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Call sign chaos : learning to lead / by Mattis, James N.,1950-author.; West, Francis J.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-283) and index."Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis's storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas -- and short-sighted thinking -- now facing our nation. He makes it clear why America must return to a strategic footing so as not to continue winning battles while fighting inconclusive wars. Mattis divides his book into three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. In the first part, Mattis recalls his early experiences leading Marines into battle, when he knew his troops as well as his own brothers. In the second part, he explores what it means to command thousands of troops and how to adapt your leadership style to ensure your intent is understood by your most junior troops so that they can own their mission. In the third part, Mattis describes the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level, where military leaders reconcile war's grim realities with political leaders' human aspirations, where complexity reigns and the consequences of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic. Call Sign Chaos is a memoir of a life of warfighting and lifelong learning, following along as Mattis rises from Marine recruit to four-star general. It is a journey about learning to lead and a story about how he, through constant study and action, developed a unique leadership philosophy, one relevant to us all."--Dust jacket flap.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Mattis, James N., 1950-; Mattis, James N., 1950-; United States. Marine Corps; Cabinet officers; Command of troops.; Generals; Leadership.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A carnival of snackery [sound recording] : diaries (2003-2020) / by Sedaris, David,author,narrator.; Ullman, Tracey,narrator.; Hachette Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by David Sedaris, Tracey Ullman.If it's navel-gazing you're after, you've come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination. Rather, his observations turn outward: a fight between two men on a bus, a fight between two men on the street, pedestrians being whacked over the head or gathering to watch as a man considers leap-ing to his death. There's a dirty joke shared at a book signing, then a dirtier one told at a dinner party - lots of jokes here. Plenty of laughs. These diaries remind you that you once really hated George W. Bush, and that not too long ago, Donald Trump was just a harm-less laughingstock, at least on French TV. Time marches on, and Sedaris, at his desk or on planes, in hotel dining rooms and odd Japanese inns, records it. The entries here reflect an ever-changing background - new administrations, new restrictions on speech and conduct. What you can say at the start of the book, you can't by the end. At its best, A Carnival of Snackery is a sort of sampler: the bitter and the sweet. Some entries are just what you wanted. Others you might want to spit discreetly into a napkin.
Subjects: Biographies.; Audiobooks.; Autobiographies.; Diaries.; Sedaris, David; Authors, American; Humorists, American;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Profiles in ignorance : how America's politicians got dumb and dumber / by Borowitz, Andy,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Andy Borowitz, "one of the funniest people in America" (CBS Sunday Morning), brilliantly examines the intellectual deterioration of American politics, from Ronald Reagan to Dan Quayle, from George W. Bush to Sarah Palin, to its apotheosis in Donald J. Trump. The winner of the first-ever National Press Club award for humor, Andy Borowitz has been called a "Swiftian satirist" (The Wall Street Journal) and "one of the country's finest satirists" (The New York Times). Millions of fans and New Yorker readers enjoy his satirical news column "The Borowitz Report." Now, in Profiles in Ignorance, he offers a witty, spot-on diagnosis of our country's political troubles by showing how ignorant leaders are degrading, embarrassing, and endangering our nation. Borowitz argues that over the past fifty years, American politicians have grown increasingly allergic to knowledge, and mass media have encouraged the election of ignoramuses by elevating candidates who are better at performing than thinking. Starting with Ronald Reagan's first campaign for governor of California in 1966 and culminating with the election of Donald J. Trump to the White House, Borowitz shows how, during the age of twenty-four-hour news and social media, the US has elected politicians to positions of great power whose lack of the most basic information is terrifying. In addition to Reagan, Quayle, Bush, Palin, and Trump, Borowitz covers a host of congresspersons, senators, and governors who have helped lower the bar over the past five decades. Profiles in Ignorance aims to make us both laugh and cry: laugh at the idiotic antics of these public figures, and cry at the cataclysms these icons of ignorance have caused. But most importantly, the book delivers a call to action and a cause for optimism: History doesn't move in a straight line, and we can change course if we act now.
Subjects: Politicians; Politicians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Talking to Canadians : a memoir / by Mercer, Rick,1969-author.;
"Canada's beloved comic genius tells his own story for the first time. What is Rick Mercer going to do now? That was the question on everyone's lips when the beloved comedian retired his hugely successful TV show after 15 seasons--and at the peak of its popularity. The answer came not long after, when he roared back in a new role as stand-up-comedian, playing to sold-out houses wherever he appeared. And then Covid-19 struck. And his legions of fans began asking again: What is Rick Mercer going to do now? Well, for one thing, he's been writing a comic masterpiece. For the first time, this most private of public figures has turned the spotlight on himself, in a memoir that's as revealing as it is hilarious. In riveting anecdotal style, Rick charts his rise from highly unpromising schoolboy (in his reports "the word 'disappointment' appeared a fair bit") to the heights of TV fame. Along the way came an amazing break when, not long out of his teens, his one-man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It. Or, Charles Lynch Must Die, became an overnight sensation--thanks in part to a bizarre ambush by its target, Charles Lynch himself. That's one story you won't soon forget, and this book is full of them. There's a tale of how little Rick helped himself to a tree from the neighbours' garden that's set to become a new Christmas classic. There's Rick the aspiring actor, braving "the scariest thing I have ever done in my life" by performing with the Newfoundland Shakespeare Company; unforgettable scenes with politicians of every variety, from Jean Chretien to George W. Bush to Stockwell Day; and a wealth of behind-the-scenes revelations about the origins and making of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Made in Canada, and Talking to Americans. All leading of course to the greenlighting of that mega-hit, Rick Mercer Report ... It's a life so packed with incident (did we mention Bosnia and Kabul?) and laughter we can only hope that a future answer to "What is Rick Mercer going to do now?" is: "Write volume two.""--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Mercer, Rick, 1969-; Comedians; Television personalities;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Mellencamp / by Rees, Paul(Music journalist),author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."John Mellencamp is not your typical rock star. Not only has he absorbed into his own work the influence of Faulkner, Williams, Steinbeck and other such literary giants, but he himself could have stepped straight from the pages of any of their great American novels. A complex, colorful and larger than life character, Mellencamp, like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash before him, walks to the beat of his own drum. Or, as he told author and veteran music journalist, Paul Rees: "I just refuse to take shit off anyone." Little Bastard will definitively chart the life of one of the most fascinating characters in all of American music. It will bring into full relief the complex, iconoclastic character of the man Billy Joel, when inducting Mellencamp into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, urged to "Stay ornery, stay mean. We need you to be pissed off," Joel continued. "People need to hear a voice like yours to echo the discontent in the heartland. Someone's got to tell 'em, 'Don't take any shit,' and John, you do that very well." Along with Mellencamp's full blessing, Rees will include new interviews from his friends, family and colleagues, including Bob Seger, Stephen King, Willie Nelson, Larry McMurtry, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow and Chuck D, among others. Rees will also include interviews from artists he has had a pronounced influence on such as John Mayer, Keith Urban, and Jason Isbell. Telling Mellencamp's story is telling the story of the American heartland, along with such pivotal moments in social history as the dawning of the Civil Rights movement, the hippy era, the anti-Vietnam War protests, Watergate, and the terms of such divisive US Presidents as Richard Nixon, Reagan, George W. Bush and now Donald Trump. In terms of music, Mellencamp's account runs parallel to the advent of rock-and-roll, the Summer of Love, the singer-songwriter superstars and the nihilistic punks of the nineteen-seventies, the founding of MTV and the have-it-all eighties, the creation of Farm Aid, and the radical re-shaping of the music industry that has gone on through this century"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Mellencamp, John, 1951-; Rock musicians; Singers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Bag man : the wild crimes, audacious cover-up & spectacular downfall of a brazen crook in the White House / by Maddow, Rachel,author.; Yarvitz, Michael,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The knockdown, drag-out, untold story of the other scandal that rocked Nixon's White House, and reset the rules for crooked presidents to come-with new reporting that expands on Rachel Maddow's Peabody Award-nominated podcast. Is it possible for a sitting vice president to direct a vast criminal enterprise within the halls of the White House? To have one of the most brazen corruption scandals in American history play out while nobody's paying attention? And for that scandal to be all but forgotten decades later? The year was 1973, and Spiro T. Agnew, the former governor of Maryland, was Richard Nixon's second-in-command. Long on firebrand rhetoric and short on political experience, Agnew had carried out a bribery and extortion ring in office for years, when-at the height of Watergate-three young federal prosecutors discovered his crimes and launched a mission to take him down before it was too late, before Nixon's impending downfall elevated Agnew to the presidency. The self-described "counterpuncher" vice president did everything he could to bury their investigation: dismissing it as a "witch hunt," riling up his partisan base, making the press the enemy, and, with a crumbling circle of loyalists, scheming to obstruct justice in order to survive. In this blockbuster account, Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz detail the investigation that exposed Agnew's crimes, the attempts at a cover-up-which involved future president George H. W. Bush-and the backroom bargain that forced Agnew's resignation but also spared him years in federal prison. Based on the award-winning hit podcast, Bag Man expands and deepens the story of Spiro Agnew's scandal and its lasting influence on our politics, our media, and our understanding of what it takes to confront a criminal in the White House."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Agnew, Spiro T., 1918-1996.; Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994; Political corruption; Vice-Presidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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My stories, my times / by Chrétien, Jean,1934-author.; translation of:Chrétien, Jean,1934-Mes histoires.English.; Fischman, Sheila,translator.; Winkler, Donald,translator.;
"One of the most popular Canadian Prime Ministers in recent history, elected to government for three consecutive majority terms, Jean Chrétien has some stories to tell. Recounted with warmth, insight and his distinctive sense of humour, these brief and candid essays feature many behind-the-scenes stories from a long, distinguished and colourful career. October 2018 marks twenty-five years since Jean Chrétien took the helm as Prime Minister. In this collection of short essays, he has picked up his pen to reminisce about his long years in the public eye, and the many luminaries he met and worked with. Readers will learn why his commonsense judgment continues to influence our lives to this day, in ways both profound and subtle: from forging long-lasting relationships with foreign countries to making it easy to identify our national airline when we travel. He recalls a memorable trip with the royal family to the Northwest Territories in 1970, and how Ross Perot tried to influence his views on free trade in 1992. Of course, many familiar names figure into these stories, including George W. Bush, Boris Yeltsin, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Pierre Trudeau, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. There are reflections on the many different posts over Chrétien's career, including becoming Canada's first-ever francophone finance minister. He pays tribute to old friends and colleagues, where the values of honour and dedication to public service transcend political views. He reserves his greatest admiration for his wife of more than sixty years, Aline, whom he calls his Rock of Gibraltar. These stories offer his unique perspective: we are at the Prime Minister's side on 9/11 when he is asked to give authorization to shoot down a passenger airliner that has not responded to identification requests. We learn how he attempted to correct the record as explained in his grandson's history book on the so-called "Night of the Long Knives" (Despite having special access to an eyewitness to history, his grandson got a failing grade on his paper.) There are even glimpses of the young Jean, as a teen canvassing with his father, and as a young man who dared complain personally to Premier Maurice Duplessis about the food at his seminary. Survival in politics requires stamina, creativity and toughness, as well as the ability to share a laugh now and again: qualities that the self-described "little guy from Shawinigan" never lost. In these days of "alternative facts" and politics-by-Tweet, these stories are a necessary antidote, told by a leader who always held fast to his vision of what Canada was and what it could be."--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Chrétien, Jean, 1934-; Prime ministers; Prime ministers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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