QUICK DELIVERY
Swift dispatch
Origin by Dan Brown
Brief summary
Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao to attend a major announcement—the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever.” The evening’s host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon’s first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough . . . one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence.
As the event begins, Langdon and several hundred guests find themselves captivated by an utterly original presentation, which Langdon realizes will be far more controversial than he ever imagined. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch’s precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever.
Reeling and facing an imminent threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao. With him is Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director who worked with Kirsch to stage the provocative event. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch’s secret.
Navigating the dark corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade a tormented enemy whose all-knowing power seems to emanate from Spain’s Royal Palace itself . . . and who will stop at nothing to silence Edmond Kirsch. On a trail marked by modern art and enigmatic symbols, Langdon and Vidal uncover clues that ultimately bring them face-to-face with Kirsch’s shocking discovery . . . and the breathtaking truth that has long eluded us.
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ISBN:9780385514231
Author:Dan Brown
A Column of Fire by Ken Follett
In 1558, the ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral look down on a city torn apart by religious conflict. As power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty, and love.
Ned Willard wants nothing more than to marry Margery Fitzgerald. But when the lovers find themselves on opposing sides of the religious conflict dividing the country, Ned goes to work for Princess Elizabeth. When she becomes queen, all Europe turns against England.
The shrewd, determined young monarch sets up the country’s first secret service to give her early warning of assassination plots, rebellions, and invasion plans. Over a turbulent half century, the love between Ned and Margery seems doomed as extremism sparks violence from Edinburgh to Geneva. Elizabeth clings to her throne and her principles, protected by a small, dedicated group of resourceful spies and courageous secret agents.
The real enemies, then as now, are not the rival religions. The true battle pitches those who believe in tolerance and compromise against the tyrants who would impose their ideas on everyone else—no matter what the cost.
Set during one of the most turbulent and revolutionary times in history, A Column of Fire is one of Follett’s most exciting and ambitious works yet. It will delight longtime fans of the Kingsbridge series and is the perfect introduction for readers new to Ken Follett.
City of Friends
Brief summary
She glanced at her phone again. There were appeals from the girls, from her colleagues, a text from Steve reading with uncharacteristic imperiousness, 'Call me.' She couldn't. She couldn't call anyone . . . She leaned forward, gripping the edge of the bench, and stared at the ground. God, she thought, am I losing my mind? Is this what happens when you lose your job?
The day Stacey Grant loses her job feels like the last day of her life. Or at least, the only life she'd ever known. For who was she if not a City high-flyer, Senior Partner at one of the top private equity firms in London? As Stacey starts to reconcile her old life with the new—one without professional achievements or meetings, but instead, long days at home with her dog and ailing mother, waiting for her successful husband to come home—she at least has The Girls to fall back on.
Beth, Melissa and Gaby. The girls, now women, had been best friends from the early days of university right through their working lives, and through all the happiness and heartbreaks in between. But these career women all have personal problems of their own, and when Stacey's redundancy forces a betrayal to emerge that was supposed to remain secret, their long cherished friendships will be pushed to their limits.
ISBN:9781509823475
Author:Joanna Trollope
Falling A Love Story
Brief summary
When Emma Montague left the strict confines of upper-crust British life for New York, she felt sure it would make her happy. Away from her parents and expectations, she felt liberated, throwing herself into Manhattan life replete with a high-paying job, a gorgeous apartment, and a string of successful boyfriends. But the cutthroat world of finance and relentless pursuit of more began to take its toll. This wasn’t the life she wanted either.
On the move again, Emma settles in the picturesque waterfront town of Westport, Connecticut, a world apart from both England and Manhattan. It is here that she begins to confront what it is she really wants from her life. With no job, and knowing only one person in town, she channels her passion for creating beautiful spaces into remaking the dilapidated cottage she rents from Dominic, a local handyman who lives next door with his six-year-old son.
Unlike any man Emma has ever known, Dominic is confident, grounded, and committed to being present for his son whose mother fled shortly after he was born. They become friends, and slowly much more, as Emma finds herself feeling at home in a way she never has before.
But just as they start to imagine a life together as a family, fate intervenes in the most shocking of ways. For the first time, Emma has to stay and fight for what she loves, for the truth she has discovered about herself, or risk losing it all.
In a novel of changing seasons, shifting lives, and selfless love, a story unfolds—of one woman’s far-reaching journey to discover who she is truly meant to be…
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ISBN:9780399583285
Author:Jane Green
The Fix
Brief summary
Amos Decker witnesses a murder just outside FBI headquarters. A man shoots a woman execution style on a crowded sidewalk, then turns the gun on himself.
Even with Decker's extraordinary powers of observation and deduction, the killing is baffling. Decker and his team can find absolutely no connection between the shooter - a family man with a successful consulting business - and his victim, a schoolteacher. Nor is there a hint of any possible motive for the attack.
Enter Harper Brown. An agent of the Defense Intelligence Agency, she orders Decker to back off the case. The murder is part of an open DIA investigation, one so classified that Decker and his team aren't cleared for it.
But they learn that the DIA believes solving the murder is now a matter of urgent national security. Critical information may have been leaked to a hostile government - or, worse, an international terrorist group - and an attack may be imminent.
Decker's never been one to follow the rules, especially with the stakes so high. Forced into an uneasy alliance with Agent Brown, Decker remains laser focused on only one goal: solving the case before it's too late.
ISBN:9781455586561
Author:David Baldacci
The Jewish Phenomenon by Steven Silbi...
The Jewish Phenomenon: Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People
Why have Jews risen to the top of the business and professional world in numbers staggeringly out of proportion to their percentage of the American population? Steven Silbiger has the answer. Based on the author's synthesis of wide reading and research, The Jewish Phenomenon sets forth seven principles that form the bedrock of Jewish financial success.
With startling statistics, a wealth of anecdotes, and the fascinating details behind some of America's biggest business success stories, Silbiger convincingly shows how these seven keys have helped the Jews historically and how they continue to ensure Jewish success today. More important, the author makes clear that these principles are equally at the disposal of Jews and non-Jews alike. The amazing success of the Jews simply proves that they work.
The Jewish Phenomenon pays tribute not merely to the success of a people but to the commonsense wisdom and enduring values that can enrich us all.
Life after Death
Brief summary
Deepak Chopra has touched millions of readers by demystifying our deepest spiritual concerns while retaining their poetry and wonder. Now he turns to the most profound mystery:
What happens after we die? Is this one question we were not meant to answer, a riddle whose solution the universe keeps to itself? Chopra tells us there is abundant evidence that "the world beyond” is not separated from this world by an impassable wall; in fact, a single reality embraces all worlds, all times and places. At the end of our lives we "cross-over” into a new phase of the same soul journey we are on right this minute.
In Life after Death, Chopra draws on cutting-edge scientific discoveries and the great wisdom traditions to provide a map of the afterlife. It’s a fascinating journey into many levels of consciousness. But far more important is his urgent message: Who you meet in the afterlife and what you experience there reflect your present beliefs, expectations, and level of awareness. In the here and now you can shape what happens after you die.
ISBN:9781846041006
Author:Deepak Chopra
My Life in Prison by John Kiriamiti
Brief summary
This is a thriller novel set in Kenya, Nairobi. It rolls through a forest of crime of a gang led by John Kiriamiti alias Jack Zollo.
Their main set is robbery, with violence. Jack the wanted criminal is in love with an innocent girl, Milly- who lives in a fool’s paradise not knowing exactly what her handsome man does for a living.
Jack must harbor secrets, nurture his love and yet evade the deadly police at the same time. Will he continue being lucky?
Shades of Life
Brief summary
Shellsea Kego has had everything going for her. She has known nothing less than a Royal upbringing. Fancy schools, expensive holidays and all that vast wealth can buy have been the summary of the life of this young girl. Snobbish and with a keen sense of class, she mingles with the high and mighty, in whose league her rich mother luxuriates.
Her fairy-tale kind of life comes tumbling down like a pack of cards when her mother drives her to what strikes her as a godforsaken ghost of a school in the middle of nowhere. "You can't leave me in this terrible place! I cannot survive this! I will be miserable and end up failing!" Shellsea protests. "It's for your own good." her mother insists, as if to rub salt into her wound.
ISBN:9780195736106
Author:Pasomi Mucha
Coaching and Mentoring
Brief summary
Coaching has long become mainstream. Thousands of people paid GBP2,000 each to attend a three-day seminar in 2008 in London's Excel center to listen to Tony Robbins - the man credited with 'turning around' Bill Clinton in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky affair - and discover how to 'unleash the power within'. But the big business has been in executive coaching.
A top coach in America can earn over $15,000 a day - well beyond the normal fees charged by most consultants and occupational psychologists - and, according to Harvard Business Review, US companies are spending more than $1 billion a year on this 'must-have' activity.
A similar trend is being witnessed in Britain, where it's estimated that 100,000 managers a year now undergo coaching. This guide explains what coaching, and it’s cheaper and simpler alternative, mentoring are, outlining the different types of coaching and their cost. Crucially, it assesses the effectiveness of coaching and mentoring, and it gives advice based on the lessons learned by those interviewed for the book on making coaching work successfully and avoiding mistakes that lead to disappointment or even harm.
ISBN:9781846681899
Author:Jane Renton
Guide To Analyzing Companies
Brief summary
All these important questions as well as many more are answered in the completely updated and revised fifth edition of this clear and comprehensive guide aimed at anyone who wants to make sense and practical use of a company's annual report measure a business against its competitors judge the creditworthiness of a customer or client assess the investment potential of a company put a value on a company.
1. How do you tell how well a company run is and how well it is doing?
2. Which ratios and benchmarks should you use to assess performance?
3. What can be done to massage company results?
4. How do you recognize danger signs on the corporate horizon?
5. How do you compare companies operating in different sectors or even different countries?
ISBN:9781846681219
Author:The Economist and Bob Vause
The Economist Guide to Business Model...
Brief summary
All organizations face more and more complex decision-making while the risks dependent on their decisions require increasingly explicit understanding of potential outcomes. The current edition of this widely acclaimed guide is full of practical help on how to build the best, most flexible and easy-to-use business models for analyzing the upside or potential downside of any business project, however small or large. Key features include:
1. Fully Excel 2010 aligned with enhanced Excel and business content
2. More model evaluation techniques to help with business decision-making
3. Helpful key point summaries
4. Website from which model examples given in the book can be downloaded
For anyone who wants to get ahead in business and especially for those with bottom-line responsibilities, this is an invaluable guide to how to build spreadsheet models for assessing business risks and opportunities.
ISBN:9781846683831
Author:John Tennent and Graham Friend
The Economist: Business Strategy
Brief summary
The effectiveness of a good strategy well implemented determines a business' future success or failure. Yet history is full of strategic decisions, big and small, that were ill-conceived, poorly organized and consequently disastrous. This updated guide looks at the whole process of strategic decision-making - from vision, forecasting, and resource allocation, through to implementation and innovation.
Strategy is about understanding where you are now, where you are heading and how you will get there. There is no room for timidity or confusion. Although the CEO and the board decide a company's overall direction, it is the managers at all levels of the organization that will determine how the vision can be transformed into action. In short, everyone is involved in strategy.
But getting it right involves difficult choices: which customers to target, what products to offer and the best way to keep costs low and service high. And constantly changing business conditions inevitably bring risks. Even after business strategy has been developed, a company must remain nimble and alert to change, and view strategy as an ongoing and evolving process.
The message of this guide is simple: strategy matters, and getting it right is fundamental to business success - this book will show you how.
ISBN:9781781252314
Author:Jeremy Kourdi
Who Will Cry When You Die by Robin Sh...
Brief summary
This self-help and motivating book, in simple language draws out 101 ways by which we all could live a more carefree life and not sacrifice our today for a worried tomorrow.
The hundred plus solutions confront the reader with some of the most complex and dire situations they might face in life. They teach about how to handle stress with a smile, overcome the problems and lead a healthy lifestyle.
The book has separate sections on Start Your Day Well, Honor Your Past, Discover Your Calling and See Troubles as Blessings. Each section containing parables and amusing anecdotes, not just make 'Who Will Cry When You Die' a compelling read but impart great life lessons that are very inspirational.
They also make us realize about some of the simplest pleasures that we ignore in our stressful and busy lives. Most readers would be able easily relate to the book.
Written in simple, lucid language, some of the text does turn into quotations that a reader will remember for a long time. Sharma urges the reader, never to quit trying and look for fulfilment and a purpose in whatever one does.
From his earlier books and this present one, it is obvious that Robin Sharma has the talent to invigorate his readers with his superior diction. His books almost always contain inspiring quotes from famous celebrities from all over the world. The book is highly recommended for those who want to improve their interpersonal skills and lift their lifestyle.
I will go the Distance
Brief summary
I will go the Distance: The story of a "lost" Sudanese boy of the sixties
The story of a "lost" Sudanese boy of the sixties with a Forward by Dr Francis Mading Deng.Before the "Lost Boys" of the 1990s there were the refugee children from Southern Sudan in the 1960s.
Jacob Akol was one of them, and he writes of his experiences, uprooted by war, separated from his family, wandering with his companions through Africa… to Ireland.
ISBN:9789966080615
Author:Jacob J. Akol
The Art of Real Happiness
Brief summary
Would you like to know how to be happy? Norman Vincent Peale, in collaboration with outstanding psychiatrist Smiley Blanton, shares his wisdom and years of professional experience in this empowering and easy-to-read book.
In an anxious, fast-paced and increasingly uncertain world, more and more people are battling with a sense of emptiness in their lives, a lack of real purpose or even full-blown depression. Drawing on ancient truths, spiritual wisdom and discoveries of modern psychology, The Art of Real Happiness offers a clear blueprint to help you find peace of mind, contentment and real personal happiness.
A classic bestseller that has already helped thousands of people around the world change their lives for the better and can now help you too.
ISBN:9780091851910
Author:Norman Vincent Peale
Beyond White Mischief
Brief summary
Beyond White Mischief: Memoirs of a Tea Planter's Wife
When Sheila Ward went off to RADA to train as an actress in the early 1950s, she had no idea of the stormy path her life would take. After a short career as an actress in rep, with all the joys of juggling different roles and the comic possibilities of living in grim digs on very little money, she met and married a tea planter, and went off to live in Africa.
Through Sheila's diaries, life in Africa springs into sharp relief as she learns to live with snakes, bugs and recalcitrant servants. Sheila and her husband have four children and gradually adapt to a very different way of life. She meets the author Gerald Durrell, and Joy and George Adamson of Elsa the lioness fame, entertains fellow ex-pats and learns to love the unique terrain of Kenya’s hills.
But this seemingly charmed life is marred by a dreadful family tragedy, and a growing mistrust between Sheila and her husband. Family life begins to break down, and Sheila has to face the loneliness and heartbreak of living in a foreign country in an empty marriage.
With devastating honesty Sheila Ward's diaries document these difficult years, and her determination to build a new life for herself and face the future with impressive optimism.
ISBN:9781846246166
Author:Sheila Ward
The Economist:Successful Strategy Exe...
Brief summary
The Economist: Successful Strategy Execution: How to keep your business goals on target
Strategy-to-performance gaps foster a culture of under-performance Unrealistic plans create the expectation throughout the organization that plans simply will not be fulfilled. This book shows how to overcome such failings and implement strategy effectively. Common failings include:
Companies rarely track their performance against long-term plans - less than 15% of companies make it a regular practice to go back and compare the business' results with the performance forecast for each business unit in its prior years' strategic results rarely meet projections - when companies do track performance, it rarely matches the prior years' projection.
The consequence is year-after-year of under-performance relative to the original plan A lot of value is lost in translation - a combination of poor communications, misapplied resources, limited accountability and lack of information creates an in-built strategy-to-performance gap.
This new title in The Economist series shows how businesses can overcome such failings and implement strategy effectively, using facts and anecdotal evidence from the real experiences of firms.
ISBN:9781846686054
Author:Michel Syrett
What Women Want Men to Know
Brief summary
What Women Want Men to Know: The Ultimate Book about Love, Sex, and Relationships for You and the Man You Love
Barbara De Angelis, Ph.D., reveals everything women want men to know about loving and understanding the women in their life. This is the book women have always hoped someone would write--one that women will read to understand themselves better, and can give to their mate, confident that it will explain everything women feel about love, communication, sex, and intimacy that they've always wished men would know. WOMEN AND MEN WILL DISCOVER:
The Three Secret Needs Every Woman Has Seven Myths Men Believe About Women and Why They Are Absolutely Wrong How to Avoid Turning a Perfectly Sane Woman into a Raving Maniac Women's Top Twenty Sexual Turn-offs--and Turn-ons The Ten Male Communication Habits that Drive Women Crazy Sexual Secrets About Women Men Need to Know How to Turn Power Struggles into Cooperation Techniques for Being the Perfect Lover In and Out of Bed and much more.
IF YOU'RE A MAN: Read this book to learn what you can do to be a woman's dream come true. IF YOU'RE A WOMAN: Read this book to learn why you are the way you are, and give it to the man you love so you can have the relationship you've always wanted. Ever since Barbara De Angelis wrote the #1 New York Times bestseller Secrets About Men Every Woman Should Know, her readers have been begging her to write its counterparts book for both sexes that explains what women want men to know about understanding and loving the woman in their life.
Delivered in her signature frank, provocative and down-to-earth style, this new book does just that, and is an insightful guide that women will read to learn more about themselves, and that they will be excited to give to the man they love. HELPING MEN TO UNDERSTAND WOMEN
Have you ever wondered why it's so hard for your mate to figure out what you need when your female friends understand you perfectly? Learn about The Three Secret Needs Every Woman Has, and how to communicate them in a way men can really hear. Have you ever felt misunderstood, and wished you could explain to your partner how you really are? Read about The Seven Myths Men Believe About Women and Why They Are Absolutely Wrong.
Barbara includes groundbreaking information on the nature of women that will make you feel better about yourself than ever before, and will help men understand the real you.
ISBN:9780786866953
Author:Barbara De Angelis
The Reality Test
Brief summary
How is it that the most carefully-laid business strategies can go horribly wrong when put into practice? Robert Rowland Smith's answer, based on years of experience in high-level consultancy, is that 'reality eats strategy for breakfast' strategy, based on projections and assuming business is a rational pursuit, can't deal with the messy reality of life.
More helpful are these practical questions that can help you plan what to do when your business comes into contact with reality. From learning the lessons of the past (rather than fixating on the future) to finding out what your business is really about, he explains the real-life factors that lead to success or failure. Including many new examples from the front line, from all around the world, The Reality Test will help you establish yourself as more effective and distinctive than your competitors, who follow the same rigid theoretical avenues.
Whether you ask 'Are you making enough of your weaknesses?' or 'Are you 100% productive 100% of the time?', it's time to stop living in strategy La-La Land and face reality.
ISBN:9781847659187
Author:Robert Rowland Smith
