WriterJournal
...words are but weak representations of our souls
Yet we write, read and then we feel
Shoppe - Books
All books listed on this site are from my personal collection and are in very good (almost brand new) condition.
Please leave your name and email address in the comments field of the book you are interested in purchasing. I will send you an email with payment and delivery instructions within the next 48 hours.
Thanks!
The Battle for Barrels - Peak Oil Myths and World Oil Futures
by Duncan Clarke
ISBN 1846680123
February 2007
Original Price £20.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD35
Hardback, 224 pp.
It is widely accepted that global discoveries of conventional oil have peaked and that the era of cheap oil has gone forever. This book demonstrates that the doom and gloom of the “Peak Oil” theory is mistaken.
Clarke rebuts the arguments of Peak Oil’s adherents and discusses the issues they ignore – rising crude oil prices, new or future technologies, potential improved exploration acreage and/or access to restricted world oil zones, changes in government policies, new corporate strategies, development in unconventional oils, and more.
‘The Battle for Barrels says we should take warnings of impending Armageddon with a pinch of salt. ’
— The Guardian‘It is a “must read” antidote to the gloom and doom conclusions of oil scarcity.’
— Peter R. Odell, Professor Emeritus, International Energy Studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
Duncan Clarke is Chairman and CEO of Global Pacific & Partners, a private advisory firm operating from offices in London, The Hague, Johannesburg and Nicosia. He gained his PhD in economics in 1975, and was a lecturer, economist and advisor, before establishing GP&P, with a focus on economics and strategy in the worldwide upstream industry.
Meaning, Inc. - The Rise of the 21st Century Company
by Gurnek Bains
ISBN 1861978839
January 2007
Original Price £12.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD25
Paperback, 224 pp.
Meaning, Inc. is about achieving happiness, motivation and performance at work for you and your organisation.
Well-motivated people who are happy with their work and where they work are more likely to deliver high performance. People who work for organisations whose purpose they believe in are more likely to go the extra mile to help achieve that purpose. Yet modern organisations too often stifle the enthusiasm and skills of those who work for them. Instead of providing meaning, they prevent it. Meaning Inc. shows the way for organisations to provide meaning to their people through a clearly understood sense of purpose, unequivocal values and day-to-day leadership. This is joined-up business thinking for 21st century leaders and organisations.
Gurnek Bains is CEO of YSC, a global consultancy applying psychology to bring about positive change in individuals, teams and culture. Founded in 1990, YSC’s mainly multi-national client base comprises over a third of the FTSE100 companies.
The Shock of the Old - Technology and Global History since 1900
by David Edgerton
ISBN 1861972962
January 2007
Original Price £18.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD30
Hardback, 320 pp.
Whereas standard histories of technology give tired old accounts of the usual inventions – planes, bombs – The Shock of the Old is based on a different idea. Its thrust is that for the full picture of the history of technology we need to know not about what a few people invented, but about what everyday people used – and when they actually used things, if it was a long time after invention. It therefore reassesses the significance of, for example, the Pill and IT, and shows the continued importance of technology such as corrugated iron and sewing machines.
In taking this approach, The Shock of the Old challenges the idea that we live in an era of ever increasing change. Interweaving political, economic and cultural history, it will show what it means to think critically about technology and its importance.
‘David Edgerton’s The Shock of the Old is a book I can use. I can take it in two hands and bash it over the heads of every techno-nerd, computer geek and neophiliac futurologist I meet.’
— Simon Jenkins, Guardian‘newfangled things are sexy, but how significant are they?…Edgerton provides a corrective by emphasising some of the overlooked technologies that affect the lives of many.’
— John Sparks, Newsweek‘he eviscerates our obsession with novelty… ’
— Hugh Pearman, The Sunday Times‘So the new is old, and the old is new! Marvellous stuff, and absolutely spot-on. ’
— Simon Jenkins
Born in Montevideo in 1959, David Edgerton is one of Britain’s leading historians, and has challenged conventional analyses of technology for 20 years. Currently the Hans Rausing Professor at Imperial College London, he writes for the broadsheet press and is a regular on television and radio. He lives in London.
Business Miscellany
The Economist
ISBN 1861978669
October 2006
Original Price £9.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD18
Hardback, 2nd edition, 256 pp.
Everything you could possibly want to know about business - and a lot more.
Full of facts and figures about all aspects of business, The Economist Business Miscellany is designed to inform, amuse and give you plenty with which to entertain others. Here is just a taste of what is included:
• Biggest mergers and biggest corporate failures
• Memorable mission and vision statements
• How many accountants and lawyers there are in different countries
• How the names of different companies came about
• Famous advertising campaigns and famous PR disasters
• Biggest business philanthropists and famous business villains
• Best know business gurus and what they are known for
• Most appalling business jargon
• Rules of business etiquette in different parts of the world
• Most valuable brands and most unsuccessful rebrandings
• Salaries compared across countries
• Most popular fringe benefits
• Stockmarket bubbles and crashes
• Investment formulas
• And lots and lots of statistics on business and the markets.
Mapping the Markets - A Guide to Stockmarket Analysis
by Deborah Owen and Robin Griffiths
ISBN 1861979371
September 2006
Original Price £20.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD35
Hardback, 224 pp.
How stockmarkets have behaved in the past and how to analyse their future behaviour.
This book is about how to analyse the way markets are likely to behave and it combines the two approaches used by market analysts: technical analysis, which is based on the belief that price reflects everything that is known about a particular market; and fundamental analysis, which takes into account all kinds of factors in order to determine the correct price of an asset. It is in four parts:
• A kind of global overview, at the heart of which is an examination of the business cycle, including how the 50-year Kondratieff, 10-year jugular and 4-year Kitchin waves fit together
• How stockmarkets are affected by the cycles and seasonal and secular trends
• How to identify sectors and stocks to invest in
• Future stockmarket drivers – an analysis of some of the innovations, such as fuel cell technology, that will power the next upward leg of the cycle
‘A fascinating and highly readable book from Deborah Owen and Robin Griffiths – who has long been the City’s doyen of technical analysis.’
— Roger Bootle – Managing Director, Capital Economics‘It spells out where you should invest to profit from the next big wave of industrialisation and innovation. It is essential reading for all investors.’
— John Murphy - author of Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets and Intermarket Analysis
Deborah Owen runs Investment Research Cambridge (IRC), which has a global reputation for the quality of its analysis of financial markets.
Robin Griffiths has worked in the financial markets since 1964 in London, Japan and New York, and is now Head of Asset Allocation at Rathbones, a leading UK investment firm. He is a regular commentator on Bloomberg news and has been Chairman of the British Society of Technical Analysts.
How to Read a Novel - A User’s Guide
by John Sutherland
ISBN 1861979460
August 2006
Original Price £9.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD18
Hardback, 192 pp.
This is a book about books, novels in particular: how they work, what they are about, what makes them good or bad and how to talk about them to kindred spirits.
People of all ages, classes and nationalities read novels for much the same variety of reasons – to escape pain or danger, to discover the past or experience the future, to look into the intimate details of other people’s lives. Since classical times readers have been sharing their experiences of literature, today they often do so in the context of a book group. Using a variety of exemplary texts How to Read a Novel forms a series of intelligent conversations, supplying readers with new questions to ask about what they read and the means and confidence to ask those questions.
The word ‘reading’, as we customarily use it, is a very blunt instrument. We assume it’s rather like riding a bicycle. You can do it (you’re literate) or you can’t (you’re illiterate). In fact, reading well is almost as difficult as writing well. This is a kind of guidebook on how to do it.
‘Entertaining’
— The Spectator‘a fascinating brief sociological history of the literary industry’
— New Statesman
John Sutherland is Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. He has published twenty books (including Is Heathcliff a Murderer? Great Puzzles in 19th Century Fiction) and writes a weekly column for the Guardian. He was chairman of the 2005 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
Economics - Making Sense of the Modern Economy
The Economist
ISBN 1861975457
July 2006
Original Price £20.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD35
Hardback, 2nd edition, 348 pp.
Very substantially revised edition of previously successful title that, with typical Economist style and clarity, provides expert analysis of different aspects of the modern economy. Aimed at those in business and professions and with a special paperback edition aimed at students, it includes sections on:
1- Globalisation – how and why it has gathered pace, and how its critics’ views are understandable but often misguided
2- The phoney recovery and America’s imbalances – why the US’s quick recovery from recession is mere respite, not escape, and how the country’s appetite for debt is dangerous.
3- China’s rise - and what it presages for the world economy.
4- Underachievers – analysis of the problems that previous economic giants such as Japan and Germany have run into trouble.
5 – The arteries of capitalism – the financial markets, central banks and global capital
6- Economic facts and fallacies, which spells out basic economic truths and exposes some economic canards.
‘Easy to read as we expect from The Economist writers…this is economic theory with attitude and is an entertaining read. An invaluable reference for students and practicing economists.’
— Philip McDonagh (Pricewaterhouse Coopers), The Business Economist
Moscow 1941 - A City & Its People at War
by Rodric Braithwaite
ISBN 186197759X
April 2006
Original Price £20.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD35
Hardback, 448 pp.
Published by Profile Books
A magnificent narrative of 1941 and the Battle of Moscow, by some criteria the biggest battle in history, and the Russian ordinary men (and women) who fought it. It was fought over a territory the size of France. It cost the Russians as many casualties as the British lost in the whole of the World War I. And it marked the first strategic defeat the Wehrmacht had suffered in its hitherto unstoppable march across Europe.
During the first half of 1941 Moscow and its people were living in a kind of peace in a world of war. In spite of the horrors of Stalinism many ordinary people managed to find their own ways of enjoying themselves, and when war surprised a country unprepared, thanks to Stalin’s obduracy, most rose with enthusiasm to defend their country and their city. One of the points of the book is to try and show how people find a kind of normality even in the hardest of circumstances, in peace and in war.
On the 22 June the Nazi armies invaded and raced across the country. By the end of the year they were held, finally, in the suburbs of Moscow (as it were on the A4 at Heathrow). Based on huge research and scores of interviews, this book offers an unforgettable and richly illustrated narrative of the military action; telling portraits of Stalin and his generals, some apparatchiks, some great commanders. It also traces the stories of individuals, soldiers, politicians and intellectuals, writers and artists and dancers, workers, schoolchildren and peasants.
The war remains a highly emotional matter for Russia and there are troubling questions like the role of Stalin or the appalling cost of victory. The book concludes with reflections on these issues.
‘Extraordinary story.’
— Simon Mayo, Radio Five‘In the grim roster of battles, Moscow has always been overshadowed by Stalingrad….Rodric Braithwaite’s epic history, skilfully drawing on the experiences of ordinary Russians, goes a long way to setting the record straight.’
— Sunday Telegraph‘engrossing and masterly account…this is a significant contribution to our understanding of the Great Patriotic War’
— The Independent‘a wide-ranging and excellent account…Braithwaite never shirks the terrible truths’
— Antony Beevor, Sunday Times‘A heartbreaking and thrilling story of peerless heroism and misery on a barely imaginable scale…the reader staggers from laughter to tears, while never forgetting that blood is flowing.’
— Simon Sebag Montefiore, Daily Mail‘a real taste of people’s history…he allows them to tell their stories of comradeship, inventiveness, hunger and horror’
— New Statesman‘vibrant and humane portrait of a remarkable city in the face of a terrible enemy. He has succeeded triumphantly in restoring the Battle for Moscow to its proper place in history’
— Daily Telegraph‘a remarkable epic, vividly portrayed’
— Sunday Telegraph‘Together with his remarkably clear, concise style…and his empathy with the people, he achieves a graphic vividness which puts this book on a level with Beevor’s’
— Mail on Sunday (5 stars)‘one of the most overlooked moments in history…the strength of Moscow 1941 lies in its eye for detail, the snapshots of everyday life that set the scene’
— Observer‘a splendid read, full of interesting material, and essential for anyone trying to understand the Russians…and the war they fought and won at such a great cost’
— BBC History Magazine‘an outstanding book…these accounts provide a fascinating insight not only into the war but also into Soviet society.’
— THES‘a masterful account’
— Times‘dramatic and frightening reading’
— Daily Express‘It is remarkable to find new material, new insights and even fresh revealing reflections on Stalin’
— The Tribune‘an impressive account’
— Financial Times‘Braithwaite…retells the story with verve and compassion.’
— The Guardian‘A vivid picture of the stark and bloody struggle for national survival with which Russia’s war began.’
— Economist‘With great skill, he maintains tension throughout this sinewy, moving and consummately crafted history of the soviet union’s darkest hours…it is the stuff of epics.’
— Glasgow Herald‘Braithwaite…has written the best history book of the year so far.’
— Sunday Herald
Sir Rodric Braithwaite was British Ambassador in Moscow during the fall of the Soviet Union. He has also been Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. He lives in London.
The Secrets of Happiness - Three thousand years of searching for the good life
by Richard Schoch
ISBN 1861979096
March 2006
Original Price £8.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD18
Paperback, 288 pp.
A stylish, witty book about happiness that explains with authority what happiness actually is and why understanding its history can help us to live happier lives.
What connects a Greek philosopher with a cult following of prostitutes, a Roman civil servant who was unjustly executed, and a Persian scholar who traded books for mystic ecstasy?
This trio – Epicurus (341-271 BC), Boethius (c. 480-524 AD) and Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) – allowed their reflections about happiness to give meaning to their lives, and through such individuals and their ideas we can reclaim the lost art of happiness. Today, influenced by books on the “new science” of happiness and quick “self-help” panaceas, we have settled for a much weaker version of happiness than previous cultures: just enjoyment of pleasure and avoidance of pain and suffering. It is only through rediscovering the traditions that began in the West with the philosophers of Athens and in the East with anonymous Hindu sages that we can learn how to be genuinely happy again.
During the journey through ideas philosophical and religious, from around the world and across thousands of years, Professor Schoch answers questions that are fundamental to our wellbeing but are rarely asked. What does it feel like to be happy, and can you be happy if others are unhappy? Is happiness an emotion, or an attitude? How much effort do you have to make to be happy, and do you have a right to be happy? The good life is easier to grasp when you know the answers.
‘He wants to help us deal more elegantly with the frustrations of life…Schoch proves himself a genial guide…a sound introduction to important strands of religious and philosophical thought. ’
— Alain de Botton, Daily Telegraph‘Full of interesting anecdotes.’
— Daily Mail
Richard Schoch is Professor of the History of Culture at Queen Mary, University of London. His books include Queen Victoria and the Theatre of her Age, Not Shakespeare and Shakespeare’s Victorian Stage. Prior to his academic life he wrote for NBC’s flagship television station in New York.
The 33 Strategies of War
by Robert Greene
ISBN 1861979932
November 2005
Original Price £20.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD35
Hardback, 320 pp.
New in the bestselling immoral series – a brilliant distillation of the strategies from war to help you gain mastery in the modern world.
In the third book of this ruthless and unique series, Robert Greene applies the ancient wisdom of war to strategies for life.
Spanning world civilisations, synthesising dozens of political, philosophical and religious texts and thousands of years of violent conflict, War is a comprehensive guide to the subtle social game of everyday life informed by the most ingenious and effective military principles in the history of war. Abundantly illustrated with examples from history, including the folly and genius of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher, Shaka Zulu to Lord Nelson, Hannibal to Ulysses S. Grant, each of the thirty-three chapters outlines a strategy that will help you in life’s wars. Learn the offensive strategies that require you to maintain the initiative and negotiate from a position of strength, or the defensive strategies designed to help you respond to dangerous situations and avoid un-winnable wars. The great warriors of battlefields and drawing rooms alike demonstrate that prudence, agility, balance and calm and a keen understanding that rational, resourceful and intuitive always defeat the panicked, the uncreative and the stupid.
An indispensable book, War provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand.
‘Very good…an enormous number of directed anecdotes from warfare, politics and the arts.’
— Nicholas Fearn, Independent on Sunday‘Entertaining…mostly due to the Rambo-inspired mentality that oozes from every khaki-ed, muscle-bound phrase.’
— Daily Telegraph‘Translatable to virtually every facet of daily life…a rich mine of ideas and information…readable and stimulating.’
— Scotland on Sunday
Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power and The Art of Seduction (both from Profile), has a degree in Classical Studies and has been an editor at Esquire and other magazines. He is also a playwright and lives in Los Angeles.
Four Elements - Water, Air, Fire, Earth
by Rebecca Rupp
ISBN 1861972342
June 2005
Original Price £16.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD20
Hardback, 320 pp.
Published by Profile Books
We think we can control the elements but recent disasters like the tsunami of 26th December 2004 and Hurricane Katrina make it clear that we cannot. Never has it been more essential to understand how and why they happen. In a book that brings together science, history, literature and mythology, Rebecca Rupp demonstrates how humans relate to the elements. Full of intriguing facts and fascinating stories, Four Elements examines why we call people airy fairy, fiery tempered or down to earth; why the US National Bureau of Standards actually calculated the temperature of the pit of hell (44 degrees C); how the eruption of Tambora in 1815 inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein; and why there is a 98.2% chance that an air molecule in your lungs at this precise moment was one of Caesar’s last breaths.
Four Elements is a journey of discovery through the elements – real and symbolic – that shape our lives. No one will leave this book without feeling hugely enriched.
‘A book of popular science so replete with illuminating facts that they seem to ricochet about like volatile atoms.’
— Financial Times‘It is a down-to-earth, sky-high romp through reality: every page an eye-opener.’
— Tim Radford, Guardian
Rebecca Rupp has a Ph.D in cell biology. She has written on various topics for many magazines and has published several books. She lives in Vermont with her husband and three sons.
ISBN 1861977026
May 2005
Original Price £20.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD35
Hardback, 256 pp.
The ultimate guide for those using or planning to use business consultants – and for consultants themselves
In the last three decades of the 20th century the management consultancy industry grew at a cracking pace but increased scepticism about the value that consultants genuinely add, combined with the economic slowdown, has made life much tougher for the consulting industry. As firms have cut back on consulting services and begun to review the way they use consultants, consulting firms themselves are looking at how they need to change. People are now talking about business consulting rather than management consulting.
Using real examples from a range of private sector firms, public sector organisations and from the consultants themselves, this book explores the new business consulting world and looks at every element of it with the aim of both helping firms make better use of consultants and showing consultants how they need to adapt and provide their clients a better service.
‘Offers a comprehensive analysis of the consulting industry.’
— Supply Management
Gilbert Toppin has had a succession of senior roles in the consulting industry, most recently as Chief Operating Officer for European Consulting at Deloitte, before setting up as an independent consultant.
Fiona Czerniawska specialises in researching and consulting on strategic issues in the consulting industry and is the Director of the UK Management Consultancies Association’s Think Tank, as well as the author of a number of books and publications on consulting.
Building a Better Business
by Patrick Dixon
ISBN 1 86197 753 0
March 2005
Original Price £9.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD15
Paperback, 256 pp.
How to build a better business by one of today’s most influential business thinkers.
Starting from the premise that people’s attitudes to business have changed: both the role businesses should play in the world and how individuals can achieve a better work-life balance, this book shows how you can build a better and more successful business and achieve more satisfaction in the process.
With chapters on better ways to win and keep customers, better kinds of products and services, better brands for lasting value, better marketing, better public relations and publicity, better leadership, better ways to organise, better ways to make things happen, better teams and better targets, goals and incentives, it is an intensely practical and also inspirational guide to how you can build a better future for your business and yourself.
‘Mr Dixon has a heavyweight reputation in the business world with the Wall Street Journal hailing him as a “global change guru” … One of the most stimulating and challenging reads in this field for a very long time.’
— Tony McDonough, Daily Post
Blue-Eyed Salaryman
From world traveller to lifer at Mitsubishi
by Niall Murtagh
ISBN 1 86197 724 7
February 2005
Original Price £16.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD20
Hardback, 288 pp.
Published by Profile Books
Niall Murtagh spent his twenties on the open road: hitchhiking to Istanbul, crossing the Atlantic in a home-built yacht and trekking through Patagonia. In 1986 he drifted to Japan where he made an extraordinary flip by settling down. He jumped in at the deep end and joined one of the most traditional and conservative companies in the East: Mitsubishi.
He smiled when he read the company rulebook but stopped smiling when he realised the rules applied to him too. He was instructed not to walk around with his hands in his pockets, shown how to choose the correct place to sit at a meeting and given the words of the company song for studying after work. He learned the etiquette for offering and receiving business cards, the staff canteen rules (take one portion of vegetables, one portion of rice and finish eating by the time the bell rings) and the regulations for the company dormitories for new recruits (regular room checks, no noise, no females).
His work impressed his bosses and he became a permanent employee – a lifer. In time, the corporate escalator moved upwards and he was promoted to manager class – the first westerner to reach such heights in the company inside Japan, they told him. He had realised the Japanese Dream: a traditional wife, a cosy apartment in the company housing block and a bicycle to get to work. He thought about moving on but when it came to saying sayonara, the time was never right.
With his shiny suit, his attaché case and a good dose of humour, Niall Murtagh describes a world that is an utter mystery to most westerners.
‘A fascinating and engaging book … a rare inside look at corporate life in Japan, one that’s worth more than a dozen business-school studies.’
— Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg‘Murtagh gives a fascinating account of a system that is misunderstood, even satirised, in the West.’
— Iain Finlayson, Culture Vulture Books‘Full of wonderful vignettes and details.’
— Harriet Sergeant, Spectator
Niall Murtagh was born and grew up on Dublin’s northside. After graduating from University College Dublin in 1979, he travelled slowly across Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America, working along the way but taking time off to earn several degrees, including diplomas in Japanese and French and a doctorate in artificial intelligence. He has lived in Japan since 1986, initially as a Japanese government-sponsored student, later as an ordinary employee of Mitsubishi. He has written for various publications, in both English and Japanese, on travel, technology and corporate culture.
Guide to Business Planning
by Graham Friend and Stefan Zehle
ISBN 1861974744
March 2004
Original Price £25.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD30
Hardback, 280pp.
Everything you need to know about preparing and writing a business plan.
To get any new business idea off the ground you must have a plan- and if you need to raise finance to fund the business or get the approval of senior management, it must be a convincing plan. This comprehensive guide covers every aspect of preparing a business plan:
* how you analyse the market, customers and competitors, and the business environment
* how you model the business and prepare the financial statements
* how you examine and explain strategic options
* the analysis of risk and the assessment of both the upside and potential downside
* funding issues
* the all-important executive summary - often the only part of a business plan that is read
* how you use a business plan to help put your plans into practice and to monitor and measure the performance of the business.
Developing Strategic Thought
by Bob Garratt
ISBN 1 86197 659 3
September 2003
Original Price £9.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD15
Paperback, 2nd edition, 352 pp.
An essential reference and guide on business strategy and the art of strategic thinking – written by some of the most respected experts on strategy.
Creating the future of your company requires an imaginative brain and a capacity to take strategic decisions in times of uncertainty. This book, containing contributions by acknowledged experts and commentators in the field of business strategy, illustrates the necessity and advantages of using strategic thinking.
Practical and accessible, it offers guidance on how to develop the skills and attitudes required for developing a range of possible directions for the company.
The expert contributors include: Henry Mintzberg, Max Boisot, Charles Hampden Turner, and Fons Trompenaars.
‘Bob Garratt has drawn his team of contributors from among the liveliest minds at work today in the field of strategic thought. The result is a stimulating volume of essays, rich with insight and wisdom, that managers will find of great practical value’
— Philip Sadler, Vice President, Ashridge Management College
Bob Garratt is a management consultant, Chairman of Media Projects International, and Visiting Fellow at the Management School of Imperial College, London. He is Chairman of the Association for Management Education and Development. He is the author of the bestselling Fish Rots from the Head.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
by Mitch Albom
ISBN 0786868716
September 2003
Original Price USD19.95
BUY NOW @ only SGD10
Hardback, 200 pp.
From Publishers Weekly
“At the time of his death, Eddie was an old man with a barrel chest and a torso as squat as a soup can,” writes Albom, author of the bestselling phenomenon Tuesdays with Morrie, in a brief first novel that is going to make a huge impact on many hearts and minds. Wearing a work shirt with a patch on the chest that reads “Eddie” over “Maintenance,” limping around with a cane thanks to an old war injury, Eddie was the kind of guy everybody, including Eddie himself, tended to write off as one of life’s minor characters, a gruff bit of background color. He spent most of his life maintaining the rides at Ruby Pier, a seaside amusement park, greasing tracks and tightening bolts and listening for strange sounds, “keeping them safe.” The children who visited the pier were drawn to Eddie “like cold hands to a fire.” Yet Eddie believed that he lived a “nothing” life-gone nowhere he “wasn’t shipped to with a rifle,” doing work that “required no more brains than washing a dish.” On his 83rd birthday, however, Eddie dies trying to save a little girl. He wakes up in heaven, where a succession of five people are waiting to show him the true meaning and value of his life. One by one, these mostly unexpected characters remind him that we all live in a vast web of interconnection with other lives; that all our stories overlap; that acts of sacrifice seemingly small or fruitless do affect others; and that loyalty and love matter to a degree we can never fathom. Simply told, sentimental and profoundly true, this is a contemporary American fable that will be cherished by a vast readership. Bringing into the spotlight the anonymous Eddies of the world, the men and women who get lost in our cultural obsession with fame and fortune, this slim tale, like Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, reminds us of what really matters here on earth, of what our lives are given to us for.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Guide to Economic Indicators - Making Sense of Economics
The Economist
ISBN 1861974671
February 2003
Original Price £20.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD40
Hardback, 5th edition, 240 pp.
It is essential in business and many professions today to have a thorough understanding of economic information. Written for the non-specialist, this highly accessible guide provides the keys to understanding all the major and many lesser economic indicators: what they are, the areas they cover, their reliability, and how and why to interpret them. It contains chapters covering:
• GDP (Gross Domestic Product),GNP (Gross National Product) and GNI (Gross National Income)
• Growth, trends and cycles
• Population, employment, unemployment
• Government
• Consumers
• Investment and savings
• Industry and commerce
• Balance of payments
• Exchange rates
• Money and financial markets
Now in its fifth edition this fully updated, revised guide is invaluable for anyone who needs or simply wants to have the underlying economic realities of the world we live in clearly explained.
ISBN 186197423X
January 2003
Original Price £20.00
BUY NOW @ only SGD40
Hardback, 256 pp.
A lot has changed in the way businesses have been managed in the last hundred years. This lively and authoritative guide explores the hundred ideas that have most influenced approaches to business management during the past 100 years – and which are likely to continue to do so long into this century.
From the balanced scorecard and benchmarking through matrix management and mentoring all the way to vision and zero-base budgeting, each idea is covered in a standard comprehensive way, with an explanation, a brief history of its development, and recommended further reading.
For anyone who wants to get to grips with the concepts that lie behind business success, there is no more better or more accessible guide than this.
Tim Hindle is a former finance editor, world business editor and management editor of The Economist.
The 48 Laws of Power
by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers
ISBN 1 86197 278 4
November 2000
Original Price £14.99
BUY NOW @ only SGD20
Paperback, 480 pp.
Drawn from 3,000 years of the history of power, this is the definitive guide to help readers achieve for themselves what Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, Louis XIV and Machiavelli learnt the hard way.
Law 1: Never outshine the master
Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends; learn how to use enemies
Law 3: Conceal your intentions
Law 4: Always say less than necessary
The text is bold and elegant, laid out in black and red throughout and replete with fables and unique word sculptures. The 48 laws are illustrated through the tactics, triumphs and failures of great figures from the past who have wielded - or been victimised by - power.
Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power and The Art of Seduction (both from Profile), has a degree in Classical Studies and has been an editor at Esquire and other magazines. He is also a playwright and lives in Los Angeles.
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