Success in today's rapidly changing hospitality industry depends on understanding the desires of guests of all ages, from seniors and boomers to the newly dominant millennial generation of travelers. Help has arrived with a compulsively-readable new standard, The Heart of Hospitality: Great Hotel and Restaurant Leaders Share Their Secrets by Micah Solomon, with a foreword by The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company's president and COO Herve Humler.

This up-to-the-minute resource delivers the closely guarded customer experience secrets and on-trend customer service insights of today's top hoteliers, restaurateurs, and masters of hospitality management including:

Four Seasons Chairman Isadore Sharp: How to build an unsinkable company culture
Union Square Hospitality Group CEO Danny Meyer: His secrets of hiring, onboarding, training, and more
Tom Colicchio (Craft Restaurants, Top Chef): How to create a customer-centric customer experience in a chef-centric restaurant
Virgin Hotels CEO Raul Leal: How Virgin Hotels created its innovative, future-friendly hospitality approach
Ritz-Carlton President and COO Herve Humler: How to engage today's new breed of luxury travelers
Double-five-star chef and hotelier Patrick O'Connell (The Inn at Little Washington) shares the secrets of creating hospitality connections
Designer David Rockwell on the secrets of building millennial-friendly restaurants and hotel spaces (W, Nobu, Andaz) that resonate with today's travelers
Restaurateur Traci Des Jardins on building a narcissism-free hospitality culture
Legendary chef Eric Ripert's principles of creating a great guest experiences, simultaneously within a single dining room.

The Heart of Hospitality is a hospitality management resource like no other, put together by leading customer service expert Micah Solomon. Filled with exclusive, first-hand stories and wisdom from the top professionals in the industry, The Heart of Hospitality is an essential hospitality industry resource.

As Ritz-Carlton President and COO Herve Humler says in his foreword to the book, If you want to create and sustain a level of service so memorable that it becomes an unbeatable competitive advantage, you'll find the secrets here.

Dr. Chavis shows us that the fight against the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade is not just about seeking justice for past wrongs but about dismantling the present systems of oppression that have evolved from it. - From the Foreword by CHUCK D

The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Overcoming the 500-Year Legacy is a profound exploration of one of humanity's darkest chapters. Co-authored by National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA) Senior National Correspondent Stacy M. Brown and renowned historian Dr. Benjamin Chavis, this book delves into the enduring impacts and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade from 1500 to 2024.

The transatlantic slave trade is a brutal scar on the face of humanity, a monstrous crime that tore millions of Africans from their homeland, dehumanized them, and built the so-called American dream on their blood, sweat, and tears. This isn't just history--it's the very foundation of the systemic racism that still plagues America today. To understand the real roots of the struggle, one must return to where it all began. And that's precisely what this book does--unflinchingly and unapologetically.

A haunting and immersive read. - Eva Wong Nava, author of The House of Little Sisters

With lyrical prose that evokes the mystique of 19th-century Kyoto, this meticulously researched narrative weaves together historical authenticity with the ethereal allure of 'yokai' folklore. - Jake Adelstein, journalist and author of Tokyo Vice and The Last Yakuza

Set in 1877 Kyoto during the early years of the Meiji Restoration Era, Ghost Train tells the story of Maru Hosokawa, a samurai daughter who is thrust into a life opposite how she grew up. Her father has surrendered his sword with other samurai, assimilating into a role as a civilian merchant. As his work takes him further and further from home, she is left to find work of her own to help rebuild the family wealth -- and protect herself, just in case, her father says. But during the summer festivals, ghosts begin appearing before Maru. Unsure of where to turn or who to trust, Maru fends for herself, facing an abusive employer, unreliable friends, and insecurity at home. In the search for answers, a kitsune offers to help in exchange for Maru's aid in confronting a demon rampaging Kyoto at night. As summer passes on, more ghosts appear, plagues sweep through the city, and a stench of blood in the streets, and rumors of a samurai rebellion obscure reality, driving Maru to make a choice against all instincts, to save herself, her father -- and Kyoto.

Inspired by true historical events and based on myths of yokai, this story began taking shape first in 2010. With guidance by historians both in Japan and the US, subject matter experts in geisha, kimono, and samurai life, and countless beta readers and supporters, Natalie Jacobsen has carefully crafted this historical fantasy to reflect 19th century life during the tumultuous, society-altering leadership of Emperor Meiji... just with a few more ghosts.

Lisa Smith was a bright, young lawyer at a prestigious firm in NYC in the early nineties when alcoholism started to take over her life. What was once a way of escaping her insecurity and negativity became a means of coping with the anxiety and stress of an impossible workload. Girl Walks Out of a Bar is Smith's darkly comic and wrenchingly honest story of her formative years, the decade of alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and her road to recovery. Smith describes how her spiraling circumstances conspired with her predisposition to depression and self-medication, nurturing an environment ripe for addiction to flourish. Girl Walks Out of a Bar is a candid portrait of alcoholism through the lens of gritty New York realism. Beneath the fa ade of success lies the reality of addiction.

In From Exhausted to Energized: A Guide for Caregivers of Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Amanda (Mandi) Freger introduces a 3-part model of skill, will, and biofield to illustrate how variations on these variables relate to the effectiveness of a caregiver when trying to manage a loved one with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In this archetype grid, caregivers can begin to identify with areas of need, to better match available supports to assist with their resiliencies. In the case that there are challenges with will and the biofield, specific Energy Psychology techniques that are relatively quick are offered. This book is a first of its kind, providing an innovative way to understand how critical the resilience of the caregiver is in remediating the potential to maximize skills development and emotional stability in the ASD population. Applying Energy Psychology techniques to this population of caregivers is the proverbial best kept secret.

Everybody wants to lose weight (excess fat). In fact, almost everyone has BUT almost no one maintains fat loss (weight creeps back more than 80% of the time). People want to look better, feel better and younger and just be healthier and reduce the likelihood of heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, arthritis and some forms of cancer. For all of these reasons (for fighting the weight loss battle), 15 Minutes to Fitness addresses these issues and provides safe, successful solutions.

If the advice we've been given for the last 50 years was legitimate, why then do we have 200 million Americans that are obese or overweight? Why are more than 100 million people diabetic or pre-diabetic? Obviously, the PLAN isn't working. With people spending billions annually to wage this war, why are we losing so badly?

The ANSWER: We are using the wrong methods based on bad science perpetrated by Big Medicine, Big Pharma (drug companies) and government agencies that are supported and unduly influenced by both. NOTE: If we could return obesity and diabetes numbers back to 1970 levels we would save one BILLION dollars a DAY in health care costs It's time we paid attention It's time you become your own expert, become informed and follow some simple science.

Dr. Ben's 15 Minutes to Fitness exposes the flaws in the methods dictated by these entities and explains, in simple terms, how the human body developed genetically. This understanding leads the reader to a powerful system and guides them to successfully combat the fat related problems we face and maintain good health for a lifetime.

The irony in the situation is that so much time, money and effort have literally been wasted on weight loss when the evidence has been available for decades. For almost 50 years, Dr. Ben Bocchicchio has produced unparalleled success in all populations applying his SMaRT System. Dr. Ben suggests that everyone wants to get the biggest bang for their exercise and dieting time and effort and that is exactly what this book provides.

The SMaRT System is based on a fifteen minute, twice a week resistance exercise program and a carbohydrate controlled plan of eating. Each aspect of the plan (meals and exercise) is detailed on a day by day, exercise by exercise basis. The history of success that has accompanied the SMaRT plan includes a 10 pound fat loss and an 8 pound increase in muscle and bone tissue in just 5 weeks. Dr. Ben calls this method a A Five Week Metabolic Makeover. That is really what all dieters and exercisers are really seeking: Changing Metabolism says Dr. Ben. From fat storer to fat burner in 5 weeks is the motto of 15 Minutes to Fitness.

Police forces across the United States have been transformed into extensions of the military. Our towns and cities have become battlefields, and we the American people are now the enemy combatants to be spied on, tracked, frisked, and searched. For those who resist, the consequences can be a one-way trip to jail, or even death. Battlefield America: The War on the American People is constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead's terrifying portrait of a nation at war with itself. In exchange for safe schools and lower crime rates, we have opened the doors to militarized police, zero tolerance policies in schools, and SWAT team raids. The insidious shift was so subtle that most of us had no idea it was happening. This follow-up to Whitehead's award-winning A Government of Wolves is a brutal critique of an America on the verge of destroying the very freedoms that define it. Hands up!--the police state has arrived.

According to author Cindy Wigglesworth, Spiritual Intelligence is the ability to behave with wisdom and compassion while maintaining inner and outer peace regardless of the situation. In her new book, SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence, Cindy helps us understand how spiritual intelligence is analogous to such concepts as IQ and emotional intelligence (EQ). Using clear, practical language she defines the 21 skills that comprise spiritual intelligence and in doing so, teaches you the steps to begin developing your own spiritual intelligence. Cindy refers to her method as spiritual weightlifting-a process whereby we work to develop our muscles to shift away from thinking with our self-focused ego to behaving from our more loving and peaceful Higher Self. Her model is both faith-friendly and faith-neutral, and SQ21 offers a way for atheists, people of faith, and those who are spiritual but not religious to understand each other and discuss our universal concerns. These skills are especially crucial for those in positions of leadership, since they help us to make decisions on a higher level while in the midst of stress, complexity, and high rates of change. If you want more peace, wisdom and compassion in your life - SQ21 is the book for you.

Living a Conscious Life: How to Find Peace, Wholeness, and Freedom in a Chaotic World offers profound, prescriptive advice with a practical footing across a wide expanse of human experience. Grounded yet uplifting, factual yet inspiring, it can be considered a user's manual for human beings in its broad reach of topics, its depth of meaningful insights, and the transformation it brings to its readers. Johnson has brought a deep reverence to the diverse textures of his life experience in order to master the art of being human through awareness. Over the years, he has collected numerous incisive tools of consciousness to help bring success to every area of life. Not shying from difficult topics, in Living a Conscious Life, he delivers a thoughtful, one-of-a-kind guide to achieving perhaps the most-valuable goal in life: peace within oneself and success in the world. The book weaves together wisdom, humor, simple exercises and daily practices, and provocative questions to provide a read that is accessible, entertaining, easy to identify with, and profoundly effective.

Oscar is an ordinary cat living in Scotland until one day his life is turned upside down when he finds himself alone on a ferry. Will he ever find a friend and somewhere he can call home Oscar the Ferry Cat is based on a true life event - in April 2014 Molly Arbuthnott lost her family cat on a Caledonian MacBrayne ferry. Though Oscar was never seen again his memory is now immortalized in the minds of all the children who read this tale.

WHAT IS EPIGENETICS? Epigenetics is an emerging field of science that studies alterations in gene expression caused by factors other than changes in the DNA sequence. Epigenetics: The Death of the Genetic Theory of Disease Transmission is the result of decades of research and its findings that could be as critical to our understanding of human health as Pasteur's research in bacteriology. Dr. Joel Doc Wallach has dedicated his life work to identifying connections between certain nutritional deficiencies and a range of maladies, formerly thought to be hereditary, including Cystic Fibrosis and Muscular Dystrophy. This nexus between nutrition and so-called genetic disease has been observed in both humans and primates, and it is the central theme of Epigenetics. To bring us Epigenetics, Wallach has teamed with noted scholars Dr. Ma Lan and Dr. Gerhard N. Schrauzer. Their collective expertise gives this book its far reaching perspective. Epigenetics is of vital importance to anyone who wants real knowledge about how the human body functions, and it provides a path for better health. Epigentics dispels the dogma and misinformation propagated by medical institutions and doctors resistant to change. Epigenetics is the beginning of a new era of well-being on this planet.

In today's world, customers don't want to hear sales pitches, but so many salespeople still rely on them. In his breakthrough handbook, Ditch the Pitch, Steve Yastrow, founder of a successful business strategy consulting firm, asks us to throw out everything we've been taught about pitching to customers. Steve's advice: tear up your sales pitch and instead improvise persuasive conversations. Ditch the Pitch is an essential read for salespeople, business managers, and anyone wishing to persuade those around them. Organized into six habits, with each habit consisting of three practices necessary for mastery, Ditch the Pitch is designed to teach Yastrow's approach to fresh, spontaneous, persuasive conversations. These new skills will show the reader how to identify the details that make each customer unique and subsequently navigate a conversation that focuses on the right message for the right customer at the right time. Throughout the book, the author quotes well-known improv comedians and musicians. He translates the techniques these artists use when improvising to create persuasive situations with customers. With the new confidence Ditch the Pitch offers, you will become master of the art of on-the-spot, engaging, and effective customer interactions. Let go of pre-written scripts and embrace Yastrow's guidelines for effortlessly enabling spontaneous conversations that persuade customers to say yes.

Ervin Laszlo's tour de force, What is Reality?, is the product of a half-century of deep contemplation and cutting-edge scholarship. Addressing many of the paradoxes that have confounded modern science over the years, it offers nothing less than a new paradigm of reality, one in which the cosmos is a seamless whole, informed by a single, coherent consciousness manifest in us all. Bringing together science, philosophy, and metaphysics, Laszlo takes aim at accepted wisdom, such as the dichotomies of mind and body, spirit and matter, being and nonbeing, to show how we are all part of an infinite cycle of existence unfolding in spacetime and beyond.
Augmented by insightful commentary from a dozen scholars and thinkers, along with a foreword by Deepak Chopra and an introduction by Stanislav Grof, What is Reality? offers a fresh and liberating understanding of the meaning and purpose of existence.

On October 21, 2004 Jason Apollo Voss had a true epiphany: there was going to be a near-collapse on Wall Street and he should retire to exclusively pursue a spiritual practice. In electing to honor his vision he gave up a career in which the mutual fund he co-managed bested the NASDAQ by 77.0%, the S&P 500 by 49.1%, and the DJIA by 34.9%. Most of this success came from a detailed, scientific understanding of the right brain and its capacity for creative and intuitive thought. These secrets and their real world application are the specific focus and passion of the Intuitive Investor. Much more than just a book about investing, The Intuitive Investor is also a guide to healthy, mindful living. Scarcely have money, mind and spirit been brought together so potently.

Fast paced legal thriller and powerful urban drama from Frederic Block, the Brooklyn based federal judge who sentenced Peter Gotti of the Gambino crime family. Based partly on fact and seething racial tensions and political corruption, it doesn't get any more New York than Race to Judgment Race to Judgment is a reality-fiction debut novel loosely based on a number of high-profile cases handled by its author, a federal trial court judge, over his 23 years on the federal bench in Brooklyn-such as the Crown Heights riots and the Peter Gotti trial. It tracks the rise of the fictional African-American civil rights protagonist Ken Williams (in real life, the recently deceased Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson) from his days as an Assistant United States Attorney through his meteoric rise to unseat the long-term, corrupt Brooklyn DA because of a spate of phony convictions against black defendants, including another one of the judge's real cases (JoJo Jones in the book) for the murder of a Hasidic rabbi. Williams' dramatic courtroom antics (with the aid of his colorful private eye) results in JoJo's exoneration after 16 years behind bars. In addition, Williams defends a young black guidance counselor accused of killing the rabbi's son many years ago, and champions the cause of a young Hasidic woman raped by her father. As a hobby, Williams plays jazz piano and writes country songs written by the author-which are reproduced in the book and can be heard on e-books and the Internet.

As we move away from worn-out dogma from both the religious and scientific realms toward a contemporary synthesis of understanding about our existence, Christophor's refreshing and comprehensive analysis of major religions in light of the profound lessons from numerous NDE journeyers offers a rich new tapestry of understanding that I find most valuable.

Dr. Dorriah Rogers, CEO of Paradyne Consulting Works, shares her last twelve years of consulting and research for numerous Fortune 100 and 500 companies, large government entities and the U.S. military in her book Decide to Profit: 9 Steps to a Better Bottom Line. The book is the result of discussions and intensive problem-solving with thousands of employees, managers and executives experiencing an inability to tie innovation and growth to bottom-line profit; where due to market pressure for growth, managers found themselves pushing decision-making to the lowest levels of the organization, and companies were finding themselves in need of a tool to ensure that these decisions were executed in a safe and profitable way. In other words, as their organizations grew, net margin and productivity began to erode, and a solution was required.

Decide to Profit provides a step-by-step guide for organizations to connect all ideas and decisions that affect change to the financial goals of the company. Employees will have a clear systematic process that links decisions to the financial performance of their organization. Managers will have a ready tool to shape their organizational culture and business outcomes. With this process, both leaders and employees can adapt to increasingly tough competition and excel within their ever-changing markets, while ultimately maintaining or growing net profit. The 9 Step process has been vetted and implemented within some of the largest and most complex projects and organizations across North America, and it works.

Each of the 9 Steps shows you how to avoid common decision-making mistakes, provides checklists and tools to foster a creative and idea-driven culture within organizations, and includes easy-to-understand and implement guidelines to ensure a financially sound future. The nine chapters chronologically and systematically outline each of the steps and its application, and include checklists, critical questions, and easy-to-use forms for managers and employees. Imbedded within each step are checks and balances and a process for accountability, so managers and employees can remain in sync in both their thinking and actions. A user code will be provided to book purchasers allowing them to access tips for easy-to-download forms on the Decide to Profit website. The website will also include a user forum, a best practices blog and tips from the author.

Success is often measured in years and Canyon Ranch has been in existence for over 40 years. Health and wellness has been their total focus over those 40 plus years. In the second half of Canyon Ranch's existence I have been their medical director and I have continued their philosophy of getting people healthier. Using this philosophy and constantly following the science of weight loss, this approach has been successful in helping my patients at Canyon Ranch become healthier and in the process they are able to lose those unwanted pounds. This is the essence of this book. This book puts you in my shoes as to how I evaluate and advise my patients here at Canyon Ranch. As I do with my own patients, I methodically first look for any medical causes of weight gain. Most weight loss programs glaze right over this very important aspect. Many individuals may find out that it is not their fault for the weight gain. An example may be that the new medication they were placed on added those pounds by increasing their appetite. The book continues to look at medical goals, not just goals in pounds lost, but also goals that are associated with improved health.

The world today is mired in a state of unprecedented chaos. Humanity is plagued by climate change, stark wealth inequality, and rampant political conflict. How did we get here? More importantly, how can we turn the chaos to our advantage and see in it an opportunity to create a more sustainable future? In this provocative and groundbreaking work, fourth-generation family business steward Frederick Tsao outlines an original vision for a new consciousness of life in the quantum era. To confront global challenges, we must forge a common worldview grounded in the recognition that humanity is a part of one holistic system for all life on Earth. A new well-being and happiness economy will emerge therefrom. Integrating the best of Eastern wisdom and Western science with decades of deep experience, Tsao articulates a new definition of well-being as a life journey to systemic coherence. He argues that each of us must make one conscious choice to undertake an inward journey to find inner peace and love. Along this journey are infinite possibilities for inner coherence and harmony--to come into alignment with the world around us, caring for each other and the one planet we inhabit. Businesses will be at the very forefront of this transformation. From economics and politics to technological innovation and the way governments are run, every aspect of human culture will be reshaped to prioritize our collective well-being and happiness. As each one of us has a part to play in this paradigm shift, One Choice, One World invites you to join the movement and embrace the collective awakening now. The future is in our hands!

Amber's Way is the story of a mother and daughter's journey through an emotionally charged landscape. At the heart of the story is the unwavering bond between Jessica and her courageous daughter, Amber.

Jessica's storybook romance turns to tragedy when she is widowed shortly before Amber's birth. Despite her grief, she makes a promise that her daughter will live a happy life. But her pledge is tested when Amber is diagnosed with cancer after her fourth birthday.

Just as she fought off the monsters lurking under her bed, Amber's warrior spirit prevails against the monster that has invaded her body. And after months of harrowing treatments, when it seemed there was no end in sight, Amber's doctor utters the magical word--remission.

Eight years later, Amber is on the verge of adolescence. In another twist of fate, they are thrust back into the nightmare when her cancer returns. Amber responds by showing the same tenacity she had when she was small and vows to live her life to the fullest. To celebrate her decision, they take up residence in the historic town of Placerville, California, at the foot of the majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains.

It is here that Amber makes an unusual friendship with an orphaned deer she names Jane Doe. She also meets Nathan, a cute musician. Will she experience her first kiss without the shadow that has darkened most of her life? Whatever happens, Amber is determined to live her life her way.

Author Gloria Galloway is a cancer survivor and is committed to bringing awareness and help to find a cure for neuroblastoma, an insidious disease which has impacted families around the world. To further that cause, a percentage of the proceeds from Amber's Way will be donated to the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation, Bloomingdale, Illinois.