This little book does not prophesize that the sky is falling on cities and towns. It does not suggest that officeholders lack commitment and dedication. It is argued here that city and town councils are generally locked into governance structures that restrict them from being more effective. Councils are bombarded with demands, requests, and even threats, and often are unable to satisfy all constituencies. The fundamental premise is this: For councils to fulfill their roles more effectively requires a transformation not of the structure of governance but of a government's culture, using different and possibly new leadership styles. Councils must change rigid habits, arrangements, and thoughts and adopt an outside-in culture, one that discards unnecessary processes, procedures, and structures; allows extensive probing and questioning of premises and arrangements; and avoids the status quo in making decisions. Councils in large and small towns must comprehend the changing nature of society beyond their city limits and how these changes influence the behavior of citizens. An outside-in culture suggests the need to elect and appoint people who exhibit renaissance leadership skills and talents.

An exhilarating spy thriller inspired by a true story about the precious secrets up for grabs just after the fall of the Berlin Wall—from the acclaimed author of The Cover Wife “Fesperman accurately depicts the corrosive effect of life under a surveillance society, debasing both the watchers and the watched.... Most Cold War spy novels focus on the Manichaean ideological struggle between East and West; this one successfully explores a grayer era.” —Ben Macintyre, The New York Times On a chilly early morning walk on the wooded outskirts of Berlin, Emil Grimm finds the body of his neighbor, a fellow Stasi officer named Lothar, with a gunshot wound to the temple and a pistol in his right hand. Despite appearances, Emil suspects murder. A few months earlier he would have known just what to do, but now, as East Germany disintegrates, being a Stasi colonel is more of a liability than an asset. More troubling still is that Emil and Lothar were involved in a final clandestine mission, one that has clearly turned deadly. Now Emil must finish the job alone, on uncertain ground where old alliances seem to be shifting by the day. Meanwhile, CIA agent Claire Saylor, sent to Berlin to assist an Agency mop-up action against their collapsing East German adversaries, has just received an upgrade to her assignment. She'll be the designated contact for a high-ranking foreign intelligence officer of the Stasi, although details are suspiciously sketchy. When her first rendezvous goes dangerously awry, she realizes the mission is far more delicate than she was led to believe. With the rules of the game changing fast, and as their missions intersect, Emil and Claire find themselves on unlikely common ground, fighting for their lives against a powerful enemy hiding in the shadows.

Politics is a mean spirited business. Power Play allows the reader to be in the room where this character driven novel is graphically experienced. History repeats itself. Questionable Police tactics didn't begin in 2014. The awareness and threats caused by aggressive police actions have recently changed but they’re not without precedent. A City Manager has the inside story. Read Power Play, a story set in the 1970’s when blind trust was too often the case. Deceit, revenge, militaristic police, affected legal system and gay tragedy. The end of the Hoover era, amidst the death throes of the Nixon debacle. The author has captured an era, depicting a battle for the soul of the Republic, at the local level. Young, handsome, charming Collier Winthrop is enticed by a crusty old Political Boss, Al Caso, to seek Public Office. Collie soon faces an unscrupulous adversary practiced in deceit; manipulated state investigative agencies and a contaminated police department. Events unfold that uncover a sordid police mentality, unveil the civil rights of the Flower Children violated, ruin reputations and threaten the very lives of Collie's confederates. How can Collie unravel plots unseen and unimaginable, to survive even the earliest months of his political enterprise. The work portrays the depth and conflict of personalities. Politics is a business of expediency. Otherwise decent people justify immoral behavior in defense of careers.

'Peter May is a writer I'd follow to the ends of the earth' New York Times The isle of Lewis is a land of strange beauty, harsh living and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith. Detective Inspector Fin Macleod returns from Edinburgh to the island of his childhood to investigate a series of brutal killings. As old memories resurface and old friends reappear, Fin realizes that returning to the past will lead him into danger.

First published in 1990, The Ethnographic Imagination explores how sociologists use literary and rhetorical conventions to convey their findings and arguments, and to 'persuade' their colleagues and students of the authenticity of their accounts. Looking at selected sociological texts in the light of contemporary social theory, the author analyses how their arguments are constructed and illustrated, and gives many new insights into the literary convention of realism and factual accounts.

Gross is back and viler than ever! From the author of Oh, Yuck! the perennial bestseller about science with over 610,000 copies in print, comes OH, YIKES!, an illustrated encyclopedia of history’s messiest, dumbest, grossest, wackiest, and weirdest moments. If kids think pus and gas are fun, wait until they hear the lowdown on the real Dracula, samurai, gladiators, guillotines and vomitoriums, pirates, Vikings, witch trials, and the world’s poxiest plagues. Impeccably researched, deliciously wry, and subversively educational (check out the toilet-paper timeline), OH, YIKES! covers people, events, institutions, and really bad ideas, alphabetically from April Fool’s Day to zany Zoos. Here are the Aztecs, sacrificing 250,000 people a year for the gods—and for food. Fearsome Attila the Hun, scourge of the steppes whose spinning eyes terrified his friends and whose mastery of horses terrorized his enemies (how does someone so evil die? Nosebleed!). Saur, the 11th-century dog-king of Norway (and not too bad as kings go). Henry VIII and his marital problems, the story of the Abominable Snowman and the Loch Ness Monster, why sailors in the old days preferred eating in the dark (hint: you can’t see what’s crawling in your food), and the answer to the question, “How did knights in armor go to the bathroom?” Topped off with hundreds of illustrations and photographs along with hands-on activities that bring the past to life, OH, YIKES! puts the juice in history in a way that makes it irresistible.