by Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan (2014)
"Why do members of Al Qaeda have to submit travel and expenses reports? How do you create incentives for the police force, or for priests? What are managers good for? We create organisations because they are an efficient way of doing something we couldn't do alone. We join organisations because we are inspired by their mission, or their payslip. But once we're inside, these organisations rarely feel efficient or inspiring. In The Org, Ray Fishman and Tim Sullivan explain the trade-offs that every organisation makes, arguing that this everyday dysfunction is in fact actually inherent in the very nature of orgs. Woven throughout The Org are fascinating stories of organisation ranging from Google and McDonald's, to Al Qaeda and the island of Samoa. The Org tells us how the office really works. As such it is required reading for anyone who wants to come to terms with the frustrations of their workplace, or to work their way up the org" -- Publisher description.
Kate Cann
After months of planning a summer vacation in Spain with her friends Yaz and Ruth, Laura finds the "perfect getaway" marred by the presence of Ruth's obnoxious boyfriend who insists on sticking to the well-beaten tourist track.
Erika Marks
"From the author of It Comes in Waves and The Guest House comes a novel of three lives entangled in the secrets of the sea and the enduring bonds of love. As students with a shared passion for shipwrecks, Liv, Sam, and Whit formed a close bond searching for the mysterious Patriot, a schooner that disappeared off the Carolina Coast in 1812 with Aaron Burr's daughter Theodosia aboard. But as the elusive ship drew them together, love would bring them even closer--and ultimately tear them apart. It's been seven years since Liv left Sam to be with Whit, and the once close-knit trio went their separate ways. Liv has given up her obsession with Theodosia Burr to focus on her career as a salvage diver and her passionate but troubled marriage to the reckless and hedonistic Whit. But when a diary of Theodosia's is discovered in a collector's estate, she is pulled back to the world of the Patriot, this time with startling new clues to what might have really happened. Diving back into the lost history of the Patriot could be just what Liv needs to find closure to a mystery that still haunts her. But when she and Whit reunite with Sam for one last salvage in North Carolina's Outer Banks, buried romantic tensions begin to resurface, and once again Liv must choose between two men with very different hearts"--
Maud Hart Lovelace
It's the trip of a lifetime. Betsy Ray, 21 years old, is heading off for a solo tour of Europe. From the moment she casts off, her journey is filled with adventure -- whether she's waltzing at the captain's ball, bartering for beads in Madeira, or sipping coffee at a bohemian cafe in Munich.
Hadani Ditmars
Recounts the story of the author's trip to Baghdad, Iraq, in September 2003 to find the people she had met over the years and see what had become of them since the U.S. "liberation," in a unique perspective on Iraq.