2019, ISBN: 9780609606988

Taschenbuch, Gebundene Ausgabe

Penguin Books. Very Good. 4.33 x 0.91 x 7.09 inches. Paperback. 1976. 592 pages. <br>The early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul's brilliant career, A House for Mr. Biswasis an unfo… Mehr…

Penguin Books. Very Good. 4.33 x 0.91 x 7.09 inches. Paperback. 1976. 592 pages. <br>The early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul's brilliant career, A House for Mr. Biswasis an unforgettable story inspired by Naipaul's father that has been hailed as one of the twentieth century's finest novels. n nIn his forty-six short years, Mr. Mo hun Biswas has been fighting against destiny to achieve some semb lance of independence, only to face a lifetime of calamity. Shutt led from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas ye arns for a place he can call home. But when he marries into the d omineering Tulsi family on whom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an arduous-and endless-struggle to weaken their hold over him and purchase a house of his own. A heartrendi ng, dark comedy of manners, A House for Mr. Biswas masterfully ev okes a man's quest for autonomy against an emblematic post-coloni al canvas. n nEditorial Reviews n nReview nNaipaul has constructe d a marvelous prose epic that matches the best nineteenth-century novels for richness of comic insight and final, tragic power.-Ne wsweek n nExcerpt. ® Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved . nI. Pastoral n nShortly before he was born there had been anoth er quarrel between Mr Biswas's mother Bipti and his father Raghu, and Bipti had taken her three children and walked all the way in the hot sun to the village where her mother Bissoondaye lived. T here Bipti had cried and told the old story of Raghu's miserlines s: how he kept a check on every cent he gave her, counted every b iscuit in the tin, and how he would walk ten miles rather than pa y a cart a penny. n nBipti's father, futile with asthma, propped himself up on his string bed and said, as he always did on unhapp y occasions, 'Fate. There is nothing we can do about it.' n nNo o ne paid him any attention. Fate had brought him from India to the sugar-estate, aged him quickly and left him to die in a crumblin g mud hut in the swamplands; yet he spoke of Fate often and affec tionately, as though, merely by surviving, he had been particular ly favoured. n nWhile the old man talked on, Bissoondaye sent for the midwife, made a meal for Bipti's children and prepared beds for them. When the midwife came the children were asleep. Some ti me later they were awakened by the screams of Mr Biswas and the s hrieks of the midwife. n n'What is it?' the old man asked. 'Boy o r girl?' n n'Boy, boy,' the midwife cried. 'But what sort of boy? Six-fingered, and born in the wrong way.' n nThe old man groaned and Bissoondaye said, 'I knew it. There is no luck for me.' n nA t once, though it was night and the way was lonely, she left the hut and walked to the next village, where there was a hedge of ca ctus. She brought back leaves of cactus, cut them into strips and hung a strip over every door, every window, every aperture throu gh which an evil spirit might enter the hut. n nBut the midwife s aid, 'Whatever you do, this boy will eat up his own mother and fa ther.' n nThe next morning, when in the bright light it seemed th at all evil spirits had surely left the earth, the pundit came, a small, thin man with a sharp satirical face and a dismissing man ner. Bissoondaye seated him on the string bed, from which the old man had been turned out, and told him what had happened. n n'Hm. Born in the wrong way. At midnight, you said.' n nBissoondaye ha d no means of telling the time, but both she and the midwife had assumed that it was midnight, the inauspicious hour. n nAbruptly, as Bissoondaye sat before him with bowed and covered head, the p undit brightened, 'Oh, well. It doesn't matter. There are always ways and means of getting over these unhappy things.' He undid hi s red bundle and took out his astrological almanac, a sheaf of lo ose thick leaves, long and narrow, between boards. The leaves wer e brown with age and their musty smell was mixed with that of the red and ochre sandalwood paste that had been spattered on them. The pundit lifted a leaf, read a little, wet his forefinger on hi s tongue and lifted another leaf. n nAt last he said, 'First of a ll, the features of this unfortunate boy. He will have good teeth but they will be rather wide, and there will be spaces between t hem. I suppose you know what that means. The boy will be a lecher and a spendthrift. Possibly a liar as well. It is hard to be sur e about those gaps between the teeth. They might mean only one of those things or they might mean all three.' n n'What about the s ix fingers, pundit?' n n'That's a shocking sign, of course. The o nly thing I can advise is to keep him away from trees and water. Particularly water.' n n'Never bath him?' n n'I don't mean exactl y that.' He raised his right hand, bunched the fingers and, with his head on one side, said slowly, 'One has to interpret what the book says.' He tapped the wobbly almanac with his left hand. 'An d when the book says water, I think it means water in its natural form.' n n'Natural form.' n n'Natural form,' the pundit repeated , but uncertainly. 'I mean,' he said quickly, and with some annoy ance, 'keep him away from rivers and ponds. And of course the sea . And another thing,' He added with satisfaction. 'He will have a n unlucky sneeze.' He began to pack the long leaves of his almana c. 'Much of the evil this boy will undoubtedly bring will be miti gated if his father is forbidden to see him for twenty-one days.' n n'That will be easy,' Bissoondaye said, speaking with emotion for the first time. n n'On the twenty-first day the father must s ee the boy. But not in the flesh.' n n'In a mirror, pundit?' n n' I would consider that ill-advised. Use a brass plate. Scour it we ll.' n n'Of course.' n n'You must fill this brass plate with coco nut oil--which, by the way, you must make yourself from coconuts you have collected with your own hands--and in the reflection on this oil the father must see his son's face.' He tied the almanac together and rolled it in the red cotton wrapper which was also spattered with sandalwood paste. 'I believe that is all.' n n'We forgot one thing, punditji. The name.' n n'I can't help you compl etely there. But it seems to me that a perfectly safe prefix woul d be Mo. It is up to you to think of something to add to that.' n n'Oh, punditji, you must help me. I can only think of hun.' n nT he pundit was surprised and genuinely pleased. 'But that is excel lent. Excellent. Mohun. I couldn't have chosen better myself. For Mohun, as you know, means the beloved, and was the name given by the milkmaids to Lord Krishna.' His eyes softened at the thought of the legend and for a moment he appeared to forget Bissoondaye and Mr Biswas. n nFrom the knot at the end of her veil Bissoonda ye took out a florin and offered it to the pundit, mumbling her r egret that she could not give more. The pundit said that she had done her best and was not to worry. In fact he was pleased; he ha d expected less. n nMr Biswas lost his sixth finger before he was nine days old. It simply came off one night and Bipti had an unp leasant turn when, shaking out the sheets one morning, she saw th is tiny finger tumble to the ground. Bissoondaye thought this an excellent sign and buried the finger behind the cowpen at the bac k of the house, not far from where she had buried Mr Biswas's nav el-string. n nIn the days that followed Mr Biswas was treated wit h attention and respect. His brothers and sisters were slapped if they disturbed his sleep, and the flexibility of his limbs was r egarded as a matter of importance. Morning and evening he was mas saged with coconut oil. All his joints were exercised; his arms a nd legs were folded diagonally across his red shining body; the b ig toe of his right foot was made to touch his left shoulder, the big toe of his left foot was made to touch his right shoulder, a nd both toes were made to touch his nose; finally, all his limbs were bunched together over his belly and then, with a clap and a laugh, released. n nMr Biswas responded well to these exercises, and Bissoondaye became so confident that she decided to have a ce lebration on the ninth day. She invited people from the village a nd fed them. The pundit came and was unexpectedly gracious, thoug h his manner suggested that but for his intervention there would have been no celebration at all. Jhagru, the barber, brought his drum, and Selochan did the Shiva dance in the cowpen, his body sm eared all over with ash. n nThere was an unpleasant moment when R aghu, Mr Biswas's father, appeared. He had walked; his dhoti and jacket were sweated and dusty. 'Well, this is very nice,' he said . 'Celebrating. And where is the father?' n n'Leave this house at once,' Bissoondaye said, coming out of the kitchen at the side. 'Father! What sort of father do you call yourself, when you drive your wife away every time she gets heavy-footed?' n n'That is no ne of your business,' Raghu said. 'Where is my son?' n n'Go ahead . God has paid you back for your boasting and your meanness. Go a nd see your son. He will eat you up. Six-fingered, born in the wr ong way. Go in and see him. He has an unlucky sneeze as well.' n nRaghu halted. 'Unlucky sneeze?' n n'I have warned you. You can o nly see him on the twenty-first day. If you do anything stupid no w the responsibility will be yours.' n nFrom his string bed the o ld man muttered abuse at Raghu. 'Shameless, wicked. When I see th e behaviour of this man I begin to feel that the Black Age has co me.' n nThe subsequent quarrel and threats cleared the air. Raghu confessed he had been in the wrong and had already suffered much for it. Bipti said she was willing to go back to him. And he agr eed to come again on the twenty-first day. n nTo prepare for that day Bissoondaye began collecting dry coconuts. She husked them, grated the kernels and set about extracting the oil the pundit ha d prescribed. It was a long job of boiling and skimming and boili ng again, and it was surprising how many coconuts it took to make a little oil. But the oil was ready in time, and Raghu came, nea tly dressed, his hair plastered flat and shining, his moustache t rimmed, and he was very correct as he took off his hat and went i nto the dark inner room of the hut which smelled warmly of oil an d old thatch. He held his hat on the right side of his face and l ooked down into the oil in the brass plate. Mr Biswas, hidden fro m his father by the hat, and well wrapped from head to foot, was held face downwards over the oil. He didn't like it; he furrowed his forehead, shut his eyes tight and bawled. The oil rippled, cl ear amber, broke up the reflection of Mr Biswas's face, already d istorted with rage, and the viewing was over. n nA few days later Bipti and her children returned home. And there Mr Biswas's impo rtance steadily diminished. The time came when even the daily mas sage ceased. n nBut he still carried weight. They never forgot th at he was an unlucky child and that his sneeze was particularly u nlucky. Mr Biswas caught cold easily and in the rainy season thre atened his family with destitution. If, before Raghu left for the sugar-estate, Mr Biswas sneezed, Raghu remained at home, worked on his vegetable garden in the morning and spent the afternoon ma king walking-sticks and sabots, or carving designs on the hafts o f cutlasses and the heads of walking-sticks. His favourite design was a pair of wellingtons; he had never owned wellingtons but ha d seen them on the overseer. Whatever he did, Raghu never left th e house. Even so, minor mishaps often followed Mr Biswas's sneeze : threepence lost in the shopping, the breaking of a bottle, the upsetting of a dish. Once Mr Biswas sneezed on three mornings in succession. n n'This boy will eat up his family in truth,' Raghu said. n nOne morning, just after Raghu had crossed the gutter tha t ran between the road and his yard, he suddenly stopped. Mr Bisw as had sneezed. Bipti ran out and said, 'It doesn't matter. He sn eezed when you were already on the road.' n n'But I heard him. Di stinctly.' n nBipti persuaded him to go to work. About an hour or two later, while she was cleaning the rice for the midday meal, she heard shouts from the road and went out to find Raghu lying i n an ox-cart, his right leg swathed in bloody bandages. He was gr oaning, not from pain, but from anger. The man who had brought hi m refused to help him into the yard: Mr Biswas's sneeze was too w ell known. Raghu had to limp in leaning on Bipti's shoulder. n n' This boy will make us all paupers,' Raghu said. n nHe spoke from a deep fear. Though he saved and made himself and his family go w ithout many things, he never ceased to feel that destitution was very nearly upon him. The more he hoarded, the more he felt he ha d to waste and to lose, and the more careful he became. n nEvery Saturday he lined up with the other labourers outside the estate office to collect his pay. The overseer sat at a little table, on which his khaki cork hat rested, wasteful of space, but a symbol of wealth. On his left sat the Indian clerk, important, stern, p recise, with small neat hands that wrote small neat figures in bl ack ink and red ink in the tall ledger. As the clerk entered figu res and called out names and amounts in his high, precise voice, the overseer selected coins from the columns of silver and the he aps of copper in front of him, and with greater deliberation extr acted notes from the blue one-dollar stacks, the smaller red two- dollar stack and the very shallow green five-dollar stack. Few la bourers earned five dollars a week; the notes were there to pay t hose who were collecting their wives' or husbands' wages as well as their own. Around the overseer's cork hat, and seeming to guar d it, there were stiff blue paper bags, neatly serrated at the to p, printed with large figures, and standing upright from the weig ht of coin inside them. Clean round perforations gave glimpses of the coin and, Raghu had been told, allowed it to breathe. n nThe se bags fascinated Raghu. He had managed to get a few and after m any months and a little cheating--turning a shilling into twelve pennies, for example--he had filled them. Thereafter he had never been able to stop. No one, not even Bipti, knew where he hid the se bags; but the word, Penguin Books, 1976, 3, Penguin. Very Good. 6.1 x 1.22 x 9.21 inches. Paperback. 2005. 320 pages. <br>Clive Cussler debuted his new series, The Oregon F iles, with the incredible adventure of Golden Buddha. Now he foll ows that triumph with Sacred Stone, a rollicking new tale featuri ng the enigmatic captain of The Oregon, Juan Cabrillo. In the rem ote wastelands of Greenland, an ancient artifact possessing catas trophic radioactive power is unearthed. But the astounding find p uts the world at risk. Caught between two militant factions bent on wholesale slaughter, Juan Cabrillo and his network of spies kn own as The Corporation must fight to protect the stone - and prev ent the outbreak of World War III... Editorial Reviews From Pub lishers Weekly Eric the Red's A.D. 1000 discovery of a radioactiv e meteorite has present-day life-or-death ramifications in Cussle r and Dirgo's second novel (after Golden Buddha) featuring the Or egon, a state-of-the-art warship disguised as a rusty tramp steam er and manned by some of the world's finest ex-military and intel ligence operatives. Known collectively as the Corporation, the me n and women of the Oregon--mercenaries with a conscience--offer t heir services to various countries and individuals with specializ ed security and military needs. The Corporation's chairman, serie s hero Juan Cabrillo, has several pressing concerns: supply secur ity for the emir of Qatar, who is attending a conference in Icela nd; track down a nuclear bomb that has gone astray; and pick up t he aforementioned meteorite, which has just been found ensconced in a mysterious shrine. These jobs become dangerously complicated when industrialist Halifax Hickman, a man fueled by revenge and hatred, enters the picture. The meteorite, the atomic bomb and a vial of plague are to be used in attacks on holy sites--Israel's Dome of the Rock and Saudi Arabia's al-Haram mosque--and at an El ton John concert. It's a deadly game, but the brilliant Cabrillo is a master player, moving his pieces at lightning speed on sever al boards until he outmaneuvers his opposition in this action-pac ked page-turner. Copyright Reed Business Information, a divisio n of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers t o an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review J ust About the Best Storyteller in the Business. --This text refer s to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist This is the second novel in the Oregon Files series feat uring Juan Cabrillo as the chairman of the Corporation, a group o f ex-military and intelligence operatives who hire themselves out to countries and individuals needing specialized services--a pri vate army of mercenaries with a conscience. The Oregon is a 500-f oot-long cargo steamer with a state-of-the-art communications and command center and a helicopter. The group's mission is to pick up a meteorite and deliver it to the CIA. It might be made of iri dium, and iridium can be used to construct a dirty bomb. Muslim t errorists who have stolen a nuclear device may use the radioactiv e material in the meteorite to vaporize a large Western city. Ano ther group, led by a demented industrialist, seeks to destroy the Islamic world. As always, the plot covers many locales around th e world, and the dialogue contains lots of military jargon. The l arge cast of characters includes Elton John and Eric the Red (yes , the legendary explorer). Even though the good guys always win, Cussler fans will remain engaged. George Cohen Copyright America n Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Clive Cussler is the author of numerous New York Times bes tsellers. He splits his time between Telluride, Colorado and Para dise Valley, Arizona. Craig Dirgo has been special projects dire ctor on many NUMA® expeditions since 1987 and now serves as a tru stee. He also cowrote The Sea Hunters series. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Au dioFile In another of Cussler's high-tech potboilers, a small ban d of heroes rushes from one intricate crisis to another in an eff ort to save the world and the Islamic religion. The latter is pre sented with objectivity: Some Muslims are terrorists; some are am ong the good guys; most just go about their business. The artifac ts of Islam occupy a central role in the story. The jacket blurb describes J. Charles as having more than forty years of experienc e in entertainment, but his voice reminds one of emerging younger narrators such as Scott Brick. Charles distinguishes the players skillfully through accent and cadence. This is a fun listen. D.R .W. AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright AudioFile, Port land, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All ri ghts reserved. Chapter One LIEUTENANT CHRIS HUNT rarely talked about his past, but the men he served with had gathered a few clu es from his demeanor. The first was that Hunt had not grown up in some backwoods hillbilly haven and used the army to see the worl d. He was from Southern California. And, if pressed, Hunt would v olunteer he was raised in the Los Angeles area, not wanting to di sclose that he grew up in Beverly Hills. The second thing the men noticed was that Hunt was a natural leader-he was neither patron izing nor put on an air of superiority, but neither did he try to hide the fact that he was competent and smart. The third thing the men found out today. A chill wind was blowing down from th e mountains into the Afghanistan valley where the platoon under H unt's command was breaking camp. Hunt and three other soldiers we re wrestling with a tent they were folding for storage. While the men were bringing the ends together longways, Sergeant Tom Agnes decided to ask about the rumor he had heard. Hunt handed him the side of the tent so Agnes could fold it into halves. Sir, Agne s said, rumor has it you graduated from Yale University-that true ? All the men were wearing tinted ski goggles but Agnes was clo se enough to see Hunt's eyes. A flicker of surprise, followed by resignation, flashed quickly. Then Hunt smiled. Ah, he said qui etly, you've found out my terrible secret. Agnes nodded and fol ded the tent in half. Not exactly a hotbed for military recruitin g. George Bush went there, Hunt said. He was a navy pilot. I thought he was in the National Guard, Specialist Jesus Herrara, w ho was taking the tent from Agnes, said. George Bush Senior, Hu nt said. Our president also graduated from Yale, and yes, he was a National Guard jet pilot. Yale, Agnes said. If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up here? Hunt brushed some snow fro m his gloves. I volunteered, he said, just like you. Agnes nodd ed. Now let's finish breaking down this camp, Hunt said, pointi ng to the mountain nearby, and head up there and find that bastar d who attacked the United States. Yes, sir, the men said in uni son. Ten minutes later, with fifty-pound packs on their backs, they started up the mountain. IN A TOWN where beautiful women a bound, at age forty-nine Michelle Hunt still caused men to turn t heir heads. Tall, with hazel hair and bluegreen eyes, she was ble ssed with a figure that required neither constant dieting nor end less exercise to appear trim. Her lips were full and her teeth st raight, but it was her doelike eyes and flawless skin that gave t he strongest visual impression. And while she was a beautiful wom an, that was as common in Southern California as sunshine and ear thquakes. What drew people closer to Michelle was something tha t cannot be created by a surgeon's knife, honed through dress or manicure, or developed through ambition or change. Michelle had t hat thing that made both men and women like her and want to be ar ound her-she was happy, content and positive. Michelle Hunt was h erself. And people flocked to her like bees to a flower in bloom. Sam, she said to the painter who had just finished the walls i n her art gallery, you do such nice work. Sam was thirty-eight years old and he blushed. Only my best for you, Ms. Hunt, he sa id. Sam had painted her gallery when it had opened five years b efore, her Beverly Hills house, her condo in Lake Tahoe and now t his remodel. And every time she made him feel appreciated and tal ented. You want a bottle of water or a Coke or something? she a sked. I'm okay, thanks. Just then an assistant called from th e front of the gallery that she had a telephone call, and she smi led, waved and began to walk away. That's a lady, Sam said unde r his breath, a lady. Walking to the front of the gallery, wher e her desk faced out onto Rodeo Drive, Michelle noticed that one of the artists she represented was coming through the front door. Here her amiability had also paid off in spades-artists are a fi ckle and temperamental lot, but Michelle's artists adored her and rarely changed galleries. That and the fact that she had started her business fully funded had contributed greatly to her years o f success. I knew today was going to be good, she said to the b earded man. I just didn't know it would be because my favorite ar tist would be paying me a visit. The man smiled. Just let me take this telephone call, she said, and we'll talk. Her aide co rralled the artist toward an area with couches and a wet bar off to one side. As Michelle slid into her desk chair and reached for the telephone, the aide took the artist's drink order and a few seconds later began packing ground espresso into the machine to d raw him a cappuccino. Michelle Hunt. It's me, a gravelly voic e said. The voice was one that needed no introduction. He had s wept her off her feet when she was a young woman of twenty-one, f reshly arrived from Minnesota, seeking a new life of fun and sun in 1980s Southern California. After an on-again, off-again relati onship, necessitated both by his inability to be bound to a relat ionship, as well as his frequent absences for business, she had b orne his son at age twenty-four. And though his name never appear ed on the birth certificate-nor had Michelle and he actually live d together before or since-the pair had remained close. At least as close as the man allowed anyone ever to come. How are you? s he asked. I've been okay. Where are you? It was the standar d question she asked him to break the ice. Over the years the ans wers had ranged from Osaka to Peru to Paris to Tahiti. Hang on, the man said easily. He stared at a moving map on a forward wall near the cockpit of his jet. Six hundred and eighty-seven miles from Honolulu on the way to Vancouver, British Columbia. Going skiing? she asked. The sport was something they had enjoyed toget her. Building a skyscraper, he answered. You're always up to something. True, he noted. Michelle, I called because I heard o ur boy has been sent to Afghanistan, he said quietly. Michelle had been unaware-the deployment was still secret and Chris had no t been able to disclose his destination when he'd been dispatched . Oh my, she blurted, that's not good. That's what I thought you'd say. How'd you find out? Michelle asked. I'm always amaze d by your ability to ferret out information. It's not magic, th e man said. I have so many senators and other politicians in my p ocket I've had to buy larger pants. Any word on how it's going? I guess the mission is proving harder than the president envis ioned, he said. Chris is apparently leading a hunter-killer squad to locate the bad guys. Limited contact so far-but my sources cl aim it is cold and dirty work. If he doesn't contact you for a wh ile, don't be surprised. I'm afraid for him, Michelle said slow ly. Do you want me to put in a fix? the man asked. Have him pul led out and sent stateside? I thought he made you agree never t o do that. He did, the man admitted. Then don't. I'll call you when I know more. Are you going to be down this way soon? M ichelle asked. I'll call you if I am, the man said. Now I'd bet ter go-I'm starting to get static on the satellite line. Must be sunspots. Pray our boy is safe, she said. I might do more tha n that, the man said as the call ended. Michelle replaced the r eceiver in its cradle and sat back. Her ex-beau was not one to sh ow worry or fear. Still, his concern for his son had been palpabl e and personal. She could only hope his worry was misplaced, and that Chris would come home soon. Rising from the desk, she walk ed toward the artist. Tell me you have something good, she said e asily. Outside in the van, the artist said, and I think you'll like it. FOUR HOURS AFTER sunrise, one thousand feet higher up the ridge from the camp where they had spent the night, Hunt's pl atoon met a determined enemy. The fire came from a series of cave s just above and to the east. And it came all at once. Rifle fire , rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, handgun fire rained down. T he enemy dynamited the mountain to create rock slides, pelting th e ground below, and they had mined the ground where Hunt's troops sought refuge. The enemy's goal was to wipe out Hunt's team al l at once-and they would come close. Hunt had taken refuge behi nd a series of boulders. Bullets were ricocheting off the rocks t o all sides, sending chips flying through the air and striking hi s men. There was nowhere to hide, no way to advance, and their re treat had been cut off by a rock slide. Radio, Hunt shouted. Half his team was twenty yards ahead, another quarter ahead and t o the left. Luckily, his radio operator had stayed close to the l ieutenant. The man edged toward Hunt on his back to protect the r adio. For his effort he received a wound to his kneecap when a bu llet grazed his raised knee as the man pushed himself closer. Hun t dragged him the rest of the way. Antencio, Hunt shouted to a man a few feet away, take care of Lassiter's wound. Antencio sc urried over and began cutting away the radio operator's pants. He found the opening was not deep and began to wrap a bandage aroun d the knee as Hunt flicked on the radio and adjusted the dial. You're going to be okay, Lassiter, he said to the radio operator. I'm going to get us some help in here posthaste. Then we'll have you medevaced. The fear in the soldiers' faces was obvious. Fo r most of them, as for Hunt, this was their first time in battle. As their leader, he needed to take control and form a plan. Co ntrol, Control, Advance Three, Hunt y, Penguin, 2005, 3, The Dial Press. Very Good. 5.8 x 0.93 x 8.52 inches. Hardcover. 2019. 256 pages. <br>#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? The funny, sad, sup er-honest, all-true story of Chelsea Handler's year of self-disco very--featuring a nerdily brilliant psychiatrist, a shaman, four Chow Chows, some well-placed security cameras, various family mem bers (living and departed), friends, assistants, and a lot of edi bles A SKIMM READS PICK ? This will be one of your favorite book s of all time.--Amy Schumer In a haze of vape smoke on a rare wi ndy night in L.A. in the fall of 2016, Chelsea Handler daydreams about what life will be like with a woman in the White House. And then Donald Trump happens. In a torpor of despair, she decides t hat she's had enough of the privileged bubble she's lived in--a b ubble within a bubble--and that it's time to make some changes, b oth in her personal life and in the world at large. At home, she embarks on a year of self-sufficiency--learning how to work the remote, how to pick up dog shit, where to find the toaster. She m eets her match in an earnest, brainy psychiatrist and enters into therapy, prepared to do the heavy lifting required to look withi n and make sense of a childhood marked by love and loss and to fi gure out why people are afraid of her. She becomes politically ac tive--finding her voice as an advocate for change, having difficu lt conversations, and energizing her base. In the process, she de velops a healthy fixation on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and, through unflinching self-reflection and psychological excavation, unearths some glittering truths that light up the road ahead. Thrillingly honest, insightful, and deeply, darkly funny, Chelsea Handler's memoir keeps readers laughing, even as it inspires us to look within and ask ourselves what really matters in our own l ives. Praise for Life Will Be the Death of Me You thought you k new Chelsea Handler--and she thought she knew herself--but in her new book, she discovers that true progress lies in the direction we haven't been.--Gloria Steinem I always wondered what it wou ld be like to watch Chelsea Handler in session with her therapist . Now I know.--Ellen DeGeneres I love this book not just because it made me laugh or because I learned that I feel the same way a bout certain people in politics as Chelsea does. I love this book because I feel like I finally really got to know Chelsea Handler after all these years. Thank you for sharing, Chelsea!--Tiffany Haddish Editorial Reviews Review A disarmingly, unblinkingly ho nest work.--Chicago Tribune This will be one of your favorite bo oks of all time. Through her intensely vulnerable, honest, and hi larious reflections Chelsea shows us more than just her insides. She shows us ourselves.--Amy Schumer The Chelsea Handler I know is a take-no-prisoners activist for the causes she believes in. S he brings the same fearlessness and commitment to telling her tru th in this book. I'm hoping that one day, in exchange for this bl urb, she will let me see the security camera footage of the dog f ight in her bedroom.--Trevor Noah This is, of course, a roller c oaster ride, since it's a Chelsea Handler book, but it's a though tful roller coaster ride, including not only dog poop and halluci nogenics, but a tour-de-force loop-the-loop through formative tra uma and questions of how to be a grown-up and what it means to go deeper into your own life, and I'm sure I mentioned funny bits.- -Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me In this bru tally truthful memoir, Chelsea Handler introduces us to the famil y, struggles, and triumphs that have shaped her life. Her story i s both personal and highly relatable, especially for anyone who h as ever wondered why we're on this earth and what we can do to ch ange it for the better. This book is hilarious and heartbreaking; I could not put it down. Chelsea is the girlfriend you want to s hare your stories with and the woman you want with you on the fro nt lines.--Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthoo d and author of Make Trouble I don't know of any other writer wh o could move from Robert Mueller to edibles to rescue dogs in a w ay that makes you laugh, cry, and ponder the meaning of life. Che lsea Handler's political awakening in the Trump Era serves as the hilariously insightful backdrop for Life With Be The Death of Me , a book in which she chronicles her own journey and our collecti ve insanity with just the right mix of sincerity and snark.--Jon Favreau, co-host of Pod Save America About the Author Chelsea Ha ndler is a writer, comedian, producer, TV host, activist, and the author of five consecutive New York Times bestsellers. She hoste d the late-night talk show Chelsea Lately on the E! network from 2007 to 2014 and released a documentary series, Chelsea Does, on Netflix in January 2016. In 2016 and 2017, Handler hosted the tal k show Chelsea on Netflix. She is at work on a documentary about white privilege that will be released by Netflix in 2019. Excerp t. ® Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chaper 1 Wher e Have I Been All My Life I don't remember the actor, and I don' t remember the movie, but I remember it was five o'clock in the a fternoon and I had just taken a couple hits off my vape pen. I ne eded to load my Pix account, which held pre-released movies that I was expected to screen before a star of one of the movies was a guest on my Netflix talk show. I was sitting on one of my overpr iced chaise longues, the kind that celebrities and Russians purch ase for their bedrooms, when I found myself once again unable to convert the TV that descends from the ceiling from Apple TV to Pi x. Rich people have descending smart televisions. The idea is tha t they descend silently and gracefully from the ceiling, but beca use I am nouveau-riche rich, mine sounds more like a helicopter l anding. I'd like to blame my inability to change the mode of my t elevision to Pix on the fact that I was stoned, but that would be a lie; I'd be even less capable if I was sober. I called my ass istant Brandon at his house, to tell him to tell my other assista nt, Tanner--who was downstairs in my house--to come upstairs and help me with the television. I hung up the phone. I looked down a t the table and saw the vape pen. How many more hits of marijuana would I need to get through this movie? I knew things had hit a new low--or high, depending on how you looked at the situation. I picked up the iPad that controls the TV along with everything e lse in my house--from the window shades to the exterior lights in my backyard, to my pulse, probably--and tried to pretend that I was troubleshooting, so that Tanner would think I had at least tr ied to figure it out on my own--as if that had ever happened befo re. How did I become so useless? And how many assistants did I a ctually have? Answer: two. Brandon and Tanner. Brandon is gay and has an incredible attention to detail. Tanner is straight, and b efore he met me, he thought that the Four Seasons was a weather p attern. Before I met Tanner, I thought Venmo was an online liquor store. Tanner was now upstairs standing behind the chaise I was sitting on. I wondered if he could smell the weed I'd just smoke d, and if so, what did he think of me? Did he realize that most t elevision hosts don't even make the time to watch movies and TV s hows to prepare for each of their upcoming guests? Did he underst and that I was a consummate professional who went to great length s to get ready for my show? Or did he think that I was just some rich, lucky, white bitch who continued to fall upward? No, that w asn't quite right: I doubt he was thinking in terms of race. Two white people surely weren't thinking about skin color. I was the one thinking that. I didn't want to watch another stupid f***ing movie that I didn't care about. And I really didn't want to inte rview another action star bloviating about his motivation for pla ying a half man, half mermaid. I just didn't care, and I wasn't d oing anyone any favors by pretending that I did. Did I ever care ? The answer is yes. There was a time when all of this mattered t o me. There was a time when being famous and having this kind of success and money and having a TV show was what drove me to want more and more and more, and now I found myself exhausted and asha med by the meaninglessness of it all. I remember coming home a c ouple of weeks before the 2016 election on a windy fall night--wh ich for Los Angeles is rare. Anytime there's weather in Los Angel es, even rain, it's exciting--the constant sunshine can start to grate on your nerves. I went up to my bedroom, opened up my slidi ng glass doors, grabbed my vape pen, and turned on some Neil Youn g. I lay on my bed in the dark, watching the wind blow my bedroom drapes around, hearing the ruffling of the leaves, and watching the lanterns that hang from my backyard trees swinging into each other, thinking, If there's an electrical fire, I hope the dogs w ill at least bark to wake me up, but overall, my thought was: Thi s is f***ing awesome. This is exactly what I'd hoped adulthood wo uld be. No kids, no husband, no responsibilities--just a TV show on Netflix and whatever else I felt like doing, whenever I felt like doing it. Not trapped, not stuck, not dependent on a single person but myself--free to be you and me. I couldn't believe how lucky my life had turned out, how many of my dreams had come true , and also my good fortune in being alive during this time in his tory--the year we were going to elect our first female president. I suppose I could blame my state of mind on the election of Don ald Trump--so I will. I have the Trump family and their horrifyin g personalities and veneers to thank for my midlife crisis. Along with more than half the population--of the world--I couldn't gra sp how, in this day and age, we elected a man who insulted Mexica ns and women and Muslims and veterans and disabled people and eve ryone else he has insulted since. The contrast in decency between Barack Obama and Donald Trump was too much for me to bear--like electing Snooki to the Senate. Now people were seriously talking about Dwayne the Rock Johnson running for president. How on earth did we get here? Although, if I'm being honest, at that point in time--or at any other time during the entire Trump presidency--I would have preferred an actual rock. ., The Dial Press, 2019, 3, Crown. Good. 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches. Hardcover. 2000. 256 pages. Ex-library<br>Everybody has to sell something sometime . We're not just talking about salespeople making quotas. Parents have to sell their kids on the idea of eating vegetables and not taking drugs; managers have to sell their employees on the idea of showing up on time and producing. Getting your message across requires selling yourself and your ideas in a way that guarantees a positive response from the most stubborn listener. Gene Bedel l spent a lifetime selling, but he changed his method when he dis covered a better way. Three Steps to Yes shows you how to move an yone from no to yes in just three simple steps. It enables you to get people to do what you ask them to do and believe what you wa nt them to believe without being a bully, damaging your relations hips, or compromising your principles. All the old-fashioned pers uasion techniques -- authoritative power, punishment, rewards, ve rbal manipulation, relationship selling, negotiation -- will be a thing of the past once you make this breakthrough three-step tec hnique a part of your life. Three Steps to Yes isn't a book of selling tricks. It's a new paradigm that shows you how to persuad e your customers, your kids, or your coworkers to let you have yo ur way by recognizing their needs, showing them your core values, and communicating effectively. Full of helpful hints, invaluabl e tactics, and illuminating anecdotes, Three Steps to Yes is requ ired reading for everyone from managers to mothers, bankers to bu siness execs, and, yes, even salespeople. Editorial Reviews Fro m Publishers Weekly Whether parents are talking with their childr en or managers are trying to get employees to work harder, how we convey our message is crucial. According to Bedell, a sales cons ultant and trainer, Persuasion is the difference between having p otential and achieving your potential. He believes that once peop le understand three key principlesAfulfill personal needs, be cre dible and communicate persuasivelyAthey will painlessly master th e art of getting what they want. Aimed at a general audience of p oet persuaders who aren't sales professionals, Bedell's guide off ers a variety of examples from both home and work life. For insta nce, he tells of two co-executives who joined a company at the sa me time, one of whom was so difficult to deal with that everyone ended up working through the second individual until the easy-to- deal with man was promoted while the other was fired. Similarly, at home, kids don't want to deal with a confrontational parent wh o finds fault with everything. Bedell urges people to Be easy-toA easy-to-buy, easy-to-deal-with, easy-to-do-business with and easy -to-live with. His advice should help readers handle their person al and professional interactions more effectively, while Bedell's comforting tone will reassure them. Still, this breezy volume wi ll only help readers who are ready to consciously take the time t o consider all their interactions ahead of time, something that m ay be difficult in today's fast-paced world. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Inside Flap s to sell somet hing sometime. We're not just talking about salespeople making qu otas. Parents have to sell their kids on the idea of eating veget ables and not taking drugs; managers have to sell their employees on the idea of showing up on time and producing. Getting your me ssage across requires selling yourself and your ideas in a way th at guarantees a positive response from the most stubborn listener . Gene Bedell spent a lifetime selling, but he changed his metho d when he discovered a better way. Three Steps to Yes shows you h ow to move anyone from no to yes in just three simple steps. It e nables you to get people to do what you ask them to do and believ e what you want them to believe without being a bully, damaging y our relationships, or compromising your principles. All the old-f ashioned persuasion techniques -- authoritative power, punishment , rewards, verbal manipulation, relationship selling, negotiation -- will be a thing of the past once you make this breakthrough t h From the Back Cover The book is splendid. It's a practical, po werful and lively fusion of tough-minded theory you can remember with examples you won't forget. -- Michael Mills, director of Pro fessional Services, Davis Polk & Wardwell About the Author GENE BEDELL is president of Tenzing L.L.C., a sales consultancy compan y. He lives in Great Falls, Virginia. Excerpt. ® Reprinted by pe rmission. All rights reserved. Why You Need This Book I can unde rstand your wanting to write poems, but I don't quite know what y ou mean by 'being a poet' . . . --T. S. Eliot My wife, a liberal arts major in college, took a course in her freshman year that s he affectionately called Astronomy for Poets. She learned basic a stronomy, studied the constellations, and viewed planets and star s for the first time through a telescope. Cool. She loved the cou rse and signed up for the second in the series in her sophomore y ear. Big mistake. The professor started the first class by annou ncing, Well, now that we're all here for something beyond fulfill ing the basic science requirement, we can get down to work. My wi fe's reaction as she looked around the room was Uh-oh. There were eight students in the class--six astronomy majors, one physics m ajor, and one political science major: her. Not good. The course covered spherical trigonometry, sidereal time, parallax motion, o ptics, and a lot of other astronomy stuff that was of no interest or use to people not majoring in astronomy. My wife stuck it out , but broke the sound barrier getting to the registrar's office t o change her status to pass-fail. My wife's college and her Astr onomy for Poets course weren't unique. Although they're listed in course catalogs with less irreverent titles, there's Physics for Poets, Chemistry for Poets, Rocks for Jocks (Introduction to Geo logy). Poet is a metaphor for enlightened amateur, a person who w ants to know something about astronomy--or physics, chemistry, or geology--but who doesn't want to get lost in the minutiae that o nly science majors need and love. 3 Steps to Yes is the persuasi on equivalent of Astronomy for Poets. Here, Poets is a metaphor f or people who must get others to agree with them, ordinary people who need to move others from no or maybe to yes, but who don't w ant to spend their lives learning and perfecting sales and negoti ation strategies. Moreover, Poets must persuade gently, eschewing the coercion and manipulation that professional persuaders use, but that tend to corrode personal relationships. In 3 Steps to Y es, Poets are the enlightened amateurs of persuasion. They're man agers, employees, parents, spouses, teachers, students, business executives, lawyers, accountants, consultants, investment bankers , job seekers, and, yes, even poets. They may even be people who sell for a living. But Poets are not hard-core, high-pressure sa lespeople and negotiators, people who care only about winning and not about the quality of their long-term relationships with the people they persuade. Poets care about being liked and accepted, and avoid doing anything they feel might hurt their personal rela tionships. Nevertheless, Poets must persuade. The Poet Persuade r As this book neared completion, I needed a publicist, a profes sional public-relations person to help tell the world about my bo ok. I narrowed my search to three firms, each run by a woman foun der/entrepreneur. They were all strong, self-confident profession als working in the heart of the New York City publishing world, w here only the most intelligent and influential succeed. So I was unprepared for their strong Poet aversion to persuading. As it t urned out, each woman disliked selling, and worked hard to appear not to be trying to persuade me. Each one seemed to operate on t he theory that persuasion was unnecessary, even unseemly, and tha t if she simply described what she did, I'd automatically conclud e that she was the best. But it doesn't work that way. This was an important decision, so I met with the head of each firm person ally. The women were competent, hardworking, and enthusiastic, an d they were anxious for me to believe they could help me. They we re intelligent, articulate professionals, perhaps even brilliant, but they Talked Without Communicating. My last meeting was typic al, although also the most frustrating of the three. I'd heard f rom an independent source that this person was the best, so I wen t into this final meeting prepared to make a positive decision. I had a book about to be published, I needed help getting the word out, and I wanted to put this behind me. I was a soft pitch read y to be hit over the outfield fence. But it was not to be. She r efused to try to persuade me. Instead we played Stump the Band, w ith me asking the questions and trying to guess why she was the b est choice. At one point I asked her outright, Why won't you just tell me why I should hire you instead of someone else? Honest, I won't think less of you if you tell me why you're better than pe ople you clearly don't think are as good as you are. Her respons e was that she didn't feel comfortable selling herself, telling m e why she was better. She knew she was the best, but she wanted m e to figure it out for myself based on her objective presentation of facts. All three women, though, told me nearly the same facts about their firms: We work hard for our clients. All our clients come to us through word-of-mouth recommendations. We're well con nected with the print, radio, and TV media. We have an impressive list of successful and satisfied clients. I couldn't distinguish among the different stories and capabilities, because all said e ssentially the same good and impressive things. Even the woman I was predisposed to choose didn't give me what I needed to make a decision. She was not persuasive. If I were to make a decision b ased on the three meetings, I might just as well have flipped a c oin. Sell Yourself These three women were Poets who needed to s ell in the classic sense, to get someone to pay money for their s ervices. But you don't have to be a CEO or a professional salespe rson to have to sell yourself, your ideas, or your services. In everyday life, a Poet can be a parent persuading a child to drive sensibly or avoid drugs, or a caring son or daughter persuading an elderly parent to move to a nursing home. A Poet can be a mana ger persuading a boss to approve her budget or an employee to wor k over the weekend; a job candidate persuading an interviewer abo ut his qualifications; a lawyer, accountant, or other professiona l persuading a client; or a wife persuading her husband to vacati on trekking in Maine instead of visiting his old college roommate in Minnesota. For Poets, persuasion is serious life stuff. The people in your life won't do what you want just because you happe n to be right. They need to be persuaded. And if you're right, if it's in everyone's best interest that you get your way, it's not just your job to persuade them, it's your responsibility. Someti mes even your moral responsibility. You're responsible as a pare nt to persuade your children to do what's right. It's your job to persuade your clients or prospects to make the best decision. Yo u must persuade the person interviewing you to hire you if you're the right person for the job, and it's your responsibility to pe rsuade your boss to approve your plans and budgets if they're the best for the company. You owe it to your friends, spouse, or par ents to persuade them to make good decisions. If you're a profess ional salesperson, you owe it to your company and to your family to persuade people to buy what you're selling. But you also have a responsibility to yourself to be persuasive, because there's l ittle that can affect your life as profoundly as your ability to sell yourself, your ideas, and your services. It's the difference between having good ideas and having others put your good ideas into action; the difference between providing excellent service a nd having clients willing to pay you to provide the service; the difference between having the ability to lead and being given the opportunity to lead. If you're a professional salesperson, persu asion is the difference between being in line for a promotion and standing in the unemployment line. Persuasion is the difference between having potential and achieving your potential. It's what connects being smart and working hard with making partner or vic e-president. It's the link between being a caring parent and havi ng your children embrace your values. It's an essential ingredien t in turning a competent, trustworthy, hardworking Poet into a wi nner in everyday life. ., Crown, 2000, 2.5<

2000, ISBN: 9780609606988

Taschenbuch, Gebundene Ausgabe

Pearson Education New Zealand Limited. Very Good. Paperback. 1986. 200 pages. <br> ., Pearson Education New Zealand Limited, 1986, 3, Crown. Good. 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches. Hardcover. … Mehr…

Pearson Education New Zealand Limited. Very Good. Paperback. 1986. 200 pages. <br> ., Pearson Education New Zealand Limited, 1986, 3, Crown. Good. 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches. Hardcover. 2000. 256 pages. Ex-library<br>Everybody has to sell something sometime . We're not just talking about salespeople making quotas. Parents have to sell their kids on the idea of eating vegetables and not taking drugs; managers have to sell their employees on the idea of showing up on time and producing. Getting your message across requires selling yourself and your ideas in a way that guarantees a positive response from the most stubborn listener. Gene Bedel l spent a lifetime selling, but he changed his method when he dis covered a better way. Three Steps to Yes shows you how to move an yone from no to yes in just three simple steps. It enables you to get people to do what you ask them to do and believe what you wa nt them to believe without being a bully, damaging your relations hips, or compromising your principles. All the old-fashioned pers uasion techniques -- authoritative power, punishment, rewards, ve rbal manipulation, relationship selling, negotiation -- will be a thing of the past once you make this breakthrough three-step tec hnique a part of your life. Three Steps to Yes isn't a book of selling tricks. It's a new paradigm that shows you how to persuad e your customers, your kids, or your coworkers to let you have yo ur way by recognizing their needs, showing them your core values, and communicating effectively. Full of helpful hints, invaluabl e tactics, and illuminating anecdotes, Three Steps to Yes is requ ired reading for everyone from managers to mothers, bankers to bu siness execs, and, yes, even salespeople. Editorial Reviews Fro m Publishers Weekly Whether parents are talking with their childr en or managers are trying to get employees to work harder, how we convey our message is crucial. According to Bedell, a sales cons ultant and trainer, Persuasion is the difference between having p otential and achieving your potential. He believes that once peop le understand three key principlesAfulfill personal needs, be cre dible and communicate persuasivelyAthey will painlessly master th e art of getting what they want. Aimed at a general audience of p oet persuaders who aren't sales professionals, Bedell's guide off ers a variety of examples from both home and work life. For insta nce, he tells of two co-executives who joined a company at the sa me time, one of whom was so difficult to deal with that everyone ended up working through the second individual until the easy-to- deal with man was promoted while the other was fired. Similarly, at home, kids don't want to deal with a confrontational parent wh o finds fault with everything. Bedell urges people to Be easy-toA easy-to-buy, easy-to-deal-with, easy-to-do-business with and easy -to-live with. His advice should help readers handle their person al and professional interactions more effectively, while Bedell's comforting tone will reassure them. Still, this breezy volume wi ll only help readers who are ready to consciously take the time t o consider all their interactions ahead of time, something that m ay be difficult in today's fast-paced world. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Inside Flap s to sell somet hing sometime. We're not just talking about salespeople making qu otas. Parents have to sell their kids on the idea of eating veget ables and not taking drugs; managers have to sell their employees on the idea of showing up on time and producing. Getting your me ssage across requires selling yourself and your ideas in a way th at guarantees a positive response from the most stubborn listener . Gene Bedell spent a lifetime selling, but he changed his metho d when he discovered a better way. Three Steps to Yes shows you h ow to move anyone from no to yes in just three simple steps. It e nables you to get people to do what you ask them to do and believ e what you want them to believe without being a bully, damaging y our relationships, or compromising your principles. All the old-f ashioned persuasion techniques -- authoritative power, punishment , rewards, verbal manipulation, relationship selling, negotiation -- will be a thing of the past once you make this breakthrough t h From the Back Cover The book is splendid. It's a practical, po werful and lively fusion of tough-minded theory you can remember with examples you won't forget. -- Michael Mills, director of Pro fessional Services, Davis Polk & Wardwell About the Author GENE BEDELL is president of Tenzing L.L.C., a sales consultancy compan y. He lives in Great Falls, Virginia. Excerpt. ® Reprinted by pe rmission. All rights reserved. Why You Need This Book I can unde rstand your wanting to write poems, but I don't quite know what y ou mean by 'being a poet' . . . --T. S. Eliot My wife, a liberal arts major in college, took a course in her freshman year that s he affectionately called Astronomy for Poets. She learned basic a stronomy, studied the constellations, and viewed planets and star s for the first time through a telescope. Cool. She loved the cou rse and signed up for the second in the series in her sophomore y ear. Big mistake. The professor started the first class by annou ncing, Well, now that we're all here for something beyond fulfill ing the basic science requirement, we can get down to work. My wi fe's reaction as she looked around the room was Uh-oh. There were eight students in the class--six astronomy majors, one physics m ajor, and one political science major: her. Not good. The course covered spherical trigonometry, sidereal time, parallax motion, o ptics, and a lot of other astronomy stuff that was of no interest or use to people not majoring in astronomy. My wife stuck it out , but broke the sound barrier getting to the registrar's office t o change her status to pass-fail. My wife's college and her Astr onomy for Poets course weren't unique. Although they're listed in course catalogs with less irreverent titles, there's Physics for Poets, Chemistry for Poets, Rocks for Jocks (Introduction to Geo logy). Poet is a metaphor for enlightened amateur, a person who w ants to know something about astronomy--or physics, chemistry, or geology--but who doesn't want to get lost in the minutiae that o nly science majors need and love. 3 Steps to Yes is the persuasi on equivalent of Astronomy for Poets. Here, Poets is a metaphor f or people who must get others to agree with them, ordinary people who need to move others from no or maybe to yes, but who don't w ant to spend their lives learning and perfecting sales and negoti ation strategies. Moreover, Poets must persuade gently, eschewing the coercion and manipulation that professional persuaders use, but that tend to corrode personal relationships. In 3 Steps to Y es, Poets are the enlightened amateurs of persuasion. They're man agers, employees, parents, spouses, teachers, students, business executives, lawyers, accountants, consultants, investment bankers , job seekers, and, yes, even poets. They may even be people who sell for a living. But Poets are not hard-core, high-pressure sa lespeople and negotiators, people who care only about winning and not about the quality of their long-term relationships with the people they persuade. Poets care about being liked and accepted, and avoid doing anything they feel might hurt their personal rela tionships. Nevertheless, Poets must persuade. The Poet Persuade r As this book neared completion, I needed a publicist, a profes sional public-relations person to help tell the world about my bo ok. I narrowed my search to three firms, each run by a woman foun der/entrepreneur. They were all strong, self-confident profession als working in the heart of the New York City publishing world, w here only the most intelligent and influential succeed. So I was unprepared for their strong Poet aversion to persuading. As it t urned out, each woman disliked selling, and worked hard to appear not to be trying to persuade me. Each one seemed to operate on t he theory that persuasion was unnecessary, even unseemly, and tha t if she simply described what she did, I'd automatically conclud e that she was the best. But it doesn't work that way. This was an important decision, so I met with the head of each firm person ally. The women were competent, hardworking, and enthusiastic, an d they were anxious for me to believe they could help me. They we re intelligent, articulate professionals, perhaps even brilliant, but they Talked Without Communicating. My last meeting was typic al, although also the most frustrating of the three. I'd heard f rom an independent source that this person was the best, so I wen t into this final meeting prepared to make a positive decision. I had a book about to be published, I needed help getting the word out, and I wanted to put this behind me. I was a soft pitch read y to be hit over the outfield fence. But it was not to be. She r efused to try to persuade me. Instead we played Stump the Band, w ith me asking the questions and trying to guess why she was the b est choice. At one point I asked her outright, Why won't you just tell me why I should hire you instead of someone else? Honest, I won't think less of you if you tell me why you're better than pe ople you clearly don't think are as good as you are. Her respons e was that she didn't feel comfortable selling herself, telling m e why she was better. She knew she was the best, but she wanted m e to figure it out for myself based on her objective presentation of facts. All three women, though, told me nearly the same facts about their firms: We work hard for our clients. All our clients come to us through word-of-mouth recommendations. We're well con nected with the print, radio, and TV media. We have an impressive list of successful and satisfied clients. I couldn't distinguish among the different stories and capabilities, because all said e ssentially the same good and impressive things. Even the woman I was predisposed to choose didn't give me what I needed to make a decision. She was not persuasive. If I were to make a decision b ased on the three meetings, I might just as well have flipped a c oin. Sell Yourself These three women were Poets who needed to s ell in the classic sense, to get someone to pay money for their s ervices. But you don't have to be a CEO or a professional salespe rson to have to sell yourself, your ideas, or your services. In everyday life, a Poet can be a parent persuading a child to drive sensibly or avoid drugs, or a caring son or daughter persuading an elderly parent to move to a nursing home. A Poet can be a mana ger persuading a boss to approve her budget or an employee to wor k over the weekend; a job candidate persuading an interviewer abo ut his qualifications; a lawyer, accountant, or other professiona l persuading a client; or a wife persuading her husband to vacati on trekking in Maine instead of visiting his old college roommate in Minnesota. For Poets, persuasion is serious life stuff. The people in your life won't do what you want just because you happe n to be right. They need to be persuaded. And if you're right, if it's in everyone's best interest that you get your way, it's not just your job to persuade them, it's your responsibility. Someti mes even your moral responsibility. You're responsible as a pare nt to persuade your children to do what's right. It's your job to persuade your clients or prospects to make the best decision. Yo u must persuade the person interviewing you to hire you if you're the right person for the job, and it's your responsibility to pe rsuade your boss to approve your plans and budgets if they're the best for the company. You owe it to your friends, spouse, or par ents to persuade them to make good decisions. If you're a profess ional salesperson, you owe it to your company and to your family to persuade people to buy what you're selling. But you also have a responsibility to yourself to be persuasive, because there's l ittle that can affect your life as profoundly as your ability to sell yourself, your ideas, and your services. It's the difference between having good ideas and having others put your good ideas into action; the difference between providing excellent service a nd having clients willing to pay you to provide the service; the difference between having the ability to lead and being given the opportunity to lead. If you're a professional salesperson, persu asion is the difference between being in line for a promotion and standing in the unemployment line. Persuasion is the difference between having potential and achieving your potential. It's what connects being smart and working hard with making partner or vic e-president. It's the link between being a caring parent and havi ng your children embrace your values. It's an essential ingredien t in turning a competent, trustworthy, hardworking Poet into a wi nner in everyday life. ., Crown, 2000, 2.5<

2000, ISBN: 9780609606988

Gebundene Ausgabe

Crown. Good. 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches. Hardcover. 2000. 256 pages. Ex-library<br>Everybody has to sell something sometime . We're not just talking about salespeople making quotas. … Mehr…

Crown. Good. 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches. Hardcover. 2000. 256 pages. Ex-library<br>Everybody has to sell something sometime . We're not just talking about salespeople making quotas. Parents have to sell their kids on the idea of eating vegetables and not taking drugs; managers have to sell their employees on the idea of showing up on time and producing. Getting your message across requires selling yourself and your ideas in a way that guarantees a positive response from the most stubborn listener. Gene Bedel l spent a lifetime selling, but he changed his method when he dis covered a better way. Three Steps to Yes shows you how to move an yone from no to yes in just three simple steps. It enables you to get people to do what you ask them to do and believe what you wa nt them to believe without being a bully, damaging your relations hips, or compromising your principles. All the old-fashioned pers uasion techniques -- authoritative power, punishment, rewards, ve rbal manipulation, relationship selling, negotiation -- will be a thing of the past once you make this breakthrough three-step tec hnique a part of your life. Three Steps to Yes isn't a book of selling tricks. It's a new paradigm that shows you how to persuad e your customers, your kids, or your coworkers to let you have yo ur way by recognizing their needs, showing them your core values, and communicating effectively. Full of helpful hints, invaluabl e tactics, and illuminating anecdotes, Three Steps to Yes is requ ired reading for everyone from managers to mothers, bankers to bu siness execs, and, yes, even salespeople. Editorial Reviews Fro m Publishers Weekly Whether parents are talking with their childr en or managers are trying to get employees to work harder, how we convey our message is crucial. According to Bedell, a sales cons ultant and trainer, Persuasion is the difference between having p otential and achieving your potential. He believes that once peop le understand three key principlesAfulfill personal needs, be cre dible and communicate persuasivelyAthey will painlessly master th e art of getting what they want. Aimed at a general audience of p oet persuaders who aren't sales professionals, Bedell's guide off ers a variety of examples from both home and work life. For insta nce, he tells of two co-executives who joined a company at the sa me time, one of whom was so difficult to deal with that everyone ended up working through the second individual until the easy-to- deal with man was promoted while the other was fired. Similarly, at home, kids don't want to deal with a confrontational parent wh o finds fault with everything. Bedell urges people to Be easy-toA easy-to-buy, easy-to-deal-with, easy-to-do-business with and easy -to-live with. His advice should help readers handle their person al and professional interactions more effectively, while Bedell's comforting tone will reassure them. Still, this breezy volume wi ll only help readers who are ready to consciously take the time t o consider all their interactions ahead of time, something that m ay be difficult in today's fast-paced world. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Inside Flap s to sell somet hing sometime. We're not just talking about salespeople making qu otas. Parents have to sell their kids on the idea of eating veget ables and not taking drugs; managers have to sell their employees on the idea of showing up on time and producing. Getting your me ssage across requires selling yourself and your ideas in a way th at guarantees a positive response from the most stubborn listener . Gene Bedell spent a lifetime selling, but he changed his metho d when he discovered a better way. Three Steps to Yes shows you h ow to move anyone from no to yes in just three simple steps. It e nables you to get people to do what you ask them to do and believ e what you want them to believe without being a bully, damaging y our relationships, or compromising your principles. All the old-f ashioned persuasion techniques -- authoritative power, punishment , rewards, verbal manipulation, relationship selling, negotiation -- will be a thing of the past once you make this breakthrough t h From the Back Cover The book is splendid. It's a practical, po werful and lively fusion of tough-minded theory you can remember with examples you won't forget. -- Michael Mills, director of Pro fessional Services, Davis Polk & Wardwell About the Author GENE BEDELL is president of Tenzing L.L.C., a sales consultancy compan y. He lives in Great Falls, Virginia. Excerpt. ® Reprinted by pe rmission. All rights reserved. Why You Need This Book I can unde rstand your wanting to write poems, but I don't quite know what y ou mean by 'being a poet' . . . --T. S. Eliot My wife, a liberal arts major in college, took a course in her freshman year that s he affectionately called Astronomy for Poets. She learned basic a stronomy, studied the constellations, and viewed planets and star s for the first time through a telescope. Cool. She loved the cou rse and signed up for the second in the series in her sophomore y ear. Big mistake. The professor started the first class by annou ncing, Well, now that we're all here for something beyond fulfill ing the basic science requirement, we can get down to work. My wi fe's reaction as she looked around the room was Uh-oh. There were eight students in the class--six astronomy majors, one physics m ajor, and one political science major: her. Not good. The course covered spherical trigonometry, sidereal time, parallax motion, o ptics, and a lot of other astronomy stuff that was of no interest or use to people not majoring in astronomy. My wife stuck it out , but broke the sound barrier getting to the registrar's office t o change her status to pass-fail. My wife's college and her Astr onomy for Poets course weren't unique. Although they're listed in course catalogs with less irreverent titles, there's Physics for Poets, Chemistry for Poets, Rocks for Jocks (Introduction to Geo logy). Poet is a metaphor for enlightened amateur, a person who w ants to know something about astronomy--or physics, chemistry, or geology--but who doesn't want to get lost in the minutiae that o nly science majors need and love. 3 Steps to Yes is the persuasi on equivalent of Astronomy for Poets. Here, Poets is a metaphor f or people who must get others to agree with them, ordinary people who need to move others from no or maybe to yes, but who don't w ant to spend their lives learning and perfecting sales and negoti ation strategies. Moreover, Poets must persuade gently, eschewing the coercion and manipulation that professional persuaders use, but that tend to corrode personal relationships. In 3 Steps to Y es, Poets are the enlightened amateurs of persuasion. They're man agers, employees, parents, spouses, teachers, students, business executives, lawyers, accountants, consultants, investment bankers , job seekers, and, yes, even poets. They may even be people who sell for a living. But Poets are not hard-core, high-pressure sa lespeople and negotiators, people who care only about winning and not about the quality of their long-term relationships with the people they persuade. Poets care about being liked and accepted, and avoid doing anything they feel might hurt their personal rela tionships. Nevertheless, Poets must persuade. The Poet Persuade r As this book neared completion, I needed a publicist, a profes sional public-relations person to help tell the world about my bo ok. I narrowed my search to three firms, each run by a woman foun der/entrepreneur. They were all strong, self-confident profession als working in the heart of the New York City publishing world, w here only the most intelligent and influential succeed. So I was unprepared for their strong Poet aversion to persuading. As it t urned out, each woman disliked selling, and worked hard to appear not to be trying to persuade me. Each one seemed to operate on t he theory that persuasion was unnecessary, even unseemly, and tha t if she simply described what she did, I'd automatically conclud e that she was the best. But it doesn't work that way. This was an important decision, so I met with the head of each firm person ally. The women were competent, hardworking, and enthusiastic, an d they were anxious for me to believe they could help me. They we re intelligent, articulate professionals, perhaps even brilliant, but they Talked Without Communicating. My last meeting was typic al, although also the most frustrating of the three. I'd heard f rom an independent source that this person was the best, so I wen t into this final meeting prepared to make a positive decision. I had a book about to be published, I needed help getting the word out, and I wanted to put this behind me. I was a soft pitch read y to be hit over the outfield fence. But it was not to be. She r efused to try to persuade me. Instead we played Stump the Band, w ith me asking the questions and trying to guess why she was the b est choice. At one point I asked her outright, Why won't you just tell me why I should hire you instead of someone else? Honest, I won't think less of you if you tell me why you're better than pe ople you clearly don't think are as good as you are. Her respons e was that she didn't feel comfortable selling herself, telling m e why she was better. She knew she was the best, but she wanted m e to figure it out for myself based on her objective presentation of facts. All three women, though, told me nearly the same facts about their firms: We work hard for our clients. All our clients come to us through word-of-mouth recommendations. We're well con nected with the print, radio, and TV media. We have an impressive list of successful and satisfied clients. I couldn't distinguish among the different stories and capabilities, because all said e ssentially the same good and impressive things. Even the woman I was predisposed to choose didn't give me what I needed to make a decision. She was not persuasive. If I were to make a decision b ased on the three meetings, I might just as well have flipped a c oin. Sell Yourself These three women were Poets who needed to s ell in the classic sense, to get someone to pay money for their s ervices. But you don't have to be a CEO or a professional salespe rson to have to sell yourself, your ideas, or your services. In everyday life, a Poet can be a parent persuading a child to drive sensibly or avoid drugs, or a caring son or daughter persuading an elderly parent to move to a nursing home. A Poet can be a mana ger persuading a boss to approve her budget or an employee to wor k over the weekend; a job candidate persuading an interviewer abo ut his qualifications; a lawyer, accountant, or other professiona l persuading a client; or a wife persuading her husband to vacati on trekking in Maine instead of visiting his old college roommate in Minnesota. For Poets, persuasion is serious life stuff. The people in your life won't do what you want just because you happe n to be right. They need to be persuaded. And if you're right, if it's in everyone's best interest that you get your way, it's not just your job to persuade them, it's your responsibility. Someti mes even your moral responsibility. You're responsible as a pare nt to persuade your children to do what's right. It's your job to persuade your clients or prospects to make the best decision. Yo u must persuade the person interviewing you to hire you if you're the right person for the job, and it's your responsibility to pe rsuade your boss to approve your plans and budgets if they're the best for the company. You owe it to your friends, spouse, or par ents to persuade them to make good decisions. If you're a profess ional salesperson, you owe it to your company and to your family to persuade people to buy what you're selling. But you also have a responsibility to yourself to be persuasive, because there's l ittle that can affect your life as profoundly as your ability to sell yourself, your ideas, and your services. It's the difference between having good ideas and having others put your good ideas into action; the difference between providing excellent service a nd having clients willing to pay you to provide the service; the difference between having the ability to lead and being given the opportunity to lead. If you're a professional salesperson, persu asion is the difference between being in line for a promotion and standing in the unemployment line. Persuasion is the difference between having potential and achieving your potential. It's what connects being smart and working hard with making partner or vic e-president. It's the link between being a caring parent and havi ng your children embrace your values. It's an essential ingredien t in turning a competent, trustworthy, hardworking Poet into a wi nner in everyday life. ., Crown, 2000, 2.5<

2000, ISBN: 0609606980

[EAN: 9780609606988], Gebraucht, guter Zustand, [PU: Crown], SALES & MARKETING,ASSERTIVENESS,MOTIVATION SELF-ESTEEM, Jacket, 256 pages. Ex-libraryEverybody has to sell something sometime … Mehr…

[EAN: 9780609606988], Gebraucht, guter Zustand, [PU: Crown], SALES & MARKETING,ASSERTIVENESS,MOTIVATION SELF-ESTEEM, Jacket, 256 pages. Ex-libraryEverybody has to sell something sometime . We're not just talking about salespeople making quotas. Parents have to sell their kids on the idea of eating vegetables and not taking drugs; managers have to sell their employees on the idea of showing up on time and producing. Getting your message across requires selling yourself and your ideas in a way that guarantees a positive response from the most stubborn listener. Gene Bedel l spent a lifetime selling, but he changed his method when he dis covered a better way. Three Steps to Yes shows you how to move an yone from no to yes in just three simple steps. It enables you to get people to do what you ask them to do and believe what you wa nt them to believe without being a bully, damaging your relations hips, or compromising your principles. All the old-fashioned pers uasion techniques -- authoritative power, punishment, rewards, ve rbal manipulation, relationship selling, negotiation -- will be a thing of the past once you make this breakthrough three-step tec hnique a part of your life. Three Steps to Yes isn't a book of selling tricks. It's a new paradigm that shows you how to persuad e your customers, your kids, or your coworkers to let you have yo ur way by recognizing their needs, showing them your core values, and communicating effectively. Full of helpful hints, invaluabl e tactics, and illuminating anecdotes, Three Steps to Yes is requ ired reading for everyone from managers to mothers, bankers to bu siness execs, and, yes, even salespeople. Editorial Reviews Fro m Publishers Weekly Whether parents are talking with their childr en or managers are trying to get employees to work harder, how we convey our message is crucial. According to Bedell, a sales cons ultant and trainer, Persuasion is the difference between having p otential and achieving your potential. He believes that once peop le understand three key principlesAfulfill personal needs, be cre dible and communicate persuasivelyAthey will painlessly master th e art of getting what they want. Aimed at a general audience of p oet persuaders who aren't sales professionals, Bedell's guide off ers a variety of examples from both home and work life. For insta nce, he tells of two co-executives who joined a company at the sa me time, one of whom was so difficult to deal with that everyone ended up working through the second individual until the easy-to- deal with man was promoted while the other was fired. Similarly, at home, kids don't want to deal with a confrontational parent wh o finds fault with everything. Bedell urges people to Be easy-toA easy-to-buy, easy-to-deal-with, easy-to-do-business with and easy -to-live with. His advice should help readers handle their person al and professional interactions more effectively, while Bedell's comforting tone will reassure them. Still, this breezy volume wi ll only help readers who are ready to consciously take the time t o consider all their interactions ahead of time, something that m ay be difficult in today's fast-paced world. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Inside Flap s to sell somet hing sometime. We're not just talking about salespeople making qu otas. Parents have to sell their kids on the idea of eating veget ables and not taking drugs; managers have to sell their employees on the idea of showing up on time and producing. Getting your me ssage across requires selling yourself and your ideas in a way th at guarantees a positive response from the most stubborn listener . Gene Bedell spent a lifetime selling, but he changed his metho d when he discovered a better way. Three Steps to Yes shows you h ow to move anyone from no to yes in just three simple steps. It e nables you to get people to do what you ask them to do and believ e what you want them to believe without being a bully, damaging y our relationships, or compromising your principles. All the old-f ashioned persuasion techniques -- authoritati, Books<

ISBN: 9780609606988

Crown. Hardcover. GOOD. Spine creases, wear to binding and pages from reading. May contain limited notes, underlining or highlighting that does affect the text. Possible ex library copy… Mehr…

Crown. Hardcover. GOOD. Spine creases, wear to binding and pages from reading. May contain limited notes, underlining or highlighting that does affect the text. Possible ex library copy, will have the markings and stickers associated from the library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included., Crown, 2.5<