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Personal and professional reflections from a former US Foreign Service officer. This book is a series of reflections at the point of retirement from the U.S. Foreign Service after a career spent in locations around the globe. The collection of public blog postings, all colored by the author’s experience, include short essays on the following themes: personal anecdote, people/profiles, foreign policy as seen by a mid-level official, human nature, government functions, and “other”—ranging from music to immigration to condominium rules on dog comportment. Marked by a tone of light humor and social and institutional criticism, Blaming No One is an easy, entertaining read that also questions and challenges facile suppositions and notes many historic moments of interest.
An insider with practical experience in development work reveals how understanding market realities can more effectively reduce poverty. This book by a practitioner—not an academic, government official, or pundit—has been written for practitioners and offers fresh thinking on how to do international development work. It combines that thinking with practical guidance, in plain English, on what to do—and perhaps just as importantly, what not to do—on the ground. We Do Know How takes buzzwords commonly used in development circles—demand-driven, results-oriented, accountability, and others—and makes them real, spelling out a proven approach for expanding business sales and generating...
“Donald Gregg’s career . . . would make a great spy novel. This autobiography makes an even better book.” —Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and bestselling author of Enemies Pot Shards is a memoir, based on the author’s unforgettable experiences. He served as a CIA agent on the island of Saipan, during ten years in Japan, and a tour in Burma. He then spent four years tied up in the Vietnam War, two tours in Korea, the second time as ambassador, and spent ten years in the White House, where he worked for Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. “Don Gregg is that authentic and admirable thing: a great American. He spent most of his life serving his country:...
“[Tejani] shares her stories of succeeding as a doctor in Uganda during the 1960s . . . a must for those seeking a medical memoir collection.” —Midwest Book Review Set in Uganda of the sixties with bookends in India and New York, this doctor’s story tells of a turbulent political time when colonial Uganda graduated to self-rule. It is also the personal story of an Indian woman living in an independent African country wanting and needing assimilation but regretfully recognizing rejection. It is the story of the exhilaration of living in a country more beautiful than Eden, if sometimes a threatened Eden. But most of all it tells doctoring tales made delicate by seeing them through the ...
An anthology of ten plays embodying the Russian literary movement that began in the late twentieth century. The plays selected for this anthology reflect the issues and styles typical of the new wave of dramatic writing in Russia. New drama flourished (almost) exclusively in small spaces, often in dingy basements that employed and accommodated small numbers of people. The big theaters largely turned a blind eye to what was happening on small stages and in backrooms in playhouses, libraries, and community centers in a few chosen hot spots around Russia: primarily Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Togliatti. In many cases, they took actively hostile stances toward it. This would change, however. And b...
A historian uncovers the long-running affair between a famous 19th century author and a female conservationist—through love letters written in code. The Unitarian minister, author, and peace activist Edward Everett Hale was one of the most respected moral leaders of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Yet, for twenty-five years, he lived a double life. Harriet Freeman worked for a time as Hale’s secretary, but as they make abundantly clear in some 3,000 love letters, they were also lovers—and perhaps even soul mates. Hale’s many biographers depicted his marriage as unerringly faithful, despite the available evidence to the contrary. Now historian Sara Day corrects the record with this fascinating chronicle of Hale and Freeman’s secret romance. With extensive research into the lives of both figures, Day also succeeds in cracking the lovers’ code.
An overview of generations of Italians in the Big Apple, weaving together numerous stories from different epochs and different backgrounds. “If you want to learn something about Italian creativity, come to New York. Here, you will find the pride of flying the Italian colors at the Fifth Avenue Columbus Day Parade, the American patriotism of those who perished at Ground Zero, the courage of firefighters and marines on the frontline of the war against terrorism, the babel of dialects at the Arthur Avenue market, portrayals of social change in the writings of Gay Talese, stories of successful business ventures on the TV shows of Maria Bartiromo and Charles Gasparino, political passion in the battles of Mario Cuomo and Rudy Giuliani, creative imagination in the works of Gaetano Pesce, Renzo Piano and Matteo Pericoli, and provocation in the attire of Lady Gaga . . . The Midtown top managers, who arrived in the past twenty years, operate in the XXI century, while on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood the panelle are still prepared according to the Sicilian recipes transmitted from one generation to the next.” —From the Introduction
The story of a man navigating an era of upheaval, persecution, and suspicion: “A must read for students of 20th-century political and intellectual history.” —Robert Cohen, Professor of History and Social Studies Education, New York University Drawing on family papers, wide-ranging interviews, FBI files, American and German newspapers, a wide array of published sources, and her own memories, Carol Sicherman traces Harry Marks’s German American heritage, his education both formal and informal, his marriage to a fellow Communist from a poor Russian family, his rocky start as an academic, his anguish when confronted by his Communist past, and his ultimate creation of a satisfying career....
An Oregon musician pursues his dreams but eventually must choose between his celebrity lifestyle and the woman he loves. Set on the West Coast during George W. Bush’s first term, Out of What Chaos showcases the escapades of Rex and The Brains as they settle into the Portland rock scene, record their first album, and tour from Vancouver to LA behind their chart-topping single, “F U. I Just Want To Get My Rocks Off.” The boys party on, finding their way amidst the frenzied panorama of twenty-first century America. The country embraces them in all its crazy glory, from witches to priests, from groupies to politicians, from drug dealers to porno stars and college professors. As the band’...
Two Russian police detectives work hard to solve a daunting murder case in this historical thriller set during the Kiev pogrom of 1881. This is the sequel to To Kill a Tsar. Another thrilling adventure of eccentric Inspector Vasiliev, who this time takes the readers to Kiev, a city gripped in the horror of the 1881 pogroms against the Jews. “In this second, marvelous installment of their adventures, Alfred Rieber takes the remarkable Russian detective duo of Vasiliev and Serov to Kiev, a city gripped in the horror of the 1881 pogroms against the Jews. There they struggle to solve a murder that is shrouded in the fog of ethnic violence, government corruption, terrorist plots of revolutionar...