QUICK DELIVERY
Swift dispatch
City of Saints and Thieves
Brief summary
In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn't exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the chance to build a new life and home. Her mother quickly found work as a maid for a prominent family, headed by Roland Greyhill, one of the city’s most respected business leaders. But Tina soon learns that the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. So when her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill's personal study, she knows exactly who’s behind it.
With revenge always on her mind, Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City’s local gang. It’s a job for the Goondas that finally brings Tina back to the Greyhill estate, giving her the chance for vengeance she’s been waiting for.
But as soon as she steps inside the lavish home, she’s overtaken by the pain of old wounds and the pull of past friendships, setting into motion a dangerous cascade of events that could, at any moment, cost Tina her life. But finally uncovering the incredible truth about who killed her mother—and why—keeps her holding on in this fast-paced nail-biting thriller.
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ISBN:9780399547584
Author:Natalie C. Anderson
Africa A Biography of the Continent
Brief summary
In 1978, paleontologists in East Africa discovered the earliest evidence of our divergence from the apes: three pre-human footprints, striding away from a volcano, were preserved in the petrified surface of a mudpan over three million years ago.
Out of Africa, the world's most ancient and stable landmass, Homo sapiens dispersed across the globe. And yet the continent that gave birth to human history has long been woefully misunderstood and mistreated by the rest of the world.
In a book as splendid in its wealth of information as it is breathtaking in scope, British writer and photojournalist John Reader brings to light Africa's geology and evolution, the majestic array of its landforms and environments, the rich diversity of its peoples and their ways of life, the devastating legacies of slavery and colonialism as well as recent political troubles and triumphs. Written in simple, elegant prose and illustrated with Reader's own photographs, Africa: A Biography of the Continent is an unforgettable book that will delight the general reader and expert alike.
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ISBN:9780679738695
Author:John Reader
Even Dogs in the Wild
Brief summary
Hands in his pockets, Rebus turned to face Cafferty. They were old men now, similar builds, and similar backgrounds. Sat together in a pub, the casual onlooker might mistake them for pals who’d known one another since school. But their history told a different story.
Retirement doesn’t suit John Rebus. He wasn’t made for hobbies, holidays or home improvements. Being a cop is in his blood.
So when DI Siobhan Clarke asks for his help on a case, Rebus doesn’t need long to consider his options.
Clarke’s been investigating the death of a senior lawyer whose body was found along with a threatening note. On the other side of Edinburgh, Big Ger Cafferty – Rebus’s long-time nemesis – has received an identical note and a bullet through his window.
Now it’s up to Clarke and Rebus to connect the dots and stop a killer.
Meanwhile, DI Malcolm Fox joins forces with a covert team from Glasgow who are tailing a notorious crime family. There’s something they want, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it.
It’s a game of dog eat dog – in the city, as in the wild.
Even Dogs in the Wild brings back Ian Rankin’s greatest characters in a story exploring the darkest corners of our instincts and desires.
ISBN:9780316342513
Author:Ian Rankin
What Men Say What Women Hear
Brief summary
What Men Say What Women Hear: Conquering the Communication Gap One Misunderstanding at a Time.
An indispensable relationship guide for every woman who has ever told her partner "really, don't go to any trouble for my birthday.” And then been disappointed when he didn't. He says: "that dress looks great! Let’s buy it!" you hear: "he really loves being with me. i feel as though we've truly bonded."
He means: "For the love of God, the last eight black dresses you tried on looked identical! Just buy one, so we can get home in time for the game!"
In "What Men Say, What Women Hear,” Dr. Linda Papadopoulos tackles the saying, hearing, and listening gap between men and women that can complicate every step of a relationship, from first dates and first sex to meeting the parents and living happily ever after. An expert on Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which connects people's initial and often misguided perception of something to the emotional reaction that follows, Dr. Linda deconstructs the common thinking errors that can hinder communication -- such as personalizing everything ("He's in a bad mood. Clearly he's thinking of a way to dump me.") And jumping to conclusions ("He asked how much younger my sister is than me. I bet he thinks I look like an old bat compared to her.").
By applying clinical techniques to fun -- and oh-so-familiar -- examples, Dr. Linda helps readers eliminate unnecessary relationship anxiety and reevaluate the way they think about themselves, their partners, and the world around them.
ISBN:9781416585213
Author:Linda Papadopoulos
Raising Confident Girls
Brief summary
Raising Confident Girls: Practical Tips for Bringing Out the Best in Your Daughter.
Girls have an instinctive ability for good verbal communication, nurturing and emotional intelligence, but they need a simple and strong foundation from their parents to really grow into healthy adults.
Raising Confident Girls is all about working with the essential character of girls to raise confident, communicative and successful women by showing you how to combine warmth and encouragement with routine and predictability in her life.
Ian and Mary Grant have packed Raising Confident Girls with indispensable no-nonsense advice on raising girls from the pre-school years through to the challenging teens. With chapters on the nature of girls, the roles of mums and dads, and on the special challenges faced by single parents, plus hot tips, quotes and action labs to encourage parents to take a hands-on approach, this book will help you cultivate your daughter's natural talents to help her succeed in the game of life.
ISBN:9780091929442
Author:Ian Grant and Mary Grant
Intelligent Leadership
Brief summary
Intelligent Leadership: Creating a Passion for Change
The need for high-quality leadership in all areas of business and organizational activity has never been greater. A myriad of inter-linked factors mean that styles of leadership that were appropriate in the past are now no longer working. (These factors include new technologies, more questioning attitudes to authority, the arrival of the "virtual organization" with its network of contributors, and the unprecedently high expectations of customers and employees.)
In Intelligent Leadership, Alan Hooper and John Potter look at how changes affect people in businesses and organizations, including through specific case studies - and propose practical ways for leaders to provide effective leadership in a quickly changing and confusing work environment. The focus is on winning hearts and minds, on leadership as an emotional and psychological commitment to the people being led, and on the idea of emotional intelligence.
ISBN:9780712684200
Author:Alan Hooper and Dr John Potter
How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasp...
Brief summary
How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom
One of the most highly regarded strategists of our time teaches us how the tools that made him a world chess champion can make us more successful in business and in life.
Garry Kasparov was the highest-rated chess player in the world for over twenty years and is widely considered the greatest player that ever lived. In How Life Imitates Chess Kasparov distills the lessons he learned over a lifetime as a Grandmaster to offer a primer on successful decision-making: how to evaluate opportunities, anticipate the future, and devise winning strategies.
He relates in a lively, original way all the fundamentals, from the nuts and bolts of strategy, evaluation, and preparation to the subtler, more human arts of developing a personal style and using memory, intuition, imagination and even fantasy. Kasparov takes us through the great matches of his career, including legendary duels against both man (Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov) and machine (IBM chess supercomputer Deep Blue), enhancing the lessons of his many experiences with examples from politics, literature, sports and military history.
With candor, wisdom, and humor, Kasparov recounts his victories and his blunders, both from his years as a world-class competitor as well as his new life as a political leader in Russia. An inspiring book that combines unique strategic insight with personal memoir, How Life Imitates Chess is a glimpse inside the mind of one of today's greatest and most innovative thinkers.
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ISBN:9781596913875
Author:Garry Kasparov
Every Young Woman’s Battle: Gua...
Every Young Woman's Battle: Guarding Your Mind, Heart, and Body in a Sex-Saturated World
Guys Aren't the Only Ones Fighting a Battle for Purity.
The world you live in promotes sex as the answer to just about everything. The pressure to go along with the crowd is greater than ever before, and it's easy to compromise in little ways that are a lot more harmful than they seem. You and your friends may become caught up in destructive relationships or sexual activities without even knowing how you got there. You just want to be normal–to fit in, to be liked, to look attractive to the opposite sex. But are you paying too high a price?
This counterpart to the award-winning Every Young Man's Battle can help you:
1. Learn how the sexual battle begins in your heart and mind
2. Understand your hunger for attention from guys
3. Recognize and avoid the potential pitfalls awaiting young women on the journey toward adulthood and possibly marriage
4. Find out how the media, novels, fashion, internet chat rooms, and body and beauty obsessions influence your sexual choices–and what you can do about it
5. Guard your mind, heart, and body against sexual and emotional compromise
6. Develop a deeper, more satisfying level of intimacy with God
Whether you have so far protected yourself emotionally and sexually, feel that you've been robbed of your purity, or have given in to temptation in some way, this book can help you achieve or reclaim sexual integrity. It can also guide you through the temptations and pressures of young adulthood while demonstrating how you can live your life to the fullest–without regrets.
Includes a comprehensive workbook for individual or group study.
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis ...
In today's fast-paced world of competitive workplaces and turbulent economic conditions, each of us is searching for effective tools that can help us to manage, adapt, and strike out ahead of the pack.
By now, emotional intelligence (EQ) needs little introduction—it’s no secret that EQ is critical to your success. But knowing what EQ is and knowing how to use it to improve your life are two very different things.
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 delivers a step-by-step program for increasing your EQ via four, core EQ skills that enable you to achieve your fullest potential:
1) Self-Awareness
2) Self-Management
3) Social Awareness
4) Relationship Management
Economics in One Lesson
Brief summary
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest & Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
A million copy seller, Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is a classic economic primer. But it is also much more, having become a fundamental influence on modern "libertarian” economics of the type espoused by Ron Paul and others.
Considered among the leading economic thinkers of the "Austrian School,” which includes Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich (F.A.) Hayek, and others, Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993), was a libertarian philosopher, an economist, and a journalist. He was the founding vice-president of the Foundation for Economic Education and an early editor of The Freeman magazine, an influential libertarian publication. Hazlitt wrote Economics in One Lesson, his seminal work, in 1946. Concise and instructive, it is also deceptively prescient and far-reaching in its efforts to dissemble economic fallacies that are so prevalent they have almost become a new orthodoxy.
Many current economic commentators across the political spectrum have credited Hazlitt with foreseeing the collapse of the global economy which occurred more than 50 years after the initial publication of Economics in One Lesson. Hazlitt’s focus on non-governmental solutions, strong — and strongly reasoned — anti-deficit position, and general emphasis on free markets, economic liberty of individuals, and the dangers of government intervention make Economics in One Lesson, every bit as relevant and valuable today as it has been since publication.
ISBN:9780517548233
Author:Henry Hazlitt
Dukawalla and Other Stories by Pheroz...
In this collection of stories, Pheroze Nowrojee takes his readers on journeys into varied Kenyan, East African, and other landscapes, delving into lives and personalities equally diverse.
Whether actively transforming their surroundings or being transformed by what is around them, his complex characters reflect our common humanity in sometimes ordinary and sometimes surprising—but always compelling—ways.
Exquisitely told, laden with humor and beauty and poignancy, these stories are a vital addition to the East African anthology.
Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight
Brief summary
In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate.
Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.
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ISBN:9780375758997
Author:Alexandra Fuller
Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauz...
For Fauziya Kassindja, an idyllic childhood in Togo, West Africa, sheltered from the tribal practices of polygamy and genital mutilation, ended with her beloved father's sudden death. Forced into an arranged marriage at age seventeen, Fauziya was told to prepare for kakia, the ritual also known as female genital mutilation. It is a ritual no woman can refuse. But Fauziya dared to try.
This is her story--told in her own words--of fleeing Africa just hours before the ritual kakia was to take place, of seeking asylum in America only to be locked up in U.S. prisons, and of meeting Layli Miller Bashir, a law student who became Fauziya's friend and advocate during her horrifying sixteen months behind bars.
Layli enlisted help from Karen Musalo, an expert in refugee law and acting director of the American University International Human Rights Clinic. In addition to devoting her own considerable efforts to the case, Musalo assembled a team to fight with her on Fauziya's behalf. Ultimately, in a landmark decision in immigration history, Fauziya Kassindja was granted asylum on June 13, 1996. Do They Hear You When You Cry is her unforgettable chronicle of triumph.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madelei...
"In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old.”
Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations—those who lived through Mao’s Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square. At the center of this epic story are two young women, Marie and Ai-Ming. Through their relationship Marie strives to piece together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking answers in the fragile layers of their collective story.
Her quest will unveil how Kai, her enigmatic father, a talented pianist, and Ai-Ming’s father, the shy and brilliant composer, Sparrow, along with the violin prodigy Zhuli were forced to reimagine their artistic and private selves during China’s political campaigns and how their fates reverberate through the years with lasting consequences.
With maturity and sophistication, humor and beauty, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of life inside China yet transcendent in its universality.
The Dictators Learning Curve
Brief summary
The Dictator's Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy
It’s not easy being a dictator these days. Since the end of the Cold War, dictatorships worldwide have been on the decline and those that survive have changed dramatically. Not so long ago, blunt weapons were used to keep citizens under control, but in a globalized world connected to new media more subtle methods for preserving power have replaced yesterday’s forms of intimidation.
The Dictator’s Learning Curve gives a fascinating insight into the way dictators are adapting to the demands of the modern world, and their insidious efforts to disguise their regimes as democracies. Mubarak, Ben Ali and Gaddafi may be gone, but the Arab Spring is only the latest front in a worldwide battle between freedom and oppression.
In this page-turning and authoritative book, William J. Dobson illuminates the connections and differences between authoritarian regimes in places as far apart as Russia, China, Venezuela, Egypt and Malaysia. Drawing on first-hand testimony from those close to these governments and those who challenge them – from incarcerated dissidents, student revolutionaries, to Serbian and American 'trainers in nonviolent revolution' –Dobson shows that we are witnessing an incredible moment in the war between dictators and democracy.
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ISBN:9781846556906
Author:William J Dobson
The Dictators Hitlers Germany Stalins...
Brief summary
If the past century will be remembered for its tragic pairing of civilized achievement and organized destruction, at the heart of darkness may be found Hitler, Stalin, and the systems of domination they forged. Their lethal regimes murdered millions and fought a massive, deadly war.
Yet their dictatorships took shape within formal constitutional structures and drew the support of the German and Russian people. In the first major historical work to analyze the two dictatorships together in depth, Richard Overy gives us an absorbing study of Hitler and Stalin, ranging from their private and public selves, their ascents to power and consolidation of absolute rule, to their waging of massive war and creation of far-flung empires of camps and prisons.
The Nazi extermination camps and the vast Soviet Gulag represent the two dictatorships in their most inhuman form. Overy shows us the human and historical roots of these evils.
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ISBN:9780393327977
Author:Richard Overy
Dear Leader
Brief summary
Dear Leader: North Korea's senior propagandist exposes shocking truths behind the regime
Dear Leader contains astonishing new insights about North Korea which could only be revealed by someone working high up in the regime. It is also the gripping story of how a member of the inner circle of this enigmatic country became its most courageous, outspoken critic.
Jang Jin-sung held one of the most senior ranks in North Korea's propaganda machine, helping tighten the regime's grip over its people. Among his tasks were developing the founding myth of North Korea, posing undercover as a South Korean intellectual and writing epic poems in support of the dictator, Kim Jong-il.
Young and ambitious, his patriotic work secured him a bizarre audience with Kim Jong-il himself, thus granting him special status as one of the 'Admitted'. This meant special food provisions, a travel pass and immunity from prosecution and harm. He was privy to state secrets, including military and diplomatic policies, how the devastating 'Scrutiny' was effected, and the real position of one of the country's most powerful, elusive men, Im Tong-ok. Because he was praised by the Dear Leader himself, he had every reason to feel satisfied with his lot and safe.
Yet he could not ignore his conscience, or the disparity between his life and that of those he saw starving on the street. After breaking security rules, Jang Jin-sung, together with a close friend, was forced to flee for his life: away from lies and deceit, towards truth and freedom.
ISBN:9781846044212
Author:Jang Jin-Sung
Deadly Waters
Brief summary
Deadly Waters: Inside the Hidden World of Somalia's Pirates.
In this remarkable book, Jay Bahadur ventures to the troubled mini-state of Puntland, a self-governing region in northeastern Somalia, to expose the lives of the bandits beyond the attack skiffs: how they spend their cash, how they conduct business, how they think and why they risk their lives in often suicidal missions.
During his travels, Bahadur talks not only with the pirates, but also with the security personnel tasked with combatting their plundering. Whether chewing khat with the locals, accompanying Puntland’s president or meeting with former hostages who had been confined to their ships for months while awaiting news of a ransom, Bahadur has unparalleled access to all the major players, from government officials to some of the most wanted outlaws in one of the world’s most dangerous places.
ISBN:9781846683633
Author:Jay Bahadur
Goldman Sachs The Culture of Success
Brief summary
Goldman Sachs, the nation's leading investment firm, with a solid-gold reputation and a first-class list of clients, began as a family business in a lower Manhattan basement in 1869. The secrets behind the remarkable success of Goldman Sachs since then are revealed in unprecedented depth in this fascinating and authoritative narrative history of the firm.
Former Goldman Sachs vice president Lisa Endlich draws on her insider's knowledge and access to all levels of management to bring to life a unique company that has long held its mystique intact. The most stunning accomplishments in modern American finance are explored through the story of how Goldman Sachs reached its summit.
Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success provides a rare and revealing look inside an institution -- until recently the last private partnership on Wall Street -- and inside the financial world at its highest levels. Included here, in a new chapter, is a first look at the history behind the firm's landmark initial public offering.
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ISBN:9780684869681
Author:Lisa Endlich
The Crunch
Brief summary
The Crunch: How Greed and Incompetence Sparked the Credit Crisis
On August 9, 2007 France's largest bank announced that it would suspend trading in two huge investment funds it controlled. The same day three German banks revealed that they were close to collapse. A few days later came the first run on a British bank since the 1860s as vast queues of worried investors besieged Northern Rock.
Within weeks, the government was forced to bail out this previously little known bank to the tune of £30 billion, share prices in other mortgage lenders were plummeting, and alarming news arose from several banks in the United States. Award-winning journalist Alex Brummer painstakingly traces the course of this crisis from its origins in the subprime market to its explosion on to the international scene. It is a story of greed, mismanagement, and dithering in which bankers seeking to make a quick buck, regulators engaged in turf wars and blame-avoidance, and governments paralyzed by the sheer scale of the problem all conspired to bring the banking system almost to its knees.
It is also a story of victims: the 1.5 million people in the US who have already been thrown out of their houses; the entire population of the UK who have been co-opted to guarantee Northern Rock with £30 billion of public money; borrowers everywhere who are now finding credit more expensive and harder to get.
ISBN:9781847940094
Author:Alex Brummer