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Outsourcing and the Virtual Organization: The Incredible Shrinking Company
by Jim DurcanIncreasingly, companies are buying in from outside certain services and functions that would previously have been fulfilled by an internal department or employees. Companies no longer just outsource support functions, but also outsource critical areas of production or design. It lets companies focus on those activities where they have real competitive edge, and is increasingly being seen as an attractive alternative to downsizing or cost-cutting.Durcan and Oates provide a wide-ranging expert overview of outsourcing, aimed at managers and decision-makers who want to understand fully all the issues involved. How do companies define core and non-core activities? How do you find the best provider of an outsourced function? What are the pitfalls to avoid? How do you monitor the service provider? What is the impact on issues such as corporate security and confidentiality? The authors also consider how outsourcing is redefining the nature of corporations: if companies have minimal physical existence, but exist as a network of relationships and contracts, when should we speak of the 'virtual organisation'?
The Art Of Life
by Paul DurcanIn The Art of Life Paul Durcan takes us around County Mayo in his "filthy, two-door, bottle-green Opel Astra", stopping off at Westport and Achill Island, where he declares himself to be "globally sad", but "locally glad". Next he travels east to Dublin to hold in his arms his newborn granddaughter and thence to Tuscany, Poland and Japan. Along the way he reflects upon parental pride, the aches and pains of old age, the trim bottoms of snooker players, the wisdom of ex-wives and dogs on Sandymount Strand, while introducing us to a host of colourful characters, including a bishop, a roofer, a milkman, a priest and an unmarried mother. Is there an art of living or is life a work of art? This magnificent collection - originally published on Paul Durcan's sixtieth birthday - reveals one of Ireland's most successful and popular poets at the height of his powers and continuing to challenge, amuse and delight.
The Berlin Wall Cafe
by Paul DurcanThis was the collection with which Durcan broke through to the huge and appreciative audience he enjoys today. In the first part are poems of great satirical comedy and also of great passion and indignation, and in the second part, poems about the break-up of a marriage so intense they would hurt if they weren't also possessed of the healing gifts of truthfulness and humour. In The Berlin Wall Café Durcan has located that space between the walls and barriers societies and individuals erect - a no-man's-land of the free imagination where we meet as the vulnerable and comical human beings we are. It contains some of his very best work.
Cries Of An Irish Caveman
by Paul DurcanCries of an Irish Caveman is Paul Durcan's most inspired and surprising collection of poems. Through four distinct sections, he brings his tender lyricism to bear on the themes of love, loss, life and death.The first section describes an experience in Australia which provides a starting point for reassessing his past relationships and loves. The second returns to Ireland, its people and places, the celebrated and the unknown. The third section is a meditation on his daughter's marriage, placing within an historical and sacramental context a very personal event. And finally, in some of his most daring and original writing, Durcan describes his own twentieth-century romance, replete with ecstasies and inevitable agonies, beauty and hope, but also brutality and self-abasement.
Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil
by Paul DurcanPaul Durcan has been at the heart of Irish cultural life for 30 years and his poetry has acquired a huge international following. Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil is his most challenging and engaging collection yet, one that addresses itself through Ireland and the Irish diaspora to the whole world beyond.
The Laughter of Mothers
by Paul Durcan'Thank you, O golden mother, / For giving me a life,' says Paul Durcan in this brilliant new collection, a poignant tribute to 'the first woman I ever knew'. Sheila MacBride came from a political family – her uncle John MacBride was executed in 1916 for his part in the Easter Uprising – but when Sheila married into the 'black, red-roaring, fighting Durcans of Mayo' she was obliged to give up a promising legal career. These poems commemorate his mother as Paul Durcan remembers her playing golf, reading Tolstoy, and initiating him in the magic of the cinema. He recalls her compassion and loyalty when he was committed to a mental hospital in adolescence and how she endured the ordeal of her old age.Durcan also muses upon the beauty of Greek women and questions our need for newspapers and the new religion of golf. He is beguiled by a beggar woman, enraged by a young man picking his nose on the Dublin–Sligo commuter train, and gets into difficulty at the security gate of Dublin airport.
Life is a Dream: 40 Years Reading Poems 1967-2007
by Paul DurcanFamous for his electrifying poetry readings, Paul Durcan marks four decades of composing silently and reciting aloud with this magnificent collection, which brings together for the first time the critically acclaimed poet's own choice of his work from his first book, Endsville (1967), to The Laughter of Mothers (2007). Life is a Dream represents the whole range of Durcan's writing - funny and subversive verse narratives and self-mocking poems of underachievement; poems celebrating love and sex or the lives of famous writers and artists; as well as tender, poignant verses commemorating the dead. Throughout his long career, Durcan has continued to make passionate and moving poetry out of his own and his country's misfortunes. He is by turns a surrealist, a mystic, an Irish comedian with perfect comic timing and an angry champion of the oppressed. Life is a Dream reaffirms the constant vision and artistic integrity of one of the most powerful, humane and original voices in modern poetry.
O Westport In The Light Of Asia Minor
by Paul DurcanO Westport in the Light of Asia Minor was first published in a tiny edition in Dublin in 1975. It was Paul Durcan's first fully-fledged collection, and already displays an astonishingly mature, visionary power, shot through with the surrealism and heart-breaking comedy that have since become his hallmark. It won him the Patrick Kavanagh Award. Now Durcan's readers can discover what they have been missing. The poems are printed in the order he originally intended, and the volume concluded with six poems from his very first collaborative collection, Endsville (1967), with Brian Lynch.
Praise in Which I Live and Move and Have my Being
by Paul DurcanPaul Durcan's twenty-second collection finds Monsieur le Poète on the road in Paris, New York City, Chicago, Brisbane, and Achill Island, meditating upon the sanctuary of home and what it means to feel truly at home. Regarded by many as the great poet of contemporary Ireland, Durcan is on top form here as he contemplates the fall of the Celtic Tiger, while railing against bankers and 'bonus boys'. There are poems of love lost and won, and poems in memory of friends and relatives who have passed on, but there is also joy to be found in the birth of a grandson, and there is praise, too, for the modest heroism of truckers, air traffic controllers and nurses, those 'slim, sturdy, buxom nourishers' of fallen mankind. If for Sartre 'hell is other people', for Durcan 'heaven is other people, especially women'.
Snail In My Prime
by Paul DurcanSince the publication of his first book in 1967, Paul Durcan has made satirical, celebratory and extraordinarily moving poetry out of his country's fortunes and misfortunes. His readings are legendary and each new collection, from his collaboration with Brain Lynch, Endsville (1967) to Daddy, Daddy (winner of the 1990 Whitbread Poetry Award), Crazy about Women (1991) and Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil (1999) has borne out the truth of Ezra Pound's dictum that "literature is news that stays news". This book contains Durcan's own selection from his work. It is a literary milestone that has set the seal on his reputation as a poet of international standing.
Christmas Day
by Paul Durcan Peter RobbFor most of us Christmas is the season of huge helpings of good food, good drink, and with luck, good cheer, as the rituals of cracker-pulling, present-giving and happy or sulphurous family reunions fizzle and bang through the long afternoon. For anyone who has ever had too much of it, or felt out of it, or wanted to be out of it, or even succeeded in being out of it then been unexpectedly rescued by a good friend, this book-length poem contains a lifeline of humour and sanity in a world run seasonally mad. It is a funny, subversive, melancholy, self-mocking conversation between two men - Paul and Frank - in the top storey flat of a Dublin apartment block; a Stations of Christmas under the influence of "woman-hunger". Once read, Christmas Day itself will never be the same again.The volume also contains a second new work, "A Goose in the Frost", a tribute to Seamus Heaney on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Luck Uglies (Luck Uglies #1)
by Paul DurhamThe first in a series with the makings of a modern classic, The Luck Uglies is an irresistible cross between Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series and Kelly Barnhill's The Girl Who Drank the Moon, overflowing with adventure, secrets, friendship, and magic.Rye O'Chanter has seen a lot of strange things happen in Village Drowning: Children are chased through the streets. Families are fined for breaking laws that don't even exist. Girls aren't allowed to read anymore, and certain books—books that hold secrets about Drowning's past—have been outlawed altogether.Now a terrifying encounter has eleven-year-old Rye convinced that the monstrous, supposedly extinct Bog Noblins have returned. Before the monsters disappeared, there was only one way to defeat them—the Luck Uglies. But the Luck Uglies have long since been exiled, and there's nobody left who can protect the village.As Rye dives into Drowning's maze of secrets, rules, and lies, she begins to question everything she's been told about the village's legend of outlaws and beasts . . . and what she'll discover is that it may take a villain to save them from the monsters.This critically acclaimed debut middle grade novel was named an ALA Notable Book and a New York Public Library Title for Reading and Sharing and won the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Speculative Fiction and a Sunshine State Young Readers Award.
The Luck Uglies: Fork-Tongue Charmers (Luck Uglies #2)
by Paul DurhamThe Luck Uglies must face their greatest enemy in this second installment of the series that's a perfect match for fans of Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series and books by Kelly Barnhill. "There is not a single dull moment in this story. A total delight," raved Bookslist in a starred review!Rye O’Chanter was shocked to discover that her father was the leader of the notorious band of outlaws known as the Luck Uglies. Now she too has been declared a criminal in her own village, and she must flee to the strange and remote Isle of Pest while her father faces off against the Luck Uglies’ bitter rivals, the Fork-Tongue-Charmers, on the mainland.But all bets are off when the battle moves to the shores of Pest. To defeat the Fork-Tongue Charmers, Rye must defy a deranged earl, survive a test meant to judge the grit of the fiercest men, and lead the charge in defending the island against a strangely familiar enemy, which means uncovering some long-buried family secrets….The first Luck Uglies book was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book as well as a New York Public Library Title for Reading and Sharing, and it won the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Speculative Fiction and a Sunshine State Young Readers Award.
The Luck Uglies: Rise of the Ragged Clover (Luck Uglies #3)
by Paul DurhamIn this exhilarating conclusion to the critically acclaimed Luck Uglies series, the final battle between the Luck Uglies and the treacherous Fork-Tongue Charmers comes to Rye O’Chanter’s doorstep.Filled with adventure, humor, and a hint of magic, this middle grade fantasy series is an irresistible cross between Chris Colfer’s Land of Stories series and Kelly Barnhill's The Girl Who Drank the Moon.When Rye finally travels back home to Village Drowning to help her father with his plan to defeat the Luck Uglies’ bitter rivals, she finds it in shambles. The monstrous Bog Noblins now raid the streets at night. And people are afraid to leave their houses because no one is around to protect them.Rye soon realizes she can’t wait for the adults to sort everything out, so she enlists her friends to come up with a plan. A plan that could change everything for Drowning . . . because the only way to save her village may just be to destroy it.The Luck Uglies was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book as well as a New York Public Library Title for Reading and Sharing, and it won the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Speculative Fiction and a Sunshine State Young Readers Award.
The Nonprofit Communications Engine: A Leader's Guide to Managing Mission-driven Marketing and Communications
by Sarah DurhamNonprofits power much of what's good in society today. They support, preserve, advocate, and defend while helping us understand and navigate complex issues and landscapes. It's hard work, and it relies on building relationships between board members who govern, clients and members who enjoy or rely on services, and supporters who take action and donate to advance the organization's mission. Communicating clearly and effectively is critical to building strong relationships, but many nonprofits are under-resourced communicators. They lack staff expertise, capacity, and funding. In addition, marketing and communications best practices specific to the needs of nonprofits are scarce. It's hard for many nonprofits to know what to prioritize and where to spend limited resources. This book outlines a simple model for nonprofit communicators and leaders that makes it easier for them to leverage communications to advance their mission. Nonprofit CEOs and staff who manage communications can use this book to set clearer goals, guide their planning and activities, identify gaps in their expertise, and discover opportunities to strengthen their communications.
On Suicide
by Emile DurkheimEmile Durkheim's On Suicide (1897) was a groundbreaking book in the field of sociology. Traditionally, suicide was thought to be a matter of purely individual despair but Durkheim recognized that the phenomenon had a social dimension. He believed that if anything can explain how individuals relate to society, then it is suicide: Why does it happen? What goes wrong? Why do certain social, religious or racial groups have higher incidences of suicide than others? As Durkheim explored these questions he became convinced that abnormally high or low levels of social integration lead to an increased likelihood of suicide. On Suicide was the result of his extensive research. Divided into three parts - individual reasons for suicide, social forms of suicide and the relation of suicide to society as a whole - Durkheim's revelations have fascinated, challenged and informed readers for over a century.
The Miseducation of Tabitha Stone
by Emily DurkheimTabitha went off the rails young and never quite made it back. Now she's wasting her twenties in the most enjoyable way possible - spending her lawyer father's money and living the high-life among the glittering young things of L.A. But on her 24th birthday, she discovers that this life is about to come to an abrupt end. Her father's had enough and gives her an ultimatum: grad' college by the time she's 24, or she's disinherited. Without credit cards, Tabitha finds herself enrolled at Adirondacks U, set in the wild mountains of the States' northern reaches. But Tabby still manages to discover temptation in the shape of Jake, a handsome senior, a rugged logger she meets in the woods and Mark, a professor.
Europe: The Enlightening History of a Continent
by Jean Baptiste DuroselleWhether as an epic battleground or a cradle of civilizations, Europe has left an enduring imprint on the history of the world for over two millennia. From megalithic civilizations through ancient times, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of nationalism, two world wars and the years that followed, this book looks beyond a series of distinct national histories to offer the history of Europe as an often shared experience across one continent. This book delves into events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, traces the continents evolution from the collapse of Communism through the Iraq War, global financial crisis, Brexit and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And then looking forward, it explores what would be necessary for the continent to remain a global power-player for years to come.
Ooh La La! Connie Pickles
by Sabine DurrantConnie Pickles is fulfilling her destiny. She's in Paris, and she has big plans. She will fall in love with someone other than William. She will find her long lost grandparents. She will become très chic. But sometimes even destiny doesn't go to plan . . .Sabine Durrant has the laugh-out-loud humour of Louise Rennison, the sharp perception of Anne Fine and the instant girl-appeal of a younger Bridget Jones. Perfect for girls aged 11+.
Whatever Happened to Margo?
by Margaret DurrellIn 1947, returning to the UK with two young children to support, Margaret Durrell starts a boarding house in Bournemouth. But any hopes of respectability are dashed as the tenants reveal themselves to be a host of eccentrics: from a painter of nudes to a pair of glamorous young nurses whose late-night shifts combined with an ever-revolving roster of gentleman callers leading to a neighbourhood rumour that Margo is running a brothel. Margo's own two sons, Gerry and Nicholas, prove to be every bit as mischievous as their famous Uncle Gerald - and he himself returns periodically with weird and wonderful animals, from marmosets to monkeys, that are quite unsuitable for life in a Bournemouth garden.
Stochastic Calculus: A Practical Introduction (Probability and Stochastics Series #6)
by Richard DurrettThis compact yet thorough text zeros in on the parts of the theory that are particularly relevant to applications . It begins with a description of Brownian motion and the associated stochastic calculus, including their relationship to partial differential equations. It solves stochastic differential equations by a variety of methods and studies in detail the one-dimensional case. The book concludes with a treatment of semigroups and generators, applying the theory of Harris chains to diffusions, and presenting a quick course in weak convergence of Markov chains to diffusions. The presentation is unparalleled in its clarity and simplicity. Whether your students are interested in probability, analysis, differential geometry or applications in operations research, physics, finance, or the many other areas to which the subject applies, you'll find that this text brings together the material you need to effectively and efficiently impart the practical background they need.
Sneak Peek for The Spellshop
by Sarah Beth DurstThe Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love. Download a FREE sneak peek today!Join Kiela the librarian and her assistant, Caz the sentient spider plant, as they navigate the low stakes market of illegal spellmaking and the high risk business of starting over.“Sarah Beth Durst is the hidden gem of the fantasy world.” —Book RiotKiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.She and her assistant, Caz, a magically sentient spider plant, have spent the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. But when a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz save as many books as they can carry and flee to a faraway island Kiela was sure she’d never return to: her childhood home. Kiela hopes to lay low in the overgrown and rundown cottage her late parents left her and figure out a way to survive without drawing the attention of either the empire or the revolutionaries. Much to her dismay, in addition to a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor, she finds the town neglected and in a state of disrepair.The empire, for all its magic and power, has been neglecting for years the people who depend on magical intervention to maintain healthy livestock and crops. Not only that, but the very magic that should be helping them has been creating destructive storms that have taken a toll on the island. Due to her past role at the library, Kiela feels partially responsible for this, and now she’s determined to find a way to make things right: by opening the island’s first-ever secret spellshop.Her plan comes with risks—the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela comes to make a place for herself among the kind and quirky townspeople of her former home, she realizes that in order to make a life for herself, she must learn to break down the walls she has built up so high.Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
It's Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People
by Ramani DurvasulaINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom clinical psychologist and expert in narcissistic relationships Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a guide to protecting and healing yourself from the daily harms of narcissismAN OPEN FIELD PUBLICATION FROM MARIA SHRIVERIt&’s not always easy to tell when you&’re dealing with a narcissistic person. One day they draw you in with their charm and charisma, the next they gaslight you, wreck your self-esteem, and leave you wondering, What should I have done differently? As Dr. Ramani explains in It&’s Not You, the answer is: absolutely nothing.Just as a tiger can&’t change its stripes, a narcissist will not stop manipulating and invalidating you, no matter how much you try to appease them. The first step toward healing from their toxic influence—and to protect yourself from future harm—is to accept that you are not to blame for their behavior.Drawing on more than two decades of studying the landscape of narcissism and working with survivors, Dr. Ramani explores how narcissists hijack our well-being and offers a healing path forward. Unpacking the oft-misunderstood personality, she reveals the telltale behavioral patterns that indicate you may be dealing with a narcissist. Along the way, you&’ll learn how to become gaslight resistant, chip away at the trauma bonds that keep you stuck in the cycle, grieve the loss of these painful relationships, create and maintain realistic boundaries, discern unhelpful behaviors from narcissistic behaviors, and recover your sense of self after constant invalidation.Thriving after, or even during, a narcissistic relationship can be challenging, but It&’s Not You shows you it is possible. Dr. Ramani invites you to stop blaming yourself and trying to change the narcissistic person, and to start giving yourself permission to let go of their hold on you and finally embrace your true self.
The Theological Metaphors of Marx
by Enrique DusselIn The Theological Metaphors of Marx, Enrique Dussel provides a groundbreaking combination of Marxology, theology, and ethical theory. Dussel shows that Marx unveils the theology of capitalism in his critique of commodity fetishization. Capitalism constitutes an idolatry of the commodity that undergirds the capitalist expropriation of labor. Dussel examines Marx’s early writings on religion and fetishism and proceeds through what Dussel refers to as the four major drafts of Capital, ultimately situating Marx’s philosophical, economic, ethical, and historical insights in relation to the theological problems of his time. Dussel notes a shift in Marx’s underlying theological schema from a political critique of the state to an economic critique of the commodity fetish as the Devil, or anti-God, of modernity. Marx’s thought, impact, and influence cannot be fully understood without Dussel’s historic reinterpretation of the theological origins and implications of Marx’s critiques of political economy and politics.