Barking Dog Books

The David Sedaris Box Set

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Holmgren) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:16:00 +0000

Editorial Reviews
from Amazon.com

Star radio storyteller David Sedaris presents his collected works in one audio box set. The longest (at five hours) is his latest, Me Talk Pretty One Day, which contains two live performances from San Francisco. Welcome to a world where dogs outrank children, guitars have breasts, and Sedaris's fellow language-class students try to convey the concept of Easter to a Moroccan Muslim in their fledgling French (translated into English): "It is a party for the little boy of God," says one. "Then he be die one day on two ... morsels of ... lumber," says another. Sedaris is hilarious, and his Billie Holiday impression is amazing.

The three-hour, Christmas-themed Holidays on Ice is the gem of the collection. It has his greatest hit, "SantaLand Diaries," a chronicle of his stint as an elf at Macy's, covering everything from the preliminary group lectures ("You are not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn't be here. You're an elf and you're going to wear panties like an elf.") to the perils of inter-elf flirtation.

Other hits feature the crazed newsletter "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" and the prostitute coworker his sister brought home one Yuletide, giving "the phrase 'ho, ho, ho' whole different meaning." Barrel Fever contains the fulminatingly funny "Glen's Homophobia Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 2" and "Parade," discussing the narrator's perhaps not fully plausible gay relationships with Bruce Springsteen, Mike Tyson, and Peter Jennings. Naked describes his adventures in a nudist colony, but his family tales are, as ever, nonpareil.

Read more reviews here

Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected, and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978-2006

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Holmgren) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:11:00 +0000

Roz Chast was born in Brooklyn, New York and now lives in Connecticut. Her cartoons have appeared in magazines galore, and she is the author of many books. Her book contains some of her best work over 18 years.

Read the reviews:

Roz Chast is so good I'd buy the New Yorker just to see her cartoon. Her take on the things we say and do, the things we like, the things that bug us and the general craziness of modern life is, to use an overused term, unique. This book is a comprehensive collection of her best, wackiest, most neurotic, most inspired stuff. It's a well-made book as well, so reading it is a more pleasurable experience.

What could be more fun than spending the day reading Roz Chast cartoons? This book has it all: cleverness, wit, a keen eye for everyday life and laughs galore. If you're having a bad day, nothing will cheer you up more than Theories of Everything. It just puts life into perspective.

Buy the Book

The Speed of Trust

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Holmgren) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:46:00 +0000

From Stephen R. Covey's eldest son comes a revolutionary new path towards productivity and satisfaction. Trust, says Stephen M.R. Covey, is the very basis of the new global economy, and he shows how trust—and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees and constituents—is the essential ingredient for any high-performance, successful organization.

For business leaders and public figures in any arena, The Speed of Trust offers an unprecedented and eminently practical look at exactly how trust functions in our every transaction and relationship—from the most personal to the broadest, most indirect interaction—and how to establish trust immediately so that you and your organization can forego the time-killing, bureaucratic check-and-balance processes so often deployed in lieu of actual trust.

Read customer reviews about this cutting edge book.

DO YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO WHAT YOU DO BEST EVERY DAY?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Holmgren) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:09:00 +0000

Chances are, you don't.

All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.

To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book spent more than five years on the bestseller lists and ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions to discover their top five talents. {read more}

IN THE END THERE ARE NO CONCLUSIONS

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Holmgren) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:03:00 +0000

poetry by Mark Holmgren

Mark's poetry, as well as his fiction and exposition, have appeared in many small press magazines like NeWest Review, Matrix, Poetry Now, The Dark Horse, Cedar Rock, Anglican Theological Review, The New Quarterly, Canadian Author & Bookman, among many others. CBC Radio's Brave New Waves and Alberta Anthology have also aired his work.

Dollarpoems published a small chapbook of his called Resolutions and Mark teamed up with writer, John Cserny, to publish Poems for Lucky Dogs. Mark is also a singer/songwriter, musician, and digital artist. He has performed at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival, among others.

Mark has worked for years in the nonprofit sector and many of his poems and stories reflect the time he spent working on Edmonton's skid row as a community worker. For a preview of the book, click HERE.