With the holidays over and the long cold winter looming, January can be a bleak month in Minneapolis. So what better way to bring a little cheer to the good people of the city than by sponsoring an old-fashioned snowman-building contest? In a matter of hours, a local park is filled with the innocent laughter of children and their frosty creations. But things take an awful turn when the dead bodies of police officers are discovered inside two of the snowmen - sending the entire department and Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth on high alert.
The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World (Audiobook, MP3)
In 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. Three and a half centuries later, Amsterdam is once again the mecca for people who care passionately about one particular plant — thought this time the obsessions revolves around the intoxicating effects of marijuana rather than the visual beauty of the tulip. How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin?
In this modern, stress-filled time, people face many awkward situations: the dating scene with all its pitfalls; friends going through grief and loss; job difficulties and other personal problems; the woes of love, friendship, and profession. To avoid gaffes and goofs and other embarrassments, we need to bring our social I.Q. into the 21st century. This book defines manners and etiquette for how we live today and shows readers how to keep their mouths foot-free. Among the topics covered:
This landmark book draws on Henry Mintzberg's observations of 29 managers, in business, government, health care, and the social sector, working in settings ranging from a refugee camp to a symphony orchestra. What he saw - the pressures, the action, the nuances, the blending - compelled him to describe managing as a practice, not a science or a profession, learned primarily through experience and rooted in context.
This book is vintage Mintzberg: iconoclastic, irreverent, carefully researched, myth-breaking. Managing may be the most revealing book yet written about what managers do, how they do it, and how they can do it better.
The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter (Audiobook, MP3)
Eating is about more than satisfying our hunger. It's also about the environment, social justice, personal development, and sustainable living. Many Americans already know this. We're eating less red meat and more organically produced foods, and most restaurants offer vegetarian options. But do we really know the truth about mechanized animal farming and slaughterhouses, herbicide and pesticide use, and labels that promise "Certified Humane"?
