In this groundbreaking work of ecstatic criticism, Carole Maso shows why she has risen, over the past fifteen years, as one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament. Ever refusing to be marginalized or categorized by genre, Maso is an incisive, compassionate writer who deems herself daughter of William Carlos Williams, a pioneer in combining poetry and fiction with criticism, journalism, and the visual arts. She is daughter, too, of Allen Ginsberg, who also came from Paterson, New Jersey. Known for her audacity, whether exploring language and memory or the development of the artistic soul, Maso here gives us a form–challenging collection, intelligent, and persuasive.

New York Times best-selling celebrity Mark Bego herin delves into another self-made and strong-willed femail star: internationally renowned soul/pop vocalist Tina Turner.

Gallup presents the remarkable findings of its revolutionary study of more than 80,000 managers in First, Break All the Rules, revealing what the world’s greatest managers do differently. With vital performance and career lessons and ideas for how to apply them, it is a must-read for managers at every level. The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom. They do not believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They do not try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They consistently disregard the golden rule. And, yes, they even play favorites. This amazing book explains why. Gallup presents the remarkable findings of its massive in-depth study of great managers across a wide variety of situations. Some were in leadership positions. Others were front-line supervisors. Some were in Fortune 500 companies; others were key players in small entrepreneurial companies. Whatever their situations, the managers who ultimately became the focus of Gallup’s research were invariably those who excelled at turning each employee’s talent into performance. In today’s tight labor markets, companies compete to find and keep the best employees, using pay, benefits, promotions, and training. But these well-intentioned efforts often miss the mark. The front-line manager is the key to attracting and retaining talented employees. No matter how generous its pay or how renowned its training, the company that lacks great front-line managers will suffer. The authors explain how the best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or experience; how they set expectations for him or her — they define the right outcomes rather than the right steps; how they motivate people — they build on each person’s unique strengths rather than trying to fix his weaknesses; and, finally, how great managers develop people — they find the right fit for each person, not the next rung on the ladder. And perhaps most important, this research — which initially generated thousands of different survey questions on the subject of employee opinion — finally produced the twelve simple questions that work to distinguish the strongest departments of a company from all the rest. This book is the first to present this essential measuring stick and to prove the link between employee opinions and productivity, profit, customer satisfaction, and the rate of turnover. There are vital performance and career lessons here for managers at every level, and, best of all, the book shows you how to apply them to your own situation.

The friendship of five wealthy Manhattan teens is threatened by a contest to choose the Hottest Private School Boy.

It's that time of year in New York: one of the city's premier magazines is compiling its annual "Hottest Private School Boy" issue. Jonathan, Mickey, David, Arno, and Patch all figure they're shoo-ins, but will the competition to be chosen as the cover model tear the guys apart? Add to that a few twists and turns in their love lives, a visit from an internationally acclaimed photographer (whose specialty happens to be nude crowd shots), and an invasion by a clique of Upper East Side It Girls, and the Insiders might find themselves clamoring for a way out.

Dominique Falcon is a gorgeous model, a wealthy socialite—and a total fool when it comes to love. After falling for a charmer who was after her money, she's decided to set some ground rules for romance, starting with: Don't be richer than your man. But that was before she met Trent Masters, a ruggedly sexy truckdriver who drives her crazy... He might be rough around the edges, but Trent is a hardworking man who built his successful trucking firm from humble beginnings. Dominique can't ignore the sparks between them—but dating a man so soon after his fiancée betrayed him would be breaking another basic rule: Don't trust a man on the rebound. Even so, things are heating up fast and—even though she might get burned—Dominique is ready to risk it all. In the game of love, rules are made to be broken...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series comes a breathtaking thriller about a man whose only chance to rescue his family is to return to the past he thought he’d left behind. Tommy Miller is a man with deadly skills, hiding in Florida under a false identity. After being set up on an overseas mission, he’s on the run from terrorists—and from the government who betrayed him. So when his wife and daughter are violently abducted, it seems his ghosts are finally catching up with him. But Tommy isn’t the only one with secrets. His wife, Teresa, has been concealing her own dangerous past, and as Tommy races to rescue his family, he must peel away the clues she’s left behind. With a hotshot police detective, Lindy Jax, close on his trail, Tommy follows a twisted path from Florida to the Bahamas, one that brings him face-to-face with ruthless enemies. His search for answers soon puts him on the wrong side of the law—hunted by the police and pursued by men who want him dead. Worst of all, if he hopes to save Teresa and their daughter, Rosalita, he must become the man he once was—a killer operating from the deepest shadows. But when the lives of the people you love are at stake, rules are made to be broken.