Showing results by publisher "Spoken Word Inc." in All Categories

Impact: A Leadership Fable is an inspirational tale of how to be a quality leader while maintaining values we often lose sight of along the road to success. This is not your typical list of ways to be a better leader. Galen uses storytelling to highlight the seductive traps every would-be leader must avoid, as well as principles to stay on the right course. In this one leadership fable, Galen tells a story, shares tools to help chart a course to leadership success.

The very short stories of Diane Williams have been aptly called "folk tales that hammer like a nail gun," and these 40 new ones are sharper than ever. They are unsettling, yes, frequently revelatory, and, more often than not, downright funny. Not a single moment here is what you might expect. The heart of the drama beats in the language of American short fiction's grand master, whose originality, precision, and power bring the familiar into startling and enchanted relief.

Reverend Maloney isn't the world's greatest spiritual advisor. He drinks gin out of his coffee cup and has sex dreams about the Holy Ghost. His best friend Eli isn't perfect either, but he's a chess genius, so Maloney sees an opportunity in traveling around the country so Eli can win major chess tournament after chess tournament (while Maloney pockets Eli's winnings).

It is the mid-1980s, the era of so-called reformist apartheid, and South Africa is in flames. Police and military are gunning down children at the forefront of the liberation struggle. Far from such action, it seems, a small party of four is traveling by minibus to the north of the country, close to the border with Zimbabwe. Their aim is to shoot a documentary on the discovery of a prehistoric skull that is evidence that, Professor Digby Bamford boasts, "True man first arose in Southern Africa."

Following a summer's worth of drug abuse, epic alcohol benders, and promiscuous sexual misadventures. You cope with your impoverished living arrangements while mourning the senility of your beloved grandmother, the destructive idiocy of your only two friends, and most importantly, the devastating loss of your free-spirited lover. There are things to consider, of course, and it's real tough to think sometimes.

Beatnik baby boomer Joan Moran thinks it is time to get rid of all the old clichés about getting older. In her memoir, 60, Sex & Tango: Confessions of a Beatnik Boomer, she shares her engaging, humorous, and wildly entertaining personal journey as she provides a unique perspective on the trials and tribulations of being an active, sexy, intelligent woman in her 60s.

"I drink, I hurt myself and the people around me, and then I write." Brett is in Central America, away from her husband, when she begins a love affair with his friend, Eduard. Tragedy and comedy are properly joined at the hip in this loosely autobiographical book about infidelity, drinking, and the postponing of repercussions under the sun. Though coming undone is something we all try to avoid, Martin reminds us that going off the rails is sometimes a part of the ride.

Intelligent influence is defined as "a learned competency that leads to extraordinary results driven by effective human interaction". This groundbreaking publication provides fascinating stories that prove that the strategic use of positive influence is the foundation of individual and organizational effectiveness in any endeavor that involves human interaction.

Applauding the true heroes of the classroom, this compilation looks closely at the teachers who change lives one day and one lesson at a time. Instructors from all backgrounds are covered, from literature and poetry to film and even those captured in comic strips. Detailed statistics are presented, proving that teachers really do make a difference and celebrating the most unheralded, exhausting, income-challenged, and ultimately, rewarding of all professions.

If you don't know Melville's letters to Hawthorne, you don't know Melville. These letters are full of passion, humor, doubt, and spiritual yearning, and offer an intimate view of Melville's personality. Lyrical and effusive, they are literary works in themselves. This correspondence has been out of print for decades, and even when it was in print it appeared in scholarly volumes of Melville's complete correspondence, aimed at the academy.

An Unferth story lures you in with a voice that seems amiable and lighthearted, but it swerves in sudden and surprising ways that reveal, in terrifying clarity, the rage, despair, and profound mournfulness that have taken up residence at the heart of the American dream. These stories often take place in an exaggerated or heightened reality, a quality that is reminiscent of the work of Donald Barthelme, Lorrie Moore, and George Saunders, but in Unferth's unforgettable collection she carves out territory that is entirely her own.

These reflections by male inmates, recorded by a prison psychologist, are brief, sometimes only a few lines, but they offer profound insights into the realities of prison life. Some of the inmates are still bewildered that they gave up good opportunities and turned to crime; some fear that they may really like being in prison; others hope they will never return after being released, although they have not kept that vow in the past. Some come from families that abused or neglected them, and others had their every whim indulged.

Robin Russell Gaiser is a certified music practitioner (CMP), a trained specialist who provides therapeutic music to the ill, the elderly, and the dying in hospital, nursing homes, and hospice settings; her music offers respite for them, their families, and friends from the pain, fear, and confusion that frequently accompany the complicated process of dying.

Somewhere in a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere is a book that speaks directly to society's "elephants in the living room" through kooky hooliganism and satire. Five year-old Bonanza's mother tells her to "keep digging" as she buries her dolls, and ultimately, herself. The dead poet Robert Lowell reappears as a high school student. Meanwhile, at a butterfly farm, the protagonist dishes up some unconventional environmental justice.

Elsa Fisher is headed for rock bottom. At least, that’s her plan. She has just been fired from MoMA on the heels of an affair with her married boss, and she retreats to Los Angeles to blow her severance package on whatever it takes to numb the pain. Her abandoned crew of college friends (childhood friend Charlotte and her wayward husband, Jared; and Elsa’s ex-husband, Robby) receive her with open arms, and, thinking she’s on vacation, a plan to celebrate their reunion on a booze-soaked sailing trip to Catalina Island.

Beginner's Guide to a Head-on Collision offers the deeply moving poetic memoir of Sebastian Matthews's life in the years after the car accident that devastated him and his wife and son. The poems, which often feel like electric improvised prayer-songs, intimately evoke the terrors and wonders of catastrophic physical injury and of life re-booted. They are disturbing, eerie poems that embody the paradoxes of being The Dead Man at the crossing.

The Ten Supreme Laws to Power, commonly known as "The Mighty Ten", are the supreme laws of business, successful mastery of which will ultimately put you at the center of a powerful business life. This audiobook is based upon the proven and basic principles presented in the book Advanced Principles of Success and Prosperity. These laws will give you a new viewpoint about the meaning of power in your work as well as your own personal life.

In this high-altitude adventure tale, a fictional student is moved to Sin City, Las Vegas. Forty minutes away from her new hometown is rock climbing mecca, Red Rock Canyon. There, a mix of eccentric characters meets every weekend to do battle with the vertical sandstone cliffs. Thrown into their mix, our student begins applying the brilliantly simple lessons she learns from her mentors and uncovers a way to get what she wants out of life...and love what she gets.

Lose your best friend because you finally Came Out. Spend days driving aimlessly because there's nothing to do. Serve your rapist breakfast because you need your job. Fall asleep to gunshots and sirens because that's the only sense of home you've ever known. Hold hands with ghosts. Your life is in pieces, but you can't be broken. Wipe off the blood. Tired of being told who to be, what to wear, how to act and who to f-k. Break the rules and learn fast how to never get caught. All you need is nothing, but you're happy with your car, guitar and camera.

Archer is a semi-celebrated novelist and sex-toy heir. His best friend, John, is as earnest as Archer is feckless. John's girlfriend, Sara, envies Archer's writing career. And Sara's roommate, Lucas, wishes he'd never lost his girlfriend to the man. Money, friendship, and resentment unspool in the conversations we have as we're coming of age and coming to grips.