Professional & Technical Books - Page 3

Getting Things Done: The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity

David Allen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 471 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In today's world of exponentially increased communication and responsibility, yesterday's methods for staying on top just don't work.

Veteran management consultant and trainer David Allen recognizes that "time management" is useless the minute your schedule is interrupted; "setting priorities" isn't relevant when your email is down; "procrastination solutions" won't help if your goals aren't clear.

Allen's premise is simple: our ability to be productive is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve stress-free productivity and unleash our creative potential. He teaches us how to:

• Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box empty

• Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations

• Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed

• Feel fine about what you're not doing

From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done has the potential to transform the way you work -- and the way you experience work. At any level of implementation, David Allen's entertaining and thought-provoking advice shows you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

Jeffrey Toobin

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Subjects -> Law -> General AAS

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Total reviews: 164 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin takes you into the chambers of the most important—and secret—legal body in our country, the Supreme Court, and reveals the complex dynamic among the nine people who decide the law of the land.

Just in time for the 2008 presidential election—where the future of the Court will be at stake—Toobin reveals an institution at a moment of transition, when decades of conservative disgust with the Court have finally produced a conservative majority, with major changes in store on such issues as abortion, civil rights, presidential power, and church-state relations.

Based on exclusive interviews with justices themselves, The Nine tells the story of the Court through personalities—from Anthony Kennedy's overwhelming sense of self-importance to Clarence Thomas's well-tended grievances against his critics to David Souter's odd nineteenth-century lifestyle. There is also, for the first time, the full behind-the-scenes story of Bush v. Gore—and Sandra Day O'Connor's fateful breach with George W. Bush, the president she helped place in office.

The Nine is the book bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin was born to write. A CNN senior legal analyst and New Yorker staff writer, no one is more superbly qualified to profile the nine justices.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Michael Pollan

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Diets & Weight Loss -> Diets -> Weight Loss

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 194 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Just Eat Food. Real Food. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

"Don't you want any of this good food?", my Great Aunt Margaret beams at me over the buffet aisle. I answer, "If any of it were good, I would want it."

It is the 1970's and a new kind of restaurant came to our rural county: the smorgasbord. Adult eyes widened at the sight of aisles of food, a melange of red, orange, brown and white gooey side dishes punctuated by varieties of tough grisly meat. They wonder that I don't want to load my plate as they do. I equally marveled over their reaction. The food tasted off; powdery when it should be toothsome, salty where it should be savory, and blandly gelatinous when it should be creamy.

Anything Aung Margaret cooked was a hell of a lot better than this and now I know the reason behind what even my uneducated seven year old palate was perceiving. Aunt Margaret's meals were simple, always a meat, potato and vegetable, cooked simply; but the meat was fresh from the butcher's pack, the potatoes from the bag, and the vegetables from our garden in summer, or from the can or freezer in winter. At my uncle's request, Aunt Marg cooked just like his mother did, and his mother was born in the 1890's. Unknowingly we were living Michael Pollan's dictum to only eat food that our great grandmothers would recognize as food.

Throughout the work Pollan explores how our Western understanding of food has been reduced to calories and nutrients, a movement he calls nutritionism. He asserts that Westerners have forsaken and maligned the social, emotional and sensory aspects of eating and asked science to dictate our diets. But science has not been successful at curing our ills and limiting our waistlines through diet due to the inherent reductionism necessary to most scientific research. Also, so much of the processing of food has brought with it ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and hydrongenated vegetable oils, ingredients that are not doing us any favors.

Pollan cuts through the proliferation of dietary advice based upon managing various nutrient levels, and calls us to a simpler, more enjoyable approach to food: just eating food. Real food. Food that you don't have to add water to and stir. Food that doesn't come in a plastic bubble pack. Food that looks and smells and tastes like what it really it. What could be better?

If you are a bit of a foodie already, you will be nodding your head in agreement all through this this book. If you are tired of trying various dietary regimens to no avail, then this work will set your heart at ease. If you are the impatient sort, skip the chapter on nutritionism's history and delve right into the guidelines in the final chapters. However you use this book, it definitely serves up food for thought. Bon Appetit!

Editorial Review:

What to eat, what not to eat, and how to think about health: a manifesto for our times.

Freakonomics Rev Ed LP: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

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Total reviews: 1581 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?

These may not sound like typical questions for an econo-mist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head.

Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of . . . well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Klu Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.

The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Timothy Ferris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 776 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

It's All About Mindset 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

A lot of people criticize this book based on the title and the author's seemingly over the top claims of free money and a life of leisure interrupted by short bursts of activity that just can't be avoided. Some people ask "Who will be working if everyone only worked for four hours week?". It all depends on how you define 'WORK'.

In Ferris's world, 'WORK' is whatever you don't want to do. Maybe what you do for fun is work to someone else and what you think of as work is fun to someone else. Here's a practical example. Last summer, I hired someone to mow my lawn. The guy pulls up with a trailer full of equipment and half an hour later, he's gone and my grass looks great. It cost me $35.00. If I had done that work myself it would have cost me 4 hours of my life that I can never get back. Instead, it cost me $35.00 and I went to lunch and a movie with my wife. I hate yard work, but the guy who mows my lawn, LIKES it and he likes getting paid for it. Conversely, I've spent upwards of 20 hours working on some particularly tricky computer problem and I didn't charge the client a dime, because it was fun and I learned some things that now save me time nearly every day. It was fun for me, but some people would consider it work. In Tim Ferris's world, neither of us is really working.

He says in the book "Eliminate before you delegate". It's about eliminating as much unnecessary BS as you can then delegating the rest, so you only have to address the things that truly cannot be avoided. Why is that bad?

I like the book a lot. I had already done some of the stuff he describes. I almost never answer the phone and I use e-mail for all business related communication, because it's faster and I can use the e-mail as a record of the week's events. I've also raised my rates to get rid of some whiny cheapskates who were sucking up all of my time and making me miserable. Now, I do less work, but make the same amount of money. Why is that bad?

Ferris carries it to an extreme that I wouldn't have considered until I had read the book. I'm not saying everything here is practical or even desirable, but it does have some good tips on how to manage your time and eliminate unnecessary activity so you have time to do more of what you like.

Depending on how you define work, this book is great otherwise it's just hype. It's all about mind set.

Editorial Review:

Tim Ferriss is an extraordinary young man on a mission. The twenty-eight-year-old serial vagabond and successful entrepreneur has been teaching a wildly popular course at Princeton University for the past four years--a how-to and why-to guide to throwing out the old tools and methods for success (balancing life and work, retiring well, having a great nest egg) and replacing them with a whole new way of living. Readers can lead a rich life by working only four hours a week, freeing up the rest of their time to spend it living the lives they want.

Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed

Christopher C. Horner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Parents and School Teachers - Please Read the Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.

I never saw the movie, "Inconvenient Truth" - but I heard people speaking about the movie after it was released.

Among other things, some people (including children) were "horrified" to learn that Polar Bears were drowning in the Artic Ocean from lack of ice floes to rest upon. Pretty gruesome, I thought, and the sight must have been frightening.

Two years later I learned - the images shown were cartoons of the event. The cartoons were based on some hearsay evidence about four polar bears caught in a storm. No actual pictures of the event (or details of the real circumstances that surrounded the event) were presented.

As Chris Horner most decisively shows, this bit of theatre is a metaphor for the whole "global warming" charade in its entirety. People are being frightened - and policy is being decided - based on nothing more than cartoons. The cartoons are presented in a variety of formats: from computer model projections that have been fixed in advance, to demands to shutter coal energy electricity plants based on nothing more than the emotional harangue of despicable metaphors of genocide.

Parents and teachers who are not familiar with the details of it: the "science" behind the whole scenario is quackery, pure and simple. Many people bought into it because they trusted the word of those behind it. Those who developed this so-called "science" - did so with foregone conclusions in intention. Slowly but surely the truth of the matter is coming to light - and a lot of people are resting their reputations on absolutely bogus work.

The environmental "movement" of course completely rejects that notion - and takes offence (and aim) at those who even question the absolute veracity of it all.

Ladies and gentlemen - your intuition about the whole "global warming" scam is right on target. It IS a complete [.....]. Chris Horner shows to what lengths some people with vested interests will go to perpetuate this [.....].

Editorial Review:

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) comes Red Hot Lies, an exposé of the hypocrisy, deceit, and outright lies of the global warming alarmists and the compliant media that support them. Did you know that most scientists are global warming skeptics? Or that environmental alarmists have knowingly promoted false and exaggerated data on global warming? Or that in the Left's efforts to suppress free speech (and scientific research), they have compared global warming dissent with "treason"?

Shocking, frank, and illuminating, Chris Horner's Red Hot Lies explodes as many myths as Al Gore promotes.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids about Money¿that the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! (Rich Dad)

Sharon L. Lechter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2199 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Don't bother. Seriously. 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is all cliche and lies.

1. The author recommends that people join MLM to become "better salespeople".

2. The author shows a strong distaste to basic education. (He was held back sophomore year in high school.)

3. The author shows a lack of respect for his real father (poor Dad)

4. The author shows a way too basic math to demonstrate his profits.

5. The author makes recommendations that are flat out illegal (such as writing off vacations on the corporation...aka, tax fraud.)

So, don't bother reading it. You want the basics of the book? Here....

1. People work for money because they are in fear.
2. Rich people horde their money because they are in fear of losing it.
3. Schools don't teach people about money.
4. People who don't know about money will always be poor.
5. He will not show you how to make money, nor will he show you how to make money work for you. He'll give a couple examples that have mathematical and legal errors with regards to taxes.
6. He preaches to use corporations to save on paying taxes....news flash: corporations have double taxation. That's the price of the legal protections.

Anyway, there's the gist of the book. The only money that Robert Kiyosaki has ever made is from this book...it's motivational, but financially irrelevant. This book started it's circulation through Amway...think about that. He is speaking about money and recommends MLM...was this book designed to make the Amway people feel better about their decision to join MLM?

Think before you buy. And hopefully you'll put your money away.

Editorial Review:

Argues that a good education and a secure job are not guarantees for financial success, and describes guidelines for making money work for you.

The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition

Graduate Management Admission Council

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Total reviews: 149 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

No longer useful as it once was 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

GMAT has changed a lot over the last 3 years and the materials in this book are no longer as useful as they once was. Most of the questions in this book are over 10 years old and they share approximately 90% of the questions with the 10th edition.

The result is the difficulty level and types of questions contained in this book are no longer fully reflective of the questions one will receive in the real GMAT. If you need proof, download GMAT Prep (just google it) from the providers of the GMAT and you will see the GMAT Prep questions are substantially different and more difficult than the questions from these guides.

The 1400 questions contained in these guides, however, are still somewhat useful, particularly if you are shooting for a lower end (450-620) score range.

If anything, GMAT Prep, which is provided free by the makers of GMAT, is a far better reflection of the real GMAT. Although GMAT Prep does not provide solutions (only answers) to the problems, it contains hundreds of questions in its data bank which will help you prepare for the tougher GMAT problems.

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Dan Ariely

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Total reviews: 152 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

• Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin?
• Why does recalling the Ten Commandments reduce our tendency to lie, even when we couldn't possibly be caught?
• Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save twenty-five cents on a can of soup?
• Why do we go back for second helpings at the unlimited buffet, even when our stomachs are already full?
• And how did we ever start spending $4.15 on a cup of coffee when, just a few years ago, we used to pay less than a dollar?

When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we're in control. We think we're making smart, rational choices. But are we?

In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.

Not only do we make astonishingly simple mistakes every day, but we make the same types of mistakes, Ariely discovers. We consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. We fail to understand the profound effects of our emotions on what we want, and we overvalue what we already own. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They're systematic and predictable—making us predictably irrational.

From drinking coffee to losing weight, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, Ariely explains how to break through these systematic patterns of thought to make better decisions. Predictably Irrational will change the way we interact with the world—one small decision at a time.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Seth Godin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It’s our nature.

Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they’re enabling countless new tribes to be born—groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming.

And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?

The Web can do amazing things, but it can’t provide leadership. That still has to come from individuals— people just like you who have passion about something. The explosion in tribes means that anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at her fingertips.

If you think leadership is for other people, think again—leaders come in surprising packages. Consider Joel Spolsky and his international tribe of scary-smart software engineers. Or Gary Vaynerhuck, a wine expert with a devoted following of enthusiasts. Chris Sharma leads a tribe of rock climbers up impossible cliff faces, while Mich Mathews, a VP at Microsoft, runs her internal tribe of marketers from her cube in Seattle. All they have in common is the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead.

If you ignore this opportunity, you risk turning into a “sheepwalker”—someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good. Sheepwalkers don’t do very well these days.

Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities in leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers. . . . It’s not easy, but it’s easier than you think.