Showing results by narrator "Derek Shetterly" in All Categories

Winner of the 2011 Strega Prize, this blend of essay, social criticism, and memoir is a striking portrait of the effects of globalization on Italy’s declining economy. Starting from his family’s textile factory in Prato, Tuscany, Edoardo Nesi examines the recent shifts in Italy’s manufacturing industry. Only one generation ago, Prato was a thriving industrial center that prided itself on craftsmanship and quality. But during the last decade, cheaply made goods - produced overseas or in Italy by poorly paid immigrants - saturated the market, making it impossible for Italian companies to keep up.

Miguel and Helena meet at a nursing home in Tarifa, at an age when they believe they have lived it all already. Miguel is afraid of flying. Helena is afraid of the ocean. Both have adult children and feel they are no longer needed. The dramatic suicide of one of the other residents opens their eyes. They don't want to spend their last days remembering and longing for supposedly better times. Together they decide to undertake the journey of their lives and confront the darkness in their pasts.

One continuous monologue, uttered by a government official confronting an imprisoned crime boss. McSweeney's is a literary journal based in San Francisco.

The Upside of Aging: How Long Life Is Changing the World of Health, Work, Innovation, Policy and Purpose explores a titanic shift that will alter every aspect of human existence, from the jobs we hold to the products we buy to the medical care we receive - an aging revolution is underway across America and the world. Moving beyond the stereotypes of dependency and decline that have defined older age, The Upside of Aging reveals the vast opportunity and potential of this aging phenomenon, despite significant policy and societal challenges that must be addressed.

As Christian leaders, our challenge is to plan, think, act, and lead in ways that glorify our risen savior and to protect the legitimacy of our Christian testimonies and legacies. The Christian Leader's Worldview provides Bible-based principles and practical guidance to help you to make an eternal impact through your life and leadership.

As World War II rages across Europe and the Pacific, its impact ripples through communities in the heartland of America. A farm girl is locked in a dangerous love triangle with two Germans soldiers held in an Illinois POW camp. Another German, a war refugee, is forced to risk her life spying on the developing Manhattan Project in Chicago. And espionage surrounds the disappearance of an actress from the thriving Jewish community of Chicago's Lawndale.

Charles Portis, author of True Grit, got John Wayne his only Oscar. He once had Karl Marx’s old gig (as the London bureau chief for the New York Herald-Tribune). He’s written four other novels, three of them masterpieces, though which three is up for debate. Here’s 7,000 words about a guy you’ve never heard of. But should, we say.

From the bottom right to the top: The story of Harald Seiz sounds like a blockbuster Hollywood movie. Harald Seiz grew up with his mother and grandmother near Stuttgart in impoverished conditions. Both struggled with alcohol problems, so Seiz had to learn from early on to stand on his own two feet. From a drinks supplier to a vacuum cleaner salesman, he went through numerous professions and - despite harsh setbacks - always adhered to his dream of success and independence. In 2011 Seiz laid the foundation stone for his company Karatbars International GmbH.

In Customer Love: Great Stories about Great Service you will explore 24 unforgettable stories about phenomenal customer service. Each chapter will ignite your thoughts and inspire new ideas that you can use to take your customer service to the next level. Share this audiobook with your employees and watch the creative ideas flow. Utilize the ideas behind these creative narratives to grow your business - and remember "if you do something good for one customer, they'll tell 100 other people."

This beautiful story shows us how to access feelings of peace and well-being, even after hardships and brokenness. A miracle of life lives on in seeds shared by a stranger, and when planted and nourished, the fruit of peace is caring, loving, and community building. This is a story of empowerment and a gentle reminder of the hope and resilience that lie within us all.

After years of having motivational smoke blown up our collective backsides, we've started to act as if we are all generous, bold, and intelligent - all of the time! We've designed our organizations, teams, systems, products, relationships, and lives so we can succeed only under ideal 'laboratory' conditions. Anything less than perfection often means catastrophe. The problem is that's not how human beings work at all.

The obstacles to your happiness. There are a lot of things in life that we worry and stress about. Our jobs, relationships, and possessions are important to us, and because of that, we look to them for happiness. But when they ultimately disappoint us, they act as obstacles to attaining that very happiness we thought they would bring. In this motivational book, author Hugh Prather urges listeners to let go of attitudes that hold us back from experiencing happiness.

Learn the magic that happens behind the scenes when the doors suddenly open and unforeseen opportunities arise in the big city. In a half century of innovative ventures, the brash New Yorker never let dyslexia slow his creative mind and penchant for free thinking and deal making, even though he was functionally unable to read until he was in his fifties. Discover how he created the greatest men’s fashion development of the era—the leisure suit—and how it subsequently fell off a cliff.

The American Museum of Natural History’s forty-year search for the right whale.

The role of social media in the events of the Arab Spring and its aftermath in the Muslim world has stimulated much debate, yet little in the way of useful insight. Now Haroon Ullah, a scholar and diplomat with deep knowledge of politics and societies in the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, draws the first clear picture of the unprecedented impact of Twitter, Facebook, and other means of online communication on the recent revolutions that blazed across Muslim nations.

It doesn’t matter whether you are eight or 88—ordinary can become extraordinary with just a little extra effort, thought, planning, and perspective. In life, we have many opportunities to win or to lose. We are faced with a constant choice: we can become more, or remain the same.

Steven is a writer, by all accounts of self-proclamation. But no artist can be expected to work under serious pressure, especially not when the pressure consists of his own mother indenting his tender skull with the muzzle of the pistol held in her hand. Suddenly, it's write or die for Steven. He better tap away on that typewriter or expect to be extracted from the land of the living before he's had the opportunity to finish anything he's ever written. Not to mention that his recently departed father lying on the floor beside him should supply enough motivation.

The Die is a compelling collection of five suspense-filled short stories from author d. o. allen. You'll be drawn into life-like mysteries with twists and curves. You'll enter into the psyche of a young widow, Cyndi Roberts, stunned by the governor's pardon of her husband's murderer, Damon Osborne, and her ultimate obsession with the killer. In "Mall Train", you'll share in the terrifying tale of a distraught father lamenting the disappearance of his young daughter. You'll sense Karl's sorrow as a lonely widower in the award-winning title story, "The Die".

A man describes his father in fragments. McSweeney's is a literary journal based in San Francisco.

What a 1994 branding fiasco can teach us about counterculture and commerce.