Top 5 Audiobook Recommendations

The Invention of Wings: A Novel 

Written by: Sue Monk Kidd

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
Summary: From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees comes a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women. Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world. Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City 

Written by: Rajiv Chandrasekaran 
Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
Summary: The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, takes us into the Green Zone, headquarters for the American occupation in Iraq. In this bubble separated from wartime realities, the task of reconstructing Iraq is in the hands of 20-somethings chosen for their Republican Party loyalty. They pursue irrelevant neoconservative solutions and pie-in-the-sky policies instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity, angering the locals and fueling the insurgency.

Divergent, Book 1 

Written by: Veronica Roth

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
Summary: In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue - Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is - she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

   

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War 

Written by: Robert M. Gates

Length: 25 hrs and 42 mins
Summary: From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he'd long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.

Sycamore Row

Written by: John Grisham  

Length: 20 hrs and 50 mins  
Summary: Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier. The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly?

Top 10 Automotive Mechanical Myths and Misconceptions

 

1. Myth: All-wheel drive will help you dodge objects in the road and go faster around corners.
   Truth: AWD is great at helping a vehicle accelerate, but even the most advanced systems do little to help a driver avoid road hazards or grip the pavement in corners. How a vehicle responds in emergency or racetrack-type maneuvers is determined mainly by the tires, suspension, vehicle weight and weight location. The bottom line: AWD can help a vehicle climb a snowy hill or accelerate out of a turn, but it can't help it corner or make a turn any quicker.

2. Myth: A longer wheelbase — the distance between the centers of the front and rear axles — always makes a vehicle more stable.
   Truth: Wheelbase is but one of a long list of factors that determines a vehicle's stability and responsiveness, and it's not even near the top of that list. Formula 1 racecars — the most nimble, ground-based vehicles on the planet — have wheelbases longer than a Lincoln Town Car, a vehicle that is among the least nimble. More important than wheelbase are suspension design and where the vehicle's weight is located. The most nimble vehicles have their weight low to the ground and centered.

3. Myth: You must be able to see the flanks of your own car in your outside mirrors in order to have a reference.
   Truth: Your outside mirrors are improperly adjusted if you can see the sides of the car. Correctly adjusted, the three mirrors form a panoramic view much like one created with three slightly overlapping photos: The images on the inside edges of the outside mirrors slightly overlap the images on the outboard edges of the inside mirror. Properly adjusted mirrors reduce blind spots and reduce the need to look over your shoulder, which is a lot like closing your eyes while driving.

4. Myth: The "ideal" weight distribution is 50/50: The vehicle has the same weight on both the front and rear axles.
   Truth: While most sport-oriented cars do have weight distributions close to 50/50, there's much more to proper handling than just distribution. A car with 50/50 weight distribution would handle poorly if most of the weight was at the ends of the car (i.e., ahead of the front axle and behind the rear axle).
   
   Far more important than weight distribution is the location of the center of gravity and polar moment of inertia. (The center of gravity is where a giant could balance the car on one finger. Polar moment of inertia refers to whether the vehicle's weight is concentrated in one location — which makes for a responsive car — or spread throughout the vehicle.) Something else against 50/50 being the ideal weight distribution: Most open-wheel Formula-style racecars, which many people would hold up as being the best-handling type of racecars, have 60 percent or more of their weight on the rear tires.

5. Myth: Large-diameter wheels fitted with low-profile tires improve handling.
   Truth: Tall wheels with short sidewall tires are more about show than go. The original purpose of large-diameter wheels was to make room for larger brakes. Stylists and motorists liked the look of big wheels with short-sidewall tires and engineers took the opportunity to fit even bigger brakes. Also, low-profile tires tend to provide increased steering response, giving many the illusion of good handling. However, traction is determined largely by the composition of the tread rubber and, to a lesser extent, tire width. Pierre DuPasquier, former head of Michelin's race-tire program, said that if F1 lifted its current mandate of 13-inch diameter wheels, the size would grow to about 18 or 19 inches, "but certainly not 20 or above."

6. Myth: All-season tires offer more traction on wet roads.
   Truth: A summer tire has more grip, both wet and dry, than an otherwise equivalent all-season tire. "All season" means the tire trades wet and dry grip to gain mobility in snow and below-freezing temperatures. If you live where it never or rarely snows, there's no reason to have an all-season tire.

7. Myth: Engine oil must be changed every 3,000 miles.
   Truth: Many years ago this myth held some truth, but current improvements in oil change things. Depending on your driving habits, modern engine oil will effectively lubricate your engine for 10,000 or more miles. Stretching beyond the 3,000-mile interval is also environmentally sound. Several automakers are installing systems that determine exactly when your oil needs changing. If your vehicle lacks such a system, check your owner's manual for the recommended change interval. More frequent oil changes are called for if most of your drives are less than 15 minutes or you drive less than 10,000 miles in a year or in dusty conditions.

8. Myth: Downshifting a manual transmission car is done to slow down.
   Truth: The purpose of downshifting is to be in the proper gear to accelerate out of the next corner. Brakes are much more efficient at slowing a vehicle, and they cost less to replace. Downshifting produces some deceleration force, but it's hard on the transmission, clutch and other components. Also, an improper downshift may cause a rear-drive car to spin out. (An exception: fully loaded 18-wheelers.)

9. Myth: The purpose of antilock braking systems (ABS) is to shorten stopping distance.
   Truth: ABS was designed to give the driver the ability to steer around danger and not spin out while braking as hard as possible. It's true that most drivers can shorten braking distance with ABS because no skill and little training are needed to get the most from the system: Just stomp on the pedal and steer around the obstacle. A shorter stopping distance is a by-product, not the main purpose of ABS.

10. Myth: A tire may explode if you exceed the "max pressure" number on the sidewall.
    Truth: The "max pressure" number found on the sidewall of a tire refers to its load-carrying capability, not its burst pressure. The burst pressure of the tire is far beyond the "max pressure" number. When the tire is inflated to its max pressure, it will carry the "max load" weight that appears nearby on the sidewall. Especially for ultralow-profile tires on sport-utility vehicles, the tire may need to be inflated to its max pressure to safely carry the weight of the vehicle and its contents. Always check your owner's manual for the recommended tire pressure for your vehicle.

11. Myth: Maximum possible cornering power is one times the force of gravity working sideways against the car and is called 1.0g.
    Truth: While it's true that most performance cars top out right around 1.0g, it is possible to exceed this number in a road-going car fitted with the right tires. Production-based racecars exceed 1.5g even in slow turns and winged racecars can exceed 4.0g or more. An Indycar has so much aerodynamic downforce at 200 mph that it could comfortably stick to an upside-down section of racetrack.

12. Myth: You're a safe driver. It's the other guy who's the problem.
    Truth: OK, so this isn't a mechanical myth, but it is the most pervasive myth of all. Studies show that the overwhelming majority of drivers classify themselves as "safe drivers" or rate themselves in the top 50 percent for their driving skill. It's those other, crazy drivers out there who cause problems, right? But the truth is, those other drivers probably don't classify you as an above-average driver, either. In reality, most of us fall into the below-average category at least some of the time.

(Source: http://bit.ly/1avtuhZ)

10 Cars That Refuse to Die

Cars have become more reliable over the years, and yet there are always some models that outlast their peers. Pinpointing exactly how many miles a given model racked up collectively or individually is virtually impossible, but we've identified 10 cars we see as having exceptional, sometimes surprising, endurance. http://bit.ly/1hyDre0

From the desk of Bob Smith...

With the new year upon us, I resolve to lose weight, I resolve to re-arrange my sock drawer, I resolve to be a kinder, gentler person, I resolve to do something I've never done before. How many times do we make promises with full intentions of keeping them and then things happen and our memories fail. Even so, it feels good at the time doesn't it? Well, with the new year here, let's try again. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Mark Twain had some very good advice when he once said “20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds. Explore---Dream---Discover.”

For Advantage Toyota, 2014 will bring about a boat load of changes which will mean smooth sailing for all of its customers. The year-long process of remodeling is finished and now it's time to brag a little bit. The new look is a sparkling example of the commitment Advantage Toyota is making to previous car buyers and to those who are in the market for a new vehicle. A new showroom, waiting area, service department and a new playroom for the kids are just a few of the amenities that surround the Barboursville location. Resolve now to come in and take a peek. Make the year 2014 something very special for you and your entire family. HAPPY NEW YEAR!