In The Best Dang Job in the World, Bill Rezak creates a fictional campus to highlight characteristics, attributes, and behaviors which are key to success in leading an institution of higher learning. The book centers on Rick Nedic, a dean who finds himself the victim of a faculty no-confidence vote. It details his ascension to college president and the challenges he faces on a daily basis. The Best Dang Job in the World applies practices and techniques learned in both the corporate and academic world to a leadership role in the higher education enterprise. It covers effective techniques for identifying, interviewing, hiring, and retaining qualified college and university executives. It also discusses time management, budget preparation and management, job descriptions and performance evaluations, strategic and operational planning and implementation, and relationship building and fundraising. Rezak intermixes humor with crucial lessons to shed light on specific approaches for leading and managing a college or university. This is a must read for anyone aspiring to or currently in academic leadership.

An intensely moving memoir of a young man who left heartbreak in Maine to seek healing Out West in the company of horses. Growing up in a small Maine town, Chris Lombard had never ridden a horse—never even touched one. But on one fateful night, as what he’d thought was a happy twenty-something life full of love and possibility fell suddenly apart, he met two horses and looked into their eyes. What he saw inspired him to leave everything he had, and everything he didn’t have, behind, and go in search of what was missing. With the little he needed packed in his ten-year-old Pontiac Grand Prix, and little more to go on than a belief that someone would give him a chance, Chris headed west to find work on a horse ranch. His journey took him first to the mountains of Colorado, then the Hollywood Hills of California, and finally, the wild borderlands of Southern Arizona. The settings changed but the same lessons came in quiet moments, movingly captured in these pages: watching horses, reaching out to them, swinging upon their backs. Chris learned new meanings for words—presence, connection, softness, and balance—the elements of good horsemanship feeding a deep hunger he didn’t know he had. But learning to ride a horse, learning to communicate with him, to teach him things, these required qualities Chris was only beginning to cultivate. Human nature plans; it pushes and it rushes. And it would take a terrible accident to awaken a whole new awareness for time and space, and Chris's place within it, beside a horse. In the austere beauty of the Sonora Desert, Chris met a cowboy whose intense love for life on the back of a horse held a deep sadness at bay, but only for so long. Their brief time together, working land and livestock, would bring Chris to the realization that the richly fulfilling new life he’d found held all the answers he sought, but only if he could ultimately leave it behind. Evocatively written, interweaving the author’s growing understanding of horses and how we connect with them with his deeply personal experiences, Land of the Horses brings to life a young man’s transformation alongside the horses, people, and dramatic landscapes of the American West. Healing heartbreak, falling and getting back on, searching for something true—this is a story that is in all of us. And it shows we are all capable of creating the life we truly want to live.

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

What happens when sleep becomes commodified? What if all the people at your local café were piloting drone strikes? What is the hidden cost and darkness of the society we must all engage with? Mr. Colostomy opens up cans of worms faster than they can restock the Goya on your bodega shelves. Who is Mr. Colostomy? Why, he’s a manifestation of a searching consciousness, a marginally employable horse detective who sleeps outside, standing up. As he attempts to unravel a ridiculous plot that follows the disappearance of a couple of brats who turn into atomic particles after sundown, Mr. Colostomy remains always alien, a mutant mustang, an eccentric equus who might just be trying to make a buck in Babytown, the Babylon built by babes—or, is a more sinister plot a-hoof? The surreal comedy of Mr. Colostomy is enhanced by Thurber’s process of creating the comic through parapraxis, meaning with no forethought or pencilling. This comic honours the mistake as the desired or hidden expression of the unconscious. All that matters is that the comic is funny or real or neither! All comics were created in a public space in order to “swim in” or “feel” the audience.

Big Rosa rescues unhappy women of the Wild West to work in a helium mine; Georgie Appleseed rescues his failing diner with the help of neon. A silicon son tries to make his gold dad proud, while a scientist tries to make a new St. Francis from calcium bone fragments. Obadiah Toad gives away all his peace with a nickel, but Mamá finally gives away her heart on account of arsenic. These twenty stories explore twenty-two of the elemental forces that underpin all of life…

Orphaned at a young age when his parents are killed in a car accident, Adam Swanson lived his life without questioning his surroundings or ever considering whether God actually existed, but after he gets a visit from the Arch Angel Gabriel, that all changes. Through a series of bizarre glimpses into the supernatural, he quickly begins to learn that there is indeed more to this life. When his grandfather dies and leaves Adam both his house and an unusually large amount of money, he finds a strange book that reveals an ancient family secret placing him directly in the middle of an age old plot to bring the anti-Christ into the world. As Adam struggles to figure out what his place is in the world, he learns that not only is there more going on in the supernatural realm than the could have ever imagined, there is also more going on in the natural realm than meets the eye. This fast paced thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat and questioning what is just beneath the surface.

International marketing expert David Andrusia shares his essential tips and tricks for pitching yourself in today's hyper-competitive job market. Whether it's finding a new job, holding on to current employment, or nailing down a new promotion, the key is learning how to effectively sell or "pitch" oneself to others. In this insightful and entertaining handbook, Andrusia explains how to succeed in today's competitive and constantly shifting job market by perfecting the tailored pitch, the personal pitch, the power pitch, and the team pitch.

1934 Emil Langerzweig's public censure of Nazi collaboration forced him to flee his homeland with a young son and a dream. In Austria, his aristocratic family raised Lipizzaner horses for the Spanish Court. In America, he'd change his name to Longbranch, modify the age-old tradition, raise Thoroughbreds. Thad Longbranch, third-generation cowboy at the reins of the "Bar L," is living his grandfather's dream, confident his children will insure continuity of the dynasty. Buffered by fifteen-thousand acres in the foothills of the Rockies, his wife Sam seems content homeschooling, writing children's books. Satisfying, predictable, life is good until the letters arrive. Bearing the Colorado State Seal, the first missive poses a request that thrusts Sam into the political arena, fosters a relationship with a charming would-be Governor, jeopardizes a twenty-year marriage. Postmarked Mexico, the second letter reveals a longheld secret, a secret that threatens succession of the Longbranch family, and propels a crazed Mexican drug lord across the border to Colorado in search of an orphaned boy. Sprinkled with humor empathetic characters and villains you'll love to hate, bring to life this fast-paced tale of passion, murder, remorse and acceptance of a child who may lay claim to a fortune the last vagabond.

What does a guy do when his best friend starts doing things that are completely out of character? In the case of Luke McAllister, you can't do anything - until you figure out exactly what it is that is different. The fact that his best friend is a girl complicates matters a heap. Nothing makes sense when RaeNell Stephens, the girl that has "the best curve ball he's ever seen," starts blushing and acting like a durned female. All of this at the beginning of the summer to end all summers' too. This is the summer that Luke, RaeNell, and their friend Farley Midkiff set out to locate, and cash in on a rogue Civil War soldier's stolen one million dollar Union payroll. Undaunted by thousands of scholars and fortune seekers having looked unsuccessfully for the treasure for a hundred years, the three 12 year-old friends search diligently for themselves. What they find is an adventure - though maybe not what, or where, they expected!

Named one of 10 Best New Management Books for 2022 by Thinkers50 A Wall Street Journal Bestseller "...this guide provides readers with much more than just early careers advice; it can help everyone from interns to CEOs." — a Financial Times top title You've landed a job. Now what? No one tells you how to navigate your first day in a new role. No one tells you how to take ownership, manage expectations, or handle workplace politics. No one tells you how to get promoted. The answers to these professional unknowns lie in the unspoken rules—the certain ways of doing things that managers expect but don't explain and that top performers do but don't realize. The problem is, these rules aren't taught in school. Instead, they get passed down over dinner or from mentor to mentee, making for an unlevel playing field, with the insiders getting ahead and the outsiders stumbling along through trial and error. Until now. In this practical guide, Gorick Ng, a first-generation college student and Harvard career adviser, demystifies the unspoken rules of work. Ng distills the wisdom he has gathered from over five hundred interviews with professionals across industries and job types about the biggest mistakes people make at work. Loaded with frameworks, checklists, and talking points, the book provides concrete strategies you can apply immediately to your own situation and will help you navigate inevitable questions, such as: How do I manage my time in the face of conflicting priorities? How do I build relationships when I’m working remotely? How do I ask for help without looking incompetent or lazy? The Unspoken Rules is the only book you need to perform your best, stand out from your peers, and set yourself up for a fulfilling career.