“O Mother of Mares, send me a change in the wind!” Jessa, Healer to a nomadic tribe, is content enough among them but life is routine and predictable, and her heart is empty. She prays for change, and apparently the Gods hear her, for change arrives – most unexpectedly, in the shape of a warrior from an alien world. As an officer with the British Army in Afghanistan, Captain Malcolm Redwing finds life anything but routine and predictable. It becomes even less so when after a serious accident on active duty he wakes to find himself among Jessa’s tribe, a stranger on a world that is not Earth. At first he is regarded with dislike and suspicion, but eventually he makes his peace with The People and settles down as one among them. As a professional soldier should, he waits for his chance to discover how he came to their world, and whether he can make his way back to his own by the same means. As time passes, however, the friendships he makes and his developing relationship with Jessa begin to come into conflict with his loyalty to his regiment and the comrades and friends he has left behind. His duty is to return home if he can, but as the months slip by he begins to question where his true loyalty really lies. Then news comes that a long-feared invasion by a strange and warlike people from the South has begun, and both Malcolm and Jessa are swept up into a conflict for which the peaceable Tribe are utterly unprepared.

Having a good, stable job used to be the bedrock of the American Dream. Not anymore. In this richly detailed and eye-opening book, Rick Wartzman chronicles the erosion of the relationship between American companies and their workers. Through the stories of four major employers--General Motors, General Electric, Kodak, and Coca-Cola--he shows how big businesses once took responsibility for providing their workers and retirees with an array of social benefits. At the height of the post-World War II economy, these companies also believed that worker pay needed to be kept high in order to preserve morale and keep the economy humming. Productivity boomed. But the corporate social contract didn't last. By tracing the ups and downs of these four corporate icons over seventy years, Wartzman illustrates just how much has been lost: job security and steadily rising pay, guaranteed pensions, robust health benefits, and much more. Charting the Golden Age of the '50s and '60s; the turbulent years of the '70s and '80s; and the growth of downsizing, outsourcing, and instability in the modern era, Wartzman's narrative is a biography of the American Dream gone sideways. Deeply researched and compelling, The End of Loyalty will make you rethink how Americans can begin to resurrect the middle class. Finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize in current interestA best business book of the year in economics, Strategy+Business

How Today's Marketing Leaders Have Bypassed the "Experts" to Craft Effective, Inexpensive Customer Loyalty Programs Database marketing is today's most powerful tool for designing cost-effective, resource-efficient marketing and operations programs. The Customer Loyalty Solution cuts through theory and guesswork to examine how leading marketers from Land's End to IBM are using today's new breed of database marketing tools to compute lifetime value, cut costs in every area, and make databases easier to access and utilize from anywhere on the globe. Praise for The Customer Loyalty Solution: "The Customer Loyalty Solution combines the best of traditional practice with contemporary market factors in terms that inspire and cut across industries. Straightforward enough for the upcoming 1-1 marketer as well as a great catch-up for the seasoned practitioner."--Joe Rapolla, VP, Consumer Marketing Services, Universal Music Group/CLO "Delivers practical solutions instead of hyperbole and theory. Hughes makes this book fun to read, and he gets his point across--clearly."--Robert McKim, CEO, msdbm "Well written and easy to understand. Hughes imparts his wisdom to set realistic expectations and provides case studies adding real-world application."--J.C. Johnson, VP, Database Marketing, Fairfield Resorts "Hughes distills the jargon and complexity of database marketing into a refreshingly straightforward and practical guide. The Customer Loyalty Solution should be required reading for anyone serious about making database marketing work."--Jonathan Huth, VP, Relationship Database Marketing, Scotiabank New technologies like the Web have brought unprecedented change to database marketing. But some things never change. Successful marketers have learned that to understand their customers they must still think like their customers, who continue to ignore one-time discounts to ask, "Why would I want to be that company's customer? What's in it for me?" The Customer Loyalty Solution goes straight to the source, revealing how marketers today are leveraging their database marketing programs to identify and attract the most profitable new customers, increase current customer retention and repurchase, and identify and reward their most loyal and profitable customers. More than 40 detailed case studies and dozens of examples reveal success stories including Verizon's "best in class" datamart that realized a 1681 percent return on marketing investment Isuzu's database project that targeted only their best prospects--and cut industry-standard per-unit sales costs in half Weekly Standard's variable headline strategy that increased direct mail response rates by nearly 25 percent Author and database marketing pioneer Arthur Hughes doesn't hide behind incomprehensible formulas and impossible-to-navigate layouts. Each easy-to-follow chapter clearly addresses and explains a different piece of the database-marketing puzzle. Case studies are clearly marked and detail what went right--or wrong. Chapter-ending synopses summarize the lessons to be learned in each chapter and clearly review what worked and what didn't. These features and others combine with innovative charts and quizzes to ensure hands-on understanding of material covered and make the book a timely, practical guide. The Customer Loyalty Solution reveals how database marketing and customer relationship management initiatives are making a difference, today, for the world's leading marketers. It provides you with step-by-step techniques for benchmarking their efforts to develop intelligent strategies of your own, understanding how and why they work, and monitoring their results to continually adjust and modify for changing market conditions. The result will be far stronger customer loyalty, more consistent repeat

The Historian, witness of countless stories, comes upon one that may reveal something of his own. Aegon, a vile and eccentric old sorcerer, holds the key to a past the Historian has forgotten, but he's in no mood to share. Aegon is being hunted by the last of his own students, who have twisted their humanity in their thirst for power. Magic and madness are only pieces of the puzzle as the Historian moves to take control of the story, protect Aegon, and shift destiny itself. In his most personal story yet, the Historian finds that life, death, and love hang in the balance as he battles to save this story and find his own.

Reunited with her royal family after being forced to leave her fiancé Prince Alexander, Sarah is thrust into the political turmoil that surrounds her ancestral home, upturning a long-held prophecy. As the voices of dissension mount against her, Sarah turns to her bodyguard, Luther, for protection. But his protection comes with a price.

This book sounds a bold call for loyalty to God and to God's Davids. God's Davids are leaders-male and female-who are safest to follow because of their unwavering passion to be intimate with Christ. God is turning the hearts of fathers to the children, and giving the children a heart of loyalty to the fathers. Knowing the power of loyalty to produce Kingdom blessing at every level, Satan has done everything in his power to give this subject a bad reputation. But today's generation isn't buying it anymore. Now, more than ever, the bride of Christ is giving her heart with intense loyalty to her Beloved and preparing eagerly for His return. Get ready, this book could rock your world.

It's been said that if you want a friend in Washington, you should buy a dog. Unfortunately, there's some truth to that: there are few places in the world where the turncoats and careerists are so highly rewarded and where loyalty is equated with stupidity. Luckily, another bit of wisdom about the Beltway is also true: the people in Washington aren't like the ones in the rest of the country. The American people treasure loyalty. They stick by a friend when he needs them. They forgive him when he's wrong. They understand the difference between politics and friendship. They are true to their ideals and their schools, loyal to their families and their God. In Stickin', the always colorful and insightful political strategist James Carville, who has been accused of being loyal, examines this much-maligned and misunderstood political good. Along the way, he looks at loyalty in the family and among friends, in theory and in practice. He praises some loyal people and skewers some deserving backstabbers. And, of course, it wouldn't be a Carville book if he didn't provide recipes for some good home cooking.