Xandri Corelel, autistic woman and leader of starship Carpathia's first contact team, must navigate diplomacy and sabotage to ensure the survival of a species who have developed a new, deadly weapon.

Your stomach's churning; you're hyperventilating -- you're in a badly deteriorating conversation at work. Such exchanges, which run the gamut from firing subordinates to parrying verbal attacks from colleagues, are so loaded with anger, confusion, and fear that most people handle them poorly: they avoid them, clamp down, or give in. But dodging issues, appeasing difficult people, and mishandling tough encounters all carry a high price for managers and companies -- in the form of damaged relationships, ruined careers, and intensified problems. In Failure to Communicate, Holly Weeks shows how to master the combat mentality, emotional maelstrom, and confusion that poison difficult conversations. Drawing on her many years as a consultant and coach to leaders and executives, the author explains: · Why we turn to ineffective tactics when the heat is on · How to avoid the worst pitfalls of difficult conversations, and how to pull yourself out if you fall in · Ways to regain your balance and inject respect into stressful conversations, even when you've been confronted, infuriated, or wronged · Strategies for mitigating aggression and defensiveness, and for clearing the fog of misconceptions · How to get through the hardest conversations with your reputation and relationships intact Using proven techniques paired with detailed real-life examples, Weeks equips you with the strategies and practices you need to transform even the toughest conversations.

A Failure to Communicate, S. Andrea Allen's debut collection of short fiction, focuses on how communication, or the lack thereof, impacts Black women's lives. The stories range from the humorous to the heartbreaking: one woman wins a bake-off because her co-worker misunderstands the contest; an overweight woman finally learns to love herself, even though it means leaving her girlfriend; a university administrator worries that racial tensions will force her to choose between her identity and her lover; a woman realizes that her partner has been hiding a gambling addiction, and has to decide whether to help her or save herself. The women in these stories are often silenced, but Allen imbues them with a voice that demands to be heard.

This book offers practical guidance on possible solutions to communication problems, featuring a number of examples related to the construction industry.

“WE NEED TO TALK.” In this urgent and insightful book, public radio journalist Celeste Headlee shows us how to bridge what divides us--by having real conversations BASED ON THE TED TALK WITH OVER 10 MILLION VIEWS NPR's Best Books of 2017 Winner of the 2017 Silver Nautilus Award in Relationships & Communication “We Need to Talk is an important read for a conversationally-challenged, disconnected age. Headlee is a talented, honest storyteller, and her advice has helped me become a better spouse, friend, and mother.” (Jessica Lahey, author of New York Times bestseller The Gift of Failure) Today most of us communicate from behind electronic screens, and studies show that Americans feel less connected and more divided than ever before. The blame for some of this disconnect can be attributed to our political landscape, but the erosion of our conversational skills as a society lies with us as individuals. And the only way forward, says Headlee, is to start talking to each other. In We Need to Talk, she outlines the strategies that have made her a better conversationalist—and offers simple tools that can improve anyone’s communication. For example: BE THERE OR GO ELSEWHERE. Human beings are incapable of multitasking, and this is especially true of tasks that involve language. Think you can type up a few emails while on a business call, or hold a conversation with your child while texting your spouse? Think again. CHECK YOUR BIAS. The belief that your intelligence protects you from erroneous assumptions can end up making you more vulnerable to them. We all have blind spots that affect the way we view others. Check your bias before you judge someone else. HIDE YOUR PHONE. Don’t just put down your phone, put it away. New research suggests that the mere presence of a cell phone can negatively impact the quality of a conversation. Whether you’re struggling to communicate with your kid’s teacher at school, an employee at work, or the people you love the most—Headlee offers smart strategies that can help us all have conversations that matter.

This book tells true and poignant stories from both sides of the physician-patient/parent relationship and provides a unique glimpse into how parents and physicians think, feel, and interact. The stories are grouped under four sections: Hope, Compassion, Communication, and Trust. Each section includes stories contributed by parents from all across the United States and by pediatricians practicing at many of the best children’s hospitals throughout the country. The parents tell of interactions with physicians that had a significant impact on them and their child and offer context and insight that promote empathy and reflection. The physicians tell of interactions with patients and families that served as learning moments in their career and promote the humanization of medicine and show there is more to a physician beyond their scientific knowledge and white coat. The stories are edited by Barry P. Markovitz - a pediatrician specializing in critical care medicine who has been in practice for more than 20 years and by Ann F. Schrooten - the parent of a child born with a chronic complex condition who has more than 15 years of experience interacting with pediatric subspecialists and other healthcare professionals who cared for her son. The editors have written commentaries to the stories to provide an independent perspective on the events and messages conveyed and to encourage reflection, inquiry, and discussion. In addition to being a valuable resource for pediatricians, pediatric subspecialists, nurses and other healthcare professionals, the book will also appeal to families of children living with complex medical conditions because it shares physician encounters and behaviors many have experienced in the care of their own children. By giving a voice to both parents and physicians, the goal is to create a bridge to better understanding that can improve communication, minimize conflicts, and foster trust and compassion among physicians, patients, and families.

Seated in a Paris café, a man glimpses another man, a shadowy figure hurrying for the train: Who is he? he wonders, How does he live? And instantly the shadow comes to life, precipitating a series of comic run-ins among a range of disreputable and heartwarming characters living on the sleazy outskirts of the city of lights. Witch Grass (previously titled The Bark Tree) is a philosophical farce, an epic comedy, a mesmerizing book about the daily grind that is an enchantment itself.