New Releases by Michael

3500 photographs. Over 380 genera. More than 3700 species and cultivars. Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs is the most comprehensive visual reference to more than 3700 species and cultivars. From majestic evergreens to delicate vines and flowering shrubs, Dirr features thousands of plants and all the essential details for identification, planting, and care. Color photographs show each tree's habit in winter, distinctive bark patterns, fall color, and more. Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs is a critical addition to any garden library.

Rediscover the magic and wonder of classic fairy tales with "The Tales of Mother Goose," as first collected by Charles Perrault in 1696. This enduring collection of French folklore brings to life beloved stories that have captivated readers for centuries. Immerse yourself in the world of enchanting characters and timeless moral lessons found within these pages. Perrault's work, a cornerstone of children's literature, presents a rich tapestry of short stories that have shaped our understanding of fairy tales. A treasure trove of juvenile fiction, this edition offers a glimpse into the origins of some of the world's most cherished narratives. Perfect for those seeking classic literature and timeless children's stories, "The Tales of Mother Goose" continues to enchant and inspire. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

"Slade is at his peak with Ripper. A schizophrenic whodunit complete with locked rooms and self-triggering death devices. Highly enjoyable." — Time Out London An American feminist is found hanging, her body slashed to shreds, her face flayed. Two hookers are murdered, their corpses mutilated in a similar pattern. These gruesome deaths are only the beginning of the trail Canadian Mountie Robert DeClercq will follow as he attempts to catch a brutal psychopath. It's a journey that takes him through the history of Satanism and the occult, searching for a serial killer's demons. Demons all too similar to the ones that drove Jack the Ripper . . . A revised and expanded version of the original Ripper, which was first published in 1994. "Intense enough to require seatbelts." — Quill & Quire "Slade knows psychos inside out." — Toronto Star "Builds up to a climax almost too frantically gripping for words." — The Northern Echo "A shocking insight into the psyche of the insane." — Canadian Lawyer/DESC

WINNER of the 2025 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel Longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction "'Just give me one more day,' Monk says, and Early Sobrieties is such a wise and piercing book that we believe him." —Charlie Lee, The New York Times Book Review "Michael Deagler is the real deal." —Percival Everett, 2023 Windham Campbell Prize recipient and author of Dr. No Don’t worry about what Dennis Monk did when he was drinking. He’s sober now, ready to rejoin the world of leases and paychecks, reciprocal friendships and healthy romances—if only the world would agree to take him back. When his working-stiff parents kick him out of their suburban home, mere months into his frangible sobriety, the 26-year-old spends his first dry summer couch surfing through South Philadelphia, struggling to find a place for himself in the throng of adulthood. Monk’s haphazard pilgrimage leads him through a city in flux: growing, gentrifying, haunted by its history and its unrealized potential. Everyone he knew from college seems to be doing better than him—and most of them aren’t even doing that well. His run-ins with former classmates, estranged drinking buddies, and prospective lovers challenge his version of events past and present, revealing that recovery is not the happy ending he’d expected, only a fraught next chapter. Like a sober, millennial Jesus’ Son, Michael Deagler’s debut novel is the poignant confession of a recovering addict adrift in the fragmenting landscape of America’s middle class. Shot through with humor, hubris, and hard-earned insight, Early Sobrieties charts the limbos that exist between our better and worst selves, offering a portrait of a stifled generation collectively slouching towards grace.

Prepare for or enhance a career investing in the credit markets with this authoritative guide. The leveraged credit market is currently valued at over $4 trillion and is one of the fastest-growing asset classes, fueling demand for well-trained credit analysts. The Credit Investor''s Handbook: Leveraged Loans, High Yield Bonds, and Distressed Debt is the definitive guide for young investment professionals embarking on a career investing in the leveraged credit markets – whether public, private, performing, or distressed. Experienced professionals will also immensely benefit from this guide as they refine their investment skills. Michael Gatto has twenty-five years of investing experience in the debt markets at Silver Point Capital (a $20 billion credit-focused fund) and Goldman Sachs'' Special Situations Group. Furthermore, he is an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and Fordham University''s Gabelli School of Business. Michael brings these experiences together in this comprehensive manual, teaching the skills to succeed in the dynamic and complex credit markets. Michael brings highly complex case studies to life using decades of his first-hand war stories and combines them with reflections from leading industry professionals, often infused with humor, to make the book accessible, readable, and fun. Michael''s seven-step credit analysis process will prepare you for a career in credit investing at the top buy-side and sell-side firms on Wall Street by teaching you the technical skills needed to invest in the debt markets. Whether you are analyzing a loan origination in the private debt market, a new issue of a broadly syndicated loan (BSL), a high-yield bond (HY), or a secondary trade, the comprehensive knowledge gained from this book will equip you to make well-founded investment recommendations. Additionally, an entire section devoted to distressed debt investing incorporates a practitioner''s perspective on the nuances of bankruptcy and restructurings to develop strategies to profit from opportunities in this opaque market. In clear, straightforward terms accessible to the layperson, Michael explains strategies pursued by distressed companies such as J. Crew and Serta that have led to creditor-on-creditor violence, giving you an insider’s perspective on some of the least understood transactions in the distressed arena. You will: Gain In-Depth Knowledge: Understand the complexities of credit markets, from trading dynamics to historical credit cycles, allowing you to identify debt investment opportunities—and avoid pitfalls. Master the Analytical Framework: Learn Michael''s seven-step process for analyzing credit investments, including qualitative industry and business analysis, financial statement analysis, forecasting, corporate valuation, relative value analysis, and debt structuring. Learn How to Write an Investment Recommendation: Review real-life credit memos to understand how analysts translate this framework into recommendations that drive investment decisions at the top credit funds. Discover Key Concepts and Terminology: leveraged buyout financings (LBOs), trading levels (price, yields, and spreads), shorting, and credit default swaps. Navigate Distressed Debt: Explore the strategies and nuances of distressed debt investing, including bankruptcy, subordination, creditor-on-creditor violence, and high-profile case studies from the past three decades of Chapter 11 restructurings. This book caters to finance majors pursuing investing careers, credit analysts seeking to enhance their skills, and seasoned professionals aiming to expand their expertise. Professors, researchers, lawyers, and advisors servicing the credit industry will also find immense value in this comprehensive guide.

A major reevaluation of Caravaggio from one of today's leading art historians This is a groundbreaking examination of one of the most important artists in the Western tradition by one of the leading art historians and critics of the past half-century. In his first extended consideration of the Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1610), Michael Fried offers a transformative account of the artist's revolutionary achievement. Based on the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts delivered at the National Gallery of Art, The Moment of Caravaggio displays Fried's unique combination of interpretive brilliance, historical seriousness, and theoretical sophistication, providing sustained and unexpected readings of a wide range of major works, from the early Boy Bitten by a Lizard to the late Martyrdom of Saint Ursula. The result is an electrifying new perspective on a crucial episode in the history of European painting. Focusing on the emergence of the full-blown "gallery picture" in Rome during the last decade of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the seventeenth, Fried draws forth an expansive argument, one that leads to a radically revisionist account of Caravaggio's relation to the self-portrait; of the role of extreme violence in his art, as epitomized by scenes of decapitation; and of the deep structure of his epoch-defining realism. Fried also gives considerable attention to the art of Caravaggio's great rival, Annibale Carracci, as well as to the work of Caravaggio's followers, including Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, and Valentin de Boulogne. Please note: All images in this ebook are presented in black and white and have been reduced in size.

Beautiful Monsters explores the ways in which "classical" music made its way into late twentieth-century American mainstream culture—in pop songs, movie scores, and print media. Beginning in the 1960s, Michael Long''s entertaining and illuminating book surveys a complex cultural field and draws connections between "classical music" (as the phrase is understood in the United States) and selected "monster hits" of popular music. Addressing such wide-ranging subjects as surf music, Yiddish theater, Hollywood film scores, Freddie Mercury, Alfred Hitchcock, psychedelia, rap, disco, and video games, Long proposes a holistic musicology in which disparate musical elements might be brought together in dynamic and humane conversation. Beautiful Monsters brilliantly considers the ways in which critical commonplaces like nostalgia, sentiment, triviality, and excess might be applied with greater nuance to musical media and media reception. It takes into account twentieth-century media''s capacity to suggest visual and acoustical depth and the redemptive possibilities that lie beyond the surface elements of filmic narrative or musical style, showing us what a truly global view of late twentieth-century music in its manifold cultural and social contexts might be like. Beautiful Monsters explores the ways in which "classical" music made its way into late twentieth-century American mainstream culture—in pop songs, movie scores, and print media. Beginning in the 1960s, Michael Long''s entertaining and illuminating book sur

A complete and easy-to-follow resource covering every critical step of the accounting process Learning to love the language of business is easier than you think! In the newly revised Third Edition of Accounting All-In-One For Dummies with Online Practice, finance expert Michael Taillard walks you through every step of the accounting process, from setting up your accounting system to auditing and detecting financial irregularities. You’ll enjoy a unified compilation of mini-books and online practice and video resources that bring together everything you need to know about accounting into one convenient book and web portal. You’ll learn to record accounting transactions, adjust and close entries, prepare income statements and balance sheets, and more. You’ll also get: Online instructional videos that describe the modern reality of accounting in the digital age Guidance and instruction on how to make savvy financial decisions to help guide your business in the right direction Advice on how to handle case and make intelligent purchasing decisions Helpful practice quizzes for each topic to help you crunch the numbers Perfect for anyone who’s just beginning their career or education in accounting—as well as those who just love numbers—Accounting All-in-One For Dummies is also a must-read for business owners, founders, and managers who want to get a better understanding of the financial side of commerce.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • A “gripping, revelatory” (NPR) memoir of hard-won success, struggles with addiction, and a lifelong mission to give back—from the late iconic actor beloved for his roles in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, and Lovecraft Country “Williams’s cool rasp leaps off every page, his story told in the direct yet impassioned language that defined his greatest characters.”—Vulture ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, NPR, The Root When Michael K. Williams died on September 6, 2021, he left behind a career as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation. From his star turn as Omar Little in The Wire to Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire to Emmy-nominated roles in HBO’s The Night Of and Lovecraft Country, Williams inhabited a slew of indelible roles that he portrayed with a rawness and vulnerability that leapt off the screen. Beyond the nominations and acclaim, Williams played characters who connected, whose humanity couldn’t be denied, whose stories were too often left out of the main narrative. At the time of his death, Williams had nearly finished a memoir that tells the story of his past while looking to the future, a book that merges his life and his life’s work. Mike, as his friends knew him, was so much more than an actor. In Scenes from My Life, he traces his life in whole, from his childhood in East Flatbush and his early years as a dancer to his battles with addiction and the bar fight that left his face with his distinguishing scar. He was a committed Brooklyn resident and activist who dedicated his life to working with social justice organizations and his community, especially in helping at-risk youth find their voice and carve out their future. Williams worked to keep the spotlight on those he fought for and with, whom he believed in with his whole heart. Imbued with poignance and raw honesty, Scenes from My Life is the story of a performer who gave his all to everything he did—in his own voice, in his own words, as only he could.

Muslims, Jews and Pagans examines in much detail the available source material on the ‘Āliya area south of Medina on the eve of Islam and at the time of the Prophet Muḥammad. It provides part of the necessary background for the study of the Prophet''s history by utilizing in addition to the Prophet''s biographies, various texts about the history, geography and inhabitants of this area. The topics include the landscape, especially the fortifications, the delayed conversion to Islam of part of the Aws tribe, the Qubā’ village and the incident of Masjid al-ḍirār in 9 A.H. The three appendices deal with historical apologetics, pointing to the social context in which the Prophet''s biography emerged during the first Islamic century.

Now faced with the "zero hour" created by a new freedom of expression and the dramatic breakup of the Soviet Union, Soviet cinema has recently become one of the most interesting in the world, aesthetically as well as politically. How have Soviet filmmakers responded to the challenges of glasnost? To answer this question, the American film scholar Andrew Horton and the Soviet critic Michael Brashinsky offer the first book-length study of the rapid changes in Soviet cinema that have been taking place since 1985. What emerges from their collaborative dialogue is not only a valuable work of film criticism but also a fascinating study of contemporary Soviet culture in general. Horton and Brashinsky examine a wide variety of films from BOMZH (initials standing for homeless drifter) through Taxi Blues and the glasnost blockbuster Little Vera to the Latvian documentary Is It Easy to Be Young? and the "new wave" productions of the "Wild Kazakh boys." The authors argue that the medium that once served the Party became a major catalyst for the deconstruction of socialism, especially through documentary filmmaking. Special attention is paid to how filmmakers from 1985 through 1990 represent the newly "discovered" past of the pre-glasnost era and how they depict troubled youth and conflicts over the role of women in society. The book also emphasizes the evolving uses of comedy and satire and the incorporation of "genre film" techniques into a new popular cinema. An intriguing discussion of films of Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Kazakhstan ends the work.

The Chemical History of a Candle presents a series of lectures on the chemistry and physics of flames given by Michael Faraday. The lectures described the different zones of combustion in the candle flame and the presence of carbon particles in the luminescent zone. Demonstrations included the production and examination of the properties of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases. An electrolysis cell is demonstrated, first in the electroplating of platinum conductors by dissolved copper, then the production of hydrogen and oxygen gases and their recombination to form water. The properties of water itself are studied, including its expansion while freezing (iron vessels are burst by this expansion), and the relative volume of steam produced when water is vaporized. Techniques for weighing gases on a balance are demonstrated. Atmospheric pressure is described and its effects demonstrated.

Aang and friends must join together once again as the four nations'' tenuous peace is threatened by an impasse between Fire Lord Zuko and Earth King Kuei! As the world heads toward another devastating war, Aang''s friendship with Zuko throws him into the middle of the conflict! Available for the first time in omnibus format, this volume collects parts 1-3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise. This is the official continuation of the hit Nickelodeon(TM) series!

An illuminating guide to publishing a scholarly journal written by a former editor-in-chief American Anthropologist is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association, published quarterly, reaching more than 12,000 readers with each issue and representing four distinct subfields. The journal publishes articles that add to, integrate, synthesize, and interpret anthropological knowledge; commentaries and essays on issues of importance to the discipline; and reviews of books, films, sound recordings, and exhibits. From 2012 to 2016, Michael Chibnik was editor-in-chief of American Anthropologist. In Scholarship, Money, and Prose, he writes a candid account of the complex and challenging work entailed in its production. Providing detailed ethnographic and historical descriptions of the operations of a major journal and behind-the-scenes anecdotes of his experiences, Chibnik makes transparent the work of an editor-in-chief. He reveals how he assembled diverse materials, assessed contradictory peer reviews of manuscripts submitted for publication, and collaborated with authors to improve the legibility and clarity of their articles. He also examines controversies that emerged from his columns on open access and biological anthropology and the inclusion of politically charged material in the journal. Scholarship, Money, and Prose sheds light on two aspects of successful editing that are common to academic journals whatever their subject matter. The first task is to strike a balance among different theoretical perspectives and topical specialties. This pressure is particularly salient in a field like anthropology in which scholars differ greatly in the extent to which they adopt a scientific or humanistic perspective. Second, editors must attend carefully to the need to keep costs down and revenues up in an economic environment in which libraries are cutting subscriptions and publishers are considering the future sustainability of journals. Relevant to a wide range of disciplines, Scholarship, Money, and Prose serves as a window onto the past, present, and future of scholarly publishing.

Record label executive, photographer, and author, Michael Alago takes readers through this amazing journey that is his life. Alago grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in a large, spirited, and devoted Puerto Rican family. Through his early passion for music, art, theater, and photography, he soon found himself rubbing elbows with many downtown NYC scene makers, from Stiv Bators to Jean Michel Basquiat, Cherry Vanilla and Wayne County to Deborah Harry and Robert Mapplethorpe. As an underage teenager going to Max's Kansas City, CBGB, and various art galleries, Alago also began running The Dead Boys fan club. A few years later, he became the assistant music director for legendary nightclubs the Ritz and the Red Parrot. At age twenty-four, he began a storied career as an A&R executive at Elektra Records that started with signing Metallica in the summer of 1984, changing the entire landscape of rock 'n' roll and heavy metal. Alago continued to work in A&R for both Palm Pictures and Geffen Records. He was thrilled to executive-produce albums by Cyndi Lauper, Public Image Ltd, White Zombie, and Nina Simone. In the late 1980s, he was diagnosed with HIV, which manifested into full-blown AIDS ten years later. He survived to continue his music career, but in 2005, he left music to pursue his other love: photography. Alago went on to publish three bestselling books: Rough Gods, Brutal Truth, and Beautiful Imperfections with German-based publisher Bruno Gmünder. He has since overcome his longtime addiction to drugs and alcohol. In his clean and sober life, he has reconnected with his family, continues to be a working photographer as well as record producer, and only through the grace of his 12-Step program is he able to live this big, beautiful life. In 2017, a documentary directed by Drew Stone and produced by Michael Alex on Alago's wildly successful career in music was released in theaters and on Netflix, entitled Who the Fuck Is That Guy? The Fabulous Journey of Michael Alago.

This workbook accompanies The New Testament in Its World by N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird. Following the textbook''s structure, it offers assessment questions, exercises, and activities designed to support the students'' learning experience. Reinforcing the teaching in the textbook, this workbook will not only help to enhance their understanding of the New Testament books as historical, literary, and social phenomena located in the world of early Christianity, but also guide them to think like a first-century believer while reading the text responsibly for today.

Christianity is one of the world’s great religions, with more than two thousand years of history and over two billion adherents worldwide. But what is Christianity? Where did it come from? How did it develop to its current forms? What doctrines do Christians affirm? What ethical norms do they endorse? What relationships between church and state do they champion, and why? What changes have transpired for the faith over the centuries? And what new challenges does Christianity face in the contemporary world? These and other questions are addressed in Michael Robinson’s Christianity: A Brief History. After a concise description of the social, political, and religious world of first-century Palestine, the text quickly examines the Jesus of history and tradition, including Jesus’ impact upon his first-century followers; the narrative then moves to describe the expansions and developments of Christianity through the ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary eras. Along the way, readers learn of the varied beliefs, mores, rituals, struggles, and triumphs of the faith, as well as of the spiritual heights and moral blunders of its people. Robinson’s intention is to introduce Christianity through its story and through those who lived it.

Korra must decide who to trust as the fate of the Earth Kingdom hangs in the balance! On the eve of its first elections, the Earth Kingdom finds its future endangered by its past. Even as Kuvira stands trial for her crimes, vestiges of her imperial ambitions threaten to undermine the nation's democratic hopes. But when Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin don't all see eye-to-eye as to the solution, drastic measures will be taken to halt a new march to war! Written by series co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino and drawn by Michelle Wong (Goosebumps: Download and Die), with consultation by Bryan Konietzko, this is the official continuation of the beloved television series!

This study is among the first works in English to comprehensively address the Scandinavian First World War experience in the larger international context of the war. It surveys the complex relationship between the belligerent great powers and Northern Europe's neutral small states in times of crisis and war. The book's overreaching rationale draws upon three underlying conceptual fields: neutrality and international law, hegemony and great power politics as well as diplomacy and policy-making of small states in the international arena. From a variety of angles, it examines the question of how neutrality was understood and perceived, negotiated and dealt with both among the Scandinavian states and the belligerent major powers, especially Britain, Germany and Russia. For a long time, the experience of neutral countries during the First World War was seen as marginal, and was overshadowed by the experiences of occupation and collaboration brought about by the Second World War. In this book, Jonas demonstrates how this perception has changed, with neutrality becoming an integral part of the multiple narratives of the First World War. It is an important contribution to the international history of the First World War, cultural-historically influenced approaches to diplomatic history and the growing area of neutrality studies.

Break the cycle of surface-level change and failure How do leaders become clearer as complexity increases? We live in a world where decisions require judgment, getting people on board, drawing on local knowledge, ingenuity, and commitment. As leaders, how do you get beneath surface-level change to tackle complex challenges with depth and clarity. Nuance is the answer. Michael Fullan returns with an eminently readable, compelling and practical guide on the three habits of nuance: joint determination, adaptability, and culture-based accountability. Learn how you can: Combine the power of networks and humanity to get to desired destinations Embrace complexity and understand context to develop better judgmenChange the culture of your organization to harness the forces of nuance Develop quality change that sticks

With the discovery of planets beyond our solar system 25 years ago, exoplanet research has expanded dramatically, with new state-of-the-art ground-based and space-based missions dedicated to their discovery and characterisation. With more than 3,500 exoplanets now known, the complexity of the discovery techniques, observations and physical characterisation have grown exponentially. This Handbook ties all these avenues of research together across a broad range of exoplanet science. Planet formation, exoplanet interiors and atmospheres, and habitability are discussed, providing in-depth coverage of our knowledge to date. Comprehensively updated from the first edition, it includes instrumental and observational developments, in-depth treatment of the new Kepler mission results and hot Jupiter atmospheric studies, and major updates on models of exoplanet formation. With extensive references to the research literature and appendices covering all individual exoplanet discoveries, it is a valuable reference to this exciting field for both incoming and established researchers.

Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States. In a country with a rich history of racial animosities, Obama represents a notable deviation in the trajectory of America’s presidential history. At the close of his second term in office, a survey of the personalities and events associated with his presidency is fitting. In this walk through recent history we will be keen to point out the president’s successes, failures, and challenges. Governing in a society ripe with ideological and partisan polarization, the Obama Administration was surrounded by controversy, much of it manufactured by his opponents but salient nonetheless. This volume will attempt to provide perspective and clarity on the most important individuals and experiences connected to Obama during his eight years in office, but also his early life. Information included in this volume also includes discussion of his transition out of office and events taking place at the beginning of the Donald Trump Administration. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Barack Obama Administration contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, including the president, his advisors, his family, his opponents, and his critics, as well as members of Congress, military leaders, and international leaders. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Barack Obama.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement was one of the defining moments in the history of the modern Middle East. Yet its co-creator, Sir Mark Sykes, had far more involvement in British Middle East strategy during World War I than the Agreement for which he is now most remembered. Between 1915 and 1916, Sykes was Lord Kitchener's agent at home and abroad, operating out of the War Office until the war secretary's death at sea in 1916. Following that, from 1916 to 1919 he worked at the Imperial War Cabinet, the War Cabinet Secretariat and, finally, as an advisor to the Foreign Office. The full extent of Sykes's work and influence has previously not been told. Moreover, the general impression given of him is at variance with the facts. Sykes led the negotiations with the Zionist leadership in the formulation of the Balfour Declaration, which he helped to write, and promoted their cause to achieve what he sought for a pro-British post-war Middle East peace settlement, although he was not himself a Zionist. Likewise, despite claims he championed the Arab cause, there is little proof of this other than general rhetoric mainly for public consumption. On the contrary, there is much evidence he routinely exhibited a complete lack of empathy with the Arabs. In this book, Michael Berdine examines the life of this impulsive and headstrong young British aristocrat who helped formulate many of Britain's policies in the Middle East that are responsible for much of the instability that has affected the region ever since.

Trust is an invaluable commodity in any business environment. Organizations benefit from being viewed as transparent, open and human, and one of the best ways of achieving this is through authentic employee advocacy. Participation Marketing takes a detailed look at the benefits that arise when employees are fully subscribed to a brand's ethos, and how this can be used to magnify a brand's voice. After all, it's likely that every individual employee of a company now has several hundred unique social media connections, if not more. So by engaging staff and encouraging them to participate in company activity and share via their own channels, they will be broadcasting trusted brand experiences to entirely new groups of consumers. Employee advocacy has always been worth investing in, but as the combination of constant connectedness and conversation becomes standard in our everyday lives, so too grows the importance of leveraging it. Participation Marketing will convince business leaders to think hard about employee advocacy as a channel that has many positive business outcomes. Internally, it will engage employees and make them feel part of something bigger, which will naturally result in employee satisfaction, retention and an increase in productivity. Externally, it will help brands reach new audiences with trusted and relevant stories.

Although the theme of bloodied nuptial sheets seems pervasive in western culture, its association with female virginity is uniquely tied to a brief passage in the book of Deuteronomy detailing the procedure for verifying a young woman''s purity; it seldom, if ever, appears outside of Abrahamic traditions. In Signs of Virginity, Michael Rosenberg examines the history of virginity testing in Judaism and early Christianity, and the relationship of these tests to a culture that encourages male sexual violence. Deuteronomy''s violent vision of virginity has held sway in Jewish and Christian circles more or less ever since. However, Rosenberg points to two authors-the rabbinic collective that produced the Babylonian Talmud and the early Christian thinker Augustine of Hippo-who, even as they perpetuate patriarchal assumptions about female virginity, nonetheless attempt to subvert the emphasis on sexual dominance bequeathed to them by Deuteronomy. Unlike the authors of earlier Rabbinic and Christian texts, who modified but fundamentally maintained and even extended the Deuteronomic ideal, the Babylonian Talmud and Augustine both construct alternative models of female virginity that, if taken seriously, would utterly reverse cultural ideals of masculinity. Indeed this vision of masculinity as fundamentally gentle, rather than characterized by brutal and violent sexual behavior, fits into a broader idealization of masculinity propagated by both authors, who reject what Augustine called a "lust for dominance" as a masculine ideal.

Michael Lynch’s second edition of Mao examines the life of this controversial figure. Opening with a detailed chronology, it delves into Mao’s younger years and tracks his gradual rise to power, with a chapter dedicated to the cult status that surrounded him. Through a wealth of primary and secondary sources and a balanced consideration of the conflicting views that surround Mao’s leadership, this book provides a thorough exploration of Mao’s political and private life. Key features of the second edition include a detailed analysis of the Long March, an account of Sino-Japanese relations and an assessment of Mao’s ongoing legacy. This biography will be essential reading for anyone interested in Mao and the politics of twentieth-century China.

We are one Universal Family. Our family needs to be restored to a place where we all live together in unity, love, peace, and harmony. Our Universal Family will be restored to health through mutual understanding, knowledge, respect, and communication. The book is written from a spiritual and journalistic perspective regarding a variety of issues that affect Our Universal Family. The goal of this book is to provide information that could open up a much broader discussion worldwide regarding our world family as we all share Mother Earth and our entire Universe.

A lost fantasy classic by the author of The Neverending Story. The Neverending Story is Michael Ende's best-known book, but Momo--published six years earlier--is the all-ages fantasy novel that first won him wide acclaim. After the sweet-talking gray men come to town, life becomes terminally efficient. Can Momo, a young orphan girl blessed with the gift of listening, vanquish the ashen-faced time thieves before joy vanishes forever? With gorgeous new drawings by Marcel Dzama and a new translation from the German by Lucas Zwirner, this all-new 40th anniversary edition celebrates the book's first U.S. publication in over 25 years.

Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred, systematically, when forced to make judgments in uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, and is responsible for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms. Lewis tells the story of the two men whose research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences.

Fairy tales for our times from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Slate, and Bustle A poisoned apple and a monkey’s paw with the power to change fate; a girl whose extraordinarily long hair causes catastrophe; a man with one human arm and one swan’s wing; and a house constructed of gumdrops and gingerbread. In A Wild Swan and Other Tales, the people and the talismans of lands far, far away—the mythic figures of our childhoods and the source of so much of our wonder—are transformed by Michael Cunningham into stories of sublime revelation. Here are the moments that our fairy tales forgot or deliberately concealed: the years after a spell is broken, the rapturous instant of a miracle unexpectedly realized, or the fate of a prince only half cured of a curse. Reimagined by one of the most gifted storytellers of his generation, and exquisitely illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, rarely have our bedtime stories been this dark, this perverse, or this true.