Of Time, Work, and Leisure Review

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(More customer reviews)What is the ultimate goal of a society? Two possible answers are: Work and Leisure. The goal of current US culture appears to be work, at least for the majority of people. Why shouldn't it be leisure instead?
This book, written in the very early 1960s, is still relevant today for the questions it asks, which are very neglected but of utmost importance, viz., is the "good life" solely constituted of work? This question is analyzed from a 1960s perspective so it is, sadly, fairly dated in that respect (though it is interesting in its analysis of how people spent leisure time four decades ago). The book is also a little plodding, and the argument is presented in a very disjointed and sometimes overly statistical fashion. I had to literally struggle through some of the later chapters. Nonetheless, the issues are still very relevant, and the questions De Grazia asks are still worth asking today (in fact, they may be more pressing today than they were in the 1960s).
The book does include a good historical survey of how the world has looked at leisure since the time of Aristotle. This is how the book begins, and it is completely engrossing for the first few chapters. De Grazia discusses the sticky issues surrounding leisure and slavery in a society, and outlines a history of how we have been gradually progressing "toward the work society."
This could easily have been a book in itself. Unfortunately, the book begins to drag later on. It gets bogged down in details and hard to follow arguments that contrast strongly with the book's beginning. There is, nonetheless, plenty to sink one's teeth into as the book's pace slows (the pace never stops, and it never becomes outright boring, it just doesn't maintain its momentum).
You will not get answers to any difficult questions in this book. What you will get is insight into the issues raised. In short, it is a rewarding but arduous read.

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Make Work Great: Super Charge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain Influence One Person at a Time Review

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(More customer reviews)In my thirty plus years as a trainer and consultant to leaders in a variety of companies, I have been constantly asked to recommend books that could help someone be a better leader or manager. Before now there has not been a single book that captures what I consider to be most, if not all, the essential keys to success. I have used these tools, taught these tools and, to have them all in one place, it is like getting a handbook to professional and organizational success.
Steve Overcashier
OD & Training Manager
Copart, Inc.


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One person really can make a difference--learn how to be that one WHO WILL make your organization the best it can be.
Award-winning author of Four Secrets to Liking Your WorkInternational Society for Performance Improvement2010 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE WINNER
"A quick read with high ROI. This will turn anyone into a culture builder, anywhere in the organization." -- Roy White , Director of Operations,Semiconductor Capital Equipment Company
"A must read for anyone contemplating starting up a new business and for CEOs and leaders of established corporations." -- Terry Sullivan, Director of Production, MemPro Ceramics
"Combines storytelling with evidence-based content in a solid organizational change approach." -- Darlene Van Tiem , Ph.D., CPT, CPLP , President, ISPI
"Never before has an author so cleverly balanced pragmatism with optimism to describe organizational norms as opportunities for personal empowerment." -- Paul Nieminen, Director of OD , UPS
"The convergence of in-depth analytical research andpractical everyday application." -- Dr. Donald E. Conklin, Vice President, United Corporate Services, Inc.
Got ten minutes a day? -- Then you can create a more successful, more collaborative business culture!
As a manager, you've tried to keep things positive, but nothing seems to work. You can't control the economy, what's going on in your employees' lives, or other factors--so what can you do to build and sustain a winning culture in your workplace?
Whether you are a mid-level manager or a senior executive, Make Work Great offers the blueprint for building a positive, motivating, and productive workplace in any kind of organization. In this definitive guide fortoday's multicultural, decentralized business environment, Ed Muzio, award-winning author, internationally recognized workplace improvement expert, and consultant, delivers state-of-the-art analysis, advice and guidance, and scores of team-building and motivation exercises that you andyour staff can do in ten minutes a day--without disrupting routines or interrupting important business.
You can't force others to change, but you can control what you do and with whom you engage at work to:
Build a positive outlook, one-on-one
Enlist a network within your organization to improve your business culture
Strengthen peer relationships and improve problem-solving capabilities
Take back control of workplace morale and efficiency
Inspire others to support, encourage, and collaborate with their team members

There are lots of excuses given for why businessesfail to make the most of their most valuable resource--the people whose work creates the value that drives the bottom line. With Make Work Great, you hold in your hands the key to unlocking your people's potential to exceed expectations, creating synergies out of the disparate talents and abilities they bring to the table, and makingyour business better able to anticipate opportunities and respond to challenges.
Edward G. Muzio is president and CEO of Group Harmonics and is the award-winning author of Four Secrets to Liking Your Work: You May Not Need to Quit to Get the Job You Want. An expert in workplace improvement and its relationship to individual enjoyment, Muzio has been featured on Fox Business Network, CBS, and other national media, and he has been cited in many publications including the New York Post, the Austin American Statesman, and Spirit magazine. With clients ranging from single life coaches to Fortune 500 giants, he educates and advises workers and leaders at all levels. Prior to founding Group Harmonics, Mr. Muzio was President and Executive Director of a human services organization, and a trainer and developer of leaders at Intel Corporation and the Sematech technology consortium. His accomplishments include leadership of a worldwide technology infrastructure program, a nationally-recognized engineering development organization, and a local community outreach startup program. He lives in Albuquerque, NM. For more information visit www.makeworkgreat.com.

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Tales of Times Square: Expanded Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Aside from the covertly racist remarks, Tales of Times Square is a fun chronicle of the recent history of the classic red-light district that was as part of Americana as mom and apple pie. With stark detail, down to the exact addresses of various brothels, porn houses and other wild joints; it feels as if a walk down the old Forty Deuce and Eighth Avenue is taking place as the pages go by. A natural born writer, Friedman's eye for detail is amazing and he delivers the goods.
During its height of splendid glory it was a neighborhood that fostered more orgasms than any other making it somewhat depressing that this cultural relic known as Times Square has now been hijacked by Disney, the big developers and large corporations. Friedman does a quality job in touching on the underlying politico-economic realities responsible for the destruction of one of the last places that refused to be gentrified.
With a keen eye for the hilariously absurd and the interesting denizens populating the Square from roughly the mid 60s to the mid 80s, Friedman offers up funny and enthralling stories involving strippers, johns, swing clubbers, prostitutes, shoeshines, religious folks, kiosk workers, pornstars and others. One startling fact broached is that in the 1970s during a typical summer night it wasn't unusual to see a thousand old school style hookers plying their trade along Eighth Avenue. Today it's scarcely possible to imagine given the plethora of cops occupying America's cities.
Certainly the most indelible section of Tales of Times Square has to be the description of the famous -- or infamous depending on a person's predilections -- east coast swing club Plato's Retreat. The wild shenanigans documented are simply unbelievable. These chapters are worth the price of the book alone, although some may feel a shower's in order after reading some of this stuff.
The last bastion of a truly honky-tonk atmosphere is over. As Friedman points out it's time to make way for Mickey and Minnie Mouse. In an age of sterile corporate strip malls, Tales of Times Square is a reminder that in at least one neighborhood things used to be quite different.

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"Friedman has drawn a vivid picture of the Times Square area and its denizens. He writes about the porn palaces with live sex shows, and the men and women who perform in them, prostitutes and their pimps, the runaways who will likely be the next decade's prostitutes, the clergymen who fight the smut merchants and the cops who feel impotent in the face of the judiciary."—Publishers Weekly

This classic account of the ultra-sleazy, pre-Disneyfied era of Times Square is now the subject of a documentary film of the same name to be theatrically released this year. With this edition, Tales of Times Square returns to print with seven new chapters.

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