasslers fans clamoring for more, The New Woman follows Agatha as she discovers that friends and family are the secrets to longevity and that the essence of life lies in the details. Jon Hassler is the author of eleven novels, two short story collections, a volume of novellas, and two works of nonfiction. He is Regents Professor Emeritus at St. Johns University in Minnesota.

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