Best Selling Books by Sonja

Performance management can be an uncomfortable topic within the discipline of public health. Written by leaders in public health performance management and quality improvement, this book carefully explains what public health performance management is -- and makes a strong case for why it is needed to tackle successfully the long-standing health issues plaguing communities and states. Notably, the book eschews the need to invest in technology or to learn a new performance management vocabulary. Rather the authors advocate for more thoughtful use of the resources already available in the organization, relying on public health leadership working in conjunction with well trained staff to manage their own organizational performance. To be broadly accepted within public health, performance management concepts and models have to be framed and populated with public health examples, and this book offers a wealth of practical insights and case studies that may be immediately applied to public health organizations, from assessing an organization's needs, introducing a performance management system to the organization, developing an agency's goals and targets, to implementation of sound performance management systems and plans. Collaborative Performance Management for Public Health is required reading for all public health leaders and employees concerned with maximizing the health impact of scarce resources.

Extreme intelligence is strongly correlated with the highest of human achievement, but also, paradoxically, with higher relationship conflict, career difficulty, mental illness, and high-IQ crime. Increased intelligence does not necessarily increase success; it should be considered as a minority special need that requires nurturing. This book explores the social development and predicaments of those who possess extreme intelligence, and the consequent personal and professional implications for them. It uniquely integrates insights and knowledge from the research fields of intelligence, giftedness, genius, and expertise with those from depth psychology, emphasising the importance of finding ways to talk effectively about extreme intelligence, and how it can better be supported and embraced. The author supports her arguments throughout, reviewing the academic literature alongside representations of genius in history, fiction, and the media, and draws on her own first-hand research interviews and consulting work with multinational high-IQ adults. This book is essential reading for anyone supporting or working with the highly gifted, as well as those researching or interested by the field of intelligence.

This is an excellent country studies series for less able readers.

In this compelling and poignant debut novel, a woman skilled at caring for animals must learn to mend the broken relationships in her family.… For veterinarian Geneva Novak, animals can be easier to understand than people. They’re also easier to forgive. But when her mother, Helen, is injured in a vodka-fueled accident, it’s up to Geneva to give her the care she needs. Since her teens, Geneva has kept her self-destructive mother at arm’s length. Now, with two slippery teenagers of her own at home, the last thing she wants is to add Helen to the mix. But Geneva’s husband convinces her that letting Helen live with them could be her golden chance to repair their relationship. Geneva isn’t expecting her mother to change anytime soon, but she may finally get answers to the questions she’s been asking for so long. As the truth about her family unfolds, however, Geneva may find secrets too painful to bear and too terrible to forgive. CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

One of the most relevant social problems in contemporary American life is the continuing HIV epidemic in the Black population. With vivid ethnographic detail, this book brings together scholarship on the structural dimensions of the AIDS epidemic and the social construction of sexuality to assert that shifting forms of sexual stories—structural intimacies—are emerging, produced by the meeting of intimate lives and social structural patterns. These stories render such inequalities as racism, poverty, gender power disparities, sexual stigma, and discrimination as central not just to the dramatic, disproportionate spread of HIV in Black communities in the United States, but to the formation of Black sexualities. Sonja Mackenzie elegantly argues that structural vulnerability is felt—quite literally—in the blood, in the possibilities and constraints on sexual lives, and in the rhetorics of their telling. The circulation of structural intimacies in daily life and in the political domain reflects possibilities for seeking what Mackenzie calls intimate justice at the nexus of cultural, economic, political, and moral spheres. Structural Intimacies presents a compelling case: in an era of deepening medicalization of HIV/AIDS, public health must move beyond individual-level interventions to community-level health equity frames and policy changes

"Inspired by the real life experiences of Rwandan refugees in the UK, the play tells the story of two people from entirely different worlds who meet at a Refugee Centre in London."--Back cover.

The phenomenon of transnational adoption is changing in the age of globalization and biotechnology. In Legitimating Life, Sonja van Wichelen boldly describes how contemporary justifications of cross-border adoption navigate between child welfare, humanitarianism, family making, capitalism, science, and health. Focusing on contemporary institutional practices of adoption in the United States and the Netherlands, she traces how professionals, bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians, social workers, and experts legitimate a practice that became progressively controversial. Throughout the past few decades transnational adoption transformed from a humanitarian response to a means of making family. In this new manifestation, life becomes necessarily economized. While push and pull factors, demand and supply dynamics, and competition between agencies set the stage for the globalization of adoption, international conventions, scientific knowledge, and the language of human rights universalized the phenomenon. Van Wichelen argues that such technoscientific legitimations of a globalizing practice are rearticulating colonial logics of race and civilization. Yet, she also lets us see beyond the biopolitical project and into alternative ways of making kin.

This harrowing, and ultimately hopeful novel in verse sensitively depicts a girl's journey through the aftermath of abuse. One day after school, on the couch in the basement, Tori's uncle did something bad. Afterward, Tori tells her mom. Even though telling was a brave thing to do, her mom still doesn't believe her at first. Her grandma still takes his side. And Tori doesn't want anyone else—even her best friend—to know what happened. ​ Now Tori finds herself battling mixed emotions—anger, shame, and sadness—as she deals with the trauma. But with the help of her mom, her little sister, her best friend, and others, can Tori find a way to have the last word? From debut author Sonja K. Solter comes a heartbreaking yet powerful novel that will strike a chord with readers of Jacqueline Woodson and Tony Abbott.

Providing fully developed rhetorical theories from feminist perspectives, this book offers coherent, systematic overviews of complex, large bodies of work and ideas relevant to rhetoric and communication. The book presents theories developed from the work of nine feminist theorists, each from diverse standpoints demonstrating the diversity of both feminism and feminist rhetorical theories - Chris Kramarae, Bell Hooks, Gloria Anzaldua, Mary Daly, Starhawk, Paula Gunn Allen, Trinh T Minh-ha, Sally Miller Gearhart and Sonia Johnson. The resulting theories differ substantially from traditional rhetorical theories, and will encourage scholars to rethink many traditional rhetorical constructs.

Harmony Stewart has the ingredients for a perfect life: a precocious daughter, substantial wealth, and a supportive family. The only potential improvement would be a second shot at love. Since she’s always had a thing for doctors, Harmony’s determined to meet Mr. Right at the hospital’s Holiday Cookie Bazaar and recruits cantankerous German baker Abelard Durchdenwald with a simple deal: his cookies for her assistance in landing him his dream job. Abel adds unexpected—and much-needed—spice to Harmony’s days, so when issues arise with Abel’s visa, she impulsively offers a fake engagement that stirs up trouble with her well-connected ex-husband, Chance. If her ex uncovers Abel and Harmony’s deception, the consequences could be catastrophic. She should scrap the plan and start from scratch, but that would mean letting go of the baker who’s turning out to be sweeter than his desserts.

A study of Judy Blume's novel Tales of a fourth grade nothing.

Analyzing Banking Risk: A Framework for Assessing Corporate Governance and Risk Management provides a comprehensive overview of topics focusing on assessment, analysis, and management of financial risks in banking. The publication emphasizes risk management principles and stresses that key players in the corporate governance process are accountable for managing the different dimensions of financial and other risks. This fourth edition remains faithful to the objectives of the original publication. It covers new business aspects affecting banking risks, such as mobile banking and regulatory changes over the past decade—specifically those related to Basel III capital adequacy concepts—as well as new operational risk management topics such as cybercrime, money laundering, and outsourcing. This publication will be of interest to a wide body of users of bank financial data. The target audience includes the persons responsible for the analysis of banks and for the senior management or organizations directing their efforts. Because the publication provides an overview of the spectrum of corporate governance and risk management, it is not aimed at technical specialists of any particular risk management area. *** Hennie van Greuning was formerly a Senior Adviser in the World Bank's Treasury Unit and previously worked as a sector manager for financial sector operations in the World Bank. He has been a partner in a major international accounting firm and a controller and head of bank supervision in a central bank. Since retiring from the World Bank, he has chaired audit, ethics, and risk committees in various banks and has been a member of operational risk and asset-liability management committees. Sonja Brajovic Bratanovic was a Lead Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank, after a career as a senior official in a central bank. With extensive experience in banking sector reforms and financial risk analysis, she led World Bank programs for financial sector reforms, as well as development projects. Since her retirement, she has continued as a senior consultant for World Bank development projects in the financial sector, as well as an advisor for other development institutions.

In recent years European prison law and policy have emerged as a force to be reckoned with. This book explores its development and analyses the penological and human rights foundations on which it is based. It examines the findings of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the recommendations of the Council of Europe, and the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. From these sources it makes the general principles that underlie European prison law and policy explicit, emphasising the principle of using imprisonment as a last resort and the recognition of prisoners' rights. The book then moves on to apply these principles to conditions of imprisonment, regimes in prison, contacts between prisoners and the outside world, and the maintenance of good order in prisons. The final chapter of the book considers how European prison law and policy could best be advanced in future. The authors argue that the European Court of Human Rights should adopt a more proactive approach to ensuring that imprisonment is used only as a last resort, and that a more radical interpretation of the existing provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights will allow it to do so. It concludes that the growing cooperation on prison matters within Europe bodes well for the increased recognition of prisoners' rights across Europe. In spite of some countervailing voices, Europe should increasingly be able to give an international lead in a human rights approach to prison law and policy in the same way it has done with the abolition of the death penalty.

Promising talent Sonja Condit makes her debut with Starter House, an eerie and mesmerizing tale about a young couple whose new house holds deadly secrets from the past, sure to appeal to fans of Heart-Shaped Box and The Thirteenth Tale. From the moment Lacey sees the house with the beautiful wood staircase, she knows she’s found her dream home. Growing up rootless with her flighty mother, Ella Dane, a self-proclaimed psychic, Lacey is determined to give her unborn baby the stability she never had. But shortly after she and her husband, Eric, move in, the warm and welcoming house becomes cold and dark. There is something malevolent within these walls that wants to hurt her unborn child—a terrifying presence that only she can sense. And there is Drew, a demanding and temperamental little boy who mysteriously appears when Lacey is alone. To protect her unborn child and save her family, Lacy must discover the truth about her dream house and the troubled Drew—a decades-old mystery involving secrets, violence, and guilt—and confront an evil that has lingered in wait for years.

Do corporate culture and leadership contribute to a firm's success? And if so, how? How can a company create and develop its corporate culture to compete successfully over the long term? Answers to these questions emerge in case studies of the business practices of six long-established and world-renowned companies: the BMW Group, Deutsche Lufthansa, Grundfos, Henkel, Hilti and Novo Nordisk. In a project initiated by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, researchers investigated these firms and analyzed the central characteristics of corporate success from a culture perspective. The case studies render a detailed picture of each firm's distinctive corporate culture and the factors that shape it. Based on these examples, Sonja A. Sackmann has identified concrete strategies and practices that illustrate how a company's management can make a significant contribution toward developing a dialogue-oriented corporate culture that supports a firm's viability. The appendix provides a checklist for readers who want to develop their firm's culture and practice culturally aware management.