After an overdose, the unfortunate painter Edgar Bloom is dead. At the funeral, Douglas Frank (soft-boiled crime writer) is persuaded to look into his friend’s misadventure by Bloom’s long suffering widow. Did I mention she was beautiful? He discovers the artist’s diaries buried in the an unkempt studio. Frank’s agent, Ron Cranston (Albatross Books) urges him to write a brash expose featuring the dirty side of creative failure so Frank can rise in the literary food chain. What better way to get back at the elitist “Art Mob” for neglecting his friend Bloom and make a bit of cash? Ethical dilemmas multiply. Frank is asked to consult on a big museum exhibition by hard-nosed, curator, Martha Trout and Bloom’s resurrection takes on a life of its’ own. Bemused, Frank realizes he’s the only one who represents the disaffected artists of the world. To complicate matters, the success of the “Forgotten Poets” exhibition and subsequent book Work Shy soon has Hollywood knocking on his door. Publishers are thrilled. Is this a good thing asks the jaded writer? Sherrie Bloom is upset by the belated notoriety her dead husband receives and spurns amorous Frank. Our reluctant investigator must choose sides, live with the guilt or take the money and run.

Say hello to new friends, new business opportunities, new love, and new confidence Okay, so you're shy. Here are 85 proven techniques to help you conquer your shyness and change your life for good. No psychobabble. No nonsense. These tested "ShyBusters" prepare you for that upcoming party, work function, interview, date, and the rest of your life. As someone who overcame debilitating shyness herself, professional speaker Leil Lowndes used this method to become a confident woman who has been interviewed on hundreds of TV and radio shows and has spoken to crowds of 10,000. You'll soon be making "fearless conversation" with people who used to intimidate you. You'll learn how to win the love you deserve and ask for whatever you want. You will overcome embarrassing stammering, sweating, clamming up, and wishing you were invisible. Good-Bye to Shy will show you how to: Make a stronger impression at work, at parties, in any situation Feel more relaxed around people, make eye contact, and spark conversations Boost your career, jump-start your social life, and open your heart to new possibilities Say Good-Bye to Shy--and hello to the happy, loving, confident person who's been hiding inside you.

The Work-Shy painstakingly reconstructs a chorus of voices rescued from hermetic “colonies” and fragile communes, from worlds that work in ways that defy work as we know it. Its poetic assemblages offer direct testimony from the first youth prison in California and from asylums for the chronically insane (preserved in the Prinzhorn Collection in Germany and the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in New York City). Painful facts emerge about “sterilization mills” in California, where thousands of individuals became subject to compulsory procedures (policies that shaped eugenics practice in the Third Reich). In addition, the poems “translate” asylum texts--the writing of the insane--into a wider field of social conflict and utopian fragments of not-yet-being. Activating what Susan Howe calls “the telepathy of the archive” (and Peter Gizzi dubs “archeophonics” in the title of his latest collection), the poems of The Work-Shy become part of a “book of listening,” occupying identities rooted in the demimonde and in places of confinement. Voices echo to form a ragged chain of soliloquies, kenning and keening, riddles and rants. Published under the collective, anonymous signature of the BLUNT RESEARCH GROUP, the book operates at the crossroads of lyric and documentary poetries, of singularity and collectivism. An online readers companion will be available at bluntresearchgroup.site.wesleyan.edu.

A book for shy people of all ages who wonder how to shine in an incredibly noisy world. Shyness can make us feel isolated, and it's inherently difficult to talk about, yet half of all humans consider themselves shy. But shyness is not weakness, nor a shameful secret. Let's own our shyness, and work with it in the face of the loud, outgoing idea of success. It's time for a softer, more considered approach. Shy people have unique qualities and skills, so let's nurture and appreciate them. Nadia Finer gives shy people the support and understanding they need to step out of the shadows. This book is full of easy to follow advice, backed up by first-hand experiences from fellow shy people. Nadia shares insights from scientists and psychologists to help explain the reasons behind shyness, and gives us top tips to help navigate the most challenging situations. Shy and Mighty is packed with practical tools, techniques and ideas to help you work with your shyness, and become a more mighty you.

"Legendary Australian showman Dave Graney returns to the page and reveals the lengths he has gone to avoid anything that really feels like work. In his inimitable style, Graney veers from a feckless childhood in blue-collar South Australia, to the punk rock scene of 1980s London, and beer-soaked nights touring Australia where he worked very hard at not working at all. But in slacking off, Graney became one of the hardest working musicians in the industry, constantly evolving, reinventing, staying one step ahead of everyone – even himself. Workshy is half written by Dave Graney the consummate and tireless performer, and half-written by Dave Graney the bludge. The magic is that you’re never sure which is which."

When Hitler assumed power in 1933, he and other Nazis had firm ideas on what they called a racially pure "community of the people." They quickly took steps against those whom they wanted to isolate, deport, or destroy. In these essays informed by the latest research, leading scholars offer rich histories of the people branded as "social outsiders" in Nazi Germany: Communists, Jews, "Gypsies," foreign workers, prostitutes, criminals, homosexuals, and the homeless, unemployed, and chronically ill. Although many works have concentrated exclusively on the relationship between Jews and the Third Reich, this collection also includes often-overlooked victims of Nazism while reintegrating the Holocaust into its wider social context. The Nazis knew what attitudes and values they shared with many other Germans, and most of their targets were individuals and groups long regarded as outsiders, nuisances, or "problem cases." The identification, the treatment, and even the pace of their persecution of political opponents and social outsiders illustrated that the Nazis attuned their law-and-order policies to German society, history, and traditions. Hitler's personal convictions, Nazi ideology, and what he deemed to be the wishes and hopes of many people, came together in deciding where it would be politically most advantageous to begin. The first essay explores the political strategies used by the Third Reich to gain support for its ideologies and programs, and each following essay concentrates on one group of outsiders. Together the contributions debate the motivations behind the purges. For example, was the persecution of Jews the direct result of intense, widespread anti-Semitism, or was it part of a more encompassing and arbitrary persecution of "unwanted populations" that intensified with the war? The collection overall offers a nuanced portrayal of German citizens, showing that many supported the Third Reich while some tried to resist, and that the war radicalized social thinking on nearly everyone's part. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Frank Bajohr, Omer Bartov, Doris L. Bergen, Richard J. Evans, Henry Friedlander, Geoffrey J. Giles, Marion A. Kaplan, Sybil H. Milton, Alan E. Steinweis, Annette F. Timm, and Nikolaus Wachsmann.