NBS recommends latest must-reads
WHAT THE DOG SAW
By Malcolm Gladwell
P685
MANILA, Philippines - Over the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has become the most influential journalist in America. In The New Yorker, his writings are such must-reads that the magazine charges advertisers significantly more money for ads that run within his articles. With his No. 1 bestsellers, The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, he has reached millions of readers. And now the very best and most famous of his New Yorker pieces are collected in a brilliant and provocative anthology. Among the pieces: his investigation into why there are so many different kinds of mustard but only one kind of ketchup; a surprising assessment of what makes for a safer automobile; a look at how we hire when we can’t tell who’s right for the job; an examination of machine built to predict hit movies; the reasons why homelessness might be easier to solve than manage; his famous profile of inventor and entrepreneur Ron Popeil; a look at why employers love personality tests; a dissection of Ivy League admissions and who gets in; the saga of the quest to invent the perfect cookie; and a look at hair dye and the hidden history of postwar America.
HOW TO SMELL A RAT
By Ken Fisher with Lara Hoffmans
P1,129
Did you know that nearly every financial scam, including Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, could have easily been avoided? Ken Fisher does, and now, in How to Smell a Rat, he arms you with five simple signs that can alert you to possible scams and insulate you against financial fraud.
How to Smell a Rat is an informative look at recent and historic examples of fraudsters, how they operated, and how their scams could have been avoided. Page by page, this reliable resource highlights various features of potential frauds and provides you with an insider’s view on how to spot financial disasters before you become a part of them.
Most investment scams can be easily detected and more easily avoided. While Bernard Madoff may be a criminal, the greater crime is that investors continue to be swindled for no reason. Pick up How to Smell a Rat, and learn how to protect yourself as best you can from financial fraud.
MIKE BLOOMBERG: MONEY, POWER, POLITICS
By Joyce Purnick
P965
Michael Bloomberg is not only New York City’s 108th mayor; he is a business genius and self-made billionaire. He has run the toughest city in America with an independence and show of ego that first brought him great success — and eventually threatened it. Yet while Bloomberg is internationally known and admired, few people know the man behind the carefully crafted public persona.
In Mike Bloomberg, Joyce Purnick explores Mr. Bloomberg’s life from his childhood in the suburbs of Boston, to his rise on Wall Street and the creation of Bloomberg L.P., to his mayoral record and controversial gamble on a third term. Drawing on her deep knowledge of New York City politics, and interviews with Bloomberg’s friends, family, colleagues, and the mayor himself, she creates a textured portrait of one of the more complex men of our era.
SUPERFREAKONOMICS
By Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
P755
The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in 35 languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the “freakquel” is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.
Four years in the making, SuperFreakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What’s more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it’s so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary?
Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is — good, bad, ugly and, in the final analysis, super freaky.
Freakonomics has been imitated many times over — but only now, with SuperFreakonomics, has it met its match.
