No one dies in Office Girl. Nobody talks about the international political situation. There is no mention of any economic collapse. Nothing takes place during a World War. Instead, this novel is about young people doing interesting things in the final moments of the last century. Odile is a twenty-three-year-old art-school dropout, a minor vandal and a hopeless dreamer. Jack is a twenty-five-year-old shirker who's most happy capturing the endless noises of the city on his out-of-date tape recorder. Together they decide to start their own art movement in defiance of a contemporary culture made dull by both the tedious and the obvious. Set in February 1999 — just before the end of one world and the beginning of another — Office Girl is the story of two people caught between the uncertainty of their futures and the all-too-brief moments of modern life. 'A love story on bicycles' Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief 'Wonderful storytelling panache' The Wall Street Journal 'Fresh and funny' The New York Times 'A sweetheart of a novel' Kirkus Review 'Meno has constructed a snowflake-delicate inquiry into alienation and longing' Booklist

A topsy-turvy ride through corporate America, where the male is the minority and must face a comedic blend of sex discrimination and harassment that threatens his sanity. Michael Forrester, a floundering author, has been reduced to writing articles for a local newspaper under a pseudonym. When the newspaper runs an article he finds offensive to African American men, he writes a rebuttal, which offends so many women it gets him fired. Michael then sets out to write a book that proves corporate women are just as scandalous, competitive, and insensitive as their male counterparts. But when he manipulates events to get hired into an office that is staffed by all women, events quickly spiral out of control. As romances sprout like weeds and Michael finds himself fighting for the women he works alongside, rather than against them, the question is whether he will be able to focus on his work, keep his flings a secret, and achieve the success he has always dreamed of. In turns hilarious, sobering, and eye-opening, The Office Girls tells the story of every woman who works in the corporate world and the challenges they face on a daily basis. The misogyny, sexual harassment, and gender inequality faced by these characters will ring true for all women who have experienced corporate America.

Before you were told to "Lean In," Dr. Lois Frankel told you how to get that corner office. The New York Times bestseller, is now completely revised and updated. In this edition, internationally recognized executive coach Lois P. Frankel reveals a distinctive set of behaviors--over 130 in all--that women learn in girlhood that ultimately sabotage them as adults. She teaches you how to eliminate these unconscious mistakes that could be holding you back and offers invaluable coaching tips that can easily be incorporated into your social and business skills. Stop making "nice girl" errors that can become career pitfalls, such as: Mistake #13: Avoiding office politics. If you don't play the game, you can't possibly win. Mistake #21: Multi-tasking. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should do it. Mistake #54: Failure to negotiate. Don't equate negotiation with confrontation. Mistake #70: Inappropriate use of social media. Once it's out there, it's hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Mistake #82: Asking permission. Children, not adults, ask for approval. Be direct, be confident.

This quirky tale of two young artists in love in 1990s Chicago is “a gorgeous little indie romance . . . A sweetheart of a novel” (Kirkus Reviews). In the last year of the twentieth century, Odile is a lovely twenty-three-year-old art-school dropout, a minor vandal, and a hopeless dreamer. Jack is a twenty-five-year-old shirker who’s most happy capturing the endless noises of the city on his out-of-date tape recorder. Together they decide to start their own art movement, in defiance of a contemporary culture made dull by both the tedious and the obvious. Set just before the end of one world and the beginning of another, this is the story of two people trying to capture a moment in the face of an uncertain future. Named a Best Book of the Year by Daily Candy and chosen as a favorite fiction work of the year in The Believer’s readers’ poll, Office Girl “reads as a parody of art-school types . . . and as a tribute to their devil-may-care spirit” (The New York Times Book Review). “Mr. Meno excels at capturing the way that budding love can make two people feel brave and freshly alive to their surroundings . . . The story of the relationship has a sweet simplicity.” —The Wall Street Journal “Meno’s tender, hip, funny, and imaginative portrayal of two Chicago misfits . . . dramatizes that anguished and awkward passage between legal age and actual adulthood.” —Booklist Features black-and-white illustrations by artist Cody Hudson and photographs by Todd Baxter.

A young American businesswoman discovers life inside a Japanese corporation. Armed with a new degree in Japanese studies, plenty of youthful idealism, and a can-do attitude, a young woman accepts a job as the first American trainee at Honda's headquarters in Tokyo. Her image of Japanese corporate life is dramatically challenged on her first day at work when she is issued a blue polyester uniform--a uniform worn only by women! With good humor and accessible prose, Laura Kriska relates her journey through the company, from serving tea to executives and cleaning the boss's desk to a stint in public relations and developing training classes for Japanese associates going to America. The reader is rooting for Kriska as she recounts her struggle to adapt to--and ultimately thrive in--the culture of a traditional Japanese company. Shortly before her departure, she comes full circle by introducing a successful campaign to make women's uniforms optional. Now with a new foreword by the author, The Accidental Office Lady is a vivid and valuable firsthand account not only of corporate Japan and the gender inequality that persists within it, but of an outsider's successful attempt to work within cultural boundaries to affect organizational change.

If you love Sophie Kinsella or Lindsey Kelk, you'll adore this gorgeous, romantic Italian getaway. From London to Italy with love... Alice Roberts is having a rubbish summer. She's terrified of her boss, her career is stalling, and she's just been dumped - by text message. But things are about to change... When her boss Olivia is taken ill, Alice is sent on the work trip of a lifetime: to a villa in Sicily, to edit the autobiography of Hollywood bad boy Luther Carson. But it's not all yachts, nightclubs and Camparis. Luther's arrogant agent Sam wants him to ditch the book. Luther himself is gorgeous, charming and impossible to read. There only seems to be one way to get his attention, and it's not one her boss would approve of. Alice is out of the office, and into deep trouble...

A compilation of multiple case histories of single women of various ages who all work for the same company in New York City. He never reveals who the company is (after decades of thought and a little research, I think I figured it out), but that isn't important. What IS important is the lives of these women, how they feel about their lifestyle, how they feel about their work, how they feel about the company, and how they feel about each other! If you ever sensed that the faces we wear in public have little to do with who we really are and how we really feel, this book will solidify that feeling. All of the women are very unique, some you admire, some you pity, some you dislike. But all are fascinating. It's a flashback to the 1970's and the early stages of the women's liberation movement. It will leave you wondering where these women are today and what became of their lives.

Wes Anderson on Stefan Zweig: "I had never heard of Zweig...when I just more or less by chance bought a copy of Beware of Pity. I loved this first book. I also read the The Post-Office Girl. The Grand Budapest Hotel has elements that were sort of stolen from both these books. Two characters in our story are vaguely meant to represent Zweig himself — our “Author” character, played by Tom Wilkinson, and the theoretically fictionalised version of himself, played by Jude Law. But, in fact, M. Gustave, the main character who is played by Ralph Fiennes, is modelled significantly on Zweig as well." 2009 PEN Translation Prize Finalist The logic of capitalism, boom and bust, is unremitting and unforgiving. But what happens to human feeling in a completely commodified world? In The Post-Office Girl, Stefan Zweig, a deep analyst of the human passions, lays bare the private life of capitalism.Christine toils in a provincial post office in post–World War I Austria, a country gripped by unemployment. Out of the blue, a telegram arrives from Christine’s rich American aunt inviting her to a resort in the Swiss Alps. Christine is immediately swept up into a world of inconceivable wealth and unleashed desire. She feels herself utterly transformed: nothing is impossible. But then, abruptly, her aunt cuts her loose. Christine returns to the post office, where yes, nothing will ever be the same. Christine meets Ferdinand, a bitter war veteran and disappointed architect, who works construction jobs when he can get them. They are drawn to each other, even as they are crushed by a sense of deprivation, of anger and shame. Work, politics, love, sex: everything is impossible for them. Life is meaningless, unless, through one desperate and decisive act, they can secretly remake their world from within. Cinderella meets Bonnie and Clyde in Zweig’s haunting and hard-as-nails novel, completed during the 1930s, as he was driven by the Nazis into exile, but left unpublished at the time of his death. The Post-Office Girl, available here for the first time in English, transforms our image of a modern master’s achievement.

A hardboiled novel about life in the American underground, from the pool halls of Portland to the cells of San Quentin. Simply one of the finest books ever written about being down on your luck. Don Carpenter’s Hard Rain Falling is a tough-as-nails account of being down and out, but never down for good—a Dostoyevskian tale of crime, punishment, and the pursuit of an ever-elusive redemption. The novel follows the adventures of Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the fleabag hotels and seedy pool halls of Portland, Oregon. Jack befriends Billy Lancing, a young black runaway and pool hustler extraordinaire. A heist gone wrong gets Jack sent to reform school, from which he emerges embittered by abuse and solitary confinement. In the meantime Billy has joined the middle class—married, fathered a son, acquired a business and a mistress. But neither Jack nor Billy can escape their troubled pasts, and they will meet again in San Quentin before their strange double drama comes to a violent and revelatory end.