We’ve all seen them. The people who walk to the beat of a different drummer. We’ve shook our heads and wondered just what they were thinking and why they do what they are doing. We’ve puzzled over their behaviors, questioned them and in some cases asked them to stop an annoying behavior but they quickly fall right back into the same patterns. It’s great when we can watch from afar and not have to deal with these unusual people or we can just close up shop and walk the other way, but unfort...

Over the course of twenty years and seven novels James Wilcox has established himself as one of the most distinctive and beloved voices of the South, a comic master whose work has been praised by writers as diverse as Robert Penn Warren and Anne Tyler. From Modern Baptists—which was both included in Harold Bloom’s Western Canon and featured in GQ’s list of the forty-five best books published in the last forty-five years—to Plain and Normal, he has charted the col...

Most of us want to feel empowered, like we have control of our own lives. We want to make the choices about how we go through life, how we work, how we play and how we relate to people. But sometimes our best intentions are torpedoed by a silent force inside all of us. It is our small, silent but powerful army of habits. Habits are the way we behave automatically, the things we do without thinking. We have learned how to do them but we do not control them. They crop up unexpectedly when we...

An astute and comical dissection of the culture wars-by the author of the much-loved Modern BaptistsFor More Than twenty years, James Wilcox has been cherished by reviewers and readers alike as one of the most talented American humorists. Since his classic Modern Baptists (picked by Harold Bloom as one of the few contemporary novels in his Western Canon), Wilcox has been charting the intricate spiritual topography of the South with inimitable wit ...

An interesting and entertaining story of how one man overcame the day-to-day difficulties in the midst of rural China while helping university students learn the English language. The kind of solutions that the author came up with, whether finding ways to disinfect his dorm room or deal with heavy handed authorities, will likely remain real life situations of millions of Chinese for years to come even as the nation as a whole fights to move itself into the modern commercial marketplace.

"It is 22 cats that drive the dazzlingly handsome Eric Thorsen to distraction and into the apartment -- if not immediately the arms -- of Wanda Skopinski, the rather mousy woman he meets at church when she thrusts a lesbian romance novel upon him. The stench from downstairs drives him from both his rent-controlled apartment and his complacency as a not-quite-successful piano teacher. In his sixth novel, James Wilcox moves beyond the modern South he has etched so vividly and amusingly in th...

Ethyl Mae Coco's rambling Victorian home on North Gladiola -- the Main Street of Tula Springs, Louisiana -- is the only residence left at the business end of town, but it's a hotbed for chaotic comedy. Mrs. Coco, aged fifty-seven and feeling somewhat left behind herself, directs her considerable energy into keeping those around her in line -- her remote, obsessively bargain-hunting husband; members of the Pro Arts Quartet chamber music group, which Ethyl Mae aspires to turn into an accompl...

A candidate for the office of Superintendent of Streets, Parks, and Garbage, middle-aged matron Olive Mackie of Tula Springs, Louisiana, finds her political aspirations thwarted when her ninety-one-year-old Great Uncle L.D. comes under suspicion for murder. Police don't believe that L.D.'s home-care attendant would commit suicide by jumping from a second-floor window -- but Olive, who has heard her uncle demonstrate his excellent memory by reciting important dates in history over and over,...

Universally and repeatedly praised ever since it first appeared in 1983, Modern Baptists is the book that launched novelist James Wilcox's career and debuted the endearingly daft community of Tula Springs, Louisiana. It's the tale of Bobby Pickens, assistant manager of Sonny Boy Bargain Store, who gains a new lease on life, though he almost comes to regret it. Bobby's handsome half brother F.X. -- ex-con, ex-actor, and ex-husband three times over -- moves in, and things go awry all over to...

This text aims to help the reader understand all aspects of videoconferencing. It includes: an overview of the history and technology; a section on security for Internet-based videoconferencing as well as expanded coverage of standards.

"How to Change Your Thinking & Change Your Life" is an anthology combining six key personal development works. It serves as a guide for mental strength, happiness, and goal achievement, offering diverse approaches to transformation.Anthony B. Knight's "Psychological Makeover 101" delves into reshaping self-limiting beliefs, overcoming trauma, and embracing responsibility, utilizing existential philosophy for psychological transformation.Mic...

Case studies document how, in businesses all across this country, people are communicating via videoconferences with broadcast quality reception. The authors detail how the proliferation of IP networks has driven quality improvements and cost savings in