Too Much Time

Roughly one significant crime is committed in the US every three seconds. So it's not unlikely to find yourself witnessing one. Jack Reacher is minding his own business in a town in Maine when he sees a youth snatching a woman's bag, and, like a good citizen, steps in to stop him. Politely invited by the cops to act as a witness, will Reacher be treated as the perfect patsy for a crime he didn't commit? Too Much Time is a new novella which sees Jack Reacher, hero of no fixed abode, finding himself on the wrong side of the law. It is also available in No Middle Name, the complete Jack Reacher short story collection. _________ Don't miss Reacher's newest adventure, no.26, Better off Dead! ***COMING SOON and AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW***

History is a slippery thing. While it pretends to provide a somewhat clear picture of past events, the veracity of written and oral histories is suspect as not being entirely complete nor true and faithful in reporting what actually transpired in the past. The reality of the phrase, “History is written by the victor,” frequently skews what ends up being recorded. Thus, although it has exceptional, rare shining moments, what passes for history throughout the ages is more or less an artificial exposition on warfare, human bloodshed and savagery written by those who survived to tell their version of what happened. This book is a novel of science fiction and fantasy overlaid on the rich tapestry of an historical reality. It examines the fragility and duplicitous nature of what passes for history today. It suggests a unique remedy for laying bare the elusiveness of truth provided by a group of unbiased, immortal Watchers, who observe and record the unvarnished and undistorted doings of mankind throughout the ages with all its warts, thorns, and imperfections. The words of the venerable old church hymn provide a context for the narrative presented here: “Angels above us are silent notes taking, of ev’ry action; then do what is right.”

"Contemporary ways of working are not working, even for professionals and managers in what used to be considered "good" jobs. Companies are responding to global competition and pressure from financial markets by adopting management practices and staffing strategies that push workers to do more and more with less and less. New technologies facilitate always-on availability, normalizing 24/7 job expectations. This new intensity spawns chronic stress in the form of overload - feelings of too much to do and too little time to do it. Kelly and Moen argue this way of working is both unhealthy and unsustainable. Employees burn out, quit, or lack the time or energy to bring their best contributions to their jobs. Organizations lose out along with individuals, families, and communities. This book moves beyond familiar tropes about 'work-life balance' to argue that the problem lies not in the effort to 'balance' but in the very nature of contemporary work. Overload harms workers of all genders, ages, and life stages as well as the bottom lines of corporations. What can be done? Kelly and Moen draw on five years of research, including a major field experiment, in a Fortune 500 firm to describe a new approach to making work more sane and sustainable. The initiative, called STAR, prompts imaginative yet feasible changes (or work redesigns) that improve employees' health, wellbeing, and ability to manage both their personal and their work lives. They find the firm also benefits through increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover"

In today's world of rapid, disruptive change, strategy can't be separate from execution—it has to emerge from execution. You have to continually adjust your strategy to fit new realities. But if your organization isn't set up to be fast on its feet, you could easily go the way of Blockbuster or Borders. Laura Stack shows you how to quickly drive strategic initiatives and get great results from your team. Her LEAD Formula outlines the Four Keys to Successful Execution: the ability to Leverage your talent and resources, design an Environment to support an agile culture, create Alignment between strategic priorities and operational activities, and Drive the organization forward quickly. She includes a leadership team assessment, group reading guides, and bonus self-development resources. Stack will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and inspiration to help you hit the ground running!

'An extraordinary portrait of a son navigating his way through grief and loss in real time. Funny, candid, and measured' GRAHAM NORTON Happily settled in a new relationship and with a dream house of his own, Tom Allen could finally call himself an adult. But when his beloved dad died suddenly, Tom's life was rocked by a fresh set of challenges, and he started to find comfort in his friends, his past and his newly dug vegetable patch. With his hallmark honesty and wit, Tom writes beautifully about those days, weeks and months following loss, and about how bewildering the practicalities of life can be in the wake of an upheaval - those moments, really, when everything can start to feel a bit too much . . . 'Hilarious and poignant' JO BRAND 'Heartfelt, vulnerable and touchingly sincere' GUARDIAN 'Life-affirming' ATTITUDE

DeLaine finds herself at home after the Christmas break with a whole new outlook. It's the first time she can remember coming home without everything seeming so bleak. Her stepbrother Geoffrey and stepmother Clarice are nice to her, which is a surprise, but DeLaine doesn't trust them. The main reason she is happy to come home is to see Kevin Strong and love him from afar. If Geoffrey weren't so crazy jealous of her and Kevin being together, DeLaine thinks her world might be as close to perfect as possible. Perfection would be a real relationship with the most beautiful boy in the world. He provides strength and stability but mostly a feeling of love and protectiveness that DeLaine craves. The problem is that he is the "King" of Milam Junior High and she's only a lowly peasant, albeit not on the lowest rung in the social hierarchy. She is happy this January because she has a new best friend who shouldn't really care about her but because of the tornado, DeLaine has been tossed into the stratosphere of the beautiful Bailey Rains. She and Bailey find themselves getting closer as they walk home from Samson High School every day and Bailey takes a genuine interest in helping DeLaine find her voice and realize her beauty. Find out what new adventures wait for DeLaine in the last half of 7th grade. See what new things she finds out about friendship, love, sex, loss and grace....

Imagine a cat who mastered more tricks than a highly trained dog, covered up cans of food he did not want to eat before they were opened and could delicately touch a tiny finger-spun top repeatedly without stopping it. Han-chan was such a cat. His memory, preserved in notes and sketches, inspired an authority on stereotypes of national character and translator of Edo era Japanese poetry to essay out of his fields of expertise and into felinity. Sample chapters: The animal that kneads the world. / Conversing with cats: easier in Japanese? / Smiling with closed eyes, or far from Ecotopia. /Are cats the most or least false animal. / Beauty: Is it relative or . . . is it the cat? / A little red mouse, or are we keeping the right pet? / The third-generation tanuki - a new theory of domestication. Observations are coupled with thought about things such as 1) whether the altered behavior usually explained as saving face or covering up weakness is not more like improvisation that, retrospectively, makes melodic sense of what would be wrong notes by offsetting or dream-style logic that, ever present, keeps the flow from breaking. 2) Cats, or some cats, may avoid trauma from bad experiences by convincing themselves it was only a nightmare and continuing to hope until they can cope. 3) Cats demonstrate their social nature by showing off their catches, sleeping together in the cold and behaving themselves, but most are, unfortunately, like so-called feral children: because they are separated from their family while too young to have socialized, they re-enforce the stereotype of the independent asocial cat. One can only understand felinity by living with generations of cats under one roof. The author did this. People who liked Barbara Holland's "Secrets of the Cat," the cat chapter in Vicki Hearne's "Adam's Task" and Leonard Michaels' "A Cat" will probably purr while reading this.

In THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, Chet and Bernie attend a P.I. convention to try and make some new (and hopefully lucrative) connections. It's the sort of thing Bernie hates, but he's got to do something to get his business back on track. The head of a big international security company seems impressed with The Little Detective Agency and hires them for what appears to be an easy and well-paid assignment. Things take an unexpected turn and all sorts of trouble ensues. Tensions are further strained when a stray puppy who looks an awful lot like Chet turns up. So does Dylan McKnight, Suzie Sanchez's former boyfriend. With Chet and Bernie both dealing with affairs of the heart at the same time they are facing an unexpectedly tricky case, it's a good thing that our two intrepid investigators are looking out for each other-as they always do.