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The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Brief Summary
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, and friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
ISBN:9780399155345
Author:Kathryn Stockett
Everything She Ever Wanted A True Sto...
Brief Summary
Joined in a romantic love that most people only ever dream about, Pat Taylor's marriage to Tom Allanson was all she ever wanted. Both came from fine Southern families, and both longed to recreate for themselves a plantation where they would raise horses, grow roses, and move with grace and style in the highest social circles of Atlanta; in short, to be the Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler of their time.
But scarcely two months later, their perfect world had erupted into family hatreds, terror, bloodshed and murder, the beautiful estate was mysteriously burned to the ground and Tom Allanson stood accused of the brutal slaying of his own mother and father.
Before the terrifying truth about the perpetrator was revealed, other innocent victims were to suffer attempts on their lives as intricate family loyalties and cruel, obsessive jealousies were played out.
ISBN:9780751504255
Author:Ann Rule
The House of Rothschild Moneys Prophe...
Brief Summary
In his rich and nuanced portrait of the remarkable, elusive Rothschild family, Oxford scholar and bestselling author Niall Ferguson uncovers the secrets behind the family's phenomenal economic success. He reveals for the first time the details of the family's vast political network, which gave it access to and influence over many of the greatest statesmen of the age.
And he tells a family saga, tracing the importance of unity and the profound role of Judaism in the lives of a dynasty that rose from the confines of the Frankfurt ghetto and later used its influence to assist oppressed Jews throughout Europe.
A definitive work of impeccable scholarship with a thoroughly engaging narrative, 'The House of Rothschild' is a biography of the rarest kind, in which mysterious and fascinating historical figures finally spring to life.
ISBN:9780140240849
Author:Niall Ferguson
House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Brief Summary
Bukhosi has gone missing. His father, Abed, and his mother, Agnes, cling to the hope that he has run away, rather than been murdered by government thugs.
Only the lodger seems to have any idea. Zamani has lived in the spare room for years now. Quiet, polite, well-read and well-heeled, he's almost part of the family - but almost isn't quite good enough for Zamani.
Cajoling, coaxing and coercing Abed and Agnes into revealing their sometimes tender, often brutal life stories, Zamani aims to steep himself in borrowed family history, so that he can fully inherit and inhabit its uncertain future.
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ISBN:9781786493163
Author:Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why P...
Brief Summary
In this refreshingly revisionist history, Erik Reinert shows how rich countries developed through a combination of government intervention, protectionism, and strategic investment, rather than through free trade. Reinert suggests that this set of policies in various combinations has driven successful development from Renaissance Italy to the modern Far East.
Yet despite its demonstrable success, orthodox development economists have largely ignored this approach and insisted instead on the importance of free trade. Reinart shows how the history of economics has long been torn between the continental Renaissance tradition on one hand and the free market theories of English and later American economies on the other.
Our economies were founded on protectionism and state activism—look at China today—and could only later afford the luxury of free trade. When our leaders come to lecture poor countries on the right road to riches they do so in almost perfect ignorance of the real history of national affluence.
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ISBN:9781845293260
Author:Erik S. Reinert
I Will Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Brief Summary
Coming from the acclaimed author of ‘The Sky is Everywhere’, ‘I’ll Give You the Sun’ takes the readers on a radiant ride through emotions and laughter, both at once.
This book charts the lives and relationship of Noah and twin Jude, how the once happy and loveable sisters are torn apart from each other due to tragic circumstances. Jude, then, meets a beautiful boy and a captivating mentor—both of whom need her as much as her.
On the other hand, Noah has her own story to follow. But what they fail to understand tis hat both of them just have half of the story each. And, once (and, if) they get back together, they may just change the world for the better of all.
Written by Jandy Nelson, the book was published on April, 1, 2015 by Walker Books and is available in paperback edition.
ISBN:9781406326499
Author:Jandy Nelson
Hunger Eats a Man by Nkosinathi Sithole
Brief Summary
When Father Gumede, known as Priest, loses his job as a farmhand, he realises he can't afford to love his neighbour as he does himself. Despondent and enraged, Priest cuts off all ties to the church and politics, determined to make a living - at whatever cost.
It will take a strange story written by his son Sandile - a comical, terrifying and prophetic tale in which the downtrodden rise up to march on the wealth of a neighbouring suburb - to show Priest the hope and humanity inherent in the human spirit.
Beautifully poetic, funny and highly relevant, Nkosinathi Sithole's debut novel highlights the ongoing plight of many rural South Africans and the power of a community working together to bring about change.
ISBN:9780143531449
Author:Nkosinathi Sithole
I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Brief Summary
I AM ZLATAN - the explosive, critically-acclaimed memoir of Manchester United star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the world's most gifted and controversial footballers 'Why be a Fiat when you can be a Ferrari?' Welcome to planet Zlatan.
This is the story of how a Swedish immigrant rose from poverty to become a football genius. In his own inimitable style, Zlatan recalls every struggle, every goal, and every training ground bust-up on his journey to dominate the world's top clubs, including Barcelona, PSG and now Manchester United.
Full of wicked one-liners and amazing stories, Zlatan lifts the lid on some of the biggest names in football, including Guardiola, Messi and his new manager, Jose Mourinho. Moving, funny and totally frank, I am Zlatan is unlike any autobiography you have ever read. 'Wonderful - nothing less than a revelation. Ibrahimovic is the definitive modern sporting icon' - Matthew Syed 'The best sportsman's memoir since Andre Agassi... not just a bad boy's romp but the rise of a boy from the ghetto to the top of his profession and captain of his country. He is candid, funny and yes, wonderfully nuts' - The Times 'There's never a dull moment on Planet Zlatan. This is a snarling, fizzing, unrepentant firecracker of a book; if footballers' memoirs bore you, make an exception for this one' - Independent
ISBN:9780241966839
Author:Zlatan Ibrahimovic
How Trump Thinks His Tweets and the B...
Brief Summary
The most unusual feature of Donald Trump's nationalist and populist campaign for the presidency of the USA was his obsessive use of Twitter. Like other social media, this form of communication has often been assumed to encourage the dissemination of liberal values and the circulation of facts.
Trump's tweets, by contrast, formed a constant stream of provocations, insults, conspiracy theories, 'alternative facts' and outright lies. And they helped him win power.
Peter Oborne, author of The Rise of Political Lying and Not the Chilcot Report, analyses Trump's incendiary mendacity in all its bewildering guises, and shows how this fusion of entertainment and cunningly-crafted propaganda has destabilized the world's most powerful democracy.
ISBN:9781786696656
Author:Peter Oborne
Into Africa A Guide to Sub-Saharan Cu...
Brief Summary
Across the globe, Africa is seen as the final frontier for economic development and has experienced renewed attention from both Western and Eastern nations, particularly in the last decade. The U.S., India, China and parts of Europe have all increased foreign direct investment in Africa, and yet the complexity and diversity of this vast continent pose risks and challenges for those investments.
For more than a decade, Into Africa has provided valuable advice to those who are interested in traveling to, living in or working in sub-Saharan Africa-businesspeople, human rights and development workers, diplomats, academics and trainers-and anyone else who seeks a better understanding of the cultural characteristics of this dynamic part of the world.
With depth and sensitivity, Into Africa examines the effects of community, ethnicity and language on doing business and establishing professional and personal relationships in African countries. The book explores regional differences, offers detailed guidelines for conducting training programs in Africa and examines issues that reflect the complex relationships involved. This new and expanded edition of Into Africa brings a fresh view on sub-Saharan Africa, showing how the nations of Africa have adapted to Western ways while retaining their cultural traditions and diversity.
Authors Yale Richmond and Phyllis Gestrin explore contemporary Africa in great depth, discussing increased trade with the U.S. and Europe, the role of politics and business, changes in mass communication and the continuing threat of HIV/AIDS. A thorough, lively and carefully researched book, Into Africa is the perfect companion for anyone wishing to gain a more rounded perception of Africa and its diverse cultures.
ISBN:9781931930918
Author:Yale Richmond and Phyllis Gestrin
Lead by Gary Burnison
Brief Summary
Lead is a different kind of book. Rather than being the "last word" on leading others, it is meant to be the "first word"--an invitation to the reader to reflect on what the leadership journey means to each and every individual.
At its core, Lead will benefit anyone who seeks to inspire, influence, or lead others, whether they are coaches, teachers, pastors, community organizers, politicians--or are in the C-suite.
Lead offers an exploration of the essential elements of leadership, which author Gary Burnison defines as: purpose, strategy, people, measure, empower, reward, anticipate, navigate, communicate, listen, and learn--all of which culminate in leading.
Instead of taking the left-brain approach of "paradigm shifts" and "leadership models," the author focuses on right-brain constants such as emotional connection, compassion, focusing on others, humility, and managing oneself. Lead readers will find inspiring stories, easy to digest analogies, reflective exercises and evocative images meant to give them pause, draw them in, and encourage introspection.
ISBN:9781118750742
Author:Gary Burnison
Practice Perfect 42 Rules for Getting...
Brief Summary
Rules for developing talent with disciplined, deliberate, intelligent practice
We live in a competition loving culture. We love the performance, the big win, the ticking seconds of the clock as the game comes down to the wire. We watch games and cheer, sometimes to the point of obsession, but if we really wanted to see greatness--wanted to cheer for it, see it happen, understand what made it happen--we'd spend our time watching, obsessing on, and maybe even cheering the practices instead. This book puts practice on the front burner of all who seek to instill talent and achievement in others as well as in themselves. This is a journey to understand that practice, not games, makes champions.
In this book, the authors engage the dream of better, both in fields and endeavors where participants know they should practice and also in those where many do not yet recognize the transformative power of practice. And it's not just whether you practice. How you practice may be a true competitive advantage.
Deliberately engineered and designed practice can revolutionize our most important endeavors. The clear set of rules presented in Practice Perfect will make us better in virtually every performance of life. The "how-to" rules of practice cover such topics as rethinking practice, modeling excellent practice, using feedback, creating a culture of practice, making new skills stick, and hiring for practice.
Discover new ways to think about practice. Learn how to design successful practice. Apply practice across a wide range of realms, both personal and professional The authors include specific activities to jump-start practice Doug Lemov is the best-selling author of Teach Like a Champion
A hands-on resource to practice, the rules within will help to create positive outliers and world-changing reservoirs of talent.
ISBN:9781118216583
Author:Doug Lemov, Katie Yezzi and Erica Woolway
In Gods Hands by Desmond Tutu
Brief Summary
In God's Hands: The Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book 2015
In God's Hands is the 2015 Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book. It is a meditation on the infinite love of God and the infinite value of the human individual. Not only are we in God's hands, says Desmond Tutu, our names are engraved on the palms of God's hands. Throughout an often turbulent life, Archbishop Tutu has fought for justice and against oppression and prejudice.
As we learn in this book, what has driven him forward is an unshakeable belief that human beings are created in the image of God and are infinitely valuable. Each one of us is a God-carrier, a tabernacle, a sanctuary of the Divine Trinity. God loves us not because we are loveable but because he first loved us. And this turns our values upside down. In this sense, the Gospel is the most radical thing imaginable.
It is extremely moving that in this book Archbishop Tutu returns to something so simple and so profound after a life in which he has been involved in political, social, and ethical issues that have seemed to be so very complex.
ISBN:9781620409763
Author:Desmond Tutu
Its the Thought That Counts by David ...
Brief Summary
It's the Thought That Counts: Why Mind Over Matter Really Works.
When pharmaceutical scientist David R. Hamilton, Ph.D., observed the results of tests on new drugs, he noticed that patients receiving control placebo pills reported the same level of improvement as those receiving the actual drug.
Seeing this result repeat itself time and time again, he became fascinated by the mind-body connection and started to research the work of scientists, mystics, and healers working in this field.
The result is this groundbreaking book, in which Hamilton explains how the mind and emotions can influence the well-being of your body and even the structure of your DNA. You’ll learn about: the physical impact of meditation, why sending healing thoughts to a person in need is so beneficial, the power of love and its impact on body cells, and all the many ways in which your thoughts affect you.
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The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powel...
Brief Summary
Inspiration from the man who went from humble beginnings in Harlem to the office of Secretary of State Colin Powell is the classic American success story. Born in Harlem to immigrant parents, Powell rose through the ranks of the U.S. military to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a soft-spoken, steel-willed Desert Storm hero. Always seemingly one step ahead of both allies and competitors, he quickly became one of America's most trusted and beloved public icons, acknowledged for his courage, his compassion, and his ability to forge victory under the most trying circumstances.
The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell recounts Powell's core beliefs on leadership, negotiation, self-knowledge, and more. Based on an article written by Oren Harari after Harari met Powell and heard him speak, an article so compelling that it became the subject of a front-page feature in the Wall Street Journal, this leadership primer reveals the secrets and insights that made Colin Powell the success he is today. Short, snappy, and packed with Powell's depth and spirit, it will help readers inspire anyone to achieve extraordinary performance.
"The Performance of the Organization is the Ultimate Measure of the Leader."
Colin Powell has established an entirely new paradigm for leadership excellence. Through four U.S. presidents and countless world crises—including the current high-stakes campaign against global terror—the blunt-spoken four-star general has grown to become one of the world's most effective, bottom-line leaders.
The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell goes beyond other books to take an honest look into the foundations of Powell's compelling leadership style. Practical yet penetrating, it examines:
* Powell as Provocateur—Techniques Powell uses to encourage group debate—and consistently arrive at the best solution
* The Powell Character—The Powell model for assuming the role of leader, and setting a positive tone throughout any organization
* Powell's Principles—Concise yet powerful credos that have guided Powell through times of triumph and doubt
Sparked with insights and observations that are as refreshingly honest as they are grittily realistic, The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell is the first in-depth exploration of Colin Powell's goal-driven approach to leadership. Whether you are currently a business leader or one who aspires to leadership, it provides a blueprint for inspiring anyone—including yourself—to achieve extraordinary levels of performance.
ISBN:9780071418614
Author:Oren Harari
Lament for the Fallen by Gavin Chait
Brief Summary
'Father, tell me a story?' asks Isaiah, moments before a strange craft falls from the sky and smashes into the jungle near his isolated West African community. Inside the ruined vessel the villagers find the shattered body of a man. His name is Samara and he is a man unlike any the villagers have seen before - a man who is perhaps something more than human.
With his city home of Achenia hiding in the rubble left by a devastating war, Samara has fallen 35,000 km to earth in order to escape the automated hell of an orbiting prison called Tartarus. As he struggles to heal himself, he helps transform the lives of those who rescued him but in so doing attracts the attention of the brutal warlord who rules over this benighted, ravaged post-21st century land. He is not a man to be crossed, and now he threatens the very existence of the villagers themselves and the one, slim chance Samara has of finding his way home and to the woman - and the world - he loves.
And all the while - in the darkness above - waits the simmering fury that lies at the heart of Tartarus . . .
ISBN:9780857523693
Author:Gavin Chait
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Brief Summary
When a massive object crashes into the ocean off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous and legendary city, three people wandering along Bar Beach (Adaora, the marine biologist- Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa- Agu, the troubled soldier) find themselves running a race against time to save the country they love and the world itself… from itself.
Told from multiple points of view and crisscrossing narratives, combining everything from superhero comics to Nigerian mythology to tie together a story about a city consuming itself.
‘There was no time to flee. No time to turn. No time to shriek. And there was no pain. It was like being thrown into the stars.’
ISBN:9781444762754
Author:Nnedi Okorafor
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Brief Summary
In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent, and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other—for no one but Saunders could conceive it.
February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. "God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy’s body.
From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory, where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.
Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices—living and dead, historical and invented—to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?
ISBN:9780812995343
Author:George Saunders
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Brief Summary
8 hours, 20 minutes
Who says you can't run away from your problems?
You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes--it would be too awkward--and you can't say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.
QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?
ANSWER: You accept them all.
What would possibly go wrong? Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. Through it all, there is his first love. And there is his last.
Because, despite all these mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings and mistakes, LESS is, above all, a love story.
A scintillating satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, a bittersweet romance of chances lost, by an author The New York Times has hailed as "inspired, lyrical," "elegiac," "ingenious," as well as "too sappy by half," LESS shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.
ISBN:9780316316125
Author:Andrew Sean Greer
The Master Algorithm How the Quest fo...
Brief Summary
Algorithms increasingly run our lives. They find books, movies, jobs, and dates for us, manage our investments, and discover new drugs. More and more, these algorithms work by learning from the trails of data we leave in our newly digital world. Like curious children, they observe us, imitate, and experiment. And in the world’s top research labs and universities, the race is on to invent the ultimate learning algorithm: one capable of discovering any knowledge from data, and doing anything we want, before we even ask.
Machine learning is the automation of discovery—the scientific method on steroids—that enables intelligent robots and computers to program themselves. No field of science today is more important yet more shrouded in mystery. Pedro Domingos, one of the field’s leading lights, lifts the veil for the first time to give us a peek inside the learning machines that power Google, Amazon, and your smartphone.
He charts a course through machine learning’s five major schools of thought, showing how they turn ideas from neuroscience, evolution, psychology, physics, and statistics into algorithms ready to serve you. Step by step, he assembles a blueprint for the future universal learner—the Master Algorithm—and discusses what it means for you, and for the future of business, science, and society.
If data-ism is today’s rising philosophy, this book will be its bible. The quest for universal learning is one of the most significant, fascinating, and revolutionary intellectual developments of all time. A groundbreaking book, The Master Algorithm is the essential guide for anyone and everyone wanting to understand not just how the revolution will happen, but how to be at its forefront.
ISBN:9780465065707
Author:Pedro Domingos
