Books about Downsizing from Amazon.com

Eighteen months after being laid off and still unemployed, Burke Devore, a mild-mannered middle manager, transforms himself into a ruthless murderer as he systematically tracks down and kills the seven men who could take the job that rightfully should be his.".
Price: $15.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

No matter your reason for downsizing--whether you are moving from the suburbs to the city, or you are trading the larger family home for a smaller, more manageable one, or perhaps you are just looking to simplify life--the transition can be a challenge. When you're moving a lifetime's accumulation of belongings from a larger home into a jewel box, the task can seem overwhelming--and so can your emotions. How do you decide what to pack and what to part with? Where will you put the contents of your attic, basement, and/or garage? What if the ceilings are lower, the windows are smaller, or your living room rug would fill the entire space? How can you use the stuff you've got so that it functions well and looks right?

Downsizing Your Home with Style answers all of these questions and more. A professional decorator in New York City for over thirty years, Lauri Ward is an expert in making small spaces both elegant and functional. From the initial evaluation of your new home to one year after you have settled in, she takes you through every step with detailed tips, lists of good buys, tricks of the trade, photographs, and anecdotal examples, so that achieving spectacular results is simple and affordable.

Learn How To:

• Create more storage
• Make your stuff look smaller and your space look bigger
• Update and modernize your favorite old pieces
• Multipurpose your rooms and furniture
• Find a new home for the stuff you no longer need

Having less room doesn't mean that your home can't be even more stylish. Downsizing Your Home with Style shows you how to reduce what you have to the best and most loved, so that your new space can be even more special. After all, downsizing isn't about restrictions and sacrifice. It's about living more simply and calmly; it's about leading a richer life by having less.

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Price: $9.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Karen Sommerfield has been hiding from life-immersing herself in a high-powered job-until the day the company downsizes her out of a job and the doctor tells her that she may have cancer. It's a double blow that sends Karen on a search for herself in the last place she ever thought to look: Grandma Rose's old farm.

As Karen's hectic schedule falls away, she opens up to the unexpected. In the quiet of the Missouri Ozarks, she hears the soft, secret language of the sycamore trees, and discovers answers and a joy to make her life complete..
Price: $0.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The House that Faux Built is a unique project-turned-book with a dual purpose: To raise money for the New Orleans Habitat House that Faux Built in support of Katrina Victims To showcase the very latest in painting and plaster home makeover techniques. The Artist s Version of We are the World --More than 100 top artists from across the U.S. and Europe volunteered to help. Together they transformed the rooms of a 1940s colonial in Metro DC and an old Chicago church into unique works of art. This new book captures the project in over 500 full color photos and is being snapped up by homeowners, D-I-Y ers, realtors and designers eager to see the latest in faux and home transformations. Readers will learn home makeover solutions including: 15 tricks to make a small room look larger, 5 secrets to make ceilings appear higher, 5 ways to transform cement floors & new techniques for wood floors, 3 Inexpensive methods to customize existing cabinets and appliances, 3 ways to make old brick, tile, and counter tops look like stone. Dozens of ideas and products that did not exist even a year ago.
Price: $21.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Don Snyder had a plum academic job, a peaceful, almost perfect life, and plans for far more success in the future. Teaching English and creative writing at Colgate University couldn't have been more stimulating; he sought ever more work and thrived on student contact. When his contract was suddenly not renewed, Snyder was uncomprehending. Nonetheless, he responded immediately--thinking his efforts and accomplishments would pay off, as they always had in the past. Interestingly, he took some time before relaying the news to his pregnant wife, hoping that he could match the bad news with that of another appointment. After almost 100 rejection letters, Snyder found himself helping (not necessarily the word his fellow laborers probably used) to build a house in Maine, and worrying about being able to afford heavier boots. This book might have been preachy or self-indulgent. It is neither..
Price: $2.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Since the early 1980s, economic experts have recommended "downsizing" as the best way for U.S. corporations to remain competitive Reducing unnecessary staff would lower costs, increase profits, and transform these companies into lean, mean production machines. As many American businesses pursued this strategy—often in the wake of mergers and acquisitions that left them with an unwieldy layer of middle management—and raised their bottom line, it seemed the experts were right. Yet as David M. Gordon shows in this iconoclastic book, most of them have really only gone halfway. They are "mean," but far from lean.

Tracing the overall employment patterns of the past decade, Gordon shows that most American companies actually employ more managers and supervisors than ever before. These ever-increasing functionaries control company payrolls and pay themselves generous salaries—at the expense of average workers. For despite a steadily growing economy the real wages of the American worker have been falling for the past 20 years. To explain this decline and the much-debated "wage gap" that resulted, pundits and professors invoke various causes ranging from the flow of production jobs overseas to the average worker's lack of the technological skills needed in today's "knowledge economy." But Gordon exposes the single greatest factor in this decline, a corporate strategy that penalizes line workers and hinders businesses from competing effectively in world markets: the simultaneous overstaffing of management hierarchies and the inadequate compensation of workers.

Instead of sharing profits with their employees, thus encouraging them to work harder, management has more often opted to prod workers by instilling fear of layoffs. Gordon unerringly plots the shortsighted and disastrous course of U.S. corporations, and documents the tremendous social and personal costs to their employees. Yet in addition to telling the harsh truth about downsizing, he suggests policies to ensure fairer business practices. Wages can increase— indeed, they must—as the economy begins to perform more efficiency.

U.S. corporations have become fat and mean. They need to become lean and decent—not just for the sake of their workers, but for the sake of their competitive advantage. This provocative and original book shows how they can..
Price: $9.93 [Notify me when price goes down.]

THE GOOD SISTER. Claire Bennet has lost her job for the second time in as many years due to downsizing. She doesn't know what she's going to do since her checking account has almost been stripped bare and her older brother is always a day late and a dollar short. With no man in her life, her parents' home is all she has and she's going to lose that unless she can think of something quick.

THE GOOD LOVER. Fashionable and trendy Brooke Dunlap has also been downsized, but she's not worried because she expects her wealthy boyfriend to propose any day now. Unfortunately, Randaolph Peterson III has other plans and dumps her. Now Brooke is left devastated with no engagement ring, a pile of bills and a Jag that's in the shop.

THE GOOD WIFE. Lorraine Averhart lost one of her dearest friends to cancer only months before and with that friendship, their dream of opening their own florist shop. But when Lorraine sees the wonderful candles, soaps and bath gels Claire has created, she pushes them to go into business together. With Brooke's savvy about what women want, Claire's products and Lorraine's money, they're sure to be a hit. They've got nothing to lose, so why not?

But Lorraine's marriage comes under terrible strain as the business takes off and a new a temptation appears on the horizon; Claire becomes involved with one of the most powerful men in town; and Brooke is forced to reevaluate what matters most: a fat bank account or love and belonging somewhere she can call home?
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Price: $3.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Just as organizations have survived other recessions, they will come through this latest one-but they will need help to recover from it. In this book, acclaimed author and consultant Mitchell Marks offers the wisdom drawn from his many years of experience in helping organizations weather and manage the storms of mergers, acquisitions, and downsizing. Marks shows senior executives, team leaders, HR directors, and consultants how to get jaded employees back on track, carry them through the transition, and motivate them to perform at their best. He provides comprehensive guidance on "transition management," explaining how to approach the new and create a context for recovery. And he details how to revitalize the entire organization-the individual spirit, teams and their performance, and organizational systems.
Mitchell Lee Marks (San Francisco, CA) is an independent management consultant specializing in helping firms plan and implement mergers, restructurings, and other transitions. He also consults in areas of CEO coaching, senior team development, HR development, and corporate culture. Previously, he was senior director at Delta Consulting Group and national chair of the HR Management Practice Group at William H. Mercer, Inc..
Price: $25.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Bill Wolman, "Business Week" chief economist and Anne Colamosca say what our business and government leaders are unwilling to admit, but what most workers know in their gut: in the global economy, big money calls the shots and workers - white-collar professionals as well as blue-collar - are increasingly expendable. Drawing on history and their knowledge of how the world economy works, the authors demonstrate why downsizing will continue whether or not it makes America more competitive..
Price: $5.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]