It’s like a plot from a Hollywood potboiler: start out in the mailroom, end up a mogul. But for many, it happens to be true. Some of the biggest names in entertainment—including David Geffen, Barry Diller, and Michael Ovitz— started their dazzling careers in the lowly mailroom. Based on more than two hundred interviews, David Rensin unfolds the never-before-told history of an American institution—in the voices of the people who lived it. Through nearly seven decades of glamour and humiliation, lousy pay and incredible perks, killer egos and a kill-or-be-killed ethos, you’ll go where the trainees go, learn what they must do to get ahead, and hear the best insider stories from the Hollywood everyone knows about but no one really knows. A vibrant tapestry of dreams, desire, and exploitation, The Mailroom is not only an engrossing read but a crash course, taught by the experts, on how to succeed in Hollywood.

The story follows the lives of several agents working for a top agency in Hollywood, as they navigate the cutthroat world of show business. The agents must deal with demanding clients, ruthless competition, and their own personal struggles as they try to make it to the top.

"FLESH PEDDLERS!" shrieked the ugly man as he stared first at Jack Lennart, then the naked voluptuousness of the woman at his side, Marga. “So you're the ones who have led Lily into a life of sin and evil!” Magically there was a gun in his hand and as he leveled it the naked Marga lunged at him, her breasts swaying in tremors of hate. There was an explosion, and a passion-crazed scream... Here is the shock novel of the year — the truth about men who sell lust and the women who supply it. Bodies for a price as the Flesh Peddlers shout— SEX FOR SALE

Booklist Top of the List Reference Source The heir and successor to Eric Partridge's brilliant magnum opus, The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, this two-volume New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is the definitive record of post WWII slang. Containing over 60,000 entries, this new edition of the authoritative work on slang details the slang and unconventional English of the English-speaking world since 1945, and through the first decade of the new millennium, with the same thorough, intense, and lively scholarship that characterized Partridge's own work. Unique, exciting and, at times, hilariously shocking, key features include: unprecedented coverage of World English, with equal prominence given to American and British English slang, and entries included from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean emphasis on post-World War II slang and unconventional English published sources given for each entry, often including an early or significant example of the term’s use in print. hundreds of thousands of citations from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, and songs illustrating usage of the headwords dating information for each headword in the tradition of Partridge, commentary on the term’s origins and meaning New to this edition: A new preface noting slang trends of the last five years Over 1,000 new entries from the US, UK and Australia New terms from the language of social networking Many entries now revised to include new dating, new citations from written sources and new glosses The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.

The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang offers the ultimate record of modern, post WW2 American Slang. The 25,000 entries are accompanied by citations that authenticate the words as well as offer examples of usage from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, television shows, musical lyrics, and Internet user groups. Etymology, cultural context, country of origin and the date the word was first used are also provided. In terms of content, the cultural transformations since 1945 are astounding. Television, computers, drugs, music, unpopular wars, youth movements, changing racial sensitivities and attitudes towards sex and sexuality are all substantial factors that have shaped culture and language. This new edition includes over 500 new headwords collected with citations from the last five years, a period of immense change in the English language, as well as revised existing entries with new dating and citations. No term is excluded on the grounds that it might be considered offensive as a racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or any kind of slur. This dictionary contains many entries and citations that will, and should, offend. Rich, scholarly and informative, The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English is an indispensable resource for language researchers, lexicographers and translators.

Several recent books have touted the benefits of working as a temporary employee, but now Parker, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and onetime temp himself, portrays a dark side to the temporary-help industry. In spite of its title, this book is a scholarly look at what Parker calls "contingent work." He identifies the major companies in the industry, profiles who become temps, and describes where temporary workers are most heavily utilized. While acknowledging advantages for some workers, he also describes negative aspects of such work: low pay, few fringe benefits and usually no health coverage, irregular hours, underutilization of skills, hazardous working conditions, circumvention of equal opportunity programs, etc. Parker also claims a major reason companies use temps is to undermine labor-organizing efforts. Because temporary workers may actually make up one-third of this nation's workforce, Parker's book will be an important addition to business and labor collections