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The Five Dollar Smile
The Five-Dollar Smile is a collection of stories of young love and disaffection, adolescent high spirits and youthful traumas; there are also stories, written with the energy and passion of youth, which deal with very adult subjects: death, deceit, loss, hypocrisy, honour. Sensitive, compelling and persuasive, these stories, written for the most part in Shashi Tharoor's late teens and early twenties, reveal an already formidable talent. Rounding off the collection is a marvellously inventive play set in the time of the Emergency. Report an i
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The 22 Immutable Laws Of Branding
Everyone knows that building your product or service into a bona fide brand is the only way to stand out in today;s insanely crowded marketplace. The only question is how do you do it? This is the definitive text on branding, distilling complex theories and principles behind this key marketing term into in twenty-two easy-to-read vignettes including: The Law of Contraction A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus The Law of the Word A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer The Law of Fellowship In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands World-renowned marketing guru Al Ries and his daughter and business partner Laura Ries examine brand-blazing strategies from the world;s best, including Coca-Cola, Xerox, BMW, Federal Express and Starbucks, to provide you with the expert insight you need to build a world-class brand.
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Year of the Golden Ape
The extremists have taken over. Masterminding the plan to destroy Israel, Sheik Gamal Tafak has hired professional terrorists. The action races from Cairo to Hamburg, Paris, London and California - where a super-tanker bound for San Francisco is hi-jacked, armed with a nuclear bomb.
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Young Blood Ten Terrifying College Tales
ored roommates use a planchette to contact a legendary ghost that haunts Pune University. Will she answer? Is the abandoned Khairatabad Science College in Hyderabad really haunted? A gang of students break inside to investigate. Nirav and Pavi love each other . . . most of the time. Will exploring a forbidden place inside IIT Kharagpur bring them closer? From strange sightings to urban legends, from haunted buildings to not-so-friendly ghosts, colleges in India have their fair share of spine-tingling tales, be it Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, St. Bede's College in Shimla or Delhi University. Young Blood is a collection of ten tales that reimagine college urban legends and true first-person accounts, that promises to terrify even die-hard fans of horror.
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The Trusted Advisor
The 20th anniversary edition of the “brilliant and practical” (Tom Peters, author of The Professional Service 50) business classic—now updated to reflect the digital world—provides essential tools and wisdom for all consultants, negotiators, and advisors.In today’s fast-paced networked economy, professionals must work harder than ever to maintain and improve their business skills and knowledge. But technical mastery of one’s discipline is not enough, assert professional advisors David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford. The key to professional success, they argue, is the ability to earn the trust and confidence of clients. In this 20th anniversary edition, Maister, Green, and Galford enrich our understanding of today’s society and illustrate how to be effective communicators in a digital world. Using their model of “the trust equation” they dissect the rational and emotional components of trustworthiness. With precision and clarity, they detail five distinct steps you must take to create a trust-based relationship. Each step—engage, listen, frame, envision, and commit—is richly described in distinct chapters. This immensely accessible book offers “an invaluable road map to all those who seek to develop truly special relationships with their clients” (Carl Stern, CEO, Boston Consulting Group). The authors weave together anecdotes, experience, and examples of both their own and others’ successes and mistakes to great effect. The Trusted Advisor is essential reading for anyone who must advise, negotiate, or manage complex relationships with others.
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The Spirit Talk To Me
'It's something in your line of work,' he said hurriedly. 'It's something...otherworldly. Please come. There is no time to lose.'A forest lures men to their doom, invisible hands smash crockery in a time-worn house, machines turn malevolent in an old factory, phantom laughter, whispers from nowhere, shadows that trail people - these are just some of the experiences that Sarbajeet Mohanty, paranormal investigator and founder of the Parapsychology and Investigations Research Society, confronts daily on the job. Tracking Sarbajeet and his team as they probe harrowing supernatural happenings across the country, these ten suspenseful tales move from a courthouse occupied by an insidious presence to a hellish riverbank where battles from the ancient Kalinga War continue to play out, to a film studio in Mumbai where a sordid past waits to be unearthed. Along the way, readers get a rare peek into the distinctive investigative methods used by the team to detect mysterious forces that exist in parallel realms. Narrated by veteran horror writer Neil D'Silva in atmospheric prose, the chilling accounts in The Spirits Talk to Me are spine-tingling and guaranteed to make you lose sleep.
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151 Quick Ideas To Get New Customers
Outlines dozens of strategies for attracting and fostering loyalty in customers, sharing low-cost ideas in a series of bite-sized entries that can be readily implemented for immediate effect.
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The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
The Korean Charlotte's WebMore than 2 million copies sold This is the story of a hen named Sprout. No longer content to lay eggs on command, only to have them carted off to the market, she glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild—and to hatch an egg of her own. An anthem for freedom, individuality and motherhood featuring a plucky, spirited heroine who rebels against the tradition-bound world of the barnyard, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is a novel of universal resonance that also opens a window on Korea, where it has captivated millions of readers. And with its array of animal characters—the hen, the duck, the rooster, the dog, the weasel—it calls to mind such classics in English as Animal Farm and Charlotte’s Web. Featuring specially-commissioned illustrations, this first English-language edition of Sun-mi Hwang’s fable for our times beautifully captures the journey of an unforgettable character in world literature.
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The Talent Masters
The Talent Masters itself stems from a unique marriage of talents. Bill Conaty, in the course of a 40-year career at General Electric, worked closely with CEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt to build the company's internationally renowned talent machine. Ram Charan is the legendary advisor to companies around the world. Here they combine their unparalleled experience and insight to create a blueprint for talent development, and to show how critical it is to the continuing and future success of every business. The essential skill that lasts. Why talent management guarantees future results in a way that short-term financial success and market share cannot. Secrets of the masters. How world-class companies achieve their stellar performance decade after decade by finding and nurturing leadership talent. The importance of knowledge. Why knowing and understanding your talent and reviewing it systematically is the foundation for creating a steady, self-renewing stream of leaders for all levels of your organization - from first-line supervisors to the CEO. The Talent Masters tool kit. Specific guidelines that will help you assess and improve your company's talent mastery capabilities.
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Critical Mass
Jocelyn "Joss" Cole, a burned-out public defender from L.A., has opted for a quieter life in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. Joss has no significant clients other than a group of commercial fisherman suffering from a strange and serious illness, a condition that doctors cannot diagnose, and which Joss believes has an industrial cause. Then into her office comes Dean Belden, a well-heeled client in search of a lawyer to help him set up a business in the islands. Within days Belden is subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. Less than an hour after testifying, and before Joss can discover what happened in the secrecy of the grand jury room, Belden dies in a fiery explosion of his float plane on Seattle's Lake Union. Gideon Van Ry is a nuclear fission expert and a scholar in residence at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California. One of his duties is to update the Center's database, an extensive catalog listing fissionable materials and weapons of mass destruction. Gideon is troubled by the apparent failure to account for two small tactical nuclear devices missing from a storage facility in the former Soviet Union.The two weapons were last seen in packing crates, to be shipped to an American company called Belden Electronics. Gideon has been unable to locate this firm, and now he is left with only one possible lead, the lawyer who incorporated the company-Jocelyn Cole. Fraught with tension and suspense, Critical Mass is Steve Martini at his electrifying best. It is the story of what can happen in a world where private hate and public apathy combine to uncork the sleeping but deadly genie of nuclear terror.
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The First 90 Days
Since its original release, The First 90 Days has become the bestselling globally acknowledged bible of leadership and career transitions. In this updated and expanded 10th anniversary edition, internationally known leadership transition expert Michael D. Watkins gives you the keys to successfully negotiating your next move, whether you're onboarding into a new company, being promoted internally or embarking on an international assignment.
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Range : How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
'A goldmine of surprising insights. Makes you smarter with every page' – James Clear, author of Atomic Habits The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller. As featured on Diary of a CEO. The essential guide to improving your performance, and a powerful playbook for success in any field: develop range while everyone around you is rushing to specialize. You may have been taught that success in any field requires early specialization, and 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. If you only dabble or delay, you'll never catch up with those who got a head start. This is completely wrong. In this landmark book, David Epstein shows you that the way to succeed is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly and juggling many interests. Studying the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists, Epstein demonstrates how generalists often find their path relatively late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. Range has challenged the status quo, reshaped career paths, inspired parents and changed lives. Read it to learn how to be more creative, more agile, and more capable of making the connections that your more specialized peers cannot see. ‘If you're a generalist who has ever felt overshadowed by your specialist colleagues, this book is for you' – Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2019 'I loved Range' – Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers
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The Devil's Banker
Hailed as “the John Grisham of Wall Street” by the New York Times, Christopher Reich returns to the world he knows so well--the dangerous, dazzling world of high finance and international intrigue. In this ingeniously crafted thriller, the bestselling author of Numbered Account and The First Billion introduces his most complex and engaging hero yet: forensic accountant Adam Chapel--and paints a frightening scenario where terrorism is big business and money is the ultimate weapon of war… The explosion that shatters the smart Parisian apartment reverberates around the globe. In an instant, a suspected terrorist is dead and half a million dollars has vanished. Within days, the CIA is certain it has found a connection between the dead man and a planned terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Determined to avert another 9/11, they have assembled an elite counterterrorist task force, code name: Blood Money. Its mission: to follow the money trail. Its secret weapon: forensic accountant Adam Chapel. A man who trusts numbers more than people, Chapel has his own reasons for wanting to get the job done-- four of his colleagues were killed in the Paris blast. Now Chapel is thrust back into the line of fire when he teams up with British intelligence agent Sarah Churchill. The two are assigned to hunt down a shadowy mastermind who is moving vast sums of money from country to country, from bank to bank, leaving no tracks--as he prepares for an Armaggedon of his own devising. As Chapel follows a disappearing money trail from Paris to Munich to the deserts of Saudi Arabia, Sarah uses her elite training to stalk the “shadow” and his elusive network. Meanwhile, their quarry is auditing their every move, laying a twisting trail of false clues and shocking surprises. With the clock ticking down, soon Chapel and Sarah have only days, hours, minutes to avert disaster as a master terrorist plots to unleash the first strike in a brilliantly orchestrated conspiracy--with an almost unimaginable goal. Hurtling us from the winding alleys of Pakistan to the elite banking houses of Europe, The Devil’s Banker creates an adrenaline-fueled world where following the money has never been more dangerous, and evil has never been harder to unmask.
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That Used To Be Us
Pulitzer prize-winning, globally bestselling author charts America's fall from power and influence - and assesses its paths ahead
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Taiwan Travelogue
May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear. Soon, a Taiwanese woman―who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name―is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the “something” is. Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.
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Code To Zero
Code to zero is a compelling thriller set in 1950s America during the Cold War, from Ken Follett the number one bestselling author of the pillars of the Earth. Code to zero is a fast-paced thriller about the satellite space race in the Cold War, from number one bestselling author Ken Follett. A man with no memory a man wakes up to find himself lying on the ground in a Railway Station, his mind stripped bare of all recollection. He has no idea how he got there; he does not even know his own name. Convinced he is a drunken down and out, it isn't until a newspaper report about a satellite launch catches his eye, that he suspects all is not what it seems. A race for the future The year is 1958, and America is about to launch its first satellite in a desperate attempt to match the Soviet Sputnik and regain the lead in the space race. As Luke Lucas gradually unravels the mystery of his amnesia, he realizes that his fate is bound up with that of the Rocket that stands ready on launch pad 26B at Cape canaveral. A world on the brink as he relearns the story of his life, he uncovers long-kept secrets about his wife, his best friend and the woman he once loved more than life itself. But even more terrifying is the dark secret they tried to make him forget, a secret that threatens America's survival.
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The Sisterhood
Paula Grey "witnesses" the murder of a key German statesman in Vienna, and a veiled woman leaves the building. Is she a member of the insidious Sisterhood? As more assassinations occur, Tweed fears an Eastern power - not Russia - is planning to take over the Continent.
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The Apocalypse Watch
After three years deep under cover, US agent Harry Latham has penetrated the fortress-like mountain hideaway of the Brotherhood of the Watch, a neo-Nazi organisation born after the fall of the Third Reich. Then, on the eve of his most spectacular success, Harry disappears. Drew Latham is frantic to discover his older brother's fate. But when he receives word that Harry has surfaced, serious doubts arise. Has Harry's cover been blown? And if so, why has the Brotherhood of the Watch let him live? The search for the truth about Harry plunges Drew into a labyrinth of deceit and death...
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Chances
The book that made Jackie Collins one of America's favorite authors sweeps you from the sophisticated playgrounds of Europe to the glittering gambling palaces of Las Vegas. It plunges you into the reckless, dangerous world of the Santangelo crime family. It introduces you to Gino Santangelo, the street kid who makes it all the way to the top. And then it brings you Lucky--his sensual, stunningly beautiful, and passionate daughter; a woman who dares to win her father's empire for herself; a woman unafraid of taking . . .
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Rhinoceros
Colin Forbes' perennially popular and energetic team of characters, Tweed, Paula Grey and Bob Newman, are on the trail of five heads of state who are conspiring to cause massive civil unrest throughout the Western world. Dictatorship and martial law will be the only acceptable form of government. Tweed knows the identity of four of the ringleaders - but who is the fifth? The riots are being carefully and strategically orchestrated on the Internet. One man is singlehandedly creating a weapon to destroy the conspiracy, but whose side is he on? Tweed and his team are racing against time, through London, Germany and Denmark.
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The Paris Option
A fiery explosion shatters a laboratory building in Paris. Among the dead is Emile Chambord, one of the leaders in the global race to create a molecular - or DNA - computer. Unfortunately, Professor Chambord kept the details of his work secret, and his notes were apparently destroyed in the fire. Then suddenly US fighter jets disappear from radar screens for a full five minutes and there's no explanation; utilities cease to function; and all telecommunications abruptly stop, with devastating consequences. This is not the work of a clever hacker - only the enormous power and speed of a DNA computer could have caused such havoc.
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The Devil's Alternative
Whichever option I choose, men are going to die.' When the entire Soviet Union wheat crop is destroyed by a devastating string of failures, the population faces starvation. The USA is quick to offer assistance. They devise a plan to trade vital food resources with the Russians in exchange for sensitive political information. But the Politburo has other ideas: the invasion of Western Europe to commandeer the food for themselves... As the paths of communication breakdown, the American president and leaders from around the world face an appalling choice: should they allow the loss of thousands to save the lives of many more?
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The Cell
The search for a frighteningly powerful murderer leads Tweed and his two colleagues, Paula Grey and Bob Newman, once again to travel the world. This time they are joined by Jules Beaurain, old friend of Tweed's and ex-police officer from Belgium.