A Carousel of Sorts is a dizzying leap into the shallow end of the pool of life. The story embraces the enormity of the world and the underlying idiosyncrasies that connect us all in the end. And perhaps along the way, on the wings of the fabled Carik birds from the tale, some of those answers will appear somewhere amidst the infinite spectrum between Bob Dylan’s song lyrics and the ingredients to Cocoa Puffs cereal. Sawyer Redwine, happens upon his own chance at redemption by stumbling into the life of Ashton James during a robbery. They hightail their lives across country in order to create a fresh start careening into Blaiku “Willy” Williams, the final piece in this triangle of fate. From the festive weirdness of a religious carnival located in Iowa to the eccentric values of a cosmetics mogul in Minneapolis, the triumvirate’s journey unfolds under a tabloid, fashion reporter’s eyes. Interwoven in the trio’s new America are an angel who appears to be Ted Nugent, a Mafia hitman trying to become a rodeo clown, an elderly woman who speaks only through Hallmark cards, and an obsessive narrator with a bloated ego and a magically spiked six-pack of beer.

In Widowsbury, an isolated village where people believe "known is good, new is bad," three outcasts form the girls' school join forces with a home-schooled boy to uncover and combat the evil that is making people disappear.

Mad Men Carousel is an episode-by-episode guide to all seven seasons of AMC's Mad Men. This book collects TV and movie critic Matt Zoller Seitz’s celebrated Mad Men recaps—as featured on New York magazine's Vulture blog—for the first time, including never-before-published essays on the show’s first three seasons. Seitz’s writing digs deep into the show’s themes, performances, and filmmaking, examining complex and sometimes confounding aspects of the series. The complete series—all seven seasons and ninety-two episodes—is covered. Each episode review also includes brief explanations of locations, events, consumer products, and scientific advancements that are important to the characters, such as P.J. Clarke’s restaurant and the old Penn Station; the inventions of the birth control pill, the Xerox machine, and the Apollo Lunar Module; the release of the Beatles’ Revolver and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds; and all the wars, protests, assassinations, and murders that cast a bloody pall over a chaotic decade. Mad Men Carousel is named after an iconic moment from the show’s first-season finale, “The Wheel,â€? wherein Don delivers an unforgettable pitch for a new slide projector that’s centered on the idea of nostalgia: “the pain from an old wound.â€? This book will soothe the most ardent Mad Men fan’s nostalgia for the show. New viewers, who will want to binge-watch their way through one of the most popular TV shows in recent memory, will discover a spoiler-friendly companion to one of the most multilayered and mercurial TV shows of all time. It's the perfect gift for Mad Men fans and obsessives. Also available from Matt Zoller Seitz: The Oliver Stone Experience, The Wes Anderson Collection: Bad Dads, The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Wes Anderson Collection.

Mail Technology Evolution to e-Revolution explores how rapid technological advances and liberalization of the postal world is transforming individuals and business customers' options and expectations.

The Integrated Manufacturing System (IMS), Group Technology, Numerical Control, and Computer Aided Design (CAD) were four outstanding innovations that were one-time milestones of scientific industrial management. This book describes the expectations and disappointments of the common pitfalls of these ingenious ideas, which leads to understanding of their gradual disappearing, and proposes a way to restore these methods for long term utility and value. The first three innovations dominated the industry till the mid-1970s. Surprisingly, the reason for them being replaced is the same: research of the “routine” was misleading regardless of its ingenuity. In the fourth case, CAD does not support CAPP (Computer Aided Process Planning) and thus Numerical Control could no longer support developments of a system such as a flexible and automated factory. However, they incorporate many features in a specific resource instead within a manufacturing system. CAD technology and machining centers remain remarkable as a specific (unique) manufacturing resource. This work proposes ways to revive these innovations for the future. Innovation is a driver for the development of new products and production methods. It should be an integral part of a system and not pursued for its own sake. This volume shows, explains, and remedies this by treating these interesting examples.