The Lovesick Salesman

The Lovesick Salesman PDF

Author: Margaret Gray

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2004-10

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9780805075588

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Even after being refused admission to the Heroic Academy, Irwin, a lowly shopkeeper in the Kingdom of Coriander, longs to prove that he is a true hero and win the love of the beautiful, wise Princess Julia.

Fast Food, Fast Talk

Fast Food, Fast Talk PDF

Author: Robin Leidner

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1993-08-04

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0520085000

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Attending Hamburger University, Robin Leidner observes how McDonald's trains the managers of its fast-food restaurants to standardize every aspect of service and product. Learning how to sell life insurance at a large midwestern firm, she is coached on exactly what to say, how to stand, when to make eye contact, and how to build up Positive Mental Attitude by chanting "I feel happy! I feel terrific!" Leidner's fascinating report from the frontlines of two major American corporations uncovers the methods and consequences of regulating workers' language, looks, attitudes, ideas, and demeanor. Her study reveals the complex and often unexpected results that come with the routinization of service work. Some McDonald's workers resent the constraints of prescribed uniforms and rigid scripts, while others appreciate how routines simplify their jobs and give them psychological protection against unpleasant customers. Combined Insurance goes further than McDonald's in attempting to standardize the workers' very selves, instilling in them adroit maneuvers to overcome customer resistance. The routinization of service work has both poignant and preposterous consequences. It tends to undermine shared understandings about individuality and social obligations, sharpening the tension between the belief in personal autonomy and the domination of a powerful corporate culture. Richly anecdotal and accessibly written, Leidner's book charts new territory in the sociology of work. With service sector work becoming increasingly important in American business, her timely study is particularly welcome.

A New Omnibus of Crime

A New Omnibus of Crime PDF

Author: Tony Hillerman

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0195182146

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"Three-quarters of a century ago, Dorothy L. Sayers compiled the classic anthology The Omnibus of Crime, a definitive collection of short fiction that brought together crime and mystery works from the Apocryphal Scriptures to whodunits from the 1920s. Now, reflecting the explosive developments in the genre, Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of that book's publication with A New Omnibus of Crime. Like Sayers's volume, this new book is envisioned as a vehicle carrying stories the editors think represent the best in crime and mystery writing in our time. Selections also reflect the tastes of Contributing Editors Sue Grafton and Jeffery Deaver, both of whom have stories in this volume."--BOOK JACKET.

The Devil In Kilgore, Texas

The Devil In Kilgore, Texas PDF

Author: Stephen E. Yocum

Publisher: FriesenPress

Published: 2015-09-22

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1460264525

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The Devil in Kilgore, Texas is a suspenseful novel of historical fiction, recounting the lives of a poor, highly dysfunctional family during The Great Depression of the late 1920's. The central characters are three young children, two brothers and their girl cousin, who endeavor to survive the daunting crucible of those hard times and the neglect of their uncaring, self-absorbed parents. The raw telling of the nature of this abuse is dark and unflinching, yet truthful to the actions of far too many people that produce children, having no concept or desire to love and nurture them. The children's journey is one of struggle and redemption. Their love for one another, their bond of strength. Along the way they encounter decent people, strangers that teach them that not every adult they meet is evil or cruel and that the children's previously unknown concepts of fidelity and being loved are not some abstract, unattainable dream only played out in their collective wistful imaginings. This unshakable covenant of love, hope and survival between the children is the heart of the story. The darker moments are but a background. On a parallel path is the character rich true story of a Texas town and its people, amid the largest oil discovery in U S History. How a blessing of riches turned, overnight, into a pernicious calamity, creating a boomtown of thousands of grasping seekers and scoundrels, fostering the destruction of this small hamlet while stealing the innocence of its citizens. Both compelling stories, of the children and the town, dramatically speed towards a shared and redemptive climax.