Andrew Shaffer – författare

Young, arrogant tycoon Earl Grey seduces the naïve coed Anna Steal with his overpowering good looks and staggering amounts of money, but will she be able to get past his fifty shames, including shopping at Walmart on Saturdays, bondage with handcuffs, and his love of BDSM (Bards, Dragons, Sorcery, and Magick)? Or will his dark secrets and constant smirking drive her over the edge?

Mathematicians delight in finding surprising connections between seemingly disparate areas of mathematics. Whole domains of modern mathematics have arisen from exploration of such connections--consider analytic number theory or algebraic topology. Finding Ellipses is a delight-filled romp across a three-way unexpected connection between complex analysis, linear algebra, and projective geometry.The book begins with Blaschke products, complex-analytic functions that are generalizations of disk automorphisms. In the analysis of Blaschke products, we encounter, in a quite natural way, an ellipse inside the unit disk. The story continues by introducing the reader to Poncelet's theorem--a beautiful result in projective geometry that ties together two conics and, in particular, two ellipses, one circumscribed by a polygon that is inscribed in the second. The Blaschke ellipse and the Poncelet ellipse turn out to be the same ellipse, and the connection is illuminated by considering the numerical range of a $2 \times 2$ matrix. The numerical range is a convex subset of the complex plane that contains information about the geometry of the transformation represented by a matrix. Through the numerical range of $n \times n$ matrices, we learn more about the interplay between Poncelet's theorem and Blaschke products.The story ranges widely over analysis, algebra, and geometry, and the exposition of the deep and surprising connections is lucid and compelling. Written for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students, this book would be the perfect vehicle for an invigorating and enlightening capstone exploration. The exercises and collection of extensive projects could be used as an embarkation point for a satisfying and rich research project.You are invited to read actively using the accompanying interactive website, which allows you to visualize the concepts in the book, experiment, and develop original conjectures.

For everyone nostalgic for the Obama/Biden administration, HOPE NEVER DIES re-casts the president and vice-president as amateur sleuths in a quirky mystery-adventure. He s an honest man in a city of thieves. He has no patience for guff, foolishness, or malarkey. He is United States Vice President Joe Biden. And when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues Amtrak Joe unwittingly finds himself in the role of a private investigator. To crack the case (and uncover a drug-smuggling ring hiding in plain sight), he ll team up with the only man he s ever fully trusted the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. Together they ll plumb the darkest corners of Wilmington, Delaware, where enemies lurk around every corner. And if they re not careful, the blood on the tracks may be their own. This quirky, comic mystery begins six months after the 2016 presidential election, as Obama and Biden are struggling to define their post-White House identities and question what truly remains of their legendary bromance. Published as a trade paperback original and designed to echo tough-guy thrillers (think JACK REACHER, LETHAL WEAPON, TRUE DETECTIVE), HOPE NEVER DIES is essentially the first published work of Obama/Biden fanfiction and a terrific beach read for anyone distressed by the current state of affairs in Washington, DC.