When Vic Wilcox (MD of Pringle's engineering works) meets English lecturer Dr Robyn Penrose, sparks fly as their lifestyles and ideologies collide head on. What, after all, are they supposed to learn from each other? But in time both parties make some surprising discoveries about each other's worlds - and about themselves.

2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title A survey into an emerging pattern of labor instability and uneven global development Is job insecurity the new norm? With fewer and fewer people working in steady, long-term positions for one employer, has the dream of a secure job with full benefits and a decent salary become just that—a dream? In Nice Work If You Can Get It, Andrew Ross surveys the new topography of the global workplace and finds an emerging pattern of labor instability and uneven development on a massive scale. Combining detailed case studies with lucid analysis and graphic prose, he looks at what the new landscape of contingent employment means for workers across national, class, and racial lines—from the emerging “creative class” of high-wage professionals to the multitudes of temporary, migrant, or low-wage workers. Developing the idea of “precarious livelihoods” to describe this new world of work and life, Ross explores what it means in developed nations—comparing the creative industry policies of the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union, as well as developing countries—by examining the quickfire transformation of China’s labor market. He also responds to the challenge of sustainability, assessing the promise of “green jobs” through restorative alliances between labor advocates and environmentalists. Ross argues that regardless of one’s views on labor rights, globalization, and quality of life, this new precarious and “indefinite life,&” and the pitfalls and opportunities that accompany it is likely here to stay and must be addressed in a systematic way. A more equitable kind of knowledge society emerges in these pages—less skewed toward flexploitation and the speculative beneficiaries of intellectual property, and more in tune with ideals and practices that are fair, just, and renewable.

When Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that—and more. In their early twenties, by sheer force of talent and determination never to take no for an answer, they created a wildly successful fifth-grade experience that would grow into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which today includes sixty-six schools in nineteen states and the District of Columbia. KIPP schools incorporate what Feinberg and Levin learned from America's best, most charismatic teachers: lessons need to be lively; school days need to be longer (the KIPP day is nine and a half hours); the completion of homework has to be sacrosanct (KIPP teachers are available by telephone day and night). Chants, songs, and slogans such as "Work hard, be nice" energize the program. Illuminating the ups and downs of the KIPP founders and their students, Mathews gives us something quite rare: a hopeful book about education.

"Nice work, boys!" was a phrase Hanalei often heard thrown at her throughout her time working in the ski industry and restaurant kitchens. As one of the only women in both fields, one of the youngest, and a new leader, she details her struggles, successes, and failures learning leadership on the job. You'll be right there next to her at 1 p.m. on a Saturday, cooking hundreds of lunches at a hole-in-the-wall seafood spot. You'll get an inside view of what goes on at a ski resort from a mountain operations employee. You'll meet the people she met and hear what she learned through her experiences.

Witty and enchanting, the second novel from the well-loved actress and author of Not Quite Nice follows the hilarious exploits of expats in the South of France. Somewhere on the French Riviera, tucked between glitzy Monte Carlo and Cannes' red carpets, lies the pretty town of Bellevue-Sur-Mer. Sheltered from the glittering melee, it is home to many an expat--including an enterprising team who plan to open a new restaurant. Snapping up a local property and throwing themselves into preparations, Theresa, Carol, William and Benjamin's plans are proceeding unnervingly well. But when Theresa encounters a mysterious intruder, she begins to wonder what secrets the building is concealing. Meanwhile Sally, an actress who gave up the stage to live in quiet anonymity, has decided not to be involved. The famous Cannes Film Festival is on and she is far too busy entertaining unexpected visitors from her past, and an intriguingly handsome Russian. As the razzmatazz of the festival begins to spill over into Bellevue-Sur-Mer, its inhabitants become entangled in complex love triangles and conflicting business interests. With the race on to get the restaurant open in time, the gang find themselves knee-deep in skulduggery, and realize they can no longer tell who's nasty . . . and who's nice.

"We spend forty hours, on average, each week in a place that is not our home, in the company of strangers. Odd then, that the details of what we do all that time often remain unknown, even to those closest to us." Jana Wendt, one of Australia's most experienced journalists, sets out to discover what drives us in the work we do. She follows a compelling group of people, from a boxer set for a comeback to a maverick priest, and a CEO whose company is mired in scandal to a forensic anthropologist investigating murder. Wendt witnesses the successes and frustrations, the body-blows and moments of joy experienced by people who consider what they do as the great passion of their lives. The result is a wonderfully observed and entertaining portrait of modern work.

Somewhere on the French Riviera, tucked between glitzy Monte Carlo and Cannes' red carpets, lies the pretty town of Bellevue-Sur-Mer. Sheltered from the glittering melee, it is home to many an expat – including an enterprising team who plan to open a new restaurant. Snapping up a local property and throwing themselves into preparations, Theresa, Carol, William and Benjamin's plans are proceeding unnervingly well. But when Theresa encounters a mysterious intruder, she begins to wonder what secrets the building is concealing. Meanwhile Sally, an actress who gave up the stage to live in quiet anonymity, has decided not to be involved. The famous Cannes Film Festival is on and she is far too busy entertaining unexpected visitors from her past, and an intriguingly handsome Russian. As the razzmatazz of the festival begins to spill over into Bellevue-Sur-Mer, its inhabitants become entangled in complex love triangles and conflicting business interests. With the race on to get the restaurant open in time, the gang find themselves knee-deep in skulduggery, and realise they can no longer tell who's nasty ... and who's nice.