Elegant People is the definitive history of Weather Report, the premier fusion band of the 1970s and beyond. Founded in late 1970 by three stars of the jazz world—keyboardist Joe Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and bassist Miroslav Vitouš—Weather Report went on to become the most unique and enduring jazz band of its era, with a style of music wholly its own. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of Weather Report's first album release, comes Elegant People: A History of the Band Weather Report, the first book to tell the band's story in detail. Based on years of research and dozens of interviews with musicians, engineers, managers, and support personnel, Elegant People is written from an insider's perspective, describing Weather Report's transformation from a freewheeling, avant-garde jazz band whose ethos was "We always solo and we never solo" to a grooving juggernaut that combined elements of jazz, funk, Latin, and rhythm and blues. Fueled by Zawinul's hit tune "Birdland" and the charismatic stage presence of legendary electric bass player Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report took on the aura of rock stars. By the time Zawinul and Shorter mutually agreed to part ways in 1986, Weather Report had produced sixteen albums, a body of work that ranks among the most significant in jazz and continues to resonate with musicians and fans today.

A human-centric guide to solving complex problems in engineering management, from sizing teams to handling technical debt. There’s a saying that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions for complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams—and, ultimately, between the success and failure of companies. Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle focuses on the particular challenges of engineering management—from sizing teams to handling technical debt to performing succession planning—and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management for leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.

This sweeping study examines the law of intellectual property in Chinese civilization from imperial days to the present. It uses materials drawn from law, the arts and other fields as well as extensive interviews with Chinese and foreign officials, business people, lawyers, and perpetrators and victims of "piracy."

Fashion may come and go, beauty may fade, but elegance is forever. In an attempt to feel more comfortable in a more elegant crowd, I endeavored to find ways to assimilate. I didn't think I could keep up by buying more Chanel bags, and thankfully I realized later that I didn't have to! Elegance is so much more than beautiful things. I wanted to be like Audrey Hepburn, but I wondered how to translate old school manners and classic dressing into this modern world. I didn't want to be like the woman who looked stuck in the 50s. This book was based on my journey about learning to be elegant without losing myself and becoming someone I'm not. I've since realized that there is more to being elegant than becoming the stereotypical 'elegant woman'. You can wear your own version of elegance, as long as principles of elegance remain. You don't even have to like pearls (though, they are very tasteful.) This book is written for all those who feel they need more ideas for a little more elegance, confidence and beauty. Most of all, I hope they find encouragement that they too can live a beautiful life regardless of budget or circumstance.

For fans of Mary Beth Keane and Jennifer Egan, this powerful, moving multigenerational saga from National Book Award finalist Martha McPhee—ten years in the making—explores one family’s story against the sweep of 20th century American history. Drawn from the author’s own family history, An Elegant Woman is a story of discovery and reinvention, following four generations of women in one American family. As Isadora, a novelist, and two of her sisters sift through the artifacts of their forebears’ lives, trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss, the narrative shifts to a winter day in 1910 at a train station in Ohio. Two girls wait in the winter cold with their mother—the mercurial Glenna Stewart—to depart for a new life in the West. As Glenna campaigns in Montana for women’s suffrage and teaches in one-room schoolhouses, Tommy takes care of her little sister, Katherine: trapping animals, begging, keeping house, cooking, while Katherine goes to school. When Katherine graduates, Tommy makes a decision that will change the course of both of their lives. A profound meditation on memory, history, and legacy, An Elegant Woman follows one woman over the course of the 20th century, taking the reader from a drought-stricken farm in Montana to a yellow Victorian in Maine; from the halls of a psychiatric hospital in London to a wedding gown fitting at Bergdorf Goodman; from a house in small town Ohio to a family reunion at a sweltering New Jersey pig roast. Framed by Isadora’s efforts to retell her grandmother’s journey—and understand her own—the novel is an evocative exploration of the stories we tell ourselves, and what we leave out.

Autistic junior fellow, Theo, and a first-year undergraduate, Charlotte, begin a romantic friendship which comes to be tested when Theo happens across a shocking revelation, which has embarrassing ramifications for the whole University not to mention a threat to their beloved city of Cambridge, England.

“The cure for death by PowerPoint and analysis paralysis . . . build support for your idea before you do a single calculation in a spreadsheet.” —Eric Grossat, Vice President, Global Marketing HCV, AbbVie “We’re sorry but your recommendation wasn’t approved.” We’ve all heard those words; it’s a sentence that swallows your hopes and crushes your confidence. Getting ideas or projects approved and securing the resources needed to implement them is one of the greatest challenges business leaders face. With multiple stakeholders, constrained budgets, and competing agendas, it’s difficult to cut through the clutter and garner the required support. The Elegant Pitch provides a simple, proven process to go from idea to approval more quickly and effectively than ever before. This is the same method used by elite strategy consulting firms such as McKinsey & Co. and Bain Consulting. But you don’t have to be a high-priced consultant to master a process that promises: Clearer and more compelling recommendations and ideas Shorter and crisper communications Greater efficiency Shorter and fewer meetings More efficient decision-making processes A higher likelihood of getting your recommendations approved Do less work, hold fewer and shorter meetings, and get ideas approved on the first pass? Sign me up! By using the methods in The Elegant Pitch, you can get to “yes” more quickly and drive the results that set you apart from the crowd. “If you need to frame up situations, challenges, and decision paths or you’re looking for support, budget, and headcount for your ideas, you’ll want to read this book twice.” —Suzie Reider, Managing Director, Brand Solutions, YouTube/Google

Winner of the Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award, this debut novel is "as funny as The Office, as sad as an abandoned stapler . . . that rare comedy that feels blisteringly urgent." (TIME) No one knows us in quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the Chicago ad agency depicted in Joshua Ferris's exuberantly acclaimed first novel is family at its best and worst, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells an emotionally true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment—the one we pretend is normal five days a week. One of the Best Books of the Year Boston Globe * Christian Science Monitor * New York Magazine * New York Times Book Review * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Time magazine * Salon

National Bestseller "Gives you all the context you need to understand the science of immunity. ... An Elegant Defense left me with [a] sense of awe.” —Bill Gates, Gates Notes Summer Reading List The Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist "explicates for the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system" (Jerome Groopman, MD, New York Review of Books) From New York Times science journalist Matt Richtel, An Elegant Defense is an acclaimed and definitive exploration of the immune system and the secrets of health. Interweaving cutting-edge science with the intimate stories of four individual patients, this epic, first-of-its-kind book “give[s] lay readers a means of understanding what’s known so far about the intricate biology of our immune systems” (The Week). The immune system is our body’s essential defense network, a guardian vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive. It has been honed by evolution over millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats. For all its astonishing complexity, however, the immune system can be easily compromised by fatigue, stress, toxins, advanced age, and poor nutrition—hallmarks of modern life—and even by excessive hygiene. Paradoxically, it is a fragile wonder weapon that can turn on our own bodies with startling results, leading today to epidemic levels of autoimmune disorders. An Elegant Defense effortlessly guides readers on a scientific detective tale winding from the Black Plague to twentieth-century breakthroughs in vaccination and antibiotics, to today’s laboratories that are revolutionizing immunology—perhaps the most extraordinary and consequential medical story of our time. Drawing on extensive new interviews with dozens of world-renowned scientists, Richtel has produced a landmark book, equally an investigation into the deepest riddles of survival and a profoundly human tale that is movingly brought to life through the eyes of his four main characters, each of whom illuminates an essential facet of our “elegant defense.”

TL;DR Compound variable names, validators, private static literals, configurable objects, inheritance, annotations, MVC, dependency injection containers, reflection, ORM and even algorithms are our enemies.