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Dark Pools The Rise of the Machine Tr...
Brief Summary
A news-breaking account of the global stock market's subterranean battles, Dark Pools portrays the rise of the "bots"--artificially intelligent systems that execute trades in milliseconds and use the cover of darkness to out-maneuver the humans who've created them.
In the beginning was Josh Levine, an idealistic programming genius who dreamed of wresting control of the market from the big exchanges that, again and again, gave the giant institutions an advantage over the little guy. Levine created a computerized trading hub named Island where small traders swapped stocks, and over time his invention morphed into a global electronic stock market that sent trillions in capital through a vast jungle of fiber-optic cables.
By then, the market that Levine had sought to fix had turned upside down, birthing secretive exchanges called dark pools and a new species of trading machines that could think, and that seemed, ominously, to be slipping the control of their human masters.
Dark Pools is the fascinating story of how global markets have been hijacked by trading robots--many so self-directed that humans can't predict what they'll do next.
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ISBN:9780307887184
Author:Scott Patterson
Taking Advice How Leaders Get Good Co...
Brief Summary
Taking Advice: How Leaders Get Good Counsel and Use It Wisely
Leaders can find plenty of resources explaining how to give advice. But what about how to take advice? According to Dan Ciampa, too many leaders overlook this "demand side" of advice. In Taking Advice, Ciampa explains that more outside advisors than ever are offering leader’s advice in increasingly costly projects.
Yet as advice has become more ubiquitous, leaders have grown less satisfied with it--especially when dealing with high-stakes, unfamiliar situations that require assertive action and speed but also wise judgment. Also, leaders too often overlook help from colleagues, board members, subordinates, friends, and spouses. Good advice bridges the gap between a leader's vision and realization of that vision. When leaders fail to solicit advice or obtain it from the wrong sources, the leader and his vision suffer.
By offering the broadest perspective on advice to date, Ciampa helps you avoid this scenario. He provides a topology of advice (strategic, operational, political, and personal) and defines four types of advisors (expert, experienced, sounding board, partner). He also identifies the defining characteristics of effective advice takers--illustrating them with a wealth of examples from business, the public sector, and history.
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ISBN:9781591396680
Author:Dan Ciampa
The Political Animal: An Anatomy
Brief Summary
Jeremy Paxman knows every maneouvre a politician will make to avoid answering a difficult question, but in The Political Animal he seeks an answer to just one: What makes politicians tick? Embarking on a journey in which he encounters movers and shakers past and present, he discovers: that Prime Ministers have often lost a parent in childhood why Trollope is the politician's novelist of choice that Lloyd George once hunted Jack the Ripper how an Admiral's speech in parliament helped win WWII Where do politicians come from?
How do they get elected? What do they do all day? And why do they seek power? All these questions and many more are addressed in Paxman's thrilling dissection of that strange and elusive breed - the political animal. 'Lively, persuasive, excellent.
Boisterous and funny, provocative and punchily written... an intelligent romp' Matthew Parris, Spectator 'Entertaining, informative, incisive and insightful' Andrew Rawnsley Observer 'One of the best primers on the vicissitudes of political life I have read Christopher Silvester, Sunday Times Jeremy Paxman is a journalist, best known for his work presenting Newsnight and University Challenge. His books include Empire, On Royalty, The English and The Political Animal. He lives in Oxfordshire.
ISBN:9780140288476
Author:Jeremy Paxman
When Victims Become Killers Coloniali...
Brief Summary
When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda.
"When we captured Kigali, we thought we would face criminals in the state; instead, we faced a criminal population." So a political commissar in the Rwanda Patriotic Front reflected after the 1994 massacre of as many as one million Tutsis in Rwanda. Underlying his statement is the realization that, though ordered by a minority of state functionaries, the slaughter was performed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, including even judges, human rights activists, and doctors, nurses, priests, friends, and spouses of the victims. Indeed, it is its very popularity that makes the Rwandan genocide so unthinkable. This book makes it thinkable.
Rejecting easy explanations of the genocide as a mysterious evil force that was bizarrely unleashed, one of Africa's best-known intellectuals situates the tragedy in its proper context. He coaxes to the surface the historical, geographical, and political forces that made it possible for so many Hutu to turn so brutally on their neighbors. He finds answers in the nature of political identities generated during colonialism, in the failures of the nationalist revolution to transcend these identities, and in regional demographic and political currents that reach well beyond Rwanda. In so doing, Mahmood Mamdani usefully broadens understandings of citizenship and political identity in postcolonial Africa.
There have been few attempts to explain the Rwandan horror, and none has succeeded so well as this one. Mamdani's analysis provides a solid foundation for future studies of the massacre. Even more important, his answers point a way out of crisis: a direction for reforming political identity in central Africa and preventing future tragedies.
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ISBN:9780691102801
Author:Mahmood Mamdani
They Cannot Kill Us All
Brief Summary
They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement.
A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it
Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today.
In an effort to grasp the magnitude of the repose to Michael Brown's death and understand the scale of the problem police violence represents, Lowery speaks to Brown's family and the families of other victims other victims' families as well as local activists. By posing the question, "What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?" Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs.
Studded with moments of joy, and tragedy, They Can't Kill Us All offers a historically informed look at the standoff between the police and those they are sworn to protect, showing that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in the broader struggle for justice. As Lowery brings vividly to life, the protests against police killings are also about the black community's long history on the receiving end of perceived and actual acts of injustice and discrimination. They Can't Kill Us All grapples with a persistent if also largely unexamined aspect of the otherwise transformative presidency of Barack Obama: the failure to deliver tangible security and opportunity to those Americans most in need of both.
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ISBN:9780316312479
Author:Wesley Lowery
Experiential Marketing
Brief Summary
Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act, Relate
Engaging, enlightening, provocative, and sensational are the words people use to describe compelling experiences and these words also describe this extraordinary book by Bernd Schmitt.
Moving beyond traditional "features-and-benefits" marketing, Schmitt presents a revolutionary approach to marketing for the branding and information age. Schmitt shows how managers can create holistic experiences for their customers through brands that provide sensory, affective, and creative associations as well as lifestyle marketing and social identity campaigns.
In this masterful handbook of tools and techniques, Schmitt presents a battery of business cases to show how cutting-edge companies use "experience providers" such as visual identity, communication, product presence, Web sites, and service to create different types of customer experiences. To illustrate the essential concepts and frameworks of experiential marketing, Schmitt provides:
• SENSE cases on Nokia mobile phones, Hennessy cognac, and Procter & Gamble's Tide Mountain Fresh detergent;
• FEEL cases on Hallmark, Campbell's Soup, and Häagen Dazs Cafés in Asia, Europe, and the United States;
• THINK cases on Apple Computer's revival, Genesis ElderCare, and Siemens;
• ACT cases on Gillette's Mach3, the Milk Mustache campaign, and Martha Stewart Living;
• RELATE cases on Harley-Davidson, Tommy Hilfiger, and Wonderbra.
Using the New Beetle and Sony as examples, Schmitt discusses the strategic and implementation intricacies of creating holistic experiences for customers. In an intriguing final chapter, he presents turn-around techniques such as "Objective: To Dream," "Send in the Iconoclasts," and "Quit the Bull," to show how traditional marketing firms can transform themselves into experience-oriented organizations.
This book will forever change your perception of customers, marketing, and brands -- from Amtrak and Singapore Airlines to Herbal Essences products and Gwyneth Paltrow.
ISBN:9781451636369
Author:Bernd H. Schmitt
Guerilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpens...
Guerilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business.
When Guerrilla Marketing was first published in 1983, Jay Levinson revolutionized marketing strategies for the small-business owner with his take-no-prisoners approach to finding clients. Based on hundreds of solid ideas that really work, Levinson’s philosophy has given birth to a new way of learning about market share and how to gain it. In this completely updated and expanded fourth edition, Levinson offers a new arsenal of weaponry for small-business success including
• strategies for marketing on the Internet (explaining when and precisely how to use it)
• tips for using new technology, such as podcasting and automated marketing
• programs for targeting prospects and cultivating repeat and referral business
• Management lessons in the age of telecommuting and freelance employees
Guerrilla Marketing is the entrepreneur’s marketing bible -- and the book every small-business owner should have on his or her shelf.
Marketing That Matters 10 Practices t...
Brief Summary
Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the World
Whether you're an entrepreneur building a new enterprise, the leader of an established socially responsible business, or a marketing professional at a Fortune 500 company who wants to make a difference, this "in-the-trenches" guide provides action steps for creating marketing programs that benefit your company and the world.
Using real-life examples from Patagonia, General Mills, Clif Bar, and many other companies, Marketing That Matters shows how to define your company's mission, goals, and potential audience in ways that are flexible, creative, and true to your organization's core values.
They offer ten practices to engage customers using innovative marketing techniques--from discovering how customers make decisions to building committed communities of customers, employees, and strategic partners who will spread the word about your company--and potentially change the world. Marketing that Matters is the definitive handbook to help you incorporate social responsibility as a core element in your company's marketing strategy.
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ISBN:9781576753835
Author:Chip Conley and Eric Friedenwald-Fishman
Direct Response Advertising Made Easy
Brief Summary
Double Your Ad Campaign Results!
Successful direct-response advertising persuades its target audience to act immediately. In this insider tutorial, award-winning copywriter Roscoe Barnes III divulges the tricks of the trade of crafting effective, hard-hitting ads that generate leads, increase store traffic, make direct sales and pull orders.
Action-oriented advice covers:
• The 18 most common mistakes in advertising
• 18 ways to create copy that induces response
• 16 ways to stop prospects in their tracks
• 20 great ideas to increase visibility
Double the response of your next advertising campaign and give an immediate lift to your bottom line.
ISBN:9781599180465
Author:Entrepreneur Press and Roscoe Barnes III
Selling Results The Innovative System...
Brief Summary
Selling Results! The Innovative System for Maximizing Sales by Helping Your Customers Achieve Their Business Goals
In Selling Results! Bill Stinnett, the bestselling author of Think Like Your Customer, takes his innovative sales philosophy to the next level by offering a complete sales system based on the belief that the best way to improve your sales results is to focus on helping your customers achieve their desired business results.
Stinnett's revolutionary Results-Based Selling method will help you measure, manage, and maximize your sales results by:
Increasing Deal Size - Boost the average size of sales transactions and the duration of sales contracts
Accelerating Sales Velocity - Shorten your own business development process as well as your customer's buying process
Improving Sales Predictability - Increase your closure rate and the accuracy of sales forecasts
Using Stinnett's original opportunity scorecard, customer results map, results-based negotiation process, and other powerful tools, you'll improve your effectiveness in:
• Creating new sales opportunities
• Determining which deals to invest your time in
• Reaching and selling to senior executives
• Building stronger customer relationships
• Negotiating for maximum profitability
• Closing more opportunities, faster!
Selling Results! is packed with practical advice for putting Stinnett's cutting-edge ideas to use, and includes a 16-point implementation checklist for making the Results-Based Selling method work for you. These concepts, strategies, techniques, and tools can be implemented as a complete system, or individually integrated with whatever processes and infrastructure you already have in place.
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ISBN:9780071477871
Author:Bill Stinnett
Shopper Marketing How to Increase Pur...
Brief Summary
Shopper Marketing explores the subject of focused marketing initiatives aimed at browsers and shoppers who are in-store and can be influenced in their final buying decisions. Now with a new foreword by Philip Kotler this second edition features 12 brand new articles that reflect the current changes in the fast growing area, focusing specifically on the international scope, the online presence and the future of shopper marketing.
Written by 35 experts from top companies around the world including dunnhumbyUSA, Millward Brown, Tesco’s Fresh & Easy, MARS Advertising, Nestlé and author, CEO and president of Envirosell, Paco Underhilll, Shopper Marketing shows the most effective ways of converting shoppers into buyers at the point of purchase.
Surveys point out that shopper marketing is growing even faster than internet advertising and research has indicated that:
• at least 70% of brand choices are made in the store
• over two-thirds of purchase decisions are not planned in advance
• only 5% of shoppers are loyal to one brand within a product group
Providing practical advice about shopper needs and trends, retail environments, shopper marketing strategies and much more, this accessible title is a must-have for all marketing, sales and retail practitioners, as well as students of sales and marketing.
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ISBN:9780749464714
Author:Markus Stahlberg and Ville Maila
Flip How to Find Fix and Sell Houses ...
Brief Summary
FLIP extends the national bestselling Millionaire Real Estate series with a step-by-step guide that is quickly becoming "the model" for successfully finding, fixing and selling investment properties for profit.
Based on their involvement in over a 1,000 flips, Rick Villani and Clay Davis walk you through the proven five-stage model for successfully flipping a house:
• FIND: How to select ideal neighborhoods, attract sellers, and find houses with investment potential
• ANALYZE: Identify which improvements to make and analyze the profit potential of any house
• BUY: How to arrange financing, present the offer, and close on the purchase
• FIX: A 50-step, easy-to-follow plan for fixing up houses that keeps you on time, in budget and assures top quality
• SELL: How to add finishing touches to quickly sell for maximum profit
Woven through the book is an entertaining narrative that follows the flipping adventures of Samantha, Ed, Bill, Nancy, Amy and Mitch as they find, buy, fix and sell their first investment houses. With all this plus the experience of over a thousand flips condensed into one book, FLIP gives new investors the tools they need to avoid common pitfalls, make a profit, and enjoy the process of house flipping.
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ISBN:9780071486101
Author:Rick Villani and Clay Davis
Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing
Brief Summary
Drayton Bird's Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing needs no introduction to marketers and direct marketers. It is not only seen as the authority on direct marketing execution, but is also widely appreciated for its engaging, no-nonsense style.
The latest edition takes the book into new territory - the field of digital marketing. It gives the marketer the tools, techniques and structure needed to produce effective and profitable marketing across the direct marketing spectrum -from simple letter to focused web-based campaigns.
For anyone involved in direct marketing, from junior marketer to senior manager, this book provides not just the structure for success but also an energizing insight into the techniques behind some of the world's most successful direct marketing campaigns.
ISBN:9780749447601
Author:Drayton BIRD
Who Says Elephants Cant Dance by Loui...
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround.
In 1990, IBM had its most profitable year ever. By 1993, the computer industry had changed so rapidly the company was on its way to losing $16 billion and IBM was on a watch list for extinction -- victimized by its own lumbering size, an insular corporate culture, and the PC era IBM had itself helped invent.
Then Lou Gerstner was brought in to run IBM. Almost everyone watching the rapid demise of this American icon presumed Gerstner had joined IBM to preside over its continued dissolution into a confederation of autonomous business units. This strategy, well underway when he arrived, would have effectively eliminated the corporation that had invented many of the industry's most important technologies.
Instead, Gerstner took hold of the company and demanded the manager’s work together to re-establish IBM's mission as a customer-focused provider of computing solutions. Moving ahead of his critics, Gerstner made the hold decision to keep the company together, slash prices on his core product to keep the company competitive, and almost defiantly announced, "The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision.
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Tells the story of IBM's competitive and cultural transformation. In his own words, Gerstner offers a blow-by-blow account of his arrival at the company and his campaign to rebuild the leadership team and give the workforce a renewed sense of purpose. In the process, Gerstner defined a strategy for the computing giant and remade the ossified culture bred by the company's own success.
The first-hand story of an extraordinary turnaround, a unique case study in managing a crisis, and a thoughtful reflection on the computer industry and the principles of leadership, Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Sums up Lou Gerstner's historic business achievement. Taking readers deep into the world of IBM's CEO, Gerstner recounts the high-level meetings and explains the pressure-filled, no-turning-back decisions that had to be made. He also offers his hard-won conclusions about the essence of what makes a great company run.
In the history of modern business, many companies have gone from being industry leaders to the verge of extinction. Through the heroic efforts of a new management team, some of those companies have even succeeded in resuscitating themselves and living on in the shadow of their former stature. But only one company has been at the pinnacle of an industry, fallen to near collapse, and then, beyond anyone's expectations, returned to set the agenda. That company is IBM.
Lou Gerstener, Jr., served as chairman and chief executive officer of IBM from April 1993 to March 2002, when he retired as CEO. He remained chairman of the board through the end of 2002. Before joining IBM, Mr. Gerstner served for four years as chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco, Inc. This was preceded by an eleven-year career at the American Express Company, where he was president of the parent company and chairman and CEO of its largest subsidiary. Prior to that, Mr. Gerstner was a director of the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Co., Inc. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Tintin King Ottokars Sceptre
Brief Summary
Tintin finds a lost briefcase and returns it to the owner, Professor Hector Alembick, who is a sigilographer, an expert on seals. He shows Tintin his collection of seals, including one which belonged to the Syldavian King Ottokar IV. Tintin then discovers that he and Alembick are under surveillance by some strange men. Tintin's flat is even bombed in an attempt to kill him. Suspecting a Syldavian connection, Tintin offers to accompany Alembick to Syldavia for research.
On the plane Tintin begins to suspect his companion. The Alembick travelling with him doesn't smoke and doesn't seem to need the spectacles he wears, while the Alembick he first met smoked heavily and had very poor eyesight. During a layover, Tintin fakes a fall and grabs Alembick's beard, thinking it is false and Alembick is an imposter. However, it is (for Alembick) painfully real. Tintin decides to let the matter drop but then, while flying over Syldavia, it is the pilot of the plane who opens a trap door and Tintin drops out, landing in a haywagon.
Tintin's friends Thomson and Thompson are summoned to investigate but their theory on how the sceptre was stolen proves bad and painful for them. Later on, Tintin notices a spring cannon in a toy shop and this gives him the clue. Professor Alembick had asked for some photographs to be taken of the sceptre, but the camera was a spring cannon in disguise, which allowed him to catapult it out of the castle into a nearby forest.
Searching the forest, Tintin spots the sceptre being found by agents of the neighbouring country, Borduria. Following them all the way to the border, he wrests the sceptre from them. In the wallet of one of the thieves he discovers papers that show that the theft of the sceptre was just part of a major plan for the taking over of Syldavia by their long-time political rival, Borduria.
Tintin steals a Me-109 from a Bordurian airfield (whose squadron is being kept ready to take part in the envisioned "Anschluss" of Syldavia) to fly it back to the King in time. He is shot down by the Syldavians who have naturally opened fire on an enemy aircraft violating their airspace. He manages to make the rest of the journey by foot.
Meanwhile the Interior Minister informs the King that rumours have been spreading that the sceptre has been stolen and that there have been riots against local Bordurian businesses, acts which would justify a Bordurian takeover of the country. The King is about to abdicate when Snowy runs in with the sceptre (which had fallen out of Tintin's pocket).
Tintin then gives the King the papers he took from the man who stole the sceptre. They prove that the plot was masterminded by Müsstler, leader of the Iron Guard, a local political party. The King takes action by having Müsstler and his associates arrested and the army mobilised along the Bordurian frontier. In response, the Bordurian leader pulls his own troops back from the border, though he stresses his own country's "desire for peace" and criticises Syldavia's "strange" behaviour.
ISBN:0416605109
Author:Herge
Tintin and the Picaros
Brief Summary
Tintin hears in the news that Bianca Castafiore, her maid, pianist and Thomson and Thompson, have been imprisoned in San Theodoros for allegedly attempting to overthrow the military dictatorship of General Tapioca, who has yet again deposed Tintin's old friend, General Alcazar. Tintin, Calculus and Haddock soon become embroiled in the accusations, and, travelling to San Theodoros to clear their names, find themselves caught in a trap laid by their old enemy, Colonel Sponsz, who has been sent by the East Bloc nation of Borduria to assist Tapioca. Sponsz has concocted the conspiracy of which Tintin and his friends are accused in a plot to wreak revenge upon them for humiliating him in The Calculus Affair. Escaping, Tintin, Haddock, and Calculus join Alcazar and his small band of guerrillas, the Picaros, in the jungle near an Arumbaya Indian village.
Meanwhile, in a show trial orchestrated by Sponsz, Castafiore is sentenced to life imprisonment and the Thompsons are ordered to be executed by firing squad. Tintin enlists Alcazar's help in freeing his friends, but upon arrival at his jungle headquarters, finds that Alcazar's men have become demoralised drunkards since Tapioca started dropping copious quantities of alcohol near their camp. Additionally, Alcazar is continually henpecked by his shrewish wife Peggy, who nags him constantly about his failure to achieve a successful revolution.
Fortunately, Calculus has invented a pill which will make alcohol unpalatable to anyone who ingests it (which he proves to have tested on Haddock, much to the latter's ire). Tintin offers to use the pill to cure the Picaros of their alcoholism if Alcazar agrees to make the overthrow of Tapioca bloodless. Alcazar reluctantly agrees, and as his men are cured, Jolyon Wagg arrives with his musical troupe the Jolly Follies, who intend to perform at the upcoming carnival in San Theodoros. Alcazar — with a little advice from Tintin — launches an assault on Tapioca's palace during the carnival by 'borrowing' the troupe's costumes and sneaking his men into the capital. He topples Tapioca, but on Tintin's urging, does not execute him, as is tradition; Tapioca is instead forced to publicly surrender his powers to Alcazar and is exiled, while Sponsz is sent back to Borduria.
Meanwhile, Thomson and Thompson are due to be shot on the same day as the carnival (although as naive as ever in their observations, the detectives show courage by refusing to be blindfolded). Tintin and Haddock reach the state prison in time to prevent the executions from taking place. Castafiore, her maid and her pianist are also released, and Alcazar can finally give his wife the palace he has promised. With everything back in order (or not), Tintin and his friends leave. As they fly home, Tintin and Haddock express gratitude about being able to go home, showing a wearier attitude towards travel than in earlier books.
The second to last panel shows a final, skeptical political message: as under Tapioca, the city slums are filled with wretched, starving people and patrolled by indifferent police. Nothing is different, except that a Viva Tapioca sign has been changed to read Viva Alcazar, demonstrating Hergé's view that even if regimes change, conditions do not improve.
ISBN:9780416851700
Author:Herge
Tintin in America
Why Your World Is About to Get a Whol...
Brief Summary
Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization
An internationally renowned energy expert has written a book essential for every American–a galvanizing account of how the rising price and diminishing availability of oil are going to radically change our lives. Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller is a powerful and provocative book that explores what the new global economy will look like and what it will mean for all of us.
In a compelling and accessible style, Jeff Rubin reveals that despite the recent recessionary dip, oil prices will skyrocket again once the economy recovers. The fact is, worldwide oil reserves are disappearing for good. Consequently, the amount of food and other goods we get from abroad will be curtailed; long-distance driving will become a luxury and international travel rare. Globalization as we know it will reverse. The near future will be a time that, in its physical limits, may resemble the distant past.
But Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller is a hopeful work about how we can benefit–personally, politically, and economically–from this new reality. American industries such as steel and agriculture, for instance, will be revitalized. As well, Rubin prescribes priorities for President Obama and other leaders, from imposing carbon tariffs that will increase competition and productivity, to investing in mass transit instead of car-clogged highways, to forging "green” alliances between labor and management that will be good for both business and the air we breathe.
Most passionately, Rubin recommends ways every citizen can secure this better life for himself, actions that will end our enslavement to chain-store taste and strengthen our communities and timeless human values.
ISBN:9781400068500
Author:Jeff Rubin
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forge...
Brief Summary
Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness tells the story of the author's mother, Nicola Fuller.
Nicola Fuller and her husband were a glamorous and optimistic couple and East Africa lay before them with the promise of all its perfect light, even as the British Empire in which they both believed waned. They had everything, including two golden children - a girl and a boy. However, life became increasingly difficult and they moved to Rhodesia to work as farm managers.
The previous farm manager had committed suicide. His ghost appeared at the foot of their bed and seemed to be trying to warn them of something. Shortly after this, one of their golden children died. Africa was no longer the playground of Nicola's childhood. They returned to England where the author was born before they returned to Rhodesia and to the civil war.
The last part of the book sees the Fullers in their old age on a banana and fish farm in the Zambezi Valley. They had built their ramshackle dining room under the Tree of Forgetfulness. In local custom, this tree is the meeting place for villagers determined to resolve disputes. It is in the spirit of this Forgetfulness that Nicola finally forgot - but did not forgive - all her enemies including her daughter and the Apostle, a squatter who has taken up in her bananas with his seven wives and forty-nine children. Funny, tragic, terrifying, exotic and utterly unself-conscious, this is a story of survival and madness, love and war, passion and compassion.
ISBN:9781849832960
Author:Alexandra Fuller
Black Water Rising
Brief Summary
Writing in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Greg Iles, Attica Locke, a powerful new voice in American fiction, delivers a brilliant debut thriller that readers will not soon forget.
Jay Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. But he's long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him.
Houston, Texas, 1981. It is here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. That is, until the night in a boat out on the bayou when he impulsively saves a woman from drowning—and opens a Pandora's Box. Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. But before he can get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that reaches into the upper echelons of Houston's corporate power brokers, Jay must confront the demons of his past.
With pacing that captures the reader from the first scene through an exhilarating climax, Black Water Rising marks the arrival of an electrifying new talent.
ISBN:9780061735868
Author:Attica Locke