The Butler Speaks


Book Description

Host a dinner party * Make a bed * Set a table * Use the proper fork * Polish silver * Prepare high tea * Present a calling card * Make conversation * Fold a shirt ... all with the charm, ease and sophistication of a butler. Now in its fifth printing, this beautifully illustrated style, etiquette and entertainment guide lays out the essentials of entertaining and household management in a clear, straightforward style. For anyone who rents or owns--be it a small urban condo or a lavish country estate--The Butler Speaks includes everything you need to know to simplify, organize and care for your home. Charles MacPherson offers modern advice on personal style and etiquette--how to receive guests; present your business card; make polite dinner conversation-- and advice on entertaining at home--how to make a cheese plate; hold your cutlery; set a table--all with the flair, charm and unpretentious grace of the butler.




Hello Life!


Book Description

Popular British YouTube star Marcus Butler “speaks with both honesty and sincerity” (Booklist) in this irreverent memoir and big-brotherly advice book on how to be an almost-adult. For a twenty-three-year-old, Marcus Butler knows a lot about life—and not just from his own experiences, but from the millions of followers on YouTube who chat with him on his irreverent channel, known for its mix of hilarious sketches, light-hearted banter, and deeply empathetic take on serious issues. In this funny, colorful handbook, the warm and totally down-to-earth star shares his trademark big-brotherly advice for navigating the trickier aspects of modern living. Inside you’ll find Marcus’s thoughts on: -Being healthy—including his nutritious eating tips, favorite gym-free exercises, and butt-kicking hacks for getting in shape -Dating—from finding the courage to be yourself, to banishing first-date nerves, to rebooting a broken heart -Surviving life crises—such as his parents’ difficult divorce, the pain of watching a close friend spiral into anorexia and self-harm, and his regrets over giving in to bullies and giving up on a sport he loved -Getting the life you want—lessons for staying organized, handling pressure, thinking positively, and breaking world records! Part autobiography, part self-help guide, Hello Life! is a candid and playful look inside Marcus Butler’s life—the failures, the successes, and the lessons he’s learned along the way.




A Butler's Life


Book Description

"Part memoir, part how-to, A Butler's Life, the account of Christopher Allen's real-life duties behind the silver salver, offers a contemporary peek into this fascinating, yet demanding profession."--




Judith Butler in Conversation


Book Description

How has Judith Butler’s writing contributed to thought in the Social Sciences and the Humanities? The participants in this project draw on various aspects of Butler’s conceptual work and they question how it has opened up the possibilities of thought in areas of study as diverse as theatre studies, education and narrative therapy. In a format that demands careful listening and response, the scholars in this book interact with Butler, her writing, and each other. Within this dynamic space they take up Butler’s body of work and carry it in new and exciting directions. Their conversations and writing are, in turn, funny, exciting, surprising and moving.




The Butler's Child


Book Description

The Butler's Child is the personal story of a Warner Brothers family grandson who spent more than fifty years as a fighting, no holds barred civil rights lawyer. Lewis M. Steel explores why he, a privileged white man, devoted his life to seeking racial progress in often uncomprehending or hostile courts. In fact, after writing a feature for The New York Times Magazine entitled "Nine Men in Black Who Think White," Lewis was fired from the NAACP and the entire legal staff resigned in support of him. Lewis speaks about his family butler, an African American man named William Rutherford, who helped raise Lewis, and their deep but ultimately troubled relationship, as well as how Robert L. Carter, the NAACP's extraordinary general counsel, became Lewis' mentor, father figure and lifelong close friend. Lewis exposes the conflicts which arose from living and working in two very different worlds - that of the Warner Brothers family and that of a civil rights lawyer. He also explores his more than fifty year marriage that joined two very different Jewish and Irish American families. Lewis' work with the NAACP and in private practice created legal precedents still relevant today. The Butler's Child is also an insider's look into some of the most important civil rights cases from the turbulent 1960's to the present day by a man still working to advance the civil rights which should be available to all.




The New Me


Book Description

"[A] definitive work of millennial literature . . . wretchedly riveting." —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker “Girls + Office Space + My Year of Rest and Relaxation + anxious sweating = The New Me.” —Entertainment Weekly I'm still trying to make the dream possible: still might finish my cleaning project, still might sign up for that yoga class, still might, still might. I step into the shower and almost faint, an image of taking the day by the throat and bashing its head against the wall floating in my mind. Thirty-year-old Millie just can't pull it together. She spends her days working a thankless temp job and her nights alone in her apartment, fixating on all the ways she might change her situation--her job, her attitude, her appearance, her life. Then she watches TV until she falls asleep, and the cycle begins again. When the possibility of a full-time job offer arises, it seems to bring the better life she's envisioning within reach. But with it also comes the paralyzing realization, lurking just beneath the surface, of how hollow that vision has become. "Wretchedly riveting" (The New Yorker) and "masterfully cringe-inducing" (Chicago Tribune), The New Me is the must-read new novel by National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree and Granta Best Young American novelist Halle Butler. Named a Best Book of the Decade by Vox, and a Best Book of 2019 by Vanity Fair, Vulture, Chicago Tribune, Mashable, Bustle, and NPR




Tabloid Dreams


Book Description

"An unrepeatable feat, a tour de force." --The Washington Post Book World In Tabloid Dreams, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler dazzles with his mastery of the short story and his empathy for eccentric and ostracized characters. Using tabloid headlines as inspiration--"Boy Born with Tattoo of Elvis," "Woman Struck by Car Turns into Nymphomaniac," and "JFK Secretly Attends Jackie Auction"--Butler moves from the fantastic to the realistic, exploring enduring concepts of exile, loss, aspiration, and the search for self. Along the way, the cast includes a woman who can see through her glass eye when it's removed from the socket, a widow who sets herself on fire after losing a baking competition, a nine-year-old hit man, and a woman who dates an extraterrestrial she met in a Walmart parking lot. Tabloid Dreams weaves a seamless tapestry of high and low culture, of the surreal, sordid, and humorously sad.




Lead Like Butler


Book Description

Brad Stevens is a great coach, admired and respected for developing winning teams year after year. His patience and never-give-up attitude will take him a long way as Coach of the Boston Celtics. —Larry Bird, Boston Celtics 1978-1992; President, Basketball Operations Indiana Pacers Coach Brad Stevens made Butler University the first team to make 2 consecutive finals of the NCAA basketball tournament without being seeded #1 or #2. Lead Like Butler is a must read for any college basketball fan. -Chris Coddington, Fellowship of Christian Athletes ...a must read for those who desire to win in life, as well as in the arena of competition. -Jim McCoy, KDOV-TV& KDOV-FM What becomes quickly apparent is that the enduring ideas of humility, passion, teamwork, service, gratitude, and accountability prove applicable tenants in all aspects of life. -James M. Danko, President, Butler University Anyone who desires a more authentic pathway toward leadership and excellence will benefit from learning to “Lead Like Butler.” -Michael Coyner, bishop, Indiana Area of The United Methodist Church Butler's rise to the top wasn't a fluke. This is a must read for others wanting to achieve greatness.-Billy Shepherd, Butler University, Class of 1972, and Indiana's "Mr. Basketball-1968" Whether at work, at home, or even at play, the values of humility, passion, unity, service, thankfulness, and accountability can help you shape your group into a successful example for others. -Jamie Phillippe, Board of Trustees, Butler University, Class of 1973 Lead Like Butler is an important contribution to the canon of leadership literature on and off the hardwood. -Jennifer L. Bougher, Esq. Arent Fox, LLP (New York), member of Butler University Alumni Association Board of Directors




Butlers & Household Managers


Book Description

Butlers & Household Managers, 21st Century Professionals is designed to assist those seeking a new and rewarding career as a butler or the American equivalent, the household manager, as well as those seeking to employ them, whether in stately home, hotel, corporate setting or elsewhere. In the increasingly competitive and mechanistic world in which we live, service is often the only differentiator between one provider and another. Having a competent butler is one way to develop that much-needed edge.Butlers & Household Managers, 21st Century Professionals is also useful for any man or woman who would like to use some of the butler's know-how to enhance his or her own life style. The many checklists in Butlers & Household Managers, 21st Century Professionals cover every kind of situation a butler deals with and are designed, in conjunction with the chapter they supplement, to walk a person successfully through those situations and so increase his or her confidence. No amount of copying actions mechanically will make a butler, however. It is necessary to understand the point of view of the butler to then handle any given situation as a butler would. That is why chapters are provided to explain the butler rationale.




The Butler's Guide to Running the Home and Other Graces


Book Description

Perched on an island off the shores of Cornwall, England, the soaring castle of St. Michael’s Mount has been home to the St. Aubyn family since 1647. For nearly thirty years, Stanley Ager, one of the most esteemed butlers of the twentieth century, ensured that St. Michael’s Mount was an impeccable place to live and a gracious and welcoming one for guests to visit. Revered by everyone from royalty to the estate staff, Stanley Ager considered it his calling to run a home gracefully and efficiently. Several of the men whom he trained at St. Michael’s Mount went on to serve in the Royal Household at Buckingham Palace and at British embassies throughout the world. But you don’t need a manor to benefit from Ager’s wisdom on homekeeping. This carefully detailed, charmingly illustrated, eminently useful volume offers important insights and techniques, including how to: Wipe a glass—or a chandelier—until it sparkles *** Fold napkins precisely—in six different ways *** Polish furniture—or silver—to a mirror finish *** Lay a beautiful table and serve a meal impeccably *** Brush, buff, and maintain any manner of clothes and footwear *** Fold and pack for a trip—for business or pleasure *** Select and pour wine *** Stage “impromptu” romantic picnics *** And, among other graces, open a door soundlessly, roll an umbrella perfectly, and iron a newspaper