Koncocoo

Best Banks & Banking

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Here is a close look at their mirrors and smoke machines, the pulleys, cogs, and wheels that create the grand illusion called money. The 5th Edition includes a no-holds barred analysis of bank bailouts under the Bush and Obama Administrations that are shown to be nothing less than legalized plunder of the American people. Many other updates have been added, including a revision to the list of those who attended the historic meeting at Jekyll Island where the Federal Reserve was created. – Ron Paul, Member of Congress, House Banking Committee, 2008 & 2012 Presidential candidate. Professor of Economics, Auburn University, Coordinator of Academic Affairs, Ludwig von Mises Institute. "As a career banker and president of a bank consulting firm, I thought I had a good understanding of the Federal Reserve, but this book changed the way I view our entire monetary system." "My wife manages a large main library and told me there are over 37 people on the waiting list for The Creature from Jekyll Island. My degrees and CPA, Accounting and Finance from New York University are impressive. "I've spent my career as Finance VP and CFO for a number of companies, and now I teach accounting at a Community College. I thought I had a handle on money, banking, and finance, but the Creature opened my eyes to things I never saw before and hidden causes I never dreamed existed." Thank you for sharing with your readers the endless hours needed to bring about your fabulous 'door stop' as you described your book recently on T.V." The title refers to the formation of the Federal Reserve System, which occurred at a secret meeting at Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1910. Griffin gives numerous examples of this, such as repeated failures by American colonies and European states in using fiat money. It tells the real story of how bankers have lured politicians with easy money and ended up in control of most of the world. Topics covered: founding of the Federal Reserve, war mongering, bail-outs, boom-bust cycles, the J.P.Morgans and Rothschilds of the world, the history of central banking in the United States, and most fascinating: how the money system really works in this country. It is written in terms that anyone can understand, which will immediately rule out the kind of reader who is impressed by a lot of technical jargon that supposedly demonstrates an author's mastery of the subject while only serving to confuse laymen (and experts too). It tells the real story of how bankers have lured politicians with easy money and ended up in control of most of the world. Topics covered: founding of the Federal Reserve, war mongering, bail-outs, boom-bust cycles, the J.P.Morgans and Rothschilds of the world, the history of central banking in the United States, and most fascinating: how the money system really works in this country. It is written in terms that anyone can understand, which will immediately rule out the kind of reader who is impressed by a lot of technical jargon that supposedly demonstrates an author's mastery of the subject while only serving to confuse laymen (and experts too).
Reviews
"This book puts it right: * Why America fought in WW1. * Why Russian revolutions occurred and who benefited from those. * Why people in other countries are so gullible when receiving foreign aid. * How the large bankers took advantage of those countries by legalizing smuggling, just for them, not the common folk. And most importantly: * How the common US folk is paying for all of it out of its own pocket through the hidden tax of inflation."
"I read this book many years ago and wanted to read it again."
"good information Prompt delivery."
"Great!"
"If you want the truth , read this book."
"All of the historical sequences are easy to read and understand due to the patient pace of the author."
"I had heard about this a long time ago so I was somewhat familiar with what happened."
Find Best Price at Amazon
Augmented: Life in The Smart Lane
While consumers today are camping outside of an Apple store waiting to be one of the first to score a new Apple Watch or iPhone, the next generation of wearables will be able to predict if we’re likely to have a heart attack and recommend a course of action. Following on from the Industrial or machine age, the space age and the digital age, the Augmented Age will be based on four key disruptive themes—Artificial Intelligence, Experience Design, Smart Infrastructure, and HealthTech. “When someone as obsessed and thoughtful about the future as Brett King gets ahold of a keyboard and sufficient time to to think and write—watch you, world. Here comes a book that will broaden your mind and make you reexamine what you think you know about tomorrow.”David Wolman, Author of The End of Money, Contributing Editor at Wired. In a crowded field of prognosticators, Brett King stands out for his clearly articulated vision of how technology is changing who we are.”— Michael J. Casey, Author of The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order. Brett King’s Augmented is a roadmap of the biggest changes and the most disruptive technologies we’ll need to navigate to get there.”- David Bach, New York Times Bestselling Author. The possibilities are limitless..." - Tory Belleci, Host of Mythbusters, Punkin Chunkin and Thrill Factor "Having watched many innovations occur over the last few decades, it has always confused me as to why so many resist change. Additive manufacturing and much more are bringing deep cultural change and exposing long-fed fears of a dystopian future. "A whirlwind of AI and IA (augmented organic minds), robots, Bitcoin, smart materials, you name it! The Brett and Alex data-mine deep history -- and then stretch far forward, presenting a stunning synthesis that is at once richly detailed, amazing and even slightly troubling -- but never boring.
Reviews
"Great work BK, this looks like a real game changer in the way people will see their future and the way we will live in the very near future."
"The forethought and attention to detail regarding not only the current changes but future expectations is very well researched."
"This book paints a compelling version of our mankind’s future as it relates to technology."
"Though, this book is so good that I thought that I would take 10 seconds to write a review."
"Powerful."
"In this excellent book, he writes about how innovation and technology will affect almost every other aspects of life as well."
"The book is an excellent starting point for those wishing to learn about forthcoming technological changes and their social impact."
"A great book taking you from the 1900 till future detailing technology advancement .. A must read for all 👍."
Find Best Price at Amazon
Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond
This clear, concise, and accessible guide from two industry insiders shows you how to navigate this brave new blockchain world—and how to invest in these emerging assets to secure your financial future. In addition to offering smart investment strategies, this authoritative resource will help you understand how these assets were created, how they work, and how they are evolving amid the blockchain revolution. By sequentially building on the concepts of each prior chapter, the book will provide you with a full understanding of the cryptoasset economy and the opportunities that await the innovative investor . “As we hurtle into a new, decentralized economy, Burniske and Tatar have laid down something of immense importance: a coherent logic, a new science even, for investing in the assets that will define that coming world.”. “In this sweeping and lucid work, Burniske and Tatar make a compelling case that cryptoassets are foundational to the second generation of the Internet and represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the innovative investor. ―Ric Edelman, three-time #1 Independent Financial Advisor ( Barron’s ) and New York Times bestselling author of The Truth About Your Future. Cryptoassets is an excellent introduction to this breakthrough in technology and finance, and a tremendous resource for those eager to get their heads around what can be a daunting and complex subject.”. Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar give the most compelling case for why, with sharp, detailed analysis that reflects their deep understanding of the technology and their strong finance background. The authors surface many historical examples to remind us that in times of excitement, it is even more important to pay attention to the teams and talent behind each project.”. “ Cryptoassets is a must-read for all financial services executives and investors who want to understand the fundamentals and future directions of this burgeoning, new asset class. Within this book, they’ve rolled up their sleeves to provide helpful historical context and a valuation framework that readers will find intellectually stimulating and illuminating for understanding this rapidly emerging world of cryptoassets.”. Cryptoassets explains, in simple to understand terms, the full paradigm of Bitcoin and its successor currencies, and it provides everything needed to explore this exciting world.”. Cryptoassets makes blockchains accessible to the nontechnical by exploring their varied origin stories, use cases, and fundamental value. “Young, Stanford-trained, blockchain analyst and investor Chris Burniske has teamed up with financial planning expert and author Jack Tatar to provide the first comprehensive guide to understanding the fastest growing, most exciting asset class under the sun. “While the cryptoasset space has witnessed exponential growth, to achieve its full potential, it has to be broadly integrated into the real world. With consistent objectivity and clarity, Chris and Jack’s book details cryptoassets as an asset class, and will prove influential in driving institutional investor adoption of this groundbreaking opportunity.”. “ Cryptoassets provides a great introduction to and overview of the young yet rapidly growing universe of all things blockchain. This industry, asset class, and overall idea will make you ponder why abstract concepts like money, identity, and business function like they do in the world today, and how the innovation we’re seeing will completely reshape the economy of tomorrow. From setting the stage to diving into specific protocols and projects to sharing practical knowledge on how to invest in these emerging assets, Chris and Jack’s combination of expertise and familiarity with the complex topics at hand are testament to why I have considered them some of the best resources throughout my journey of falling deeper and deeper down the crypto rabbit hole.”. It’s not a hard read yet delves into much of the detail needed for a complete understanding of the benefits, and risks, of bitcoin, blockchain, and more. I’d totally recommend it to anyone who wants to dive into investing and understanding how cryptoassets will shape the future of society and the creation of value.”. “Those of us who work in the blockchain industry have long realized that the rise of cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class was inevitable. Chris was the first buy-side analyst to focus exclusively on this emerging asset class, and Jack was one of the earliest financial journalists to stress its importance. Now, with Cryptoassets , they describe, as nobody has before, why every investor should incorporate bitcoin, ether, and new blockchain-based assets into their portfolios, and how to analyze these tokens in order to make the right investments.”. The authors capture not only the technical and market analysis you need to know to invest in these projects but also the ethos and excitement of the people pushing this envelope. The book provides background and the potential impacts of ICOs, offering insightful knowledge to both those entering the space and experienced investors like myself. The book covers the full potential and array of what this technology offers in piercing the veil to an Internet of value with all the new innovations and crossovers from the traditional realm of finance. Chris and Jack have brought a wealth of knowledge and cross-disciplinary methods to bear from their respective fields and broken new ground in their analysis of this exciting new space.”. Burniske and Tatar are able to leverage their deep industry experience to condense a complex, continually evolving topic into a concise and informative guide for investors looking to be on the cutting edge of a new asset class. “In a world where issuing digital assets becomes as easy as creating a website, Chris and Jack provide a comprehensive guide that will help you separate the wheat from the chaff.”. “As we enter the next great evolution in global financial markets, Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar have authored a unique and much needed volume. The book adapts classic finance pricing models to the challenging task of valuing cryptoassets, offering the reader a solid headstart to investing in this new exciting asset class.”. You’ll learn about their colorful histories, how to apply fundamental valuation techniques, and practical tips to navigate the at-times turbulent markets.”. For curious minds who want to know about emerging technologies or even those who already have an understanding of blockchains, Chris and Jack leave no stone unturned. Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar steer the reader through a torrent of unknowns, illuminating the complicated world of cryptoassets and their underlying technology, which will more than likely become our generation’s most important innovation.”. “A must-read to appreciate the Bitcoin network effect and the wave of innovation that it launched through the community of people who played critical roles in creating all the distributed ecosystems that are transforming business models.”.
Reviews
"They cover the good, bad, and ugly of bitcoin’s history and bring us into the present world of decentralized applications. The examples include bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Dogecoin, Dash, Monero, Zcash, Ethereum, Auger, dApps in general. They paint a realistic picture of the landscape and give fair warning to those that may embark on a ride of the cryptoasset roller coaster. The authors provide an analysis and valuation framework that lays out the elements to look for and analyze when deciding on weather or not an investment would be worth it. I have added 2 pictures to the review to show you there is a lot of things you’ll want to recall as you go through your journey."
"The book wisely uses textbook features including headings; sidebars; labeled diagrams; charts and graphs; resources, notes and large index; and maps. The history of this surprisingly (to me) large knowledge domain is presented in the most succinct and straightforward manner. But it's way to long to have been a mere essay, and hence we have the first justification for getting the book rather than picking up information piecemeal. Next the text discusses returns on bitcoin and inclusion of cryptoassets in a financial portfolio."
"A great introduction to crypto."
"A recommended read for an understanding of this sector!"
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Business Consolidations & Mergers

Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers and Acquisitions (Wiley Finance)
With the release of Investment Banking, Second Edition: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers & Acquisitions , Rosenbaum and Pearl once again have written the definitive book that they wish had existed when they were trying to break into Wall Street. From the Foreword “Rosenbaum and Pearl succeed in providing a systematic approach to addressing a critical issue in any M&A, IPO, or investment situation—namely, how much is a business or transaction worth. They also put forth the framework for helping approach more nuanced questions such as how much to pay for the business and how to get the deal done. Due to the lack of a comprehensive written reference material on valuation, the fundamentals and subtlety of the trade are often passed on orally from banker-to-banker on a case-by-case basis. In codifying the art and science of investment banking, the authors convert this oral history into an accessible framework by bridging the theoretical to the practical with user-friendly, step-by-step approaches to performing primary valuation methodologies.” –Joseph R. Perella, Chairman and CEO, Perella Weinberg Partners. Rosenbaum and Pearl have created a comprehensive and thoughtfully written guide covering the core skills of the successful investment professional with particular emphasis on valuation analysis." Investment Banking provides specific step-by-step valuation procedures for LBO and M&A transactions, with lots of diagrams and numerical examples." — Roger G. Ibbotson, Professor in the Practice of Finance, Yale School of Management Chairman & CIO, Zebra Capital Management, LLC Founder & Advisor, Ibbotson Associates , a Morningstar Company. While numerous textbooks provide students with the core principles of financial economics, the rich institutional considerations that are essential on Wall Street are not well documented. — Josh Lerner , Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School , Coauthor, Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook. "Rosenbaum and Pearl have written the ultimate nuts and bolts guide for valuation.
Reviews
"This is a very good book for professionals working in the different areas of Corporate Bankin."
"It is my pleasure to recommend 'Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers and Acquisitions', which is easily one of the best and most practical books on M&A and valuation that I've read."
"This is more informative than many longer investment banking books I've owned and it's much more accessible and lays in the information out in a more practical manner than lighter investment banking books that I've owned."
"Actually, this is the only book I found, which is practical oriented and allows the reader to gain practical oriented experience while using the book as a tool to work through Valuation, LBOs, and M&As."
"Great product, great book."
"It even includes a sample LBO model which is well constructed and will give some insights not only into Excel, but also into the economics of an LBO."
"Book was required for my class at Pepperdine University for the fully employed graduate program."
"This provides detailed explanation on the process of investment banking and valuation methods including examples."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Online Trading

Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain
A broad introduction of bitcoin and its underlying blockchain—ideal for non-technical users, investors, and business executives An explanation of the technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architects Details of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer-to-peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principles New developments such as Segregated Witness, Payment Channels, and Lightning Network A deep dive into blockchain applications, including how to combine the building blocks offered by this platform into higher-level applications User stories, analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts. With experience ranging from hardware and electronics to high level business and financial systems technology consulting and years as CTO/CIO/CSO in many companies — he combines authority and deep knowledge with an ability to make complex subjects easy to understand. His expertise includes Bitcoin, crypto-currencies, Information Security, Cryptography, Cloud Computing, Data Centers, Linux, Open Source and robotics software development.
Reviews
"Deep complex book for programmers."
"This is an outstanding introduction to the technology behind Bitcoin and cryptocurrency."
"Good technical introduction to bitcoin."
"Fantastic book if you want to learn what Bitcoin is and how it works."
"detailed, comprehensive, and masterful."
"great book very technical."
"He also tackles ways one might lose their bitcoins, and the ideas that are quite different from the centralized payment systems and banks we've become familiar with: one of these being the transference back to the asset owner of the responsibility for security--with suggestions as to how to go about securing them, even providing ways of leaving them to the family even in the event of death of the owner."
"One of the best technical books about blockchain technology I have ever come across."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Finance

Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond
This clear, concise, and accessible guide from two industry insiders shows you how to navigate this brave new blockchain world—and how to invest in these emerging assets to secure your financial future. In addition to offering smart investment strategies, this authoritative resource will help you understand how these assets were created, how they work, and how they are evolving amid the blockchain revolution. By sequentially building on the concepts of each prior chapter, the book will provide you with a full understanding of the cryptoasset economy and the opportunities that await the innovative investor . “As we hurtle into a new, decentralized economy, Burniske and Tatar have laid down something of immense importance: a coherent logic, a new science even, for investing in the assets that will define that coming world.”. “In this sweeping and lucid work, Burniske and Tatar make a compelling case that cryptoassets are foundational to the second generation of the Internet and represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the innovative investor. ―Ric Edelman, three-time #1 Independent Financial Advisor ( Barron’s ) and New York Times bestselling author of The Truth About Your Future. Cryptoassets is an excellent introduction to this breakthrough in technology and finance, and a tremendous resource for those eager to get their heads around what can be a daunting and complex subject.”. Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar give the most compelling case for why, with sharp, detailed analysis that reflects their deep understanding of the technology and their strong finance background. The authors surface many historical examples to remind us that in times of excitement, it is even more important to pay attention to the teams and talent behind each project.”. “ Cryptoassets is a must-read for all financial services executives and investors who want to understand the fundamentals and future directions of this burgeoning, new asset class. Within this book, they’ve rolled up their sleeves to provide helpful historical context and a valuation framework that readers will find intellectually stimulating and illuminating for understanding this rapidly emerging world of cryptoassets.”. Cryptoassets explains, in simple to understand terms, the full paradigm of Bitcoin and its successor currencies, and it provides everything needed to explore this exciting world.”. Cryptoassets makes blockchains accessible to the nontechnical by exploring their varied origin stories, use cases, and fundamental value. “Young, Stanford-trained, blockchain analyst and investor Chris Burniske has teamed up with financial planning expert and author Jack Tatar to provide the first comprehensive guide to understanding the fastest growing, most exciting asset class under the sun. “While the cryptoasset space has witnessed exponential growth, to achieve its full potential, it has to be broadly integrated into the real world. With consistent objectivity and clarity, Chris and Jack’s book details cryptoassets as an asset class, and will prove influential in driving institutional investor adoption of this groundbreaking opportunity.”. “ Cryptoassets provides a great introduction to and overview of the young yet rapidly growing universe of all things blockchain. This industry, asset class, and overall idea will make you ponder why abstract concepts like money, identity, and business function like they do in the world today, and how the innovation we’re seeing will completely reshape the economy of tomorrow. From setting the stage to diving into specific protocols and projects to sharing practical knowledge on how to invest in these emerging assets, Chris and Jack’s combination of expertise and familiarity with the complex topics at hand are testament to why I have considered them some of the best resources throughout my journey of falling deeper and deeper down the crypto rabbit hole.”. It’s not a hard read yet delves into much of the detail needed for a complete understanding of the benefits, and risks, of bitcoin, blockchain, and more. I’d totally recommend it to anyone who wants to dive into investing and understanding how cryptoassets will shape the future of society and the creation of value.”. “Those of us who work in the blockchain industry have long realized that the rise of cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class was inevitable. Chris was the first buy-side analyst to focus exclusively on this emerging asset class, and Jack was one of the earliest financial journalists to stress its importance. Now, with Cryptoassets , they describe, as nobody has before, why every investor should incorporate bitcoin, ether, and new blockchain-based assets into their portfolios, and how to analyze these tokens in order to make the right investments.”. The authors capture not only the technical and market analysis you need to know to invest in these projects but also the ethos and excitement of the people pushing this envelope. The book provides background and the potential impacts of ICOs, offering insightful knowledge to both those entering the space and experienced investors like myself. The book covers the full potential and array of what this technology offers in piercing the veil to an Internet of value with all the new innovations and crossovers from the traditional realm of finance. Chris and Jack have brought a wealth of knowledge and cross-disciplinary methods to bear from their respective fields and broken new ground in their analysis of this exciting new space.”. Burniske and Tatar are able to leverage their deep industry experience to condense a complex, continually evolving topic into a concise and informative guide for investors looking to be on the cutting edge of a new asset class. “In a world where issuing digital assets becomes as easy as creating a website, Chris and Jack provide a comprehensive guide that will help you separate the wheat from the chaff.”. “As we enter the next great evolution in global financial markets, Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar have authored a unique and much needed volume. The book adapts classic finance pricing models to the challenging task of valuing cryptoassets, offering the reader a solid headstart to investing in this new exciting asset class.”. You’ll learn about their colorful histories, how to apply fundamental valuation techniques, and practical tips to navigate the at-times turbulent markets.”. For curious minds who want to know about emerging technologies or even those who already have an understanding of blockchains, Chris and Jack leave no stone unturned. Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar steer the reader through a torrent of unknowns, illuminating the complicated world of cryptoassets and their underlying technology, which will more than likely become our generation’s most important innovation.”. “A must-read to appreciate the Bitcoin network effect and the wave of innovation that it launched through the community of people who played critical roles in creating all the distributed ecosystems that are transforming business models.”.
Reviews
"They cover the good, bad, and ugly of bitcoin’s history and bring us into the present world of decentralized applications. The examples include bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Dogecoin, Dash, Monero, Zcash, Ethereum, Auger, dApps in general. They paint a realistic picture of the landscape and give fair warning to those that may embark on a ride of the cryptoasset roller coaster. The authors provide an analysis and valuation framework that lays out the elements to look for and analyze when deciding on weather or not an investment would be worth it. I have added 2 pictures to the review to show you there is a lot of things you’ll want to recall as you go through your journey."
"The book wisely uses textbook features including headings; sidebars; labeled diagrams; charts and graphs; resources, notes and large index; and maps. The history of this surprisingly (to me) large knowledge domain is presented in the most succinct and straightforward manner. But it's way to long to have been a mere essay, and hence we have the first justification for getting the book rather than picking up information piecemeal. Next the text discusses returns on bitcoin and inclusion of cryptoassets in a financial portfolio."
"Whether you’re a traditional investor, a non-investor who’s interested in bitcoin, or an experienced financial professional who isn’t yet familiar with cryptocurrency, read “Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor’s Guide.” It’s not only for investors—it’s for anyone who wants to learn more about cryptocurrency and blockchain. Chris Berniske and Jack Tatar do an excellent job telling the story behind many cryptocurrencies. Whether you’re an investor in cryptocurrency or not, chances are it’ll be disrupting a vertical near you."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Government Management

Basic Economics
In this fifth edition of Basic Economics , Thomas Sowell revises and updates his popular book on common sense economics, bringing the world into clearer focus through a basic understanding of the fundamental economic principles and how they explain our lives. Thomas Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and has taught economics at Cornell, UCLA, and Amherst.
Reviews
"What sets Thomas Sowell apart from many economists and intellectuals is his ability to present complex ideas with both clarity and simplicity. As he himself once noted, "If academic writings were difficult because of the deep thoughts involved, that might be understandable, even if frustrating. Yet the book is of such breadth and depth that economist Dr. Walter Williams says "it provides an understanding of some economic phenomena that might prove elusive to a Ph.D. He also explains why, for similar reasons, rent control decreases the quality of apartment buildings, or why lowering the price of gas can cause a shortage. An insightful chapter, Sowell explains why some countries enjoy luxury while others suffer poverty, pointing to such commonly overlooked factors as geography and culture. Another addition is that this book ends with a section of questions covering important economic issues."
"I recommend this work to everyone who wishes to know the way sound economic policies should work, and how to go about making the proper changes."
"I got my bachelors degree in economics but this book is so clear I will remember the concepts presented here for much longer."
"The anecdotal teaching of economics is far and away the best for a beginner...a student or a citizen looking to become more educated in a field that is vastly misunderstood."
"Easy to read."
"This book should be mandatory reading before anyone can register to vote."
"this is a must read book."
"This book was far clearer than any economics class I had as an undergrad or in grad school."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Differential Geometry

Differential Geometry and Topology: With a View to Dynamical Systems (Studies in Advanced Mathematics)
Topics of special interest addressed in the book include Brouwer's fixed point theorem, Morse Theory, and the geodesic flow. With clean, clear prose and effective examples, the authors' intuitive approach creates a treatment that is comprehensible to relative beginners, yet rigorous enough for those with more background and experience in the field. A noteworthy feature of the presentation is that dynamical systems, which are introduced in the second chapter, are used systematically to illustrate concepts and as a source of applications.
Reviews
"Each of the 9 chapters of the book offers intuitive insight while developing the main text and it does so without lacking in rigor. The first 6 chapters (which deal with manifolds, vector fields and dynamical systems, Riemannian metrics, Riemannian connections and geodesics, curvature and tensors and differential forms) make up an introduction to dynamical systems and Morse theory (the subject of chapter 8)."
"This joyful aspect of the book was achieved by the authors by setting the advanced material of differential geometry and topology as if on a “mobile bridge” or a “crossroad” that associates a(n) (primarily) unfamiliar abstract part of the text with elementary math theories. Besides the basic theory, centered around analytical properties of manifolds (mostly endowed with additional, in particular Riemannian, structures and vector or tensor fields defined on them) and their applications, it also provides a good introductory approach to some deeper topics of differential topology such as Fixed Points theory, Morse theory, and hyperbolic systems throughout the rest of the book."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Business Consulting

Case Interview Secrets: A Former McKinsey Interviewer Reveals How to Get Multiple Job Offers in Consulting
In Case Interview Secrets, you'll discover step-by-step instructions on how to dominate what many consider to be the most complex, most difficult, and most intimidating corporate job interview in the world—the infamous case interview. "I received six offers--from McKinsey, BCG, Booz, Deloitte, A.T. Kearney, and Marakon . "Victor gave me a clear understanding of how to structure a case interview using a highly logical approach. This helped me get offers from BCG and a boutique firm and make it to McKinsey's final round before opting out." On my second attempt two years later, I followed everything Victor Cheng suggested and took advantage of every resource he provided ... and received an offer from McKinsey!" --Daniel Suo, Business Analyst (Offer Recipient), McKinsey, Stamford. "After following Victor's guidance, I had a complete breakthrough in my case interview performance and got an offer from Monitor." "As a PhD candidate in engineering, I had an academic background that left me completely unprepared for the case interview process. As a candidate, he passed 60 cases and received job offers from McKinsey, Bain, Monitor, LEK, AT Kearney, and Oliver Wyman.
Reviews
"Valuable resource for anyone wanting to know more about successfully passing case interviews."
"It seems like a trend now to treat a book sales as side revenue and the real money is made elsewhere from the leads generated by the book. Nevertheless, there is enough content to justify the book price."
"It is such a great tool to help you build essential business skills and confidence as well."
"I found that going through Case in Point first was useful to go through more specific case examples and frameworks."
"Excellent Book which helped myself successfully to secure interviews and corresponding job-offer."
"Being a good consultant is all about discipline, keeping it simple, straight forward and repeatable."
"Love this product!"
"The book itself is perfectly structured."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Purchasing & Buying Industry

Private Label Empire: Build a Brand - Launch on Amazon FBA - The Perfect Home-Based Business to earn $1000 to $20000 per Month (Amazon FBA, Amazon FBA ... Physical Products, Private Label, FBA)
PRIVATE LABEL EMPIRE will give you all the information required to help you on your way to building a HUGE business. Tags: Amazon Private Label FBA, FBA, Private Label FBA, Amazon FBA, Amazon FBA Secrets, Sell on Amazon, Physical Products, Private Label, FBA, Private Label, Home-Based Business, Amazing Selling Machine, Fufillment by Amazon, Private Label FBA, Selling on Amazon.
Reviews
"I was thinking about paying for the ASM course, but this book is a summary of their steps."
"Excellent point made in this book that are shaping my thinking and helping me get to the next level."
"This was a quick read very informative with specific actionable information and insight."
"Learn how to make extra money in your spare time."
"Short and to the point."
"I thought this was a great ebook."
"Good read I found the book details on exact steps."
"A well researched book on how to start private label business."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Insurance

An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back
At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system - and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems. Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. Rosenthal told an interviewer her goal was to “start a very loud conversation” that will be “difficult politically to ignore.” We need such a conversation – not just about how the market fails, but about how we can change the political realities that stand in the way of fixing it.”— The New York Times Book Review “Patients can save thousands of dollars by purchasing An American Sickness by Elisabeth Rosenthal.”— New York Journal of Books. “Bold, insightful, well-researched analysis.” — Nature “Truly remarkable for the extensive interviews and range of documentation it provides.” — American Psychological Association “In this in-depth analysis of a malfunctioning system, Rosenthal makes a compelling case against the hospital and pharmaceutical executives behind the “money chase,” and it’s hard to imagine a more educated, credible guide…The patients she interviewed share mind-boggling stories…She builds her case with one damning statistic after another…Rosenthal presents solutions both personal and societal in this commanding and necessary call to arms.” —Booklist (starred) “Provocatively analyzes...Rosenthal unveils with surgical precision the "dysfunctional medical market"...a startling cascade.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review). I have not read another volume that diagnoses the “deeply, perhaps fatally, flawed” system of health insurance and delivery with such lucidity, dissects its critical shortcomings, and provides such a clear prescription for its ills. Bold, imaginative, tautly written and filled with fury and compassion, this book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America.” —Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene. Elisabeth Rosenthal’s remarkable, outrage-inducing book reveals how each attempt to check the health industry’s excesses has been exploited for monetary gain. Both a fascinating history of dysfunction, and a clear manifesto for change.” —Sheri Fink, M.D., Ph.D., Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Five Days at Memorial and War Hospital “Through vivid, heart wrenching stories and trenchant analysis, Libby Rosenthal unveils the irrationality, indifference, harmfulness, and downright unfairness of the American health care system that can often seem more driven by profit than caring and compassion.
Reviews
"An American Sickness is a gripping, fast paced and revolting dive from 50,000 feet above into the morass of what passes for healthcare in the USA. Patients are barely tolerated in a system optimized to pass money from bank accounts to providers. Because Rosenthal (an MD herself) was a columnist for the New York Times, she received thousands of contacts over the years. She researched them and they provide the vivid and shameful examples of financial abuse in the industry (with real names). She has distilled them into a perverse list of principles of US healthcare that explains everything and forms the backbone of the book: 1. As the American economy freefalls into dysfunction, doctors and nurses have become “independent contractors”, just like everyone else. Administrators are no longer senior caregivers but numbers people who must limit the poorly insured and maximize the profit on every square foot. The rest of the western world and history are the proof: “If the March of Dimes was operating according to today’s foundation models, we’d have iron lungs in five different colors controlled by iPhone apps – but we wouldn’t have a cheap polio vaccine,” Rosenthal quotes Dr. Michael Brownlee. Rosenthal provides really useful links and sample letters, because customers are all in this same situation – ignorant and powerless. This book is worth far more than a month’s health insurance; it can save you a fortune, and give you back your life."
"I have been a nurse since 1978 and have had a front row seat to the changes in health care in the ensuing decades."
"Not a subject matter I would normally be interested in, but in the current political climate I felt I should get a better understanding of what is going on in the healthcare industries. I am not a big fan of the government getting involved in healthcare, however if we are going to let free enterprise control the costs I think it is important to know if the healthcare industries will respond to true competition like other industries such as the telecommunication and automotive industries."
"The probable fix is some sort of single payer system like those used in the rest of the developed world but in the meantime, this book by a Harvard educated MD can help provide you with some defensive measures. So they can claim the doc is hospital affiliated and raise his charges by 35-100% for facilities fees, even if he doesn't move from his current office."
"When you scrutinize your insurance statements and feel relieved that all you had to pay was zero or a small co-pay, what you don't realize is that our complacency has enabled hospitals, doctors, insurance, pharmaceuticals, device manufactures, and more to reap huge profits -- oh, "operating surplus.""
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Manufacturing Industry

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer
Eliminating wasted time and resources Building quality into workplace systems Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology Producing in small quantities Turning every employee into a qualitycontrol inspector. Dr. Jeffrey Liker, a renowned authority on Toyota's Lean methods, explains how you can adopt these principles--known as the "Toyota Production System" or "Lean Production"--to improve the speed of your business processes, improve product and service quality, and cut costs, no matter what your industry. You'll learn how Toyota fosters employee involvement at all levels, discover the difference between traditional process improvement and Toyota's Lean improvement, and learn why companies often think they are Lean--but aren't. Dr. Liker explains each key principle with detailed, examples from Toyota and other Lean companies on how to: Foster an atmosphere of continuous improvement and learning Create continuous process "flow" to unearth problems Satisfy customers (and eliminate waste at the same time) Grow your leaders rather than purchase them Get quality right the first time Grow together with your suppliers and partners for mutual benefit. Dr. Liker shows the Toyota Way in action, then outlines how to apply the Toyota Way in your organization, with examples of how other companies have rebuilt their culture to create a Lean, learning enterprise. The Toyota Way, explain's Toyota's unique approach to Lean--the 14 management principles and philosophy that drive Toyota's quality and efficiency-obsessed culture.
Reviews
"I feel like it has more content about efficient manufacturing."
"Great book to either get you started on Lean methodologies or dive deep in to how Toyota uses Lean/Just-in-Time techniques that can apply to any industry (manufacturing, software, design...any industry that delivers a product can benefit from the concepts in this book)."
"It's mostly a history book but it's a really neat one all the same."
"I listened to the audiobook while driving along with reading the book whenever I was stationary such as home and work."
"A treasure chest, chuck full of powerful concepts, explained simply, clearly, and concisely: sums it up for me!"
"I'm just an unfrozen caveman operations guy and even I can see the genius behind these principles."
"Excellent book!"
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Retailing Industry

#GIRLBOSS
In the New York Times bestseller that the Washington Post called “ Lean In for misfits,” Sophia Amoruso shares how she went from dumpster diving to founding one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world. It’s this kind of honest advice, plus the humorous ups and downs of her rise in online retail, that make the book so appealing.” — Los Angeles Times. “Amoruso teaches the innovative and entrepreneurial among us to play to our strengths, learn from our mistakes, and know when to break a few of the traditional rules.” — Vanity Fair “#GIRLBOSS is more than a book . " #GIRLBOSS is more than a book . Her other books are The Girlboss Workbook and Nasty Galaxy.
Reviews
"It is inspiring to see with will power and nobody telling you no, you truly achieve something... and with spam."
"This was a very easy read and I have a lot of underlines in mine since there are many golden nuggets throughout for anyone who is considering starting their own business."
"What can I say about this book other than it's incredibly inspirational and gives me the feeling that I can go-get-'em."
"Finished this book in one afternoon."
"This is the only fully truthful business book I have read."
"This girl is funny, shares her start-up knowledge in a witty, humorous way."
"+ It truly is inspiring to read about a type of success not born of traditional privilege or ambition - I hope this book gets a lot of other young women out there to kick-start their dreams. Sophia seems to think her company is God's gift to Earth - I found her completely presumptuous both in her evaluation of her own brand equity, and hyperbolic in her descriptions of Nasty Gal as a "huge, explosive success" (I live and work in Silicon Valley, where nonprofits get $20M in funding annually easy and companies grow from 1 to 350 employees in two years - let's have a sense of scale here.). She had some nice words about some coworkers, but she never acknowledges the support her family gave her even as she was essentially a parenting failure, never thanks her customers for driving awareness of her brand, never admits that some of her colleagues are at least part of the reason behind her company's success. + She plays the victim so much but never acknowledges any real failures (and now, hiring someone you thought was right for the role and then having to fire them isn't a failure - it's a rhetorical device used to assert your authority in this book.)."
"Due to the hype, I was expecting better writing and more depth."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Oil & Energy Industry

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power
Deemed "the best history of oil ever written" by Business Week and with more than 300,000 copies in print, Daniel Yergin’s Pulitzer Prize–winning account of the global pursuit of oil, money, and power has been extensively updated to address the current energy crisis. Following on from there, The Prize , winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Energy consultant Yergin limns oil's central role in most of the wars and many international crises of the 20th century.
Reviews
"It focuses on the effects of oil on the economies of both consuming and producing nations as well how access to oil affects the political power of nations."
"It makes no sense to export a precious finite resource, and it makes a lot of sense to use our enemy's supply first."
"This is the third copy of this book that I have purchased."
"The sentiments of various people and groups towards oil (good or bad) were negligible in the book which gave it almost a sterile feel. I now have a much stronger understanding of just how oil plays its enormous role in the global society. I can't say enough about how well this book informs its reader in an enjoyable and insightful way. It may at points be dry material, but in no way did i feel like this book was written over my head."
"Although concentrated on the oil industry, this book is really an incredible history of the twentieth century, which makes a lot of sense considering the paramount of oil to that era and now."
"This is a long book, but if you want to write a comprehensive story of oil and its impact on the economy spanning more than a century, it's going to be long."
"This is one of the best histories of the Oil Business."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Customer Relations

Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (Strategyzer)
Using the same stunning visual format as the authors’ global bestseller, Business Model Generation, this sequel explains how to use the “Value Proposition Canvas” a practical tool to design, test, create, and manage products and services customers actually want. Value Proposition Design complements and perfectly integrates with the ”Business Model Canvas” from Business Model Generation, a tool embraced by startups and large corporations such as MasterCard, 3M, Coca Cola, GE, Fujitsu, LEGO, Colgate-Palmolive, and many more. The team behind “Value Proposition Design” is the same as for the global bestseller, Business Model Generation, composed of Dr. Alexander Osterwalder, Dr. Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and completed by Greg Bernarda,, and Trish Papadakos. Dr. Alexander Osterwalder and Alan Smith are co-founders of Strategyzer.com, a company specializing in tools to design, test, and manage strategies, business models and value propositions. Dr. Yves Pigneur is a professor of management and information systems at the University of Lausanne, Greg Bernarda is a consultant and certified Strategyzer coach specialized in strategy and innovation, Trish Papadakos is a renowned designer and photographer. Dr. Osterwalder invented the “Business Model Canvas,” the strategic management tool to design, test, build, and manage business models, which is used by companies like Coca Cola, GE, P&G, Mastercard, Ericsson, LEGO, or 3M. He helped create the Value Proposition Canvas with Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, and the breakthrough design for Business Model Generation.
Reviews
"Many people will in the future attribute success to canvas-thinking or blue ocean-thinking, which will create a hoard of followers. The book's format is encouraging a tendency to make things easy and simple. Check out The Innovator's Hypothesis: How Cheap Experiments Are Worth More than Good Ideas which is a deeper description of prototyping. The tools give a strong sense of security, when I would prefer people to be more humble and paranoid. Great idea, but we only get four pages devoted to the topic and 70% of that space is covered with very cute graphics. (I have exactly the same critique on this book 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization.). A lot of start-up technology companies have prototypes that are not well matched to the customers' requirements (and that goes for big firms like 3M too). Any high level executive that falls for the cute graphics in the book should be immediately fired."
"This book can help in multiple ways such as: presenting the value of your product to your customers, creating shared understanding of your product and it features, showing the benefits and value for meeting or exceeding the customers expectations, and more."
"To me the measure of a great business book is that as you read it you feel a mounting sense of excitement about an idea you read, and how it will be immediately applicable to your situation; this book has that - a lot."
"Great book for any practitioner for working hands-on about new business ideas within current and new ventures."
"Great information in this book."
"Wonderful execution of mechanistic analysis."
"A very good book, very useful for learning and evaluate a business."
"Great book."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Sports & Entertainment Industry

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
From one of the co-founders of Pixar Animation Studios—the Academy Award–winning studio behind Coco, Inside Out, and Toy Story —comes an incisive book about creativity in business and leadership for readers of Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, and Chip and Dan Heath. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Huffington Post • Financial Times • Success • Inc. • Library Journal “[ Creativity, Inc. ]. just might be the most thoughtful management book ever.”— Fast Company Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”. Praise for Creativity, Inc. “Over more than thirty years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of disciplined creativity during setbacks and success.” —Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last and author of Good to Great “Too often, we seek to keep the status quo working. “Just might be the best business book ever written.” — Forbes “Achieving enormous success while holding fast to the highest artistic standards is a nice trick—and Pixar, with its creative leadership and persistent commitment to innovation, has pulled it off. Any reader of Creativity, Inc., Catmull’s new book on the art of running creative companies, will have to agree. Catmull, president of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, has written what just might be the most thoughtful management book ever.” — Fast Company “It’s one thing to be creative; it’s entirely another—and much more rare—to build a great and creative culture. Over more than thirty years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of disciplined creativity during setbacks and success. Catmull’s book is quickly becoming the latest bible for the show business crowd.” —The New York Times “The most practical and deep book ever written by a practitioner on the topic of innovation.” —Prof. [Catmull] uses Pixar’s triumphs and near-disasters to outline a system for managing people in creative businesses—one in which candid criticism is delivered sensitively, while individuality and autonomy are not strangled by a robotic corporate culture.” — Financial Times “A wonderful new book . An immensely readable and rewarding book that will challenge and inspire readers to make their workplaces hotbeds of creativity.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Punctuated with surprising tales of how the company’s films were developed and the company’s financial struggles, Catmull shares insights about harnessing talent, creating teams, protecting the creative process, candid communications, organizational structures, alignment, and the importance of storytelling. [ Creativity, Inc. ] will delight and inspire creative individuals and their managers, as well as anyone who wants to work ‘in an environment that fosters creativity and problem solving.’” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “For anyone managing anything, and particularly those trying to manage creative teams, Catmull is like a kind, smart godfather guiding us toward managing wisely, without losing our souls, and in a way that works toward greatness. What Ed Catmull shares instead is his astute experience that creativity isn’t strictly a well of ideas, but an alchemy of people. In Creativity, Inc. Ed reveals, with commonsense specificity and honesty, examples of how not to get in your own way and how to realize a creative coalescence of art, business, and innovation.” —George Lucas “This is the best book ever written on what it takes to build a creative organization. Ed Catmull is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation.
Reviews
"Managers, as well as anyone who wants to better understand how companies work and what elements are necessary to make and keep them successful, will appreciate Catmull’s insight on leadership, nurturing creative environment, and protecting it from invisible threats. After reading the book, I constantly find myself quoting the concepts and examples described there when talking to my husband or friends about their jobs or my own and discussing what works, what doesn’t, and why."
"Ed shared several amusing experiences creating these magnificent movies to illustrate management concepts."
"Mr. Catmull presents an impressive analysis of how corporate culture can negatively impact creativity, even when corporate leaders proclaim their support for creativity and truly believe they are doing everything they can to foster and support it."
"Whether you're just a Pixar fan, or you're looking for ways to improve your company, you can't go wrong with this book."
"It tells of how the company was formed and the various challenges and changes along the way as well as how the people in charge are constantly attempting to maintain Pixar as a separate entity from Disney after being purchased by the latter while fixing Disney's animation studios and making Disney a world class entity itself."
"The book is definitely about creativity and the creative process, but it's equally about business and management."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Transportation Industry

American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company
The inside story of the epic turnaround of Ford Motor Company under the leadership of CEO Alan Mulally. In the bestselling tradition of Too Big to Fail and The Big Short , American Icon is narrative nonfiction at its vivid and colorful best. “A standout…brimming with smart observations and fresh insights into Ford’s success.” –Alex Taylor, Fortune “Fly-on-the-wall accounts of Mulally negotiating deals and Ford overcoming challenges from the inside and outside…A paean to the ingenuity, grit and optimism that once defined American industry and to capitalism played with government on the sidelines.” – Reuters “A compelling narrative that reads more like a thriller than a business book.” – New York Times “A must-read.” – Huffington Post “A fascinating read for anyone who follows the car industry.” –Financial Times “A Detroit News journalist’s in-the-room account of the resurrection of America’s most storied car company…With colorful anecdotes, sharp character sketches, telling details and a firm understanding of the industry, Hoffman fleshes out every aspect of this tale, reminding us of the hard work, tension, and high-stakes drama that preceded the successful result.” — Kirkus. “Bryce G. Hoffman’s American Icon brilliantly recounts the Lazarus-like resurgence of the Ford Motor Company under the bold and inspiring leadership of CEO Alan Mulally. Highly recommend!” —Douglas Brinkley, professor of history, Rice University, and author of Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress “Bryce Hoffman has written a riveting tome based on deep insider information about the resurrection of the Ford Motor Company from a near death experience and the establishment of a business model that promises to be a prototype for large organizations of all types.
Reviews
"I purchased it hoping to get a decent idea of what Ford went through during the economic crisis of 2006-2009, but this book proved to be a detailed, engrossing story that I could barely put down."
"This is an excellent book on Mullaly and more importantly, on Ford."
"But the book provides so much background detail about meetings and personal interactions that it becomes very clear early in the book that Mulally really is as genuine and down-to-earth as he has been portrayed in other media. Again, Hoffman demystifies Ford's roll, corrects many of my own assumptions about who he is personally and also provides some insight into the types of individuals in the Ford family. The topic of the Ford family comes up a number of times in the book and Hoffman lays out very squarely that some of the family are nothing more than decedents of the fortune who have no daily connection to the company, and others as mid-level managers, learning and guiding the business, who live and breathe by the companies success and failure and desperately want it to succeed."
"He truly understands how to inspire great work by his colleagues and bring them out of a massively dysfunctional culture. Every organizational leader will do well to read and emulate his leadership style and substance. One of my favorite parts was where the direct reports to Alan were trying to put him in his place by saying that autos were very complex, required long lead times to create, and thousands of parts had to come together just right so the vehicle would run well. A second one was about two months into his effort when one person, who is now the current CEO, dared to say something wasn't going well in one of the Canadian operations under his organization. The weekly Thursday meeting was another brilliant innovation to keep things moving rapidly and solving problems as they went forward with plans many of his subordinates had developed."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Restaurant & Food Industry

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Fast Food Nation points the way but, to resurrect an old fast food slogan, the choice is yours.”— Los Angeles Times. Eric Schlosser’s exposé revealed how the fast food industry has altered the landscape of America, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and transformed food production throughout the world. In a new afterword for this edition, Schlosser discusses the growing interest in local and organic food, the continued exploitation of poor workers by the food industry, and the need to ensure that every American has access to good, healthy, affordable food. “Schlosser shows how the fast food industry conquered both appetite and landscape.”— The New Yorker. In this fascinating sociocultural report, Schlosser digs into the deeper meaning of Burger King, Auggie's, The Chicken Shack, Jack-in-the-Box, Little Caesar's and myriad other examples of fast food in America. Frequently using McDonald's as a template, Schlosser, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, explains how the development of fast-food restaurants has led to the standardization of American culture, widespread obesity, urban sprawl and more. In a perky, reportorial voice, Adamson tells of the history, economics, day-to-day dealings and broad and often negative cultural implications of franchised burger joints and pizza factories, delivering impressive snippets of information (e.g., two-thirds of America's fast-food restaurant employees are teenagers; Willard Scott posed as the first Ronald McDonald until higher-ups decided Scott was too round to represent a healthy restaurant like McDonald's). According to Schlosser, most visits to fast-food restaurants are the culinary equivalent of "impulse buys," i.e., someone is driving by and pulls over for a Big Mac.
Reviews
"In some cases (such as the malling and sprawling of the West) the fast food industry has been a catalyst and a symptom of larger economic trends. By tracing the diverse influences of fast food I hope to shed light not only on the workings of an important industry, but also on a distinctively American way of viewing the world." Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful: "The history of the twentieth century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. "The right pressure applied to the fast food industry in the right way could produce change faster than any act of Congress. The United Students Against Sweatshops and other activist groups have brought widespread attention to the child labor, low wages, and hazardous working conditions in Asian factories that make sneakers for Nike." "Whatever replaces the fast food industry should be regional, diverse, authentic, unpredictable, sustainable, profitable - and humble."
"The book starts off by explaining how the fast food industry came to be the American symbol. Schlosser took many tours through slaughterhouses and interviewed many former employees that have been burned out from the tortuous conditions. Schlosser says that, "Everyday in the United States, roughly 200,000 people are sickened by food borne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and 14 die". His main message presented was how the fast food industry is affecting society. Having more people know about what is really behind the Big Mac and the Whopper will help society understand what they are eating and how it can affect them."
"Even ten years after this was originally written, still incredibly timely."
"Then he gets into other topics - the minimum wage, failed unionizations, the ingredients, marketing that targets children - and your eyes are opened permanently."
"I bought Fast Food Nation through Amazon seller as a used book."
"It offers an amazing insight of the entire meet industry."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Nonprofit Organizations & Charities

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)
These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture. The goal of this book is to help you turn what feels like an anchor into wind at your back -- creating a company where the team is engaged; the customers are doing your marketing; and everyone is making money. Scaling Up shows business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride. Scaling Up is that business book. Verne’s tools and techniques have been critical to helping us drive and manage this growth during my 20 years as CEO ― and ultimately to freeing me up as the founder to pursue other interests.” -- Scott Tannas, founder and Vice Chairman, Western Financial Group; senator, Canadian Parliament. “Scaling up a significant business requires precisely the kind of discipline and focus detailed in Verne’s practical and ‘how-to’ driven book.” -- Scott Farquhar, co-founder and CEO, Atlassian. “Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up is one of the finest business books you'll ever read. Whether you're an entrepreneur who wants to scale up, a CEO who wants to take his business to the next level, or a non-profit executive who wants to leave a legacy, this book will be life-changing.” -- Tan Yinglan, Author of Way of the VC – Top Venture Capitalists on Your Board, Chinnovation – How Chinese Innovators are Changing the World and New Venture Creation - Entrepreneurship For The 21st Century - An Asian Perspective. ( Scaling Up ) Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and chaired for fifteen years EO's premiere CEO program, the "Birthing of Giants" and WEO's "Advanced Business" executive program both held at MIT. Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 150 coaching partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale-up.
Reviews
"This book was great for our organization."
"Verne's insight is superb, fresh view, clear direction, a lot of new books, you are in good hands!"
"Most businesses in the world turnover less than $1 million and if you want to make it to the 4% this book has solid advice from an experienced entrepreneur on how to become part of the 4%."
"I have read a lot of business books, literally thousands, and I would put this book in my top 10 for sure."
"Excelente teory, dificult to achieve in practice."
"Great book."
"A good book for start ups in both business and other organizations."
"Book is to the point, full of tools to use and real business examples to follow."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Information Management

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
By the end of an average day in the early twenty-first century, human beings searching the internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. Everybody Lies offers fascinating, surprising, and sometimes laugh-out-loud insights into everything from economics to ethics to sports to race to sex, gender and more, all drawn from the world of big data. With conclusions ranging from strange-but-true to thought-provoking to disturbing, he explores the power of this digital truth serum and its deeper potential—revealing biases deeply embedded within us, information we can use to change our culture, and the questions we’re afraid to ask that might be essential to our health—both emotional and physical. “Brimming with intriguing anecdotes and counterintuitive facts, Stephens-Davidowitz does his level best to help usher in a new age of human understanding, one digital data point at a time.” ( Fortune , Best New Business Books). “ Freakonomics on steroids—this book shows how big data can give us surprising new answers to important and interesting questions. Drawing on a wide variety of revelatory sources, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz will make you cringe, chuckle, and wince at the people you thought we were.” (Christian Rudder, author of Dataclysm ). “A tour de force—a well-written and entertaining journey through big data that, along the way, happens to put forward an important new perspective on human behavior itself. What he found is that Internet search data might be the Holy Grail when it comes to understanding the true nature of humanity.” ( New York Post ). “ Everybody Lies is an astoundingly clever and mischievous exploration of what big data tells us about everyday life. The empirical findings in Everybody Lies are so intriguing that the book would be a page-turner even if it were structured as a mere laundry list.” (The Economist). A book for those who are intensely curious about human nature, informational analysis, and amusing anecdotes to the tune of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakanomics.” ( Library Journal ). In this groundbreaking work, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard-trained economist, former Google data scientist, and New York Times writer, argues that much of what we thought about people has been dead wrong. New data from the internet—the traces of information that billions of people leave on Google, social media, dating, and even pornography sites—finally reveals the truth. Everybody Lies combines the informed analysis of Nate Silver’s TheSignal and the Noise, the storytelling of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and the wit and fun of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics in a book that will change the way you view the world.
Reviews
"The basic thesis of "Everybody Lies" is that online data on human behavior, including Google searches and data from Facebook, shopping and pornographic sites, can reveal much about what we really think than data from surveys in which people might be too embarrassed to tell the truth. What has allowed us to access this pool of unguarded opinions and truckloads of data concerning human behavior is the Internet and the tools of "big" data. As the author puts it, this data is not just "big" but also "new", which means that the kind of data we can access is also quite different from what we are used to; in his words, we live in a world where every sneeze, cough, internet purchase, political opinion, and evening run can be considered "data". Generally speaking there is quite an emphasis on exploring human sexuality in the book, partly because sexuality is one of those aspects of our life that we wish to hide the most and are also pruriently interested in, and partly because investigating this data through Google searches and pornographic sites reveals some rather bizarre sexual preference that are also sometimes specific to one country or another. Based on Google searches in particular states, the author shows how racism (as indicated by racist Google searches) was a primary indicator of which states voted for Obama in the 2008 election and Trump in the 2016 election. The primary tool for doing all this data analysis is correlation or regression analysis, where you look at online searches and try to find correlations between certain terms and factors like geographic location, gender, ethnicity. There are tons of other amusing and informative studies - sometimes the author's own but more often other people's - that reveal human desires and behavior across a wide swathe of fields, including politics, dating, sports, education, shopping and sexuality. As the author himself acknowledges, understanding correlation is not the same as understanding causation, and it's in very few cases that a true causal relationship between people's Google searches and their true nature can be established. At the end of the day you could thus end up with a lot of data (including a lot of noise), but teasing apart the useful data points from the red herrings is a completely different matter. Secondly, it's usually quite hard to control for all possible variables that may reflect a Google search; for instance in concluding that racism contributes the most to a particular political behavior, it's very hard to tease out all other factors that also may do so, especially when you are talking about a heterogeneous collection of human beings."
"Already years and years of books, newspapers and magazines have been digitized and made searchable. Big Data is all those searches, all those newspapers, all the books, all the inventory data, all the telephone traffic data, all the FaceBook posts, all the sales information for everything. The digitization of past data will change how we view our history. The oceans of data we are compiling now will allow our chroniclers to know us better than we know ourselves."
"As someone who has worked on many social science research studies based on self-reported survey respondent data, I can fully appreciate the author's findings."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Human Resources & Personnel Management

Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
Most people are fearful of change, both personal and professional, because they don't have any control over how or when it happens to them. Since change happens either to the individual or by the individual, Dr. Spencer Johnson, the coauthor of the multimillion bestseller The One Minute Manager, uses a deceptively simple story to show that when it comes to living in a rapidly changing world, what matters most is your attitude. Most of us reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our livelihoods--our jobs, our career paths, the industries we work in--although it can stand for anything, from health to relationships. Dr. Johnson, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and many other books, presents this parable to business, church groups, schools, military organizations--anyplace where you find people who may fear or resist change. And although more analytical and skeptical readers may find the tale a little too simplistic, its beauty is that it sums up all natural history in just 94 pages: Things change. This is a brief tale of two mice and two humans who live in a maze and one day are faced with change: someone moves their cheese. Capably narrated by Tony Roberts, this audiotape is recommended for larger public library collections.AMark Guyer, Stark Cty.
Reviews
"Bought this as a graduation present for a new MBA maybe there are some gems of wisdom in there for him in his new career."
"Everyone should read this book, especially in today's world where most people are scared that the AIs will take over."
"A great read I've given this book to a few friends and to my two sons."
"Everyone involved in organisations should read."
"great book."
"All time quick read fav."
"Have found it to be good gift for friends going through changes in life."
"Great book."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Media & Communications Industry

All You Need to Know About the Music Business: Ninth Edition
“The industry bible” (Los Angeles Times), now updated, essential for anyone in the music business—musicians, songwriters, lawyers, agents, promoters, publishers, executives, and managers—trying to navigate the rapid transformation of the industry. Donald S. Passman practices law in California and has specialized in the music business for more than thirty years, primarily representing talent. All You Need to Know About the Music Business Well, kiddies, we’ve certainly seen a lot of changes since we last we got together. Now if you’re reading this and trying to decide whether the music business will disappear and if you’d be better off putting the price of this book into your stamp collection, there actually is a beautiful weather forecast. As we’ll discuss, streaming has the potential to make the music business bigger than it’s ever been in history. And at no extra charge (if you act RIGHT NOW), there’s an update of what’s happening with traditional music business deals—recording, songwriting, merchandising, touring, and so forth.
Reviews
"I'll definitely refer back to it as my journey continues, but no matter your "stage" or "status" in the industry, do yourself a favor and read this book!"
"You dont buy this book... YOU dont take your craft seriously."
"Amazing book."
"This has become my bible for working in the music industry and has allowed me to have a clear understanding of the industry for running my record label."
"Great book to learn the ropes, it should be a must have if your in the music world."
"Bought it for my godson and he loved it."
"Great book, well worth the reading, from novice to expert, you will get something of value out of this book."
"Probably THE BEST in its field."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Service Industry

The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: The tell-it-like-it-is guide to cleaning up in business, even if you are at the end of your roll.
So says Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, a business book that is so uniquely useful, so raw and entertaining, it reads like the brainchild of Steve Jobs and Chris Rock. Whether you're just starting out or have been at this for years, Mike's "get real" approach to business is a much-needed swift kick in the pants. "Disarmingly funny, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur tells it like it is and yet never gives up on the little guy. "The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur is a great, insightful read loaded with ingenuity, humor, and heart. -- Cameron Johnson , Entrepeneur, Oprah's The Big Give Contestent and Author of You Call The Shots. -- Fraser Doherty , 19 Year Old Founder & Managing Director of $1M+ company, SuperJam. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur shows you how to get off the pot by using what you have to make your business a success!" First, it is written by a successful serial entrepreneur who has built multi-million dollar businesses and walked the talk. The founder of three multimillion-dollar companies, including Obsidian Launch, a company that partners with first-time entrepreneurs to grow their concepts into industry leaders, Mike Michalowicz knows what it really takes to spin your great idea into pure gold. Whether you're just starting out or have been at this for years, Mike's "get real" approach to business is a much-needed swift kick in the pants.
Reviews
"For me, being a TPE is summed up on page 123, where Michalowicz talks about the five things you need to succeed in anything. While these things may be obvious to some, when you are in the middle of starting a company, you can lose yourself in every little detail. It cuts out the crap (no pun intended) and tells you specifically what you need to do to succeed as an entrepreneur."
"The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur has a target base of readers who have discovered they MUST get off the proverbial pot if they are to have any chance of success in this very challenging economy. These people are ready, willing, and capable of achieving wonderfully successful businesses that can in turn jump start the economy, but they don't have time to go back to school to learn all the technical jargon, etc to begin their work. At the end of each chapter is a set of action steps designed to help the budding entrepreneur or even a long-time business person evaluate his WHY...why am I doing what I'm doing...for if one can reignite the passion, or in some cases actually discover the driving passion, then there is a recipe for success that does not involve a convoluted, mystifying jumble of highly specific jargon that only the "media darlings", as Michalowicz calls them, can decipher. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur cuts to the chase in regard to small business development by sharing with his audience what the 20% already know...you must know WHO you are in order to know WHAT you are about before you can determine WHERE you are going, and all of that BEFORE you can create the road map to get there! Many, if not all, of the TPE audience feels betrayed by the system, but Michalowicz offers hope by reminding us of our historical origins......we are a nation of resourceful, resilient people who can do anything with a strong will and "just three sheets of paper"."
"I love this book because it's more than a book, it's become a guide to charting the course of my business."
"I'm on my way to starting my own business and using the principles in this book I found my passion and now I'm taking action. The proof is in the pudding and in my humble opinion, this book is worth every penny.I stumbled across and purchased it purely because the name intrigued me and now I'm totally hooked on anything Mike Michalowicz has to offer. They are referred to as Immutable Laws and by building your business round them you will be happy and always inspired to work. This book has some great tips and advice on how to build a business you are passionate about and will be able to sustain for the long haul. This is Not a book about short cuts, or unsubstantiated claims of how to turn a $100 into $100,000 with just a click of a button. You will get some great strategies for success from this book, but like it says on page 35: without action "it's all concepts and no application." If your still not convinced, check out Mick Michalowicz blog at [...] Sign up for his newsletter and see how much valuable advice he gives."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Hospitality, Travel & Tourism

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
The bestselling business book from award-winning restauranteur Danny Meyer, of Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, and Shake Shack. In this landmark book, Danny shares the lessons he learned developing the dynamic philosophy he calls Enlightened Hospitality. Book Description In October 1985, at age 27, Danny Meyer, with a good idea and scant experience, opened what would become one of New York City's most revered restaurants--Union Square Cafe. Named one of the most influential New Yorkers of 2006 by New York magazine, Meyer, the founder and co-owner of 11 of Manhattan's most influential restaurants, including Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Tabla, The Modern, Blue Smoke, and Shake Shack, has penned Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality , a business book that reads like food lit and equal part personal memoir. Amazon.com senior editor Brad Thomas Parsons took some time from his daily long-distance day-dreaming of Shake Shack and caught up with the ever-gracious Danny Meyer over e-mail to ask about his new book, the Food Network, his favorite cookbooks, insider tips on dining out, and much more. Initially cautious about expansion, he opened Gramercy Tavern with chef Tom Colicchio three years later, eventually broadening his New York City restaurant empire to 11 establishments including Eleven Madison Park, Tabla, Blue Smoke, Shake Shack and the Modern.
Reviews
"This is one of my all time favorite books - really a wonderful read."
"Danny Meyer is brilliant and shared many valuable insights not only for business dealings, but also for life in general."
"Danny Meyers shows a lot on honesty with his experience some is drawn out on personal situations opposed to a teaching how-to."
"Mr. Meyer's entertaining and educational story of his life in the restaurant business serves as an instructional manual for anyone involved in business and leadership."
"Of all business books I've ever read, this one does more to focus on the one reason I want to be in business: take good care of people."
"Author gives many useful tips on hospitality, how to establish and run a restaurant, how to treat customers, suppliers, community, investors and your own team, how to deal with various difficulties on the road to success and most of this advices come from his own experience."
"Worth reading if you are interested in the culinary field or even just basic business."
"I described to him my hopes for owning my own restaurant one day, and he recommended this book to me."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best E-commerce Professional

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
The Everything Store is the book that the business world can't stop talking about, the revealing, definitive biography of the company that placed one of the first and largest bets on the Internet and forever changed the way we shop and read. Winner of the 2013 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award Chosen as aBest Book of 2013 by The Washington Post , Forbes , The New Republic , and Gizmodo , and as one of the Top 10 Investigative Journalism Books of 2013 by Nieman Reports. " The Everything Store is a revelatory read for everyone--those selling and those sold to--who wants to understand the dynamics of the new digital economy. If you've ever one-clicked a purchase, you must read this book." "A deeply reported and deftly written book.... Like Steven Levy's "In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives," and "Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry -- and Made Himself the Richest Man in America" by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, it is the definitive account of how a tech icon came to life."
Reviews
"I wasn't really planning on reviewing this book, because I was mentioned in it several times and it didn't seem appropriate. But several other people who were also mentioned in the book have already posted reviews, and in fact, MacKenzie Bezos, in her well known 1-star review, suggested that other "characters" might "step out of books" and "speak for themselves". Since Mr. Stone did not have access to Jeff Bezos for this book, but had to rely on previous interviews and the accounts of others, it would be surprising if there weren't a few mistakes regarding his thought processes. As part of my agreement to be interviewed for this book, I was allowed to read a draft of the chapter which covered the time I was there, and I offered a number of corrections, some of which Mr. Stone was able to verify and incorporate. I have a pretty high degree of confidence that Mr. Stone made a significant effort, and did what was in his power, to make the book accurate. The irony is, of course, that by reviewing the book as MacKenzie Bezos did, she has brought an immense amount more attention to it -- there are dozens of articles referring to her review via Google News this morning -- and its sales rank has shot up considerably."
"This story about Jeff Bezos just confirms that in order to do big things in the universe, you've got to have a superhuman amount of drive, a vision, initiative; you've got to continue to create, think big, don't be afraid to fail and carry on in spite of the critics."
"Indeed, based on my understanding of the information provided in this book, I think no person but Jeff would be able to make Amazon overcome all challenges it faced along its history. However, I cannot support any company that make its employees lifes miserable. Anyway, the author did a great job in telling Amazon's history."
"This feels like a book written largely to tell the amazon story from the side of amazon."
"An impressive narrative that takes you into the Amazon executive suite S3 where hand-to-hand combat is waged over what markets to conquer and drive rivals into the arms of Amazon."
"Exciting story of one of the great companies and entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos."
"If you are one that enjoys business books and have used Amazon for any type or purchases then this book is for you."
"If you are looking merely for business case studies, this would not be the book for you; but if you find the anecdotal stories about the challenges and solutions the team used to build the business, I believe you will find this an outstanding read."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Automobile Industry

American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company
The inside story of the epic turnaround of Ford Motor Company under the leadership of CEO Alan Mulally. In the bestselling tradition of Too Big to Fail and The Big Short , American Icon is narrative nonfiction at its vivid and colorful best. “A standout…brimming with smart observations and fresh insights into Ford’s success.” –Alex Taylor, Fortune “Fly-on-the-wall accounts of Mulally negotiating deals and Ford overcoming challenges from the inside and outside…A paean to the ingenuity, grit and optimism that once defined American industry and to capitalism played with government on the sidelines.” – Reuters “A compelling narrative that reads more like a thriller than a business book.” – New York Times “A must-read.” – Huffington Post “A fascinating read for anyone who follows the car industry.” –Financial Times “A Detroit News journalist’s in-the-room account of the resurrection of America’s most storied car company…With colorful anecdotes, sharp character sketches, telling details and a firm understanding of the industry, Hoffman fleshes out every aspect of this tale, reminding us of the hard work, tension, and high-stakes drama that preceded the successful result.” — Kirkus. “Bryce G. Hoffman’s American Icon brilliantly recounts the Lazarus-like resurgence of the Ford Motor Company under the bold and inspiring leadership of CEO Alan Mulally. Highly recommend!” —Douglas Brinkley, professor of history, Rice University, and author of Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress “Bryce Hoffman has written a riveting tome based on deep insider information about the resurrection of the Ford Motor Company from a near death experience and the establishment of a business model that promises to be a prototype for large organizations of all types.
Reviews
"I purchased it hoping to get a decent idea of what Ford went through during the economic crisis of 2006-2009, but this book proved to be a detailed, engrossing story that I could barely put down."
"This is an excellent book on Mullaly and more importantly, on Ford."
"But the book provides so much background detail about meetings and personal interactions that it becomes very clear early in the book that Mulally really is as genuine and down-to-earth as he has been portrayed in other media. Again, Hoffman demystifies Ford's roll, corrects many of my own assumptions about who he is personally and also provides some insight into the types of individuals in the Ford family. The topic of the Ford family comes up a number of times in the book and Hoffman lays out very squarely that some of the family are nothing more than decedents of the fortune who have no daily connection to the company, and others as mid-level managers, learning and guiding the business, who live and breathe by the companies success and failure and desperately want it to succeed."
"He truly understands how to inspire great work by his colleagues and bring them out of a massively dysfunctional culture. Every organizational leader will do well to read and emulate his leadership style and substance. One of my favorite parts was where the direct reports to Alan were trying to put him in his place by saying that autos were very complex, required long lead times to create, and thousands of parts had to come together just right so the vehicle would run well. A second one was about two months into his effort when one person, who is now the current CEO, dared to say something wasn't going well in one of the Canadian operations under his organization. The weekly Thursday meeting was another brilliant innovation to keep things moving rapidly and solving problems as they went forward with plans many of his subordinates had developed."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Agriculture Industry

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Fast Food Nation points the way but, to resurrect an old fast food slogan, the choice is yours.”— Los Angeles Times. Eric Schlosser’s exposé revealed how the fast food industry has altered the landscape of America, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and transformed food production throughout the world. In a new afterword for this edition, Schlosser discusses the growing interest in local and organic food, the continued exploitation of poor workers by the food industry, and the need to ensure that every American has access to good, healthy, affordable food. “Schlosser shows how the fast food industry conquered both appetite and landscape.”— The New Yorker. In this fascinating sociocultural report, Schlosser digs into the deeper meaning of Burger King, Auggie's, The Chicken Shack, Jack-in-the-Box, Little Caesar's and myriad other examples of fast food in America. Frequently using McDonald's as a template, Schlosser, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, explains how the development of fast-food restaurants has led to the standardization of American culture, widespread obesity, urban sprawl and more. In a perky, reportorial voice, Adamson tells of the history, economics, day-to-day dealings and broad and often negative cultural implications of franchised burger joints and pizza factories, delivering impressive snippets of information (e.g., two-thirds of America's fast-food restaurant employees are teenagers; Willard Scott posed as the first Ronald McDonald until higher-ups decided Scott was too round to represent a healthy restaurant like McDonald's). According to Schlosser, most visits to fast-food restaurants are the culinary equivalent of "impulse buys," i.e., someone is driving by and pulls over for a Big Mac.
Reviews
"More disturbing is how the franchises get richer and richer on the backs of teenagers and minorities that serve us andcook the food."
"This was a fun book to read for me."
"Seeing an ancient White Castle in South Minneapolis (now a tiny corner jewelry store) on one of my drives while listening to this book was a real treat."
"The book starts off by explaining how the fast food industry came to be the American symbol. Schlosser took many tours through slaughterhouses and interviewed many former employees that have been burned out from the tortuous conditions. Schlosser says that, "Everyday in the United States, roughly 200,000 people are sickened by food borne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and 14 die". His main message presented was how the fast food industry is affecting society. Having more people know about what is really behind the Big Mac and the Whopper will help society understand what they are eating and how it can affect them."
"Beginning in the late 1980s, a series of food safety scandals opened people's eyes to the way their food was being produced, each one drawing the curtain back a little further on a food system that had changed beyond recognition. In the wake of these food safety scandals, the conversation about food politics that briefly flourished in the 1970s was picked up again in a series of books, articles, and movies about the consequences of industrial food production. Beginning in 2001 with the publication of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, a surprise best-seller, and, the following year, Marion Nestle's Food Politics, the food journalism of the last decade has succeeded in making clear and telling connections between the methods of industrial food production, agricultural policy, food-borne illness, childhood obesity, the decline of the family meal as an institution, and, notably, the decline of family income beginning in the 1970s. The picture of the food economy Schlosser painted resembles an upside-down version of the social compact sometimes referred to as "Fordism": instead of paying workers well enough to allow them to buy things like cars, as Henry Ford proposed to do, companies like Wal-Mart and McDonald's pay their workers so poorly that they can afford only the cheap, low-quality food these companies sell, creating a kind of nonvirtuous circle driving down both wages and the quality of food."
Find Best Price at Amazon