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Water Crystal Healing: Music & Images to Restore Your Well-Being
by Masaru EmotoFor centuries, people have turned to classical music for its calming and relaxing effects. Internationally acclaimed water researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto has discovered why certain music has healing benefits: Music with the appropriate rhythm, tempo, tone, and melody can correct distorted frequencies within our cells, assisting our health and healing.Here, you can enjoy Dr. Emoto's captivating water-crystal photographs and text in this unique collection. The possible benefits you may experience include decreased joint and back pain; improved function of the nervous, circulatory, lymphatic, and immune systems; and the release of negative emotions such as anxiety, self-pity, and depression. The combination of images and words in Water Crystal Healing concentrates consciousness as never before, providing a unique experience for healing.
Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep On Buying No Matter What
by Lee EisenbergIn this smart, engaging book, Lee Eisenberg, best-selling author of The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think about the Rest of Your Life, leads us on a provocative and entertaining tour of America's love/hate affair with shopping, a pursuit that, even in hard times, remains a true national pastime. Why do we shop and buy the way we do? In a work that will explain much about the American character, Eisenberg chronicles the dynamics of selling and buying from almost every angle. Neither a cheerleader for consumption nor an anti-consumerist scold, he explores with boundless curiosity the vast machinery aimed at inducing us to purchase everything from hair mousse to a little black dress. He leads us, with understated humor, into the broad universe of marketing, retailing, advertising, and consumer and scientific research--an arsenal of powerful forces that combine to form what he calls "The Sell Side." Through the rest of the book, Eisenberg leads us through the "Buy Side" -- a journey directly into our own hearts and minds, asking among other questions: What are we really looking for when we buy? Why are we alternately excited, guilt-ridden, satisfied, disappointed, and recklessly impulsive? What are our biases, need for status, impulses to self-express, that lead us individually to buy what we buy? Are you a classic buyer (your head wants to do the right thing), or a romantic buyer (your heart just wants to have fun)? How do men and women differ in their attitudes towards shopping, and does the old cliche -- "Women shop, men buy" -- apply any longer? Of special interest are the author's findings on the subject of What Makes a Good Buy? We all purchase things that we sooner or later regret, but what are the guidelines for making purchases that we'll never regret? What, for instance, defines the perfect gift? Brimming with wit and surprise, Shoptimism will be delightful and instructive reading for anyone with a credit card and a healthy curiosity about American culture, through good times and bad. For here, in one vivid journey, is a memorable, panoramic portrait of our everyday self-delusions, desires, and dreams.
I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl: A Memoir
by Kelle GroomAt the age of fifteen, Kelle Groom found that alcohol allowed her to connect with people and explore intimacy in ways she’d never been able to experience before. She began drinking before class, often blacked out at bars, and fell into destructive relationships. At nineteen, already an out-of-control alcoholic, she was pregnant. Accepting the heartbreaking fact that she was incapable of taking care of her son herself, she gave him up for adoption to her aunt and uncle. They named him Tommy and took him home with them to Massachusetts. When he was nine months old, the boy was diagnosed with leukemia—but Kelle’s parents, wanting the best for her, kept her mostly in the dark about his health. When Tommy died he was only fourteen months old. Having lost him irretrievably, Kelle went into an accelerating downward spiral of self-destruction. She emerged from this free fall only when her desire to stop drinking connected her with those who helped her to get sober.In stirring, hypnotic prose, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl explores the most painful aspects of Kelle’s addiction and loss with unflinching honesty and bold determination. Urgent and vital, exquisite and raw, her story is as much about maternal love as it is about survival, as much about acceptance as it is about forgiveness. Kelle’s longing for her son remains twenty-five years after his death. It is an ache intensified, as she lost him twice—first to adoption and then to cancer. In this inspiring portrait of redemption, Kelle charts the journey that led her to accept her addiction and grief and to learn how to live in the world. Through her family’s history and the story of her son’s cancer, Kelle traces with clarity and breathtaking grace the forces that shape a life, a death, and a literary voice.
Ernie Pyles War: America's Eyewitness to World War II
by James TobinWhen a machine-gun bullet ended the life of war correspondent Ernie Pyle in the final days of World War II, Americans mourned him in the same breath as they mourned Franklin Roosevelt. To millions, the loss of this American folk hero seemed nearly as great as the loss of the wartime president.If the hidden horrors and valor of combat persist at all in the public mind, it is because of those writers who watched it and recorded it in the faith that war is too important to be confined to the private memories of the warriors. Above all these writers, Ernie Pyle towered as a giant. Through his words and his compassion, Americans everywhere gleaned their understanding of what they came to call “The Good War.”Pyle walked a troubled path to fame. Though insecure and anxious, he created a carefree and kindly public image in his popular prewar column—all the while struggling with inner demons and a tortured marriage. War, in fact, offered Pyle an escape hatch from his own personal hell.It also offered him a subject precisely suited to his talent—a shrewd understanding of human nature, an unmatched eye for detail, a profound capacity to identify with the suffering soldiers whom he adopted as his own, and a plain yet poetic style reminiscent of Mark Twain and Will Rogers. These he brought to bear on the Battle of Britain and all the great American campaigns of the war—North Africa, Sicily, Italy, D-Day and Normandy, the liberation of Paris, and finally Okinawa, where he felt compelled to go because of his enormous public stature despite premonitions of death.In this immensely engrossing biography, affectionate yet critical, journalist and historian James Tobin does an Ernie Pyle job on Ernie Pyle, evoking perfectly the life and labors of this strange, frail, bald little man whose love/hate relationship to war mirrors our own. Based on dozens of interviews and copious research in little-known archives, Ernie Pyle's War is a self-effacing tour de force. To read it is to know Ernie Pyle, and most of all, to know his war.
Becoming One: Emotionally, Physically, Spiritually
by Joe BeamOpen the pages of this book and learn how to experience exciting intensity in your sexual relationship, deeper levels of closeness on an emotional level, and the most fulfilling intimacy of all—spiritual ONEness.With God's help you can make your marriage all it should be and all you crave it to be—no matter what it's like now. Men want action. Women want feeling. From day one they're set up to misunderstand each other. Sometimes you must tell your mate the things you've done wrong, and sometimes you are much better off not to tell. The secret of a strong and intimate marriage is knowing what to share and what to leave buried. If you're in conflict over sexual desires—one wants to do something other doesn't—there is a logical and spiritual way to satisfy you both. As you grow closer to God, you will grow closer to each other.
Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics
by Richard HofferIn the tradition of Seabiscuit and The Summer of ’49, a gripping sports narrative that brilliantly tells the amazing individual stories of the unforgettable athletes who gathered in Mexico City in a year of dramatic upheaval.The 1968 Mexico City Olympics reflected the spirit of their revolutionary times. Richard Hoffer’s Something in the Air captures the turbulence and offbeat heroism of that historic Olympiad, which was as rich in inspiring moments as it was drenched in political and racial tensions. Although the basketball star Lew Alcindor decided to boycott, heavyweight boxer George Foreman not only competed, but waved miniature American flags over his fallen opponents. The sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos became as famous for their raised-fist gestures of protest as their speed on the track. No one was prepared for Bob Beamon’s long jump, which broke the world’s record by a staggering twenty-two inches. And then there was Dick Fosbury, the goofball high jumper whose backwards, upside down approach to the bar (the "Fosbury Flop") baffled his coaches while breaking records. Though Fosbury was his own man, he was apolitical and easygoing. He didn’t defy authority; he defied gravity. Witty, insightful, and filled with human drama, Something in the Air mixes Shakespearean complexity with Hollywood sentimentality, sociopolitical significance, and the exhilarating spectacle of youthful, physical prowess. It is a powerful, unforgettable tale that will resonate with sports fans and readers of social history alike.
Vengeance (Rogue Warrior #12)
by Richard Marcinko Jim DeFeliceFormer SEAL Team Six leader and American hero Richard Marcinko is back in action with a thriller ripped from tomorrow's headlines. Mixing fact with fiction, Marcinko returns to his authentic, no-holds-barred style in the latest explosive installment of his New York Times bestselling series, Rogue WarriorR®: Vengeance. Armed with irreverent wit and a fully loaded submachine gun, Marcinko's fictional alter ego takes no prisoners as he and his Red Cell II team tackle fat-cat American bureaucrats as well as terrorists. Interspersing action with his classic combination of wisecracks and earthy humor, Marcinko crams a chemical explosion, a high-speed helicopter chase, a train hijacking, and a headless corpse into the first few pages. When it becomes clear that terrorists are gunning for Demo Dick as well as the country's most precious symbols and institutions, things become very personal. Forget the Rogue Warrior's usual terms of endearment -- this time he's out for blood. Launched on an all-out international hunt, Demo Dick discovers a plot targeting the country's largest shipping port for liquefied petroleum gas...but that's just a prelude for Independence Day. Of all the thriller writers out there today, only one has truly walked the walk and talked the talk. Marcinko infuses his new book with stories and details that could come only from the inside -- which makes them all the more alarming. Reserve the edge of your seat for this one....
Welcome to Grimwood: Five Freakishly Funny Fables
by Nadia ShireenA special World Book Day adventure in the wildly funny new series from award-winning Nadia Shireen.Perfect for readers age 7 to 107, fans of Dog Man, Roald Dahl, Mr Gum, Loki and David Walliams, and anyone who loves to laugh. Welcome to Grimwood! Join the residents of the woods where anything can happen, as they tell stories around the campfire. You&’ll hear weird and wonderful tales from Titus the stag, mayor of Grimwood, Nancy the fox with attitude, Willow the excitable rabbit, Frank the no-nonsense owl, and Ingrid the movie-star duck. Expect the unexpected, and be warned: you may laugh your head off . . .For another freakishly funny tale with the same cast of cracking animal characters, check out Grimwood, the first book in Nadia Shireen's bestselling, outrageously comical, fully illustrated series for humans (both young and old at heart).Praise for Grimwood:&‘Funny, anarchic, original and gloriously silly.&’ ― Richard Osman&‘Ted and Nancy are my favourite funny foxes EVER.&’ ― Liz Pichon, author of Tom Gates&‘I CACKLED ALOUD on practically every page. Comic gold, tinged with such tenderness.&’― Kiran Millwood Hargrave'Gloriously anarchic, properly funny and highly illustrated with dynamic black-and-white art, this is a quirky delight for children – and their parents, too.' ― The Bookseller'Dark, original and laugh-out-loud funny' ― The Times'This book made my face hurt! Relentlessly funny.' ― Rob Biddulph, author of Peanut Jones'Like Watership Down, but funny. You&’ll laugh hysterically on every page.' ― Caitlin Moran'Fantastic.' ― Lauren Laverne'Pure genius!' ― Louie Stowell, author of Loki'Made us laugh out loud.' ― Jim Smith, author of Barry Loser'You&’re in for a treat!' ― Selom Sunu, illustrator of Look Both Ways'Utterly HILARIOUS' ― Sophy Henn, author-illustrator of Pizazz'Fizzes with mad energy. Brilliantly addictive. ― Phil Earle, author of When the Sky Falls
I Want My Mummy! (Ms. Frogbottom's Field Trips #1)
by Nancy KrulikMagic School Bus meets The Magic Tree House in this first installment of a new school-based chapter book series by bestselling author Nancy Krulik. When their teacher takes them to Egypt, will this class be able to break a mummy&’s curse?Learning is an adventure in Ms. Frogbottom&’s class, because she&’s got a magic map—one that takes her students all over the world to battle with mythical monsters no one believes are real. All Ms. Frogbottom has to do is take out the map, tap a country, and— SHAZAAM!—off they go to a place somewhere far, far away.When Ms. Frogbottom whisks the class away to Egypt, they not only come face to face with a mummy, but have to solve the riddle of his ancient curse!Bestselling and beloved author Nancy Krulik ingeniously approaches geography in a new way, as the kids learn about the places they visit while fighting, fleeing, or in some cases rescuing monsters.
The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
by Andrew LycettThough Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's name is recognized the world over, for decades the man himself has been overshadowed by his better understood creation, Sherlock Holmes, who has become one of literature's most enduring characters. Based on thousands of previously unavailable documents, Andrew Lycett, author of the critically acclaimed biography Dylan Thomas, offers the first definitive biography of the baffling Conan Doyle, finally making sense of a long-standing mystery: how the scientifically minded creator of the world's most rational detective himself succumbed to an avid belief in spiritualism, including communication with the dead. Conan Doyle was a man of many contradictions. Always romantic, energetic, idealistic and upstanding, he could also be selfish and fool-hardy. Lycett assembles the many threads of Conan Doyle's life, including the lasting impact of his domineering mother and his wayward, alcoholic father; his affair with a younger woman while his wife lay dying; and his nearly fanatical pursuit of scientific data to prove and explain various supernatural phenomena. Lycett reveals the evolution of Conan Doyle's nature and ideas against the backdrop of his intense personal life, wider society and the intellectual ferment of his age. In response to the dramatic scientific and social transformations at the turn of the century, he rejected traditional religious faith in favor of psychics and séances -- and in this way he embodied all of his late-Victorian, early-Edwardian era's ambivalence about the advance of science and the decline of religion. The first biographer to gain access to Conan Doyle's newly released personal archive -- which includes correspondence, diaries, original manuscripts and more -- Lycett combines assiduous research with penetrating insight to offer the most comprehensive, lucid and sympathetic portrait yet of Conan Doyle's personal journey from student to doctor, from world-famous author to ardent spiritualist.
Corporate Culture and Performance
by John P. Kotter James L. HeskettGoing far beyond previous empirical work, John Kotter and James Heskett provide the first comprehensive critical analysis of how the "culture" of a corporation powerfully influences its economic performance, for better or for worse. Through painstaking research at such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI, Nissan, and First Chicago, as well as a quantitative study of the relationship between culture and performance in more than 200 companies, the authors describe how shared values and unwritten rules can profoundly enhance economic success or, conversely, lead to failure to adapt to changing markets and environments.With penetrating insight, Kotter and Heskett trace the roots of both healthy and unhealthy cultures, demonstrating how easily the latter emerge, especially in firms which have experienced much past success. Challenging the widely held belief that "strong" corporate cultures create excellent business performance, Kotter and Heskett show that while many shared values and institutionalized practices can promote good performances in some instances, those cultures can also be characterized by arrogance, inward focus, and bureaucracy -- features that undermine an organization's ability to adapt to change. They also show that even "contextually or strategically appropriate" cultures -- ones that fit a firm's strategy and business context -- will not promote excellent performance over long periods of time unless they facilitate the adoption of strategies and practices that continuously respond to changing markets and new competitive environments.Fundamental to the process of reversing unhealthy cultures and making them more adaptive, the authors assert, is effective leadership. At the heart of this groundbreaking book, Kotter and Heskett describe how executives in ten corporations established new visions, aligned and motivated their managers to provide leadership to serve their customers, employees, and stockholders, and thus created more externally focused and responsive cultures.
Where a Man Stands: Two Different Worlds, an Impossible Situation, and the Unexpected Friendship that Changed Everything
by Carter Paysinger Steven FentonWhen Beverly Hills High School welcomed a skinny boy from the other side of the tracks, no one knew just how life-changing the decision would be, not just for Carter Paysinger but for all of Beverly Hills.Carter grew up hearing his parents say, “Don’t just strive to be good. Always strive to be great.” He dreamed of finding greatness in playing professional baseball or becoming a black Donald Trump, but fate had different plans and, ultimately, he found his calling as a teacher and coach at the school that once embraced him, becoming a rock for the innumerable kids who came seeking an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on. One such kid, a scrappy Jewish boy from a prominent family, would change the course of Carter’s life. His name was Steven Fenton.Twenty years later, as Beverly Hills High fell into disarray—with principals hired and fired and families fleeing the school—as well as his own life coming apart, Carter ran into Steven Fenton again. Together, they found renewed passion and hope to fight for their school and test the limits of what community means. But when Steven convinced Carter to throw his hat into the ring as principal, the progressive Beverly Hills suddenly thought that its winningest and most beloved coach didn’t fit the profile for the Beverly Hills image. It was the beginning of a long road, but Carter could hear his father saying, “Don’t listen to those voices. Do what you have to do.” Filled with hope, triumph, and the struggles that come to define us, Where a Man Stands is a beautiful fish-out-of-water story about the families formed in unlikely places and how, in the end, where you stand, and with whom, and for what, matters as much as anything.
The Thirteenth Knight: The Thirteenth Knight; A Ghost In The Castle; Den Of Wolves; The Dream Portal (The Kingdom of Wrenly #13)
by Jordan QuinnIn the thirteenth fantastical book from The Kingdom of Wrenly series, Prince Lucas and Clara learn about the legend of the Thirteenth Knight.The elite band of knights known as the Spires are searching for a new hero to join their ranks. With only twelve knights on this team, the Spires open a competition to fulfill a mysterious prophecy. The winner of the Spires&’ competition must show bravery, valor, wisdom, and heart. But finding the Thirteenth Knight might prove to be the Spires&’ greatest challenge ever.With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, The Kingdom of Wrenly chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.
Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six
by Jessica Buchanan Erik Landemalm Anthony FlaccoA New York Times bestseller!In 2006, twenty-seven-year-old Jessica Buchanan stepped off a plane in Nairobi, Kenya, with a teaching degree and long-held dreams of helping to educate African children. By 2009, she had met and married a native Swede named Erik Landemalm, who worked to coordinate humanitarian aid with authorities in Africa. Together the two moved from Nairobi to Somalia, and with hopes of starting a family, their future couldn’t have been brighter. . . .But on October 25, 2011, Jessica and a colleague were kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom by a band of Somali pirates. For the next three months, Jessica was terrorized by more than two dozen gangsters, held outdoors in filthy conditions, and kept on a starvation diet while her health steadily deteriorated. Negotiations for ransom dragged on, and as the ordeal stretched into its third month, the captors grew increasingly impatient. Every terrifying moment Jessica Buchanan spent suffering in captivity was matched by that of her adoring husband working behind the scenes to deal with her captors. After ninety-three days of fruitless negotiations, and with Jessica’s medical state becoming a life-or-death issue, President Barack Obama ordered Navy SEAL Team Six to attempt a rescue operation. On January 25, 2012, just before the president delivered his State of the Union speech, the team of twenty-four SEALs, under the cover of darkness, attacked the heavily armed hostiles. They killed all nine with no harm to the hostages, who were quickly airlifted out on a military rescue helicopter.In riveting detail, this book chronicles Jessica and Erik’s mutual journey during those torturous months. Together they relate the events prior to the kidnapping, the drama of Jessica’s fight to stay alive, and Erik’s efforts to bolster and support the hunt for her while he acted as liaison between their two families, the FBI, professional hostage negotiators, and the United States government. Both a testament to two people’s courage and a nail-biting look at a life-or-death struggle, this is a harrowing and deeply personal story about their triumph over impossible odds.
A Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen
by James G. MarchBuilding on lecture notes from his acclaimed course at Stanford University, James March provides a brilliant introduction to decision making, a central human activity fundamental to individual, group, organizational, and societal life. March draws on research from all the disciplines of social and behavioral science to show decision making in its broadest context. By emphasizing how decisions are actually made -- as opposed to how they should be made -- he enables those involved in the process to understand it both as observers and as participants.March sheds new light on the decision-making process by delineating four deep issues that persistently divide students of decision making: Are decisions based on rational choices involving preferences and expected consequences, or on rules that are appropriate to the identity of the decision maker and the situation? Is decision making a consistent, clear process or one characterized by ambiguity and inconsistency? Is decision making significant primarily for its outcomes, or for the individual and social meanings it creates and sustains? And finally, are the outcomes of decision processes attributable solely to the actions of individuals, or to the combined influence of interacting individuals, organizations, and societies? March's observations on how intelligence is -- or is not -- achieved through decision making, and possibilities for enhancing decision intelligence, are also provided.March explains key concepts of vital importance to students of decision making and decision makers, such as limited rationality, history-dependent rules, and ambiguity, and weaves these ideas into a full depiction of decision making.He includes a discussion of the modern aspects of several classic issues underlying these concepts, such as the relation between reason and ignorance, intentionality and fate, and meaning and interpretation.This valuable textbook by one of the seminal figures in the history of organizational decision making will be required reading for a new generation of scholars, managers, and other decision makers.
Zack and the Turkey Attack!
by Phyllis Reynolds NaylorA boy must outsmart a tormenting turkey and solve the mystery surrounding some missing jewelry in this feel-good middle grade novel from the Newbery Award–winning author of the Shiloh series.Zack has a problem. A turkey problem. A TOM turkey to be exact. Every weekend Zack goes to his grandparents&’ farm with his father. As soon as he and his dad pull up in the truck, that ol&’ Tom turkey&’s right there, waiting, ready to peck, peck, peck at Zack&’s legs. Now, Zack isn&’t usually a scaredy-cat but this is different. The bird is flat out mean, and has clearly got it out for Zack. His best friend Matthew thinks he&’s exaggerating, so one weekend Zack brings him along and sure enough the turkey is laying in wait…this time for them both! The boys realize they need something to turn the tables, so they decide to build—in Rube Goldberg style—a giant LOUD contraption to scare the turkey away for good.What the boys don&’t count on is the seemingly know-it-all neighbor Josie&’s news that there&’s a mysterious robber prowling around the neighborhood. Bracelets, necklaces, and coins have gone missing, and the odd thing is that the robber leaves V-shaped footprints…
Amy on Park Patrol: Liz And The Sand Castle Contest; Marion Takes Charge; Amy Is A Little Bit Chicken; Ellie The Flower Girl; Liz's Night At The Museum; Marion And The Secret Letter; Amy On Park Patrol; Ellie Steps Up To The Plate; Liz And The Nosy Neighbor; Etc (The Critter Club #17)
by Callie BarkleyAmy must come up with a plan to save a park—and all the animals living there—in the seventeenth book of the Critter Club series.When Amy learns that part of a nearby park may be destroyed and replaced by a shopping center, she’s devastated. Amy has spent her whole life visiting and playing in that park, and she’s always loved going on nature walks there. She can’t stand the idea that the park—and all the animals in it—would disappear! Can Amy come up with a plan to save the park?With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, The Critter Club chapter books are perfect for beginning readers!
King's Courage (Blast to the Past #4)
by Stacia Deutsch Rhody CohonThe Blast to the Past gang gets the chance to impact civil rights when they meet Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and give him their vote of confidence in this fourth book in the Blast to the Past series.It’s another exciting Monday for Abigail, Zack, Jacob, and Bo—they are going to jump back to the past to meet Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! The kids need to convince Dr. King not to get discouraged and to lead one of his famous voting rights marches. And they’ve got to do it with the twins’ baby brother, Gabe, in tow!This mission will be more challenging—and more surprising—than any that they’ve faced so far. Luckily, they’ll get some help from two very special people...
No Limits: The Will to Succeed
by Michael Phelps Alan AbrahamsonFresh from his triumphant and extraordinary achievement at the Olympic Games in Beijing, Michael Phelps—up from working-class, born-in-the-USA roots—shows us the secrets to his remarkable success—from training to execution.For years the world has followed Michael Phelps’s progress from teen sensation in Sydney to bona fide phenom in Athens. Now he’s a living Olympic legend in Beijing with a peerless record of gold medals. In No Limits, Michael Phelps—the greatest competitor since Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods—will share the secrets to his remarkable success. Behind his tally of Olympic gold medals lies a consistent approach to competition, a determination to win, mental preparation, and a straightforward passion for his sport. One of his mottos is “Performance is Reality,” and it typifies his attitude about swimming.No Limits goes behind the scenes to explore the hard work, sacrifice, and dedication that catapulted Phelps into the international spotlight. Phelps shares remarkable anecdotes about family, his coach, his passion for the sport, and the wisdom that he has gained from unexpected challenges and obstacles. Highlighting memorable races and valuable lessons from throughout his career, Phelps offers candid insight into the mind and experiences of a world champion. Phelps’s success is imbued with the perspective of overcoming obstacles and doing whatever it takes to realize a dream. As his coach, Bob Bowman, says, Phelps has made a habit out of things other people aren’t willing to do. No Limits will show readers just how he does that, and will inspire anyone to follow their passion straight to the finish line.
Credit and Blame at Work: How Better Assessment Can Improve Individual, Team and Organizational Success
by Ben Dattner Darren DahlPreviously published as The Blame Game, this acclaimed guide by a leading workplace expert offers essential advice about how to succeed at work by avoiding the pitfalls of pervasive credit-grabbing and finger-pointing.Credit and Blame at Work, praised by bestselling management expert Robert Sutton as “a modern management classic; one of the most well-crafted business books I have ever read,” psychologist and workplace consultant Ben Dattner reveals that at the root of the worst problems at work is the skewed allocation of credit and blame. It’s human nature to resort to blaming others, as well as to take more credit for successes than we should. Many managers also foster a “blame or be blamed” culture that can turn a workplace into a smoldering battlefield and upend your career. Individuals are scapegoated, teams fall apart, projects get derailed, and people become disengaged because fear and resentment take hold. But Dattner shows that we can learn to understand the dynamics of this bad behavior so that we can inoculate ourselves against it.In lively prose, Dattner tells a host of true stories from individuals and teams he’s worked with, identifying the eleven personality types who are especially prone to credit and blame problems and introducing simple methods for dealing with each of them. The rich insights and powerful practical advice Dattner offers allow readers to master the vital skills necessary for rising above the temptations of the blame game, defusing the tensions, and achieving greater success.
Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir
by Mary-Ann Tirone SmithIn Girls of Tender Age, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith fully articulates with great humor and tenderness the wild jubilance of an extended French-Italian family struggling to survive in a post-World War II housing project in Hartford, Connecticut. Smith seamlessly combines a memoir whose intimacy matches that of Angela's Ashes with the tale of a community plagued by a malevolent predator that holds the emotional and cultural resonance of The Lovely Bones.Smith's Hartford neighborhood is small-town America, where everyone’s door is unlocked and the school, church, library, drugstore, 5 & 10, grocery, and tavern are all within walking distance. Her family is peopled with memorable characters—her possibly psychic mother who's always on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her adoring father who makes sure she has something to eat in the morning beyond her usual gulp of Hershey’s syrup, her grandfather who teaches her to bash in the heads of the eels they catch on Long Island Sound, Uncle Guido who makes the annual bagna cauda, and the numerous aunts and cousins who parade through her life with love and food and endless stories of the old days. And then there’s her brother, Tyler.Smith's household was “different.” Little Mary-Ann couldn't have friends over because her older brother, Tyler, an autistic before anyone knew what that meant, was unable to bear noise of any kind. To him, the sound of crying, laughing, phones ringing, or toilets flushing was “a cloud of barbed needles” flying into his face. Subject to such an assault, he would substitute that pain with another: he'd try to chew his arm off. Tyler was Mary-Ann's real-life Boo Radley, albeit one whose bookshelves sagged under the weight of the World War II books he collected and read obsessively.Hanging over this rough-and-tumble American childhood is the sinister shadow of an approaching serial killer. The menacing Bob Malm lurks throughout this joyous and chaotic family portrait, and the havoc he unleashes when the paths of innocence and evil cross one early December evening in 1953 forever alters the landscape of Smith's childhood.Girls of Tender Age is one of those books that will forever change its readers because of its beauty and power and remarkable wit.
Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of the Hoover Dam
by Michael HiltzikAs breathtaking today as the day it was completed, Hoover Dam not only shaped the American West but helped launch the American century. In the depths of the Great Depression it became a symbol of American resilience and ingenuity in the face of crisis, putting thousands of men to work in a remote desert canyon and bringing unruly nature to heel. Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Michael Hiltzik uses the saga of the dam’s conception, design, and construction to tell the broader story of America’s efforts to come to grips with titanic social, economic, and natural forces. For embodied in the dam’s striking machine-age form is the fundamental transformation the Depression wrought in the nation’s very culture—the shift from the concept of rugged individualism rooted in the frontier days of the nineteenth century to the principle of shared enterprise and communal support that would build the America we know today. In the process, the unprecedented effort to corral the raging Colorado River evolved from a regional construction project launched by a Republican president into the New Deal’s outstanding—and enduring—symbol of national pride. Yet the story of Hoover Dam has a darker side. Its construction was a gargantuan engineering feat achieved at great human cost, its progress marred by the abuse of a desperate labor force. The water and power it made available spurred the development of such great western metropolises as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and San Diego, but the vision of unlimited growth held dear by its designers and builders is fast turning into a mirage. In Hiltzik’s hands, the players in this epic historical tale spring vividly to life: President Theodore Roosevelt, who conceived the project; William Mulholland, Southern California’s great builder of water works, who urged the dam upon a reluctant Congress; Herbert Hoover, who gave the dam his name though he initially opposed its construction; Frank Crowe, the dam’s renowned master builder, who pushed his men mercilessly to raise the beautiful concrete rampart in an inhospitable desert gorge. Finally there is Franklin Roosevelt, who presided over the ultimate completion of the project and claimed the credit for it. Hiltzik combines exhaustive research, trenchant observation, and unforgettable storytelling to shed new light on a major turning point of twentieth-century history.
Choosing Joy: A 52-Week Devotional for Discovering True Happiness
by Angela ThomasA daily devotional to help you find joy and happiness in every circumstance, based on God&’s word.This 52-week devotional helps readers discover the ever-illusive quality of joy. Bestselling author Angela Thomas draws from her vast experience in teaching and speaking to women all over the country. In this four-page per devotion format, Angela shares... * An inspirational message, including personal antecdotes * Biblical teaching * Questions to guide reader into self exploration, with blank lines for personal answers * Encouraging quotes * Bible scriptures for meditation This book is the perfect choice for the many readers who work through a devotional book each year.
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do
by Judith Rich HarrisA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKHow much credit do parents deserve when their children turn out welt? How much blame when they turn out badly? Judith Rich Harris has a message that will change parents' lives: The "nurture assumption" -- the belief that what makes children turn out the way they do, aside from their genes, is the way their parents bring them up -- is nothing more than a cultural myth. This electrifying book explodes some of our unquestioned beliefs about children and parents and gives us a radically new view of childhood.Harris looks with a fresh eye at the real lives of real children to show that it is what they experience outside the home, in the company of their peers, that matters most, Parents don't socialize children; children socialize children. With eloquence and humor, Judith Harris explains why parents have little power to determine the sort of people their children will become.The Nurture Assumption is an important and entertaining work that brings together insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, primatology, and evolutionary biology to offer a startling new view of who we are and how we got that way.
Hyperion and the Great Balls of Fire: Zeus And The Thunderbolt Of Doom Graphic Novel; Poseidon And The Sea Of Fury Graphic Novel; Hades And The Helm Of Darkness Graphic Novel; Hyperion And The Great Balls Of Fire Graphic Novel (Heroes in Training #4)
by Joan Holub Suzanne WilliamsThe action heats up for Zeus and his fellow Olympians in this blazing Heroes in Training tale.Phew, it’s hot! Under the titan Hyperion’s rule, the sun is burning even brighter than normal and scorching everything in northern Greece—including the villagers! The Olympians are forced to play a sizzling “game” of Dodge the Sunbursts as Hyperion hurls giant fireballs that could fry them to pieces!Armed with some clues, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades set out to figure out why in the world Hyperion has been making things so hot. They also need to rescue Hera, who is still missing. Battling the extreme heat—and some fantastical and scary creatures, courtesy of their old foe Cronus—the boys are off on another epic adventure…and Zeus is one step closer to discovering his destiny.