A summer thunderstorm pursued Mark Thallander as he drove from Massachusetts to Maine after playing the organ for a morning church service in Worcester. Dinner awaited him, but Mark never arrived. The car hydroplaned at the exit from the turnpike, just minutes from his destination. A deafening silence followed the explosion of the accident. Then an unseen woman's voice spoke to Mark. Turn off the engine. Keep talking. Later, in a hospital forty miles away, surgeons had Mark sign an amputation release form as he pleaded with them to save his arm...

How a single day revealed the history and foreshadowed the future of Shanghai. It is November 12, 1941, and the world is at war. In Shanghai, just weeks before Pearl Harbor, thousands celebrate the birthday of China’s founding father, Sun Yat-sen, in a new city center built to challenge European imperialism. Across town, crowds of Shanghai residents from all walks of life attend the funeral of China’s wealthiest woman, the Chinese-French widow of a Baghdadi Jewish businessman whose death was symbolic of the passing of a generation that had seen Shanghai’s rise to global prominence. But it is the racetrack that attracts the largest crowd of all. At the center of the International Settlement, the heart of Western colonization—but also of Chinese progressivism, art, commerce, cosmopolitanism, and celebrity—Champions Day unfolds, drawing tens of thousands of Chinese spectators and Europeans alike to bet on the horses. In a sharp and lively snapshot of the day’s events, James Carter recaptures the complex history of Old Shanghai. Champions Day is a kaleidoscopic portrait of city poised for revolution.

If you want to improve your chess the best place to start is looking how the great champs did it. Grandmaster Joel Benjamin introduces all seventeen World Chess Champions and describes their historical significance He shows what is important about their style of play and what you can learn from them. Benjamin presents two games by each champion, concentrating on verbal instruction rather than variations. Magic names such as Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Tal, Karpov, Kasparov,they're all there, up to current World Champion Magnus Carlsen. How do they open the game? How do they develop their pieces? How do they conduct an attack or defend when necessary? All this is explained in lessons accessible to every post-beginners. Two Americans are included in this highly instructive manual. Of course the crystal-clear style of Bobby Fischer, the 11th World Chess Champion, guarantees some very memorable lessons. Additionally, Benjamin has also included Paul Morphy. The 19th century master from New Orleans never held and official title, but was clearly the best of the world during his short and dramatic career. Studying World Champion Chess for Juniors will be an extremely rewarding experience for ambitious youngsters. A lot of trainers and coaches will find it worthwhile to include the book in their curriculum. The author provides many suggestions for further study.

A Fateful Meeting A year and a half ago, I was sitting at a conference listening to Ed Noffsinger speak, and suddenly had the most profound ‘‘Aha’’ moment of my professional career. Here was someone presenting a practical and tested solution to some of the most challenging problems currently plaguing the US healthcare system, problems such as poor access to primary and specialty care; the uncontainable and rising costs of healthcare; our nation’s relatively poor quality outcomes; and finally, the sense of frustration, disempowerment, loneliness, and disenfranchisement that patients and their families too often experience. Dr. Noffsinger’s solution seemed deceptively simple—shared medical appointments (SMAs) that afford the highest quality healthcare to be delivered in the highest quality care experience—a group setting. Experience collected over a decade and involving more than 100,000 patient visits throughout the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe has demonstrated that SMAs, when used in primary care as well as in the medical and surgical subspecialties, lead to increased access to care, enhanced quality of care, and improved patient satisfaction. For physicians, the efficiency gains and team support from their participation in SMAs translate into much needed relief and improved career satisfaction.

The significance of managing end-to-end supply chains from one hand has been the subject of discussion for over ten years. Regina M. Neubauer provides an answer on how such a scenario might work by studying enterprises in the European logistics industry.