Expectations

In this sharply observed novel set in and around London, three college friends, now in their thirties, must come to terms with the gap between the lives they imagined for themselves and reality in the face of marriage, fertility struggles, and loss. In her first year of motherhood after an unplanned pregnancy, Cate is constantly exhausted, spiraling into self-doubt and postpartum anxiety. Her husband Sam seems oblivious, but maybe she’d prefer he remain in the dark. How can she admit the unthinkable—that she misses her freedom? In contrast, Hannah continues to endure round after round of unsuccessful IVF treatments. The process is taking its toll on her physically and emotionally—and, she worries, creating distance between her and her husband Nathan. She is godmother to Cate’s son, but every time they get together, it’s a trigger. Beautiful and unattached, Lissa is re-evaluating what it means to be an actress in her thirties. While she fiercely resists convention, she’s also lonely. A chance encounter in the British Library with Nathan has her wondering if she missed her best chance at love when she introduced him to Hannah. As each woman longs for what the others seemingly possess, will their bonds of friendship sustain them in this liminal phase of their lives—or will their envy and desire tear them apart?

"The Expectations announces a dazzling new voice in American fiction." --Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach St. James is an exclusive New England boarding school known for grooming generations of leaders. Ben Weeks is a true insider -- his ancestors helped found St. James, his older brother taught him all the slang, and he's just won a national championship in squash. But after fourteen long years of waiting, Ben arrives at school only to find that the reality of St. James doesn't quite match up with his imaginings. At the same time, his new roommate, Ahmed Al-Khaled, the son of a fabulously wealthy Emirati sheik, can't navigate the unspoken rules of New England blue bloods. Even as Ben and Ahmed struggle to prove themselves in the place they have revered for so long, each of them must face losing it forever. The Expectations is at once a finely drawn portrait of American privilege and a subtle exploration of class, race, and tradition. Above all, it is a tender, sharp, and evocative debut about the pain and treachery of adolescence, and the difficulty--wherever one finds oneself--of truly belonging.

This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 1994). People have expectations. Your clients, for example. Sometimes their expectations of you seem unreasonable. But sometimes your expectations of them seem just as unreasonable (in their eyes). The problem is that these mismatched expectations can lead to misunderstandings, frayed nerves, and ruffled feathers. More seriously, they often lead to flawed systems, failed projects, and a drain on resources. Managing Expectations shows how to identify expectations and suggests ways to gain more control of them. In today's turbulent business world, understanding and meeting your customers' expectations is indeed a challenge, and it's not hard to understand why: Expectations affect a range of interactions, including service responsiveness, service capability, product functionality, and project success. Expectations are difficult to control and impossible to turn off. However, by learning to identify and influence what your customers expect, you can dramatically improve the quality, impact, and effectiveness of your services. Contents include sections on communication skills, information gathering, policies and practices, building win-win relationships, as well as a concluding chapter on how to formulate an action plan. A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Expectations Guard Against Conflicting Messages Use Jargon with Care Identify Communication Preferences Listen Persuasively Help Customers Describe Their Needs Become an Information-Gathering Skeptic Understand Your Customers' Context Try the Solution On for Size Clarify Perceptions Set Uncertainty-Managing Service Standards When Appropriate, Just Say Whoa Build Win-Win Relationships Formulate an Action Plan

"Myth has played an important and ongoing role in the development of Saskatchewan's political economy. First, during the time of the National Policy, Saskatchewan was portrayed to immigrants as a promised land. This period served as the psychological and economic foundation for the provice. When belief in Saskatchewan as a promised land was shattered by the Great Depression and Dirty Thirties, the myth was reconstituted through the inspiration of the social gospel. It was then politically reinvigorated in the meaning of medicare and has been expressed in recent decades through the competing visions for economic development. Through all these eras, no matter what the tides of politics, there remained one constant--the singular, collective idea that Saskatchewan was a special place with unrealized potential. The challenge for the public dialogue of Saskatchewan, as the province enters its second century, is to not replay the mistakes of the past. Saskatchewan people must recognize the role that myth has played, and must continue to play, in the life of the province. But, at the same time, they must differentiate it from reality by understanding the power of myth as a force for progress and its potential to create false expectations."--pub. desc.

"Among the thousands of books for prospective and new parents, I doubt any will make you feel more understood and less alone than this one."—ANTHONY DOERR, author of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE “Armed with wit, tenderness and candor, [Look How Happy I'm Making You] helps obliterate any taboos that may still exist surrounding the tribulations of women’s reproductive lives.”—PEOPLE MAGAZINE A candid, ultimately buoyant debut story collection about the realities of the "baby years," whether you're having one or not The women in Polly Rosenwaike's Look How Happy I'm Making You want to be mothers, or aren't sure they want to be mothers, or--having recently given birth--are overwhelmed by what they've wrought. Sharp and unsettling, wry and moving in its depiction of love, friendship, and family, this collection expands the conversation about what having a baby looks like. One woman struggling with infertility deals with the news that her sister is pregnant. Another woman nervous about her biological clock "forgets" to take her birth control while dating a younger man and must confront the possibility of becoming a single parent. Four motherless women who meet in a bar every Mother's Day contend with their losses and what it would mean to have a child. Witty, empathetic, and precisely observed, Look How Happy I'm Making You offers the rare, honest portrayal of pregnancy and new motherhood in a culture obsessed with women's most intimate choices.

This “breath-taking trip through the union-organizing scene of America in the 21st century” reveals the victories and unconventional strategies of a renowned—and notorious—militant union organizer (Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed) In 1995, in the first contested election in the history of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney won the presidency of the nation’s largest labor federation, promising renewal and resurgence. Today, less than 7 percent of American private-sector workers belong to a union, the lowest percentage since the beginning of the twentieth century, and public employee collective bargaining has been dealt devastating blows in Wisconsin and elsewhere. What happened? Jane McAlevey is famous—and notorious—in the American labor movement as the hard-charging organizer who racked up a string of victories at a time when union leaders said winning wasn’t possible. Then she was bounced from the movement, a victim of the high-level internecine warfare that has torn apart organized labor. In this engrossing and funny narrative—that reflects the personality of its charismatic, wisecracking author—McAlevey tells the story of a number of dramatic organizing and contract victories, and the unconventional strategies that helped achieve them. Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) argues that labor can be revived, but only if the movement acknowledges its mistakes and fully commits to deep organizing, participatory education, militancy, and an approach to workers and their communities that more resembles the campaigns of the 1930s—in short, social movement unionism that involves raising workers’ expectations (while raising hell).

In October 2005, Jason Foster, then a staff member of the Alberta Federation of Labour, was walking a picket line outside Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alberta with the members of local 401. It was a first contract strike. And although the employees of the meat-packing plant—many of whom were immigrants and refugees—had chosen an unlikely partner in the United Food and Commercial Workers local, the newly formed alliance allowed the workers to stand their ground for a three-week strike that ended in the defeat of the notoriously anti-union company, Tyson Foods. It was but one example of a wide range of industries and occupations that local 401 organized over the last twenty years. In this study of UFCW 401, Foster investigates a union that has had remarkable success organizing a group of workers that North American unions often struggle to reach: immigrants, women, and youth. By examining not only the actions and behaviour of the local’s leadership and its members but also the narrative that accompanied the renewal of the union, Foster shows that both were essential components to legitimizing the leadership’s exercise of power and its unconventional organizing forces.