“Heidi Vaughan's account of her family's expatriate experience in Norway will give anyone thinking about doing an overseas assignment a real and sincere look at life as a foreigner far from home. In Diary of an Oil Expat Family, Vaughan takes the reader through her family's first year away, using a lighthearted approach to the very serious subject of foreign living. Diary offers honest insight into the ups, downs and shocks of expat life and will be of tremendous use for anyone contemplating a move abroad.” —Robin Pascoe, expatexpert.com, author of Culture Shock! A Wife’s Guide, Culture Shock! A Parent’s Guide, and Homeward Bound
As business opportunities are drawing unprecedented numbers of Western families to the Arabian Gulf region, Diary from the Middle East is the book to read. Written from her home in Qatar, Mrs. Vaughan's Diary is not a how-to book on living in the area, but rather an honest look at day-to-day life for expatriates who may only know the region from television news reports. "Definitely a necessary read for families contemplating a move to the region."-Robin Pascoe, www.expatexpert.com, author of A Moveable Marriage; Homeward Bound; Culture Shock: Successful Living Abroad, A Wife's Guide; Culture Shock: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette, A Parent's Guide and Goodbye Room No.3.
Have you ever thought of chucking everything and starting life over in a new country? This is the true story of Ilene Springer who tells you what it's like to leave the US at the age of 55 to start a new life in another country, while reluctantly leaving two grown daughters behind who claim she is abandoning them. It tells all the good, bad and funny about being an expatriate--and there's a lot of all three. A divorced freelance writer who suffers from panic attacks, Ilene becomes desperate when her American health insurance bill skyrockets to over $900 a month. When it becomes a choice between paying the rent or going to the doctor, Ilene chooses a third, terrifying option: moving to the Mediterranean island of Malta where she can possibly train to become an English teacher and get into the country's national healthcare system. Armed with only her wits, a cat and her British-German boyfriend who she has recently met on the Web, Ilene makes the move, ironically on the eve of the election of Barack Obama. But despite being a so-called English-speaking country, Malta is not easy to get used to, Americans are not welcomed as employees and her partner is much harder to live with than she thought. And yet the gorgeous Maltese sun, sea and fascinating foreigners lead Ilene to a zany adventure of a lifetime. Based on the popular blog An American in Malta, Ilene's confessions warn anyone who ever thought of starting over somewhere new the raw, hard truth and often the hilarious things that await them.
In the almost one hundred years of the life of modern Iraq (from 1921 onwards), Saad describes the different stages that Iraq has passed through, starting with the rule of the monarchy, which lasted from 1921 to 1958, and he also reviewed the different regimes that followed the fall of royal Iraq and examined their policies and practices in ruling Iraq. In this review, Saad has highlighted the failures and the achievements that Iraq has seen. Saad has used his experience as both a government public official and as a management consultant to analyze, identify, and define the reasons behind such developments. In his experience, traditional methods have failed in helping Iraq come out of this situation. What is needed is new and innovative approaches that the country needs to consider. In his view, countries need to be managed the same way successful companies are managed, where targets and values for the organization are set and performance is assessed accordingly. Successful companies take care of their customers (in the case of countries, they are the citizens), and companies take care of their staff and other stakeholders. All these are taken with the principle that people are accountable for what they do and that the management of successful companies treats all people fairly. Also in the case of companies, it is not important how much you spend on, say, training. It is important what type of training you spend on, when, why, and whom to train. The same applies to a country where you need to apply your resources on a priority basis.
Isadora Tattlin is the American wife of a European energy consultant posted to Havana in the 1990s. Wisely, the witty Mrs. Tattlin began a diary the day her husband informed her of their new assignment. One of the first entries is her shopping list of things to take, including six gallons of shampoo. For although the Tattlins were provided with a wonderful, big house in Havana, complete with a staff of seven, there wasn't much else money could buy in a country whose shelves are nearly bare. The record of her daily life in Cuba raising her two small children, entertaining her husband's clients (among them Fidel Castro and his ministers and minions), and contending with chronic shortages of, well . . . everything (on the street, tourists are hounded not for money but for soap), is literally stunning. Adventurous and intuitive, Tattlin squeezed every drop of juice--both tasty and repellent--from her experience. She traveled wherever she could (it's not easy--there are few road signs or appealing places to stay or eat). She befriended artists, attended concerts and plays. She gave dozens of parties, attended dozens more. Cuba Diaries--vividly explicit, empathetic, often hilarious--takes the reader deep inside this island country only ninety miles from the U.S., where the average doctor's salary is eleven dollars a month. The reader comes away appalled by the deprivation and drawn by the romance of a weirdly nostalgic Cuba frozen in the 1950s.
A comprehensive overview of the practical implications for organizations that manage international employees, and individuals who are currently or aspiring expatriates.
A disgraced chef rediscovers her passion for food and her roots in this stunning novel rich in culture and full of delectable recipes. French-born American chef Sophie Valroux had one dream: to be part of the 1% of female chefs running a Michelin-starred restaurant. From spending summers with her grandmother, who taught her the power of cooking and food, to attending the Culinary Institute of America, Sophie finds herself on the cusp of getting everything she's dreamed of. Until her career goes up in flames. Sabotaged by a fellow chef, Sophie is fired, leaving her reputation ruined and confidence shaken. To add fuel to the fire, Sophie learns that her grandmother has suffered a stroke and takes the red-eye to France. There, Sophie discovers the simple home she remembers from her childhood is now a luxurious château, complete with two restaurants and a vineyard. As Sophie tries to reestablish herself in the kitchen, she comes to understand the lengths people will go to for success and love, and how dreams can change.
One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year "A remarkable book...indispensable."--The Boston Globe "A sweeping, deeply reported tale of international migration...DeParle's understanding of migration is refreshingly clear-eyed and nuanced."--The New York Times "This is epic reporting, nonfiction on a whole other level...One of the best books on immigration written in a generation."--Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted The definitive chronicle of our new age of global migration, told through the multi-generational saga of a Filipino family, by a veteran New York Times reporter and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. When Jason DeParle moved into the Manila slums with Tita Comodas and her family three decades ago, he never imagined his reporting on them would span three generations and turn into the defining chronicle of a new age--the age of global migration. In a monumental book that gives new meaning to "immersion journalism," DeParle paints an intimate portrait of an unforgettable family as they endure years of sacrifice and separation, willing themselves out of shantytown poverty into a new global middle class. At the heart of the story is Tita's daughter, Rosalie. Beating the odds, she struggles through nursing school and works her way across the Middle East until a Texas hospital fulfills her dreams with a job offer in the States. Migration is changing the world--reordering politics, economics, and cultures across the globe. With nearly 45 million immigrants in the United States, few issues are as polarizing. But if the politics of immigration is broken, immigration itself--tens of millions of people gathered from every corner of the globe--remains an underappreciated American success. Expertly combining the personal and panoramic, DeParle presents a family saga and a global phenomenon. Restarting her life in Galveston, Rosalie brings her reluctant husband and three young children with whom she has rarely lived. They must learn to become a family, even as they learn a new country. Ordinary and extraordinary at once, their journey is a twenty-first-century classic, rendered in gripping detail.
