Work Less

Black Queer Girlhood on the Musical Theatre Stage offers a new perspective on the creativity of contemporary Black women musical theatre artists, their representations of Black girlhood, and the Black queer feminist spectators who engage with their work. Creating a new model for Black queer feminist praxis, La Donna L. Forsgren engages with musical theatre scholarship, Black queer feminist criticism, reception studies, Black girlhood studies, and film and television studies, critiquing the gaps and silences within these fields. Each chapter uses Black queer feminist criticism and audience reception theories of popular culture to understand what meaning and pleasure Black queer spectators find in popular musical performances created by Black women. Through resistant readings of twenty contemporary musical theatre productions--from Broadway hits such as The Color Purple and the televised broadcast of The Wiz Live! to the less studied but popular gospel musical Mama, I Want to Sing!--Fors

THE FIRST ANNA PIGEON NOVEL--WINNER OF THE AGATHA AWARD. The fascinating hero of Nevada Barr's award-winning series--park ranger Anna Pigeon--has brought an unyielding love of nature and sense of fair play to the mystery genre. Track of the Cat is the acclaimed novel that first introduced readers to Anna, as a woman looking for peace in the wilderness--and finding murder instead... Patrolling the remote West Texas backcountry, Anna's first job as a national park ranger is marred by violence she thought she had left behind: the brutal death of a fellow ranger. When the cause of death is chalked up to a mountain lion attack, Anna's rage knows no bounds. It's up to her to save the protected cats from the politics and prejudices of the locals--and prove the kill was the work of a species far less rare...

A revelatory, insight-filled playbook for doing business in China and a probing look at why the country, despite the challenges it faces, still possesses unrivaled prospects for growth and entrepreneurial opportunity—by two leaders who, over the course of decades, have taken turns helming McKinsey’s management consulting practice in China.In just forty years, China has transformed from a closed economy into a global powerhouse. Riding the tailwinds of its massive labor supply, aggressive infrastructure investment, and ingrained work ethic, the nation became a haven of opportunity. However, more recently, shifting demographics, less torrid growth, and an increasingly complex geopolitical environment have caused some to wonder: Where lies the next China? The authors of this book have a bold and unequivocal answer: the next China is still China.There is no substitute for the Chinese market. China accounts for a staggering 30% of global manufacturing and 18% of global GDP, surpassing the E

Achieve more by doing less…At work we often feel weighed down by an excess of initiatives, meetings, training and targets. Over-enthusiastic executives, interfering consultants and demanding stakeholders often get in the way of doing the ‘real work’. This leaves us feeling overwhelmed but underproductive.The Art of Less offers ideas for how to create a more effective and efficient organization by removing obstacles to meaningful work. Mats Alvesson and André Spicer explain how ‘organizational sludge’ gets in the way of performance, and what can be done about it. They show how unblocking systems and processes can improve work flow so people can focus more on the things that actually matter.The Art of Less is the essential guide to how overburdened managers and employees can break down barriers to more effective working and achieve more by doing less.

Set in New York City in alternating time periods--the 1950s and the early 2000s--Pollock's Last Lover is the engrossing tale of two women whose lives collide as they contend with the art and legacy of the brilliant, tragic painter Jackson Pollock.In 2006, Sotheby's sells a painting by Jackson Pollock for $140 million--the highest sum ever paid for a work of art. Two weeks later, an older woman named Ruth Kligman, in high heels and a dusty fascinator, contacts a smaller, less prominent auction house to announce that she was Pollock's lover, and that he gave her his last painting. She declares that it was selfish to keep it in her apartment for fifty years, and that people should see this masterpiece in galleries and museums the world over. The bidding will start at $50 million.Gwen, an up-and-coming associate at the firm, is assigned the task of verifying the painting's authenticity. For Gwen, an ambitious woman in a field often dominated by men, it is her biggest project yet. And the c

You can stock your life with important work, relationships, activities, and art, and yet, you can still ask: what's the point of it all? Almost every thinking person has had that question--many more than once. Granted, you're more likely to worry about the point of life when things are not going well, but you're also likely to still ask this question when you've finally received that promotion, achieved a goal, or raised your children--exactly when it seems like the question shouldn't arise. In The Meaning of It All, Rivka Weinberg argues this is because there are different kinds of meaning, and some of them, sadly, are impossible to achieve. She explains what they are, illuminates which types of meaning are possible, which are impossible, and shows us how we might orient our lives in light of these bittersweet truths. Although we all die in the end, Weinberg explains why death doesn't make life more or less meaningful. Instead, it is time that is necessary for meaning, even as it also

An illuminating, hilarious, and practical guide to 99 of the most terrifying ways to die and how to avoid them from an emergency medicine doctor. Dr. Ashely Alker is a self-described death-escapologist--or, in more familiar terms, an emergency medicine doctor. She has seen it all, from flesh-eating bacteria to the work of a serial killer to the more mundane but no less deadly, and her work keeping people from dying (or being unable to) has uniquely prepared her to write this book. 99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them is an illuminating, darkly funny, and practical guide to 99 of the most terrifying ways to die and how to avoid them. Dr. Alker manages to scare readers while making them laugh, preparing them for a wide range of deadly situations and conditions. Each chapter includes stories of her patients pertaining to the chapter's subject, as well as her related experiences in life and medicine. Sections include categories on sex, poison, drugs, biological warfare, disease, animals,