One of the nation's biggest music labels briefly signed Taylor Swift to a contract but let her go because she didn't seem worth more than $15,000 a year. At least four book publishers passed on the first Harry Potter novel rather than pay J. K. Rowling a $5,000 advance. And the same pattern happens in nearly every business. Anyone who recruits talent faces the same basic challenge, whether we work for a big company, a new start-up, a Hollywood studio, a hospital, or the Green Berets. We all wonder how to tell the really outstanding prospects from the ones who look great on paper but then fail on the job. Or, equally important, how to spot the ones who don't look so good on paper but might still deliver extraordinary performance. Over the past few decades, technology has made recruiting in all fields vastly more sophisticated. Gut instincts have yielded to benchmarks. If we want elaborate dossiers on candidates, we can gather facts (and video) by the gigabyte. And yet the results are just as spotty as they were in the age of the rotary phone. George Anders sought out the world's savviest talent judges to see what they do differently from the rest of us. He reveals how the U.S. Army finds soldiers with the character to be in Special Forces without asking them to fire a single bullet. He takes us to an elite basketball tournament in South Carolina, where the best scouts watch the game in a radically different way from the casual fan. He talks to researchers who are reinventing the process of hiring Fortune 500 CEOs. Drawing on the best advice of these and other talent masters, Anders reveals powerful ideas you can apply to your own hiring. For instance: Don't ignore "the jagged résumé"-people whose background appears to teeter on the edge between success and failure. Such people can do spectacular work in the right settings, where their strengths dramatically outweigh their flaws. Look extra hard for "talent that whispers"- the obscure, out-of-the- way candidates who most scouting systems overlook. Be careful with "talent that shouts"-the spectacular but brash candidates who might have trouble with loyalty, motivation, and team spirit. Each field that Anders explores has its own lingo, customs, and history. But the specific stories fit together into a bigger mosaic. In any field, there's an art to clearing away the clutter and focusing on what matters most. It's not necessarily hard, but it requires the courage to take a different approach in pursuit of the rare find.

A woman struggling to leave her home learns how to find her own strength-and lean on the man who wants to help her-in this heartwarming romance set in a bookstore. When bookstore owner and rare bookseller Melanie Montgomery thinks about stepping outside...well, she just doesn't. Outside doesn't exist anymore as far as she's concerned. She's got the good life-an apartment above the bookstore she owns and loves, regular grocery deliveries, friends who are more than happy to visit her bookstore home. Life is simple and she's happy. Or so she keeps telling herself. Then retired real-estate mogul Samuel Reid walks in with a rare book to rival all rare books. And when he offers to bring dinner to her, Melanie jumps at a chance to kindle the romance...inside the safety of her home. The thing is, she hasn't told him that she can't leave the store. That why she can't leave is her fault. And if she does think about leaving, it sends her into a spiral. But as their romance blossoms, so does Melanie, and she starts to think that maybe stepping outside her door might not be so bad after all. Samuel has problems of his own, though, and when he doesn't communicate with Melanie that one of the books he brings in might have a sketchy past, it threatens the trust and love they've begun to develop. But Samuel wants to fight for her, and he's convinced that Melanie has the strength to fight for herself, too. This novel explores the world of rare book sales as well as the world of someone with agoraphobia. This small-town romance has plenty of bookish vibes, a healthy dose of summer into autumn feels, and explores what it means to love someone who suffers with debilitating mental health issues.

"Discoveries of rare and collectible books are chronicled in stories from both casual and die-hard book collectors"--

An experienced insider in antiquarian book markets offers advice on finding, buying, and selling used and rare books, and provides an index of more than one thousand of the "most collectible" books and authors.

A reporter and a photographer accompany a famous ornithologist to Magic Island in search of a rare bird that is missing from his collection. Detachable characters follow clues around a pop-up game board representing the island.

International Bestseller "With its countless revelations about the dusty realms of rare books, a likable librarian sleuth who has just the right balance of compassion and wit, and a library setting that is teeming with secrets, The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is a rare treat for readers. I loved this book!"—Matthew Sullivan, author of Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore Anxious People meets the delights of bookish fiction in a stunning debut following a librarian whose quiet life is turned upside down when a priceless manuscript goes missing. Soon she has to ask: what holds more secrets in the library—the ancient books shelved in the stacks, or the people who preserve them? Liesl Weiss long ago learned to be content working behind the scenes in the distinguished rare books department of a large university, managing details and working behind the scenes to make the head of the department look good. But when her boss has a stroke and she's left to run things, she discovers that the library's most prized manuscript is missing. Liesl tries to sound the alarm and inform the police about the missing priceless book, but is told repeatedly to keep quiet, to keep the doors open and the donors happy. But then a librarian unexpectedly stops showing up to work. Liesl must investigate both disappearances, unspooling her colleagues' pasts like the threads of a rare book binding as it becomes clear that someone in the department must be responsible for the theft. What Liesl discovers about the dusty manuscripts she has worked among for so long—and about the people who care for and revere them—shakes the very foundation on which she has built her life. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is a sparkling book-club read about a woman struggling to step out from behind the shadows of powerful and unreliable men, and reveals the dark edge of obsession running through the most devoted bookworms. February 2022 INDIE NEXT Selection January 2022 LIBRARY READS Selection January 2022 Loan Star Selection Pop Sugar 35 Must-Read Thrillers and Mystery Books

My essays and escapades span over thirty years of rare book hunting--an exciting journey that is ongoing. Many of my friends are rare book people, and much of my free time revolves around bookish pursuits. I can't recall a day without thinking about a book and seldom without handling one. I write regularly on my blog about rare books I've found and their history. Recently, my wife and I began plans to expand our library space by converting the attic above the garage, so it seems inevitable that the book you hold in your hand would come to fruition. If you're already a rare book hunter no further prelude is needed. If you have found this book through curiosity or happenstance, and it creates a spark within, I strongly encourage you to follow your own book hunting path. The rewards are great and the space concerns never-ending. Kurt Zimmerman is a highly regarded book collector and author. He has been collecting for over thirty years in two areas: association items related to book collecting history (currently 7,000+ items) and first editions of Latin American literature (over 2,000 items). He received his Master's in Library and Information Science degree from UT-Austin while completing a three year internship at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. There he learned bibliography and rare books from the best in the field. He worked in the rare book trade and as director of the rare books & maps department at Butterfield & Butterfield auction house (now Bonham's) in San Francisco. Zimmerman is a co-founder of the Book Hunters Club of Houston. His established is popular blog bookcollectinghistory.com in 2011. The author can be reached directly at [email protected].